History Characters / StarControl

* TheExtremistWasRight: In comparison to the Kzer-Za. If the Kzer-Za had simply annihilated all life like they plan to do, then [[PlayerCharacter the Captain]] would not have been able to bring about the fall of the Hierarchy.

* RammingAlwaysWorks: An useful tactic in Super Melee when controlling the Marauder is to use a gravity whip after having accelerated at full speed, fly towards the enemy ship in kamikaze fashion, and launch two F.R.I.E.D.s in succession against it when up and close. Be aware that [[NoSell Utwig and Yehat ships will be protected by their shields]], large ones if undamaged will survive such attack, and you are more than likely to become a sitting duck if you fail the onslaught.

* BlatantLies: When asked about it, they claim that most of their dinners actually ''willingly'' choose to be eaten by them. What they don't tell you is that their general custom is to threaten to annihilate everyone on board passing ships unless someone "willingly" submits to being consumed.

'''Known ships:''' '''Contagion''', Epidemic, Hybrid, Infection, Outbreak, Strain H2ND

* BaitAndSwitch: The players are occasionally told stories about a legendary captain Zex, a presumably good VUX who likes humans and lives in exile. Upon meeting him, it quickly becomes clear that his fascination with humans is... less than virtuous, and more obsessive and perverse. [[spoiler: And by the end of it, it turns out he's no less racist than any of his brethren, and only likes humans because he has a thing for creatures he finds abhorrent. He attempts to attack the player like any of his other brethren so he can have the player and their crew for himself, and is ultiamtely [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard killed by one of his own victims.]]]]

* WrittenByTheWinners: Most stories about the Scryve's past told by themselves or the Measured are heavily biased to be sympathetic to them. It is typically through either speaking to their victims, investigating thes stories yourself or pressing the Scryve for real answers that the player can discern the real stories, which tend to be far less sympathetic to the Scryve.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The manual states that most other races take this approach to the Pkunk's resurrection ability, a power which makes no logical sense. There's also a degree of this with their prophecies, which they justify with absurd-sounding mumbo-jumbo but which provide hints with surpising specificity and accuracy.

* CloningBlues: All of them are clones. Though their grievance isn't so much with how they were created, it's how they were treated afterward.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:They're the first encountered species to be annihilated once the Death March begins.]]

A race of megalomaniac warriors obsessed with conquest, the K'tang Kaktorri (K'tang for short) are the rulers of the Hegemonic Crux [[spoiler: in name, anyway]]. Their true form is unknown since they're never seen outside of their hulking [[MiniMecha Mini-Mechas]]. [[spoiler:They're small, weak creatures that resemble wingless moths and are very cowardly]]

* TheLoad: The first game's manual paints Earthlings as such within the Alliance of Free Stars--at least, from the perspective of the Hierarchy. The Ur-Quan's "[=ProtoQuotoSynthetic=] reconstruction" apparently find us amusing in that we consider ourselves a technologically and culturally advanced species [[PunyEarthlings despite being quite low on the intergalactic totem pole]]. The report mentions several disasters prompting Alliance commanders to keep Star Control (that is, Earth's military) on a tight leash. That being said, none of the former Alliance of Free Stars member races treat Earthlings as unwelcome or a liability in ''Star Control II''.

* TheLoad: The first game's manual paints Earthlings as such within the Alliance of Free Stars--at least, from the perspective of the Hierarchy. The Ur-Quan's "ProtoQuotoSynthetic reconstruction" apparently find us amusing in that we consider ourselves a technologically and culturally advanced species [[PunyEarthlings despite being quite low on the intergalactic totem pole]]. The report mentions of several disasters prompting Alliance commanders to keep Star Control (that is, Earth's military) on a tight leash. That being said, none of the former Alliance of Free Stars member races treat Earthlings as unwelcome or a liability in ''Star Control II''.

* HumansAreSpecial: While it is mostly averted -- The main conflict is between two sub-species of Ur-Quan and Chenjesu, with humans being a minor player -- the amount of interest in Earthlings expressed by Ariloulalee'lay suggests that maybe humans do have some unique features. Also, they were the ones to wipe out the Evil Ones, finally destroy the Sa-matra and defeat the 20 000 years old Ur-Quan civilization, despite most of the population sitting under a slave shield this whole time.

* NuclearOption: The Earthlings' signature weapon. Although they'd sealed the nuclear stockpiles, the Ur-Quan were considered enough of a threat to un-seal them again.

* UnfriendlyFire: If the Cruiser fires nukes wildly, there's a chance that one of the nukes would accidentally hit the Cruiser.

* AcceptableTargets: They really don't like vegans, mainly because veganism inherently says that meat-based lifeforms are superior to plant-based ones.

* {{Arcadia}}: Syra's description by the Syreen themselves fits this trope pretty well, as they say that Syra and Earth were fairly similar before the Earthlings started to "encase" their homeworld "in concrete and plastic".

* TheCameo: In Origins, which generally avoided featuring SC1 & 2 races for legal reasons, you can find a colony of Zoq as an EasterEgg on planet Vulfas in the Lacaille 8760 system. If you talk to them, they will tell you about how - [[ForWantOfANail in this version of events]] - the Zoq, Fot & Pik had the same backstory and war against the Zebranky, but were unable to cooperate with each other and so never became the unified nation you meet in SC2, resulting in the Zoq abandoning their home planet and leaving the others behind. Another planet contains a colony of Pik, who tell the same story (except it was the Zoq who were the troublemakers in their version).

* ExtravertedNerd: They're very eager to make friends, just not very good at it.

** It's also basically a sci-fi version of UsefulNotes/ManifestDestiny

* CigarChomper: The entire race is apparently composed of them. An accident with his cigar, in fact, was how Reeunk [[BunglingInventor discovered]] [[StuffBlowingUp the afterburner]].

* BrainwashingResidue: The Free Trandals still have some leftover habits of Overmind, saying things they do not mean before hurriedly correcting themselves, such as referring to living beings as "husks" or occasionally demanding to be allowed to make "upgrades".

* KickTheSonOfABitch: At the end of Star Control II [[spoiler:the Captain uses the Flagship in a kamikaze attack against the Sa-Matra. The Dnyarri is "accidentally" left locked in the cargo hold as the rest of the crew evacuates]].

* KickTheSonOfABitch: A galaxy-wide genocide is bad... though we would have the [[HonestJohnsDealership Druuge]], [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Mycon]], [[FantasticRacism VUX]], [[EldritchAbomination Orz]], [[{{Troll}} Umgah]], [[SocialDarwinist Thraddash]], and [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Ilwrath]] among the casualties.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: ([[DownplayedTrope Well, as close to this trope as you can get when the worst evils are aliens,]] but still the problems of the Androsynth are due to the cruelty of humanity. The discrimination against the Androsynth began at the hands of a millenarian cult which eventually faded away. The anti-Androsynth bigotry, however, remained, and spread to the whole planet.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: They will try to pinch every penny they can out of you, but they will do honestly. Plus for all their neutrality, they are sincerely sympathetic to humanity and sometimes provide sincere encouragement to the Captain.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The discrimination against the Androsynth began at the hands of a millenarian cult which eventually faded away. The anti-Androsynth bigotry, however, remained, and spread to the whole planet.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: The Androsynth were created and lived as equals to naturally-born humans at first -- only to be reduced to slaves due to Homo Deus' propaganda. Then they rebelled, fled Earth, and colonized a new world... only to be enslaved again by the Ur-Quan a few decades later. Then the Ur-Quan, too, left... and after another decade, the Androsynth are all suddenly gone [[spoiler:as they unknowingly came into contact with some extradimensional entity that manifested itself as the Orz]].

* MightyGlacier: The Earthling Cruiser is among the slowest ships in the game, but it fires ultra-long-range, very accurate and powerful homing missiles.

* NonMaliciousMonster: The Mycon are insane, dangerous, and willing to destroy inhabited planets in their quest to expand and grow. But they aren't evil, just too crazy and wrapped up in their worship of growth-through-decay to notice the harm they're causing. Notably, when the captain makes contact with them to lure them into a trap, they are quite peaceful and polite.

* ButtMonkey: They are the target of many of the Umgah's "pranks", including but not limited to hoax hyperwave broadcasts, deliberately altering their message to the Ur-Quan, and an abortive plan to impersonate an Ur-Quan via Talking Pet and order them to attack the VUX. This is without considering the speculation that they bioengineered the Spathivorous "Evil Ones" and then unleashed them on a hapless Bronze Age civilization.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: They'll switch sides at the drop of a hat whenever they see an opportunity to avoid danger. For example, they'll join the New Alliance Of Free Stars only to create their own slave shield to protect themselves from the war.

* RammingAlwaysWorks: An useful tactic in Super Melee when controlling the Marauder is to use a gravity whip to accelerate at full speed, fly towards the enemy ship in kamikaze fashion, and launch two F.R.I.E.D.s in succession against it when up and close. Be aware that [[NoSell Utwig and Yehat ships will be protected by their shields]], large ones if undamaged will survive such attack, and you are more than likely to become a sitting duck if you fail the onslaught.