Peter Griffin

*- One of Peter's most famous quotes.*

*- Another one of Peter's most famous quote.*

## Evil-Doer

**Peter Löwenbräu Griffin, Sr.** is the titular main anti-heroic protagonist of the adult animated series *Family Guy*. He is the father of Chris Griffin, Stewie Griffin and Meg Griffin (with Meg also being Peter's arch-rival), biological father of Bertram, husband of Lois Griffin, and friend and owner of Brian Griffin. He is a man in his early 40s who lives on 31 Spooner Street in Quahog, Rhode Island.

While being the protagonist, he's not as nice as most would like to imagine as he has caused others misfortune due to his stupidity but also deliberately to better himself, which often backfires, leaving him stuck with the raw end of the deal. He's not alone in these respects, as he has a bullying sister named Karen Griffin and an abusive fanatical stepfather named Francis Griffin, suggesting antagonism runs in his family and this explains the behavior of his children (although, in fairness, Peter does have caring moments, despite the fact they are increasingly rare). He was originally presented as a morally ambiguous anti-hero, but later in the series, he was mostly presented as a protagonist villain and sometimes a full antagonist.

He is voiced by the series creator Seth MacFarlane.

## Appearance:

Peter is an obese man with peach skin, short red-brown hair, green eyes (blue in at least one episode) and a large cleft chin. He wears a white dress shirt with green pants, a black belt with a yellow buckle, white socks, brown shoes and glasses, which Peter claims to have come from a doctor Halloween costume in the episode Roasted Guy. He is 6 feet tall when compared to his wife Lois who is 5'8" according to her ID in Stewie's nightmare in "A Lot Going On Upstairs" and weighs at least 270 lbs.

## Personality:

Peter is a lazy, obnoxious, rude, arrogant, short-tempered, stubborn, dimwitted, reckless, narcissistic, and egotistical person who causes a great deal of harm and misery to those around him. Some of his more defining traits are his borderline alcoholism and drugging habits which tend to leave him in a state of incomprehension specifically regarding things like decency and safety measures and causing him to enter unrestrained stupors. Most of his time is spent getting wasted, going wherever and doing whatever he wants, and costing thousands to millions of dollars in damage with his drunken or quasi-sober tomfoolery. He has also been willing to do more for his friends (Glenn Quagmire, Joe Swanson, and Cleveland Brown) than his family as well.

Another example of his negative aspects was how terrible he was to his wife, Lois. Peter almost always took her for granted, despite her being the daughter of billionaire Carter Pewterschmidt, very attractive, and having the affections of others who were arguably better. There had been more than enough instances to show Peter was cheating on Lois such as when he admitted on live TV, he knew the names of all pornographic stars and was openly shown to have attractions for or interests in other women and/or former sexual partners. Even Lois' own terrible treatment of Peter does not fully justify the way he neglects and treats her. He even had sex with her while she was disguised as another woman despite not knowing it was her.

He was also shown to be an absolutely abusive, manipulative, atrocious, and cheating father by demeaning, degrading, demoralizing, and downright abusing his family, especially Meg and Brian in particular; Peter actually left the former behind when she was in danger, saying he and Lois decided if they needed to leave a child behind it would be Meg. Even back when he was a decent yet misguided father, he showed no regard for Brian's feelings about not being seen as an equal. Along with this he openly admitted to Lois he hated their kids simply because they did not do anything he liked or were not entertaining to him. However, there have been moments where Peter is there for his family, having good times with them, getting laughs, and taking them to places such as amusement parks or parties. More importantly, he was a much better father in the earlier seasons as mentioned below.

While Peter was no saint in the earlier seasons, where he was depicted as oafish, impulsive, ignorant, somewhat inconsiderate, and even misogynistic at his worse, Peter was overall a naïve, silly, and well-meaning man who was prone to causing trouble but he usually had good intentions and would actually learn from his mistakes. The most notable difference is that he was also a loving father and husband that cared about his family and tried to do what he thought was best for them (one episode at the time involved him saying he'd take a bullet for Meg), this was no longer the case in later seasons as he became an unlikable, malicious, evil, psychopathic, immature jerk who helped others for personal gain, did illegal actions almost every time nowadays, abused his family (notably Meg and Brian), and is always excused for his actions as he blames it on being mentally challenged, even though he's perfectly aware of what he's doing. In the cruel and bizarre world of *Family Guy*, every character has their share of maliciousness. However, Peter took the cake, as the scenes where he was likable and sympathetic paled in comparison to his nastiness. It has gotten to the point where critics and fans outright hate him for being a shell of his oafish but well-meaning self. He loves his son Chris when he told him he wants him to remain as a kid saying drugs are bad to him as well doesn't want him to smoke dope.

Peter has also shown little to no remorse in committing various crimes; in one instance, he blew up a children's hospital by mistake in an attempt to blow up a nearby sign and downplayed the entire thing since the sign was burned in the aftermath in "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing", went on a killing spree, murdering three children after Brian replaced his “I can't believe it's not butter” with real butter in "Brian's Play", deliberately pushed a child in front of Lois' car as she was driving off in "No Country Club for Old Men" just so he could play Stewie's harmonica stuck in his butt.

Peter is also somewhat of a hypocrite, as he sometimes calls out the other villains in the show on their bad deeds, despite the fact that he has done several terrible things himself throughout the series.

It has also been evidenced that Peter is severely depressed. He even once told Lois, "I haven't been happy in a long time." Lois does not react to this and says that she is aware, as he has told her this multiple times prior.

## Trivia:

* Peter's voice is an impression of Richard Kind.
* Peter was based on a security guard of the college that Seth MacFarlane went to.
* In earlier seasons, it is pretty obvious Peter is the protagonist; however, in new episodes, we constantly see other characters in the spotlight, Peter nowadays appears as a anti-hero and main antagonist in multiple episodes.
* In some instances, Peter has been shown to change to the point of being a relatively normal person and better parent. As such, in the series' second episode "I Never Met the Dead Man", he became more active after breaking free from his TV addiction and in "The Most Interesting Man" became intelligent and classier, though, on both occasions, his family tried to turn him back because they found him overbearing, not fun and/or better than them. Unfortunately, this just shows how dependent everyone has become on the cyclical toxicity of their relationships with Peter.
* In the Five Peter Generation, Peter's favorite alcohol is a Three-Martini Lunch. While his father's favorite alcohol is a Five Scotch Breakfast, his grandfather's favorite alcohol is a "Three exes drawn on the jug" Corn Whiskey Moonshine and his great-grandfather's favorite alcohol is a rice wine.