Armored Core: All as One/Characters

''Armored Core All as One Character Sheet... LAUNCHING!''

A list of the protagonists, antagonists and whoever lies between in the RPG Armored Core: All as One and the tropes applying to them.

A note to all tropers: Tropes appearing on this page should relate only to characterization traits, only the character-specific tropes. Plot-related events and character actions should be placed on the Main Page unless those actions become a staple of that character.

Pilot of the White Glint
Israeli-born Lance Donovan would be a tortured soul, if he had one. A childhood tragedy scarred him and left him profoundly damaged, unable to connect emotionally. He's a sociopath, and an unrepentant killer. He considers himself a monster, accompanied constantly by his "Dark Passenger." A presence/feeling that drives him to and is only satisfied when he kills. His attempts to disguise and hold back the Passenger have been largely ineffective. Trained by the Israeli special forces and the Mossad, Lance is skilled in covert operations. Combined with his skill as an Irregular, and he is easily one of the most dangerous men on the planet, and one of only a handful to be designated "hyper lethal" by Collared.

Tropes:

 * Awesome By Analysis: When Lance first meets the other pilots and Operators and decodes personal, even somewhat secret, aspects of each of their lifes by seemingly unnoticeable quirks. Justified, as Lance's constant attempts to mimic the genuine emotional responses of other people has taught him to key into specific reactions and body language. It isn't perfect, however, as he can't exactly discern where Kolya's physical aptitude comes from (dancing).
 * Badass Israeli: Lance, in spades. Not only is he a former Mossad agent and an ace pilot, but he's been trained since childhood to be the merciless soldier and fighter that he is, and he's a fully-functioning sociopath with a Dark Passenger that would make Dexter Morgan proud.
 * Bayonet Ya: Lance to one of his enemies, straight through the cockpit and pilot.
 * With his "kidon" assault rifle/bayonet. Unsurprisingly, "kidon" translates to "bayonet" in Hebrew, and was also the name of the department Lance worked for within the Mossad. Combine that with his name "Lance," and you basically have his modus operandi.
 * Code Name: Subverted (somewhat) by Lance, who isn't particularly fond of his, or code names in general. But has no choice but to go along with protocol. To be fair, if you have a name like Lance a code name hardly seems necessary.
 * Doomed Hometown: Lance's family was slaughtered in front of his very eyes when he was a little boy and he was left to sit in their blood for hours while the killers/thieves/rapists did their work.
 * Establishing Character Moment: Lance's first appearance piloting the White Glint features him impaling an enemy Armored Core, which is heavily hinted to include impaling the pilot as well. He then just turns around and starts on the other enemy.
 * Expy: His Armored Core is one of the cover mech of Armored Core For Answer, right down to the name. Word of God has admitted this to be the case.
 * Heroic Sociopath: Lance, pilot of the White Glint. He just appears normal.
 * Light Is Not Good: Despite his primarily-white Armored Core and pilot's suit, sociopath Lance Donovan can hardly be considered a "good guy."
 * He just has standards.
 * Though even he admits he doesn't know what those standards are exactly. But he'll let you know when he figures that out.
 * Meaningful Name: His name (likely not his real name) leads one to think of a medieval weapon used by jousting knights (the nobility). Combined with his overall white motif (white Armored Core, white flight suit, white Audi) it seems he should be a pure and benevolent character.
 * subverted in that his code name (meant to hide his identity or at the very least, make him anonymous) is more relevant and telling to his personality than the above. His name is only meaningful if you understand it as part of his mask.
 * Really Gets Around: Lance, again, in spades. Though it's essentially part of his "cover" to try and appear "normal." His relationships fail spectacularly because he cannot connect to anyone emotionally.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: With Lance's Dark Passenger comes the need to kill, but also the "power" to be somewhat beyond the human status and those silly things called human emotions.

Pilot of the Valkyria Redtail
Born in the lap of luxury, Claire has worked hard to shed the airs of snobbery that she's often been associated with. She's a hard worker, with a driving work ethic and high standards for everyone she associates herself with. Her attitude of taking even the most mundane jobs has led her to accumulate a small fortune and a great reputation with Collard's clients. She's fiercely independent and quick to take charge.

Tropes:

 * Action Girl: And how!
 * Fiery Redhead
 * Hot Amazon
 * Lady in Red: Redhead? Check. Red flight-suit? Check. Red Armored Core? Check.
 * Lady of War

Pilot of the Final Excalibur
"Look at me. Do either of you expect someone like me as a pilot?"

Originally hailing from Great Britain, Seth is a socially awkward, introverted man who seems more like a teenager than anything else. He has a deep interest in music and books, so spends most of his time either reading, or listening to music... or both. He has a deep obsession with the welfare of his Armored Core which is mocked by others quite a bit, but stems from his feelings of inadequacy without the power of the Armored Core. His ability to pilot the Excalibur is seen by himself as mainly his one worthwhile talent in life, making it a personal view of Crippling Overspecialization. He has only really bonded with his Operator, Alistair Cain.

Tropes:

 * Alone in a Crowd: As shown by the bar scene, Seth prefers to sit listening to music and sipping his drink than talk to people.
 * Ascended Fanboy: Seth wanted to pilot an Armored Core when he was younger. Now, he does it for a living.
 * He also reacts very positively when he finds out that the group are working alongside Otsdarva, the top-ranked Collared Irregular.
 * Badass Bookworm: Spends much of his time reading, but when he gets in the Excalibur, whatever he's fighting is in for a hell of a fight.
 * Badass Longcoat: Sports one in his civilian attire.
 * Battle Theme Music: Tip of the Spear from the Halo: Reach OST.
 * Bishonen: Played with. Seth has several bishonen traits, but he is physically quite unappealing.
 * Chaste Hero
 * Fan Boy: While not as... obsessive as most examples, Seth does quite noticeably admire Lance and Otsdarva, both pilots of high skill with state-of-the-art Armored Cores.
 * Friendly Sniper: When piloting Gungnir-configuration Final Excalibur, Seth is basically this.
 * Headphones Equal Isolation: In civilian attire, he's normally found with a pair of headphones listening to music if he's not reading something.
 * Horrible Judge of Character: He admires Lance and Otsdarva, the former of whom is a Heroic Sociopath, and the latter heavily implied to be the same but worse.
 * Light Is Good: He dresses in silver and white mainly, his Armored Core is silver in hue, and Seth has strong morals due to Alistair's influence.
 * Loners Are Freaks: Played with. Seth has some friends, like Alistair, but his general preference of being alone and his obsession with the Excalibur lead some to conclude this.
 * Meaningful Name: His name means 'Appointed Soldier', referencing the fact he's only in the military career due to being 'appointed' by his high AMS compatibility.
 * His Armored Core, its weapon designations and his Code Name are Arthurian references, fitting his nationality and morals.
 * The Nicknamer: He gave his four Final Excalibur weapon configurations names from mythological spears.
 * Theme Naming: He, Alistair and Victoria follow a Biblical Seth-Cain-Abel theme in their names.
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: According to Alistair, this is the reason for the noble naming of his Armored Core and Seth's Call Sign.

Operator
"I have memories I'd never want to lose, and memories I wish I could get rid of with all my heart. There are parts of my past I treasure... and parts of it I hate."

Seth's usual Operator, Alistair is a witty, somewhat snarky man from Canada. When he was younger, his home was razed to the ground by a renegade Armored Core pilot, giving him a phobia of the machines which therapy only mostly cured. Afterwards, desperate to help other pilots avoid the lure of their machines' power, Alistair went into training with Collared and became an Operator, partnering with Seth Miles.

Tropes:

 * Big Brother Instinct: His relationship with Seth comes across like this, as Alistair is a more experienced and world-weary man.
 * Doomed Hometown: When he was younger, Alistair's village was obliterated by a renegade Irregular.
 * Honor Before Reason: Any, repeat any suggestion of targeting anyone without good reason will be met by Alistair coming down like a ton of bricks on whoever said it, regardless of who the hell they are.
 * Light Is Good: Like Seth, he dresses in silver and white, and he is expressly dedicated to his morals.
 * Mission Control: Like all Operators.
 * Morality Chain: Alistair became an Operator so he could be this to Pilots, keeping them from following the footsteps of the one who destroyed his home.
 * Shout-Out: His Call Sign and tattoos evoke Skeith, while his appearance was inspired by Haseo from the same games.
 * Spider Sense: Kind of. He feels unsettled around Lance and Otsdarva, both of whom seem pretty dark.
 * Theme Naming: Follows the Abel-Cain-Seth theme naming pattern.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Alistair's therapy only mostly cured his fear of Armored Cores, he still pretty much freezes up when personally facing one, as shown when two attack the USS Tungsten with him aboard.

Pilot of the Sol Reaper
Completing the Abel-Cain-Seth trio, Victoria is an aged, experienced Armored Core pilot who donates her mission profits to charity. She is the one who came to Alistair's rescue when he was younger, and personally destroyed the Armored Core attacking his home, though not in time to save more than a few survivors. She currently resides in a hotel room in Peru, out of the way unless she takes on missions for Collared.

Tropes:

 * Action Girl: Most definitely.
 * A Million Is a Statistic: To the corporations, and she loathes the fact.
 * The Atoner: In a way, Victoria's charity is fueled by this. She is fully aware that the Armored Core technology she uses to earn the money to begin with, is also the cause of much of the poverty she tries to remove due to the wars caused by the Armored Core technology in the past.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Notably pulled this off in the past, destroying the Armored Core attacking Alistair's home.
 * Cool Old Lady: Older than Seth and Alistair, but Victoria's pretty damn awesome.
 * A Friend in Need: Victoria donates as much of her mission profit as possible to charity, trying to help resolve poverty.
 * Not So Different: She wonders if Maximillian Thermidor acts as he does out of the hatred for the corporations and the poverty their reign has brought, just as she feels.
 * We Help the Helpless: Her charity-giving is basically this, she also does charity work when not out killing terrorists and criminal scum.
 * You Are Too Late: Feels that she will always be too late, and that she can never save everyone.

Tropes:

 * Conveniently an Orphan: It's pretty much the only reason she's an AC pilot.
 * Creepy Monotone: She talks like a robot, Sor crying out loud! Her dialogue is actually pretty mechanical as well...
 * Emotionless Girl: You're lucky if you can get her to look interested in your conversation.
 * Good with Numbers: she's memorized the specs of her AC... to the hundredth decimal place.
 * Spock Speak: All the time, in addition to Creepy Monologue.

Tropes:

 * All a Part of the Job: She's piloting ACs for mercenary work purely because she wants to.
 * All Take and No Give: To Theo
 * Fallen Princess: She's attractive, has tons of money, could do pretty much anything, and instead she's off piloting an AC with a bunch of mercs.
 * Implausible Hair Color: Her hair is ice-blue, though it is technically an anime setting.
 * Lonely Rich Kid: Debatable, though her only real friend at this point is Theo.
 * Lady of War: She's an heiress driving around a multi-ton war machine as a hobby.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Kotomi's Blue. Also the Blue to Claire's Red.
 * Spoiled Brat: Certainly thought of as one.
 * Tsundere: The fact that she's giving you attention at all means that she thinks you're not a total waste of her time.

Tropes:

 * Battle Butler: In essence. He acts as the butler to Beatrice's noble type, and assists in combat by being her Operator.
 * Big Damn Heroes: In effect. He garners Lance's help for the Tungsten by promising to pay for all ammunition and repair costs the White Glint needs. Whew.
 * Insists on Paying: Every chance he gets.
 * Legacy of Service: Theo's mother was a Victorique family maid.
 * Neat Freak: His appearance is always up to spec, as is everything he touches.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Theo and Beatrice.
 * Technical Pacifist: He's not about to resort to violence anytime soon, but he doesn't really care what Beatrice does with the Intel he gives her.

Tropes:

 * Macross Missile Massacre: The Paznos can pull one hell of these with bunker-busters, as Claire exploits in her Crowning Moment of Awesome.

Tropes:

 * All a Part of the Job: He pilots giant killing machines for only a few, very simple reasons: it's something he is good at, it keeps Mommy and Daddy away and it's an easy way to get rich. He holds his own contractors responsible for the deaths he causes, too, and had a clear conscience (most of the time).
 * Bishonen: He may be 27, but if it weren't for his constant workouts he could very easily be mistaken for someone half his age. He loves the sex-appeal that is associated with his "twinkiness".
 * Late to the Party: Davis is the only protagonist not taking part in the Madagascar mission in any capacity. This is Justified, as he was only actually signed-up as after the mission had started due to a posting lull coinciding with people dropping out.
 * The Nicknamer: And how. Even though he has two sets of names for each character, he memorizes none and comes up with his own. So far, those include: Mr. Number One (for Otsdarva), Sexy Eyes (For Lance), and Lady in Red (for Claire).
 * Spoiled Brat: And how. He grew up in a rather respectable upper class but never had the time to enjoy it. Now he is making up for lost time. Usually inside his "pleasure room".
 * Sixth Ranger: Combines with Being Late to the Party.

Pilot of Stasis
Collared's Rank 1 Irregular. Apparently Russian, and noted as being hardcore to the point it is rumored he could compete with the Originals, a group of highly experienced pilots from before the New Geneva Convention.

Tropes:

 * The Ace: It comes with being Collared Rank 1.
 * Expy: Apparently based on Otsdarva from Armored Core: For Answer due to the same name and both being Collared Rank 1.
 * Jerkass: He doesn't refrain from being nasty at times, and its noted he is also quite intimidating.
 * Not So Different: He seems to have something in common with Lance.