Who is Succession‘s Number One Boy? (My Take on Every Succession Character Ranked.)
This is my guide to two of my favorite things: the TV show Succession and the meme Large Adult Son. While I first wrote this article in 2021 to get hyped for Season 3, I’ve updated it to contain spoilers and character rankings for the first three seasons of Succession. And yeah, I’ll probably update it again after Season 4.
Your Brief Guide to The Large Adult Son Meme
One of my favorite memes from the post-Obama era is that of the Large Adult Son. This meme has been well-documented across the internet but I will nonetheless recap it here for the uninitiated. Variants of the meme began in 2012 or so, with the first official usage of it appearing in 2015 in a meme about the Huckabee family.
What are Large Adult Sons?
According to sources across the internet (specifically, Know Your Meme, Dictionary dot com, and The New Yorker), large adult sons are generally characterized as:
- An adult man who can be classified by his father as “a good boy”
- A full-grown young men with childish qualities
- Grown men who, according to The Cut, “mostly just sit around and play with all of their inherited wealth”
- Buffoons who engage in general buffoonery, with size being a quality. In the original Huckabee LAS meme, the sheer size of the sons is a major aspect of the humor.
Many good articles have written about the large adult son meme. There’s an excellent article in Mel Magazine explaining why Fredo Corleone is too tragic to be a true large adult son, but that AJ Soprano is an all-time great in the category. Their definition of LASs is “thirtysomething dudes of no ability who are only saved from the gutter by the charity of their parents and the privilege into which they were born.” There’s also the overlap between wife guys and large adult sons, two connected memes, as documented in this Guardian article.
Real examples of the large adult son appear in families like the Trumps, the Kochs, and the Gulianis. In retrospect, Ted Kennedy seems a large adult son, as do many of his living relations. George W. Bush might be the first LAS of the 21st century—with hollow earther John Quincy Adams an early prototype.
And yes, contemporary large adult sons exist on the left as much as they do on the right, with Hunter Biden being the reigning LAS prince.
The Large Adult Sons of the Roy Family: The True Succession Rankings
A Vulture article from 2018 is the only piece of internet journalism I’ve seen that captures the extent to which the Large Adult Son meme is personified in Succession. While that article is about Lon Cheney, Jr—who the author argues is the original Large Adult Son of Horror’s Golden Era—it contains this summary of the Roy family’s LAS status:
Large Adult Sons even get their own prestige drama this year with HBO’s Succession, in which three sons and one daughter (who otherwise fits the Large Adult Son model) grapple with who will take over as the heir to a Rupert Murdoch–like tycoon, seemingly not realizing that none of them are not really up to the task. Even if they share their father’s name and grew up steeped in the world he created, they don’t really have what it takes to get the job done.
While I largely agree with that characterization—particularly the first season of the show—I think it’s worth taking the time to examine the LAS qualities of each member of the Roy family.
And if you’ve made it this far, I should warn you: spoilers abound for the first three seasons of Succession from here on out.
Not Qualifying for consideration as a large adult son:
Logan, Frank, Marcia, or any of the other secondary characters (but there are two technical non-Roys and one non-biological relation who do make the list.)
Season 1 & 2 Large Adult Son Rankings
The original version of this article, published in 2021, before Season 3, gave the following ranking, in terms of who is the most LAS-y, from least to most:
- Shiv Roy
- Gregory “Cousin Greg” Hirsch
- Kendall Roy
- Tom Wambsgans
- Roman Roy
- Connor Roy
Before I go deeper into the updated LAS rankings (which still incorporate all 3 seasons), it’s worth noting that every one of these characters has just become more of an LAS in season 3. But let’s get into it.
The Large Adult Son Succession Power Rankings
Tom Wambsgams
Let’s begin with the obvious: Tom is the largest of the main cast, looming and bumbling above the rest. Sure, Greg is taller, but Greg is also thinner and, despite his height, moves in a diminutive way and makes himself an ongoing subject for bullying. Tom is the bully who views Greg as easy prey, the one person present whose status remains below his own.
As mentioned above, Tom wears ill-fitting suits and owes his ongoing promotions to the specific form of nepotism afforded to in-laws. He has an obsession with money and power—although, unlike most of the other people on this list, he wasn’t raised in it. He makes a fool of himself repeatedly, including at his own bachelor party. He says and does foolish things as if that’s his job. His first scene centers around him deliberating over what to get Logan Roy, seeking a gift that says “I need you to like me.” While he attempts to draw the line around things like neo-Nazis working for him, he doesn’t view racism and sexism as dealbreakers and is still an ultimate yes-man who owes his entire position to Shiv being his life partner.
But… in Season 3, Tom became, well, less LAS-y. His marriage to Shiv spent the entire third season slowly deteriorating, with him putting what is likely a nail in the matrimonial coffin when he betrayed Shiv to her father in the finale. He aligns himself with both Logan and Greg, taking a step away from the rest of the Large Adult Sons in the family.
Then, let’s consider something else: Tom has humble roots, at least compared to the rest of the crew. He’s from St. Paul and doesn’t come from the kind of money as the rest of these characters.
Most Large Adult Son Moment: His congressional testimony is an all-time greatest hit.
Least Large Adult Son Moment: His maybe breakup speech to Shiv in the season 2 finale. A huge moment for both Tom and the actor—although so is that final move of Season 3. But one could argue, in tossing his support with Logan over Shiv, that Tom became a Large Adult Son-in-Law.
Will Tom be a Large Adult Son in Season 4? This one is almost impossible to predict. Is there anything left for him to salvage in his marriage? Will he come out on top of the company but separate from the Roys?
Gregory “Cousin Greg” Hirsch
Of the male relations in Succession, Greg might initially seem like the least large adult son of any of them, as he appears to be a genuinely good person.
Although, that’s one of the questions about large adult sons. Are they inherently good or bad?
He’s a walking joke, a parody of himself. He owes his job solely to nepotism and his promotion to casual extortion, and when he name-drops his way to his nepotistic career in the second episode, he isn’t on any list and doesn’t know the last name of his soon-to-be cousin-in-law, Tom.
And as far as childish antics go, don’t forget that he’s one of two characters to wear a mascot suit at the theme park, but the only one to have smoked a joint before putting on the costume and subsequently vomited out of the mascot’s eye holes.
But wait. He isn’t a son of any character on the show. He’s not even of the same generation or direct lineage as the rest of the characters, being the grandson of Logan’s brother. Should we include him on this list? Yes. But while his antics are often LAS-ish, Greg was raised less silver-spoon than the rest (other than Tom) and has worked a little harder than most of the others to get where he is, even if blackmail is included.
Finally, Greg’s final act in season 2 is decidedly un-LAS-ish—as is his final act of Season 3.
In Season 3, he also imagines that Kendall is going to buy him a watch, then feels peer pressured into buying it for himself, then it doesn’t work.
Although that whole Greenpeace thing. Yeah, nothing tops that. See below.
Most Large Adult Son Moment: At certain moments, Greg completely nails the large adult son meme. Vomiting out of the eyes of a mascot costume at a theme park owned by his great-uncle and subsequently moving to New York City to work for the large business owned by his great-uncle. Not knowing how to hire a lawyer or if he is even the person who gets to make that decision. Asking his grandpa for help hiring a lawyer and then firing that guy.
But his biggest LAS moment has to be when he decides he’s going to sue Greenpeace. And then starts telling people about it. Large Adult Grandson City.
Although his congressional testimony is up there.
Least Large Adult Son Moment: Conspiring with Kendall to bring down Logan Roy.
Will Greg be a Large Adult Son in Season 4? It’s hard to say. He’s jumped back on the Logan train, but where is that going to take him.
Kendall Roy
What makes Kendall an outlier in the realm of the large adult son is that he’s the only of the Roy children to openly break rank with his father, doing so in major ways twice in the first season (boardroom coup; bear hug) and during the final moments of the second season (sabotage press conference where he comes at the king).
The moment Kendall says but in his final monologue in Succession’s season two finale is the moment he makes himself permanently not the large adult son.
Yet he was the one originally chosen for the throne upon Logan’s once-promised retirement. This alone could be an argument either for large adult son status—the favorite—or against, as he has a degree of competency that allows him to work in the company at high levels not owing to pure nepotism. Or wait, is this true? Don Jr. also has some pretty big jobs and he’s pure large adult son.
And most of season 2 is spent dismal servitude for this father, including his embarrassing “L to the OG” rap.
Then there’s Logan’s final expression. That very slight smile. Is Logan proud of Kendall for subverting and attacking him publicly?
But wait, how does Kendall’s betrayal of Logan go? It was a disaster. By the end of Season 3, there was nothing left of it. And throughout the season, he yells “fuck the patriarchy” at a gala, bails on a TV appearance, talks about himself constantly, calls himself a hero, calls himself the best man in the world, shaves his head, and almost drowns on a floating raft.
Most Large Adult Son Moment: One could say the end of season one. Kendall has killed someone (accidentally, but still) and Logan has committed to covering it up. They embrace, with Logan’s words “my number one boy.” Is it not the dream of every Large Adult Son to be a Number One Boy?
But then we have to consider that birthday party. That terrible, terrible birthday party.
Least Large Adult Son Moment: End of Season 2, when he comes at the king and does not miss. (But soon goes back to missing, in Season 3.)
Will Kendall be a Large Adult Son in Season 4? Yes, but the kind who no longer has money or power.
Siobhan “Shiv” Roy
Let’s begin by talking about how Shiv was not much of an LAS in the first 2 seasons. Here’s what I wrote.
Easily the least large-adult-son-esque of the large adult Roy children, Shiv is neither large nor a son. But she is angling for the top position in the company—and she appears to not only be her father’s choice for the big job, but also his favorite child.
But aside from size and gender, Shiv has many other qualities that make her un-LAS-ish. She’s the only Roy child at the beginning of Succession’s first season with a job entirely separate from the Roy business or money, and her choice of a job—political manager for left-leaning candidates—puts her at odds with the rest of the family.
But…
This all changed in Season 3, when Shiv stayed alongside Logan (until the finale, when it came crashing down), refusing to back Kendall in his fight. She increasingly abandoned her politics, lose interest in any kind of career outside the company, and start jockeying for position. She starts to conform.
Most Large Adult Son Moment: The season starts with her failure to procure a lawyer for Logan et al—someone who was supposedly her friend—and ends with Shiv losing big time, alongside her brothers, to Logan. She spent all of Season 3 trying to gain power and ultimately, it was for nothing.
Least Large Adult Son Moment: The panel in Season 2 in which Shiv references her father as a dinosaur and says that women are about to have their moment.
Will Shiv be a Large Adult Son in Season 4? It’s hard to say. With the children being arguably cut out, it seems like they are about to resemble the Wyatt Kochs of the LAS world, rather than the Donald juniors.
Romulus “Roman” Roy
Both the most childlike (at least at first glance) and the smallest in stature, Roman is definitely not “large”. But his behavior is pure LAS territory. He has never had a job outside the business company and he has failed in the jobs he has had. He is sent to management school by the family, but doesn’t seem to learn anything there. He masturbates in his office. He produces a film that bombs. He claims to read a lot, pretends to have read a book and invents one on the spot instead—The Electric Circus by Timothy Lipton—leading people to try to google it and ask him if he’s sure he has the title right. He tries to broker a deal that blows up in his face so dramatically that it leads to everyone playing Boar on the Floor at the corporate retreat.
(As an aside, Roman’s inability to name a book he’s read riffs on the same theme as Jesse Armstrong’s earlier work, Peep Show, in which Jeremy routinely struggles to discuss books. See the below.)
Roman also ranks alongside Greg as one of the only two characters to have worn a mascot costume at a company-owned theme park.
There is only one more character with more LAS qualities than Roman, and that’s Connor.
But... the thing that changes in Roman in Season 3 is that he seems more, well, competent. He figures out some serious shit.
And then he brings it all crashing down on himself by sending his dad a dick pic, by mistake, during a business meeting.
Most Large Adult Son Moment: Who can forget the moment he pushes a rocket launch forward and it quite literally blows up in his face?
But yeah, the dick pic was even more of an LAS move.
Least Large Adult Son Moment: Mocking his father, something he does several times throughout the series—including the moment when his father slaps him for it and Roman loses a tooth.
Will Roman be a Large Adult Son in Season 4? Of course—although, like Kendall and Shiv, it’s hard to know what exactly he’ll be up to.
Connor “Con” Roy
Connor is the purest Large Adult Son in Succession. He’s up there with final-season AJ Soprano and GOB Bluth and some of the most essential Large Adult Sons television has ever seen. He’s also, literally, the number one boy of the Roy family, being the firstborn.
Connor Roy lives on a ranch his father’s money bought him. He has no job. He gets an allowance. He is belittling and temperamental on the occasions he is given any kind of power, especially. the gala in season one. He is “going steady” with a sex worker. When the sex worker in question points out that he doesn’t have a job, he decides to run for president. He dumps money into a failing play and has to ask for more from his father. He has memes made about him and fans who call themselves Conheads. He has less self-awareness than any other character on the show—and maybe any character either in the history of television.
And of course, who could forget the moment when his gift for his father’s birthday party is a sourdough starter.
Oh, and the moment in Season 3, when Kendall accidentally refers to himself as “the eldest son”, trigging Connor into having a meltdown, shout “I AM THE ELDEST SON” and storm away.
Most Large Adult Son Moment: All the above.
Least Large Adult Son Moment: There isn’t one.
Will Connor be a Large Adult Son in Season 4? There’s no way he couldn’t be.