#thats all thats keeping him going. he isnt johnny a man whos been betrayed by a friend

[s0fter-sin]

thinking about the way ghost doesn't hesitate to start killing shadows when graves betrays them but soap only takes one hostage

you can almost hear the voice in his head telling him it doesn't have to be this way; they can still talk it out

"i'm calling shepherd"

his first instinct when confronted with betrayal is to play it by the books; to go up the chain and sort it out democratically. that goes against everything we've seen him do; he’s quick to drop his enemies and bucks authority at every chance except for the one time he's confronted with the barrels of his allies' guns

he wants a peaceful resolution; for the first time we've ever seen, he doesn't want violence to be the answer

there has to be another fix, a solution that doesn't end with him killing the same men he's been working with; his friends

nothing's happened yet

it doesn't have to go this way

but ghost has been betrayed before. he knows the way this ends; either with him six feet under or his enemy

he doesn't hesitate

it's only when they knock alejandro out that soap shoots; when they spill the first blood and cross a line they can never come back from

only when ghost orders him to run and he has to cover his retreat

and somewhere along the line, between civilians’ screams and taunting voices, between his shaking breath and ghost steady in his ear, that naivety is stripped away; his trust turned to teeth that he uses to sink into throats of men he'd have given his life for

"be careful who you trust, sergeant; people you know can hurt you the most"

he's learned the price of trust

just like ghost did

but unlike ghost, he has someone to guide him through the aftermath

"good advice, It"

#i might crown myself the ceo of soap meta at this point i love digging into this boy #but it seriously fucks me up how much he tries to de escalate the situation #invoking shepherd like hes trying to remind graves of who funds him and the power he holds #the consequences he’ll face if he goes through with this. just stop and think it through first #only to be stricken silent when graves drops ‘general shepherd sends his regards’ #he doesnt say a single word after that #ghosts the one who picks up the lead for him ‘he knows about this?’ #he can still function through his shock and the gut wrenching betrayal bc he’s been through this before #and he knows freezing will get him killed #but soap doesnt #he freezes #getting shot is something he wouldve been through before but being shot by an ally? #at that moment he isnt sergeant mactavish #hes johnny and hes in shock #and thats why ghost yelling for johnny doesnt reach him #he only breaks through when he calls him soap. when hes forced back into a soldiers mindset #thats all thats keeping him going. he isnt johnny a man whos been betrayed by a friend #hes a soldier following direct orders to keep himself alive #i can only imagine the after #when he lets his rage run out and is faced with the vulnerable and painful betrayal #but ghosts there to help him through that too. there for johnny the way he wished someone had been there for him #coming out of my cage and ive been doing just fine.txt #cod mw2 #john soap mactavish #soap cod #simon ghost riley #ghost cod #soapghost

[saints-row-2]

@vinkumakkara​ told me to write about Julius and the Boss’ relationship changing between SR1 and 2 and man ! do i love talking about Julius Little. 

in Saints Row 1 the Saints are in dire straights -- they’ve been around for long enough to gain some members, for those members to have earned ranks as lieutenants, as second-in-commands, but they’ve made very little progress. they barely have a hold on the Row. 

Julius says “we need all the help we can get” so i think at this point hes trying to build up enough of a gang so that he feels stable enough to to launch an attack. no point fighting if youre going to immediately get wiped out by the retaliation. by the time he finds Playa, he’s about feeling like they can stop defending their territory and expanding. Playa is kind of a last minute find.

that’s Playa all over at the start. Julius stumbles in on them -- if you wanted to sum up Saints Row 1 in a phrase it would be wrong time, wrong place -- and from there, he brings Playa into the fold. 

something i’ve mentioned with Julius several times is that i believe he deliberately constructed the Saints out of people he thought he could control. thats why most of the Saints are barely out of their early twenties; he’s an older man with power and influence, theyre people who will follow him willingly. Playa came with a bonus in that regard -- Julius saved their life. they owe him one. wanting to pay someone back can be a powerful motivator. 

Playa starts off in the gang as a new recruit that Julius has a good feeling about, and they very, very quickly become the Saints’ most valuable asset. Julius knows this, everyone knows this. the Saints spent god knows how long getting nothing done and then suddenly here comes the hero.

in SR1, Julius commands everyone’s utmost respect. the only people who talk back and get away with it are Troy and Ben King. hes the unquestioned leader, and Playa really shows no signs of wanting to change anything about that. you could definitely say they want power, but there’s no real indication theyre gunning for Julius’ job -- you could definitely say that your Playa was, but there’s no definitive statement. theyre still in the “bitch who keeps their mouth shut and does what they’re told” phase of their development. 

Julius from the outset has dreams of having a gang that protects the people, and claims he left the Vice Kings because they became about the money and stopped being about taking the city back from Los Carnales. Playa is a means to an end, and they’re happy to be that. their own motivation for joining the Saints is whatever the player wants it to be, we’re never given a solid reason. but Julius, he had ideas of being a hero. 

Playa gets their promotion at the end of the game, but that’s pretty short lived. in my opinion, at this time there’s no way Julius had any plans to off them. listen to his speech in the Battlefield Promotion cutscene; 

3rd Street owns this town. Now, that's not to say that shit didn't cost, and I ain't talkin' about what happened to Johnny's leg or losing Lin. Those two were soldiers, they knew the risk. Hell, Johnny gets off on it. But we crushed a lot of families playa, and someday they're gonna holla at us. But believe me when I tell you, we did the right thing. With the Rollerz wiped out, Benjamin gone, and the Colombians in our pocket, there ain't gonna be a need for a gang war ever again. And in the end, that's gonna save a lot more lives than we took.

that’s complete justification of everything, and Julius is happy to reward Playa for it, telling them to take it easy and then giving them a promotion. he knows how valuable they are to the gang, and he wants to give them more power. these arent the actions of a man who is in fear of one of his workers and wants to punish them, to stop them before they get too far. he can’t claim that he wanted to stop the Saints and take them down when he’s telling his weapon of mass destruction that he loves their work and that they should have even more freedom to run riot in the city. 

my point being; Julius and Playa in SR1 respect each other. Playa is completely loyal to him; look at the missions where they work with Dex and Johnny to save him from the police by following Alderman Hughes. Playa wouldn’t have done that shit if they wanted to overthrow or destroy Julius. and i mean, if there’s one thing we know about the Boss and the Saints, it’s that they value loyalty above everything else. betraying Julius probably never even fucking occurred to them. 

Julius didn’t have anything to worry about with Playa. he could have sat back and let them carry on all the work, knowing that everyone in that gang would have done anything he wanted. but as we know, it wasn’t that simple. the cops got involved and then it was Julius on the line. and that’s where Julius’ true nature comes into play; he’s selfish. after everything Playa has done for him, he’s happy to have them killed off, and when that doesn’t work, he’s happy to pin all the blame on them. 

let’s look at the Revelations mission;

Julius: Don’t you get it? The Saints didn't solve a goddamn thing. Drugs were still being pushed, innocent people were still getting killed...all we did was turn into Vice Kings that wore purple.

...

Boss: You wanna be the killer with a conscience? Fine. Drop your flags and write a book like King. But you never shoulda came after me. Julius: You tellin' me if I would asked you to walk away you would have said yes? Boss: Fuck no, this is my city. Julius: Jesus, you haven’t learned a goddamn thing.

...

Boss: Your time’s over, old man. Julius: What happened to you? Boss: I woke up. Julius: You owe me, Playa. If it weren't for me you woulda died on that street corner.

suddenly the Boss is a monster that Julius couldn’t stop, and all Julius cared about was looking after the city. i love “you haven’t learned a goddamn thing”. Julius grew a conscience overnight, so why didn’t Boss, too? Julius is incredibly spiteful and condescending when he wants to be; he’s wielding moral superiority over the Boss here, because he has no other weapons and he’s at a point of complete weakness. 

see, i say that Julius never had to worry about Playa, but he feared them. i think he probably would have feared Johnny too, if he had any appreciation for him. he was definitely scared of Dex (particularly Dex vying for his position), and remains so into SR2. Julius is not the tough guy, he isnt the big fighter. hes getting old, and what he has over the young kids is intimidation and authority, strategy and intelligence. 

Julius needed the Saints soldiers because he needed people to do his dirty work. in SR1, Johnny and Playa dont get a hell of a lot of respect from anyone. Johnny especially is derided as being a psychopath even by the other lieutenants, and Playa is lumped in with him by the other Saints. the SR1 Saints do not value violence the same way the Saints in SR2 do.

in SR2, the Boss and Johnny are gods from the word go. everyone thinks Johnny is the fucking coolest and the best, and everyone respects Boss. Julius brought Playa on board to do his killing for him, and Boss turns the Saints into a whole gang of killers. even by the end of SR1, Playa is getting people’s respect and admiration for being the elite killer who took out the rival gang leaders. Playa made killing cool, and that’s in complete opposition to everything Julius stood for. that’s not protecting the city. but of course, none of that matters until it starts putting Julius at risk. 

Julius knew what Playa was by the end of SR1, but that didn’t matter to him then. he didn’t care that they were a killer, he wanted them by his side, right up until it became too dangerous. when the going got tough, he dropped everything he could overboard and ran for it. 

Boss in SR2 is fucking angry at Julius. i mean, how the fuck could they not be? they trusted Julius absolutely, fought for Julius, did everything he wanted, and were eventually cast aside for the same reasons they’d once been wanted. they had never had any reason to doubt Julius; his betrayal came out of nowhere, and cost them the entire kingdom they’d once fought so hard for. like i already said, loyalty is a big fucking thing to the Saints. and Julius just threw that in the Boss’ face.

Julius’ betrayal pushes Boss into a position of complete power, and for a while in SR2, they’re really the monster he wanted them to be. they do a lot of really evil things when they’re granted that authority. in a fucked up way, Julius was right to fear and criticise them -- he just wasn’t doing so for the right reasons. fuck, it’s hard to argue, seeing Boss in SR2, that a lot of people wouldn’t be justified in wanting them dead. they’re not a good person. 

Boss and Julius are, from the start, at complete odds to each other. Julius entered the gang world in a position of power - he set up the Vice Kings with Ben King and was a leader until he left. he set up the Saints and was an unquestioned leader there, too. Boss came in as nothing and worked their way up. Julius started off with a moral cause -- he may have lost it along the way, but he had a cause. Boss sure as hell didn’t restart the Saints in SR2 because they wanted to give back to the community.

i wont say the Boss and Julius were never going to get along, because the Boss theyre both happy to work with people who are nothing like them -- or at least Boss is. Julius is happy to use people until they stop being useful. i dont think the Saints ever became real friends to Julius the way they did to the Boss. he remained a distant, powerful leader until the end. 

Boss and Julius started off working together, but things fell apart when everything stopped being under Julius’ control, and once the Boss wasn’t something Julius could control, he despised them. Boss didn’t hate Julius until they found out what he did to them, but once they knew, there was no stopping them from getting their revenge. i’ve said it many times in the past -- the Boss makes things right by killing people. 

i think if Julius hadn’t tried to have them killed, Playa probably wouldn’t have turned on him. Julius’ need for self-preservation was kind of his downfall, in a way, but when you’re backed into a corner like that, there’s not a lot you can do, i suppose. there’s no way in hell he could have talked Playa out of the Saints, and he knew it. he wasn’t even attempting to try. i’ve always thought of Julius being akin to Frankenstein, and the Boss to the Monster. it just took a lot longer for Julius to be disgusted by his creation. 

#this is a long one! bout 2000 words #saints row #julius little #the boss #rants writes row