Jim Raynor

Jim Raynor

James Eugene "Jim" Raynor is a fictional character and a major protagonist in Blizzard Entertainment's science fiction StarCraft series. Raynor is a predominant character in the science fiction real-time strategy video games StarCraft and Brood War, and is the player character in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Outside video games, Raynor appears in the novels Liberty's Crusade and Queen of Blades, while his backstory is explored in the novels Heaven's Devils and Devil's Due. Robert Clotworthy voices the character in all video game appearances.

Created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney, Raynor is loosely based on a character of the same name in the 1991 film Rush. Metzen conceived Raynor to represent the ordinary man in a series populated with politically motivated characters. Raynor's physical appearance was designed by Metzen himself. A Terran in his early thirties, Raynor is a former soldier and outlaw who eventually becomes a marshal on a backwater colony world. Raynor joins Arcturus Mengsk's revolution against the oppressive Confederacy of Man but becomes disillusioned with Mengsk's genocidal tactics, forming his own paramilitary group to challenge Mengsk's tyranny.

The character has received a positive critical response; Raynor's depiction in StarCraft and Brood War was praised for its character depth and the quality of Clotworthy's voice acting. One survey by GameSpot put Raynor as one of the top ten heroes in video gaming.