Ben Carville
Actor: Barry Corbin
Name: Ben Carville*Nationality:* American*Origin:* Texas, United States*Affiliation:* Allied Forces / United States*Rank:* Lieutenant General*Role:* Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces*Personal weapons:* Two silver-plated Colt M1911s*Conflicts:* Second World War, Third World War, the Psychic Dominator Disaster*Date of death:* 1972, cancelled due to temporal alteration
General Ben Carville is an American Officer from Texas and one of the leading military figures of the Allied Forces in the Red Alert 2 timeline.
Physically imposing, Carville embodies the archetypal Texan cowboy. He enjoys cigars, alcohol and, above all, victories over the communists, but behind his laid-back demeanour lies an experienced Officer and a particularly skilled strategist.
The Second World War
Carville first appears chronologically during the war between the Allies and Stalin’s Soviet Union, in the missions of Red Alert: Retaliation.
At that time, he held the rank of Brigadier General and was involved in commanding Allied operations against Soviet forces.
In particular, he acted as an intermediary with the Allied Commander, whom he regularly briefed on developments in the situation and military objectives.
This first appearance already established the key traits that would come to define Carville: his sense of humour, his direct manner of speaking and his open hatred of communism.
Following the Allied victory, Carville continued his military career and gradually rose through the ranks.
The Third World War
Several decades later, Carville had become Lieutenant General and Commander of the Allied Forces, making him one of the leading American military figures under the presidency of Michael Dugan.
When the Soviet Union under Premier Romanov launched its surprise invasion of the United States, Carville directly oversaw the operations entrusted to the new Allied Commander.
Following the evacuation of Washington, he joined the US government in Canada, from where the command organised the counter-offensive.
At the same time, Carville maintains a particularly close relationship with Tanya Adams, whom he values as much for her efficiency as for her personality. His humour and the jokes he makes at her expense contrast with the generally much more formal nature of the Allied high command.
Despite his good-natured appearance, Carville takes the threat posed by Yuri and his psychic technologies very seriously.
This mistrust is entirely justified: Yuri eventually has Carville assassinated in order to deprive the Allies of one of their leading military commanders. His death was one of the most significant blows dealt to the Allied command during the war.
The player-controlled commander then succeeds him as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, the position Carville held prior to his death.
Yuri's Revenge
However, Carville’s story takes a particularly interesting turn in Yuri's Revenge.
When Yuri attempts to take control of the planet using his network of Psychic Dominators, the Allies use Einstein’s time machine to travel back in time.
The time travel takes the Allied Forces back to a period when Carville is still alive.
The Commander thus knows the General’s fate in advance and is able to prevent the assassination attempt that was to cause his death.
Carville therefore survives in this new version of events and resumes his place within the Allied high command during the war against Yuri.
He subsequently takes part in briefings on the Allied campaign against Yuri's Army alongside Michael Dugan, Eva Lee, Tanya and Albert Einstein.
Carville thus becomes one of the most interesting examples of the consequences of time manipulation in the Red Alert universe: he literally has a canonical death that is subsequently erased from history.
His fate following Yuri’s final defeat is not specified, but in the corrected timeline of Yuri's Revenge, Ben Carville is alive.
He does not, however, appear in Red Alert 3, as the Soviets’ elimination of Albert Einstein creates a new, profoundly different timeline.