Character Study of the Week: Cassie Suthorn
Who: Cassiopeia “Cassie” Suthorn
Aka Abtakha
What: Criminal
Member, Glorious Redemption Detachment 325
Assorted ranks, Camacho’s Caballeros, Infantry Forces
When: 3031 - ?? ?? ??
Weapon of Choice: Herself
This week’s subject is a request by ScrewySqrl, who took particular interest in Cassie because, as ScrewySqrl described her, she is a 90’s comic book character, a 90’s anti-hero really, and in a military sci-fi setting that is something worth looking into.
Cassie’s background is as extensive as her novelised history, so much so, and because of the content (I’ll get to why shortly) I’ll just say that Sarna.com has a fairly thorough history available rather than trying to go through it fully, that isn’t the point of this article.
In brief she has a happy childhood that quickly becomes tragic, hops the express train to brutal then does a pirouette and dive into adventurous and grim when she does amazing things with a broomstick and impresses the people she was using said broomstick on.
Sorry if that is facetious, but the tone of the Caballeros stories is one of just so much darkness and emotional pain that a little levity is the only response. This is something else I’ll address.
Tragic backstory, outsider within her own unit, mad skills, unique for said skills and a few other attributes that help serve to make her interesting, nigh unstoppable, grim, gritty, doesn’t play well with others and yet has this amazing ability to bond or connect with the young and vulnerable in dire situations and finds a home with a gritty band of fellow outcasts.
Yes, Cassie is a 90’s anti-hero.
No need for deep, in depth analysis to come to this conclusion, 90’s anti-heroes were the result of the troubled, disturbed characters from Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns being given the action hero treatment and have fairly clearly defined traits.
Does she try to be more though?
Yes, however Cassie tries to be more within the confines of a setting that’s somewhat grim and fantastical anyway, and so still largely winds up following the same thread, so her success in trying to be more is somewhat dubious.
She gets close to people, makes friends, and they are horribly killed. She finds a home but it is routinely injured if not fully maimed, a condition from which she and her surrogate family fights back from.
It fits the setting, war shows no favourites and grants few favours, however these are still familiar arcs to a 90’s anti-hero
It’s not helped by the fact that she is a part of an oddball unit where everyone has a nickname or quirk or a grim history or something that makes them unique and can be used in a few sentences to differentiate them from the crowd.
Which isn’t bad in and of itself, true it makes the setting even more like that of a comic book hero convention, but it is possible to spend only a few words on a character and make a connection with the reader so that they will care about what happens to that seemingly minor character, ramping up emotional torque if said character is abused horribly and killed, also horribly.
And that happens in Cassie’s stories. A lot.
There’s the trouble, it also creates a crowded environment where, if given too many characters to care about they blur together and there is an emotional overload in the reader.
It should be addressed though that Cassie tries to be a main character in the Battletech setting without being a MechWarrior, something that is unique and while extreme uniqueness is a 90’s anti-hero state it’s also a common literary state. After all, a main character that blends in and isn’t much of something special isn’t much of a main character.
It’s the way she does things that makes her a 90’s anti-hero. Taking out a Wolverine with a broomstick (read into that what you will, X-Men fans), rallying rabble, being the most important person in a mission for being who she is, and phenomenal at what she does.
Does this make her a bad character?
No, mainly because bad characters either fail to function as they should or somehow do not fit the setting. Besides which, as far as I’m concerned there is a place for pretty much every kind of character as long as they are used well, which could mean anything from being used to type to being used against type. Neither is bad as long as it yields an interesting, engaging story.
And the Caballeros stories in which Cassie features are not bad stories in and of themselves, if anything they try to explore the Battletech setting from a different perspective. Specifically from a mercenary unit that doesn’t have all the right connections, doesn’t have all the maddest, leet skills, and doesn’t have a horseshoe made out of rabbit feet secreted in the unit insignia.
It does have an ensemble of weird and interesting members, most of whom are archetypes of some sort, and it really does add to the 90’s comic book character aspect of Cassie because it’s her archetype and the means by which she stands out.
In all fairness keep in mind that to date the core fiction, which by extension characterises the setting in general, has largely been written by Michael Stackpole and is unapologetically pulp sci-fi. I’ve said many times before that the setting has tried to move on and evolve into more of a pulp military setting, however at the time Victor Milan was writing Stackpole’s novels were the metre stick by which other stories would have to measure themselves against.
And let’s face it, love them or loathe them, the core novels come across as a little fluffy.
What happens to Cassie is completely in the other direction.
That alone does not make for an improvement, however it is still a perspective worth exploring. In this way Cassie does enrich the Battletech Universe, proving it is far too large for a simple, single theme.
You’ll notice that much of this article focuses more on the unit and novels than on the character herself. Part of this is because she is a successful, thorough application of the archetype of a 90’s anti-hero, there just isn’t that much to explore outside of that, and the archetype has been explored in many other articles on the internet.
I’m trying to address her presence, even as an archetype within the Battletech setting. Successful application of an archetype depends on a number of things, and it always relates to the setting and other characters.
So looking more closely at her environment does Cassie, and by extension Camacho’s Caballeros belong in Battletech?
Yes, simply because over the top units like Wolf’s Dragoons and the Kell Hounds, even under the bottom ones like Wilson’s Hussars or even Bad Dream or The Green Machine, exist.
Like these units the Caballeros and Cassie were products of a time when Battletech tended to be more sci-fi and thus a bit more fantastic in who and what populated the setting, the Caballeros were just a different kind of fantastic from the rest.
Rather than being wildly unstoppable or utterly downtrodden they are eclectic, eccentric and even a little bit strange. They go through ups and downs, highs and lows. It’s just a little disappointing that they don’t do so in an original manner.
For instance; does it all have to be so grim?
Well, 90’s anti-hero, so yes.
And as stated earlier this gets to be a bit grinding, at least for me, presumably for other readers, surely as much as the fluffiness of most of the core novels at the time must have grated others still, because the single emotional state can be overbearing. There is a reason comic relief exists, more importantly no single mood is sustainable for an extended period of time.
But within this motif of a grim, gritty, uncomfortable, thoroughly 90’s anti-hero friendly setting Cassie is very successful at being what she is, the value of the character is, as always, very much up to the reader.
