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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | I think, Arthur. That's what I do. I think, so that you don't have to. | „ |
| ~ Tommy Shelby's most famous quote. |
| “ | The one minute. The soldier’s minute. In a battle, that’s all you get. One minute of everything at once. And anything before is nothing. Everything after, nothing. Nothing in comparison to that one minute. | „ |
| ~ Tommy Shelby. |
Thomas Michael “Tommy” Shelby is the main protagonist of the 2013 BBC crime TV-series Peaky Blinders.
He is a World War I veteran who was formally enlisted as a Sergeant Major, a gangster and businessman who runs the Shelby Company Limited, and the leader of the titular Romani criminal gang who attempts to rise in the criminal underworld. He is one of the two archenemies (alongside his aunt Elizabeth "Polly" Gray) of Chief Inspector Campbell, and the arch-nemesis of Oswald Mosley.
He is portrayed by Cillian Murphy.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- Prior to the story, Thomas was already an influential gangster who ruled the criminal underworld of Birmingham with an iron fist.
- While most of his kills are in self-defense and the results of vendettas with other gangs, the way that Thomas kills people is sometimes far too brutal, lethal, and violent for it to be fully justified as self-defense.
- He is willing to do whatever it takes to stand out on top, even when people close to him, especially his family, end up getting hurt or killed because of his ambitions. And even when the latter is the case, he still continues wanting to grasp for more power as Tommy is never satisfied with his current position.
- He is at times, very hypocritical. For all his talk of rules and demands, he himself does not follow them all the time, which is something that Alfie Solomons calls him out for in Season 3.
Season 1[]
- He smuggles a crate of guns and bullets.
- During a confrontation with members of the Lees, he and his brothers would brutally kill and maim them with their razor caps.
- He pimps Grace out to Billy Kimber, which lead to her almost getting raped by the latter. Though he ultimately has an attack of conscience and can't go through with it.
- He arranged a marriage with John Shelby and a Gypsy woman against his will in order to form an alliance with the Lees.
- Makes a deal with Campbell to give up Stanley Chapman in exchange for Ada and Freddy getting safe passage, which results in Stanley getting tortured and beaten to death by Inspector Moss. Even with the revelation that Stanley had absolutely no idea about the ordeal, Tommy showed no remorse over the act.
Season 2[]
- To provoke Darby Sabini in a gang war, he, John, and Arthur would go to London to attack the Eden Club, killing and violently maiming multiple workers, staff members, and even some bystanders to showcase their power. This results with Thomas getting beaten up by Sabini's men and Ada almost getting gangraped by the former's men.
- He reluctantly kills an innocent man under orders from the IRA.
- Fathers a child with Grace while she's married to another man, which drove him to kill himself.
- He rigged the warehouse of Alfie Solomons with tripwires and grenades in order to coerce him during a deal.
- Convinces Lizzie to seduce a military officer as part of a plot to kill him, though the plan backfires as Tommy gets held up by Grace revealing her pregnancy, as well as some officers getting in Tommy's way, which endangers her and leads to her almost getting raped, if not for Tommy barely saving her in time. While Tommy did not intend for this to happen, he still indirectly set Lizzie up to be raped while knowing the risks, and he showed no concern or remorse when the ordeal was over with.
Season 3[]
- Orders his brother Arthur to kill a man in case he's an infiltrator for the soviet embassy. After Arthur brutally killed him, they burned the corpse.
- He let John beat up Angel Changretta for dating Lizzie. He also showed no concern or qualms when John burned down a bar belonging to the Changretta family. He let this happen as he also disliked the idea of Lizzie dating a Changretta.
- He let John blatantly disrespect Vincente Changretta during a meeting between the two gangs that Tommy wasn't a part of. And when John sliced Angel's eye out instead of apologizing, Tommy encouraged his behavior in order to spread his influence. This resulted with Vicente ordering one of his assassins to kill Grace, which was somewhat Tommy's own fault.
- He ordered Arthur and John to kill Vicente's wife, Audrey, though they spared her as they were reluctant to kill her due to her being their childhood teacher. Tommy didn't care that he was willing to kill someone he knew during his childhood, as long as he hurt Vicente.
- He planned to slowly and painfully torture Vicente to death by cutting him piece by piece until the morning, but this was stopped with Arthur shooting Vicente in the head to put him out of his misery.
- When he and his brothers received word of their estranged father dying in America, Tommy blatantly disrespected him and scoffed at his death, even when he asked for forgiveness for being a horrible father.
- Permits Michael to Kill Father John Hughes, though he more than deserved it for sexually abusing him as a child, as well as for planning to do the same to so many children in the Grace Shelby Foundation.
- As the threat of Charles Shelby's life at the hands of Hughes was driving him to panic, he accused every single member of his family for carelessly letting their close ones know about their business while painting them as rats, which leads to Polly almost killing her fling, Ruben Oliver, for being a suspected rat, though Tommy apologized to everyone when this wasn't the case at all.
- Forced by Hughes, he reluctantly had John and Arthur blow up a train with six innocent people onboard due to threats against his son.
- He makes a deal and sells out Arthur, Polly, Michael and John and Esme and Linda to the police to have them arrested. This almost leads to their deaths via hanging for their crimes.
Season 4[]
- When he found out that one of his chefs, Antonio, was an Italian spy, he brutally maimed and tortured him with a meat hook before shooting him in the head.
- When he suspected that one of his men was a traitor, he threatened his wife and children by revealing the fact that he knew where they lived.
- He hired Aberama Gold to assist him with the vendetta against Luca Changretta, which results with the former violently killing two of his men.
- He shot one of Luca's men while he was injured and unable to fight back, which is something that Luca calls him out for.
- Fakes Arthur's death and uses it to get Finn to take a man's eye out as part of his plan to kill Luca.
- Becomes a member of the communist party just so he can gather information on them and sell them out.
- Tries to kill Alfie Solomons for betraying him by conspiring with Luca.
Season 5[]
- He ordered Finn, Aberama, and Isaiah to attack the headquarters of a Chinese gang called the Angels of Retribution in order to showcase their power. This results in the deaths of multiple pimps, though most of them deserved it for child trafficking.
- When he suspected Michael to be a traitor when he returned from America, he unfairly profiled and punished him until he was proven innocent. And even then, he was forced to have his baby "the traditional way."
- He threatened to out a journalist to the public for being a homosexual if the latter continued to investigate him and his brothers. Though he didn't get to do it as the journalist was murdered by Billy Boys gang members disguised as Peaky Blinders under the orders of Oswald Mosley.
- He visited Barney Thompson in an asylum and attempted to get him to commit suicide via drugs so that he wouldn't be in misery anymore. When that fails, he breaks him out and has him work for him in a plot to assassinate Mosley.
Season 6[]
- He's very unfaithful to Lizzie during their marriage, as he's slept with a prostitute in a hotel when he got the news of Ruby falling severely ill.
- He personally killed several members of the Barwell family due to a belief that Evadne Barwell cursed Ruby over a sapphire necklace, the same one that Grace wore when she was killed in Season 3.
- He threatened to bomb a Chinese restaurant when he finds out that the Chinese gave opium to Arthur when they were forbidden to. And Tommy did not care at all when the owner of the restaurant said he gave Arthur opium due to violent threats towards his wife.
- He cheated on Lizzie once again with Mosely's wife, Diana Mitford. Though he did this as a calculated move to gain access and influence within the fascist movement, and to potentially undermine Mosley from within. But it backfired when Diana subtly ratted him out, which caused Lizzie and Charles to leave Tommy.
- He killed Michael, but it is somewhat justified due to him betraying him and trying to kill him first.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He's very tragic due to all the hardships in his life such as his mother's death, his father walking out on him, gaining PTSD from the war and the deaths of several of his loved ones.
- He cares about many people:
- He loved his brothers and his sister Ada. He saved Finn from a bomb, bought Arthur a pub after his suicide attempt to be a distraction for him and attempted to keep Ada safe from both Inspector Campbell and Darby Sabini.
- He loves his children, rescuing his son Charles after he was kidnapped and being distraught when his daughter Ruby died. He also welcomed his illegitimate son, Erasmus "Duke" Shelby, into the family.
- He loved his wife Grace and was distraught when she was killed. He even forgave her after lying and betraying everyone in the Shelby family.
- He has mutual respect with Alfie Solomons even though Alfie tried to kill him and took care of Alfie's dog for him.
- Cares about his Aunt Polly, reuniting her with her son Michael and being gravely upset by her death.
- Despite the issues between them Tommy still has some affection for his war buddy Freddie Thorne, allowing him to return for his son's birth and ultimately reconciling with him after he arranges Freddie's escape from prison.
- He loved his wife, Lizzie. While their relationship first started out as a secretary sleeping with her boss every now and then, they grew to eventually love each other for real. Tommy admitted that marrying her is his biggest regret, as all the pain and misery he endured was also shared with Lizzie. And when he cheated, he let her leave with Charles.
- Tried to spare Michael when he went against him by committing him to prison, and despite ultimately killing him, he is shown to regret it.
- He has standards against things such as domestic abuse or hurting children:
- He's disgusted that Father Hughes is a pedophile that raped Micheal and planned to rape even more children.
- When negotiating terms with Luca for their feud he asks that no children or civilians be harmed.
- He cut the fundings for St. Hilda's Orphanage when he found out that the orphans were being abused by the nuns in charge of the place, especially when one of them committed suicide because they were treating her harshly based on her skin color. He also had all the orphans moved to Grace Shelby orphanages so they could live in better environments.
- When Benjamin Younger's car exploded and three orphans were in the explosion range, Tommy rushed to save two of them and was distraught when he failed to save the third one.
- Decided to spare Dr. Holford despite the man having driven him to almost commit suicide, for no pragmatic reasons.
- He has shown genuine remorse for a lot of things that he's done throughout the series. And in the end of the show, he decided to leave his old life behind and start a new. However, this is not redeeming as Tommy didn't really renounce his old ways, he just mellowed out as he found peace within.
Trivia[]
- He is the only Peaky Blinders character to be Inconsistently Heinous, though his status may change when the upcoming sequel movie about WWII comes out, as Tommy is set to make an appearance.
External Links[]
- Thomas Shelby on the Villains Wiki
- Thomas Shelby on the Peaky Blinders Wiki
- Thomas Shelby on Wikipedia
