Brothers in Arms (series)/Characters

Be advised: Spoilers for the single player campaign ahead.

Third Squad/1st Recon Squad

Staff Sergeant Matthew Baker

The protagonist and player character in Road to Hill 30 and Hell's Highway. Promoted to Squad Leader just before the D-Day jump and put in charge of a Recon Squad just before Operation Market Garden. Struggles with leading his squad and guilt, and coming down with PTSD which starts to adversely affect him in Holland.

• A Father to His Men: Especially to Franky "Beans" Laroche.
• Badass: Loves to be in the thick of it and has the scars to prove it.
• Big Damn Heroes: Comes charging to the rescue at Bloody Gulch, courtesy of a pair of M4 Sherman tanks.
• Contemplate Our Navels: Big time in Road to Hill 30. Lampshaded in Earned in Blood, as paraphrased below:

"Back in England, we'd be playing baseball or something, not Baker! He'd always be off staring at the sky or some shit!"

• The Hero
• In Harm's Way: According to Hartsock in Earned in Blood.
• One-Man Army: In the the penultimate mission of Road to Hill 30, he is sent by Mac on his lonesome to find The Cavalry. In the second mission of Hell's Highway, he searches a Dutch mansion for German machine gunners. And when searching the hospital for Franky, at least until Red comes to the rescue.
• Rousing Speech: That someone else but him makes these is often lampshaded. After Red gives one of these in the penultimate mission of Road to Hill 30:

Corrion: "I think he stole your line there, Baker."

• • Played Straight however in Hell's Highway when he gives a rousing speech to his men at the end of the game when his squad began to doubt his command.
• Sanity Slippage: Hell's Highway.
• Scars Are Forever: Sports a doozie as a result of being knocked on his ass by a German tank shell in Road to Hill 30.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Heading this way in Hell's Highway.
• Silent Protagonist: In Road to Hill 30, outside of cutscenes and the pre-mission monologue, he only speaks when barking orders. Averted in Earned in Blood, where he helps and gives orders to Hartsock in cutscenes before the latter is promoted to command of his own squad. In Hell's Highway, he appears in many more cutscenes, which replace the monologues of Road to Hill 30.