History Characters / StarCraft

* ButtMonkey: Even before the Zerg invasion, Raynor had already lost countless friends and loved ones, often to circumstances beyond his control. Now he lives with the guilt of having inadvertently helped Arcturus Mengsk to power and failing to save Kerrigan from being taken by the Zerg and infested.

** BadassNormal: For a setting where troops in PowerArmor are considered basic infantry and can be trained and outfitted for combat in a matter of minutes, Raynor's lack of psychic abilities or any other apparent enhancements makes him seem [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy ridiculously average]], especially since he is not [[BookDumb particularly intelligent or well-educated]]. However, he more than makes up for this by the fact that he is a genuinely nice person, [[MagneticHero which not only attracts friends and followers]], but also makes him one of the few humans to be respected by the Protoss as both a friend and an ally. When put together with his several years of combat experience, Raynor is as much a formidable leader of men as a combatant in his own right, the latter of which is most ably demonstrated by him managing to single-handedly beat another battle-hardened veteran in seven-foot-tall PowerArmor with no more than the clothes on his back and ''his bare hands''.

* ButtMonkey: Even before the Zerg invasion, Raynor suffered from a number of personal tragedies involving the deaths of friends and loved ones. With the exception of Tychus and himself, all of the former members of his old military unit have ended up dead. His mother and father end up dying in poverty, partly because they refused to accept the money earned by their son through criminal activity. After settling down to a normal life as the marshal of an outlying colony, his only son was taken away by the Confederacy for psychic evaluation and training at a young age. A few months later, Raynor and his wife were told that their son had "died in a shuttle accident", which led the latter to eventually die of grief.

* AllThereInTheManual: More or less Raynor's entire backstory, where he was a war criminal released on the condition he be the Mar Sara marshall, and he had a wife and son once.

* AtonementDetective: He became a marshall on Mar Sara as part of a deal to have his criminal record erased and be able to live a normal life. Then the Zerg came...

* ButtMonkey: Even before the Zerg invasion, Raynor suffered from a number of personal tragedies involving the deaths of friends and loved ones. With the exception of Tychus and himself, all of the former members of his old military unit have ended up either dying in combat or horribly murdered by a bounty hunter. His mother and father end up dying in poverty, partly because they refused to accept the money earned by their son through criminal activity. After settling down to a normal life as the marshal of an outlying colony, his only son was taken away by the Confederacy for psychic evaluation and training at a young age. A few months later, Raynor and his wife were told that their son had "died in a shuttle accident", which led latter to eventually die of grief.

* ButtMonkey: Even before the Zerg invasion, Raynor suffered from a number of personal tragedies and betrayals. His mother and father end up dying in poverty, partly because they refused to accept the money earned by their son through criminal activity. After settling down to a normal life as the marshal of an outlying colony, his only son was taken away by the Confederacy for psychic evaluation and training at a young age. A few months later, Raynor and his wife were told that their son had "died in a shuttle accident", which led latter to eventually die of grief.

* AtonementDetective: He became a marshall on Mar Sara as part of a deal to have his criminal record erased and be able to live a normal life. Then the Zerg came...

* ButtMonkey: Throughout the course of his life, Raynor is betrayed numerous times and loses countless friends and loved ones. He lives with the guilt of not only having helped Arcturus Mengsk take power by condemning millions of people to die at the hands of the Zerg, but also with his failure to save Kerrigan from being taken and corrupted into the Queen of Blades.

* BookDumb:
* BookEnds: [[spoiler:He reaches for his revolver as Tychus looms up behind him]].
* ButtMonkey: Blizzard "hates" him.

*** Played straight in the alternate ending for Tosh's side missions, where he betrays him when Nova--a Dominion Ghost working on behalf of Mengsk--claims that Spectre conditioning turns people into psychopaths and that Tosh is secretly amassing an army of them. [[spoiler: As it turns out, she was right about the fact that Tosh was planning on creating an army of Spectres, but you'd think that in this case, he'd trust the odd-but-rather-helpful Spectre over the claims of an agent working on the behalf of your sworn nemesis. In any case, the canon ending makes it clear that she is almost certainly lying and that the main reason why they're being hunted by the Dominion is because they cannot be resocialized like regular Ghosts.]]

*** Played straight in the alternate ending for Tosh's side missions.

* AudioErotica: Not nearly to the extent of Tychus though.

** BadassNormal: For a setting where troops in PowerArmor are considered basic infantry and can be trained and outfitted for combat in a matter of minutes, Raynor's lack of psychic abilities or any other apparent enhancements makes him seem [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy ridiculously average]], especially since he is not [[BookDumb particularly intelligent or well-educated]]. However, he more than makes up for this by the fact that he is a genuinely nice person, [[MagneticHero which not only attracts friends and followers]], but also makes him the only human to ever be respected by the Protoss as a friend and an ally. When put together with his several years of combat experience, Raynor is as much a formidable leader of men as a combatant in his own right, the latter of which is most ably demonstrated by him managing to single-handedly beat another battle-hardened veteran in seven-foot-tall PowerArmor with no more than the clothes on his back and ''his bare hands''.

*** Played straight in the alternate ending for Tosh's side missions, in which Raynor [[spoiler:chooses to trust Nova and her unsubstantiated statements that Tosh and all other Spectres are actually vicious psychopaths. It should be noted that while Tosh was not so forthcoming with his own personal agenda, completely trusting the word of an agent belonging to a sworn enemy displays exceedingly poor judgment on the part of Raynor. Given that the situation is already rather similar to many he has previously encountered, he should know better.]]

** In ''Wings of Liberty'', the player gets to choose which mission Raynor will take, which effects his relationships with others and their loyalties. However, for the most part his allies make it out alive--[[spoiler:Tychus betrays him, but canonically he trusts Tosh and Tosh joins his crew and remains loyal, while Ariel was sent off to a safe life on Haven. To say nothing of Valerian and Warfield.]] Played straight in the alternate route for Tosh's side missions however,

** BadassNormal: For a setting where troops in PowerArmor are considered basic infantry and can be trained and outfitted for combat in a matter of minutes, Raynor's lack of psychic abilities or any other apparent enhancements makes him seem [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy ridiculously average]], especially since he is not [[BookDumb particularly intelligent or well-educated]]. However, he more than makes up for this by the fact that he is a genuinely nice person, [[MagneticHero which not only attracts friends and followers]], but also makes him the only human to ever be respected by the Protoss as a friend and an ally. When put together with his several years of combat experience, Raynor is as much a formidable leader of men as a combatant in his own right, the latter of which is most ably demonstrated by him managing to single-handedly beat a battle-hardened veteran in seven-foot-tall PowerArmor with no more than the clothes on his back and ''his bare hands''.

** BadassNormal: For a setting where troops in PowerArmor are considered basic infantry and can be trained and outfitted for combat in a matter of minutes, Raynor's lack of psychic abilities or any other apparent enhancements makes him seem [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy ridiculously average]], especially since he is not[[BookDumb particularly intelligent or well-educated]]. However, he more than makes up for this by the fact that he is a genuinely nice person, [[MagneticHero which not only attracts friends and followers]], but also makes him the only human to ever be respected by the Protoss as a friend and an ally. When put together with his several years of combat experience, Raynor is as much a formidable leader of men as a combatant in his own right, the latter of which is most ably demonstrated by him managing to single-handedly beat a battle-hardened veteran in seven-foot-tall PowerArmor with no more than the clothes on his back and ''his bare hands''.

* CharacterDevelopment: Between Brood War and the second installment of the series, Zeratul's attitude has completely mellowed out to the extent that the irritability and aloofness that had previously distinguished him is no longer present.

* CharacterDevelopment: Between Brood War and the second instalment of the series, Zeratul's attitude has completely mellowed out to the extent that the irritability and aloofness that had previously distinguished him is no longer present.

* CharacterDevelopment: Between Brood War and the second instalment of the series, Zeratul's attitude has completely mellowed out to the extent that the irritability and aloofness that had previously distinguished him is no longer present. Whether this is the result of overcoming his feelings of guilt and dislike of the Khalai Protoss or simply constitutes CharacterDerailment is a matter up for debate.

-> As of the events of Starcraft II, he has become the leader of the Protoss, but given the tribal disputes and his own youth & inexperience, things aren't going so well for him.

** BadassNormal: You've got the Dominion who dabbles in psychics, brainwashing and cybernetics, the Protoss who are a tribe of warriors trained since birth and have super-advanced technology, and the Zerg who are aliens evolved to be the ultimate predators. In the middle of them Raynor is just an ordinary man, but he's still one of the key players in the power struggles of the galaxy.
*** Here's an example: he manages to kick the ass of a guy in seven-foot-tall PowerArmor who can rip tables out of the floor. Without using his gun. Okay, the guy was drunk, but still.
* {{BFG}}: His rifle, with its "Mark 12 Penetrator round", which he uses to great effect on Char.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Prior to becoming a marshall, he was a crook and train robber along with Tychus. When they pushed their luck too far, Tychus was caught and he took the fall for their crimes without ratting out Raynor. It's one of the major reasons Raynor trusts Tychus throughout the campaign.

* GenreSavvy: When [[spoiler:Hanson]] locks [[spoiler:herself]] in the lab, after the mission "Haven's Fall", he goes alone to investigate, ordering Horner to seal all the access points... in SpaceMarine armor and BigFreakingGun.

** In ''Wings of Liberty'', the player gets to choose which mission Raynor will take, which effects his relationships with others and their loyalties. However, for the most part his allies make it out alive--[[spoiler:Tychus betrays him, but canonically he trusts Tosh and Tosh joins his crew and remains loyal, while Ariel was sent off to a safe life on Haven. To say nothing of Valerian and Warfield.]]

* OnlySaneMan: Not as much "sane" as "good", Raynor is pretty much the only truly noble and selfless person in the sector with the power and will to try and change things.

* RebelliousRebel: Joined Arcturus Mengsk and the Sons of Korhal to fight the corrupt and opressive Terran Confederacy, but rebelled and formed his own resistance when he realized that Mengsk was even worse than them.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: See the picture above? He's ''thirty-four''. It may be because of stress, something he's very familiar with.

* FaceMonsterTurn: With [[EvilIsSexy ''actual stiletto heels''.]]

* FaceMonsterTurn: With ''actual stiletto heels''.

-> Fenix was BloodKnight warrior who loved the honor and rush of battle, and advocated an alliance with the now-rogue Tassadar, having been his best friend. However, once the original failed due to a lack of information, the Protoss high council would have none of it and turned against Tassadar. Not that it mattered for Fenix, because he was shortly thereafter killed by pack of Hydralisks...[[OrIsIt OR WAS HE?]] [[MeaningfulName He ca]][[BackFromTheDead me back]], his mortally wounded body encased in a Dragoon exo-skeleton walker, helping in the assault against the Zerg when Tassadar returned to Aiur.

* InvisibleMan

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: He does this to Kerrigan by leaving her on Tarsonis. [[{{Understatement}} It didn't work out like he thought]].

* [[spoiler:DarkMessiah]]: The Overmind's true purpose for her. Of course, she wasn't aware of that first and that [[{{Understatement}} made it harder for everyone else]].

* EvillyAffable[=/=]AffablyEvil: He's charismatic, friendly, cultured, and well-spoken. But try to rebel against him and you'll see just how cruel and dangerous he really is. This is a guy who said "I will ''rule'' this sector, or see it ''burnt to ashes'' around me!" and [[spoiler:it came back to bite him in the ass]].

* FauxAffablyEvil:
** A direct quote from a certain Michael Liberty: "Arcturus Mengsk. There's a name that is synonymous with terror, betrayal and violence. A living example of the ends justifying the means. The assassin of the Confederacy of Man. The hero of the blasted world of Korhal IV. King of the universe. A savage barbarian who never let anything or anyone get in his way. And yet, he is charming, erudite and intelligent. When you're in his presence you feel that he's really listening to you, that your opinions matter, that you're someone important if you agree with him. It's amazing. I have often wondered if men like Mengsk don't carry around their own reality-warping bubbles, and all who fall in are suddenly transported to another dimension where the hellish things he says and does suddenly make sense. At least, that's the effect he always had on me."