Characters / Kerbal Space Program

Kerbals

General Kerbal Tropes

One Small Trip for [a] Kerbal, One Great Stumble for Kerbalkind

• Achievements in Ignorance: Kerbals have "stupidity" as a stat. Not "intelligence" or "smarts". Despite this you can colonize the Venus equivalent in the solar system.
• Badass Crew: Literally in some cases, as "Badass" is an actual flag some Kerbals can spawn with. Regardless they all work together to make sure everyone can get the job done.
• Fish Eyes: every Kerbal has them by default.
• Mauve Shirt: Every Kerbal has a name and a backstory, even if it's just two words on a card somewhere. Despite this basically all of them can be killed.
• Video Game Caring Potential: You can never abandon your Kerbals, ensure you never put them at unnecessary risks by installing multiple redundant safety systems, reload any lethal crashes or failures, and generally work to make them as safe and happy as possible while doing the necessary experiments to keep your space program functioning.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can also strap them to a rocket with no way to stop them slamming into the earth, blow them up on the tarmac, or launch them off into space and do nothing to get them
• Ugly Cute: All Kerbals have large head and adorable eyes with big smiley faces. They're also sickly green in color

Jebediah Kerman

"Whatever Effect his Stupidity and Courage will have in a given situation are overridden by his sheer Baddassitude"

• Ace Pilot: He is guaranteed to be a pilot, guaranteed to be your first Kerbonaut, and is coded to have an extremely high priority for being applied to any flight. In addition, as a Pilot he gives any craft he's on automatic bonuses to stability and control, with these bonuses becoming progressively more powerful as he levels up.
• Badass Adorable: Invoked, like all Kerbals he is an Ugly Cute and is explicitly defined as a Badass.
• Fearless Fool: "Jeb still gives no fucks even when he can see the rear of the spaceship out the front windows."
• Frontline General: Implied to be the leader of the Kerbalnauts, owner of his own rocket company, and also hard-coded to be the most likely Kerbalnaut on any given mission, to the point you have to actively prevent him from being available to stop him from going on a flight
• Hot-Blooded: The "Badass" tag makes him react with excitment and happiness to situations that would normally inspire fear and terror in Kerbals. Meaning he gets happy at the prospect of hitting Mach 12 hurtling to his death without parachutes or a heat shield.
• Idiot Savant: His Rocket Company is a junkyard. They're also the source of some of the best and most ubiquitous work-horse rocket parts available. He is also of middling intelligence at best.
• Jumped at the Call: He owns a rocket manufacturing company, will go on every flight he can, and reacts with "happy" to any situation where most Kerbals would be terrified
• The Leader: Implied to be this among the "Original Four" Kerbalnauts.
• Resurrective Immortality: Played with, he will respawn if he "dies", but only if he dies by going "MIA" and exceeding tracking distance in atmosphere (usually due to burning up in atmosphere)
• Science Hero: Owner and operator of Jebediah Kerman's Junkyard and Spacecraft Parts Co, the source of most of the liquid fuel and liquid rocket engines in the game

Valentina Kerman

"You don't think about the danger. The Spaceship becomes your home"

• Ace Pilot: Like Jeb, she is a pilot and has the "Badass" tag.
• Action Girl: She is female and has the "Badass" Tag.
• Brainy Brunette: she has comparatively low default "Stupidity" value. Notably her Stupidity is lower than everyone except Bob, the scientist. She even has lower stupidity than Bill, the Engineer.
• Prim and Proper Bun: implied, the badass tag makes her largely unflappable in the face of danger, and she wears her hair in a bun
• Secondary Sexual Characteristics: her head, like all "Kerbalinas", is slightly smaller than the men's heads.
• The Smurfette Principle: The sole female among "The Original Four".
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: To differentiate her from the men she wears her hair in a bun and has long eyelashes.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space (and the source of the quote above)

Bob Kerman

"Just realized he's not coming home"

• Cast the Runner-Up: Invoked in-universe. His position as the third Original Four coupled with the fact that he lacks "Pilot" as a class means everyone else is liable to be picked before him. Putting him on a flight is generally relegated to when better alternatives are unavailable.
• Cute Bookworm: He lacks the badass trait, so his low "stupidity" and his Ugly Cute appearance make him this instead
• Guile Hero: Because he lacks "Pilot", you, and implicitly him, will have to be this on solo flights with him. Also his "Scientist" class means that he'll afford you greater returns on your science gains from research, presumably because he can figure out how to get better results out of the same jerry-rigged equipment.
• Lovable Coward: His low "stupidity" value coupled with middling "courage" means he panics a lot. His status as scientist however makes him invaluable as part of "the Original Four" for gathering bonus science on your research missions
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Prior to unlocking the parts that allow more than one Kerbal to participate in a flight, You'll generally only be using him over the other three when you desperately need science and you're using a tried and tested rocket that won't desperately need the added stability from a pilot.
• The Unfavorite: according to search data on the Original Four, he is the least popular

Bill Kerman

Bill, shortly after something's gone wrong.

• Book Dumb: Is an Engineer, yet has the largest Stupidity value of the Original Four.
• Captain Oblivious: Played with, as while he expresses fear when stuff explodes, otherwise he's generally completely oblivious to the danger of the situations he's in. Even high G's rarely cause him to notice.
• Captain Obvious: his steam card says he "Always knows when something's gone wrong". Things going wrong in KSP tend to involve Fire, Explosions, and other very evident signs.
• The Klutz: Hits himself with a flag when he tries deploying it in one of the trailers
• The Lancer: To Jeb. Fanart has depicted him as eager to save Jeb when Jeb inevitably gets into trouble, while official coding places him as the second-most-likely Kerbal on any flight.
• Mr. Fixit: His Engineer class allows him to repair spacecraft midflight...assuming he can survive EVA conditions
• The Stoic: As a result of being too stupid to realize the danger of the situation, he rarely changes facial expressions during flight

Wernher von Kerman

Nun, theoretisch hätte es funktionieren müssen^note Well, in theory that should have worked

• Expy: Named for Wernher Von Braun though his appearance is more inspired by Howard Hughes, complete with trademark pencil mustache.
• For Science!: much like his namesake, he doesn't really care about consequences, only designing rockets.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: He's Wernher Von Braun, but without that history of designing weapons of mass destruction for Those Wacky Nazis.
• Insufferable Genius: prone to bragging about his accomplishments.
• Mad Scientist: Obligatory when it comes to dealing with Kerbals and designing Rockets
• Never My Fault: whenever something goes wrong, as evidenced by his image quote.

Gene Kerman

Kermin, we have a problem

• Big Good: He is kind, patient, and helpful during tutorials, and is the guy ultimately in charge of making sure that Kerbals get home safely
• Expy: of Gene Kranz, NASA flight director and mission control. Like Gene he is also has light hair, uniquely within the game itself
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: while he's nominally in command of every mission, ultimately it's up to you to keep Jeb from ending up a stain on a mountainside
• Mission Control: his job and role within Career mode.
• Quest Giver: His job as head of Mission Control is to offer the player lists of contracts to complete for rewards

Mortimer Kerman

he likes things to be under control and arranged in right angles. This job is pretty stressful for him.

• Finger-Tenting: shown doing so in one twitter image
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Explicitly labelled as such in-universe, "He doesn't have many friends"
• Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: he offers several of them, usually with enormous downsides
• Must Have Caffeine: implied as in the above image.
• Nervous Wreck: He's the only Kerbal with worry lines modeled onto his face

Linus Kerman

Intern to Von Braun

• Butt-Monkey: implied to be how he's treated, with Von Braun sending him for jobs that he himself is "too important" to do.
• The Intern: Specifically to Von Braun, who forces him to basically do all of the non-For Science! related activites of his job
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: downplayed, as he's not the guy doing all the actual R&D, however he's responsible for the R&D building, which invents everything from Planes to Rockets to Drilling machines and Matter Replicator machines.

Walt Kerman

"Hey Paul!"

• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: implied by his decision to wear a hazmat suit, as well as his fear of Giant Robot Spiders from Duna
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: he has a goatee and deals with the public
• Hazmat Suit: he wears one in his job as Public Relations
• Raincoat of Horror: played for laughs. Despite being public relations he wears a complete Hazmat suit.
  "it seems appropriate for someone working in such a toxic environment."
• Shout-Out: His name is Walt, he deals with a toxic public, and he wears bright yellow protective gear
• Take That!: he wears full protective gear to protect from dealing with the lethal hazards of...the public.

Gus Kerman

He's the reason our spacecraft have windows

• Good Hair, Evil Hair: tho it's impossible to notice without looking carefully, he has a neckbeard
• Mr. Fixit: He's responsible for leading the repair and construction of everything in KSP
• Shout-Out: He's named after Gus Grissom, who unfortunately was one of the astronauts who perished during the Apollo 1 fire. Quotes about Gus reference Grissom a lot, tho their positions are totally unrelated
• Working-Class Hero: He wears a hard hat and manages construction of all your rockets. He lacks the status of some of the other Kerbals, but nonetheless is invaluable to your success