Emma Roberts' American Horror Story Characters Ranked Worst To Best
FX's American Horror Story is one of those TV shows in a lane of its own. Set up as anthology series, each season brings a fresh new perspective on morbid and macabre topics that fans crave. Creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have made milestones in crafting unique storylines, with a terrific cast in tow. Murphy and Falchuk are known for re-casting a revolving door of excellent actors and actresses such as Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, and Sarah Paulson, but as of season 3, Coven, a newcomer was cast.
Emma Roberts, known for her roles in We're The Millers and Nancy Drew, has taken on a range of complex characters since she joined the AHS cast. For five seasons, Roberts has been on board to play any character that Murphy and Falchuk throw her way, and while it looks like she'll be sitting out season 10, the characters she's played so far will go down as iconic, and hopefully, she'll be back for more in future seasons.
Cult: Serena Belinda made a brief appearance but had potential
The seventh season of AHS has several recurring cast members, and Emma Roberts is one of them, even though her appearance is brief. The story is set in Brookfield Heights, MI, and centers around a modern-day cult wreaking havoc on the local residents after Donald Trump won the presidential election.
Roberts appeared in the episode "11/9" as an ambitious journalist named Serena Belinda. Serena wants big things for herself and will sleep with and step on anyone she needs to. During an annual puppy adoption event, she can be seen pre-recording a segment but is caught off-guard by clowns, who approach her and kill her and her cameraman. This was Kai Anderson's (Evan Peters) doing to help Serena's rival and co-worker Beverly Hope (Adina Porter), so, unfortunately, Roberts' role was brief but impactful for what it needed to be. Even though this season received mostly positive reviews, it hasn't been ranked as the best of the series.
Freak Show: Maggie Esmerelda is complex and empathetic
Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk took the fourth season of AHS to Jupiter, FL, where the main characters live at a circus. There is Jimmy Darling/Lobster Boy (Evan Peters), Ethel Darling/The Bearded Lady (Kathy Bates), and the ringmaster, Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange). Even though Emma Roberts wasn't a part of the circus acts, her role of Maggie Esmerelda, the faux fortune teller, makes an impact. Her grifting partner in crime is Stanley, played by Denis O'Hare. Even though Roberts' role in Coven was vile, her role as Maggie has depth and a moralistic approach. Originally, she was a grifter with Stanley and tries to sell fake Sasquatch memorabilia to the American Morbidity Museum. After the owner sees through their lies, Stanley suggests a darker route to make a buck.
This is when Maggie poses as a fortune teller, gaining inside access to the circus. After she realizes that the people living there aren't so bad, she has a change of heart and doesn't want to hurt anyone. She finds herself attracted to Jimmy, and after they get caught by a deranged killer named Twisty (John Carroll Lynch), viewers get to see her "good side" as she helps his child victims escape. Overall, the role of Maggie Esmerelda isn't bad in any way, but Freak Show has a lot of interesting characters with complex backstories of their own.
1984: Brooke Thompson is the final girl
1984 is the most recent installment of AHS and centers around Camp Redwood in the 1980s. Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's shared love of slasher films such as Halloween and Friday the 13th is what drove them to take season 9 in this direction.
Brooke Thompson decides to spend her summer at the camp with her new workout friends after getting attacked in her apartment. Brooke is shy, smart, and incredibly naïve and gives off "final girl" vibes in this season. Because 1984 is set up as a throwback slasher film, there's a lot of nostalgia, and Emma Roberts' character embodies that.
Roberts' ability to play the nice girl and the bad girl are impressive, and her role in 1984 helped shape the entire storyline. Brooke Thompson is the protagonist in this season, and Roberts was the perfect actress to play her.
Apocalypse: Madison Montgomery is back and resurrected
Since Madison Montgomery's character was so popular in Coven, it makes sense that Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk would bring her back for Apocalypse. Basically, all bets are off when it comes to AHS, and at any given moment, a character from another season may make an appearance, like Madison Montgomery. This makes sense, as there are theories she was supposed to become the Supreme Witch in Coven, and in the Apocalypse episode "Forbidden Fruit," she appears, igniting the story overlap between Coven and Apocalypse. This episode gives us a look into where Madison ended up in season 3, and it's clear she's back for vengeance.
In the next episode, "Could It Be ... Satan?," Madison arrives at Outpost 3 with fellow witches Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) and Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy). From her intro line of "Surprise b*tch, I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me" to her head exploding later in the season, Emma Roberts' return as Madison is surprising yet anticipated, since her most iconic role on AHS, so far, is Madison Montgomery.
Coven: Madison Montgomery - the poster child of sass
Finally, Emma Roberts' most iconic role was introduced in American Horror Story: Coven. According to Collider, Coven doesn't qualify for being one of the top five best seasons, but as for Madison Montgomery? According to The Lineup, she makes the list as being one of the ten best characters in AHS history. From the first episode of Coven, it's clear that Madison is spoiled, mean, and has no empathy. This might stem from a turbulent past, as stated in a conversation she has with Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange), paired with the traumatic experience she had in "B*tchcraft." Her hunger grew even stronger when it came to getting revenge on those who wronged her or hurt her.
Roberts excelled as Madison Montgomery, and according to an interview she did in 2013 with Collider, this character helped her break the typecast she once had over her head in Hollywood and gave her an opportunity to play a variety of other roles.