History Characters / StarcraftTerranDominion

* IsThisThingStillOn: Donny has a bad habit of talking about things he shouldn't when the cameras are still picking him up, such as complaining about Kate asking General Warfield a question when Donny was the one talking to him.

* TheBusCameBack: After last being mentioned in the final newscast of ''Wings of Liberty'', Donny returns as MissionControl for the Co-op mission "The Vermillion Problem." Lore established that he was eventually rehabilitated and came back to the UNN as a reporter.

->'''Voiced by:''' Alyson Reed (English), Irina Kireev (Russian)

-> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/RachaelMacFarlane (Kate) and BlairBess (Donny) (English), Irina Kireev (Kate) and Yuri Brezhnev (Donny) (Russian)

* VillainsNeverLie: [[spoiler:Mengsk tells Kerrigan, after she transformed into the Primal Queen of Blades, that Raynor sacrificed everything to restore humanity, yet she threw it away. He later adds that Raynor would be disgusted by her for it. Unfortunately, Mengsk was right in a way that he reemphasized what Raynor said in the beginning about not wanting to see Kerrigan throw away his sacrifices just for revenge. In a manner of speaking, Mengsk was also right about Raynor's reaction to her becoming a monster again.]]

* DirtyCoward: It's implied he doesn't like to dirty his hands himself, leading from the back and retreating when unable to win. When Duke volunteers to lead an attack on Tarsonis' orbital platforms, Raynor is surprised to see him offering to lead a frontal assault. Duke's subsequent comments are that he knows the other Confederate squadrons stationed on the platform suck compared to his own Alpha Squadron men, and Raynor deflates when he realizes Duke is only taking the field because he knows it'll be an easy fight for him.

* BigGood: After the series, as shown in ''Nova Covert Ops'' DLC, Valerian has developed into this for the new, good Dominion, putting his trust on his allies during ''Void'' and Nova as well in terms of the troubles with the Defender of Men.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: Hates the Confederacy, but he's also a member of one of the Old Families, the most corrupt of all facets of the Confederacy. [[SubvertedTrope His family was essentially kcikced out of the group when his father tried to push for Korhal's independence, though.]]

* AntiVillain: Arcturus isn't a complete full-on villain despite his weakness for consolidating power, throwing the weight of the Dominion around, and FantasticRacism towards the Protoss. Indeed, their leadership helped hold the Terrans together against the Zerg and helped upgrade their weaponry for a new generation of warfare. Sadly, their accomplishments are frequently overshadowed by their violent power politics and immoral tactics, and his outlook is a tragic result of a sometimes chaotic, war-torn youth.

->'''Voiced by:''' James Harper.

-> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/JoshKeaton

-> '''Voiced by:''' GaryAnthonyWilliams

->'''Voiced by:''' JackRitschel

->'''Voiced by:''' Alyson Reed

-> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/RachaelMacFarlane (Kate) and BlairBess (Donny)

* DidntThinkThisThrough: His methods of dealing with Kerrigan in ''Heart of the Swarm'' fall into this. First he publically announces the execution of Raynor... Except this royally infuriates an extremely powerful, emotionally volatile psychic that (even in a weakened state) can control Zergm, and Mengsk ''knows this'' (not to mention it [[DontCreateAMartyr creates a martyr out of Raynor]], something Mengsk has taken great pains to avoid. Then he decides to [[spoiler:let Kerrigan know that Raynor is actually alive]] in order to blackmailing her to not invade Korhal -- it doesn't seem to cross his mind that Kerrigan could just [[spoiler:rescue Raynor]] and ''then'' invade Korhal, which is exactly what she does.

%%* TheSouthpaw

* IAintGotTimeToBleed: Gets impaled through the arm by several Hydralisk spikes. It barely slows him down.

* BigBad: After toppling the Confederacy, he steps into the role at the very end of Episode I. He returns to the position for Episode V of ''Brood War'', then becomes the FinalBoss for Episode VI, and is the primary antagonist for ''Heart of the Swarm''.
* BigBadEnsemble: With Kerrigan for ''Wings of Liberty''. Raynor's been rebelling against the Dominion for years, and he still continues his revolution against Mengsk in the midst of the Zerg invasion.

* TheStrategist: He's known in-universe as a shrewd and skilled tactician. He knows his assets, he knows his enemies, and he knows how to best use the former against the latter.

* AntiVillain: Arcturus isn't a complete full-on villain despite his weakness for consolidating power, throwing the weight of the Dominion around, and FantasticRacism towards the Protoss. Indeed, their leadership helped hold the Terrans together against the Zerg and helped upgrade their weaponry for a new generation of warfare. Sadly, their accomplishments are frequently overshadowed by their violent power politics and immoral tactics, and are a tragic result of a sometimes chaotic, war-torn youth.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Donny claims he can't talk in-depth about Dominion plans to push back the Zerg, because he'd be giving away military secrets. Kate questions if Donny really thinks the Zerg watch their broadcasts, and Donny affirms he ''knows'' they do.

* AntiVillain: Arcturus isn't a complete full-on villain despite his weakness for consolidating power, throwing the weight of the Dominion around, and FantasticRacism towards the Protoss. Indeed, their leadership helped hold the Terrans together against the Zerg and helped upgrade their weaponry for a new generation of warfare. Sadly, their accomplishments are frequently overshadowed by their violent power politics and immoral tactics, and are a tragic result of their war-torn youth.

* AntiVillain: Arcturus isn't a complete full-on villain despite his weakness for consolidating power, throwing the weight of the Dominion around, and FantasticRacism towards the Protoss. Indeed, their leadership helped hold the Terrans together against the Zerg and helped upgrade their weaponry for a new generation of warfare. Sadly, their accomplishments are frequently overshadowed by their violent power politics and immoral tactics.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: His methods of dealing with Kerrigan in ''Heart of the Swarm''. First he publically announces the execution of Raynor, pissing off an emotionally volatile psychic who, even if weakened, can still control the Zerg and is very powerful herself, and Mengsk knows this (not to mention creating a "martyr" out of Raynor, which he had been avoiding for so long previously). Then he decides to [[spoiler:let Kerrigan know that Raynor is actually alive]] in order to blackmailing her to not invade Korhal -- it doesn't seem to cross his mind that Kerrigan could just [[spoiler:rescue Raynor]] and ''then'' invade Korhal, which is exactly what she does.

* FantasticRacism: Constantly describes the zerg and the protoss as sinister alien threats that terrans need his protection from, even while working alongside them in Co-Op mode. Granted, both have indiscriminately massacred entire Terran planets before his rise to power, but he does far more to antagonize the Protoss under his rule than they do to them.

* FantasticRacism: Constantly describes the zerg and the protoss as sinister alien threats that terrans need his protection from, even while working alongside them in Co-Op mode. Granted, his fearmongering towards the Zerg isn't entirely unfounded, but he does far more to antagonize the Protoss than they do to them.

* FantasticRacism: Constantly describes the zerg and the protoss as sinister alien threats that terrans need his protection from, even while working alongside them in Co-Op mode.

Arcturus resettled Korhal and reorganized the Sons of Korhal into the Terran Dominion, using fear of the Zerg and Protoss to call for the Terrans to rally to his banner. Knowledge of Arcturus's hand in the Zerg invasion of Tarsonis was limited to a handful of his closest allies, thus most of the Terran planets fell for it and they, along with many Confederate worlds and assets, joined the Dominion. The Dominion was temporarily deposed by the United Earth Directorate during the Brood War, but with the aid of Kerrigan, Arcturus overthrew their control of Korhal and the Dominion took back control of its colonies. After the Brood War when Kerrigan and the Zerg went quiet, Arcturus used the time to consolidate his power and continue to build his Dominion to grander heights. His son, Valerian, also took public stage as the Crown Prince and Arcturus's heir.

* RedIsHeroic: When the player controls them as the protagonist faction in Episode I, the player's forces change color from blue for the Mar Sara Militia, to red for the Sons of Korhal. In the final mission when Arcturus has completed his FaceHeelTurn, the player switches back to blue with the red forces as enemies. [[spoiler: Come ''Legacy of the Void'' and with the Dominion doing a HeelFaceTurn, this trope is still averted, as the Dominion never uses red in the missions they appear in, [[BlueIsHeroic using blue or light blue instead, just like Raynor's Raiders]] so as to distinguish them from Moebiua Corps, which use red. Played straight in cinematics, where the Dominion soldiers are all red]].