Schlock Mercenary/Characters: Difference between revisions

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* [[Action Girl]]

* [[Appropriated Appellation]]: "[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2006-04-30 The modern] [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-06-16 Goddess of War]".

* [[Cartwright Curse]]: Elf has a running not-so-gag that any man she kisses is killed. So far her tally is Hob, Captain Tagon in an alternate universe, Kevyn (multiple times, but his soldier boosts have brought him back every time) and finally [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2007-04-07 Pronto and Brad] (whom she kissed in an intentional invocation of the trope to make them go along with an almost-suicide mission).

** Subverted with Nick, the one who actually believed in the curse.

*** And then Howard starts laughing at us with [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2010-10-27 this.]

* [[Characterization Marches On]]: Elf started out as a short-tempered tomboy grunt who was intimidated by intelligence and who abused stims to manage grief. Around the end of book 7 / beginning of book 8, she began to reveal the [[Hidden Depths]] of intelligence, wit, and responsibility that define her today. "Coincidentally," this happened not long after two in-universe [[Fan Service Pack]]s and just before she started dating Kevyn~~, who borders a bit on [[Author Avatar]]~~.

* [[Characterization Marches On]]: Elf started out as a short-tempered tomboy grunt who was intimidated by intelligence and who abused stims to manage grief. Around the end of book 7 / beginning of book 8, she began to reveal the [[Hidden Depths]] of intelligence, wit, and responsibility that define her today. "Coincidentally," this happened not long after two in-universe [[Fan Service Pack]]s and just before she started dating Kevyn.

* [[Huge Guy, Tiny Girl]]: At first, Elf was much, much smaller than the male members of the group, especially Brad. But the addition of giant prosthetic legs fixed that eventually. Later she gets a body upgrade during one of her regrowths.

* [[Lady of War]]: ~~"[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2006-04-30 The modern] [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-06-16 Goddess of War]".~~ After kicking her stim habit and getting her current body, Elf eventually matured into this.

* [[Lady of War]]: After kicking her stim habit and getting her current body, Elf eventually matured into this.

* [[People Jars]]: At one point, the author gets away with a full-frontal nude shot of her in a regeneration tank by making her too nude to have ''skin''. "I'm as naked as the day I was born. And then some."

* [[Pettanko]]: Not that she haven't a shape to show at all [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-07-31 before] her "remodeling", but it's easy to see why she easily passed as a boy.

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* [[Mad Scientist]]

* [[No One Could Survive That]]: Presumably [[Killed Off for Real]].

** Of course, there was [[foreshadowing]] in an [[April Fools' Day]] strip... and now we know on what project he worked. The "magical cryokit" was able to implant "weapon package" plus ''contained a coherent non-destructive backup of his brain'' - and {{spoiler|RED-REO suite is this plus writing back - thus he ''could'' have nanobots capable of reviving him after bullet in the head - "merely" Laz-2 [[Deader Than Dead|grade death]] - or even Laz-3 like Xinchub.}} It's his development, after all. Since he was able to work with AI in general, he could control where his dead body goes simply by modifying every "coffinpedo" on board (once he stops doing it, a timer or even normal use would eliminate evidence). Oh, and he have died ''after'' they tested teraport... made from a common power source, AI and "off-the-shelf nanotech"... he can be ''anywhere'' now.

** Of course, there was [[foreshadowing]] in an [[April Fools' Day]] strip... and now we know on ''what'' project he worked. The "magical cryokit" was able to implant "weapon package" plus ''contained a coherent non-destructive backup of his brain'' - and {{spoiler|RED-REO suite is this plus writing back - thus he ''could'' have nanobots capable of reviving him after bullet in the head - "merely" Laz-2 [[Deader Than Dead|grade death]] - or even Laz-3 like Xinchub.}} It's his development, after all. Since he was able to work with AI in general, he could control where his dead body goes simply by modifying every "coffinpedo" on board (once he stops doing it, a timer or even normal use would eliminate evidence). Oh, and he have died ''after'' they tested teraport... made from a common power source, AI and "off-the-shelf nanotech"... he can be ''anywhere'' by now.

*** And more possible foreshadowing when Dr. Bunnigus was mistaken for him. He isn't stupid to be recognized and caught by accident - and once body alteration is on the table, Lazkowicz can live on without much worries out of the picture - or be ''just about anyone'' in the new cast except aliens and people who had long studies in other fields (Sorlie), if ~~highly~~ unlikely to actually be Dr. Bunnigus. He could have been in Barsoom Circus. If he sold Xinchub and Co. to Int-Aff-Int and has their protection, he got a new identity capable of passing serious background checks, greatly expanding the possible set. For all we know, upon awakening he turned himself into an orangutan, became "agent Manis" and was hiding behind Admiral Emm's back on Morokweng, trying not to snicker, while she {{spoiler|hunted Xinchub and the witnesses}}. For example. Or he was Doc Wojtkiewicz from U.N.S. Athens...

*** And more possible foreshadowing when Dr. Bunnigus was mistaken for him. He isn't stupid enough to be recognized and caught by accident - and once body alteration is on the table, Lazkowicz can live on without much worries out of the picture, or be ''just about anyone'' in the new cast except aliens (''probably'' - this wasn't enough of a barrier for clone-{{spoiler|Aliss}}) and people who had extensive background checks and/or long studies in other fields (Sorlie, Ventura)... if quite unlikely to actually be Dr. Bunnigus. He could have been in Barsoom Circus.

*** And if he sold Xinchub and Co. to Int-Aff-Int [[Witness Protection|in exchange for protection]] (which ''is'' quite plausible, now that we know their agent Usar soon was messing two black ops directly related to LAZ/RED nannies, and knew who and what to watch for), his new identity may be capable of passing serious background checks, which greatly expands the possible set. For example: for all we know, upon awakening he could turn himself into an uplifted orangutang and become "agent Manis" - then all this time he was hiding right behind Admiral Emm's back on Morokweng, trying not to snicker, while she {{spoiler|hunted Xinchub and the witnesses}} for crumbs from Todd's kitchen. Or he was Doc Wojtkiewicz from U.N.S. Athens...

==== Leelagaleenileeleenoleela ("Legs") ====

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==== Chinook ====

Two more changes of hardware, one more "friendly parity check", and we meet Tag 3.0 - except not "Tag" ~~any more~~.

Two more changes of hardware, one more "friendly parity check", and we meet Tag 3.0 - except not "Tag" now.

⚫

* [[Appropriated Appellation]]: Schlock referred to Chinook as "Goddess of Earth, Wind and Plumbing" while grouchy. Chinook liked this[[Deus Est Machina|a little too much...]]

* [[Deus Est Machina]]: After replacing "the angry god", learning from Petey and being nicknamed "Goddess of Earth, Wind and Plumbing" by Schlock this just seemed natural.

* [[Huge Holographic Head]]: On occasion. Apparently, [[Bigger Is Better]], and it's still modestly disproportional to the new hardware size, after all.

⚫

* [[~~Insult~~ ~~Backfire~~]]: Schlock referred to Chinook as "Goddess of Earth, Wind and Plumbing" while grouchy. [[Deus Est Machina|If ~~only~~ he ~~knew~~...]]

* [[Me's a Crowd]]: Already multitasking to run a giant space station, with nodes in great many robots scurrying around it - and, of course, maintains local and long-range communication. And there's also an attendant space fleet now, because defences were needed yesterday, while growing and testing necessary to have a ''dependable'' AI takes time - as was pointed out by Ennesby earlier and demonstrated by TAG 1.0 breaking down. And then a [[Wetware Body|corporeal avatar]].

* [[Try to Fit That on A Business Card]]: She seems to collect fancy sounding titles as a hobby or something.

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* [[Femme Fatale]]

* [[The Gunslinger]]: Very fast and doesn't miss. She says she was fifth in her class in pistol qualification.

* [[Hidden Depths]]: Demonstrated a lot of interesting abilities, as well as attitude. In the arc where Kathryn gets to shine, she started dropping one-liners, quickly escalating from a [[You Fight Like a Cow|taunt]] to [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner]] to [[Bond One-Liner]].

* [[Hidden Depths]]

** [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: She is one of the very few people proven tricky enough to defeat Schlock one on one.

* [[It's a Small World After All]]: She was on {{spoiler|[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2011-02-09 Tunguska] when Xinchub caught Toughs and his overlong gloating got the thing broken}}.

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Was a Major in Sanctum Adroit, until "failing" a mission (where her team was set up as respectable cover and [[Fall Guy]]s for nasty black ops in the first place) and being fired; then joined the Toughs as a sergeant, and promoted to Captain by the second operation.

* [[Awesome Yet Practical]]: In ''Broken Wind'' she carries AP-229, which is a souped-up relative of AP-130 (much the same way as BH-250 is an even-more-overpowered version of BH-209) and has some sort of temporary shield projected during the shot to contain backwash. And stays hot at artillery grade distances. Even Schlock had to admit it's a good choice.

{{quote|'''Schlock''': No hazing. With that gun you're already in the club.}}

* [[By-The-Book Cop|By-The-Book]] Rent-a-Cop / [[Law Enforcement, Inc.]]: As a Major of Sanctum Adroit.

* [[Failure Knight]]: Identified by Karl Tagon as "a sullied paladin questing for redemption".

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==== General Bala-Amin ====

* [[I Am the Noun]]: She understands the whole "being the Ambassador" thing quite well. [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2015-06-23 And head-on.]

* [[Knight in Sour Armor]]: Starting from her [[Establishing Character Moment|introduction]].

{{quote|We welcome our friends with open arms. And if they're not friends, well... We're big and our hugs can be a little suffocating.}}

==== Haley Sorlie ====

* [[Iron Woobie]]: Initially. She suffers various let-downs, unpleasantness and threats to sanity again and again. Then she becomes more of an active player, see below.

* [[Knight in Sour Armor]]: Even Schlock noticed her "grouchy" moods. But she still tries.

** [[Birds of a Feather]]: While a lot of people find her likeable... It becomes more and more obvious that General Bala-Amin has a soft spot for Sorlie in the size and persistence of Great Red Spot - and why. And then Bala-Amin in a fit of brilliance made her a "liaison" to Yaeyoefui (whose third phrase after reanimation was "I can't wait to learn the extent of the mess that was made in my absence"). These two [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-02-15 seem to get along remarkably well], too.

* [[Wide-Eyed Idealist]]: Not for long.

==== Captain Landon ====

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* [[One-Man Army]]: He made his way through a building full of fearless armed combatants with tooth and claw only. ''Then'' he was given first aid, [[Improvised Armour]] and fun-sized superweapon and walked out to protect civilians. [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/0308-wallpapers Like this].

* [[Taking the Bullet]]: A booby-trap. Which destroyed his arm (the size of a whole human and wrapped in [[Powered Armor]]) and still left the one he shielded "in small pieces" (just not pulverized too much to reconstruct and revive).

* [[Uplifted Animal]]: Ursumari - polar bear humanoid-~~izied~~ just enough to walk upright (though still can run on all four) and use fingers.

* [[Uplifted Animal]]: Ursumari - polar bear humanoid-ified just enough to walk upright (though still can run on all four) and use fingers.

==== "Tenzy" ====

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* [[Enemy Mine]]

* [[Fat Bastard]]: Xinchub is, well, a very fat...

* [[Government Conspiracy]]: Ears deep in things that a lot of other UNS big fish [[I Was Never Here|remembers they never heard about]].

* [[Jerkass]]: [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2007-06-03 Doesn't bother to hide this] and enjoys [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-02-07 way too much].

{{quote|'''Xinchub''': You know me, Tantor, I'm the biggest ace-hole in the game.}}

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* [[Dark Action Girl]]

* [[Green-Skinned Space Babe]]: She's a "[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2003-03-11 purp]" — modified human with pale violet skin (it's photosynthetic).

* [[Ship Teasing]]: With Tagon, though he's not interested

* [[Ship Teasing]]: With Tagon, though he's not interested.

==== Admiral Emm ====

* [[Brutal Honesty]]: When she can afford it, makes no bones about more morbid sides of her job.

* [[Government Conspiracy]]: Leads an intelligence agency which finds itself on both ends of black ops with other people and agencies in its own polity often enough to be declared rogue wholesale.

* [[Hypocrite]]: She called Kowalski a monster and is surprised when he mentions having conscience... ~~yet~~ his latest "monstrous" deeds were all performed under her command, and later his clone mentions that "she always wanted ''more'' like me".

* [[Hypocrite]]: She called Kowalski a monster and is surprised when he mentions having conscience... but his latest "monstrous" deeds were all performed under her command, and later his clone mentions that "she always wanted ''more'' like me".

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: Much the same deal as with Xinchub. Wants to avoid civil war over the whole human and Terran uplift space, but not enough to do ''less'' things that could make sane people want to start one.