The Chicago franchise has always been built on character gravity — the kind that pulls viewers in and refuses to let go. And at the center of some of its strongest emotional tides stand three men who couldn’t be more different, yet all left a mark impossible to erase:
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Hank Voight — the morally complex titan of Intelligence
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Adam Ruzek — the hot-headed heart of internal turbulence
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Evan Hawkins — the quiet devastation of love and loss
They don’t share the same personality, the same battlefield, or the same emotional language.
What they do share? The fandom can’t choose without arguing first.
Hank Voight: Loyalty Has a Name — and a Warning Label
The Leader Fans Fear, Respect, and Defend
Voight isn’t the man Chicago P.D. needed because he was soft. He’s the man they needed because he carries the weight others aren’t built to hold.
Fans love Voight because:
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He protects his unit like it’s an extension of himself
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His decisions may burn bridges, but they keep the team alive
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He walks moral lines that aren’t clean, but are convincing
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He doesn’t ask for forgiveness — he takes accountability in silence
Voight is the storm that built the franchise’s tone.
You don’t have to agree with him to be magnetized by him.
Adam Ruzek: Chaos Is His Native Language
The Wild Card Who Made Chicago P.D. Breathe Harder
If Voight is structure, Ruzek is collision.
Ruzek represents the emotional volatility of Intelligence:
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Passion over patience
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Instinct over instruction
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Heart first, consequences second
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Loyalty expressed loudly, emotionally, physically
Fans root for Ruzek because he reacts like the audience would if they lived in Chicago — impulsive, emotional, flawed, but always fighting for the people he cares about.
He doesn’t just enter danger.
He starts it sometimes.
Evan Hawkins: The Paramedic Who Didn’t Stay, But Didn’t Leave Either
The Love Story That Still Hurts When You Think About It
Hawkins didn’t dominate with aggression, or lead with control, or combust like Ruzek.
He did something more dangerous:
He made audiences emotionally defenseless.
Fans still talk about him because:
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He loved without needing a monologue
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His bond with Violet felt too real to be “just plot”
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He carried heartbreak in his eyes, not his voice
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His exit felt like losing a person, not a character
Hawkins was never the loudest presence in the firehouse.
He was the softest scar.
So Who Do Fans Love Most? The Results Are Never Civil
| Character | Fandom Says… |
|---|---|
| Voight | “We follow him into every moral war.” |
| Ruzek | “We love him because he’s a problem.” |
| Hawkins | “We still haven’t emotionally recovered.” |
But the Real Battle Isn’t the Poll
It’s this emotional truth:
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Some fans love the man who protects
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Some fans love the man who explodes
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Some fans love the man who breaks us when he leaves
The Chicago franchise didn’t give us 3 male characters.
It gave us 3 emotional archetypes of attachment.
Final Thought
You don’t choose Voight, Ruzek, or Hawkins because they’re perfect.
You choose them because they make you feel something different:
Admiration. Adrenaline. Heartbreak.
And Chicago fans will never stop debating which one hits the hardest.
