The Story of Starcraft Part 19: Wings of Liberty: Characters

One of Blizzard’s strengths is their characters.

Kerrigan is one of the most iconic video game characters of all time. It’s easy to see why. Hell, her story was so compelling that they stole it from themselves and reused it for Sylvanus Windrunner.

With Starcraft 2, did they nail the characters again? Or did they fumble?

Well… a bit of both.

The Raynor/Horner/Tychus Triad

Let’s talk about something great.

The three main characters of Wings of Liberty are Jim Raynor, Matt Horner and Tychus Findlay. It’s a clever triad as each plays off the other two well.

We’ve already talked about Jimmy – the charismatic, idealistic rebel leader.

Horner represents the professional military side of Raynor’s Raiders. He’s prim and proper, always standing at attention in his military uniform. He’s idealistic too – eager to help take down Mengsk and save lives.

Tychus represents the criminal, chaotic side of the rebellion. He’s here to blow manure up and have a good time. Unlike the others, he’s only in it for himself.

They need each other. Without Horner, they’re a gang of criminals. Without Tychus, they’re a pathetically small and outgunned. Raynor balances these two extremes, willing to fight as a soldier or operate as a criminal.

There’s constant tension between all of them. They respect each other and have common goals, but their styles are different. We’ll talk more about this as we go on.

Dr Hanson

Ugh.

From the highs of the triad, we hit the lows of Dr Hanson.

She’s a scientist and the leader of a group of refugees. Thematically, she represents the innocent people displaced by the Zerg and ignored by the Dominion. This is good. We the audience are supposed to fear the Zerg and hate the Dominion – she gives us a human face onto the reasons why.

It’s a shame it’s such a bad face.

(Not literally. She looks nice.)

In a game filled with eccentric geniuses, dashing rebels, convicts locked into battlesuits, mechanics who can whip up tanks out of scraps and soldiers fighting interplanetary wars, she’s… bland. She cares about her people – fair enough. The problem is that’s all she talks about. She has no personality outside of being a timid mother hen to these refugees.

When she’s happy, it’s because you helped her save her people. When she’s unhappy, it’s because some of her people died. Fair enough, but is that all she is?

With the other characters, you can imagine what they’d do after the war. Tychus would be a criminal no matter what. Horner is always a soldier. Raynor just wants a quiet retirement. With Hanson, though? I got nothing.

The story might be setting her up as a love interest for Raynor. Maybe? It’s hard to tell. She’s not flirting with him – not even awkwardly – but she is playing up her role as a damsel in distress. Sure, she’s a civilian in a warzone, so it’s fair that she’s out of her depth. I’m glad she doesn’t pick up a gun and murder Zerg by the thousands.

Still, it would be nice if she offered something aside from good karma. What value does she offer to the Raiders? She’s a scientist but she doesn’t help with your research. She’s a leader who doesn’t help you lead.

You could replace her with a random refugee without it changing anything.

It doesn’t help that her story is marred by failure. Not interesting failures where she makes bold calls and then learns from them. No, just bad luck exacerbated by stupid decisions.

Then her story ends in either tragedy or (worse) an unearned sappy ending.

Swann

Swann is fun.

If it’s broke, he can fix it. If it doesn’t exist, he can invent it.  He’s the classic case of the rough exterior with a soft interior. Loyal to Raynor and dedicated to the cause, he helps out by equipping the Raiders with the best hardware he can conjure.

He’s pragmatic, focused on practical solutions over elegant ideas.

As a side character, he offers Raynor a simpler relationship, mostly filled with banter over what weapons they need for the next job.

Stetmann

Stetmann is your classic eccentric scientist. He’s young, anxious, skinny and awkward. It’s hard to tell how much of his loyalty is to the rebellion, and how much is down to the rebels finding cool technology and specimens to research.

Don’t expect a complex character here. Still, there’s nothing wrong with playing to the tropes – especially for a side character like this.

He doesn’t get many lines. Most of his character comes from the research notes he makes. Throughout the campaign, you recover Protoss tech, Zerg samples and Xel’Naga artefacts. It’s all exciting to him, even as some of it terrifies him.

Donny Vermillion and Kate Lockwell

These two side characters are here for comic relief.

And it’s done well – mainly because you have to go out of your way to interact with them. Not everyone will like this brand of comedy, so making it optional is smart.

Donny is the head anchor for the Universal News Network. He’s slick, he’s charming and he’s a propagandist for Mengsk. Kate is his young roaming reporter, idealistic and eager to report on the facts.

The running gag is them reporting on the events of the last mission. Donny will lie or exaggerate to make Raynor look bad, Kate will begin to correct him and he’ll cut her off before she can say much.

I almost didn’t include them. The one joke they have begins to wear thin by the end. Still, Donny is one of the few characters with a character arc in Wings of Liberty. That has to count for something.

Mengsk

Mengsk is a great tyrant character. He speaks the language of tyranny – calling for unity under his banner to protect the human race, never mind how he rose to power through rebellion and war crimes.

I’ve heard folks say he’s more moustache-twirling in this than the original. I don’t see it. To me, he’s much more toned down. His iconic speech from Starcraft 1 – where he threatens to rule the sector or burn it down – shows up again in this campaign and it’s so dramatic compared to how he talks now.

He’s less of a driving force of the story here – more of a looming enemy for you to hate. And speaking of looming enemies…

Kerrigan

Kerrigan is mostly absent here, even as her Swarm rips through the sector. This is good. Keeping her in the shadows adds to the mystery.

When she shows up, she’s voiced by Tricia Helfer – who you may remember as the blonde Cylon from the Battlestar Galactica remake. She does a great job – sounding less regal and more cruel than in the earlier games.

Others

I haven’t forgotten about Tosh, Mina or Zeratul. We’ll get to them when they show up in the story.