Sorry for the lateness, this one had a troubled genesis during a troubled time and may not be up to scratch, nonetheless I think I've put a cap on it.
Character Study of the Week: Joshua Wolf
Who: Joshua Wolf
Aka Joshua of Clan Wolf (presumed)
What: MechWarrior, Choyer Garrison Cluster, Clan Wolf
MechWarrior, 328th Assault Cluster, Clan Wolf
Major, Second in Command, Wolf’s Dragoons Mercenary Brigade
When: 2981 – 15 March 3015
Weapon of Choice: BattleMech, class unknown
When Wolf’s Dragoon’s mercenary brigade, five regiments strong, with supporting dropships, jumpships and a modular space station, arrived in the Inner Sphere probably the most mundane aspect about it was that the top two command positions were filled by brothers.
Jamie and Joshua Wolf led the unit to the first great victories that secured the unit’s early reputation, and proved a successful partnership until Joshua was killed in a poor move by Anton Marik’s chief advisor, Vesar Kristofur, along with a number of the Dragoon’s dependents, prompting the Dragoons to turn on their contract holder and pretty much win the Civil War for Janos Marik.
And that pretty much sums up Joshua Wolf, a man with a secret background, in a theoretically pivotal position whose death triggers a significant event.
Written like that he should be a rich mine of character, developments and revelation, but to date he has barely been elaborated on beyond the initial background information provided as a part of the Dragoons’ general history. Even the Brush Wars historical and Wolf’s Dragoons sourcebooks fail to add anything of further significance.
Part of that is because his secret background is shared by a single, large unit with a number of more active significant characters. In fact there is little to nothing about his background that isn’t shared by brother Jamie. Not an unusual situation, but it robs Joshua of depth.
He was a Clan Warrior, though this is poorly defined in what we see of him, he exists before the Clans were fully fleshed out and thus doesn’t present any significant traits from that background, though this is fitting giving his covert nature.
Even after the revelation of the Clans and Wolf’s Dragoons’ origins we know little other than his parentage, provided more by being Jamie Wolf’s full brother, and some unit history, again revealed more as a part of flavouring his brother’s and Natasha’s background.
He is theoretically the second in command of the Dragoons, but we have little idea what this entailed other than administrative tasks, which he must have been good at, and provides a realistic reason for him to stay behind on New Delos, and was certainly a position of great responsibility. Still, we see none of it.
Likewise Joshua had to have been a MechWarrior of considerable skill and talent, both to jointly command a BattleMech brigade and to have served under Natasha Kerensky in Clan Space. We have no idea what BattleMech in either setting he used.
Tactically, strategically, areas where his brother was a noted genius, of Joshua we have nothing. And while it can be intimated that his combat prowess was formidable it has never been seen. In fact, little or nothing of the man is seen.
In the grand literary tradition of “show, don’t tell” we are shown nothing and told little as far as Joshua Wolf is concerned.
So it could be said that Joshua’s involvement with the Battletech setting is minimal, right?
Yes and no, his background and development have been minimal, surprisingly so considering the amount of backfilling some historical characters have been given, and there’s certainly the room with Joshua.
But there has been no backfill, not of Joshua specifically. In the places where the backgrounds of Jamie and Natasha have been backfilled to develop their Clan histories then we have incidentally been given information regarding Joshua.
Is he overshadowed by these two?
Within the setting certainly, he did not live to an advanced age and thus develop a reputation as a nigh unkillable battlefield demon. From our perspective it’s harder to say. To some degree there is little point in characterising him further as he exists simply to die and be a motivation/regret for two far more important characters.
While tempting to call Joshua a plot device it’s not quite so clear cut. A character used as a plot device serves a single purpose, driving events, or providing background, and Joshua certainly does that. Not only for the Dragoons’ sudden turn against Anton but also for Natasha Kerensky on a personal level.
The two were lovers, and with hindsight that says something about Natasha’s iconoclastic nature regarding Clan culture, but more immediately it provides additional fuel for the legendary anger and aggression, and the adoption of the Black Widow moniker. Far more so than for Jamie, who while affected and would have ordered the whole brigade to turn, does not appear to hold the same sort of legendary grudge as he did against Takashi Kurita. Then again Anton died at the hands of a Dragoon providing closure of a sort on that front.
Furthermore his death is supposed to be a plot twist, a hiccup in the relatively smooth hiring history of the Dragoons. And while his death could be considered a shock it lacks a little in terms of gravitas to the reader.
No, as much as he is a plot device it is far more accurate to consider Joshua to be background for other characters, primarily Natasha but also Jamie to a good degree.
Little to no information is provided directly about him without providing context for others, which is a sad state for Joshua, but not an uncommon tactic in writing fiction, events along cannot drive other events or motivate people. He is background, and that is where his importance lies.
For better or worse Joshua himself is something of a blank slate, and is likely to remain so as his most pivotal action is to die.
There is nothing unique about him, we never see what makes him outstanding, the hole his absence leaves is very small in the setting even though it must, logically, play on the minds of those closest to him.
Is he important? Why bother with him as an article subject then?
For one thing he existed at all, played his role and while the impact was finite it is a part of the larger plot. Specifically ComStar’s plot.
You see, while I have written at length about how Joshua serves to characterise Jamie and Natasha he does the same for ComStar by the exact same method.
Vesar being Precentor ROM shows just how far the organisation, and by extension ComStar will go to uncover secrets, or cover them up if need be.
At least, the old ComStar, and who is the inheritor of those visions and traits? The Word of Blake.
While no faction is completely innocent Joshua’s demise is the first hard sign of many things, Wolf’s Dragoons’ distaste for ComStar, their eventual war with the Blakists before the Jihad, ComStar internal politics and extremism, not to mention of course the absence of morality in what is supposed to be a spiritual organisation, or at least the alien morality to the average reader’s sensibilities.
All of this paints in broad strokes the character of an organisation, just as with individual characters, and ultimately serves to cement Joshua’s place as both a plot device and a solid background element of the larger setting, even if it does mean he himself is sadly fated to little or no additional fleshing out.
Next week: Jamie Wolf