E3 2018 revealed many surprises for Gears of War fans, but he main one that has me worried is Gears 5. Gears of war has always kept a consistent story from the introduction of the lambent way back in the first gears game when they were only in the form of exploding wretches. However, with the main story completed and the Coalition moving on with the future of the Sera and its inhabitants it pains me to think that there are going to be major changes for the worse.
First, we must look back. In Gears of War 4 the war with the locust and lambent are over, and we are introduced to two factions. The COG, the governing body of the GOW universe, is doing better than anyone would have hoped. Aside from being raided by outlying independent settlers they have created a fully automated army and cities that make you think this is them going into a half-life story. We are also introduced to the newest protagonist, JD Fenix.
Whether you knew it or not, JD is the son of Marcus Fenix, the protagonist of the first three games. Of course, even if you had played gears 4 without the first games you’d still know because they kept Marcus remembering the atrocities that occurred in the original story. His attitude and detail of it is so well written that even new Gears players would have to feel like this is a character from the older games let alone the protagonist. For old players it’s a nice continuation of the core universe characters, while also giving the next generation more backstory and character-building opportunities.
Here’s where things are worrisome. At E3 2018 when they showed the trailer for Gears many different scenes flashed on the screen that are assumed to be cinematics from the game. One of those scenes strongly conveys a death scene. Many believe that this person is Marcus since he’s older and that killing off important/main characters from previous games is a tradition that spans from the halo series to other popular games. Another guess could be that it’s JD who bites the dust.
A lot of people reading this would ask why kill off the new main character right after their first game. My best answer would be this: He wasn’t the main character. JD has two best friends, Del and Kait, and of you don’t want to be spoiled about the end of the game stop reading here. In the story of Gears 4 Kaits mother gets kidnapped by another faction. This faction is called the swarm, or as I like to say Locusts 2. JD takes the lead to help kait find her mother, but he also gets help from his dad, which gives us fanservice and bridges the gap from the first story to this new one. Finally, at the end when you rescue her mother you learn that the necklace she once gave kait was secretly the locust symbol.
This implies that Kait and her mother are actually locust, or locust/human hybrids, and that one of them is going to be the inevitable protagonist for this next big arc. Seeing as how the gears formula has always had a family dispute cliché built into the main character, some would say that Marcus and JD fit that bill perfectly. However, in the end when we assume Kaits mom is dead she may actually be uploaded into this swarm hivemind to be used as it’s controller. This would give Kait motivation to beat the evil that holds her mothers mind hostage and challenges her to take on the swarm.
To clarify, this is not a post saying replacing a male protagonist with a female one is a bad thing. This article is to show readers that if this is the case you shouldn’t be surprised. So far JD only has his issue with COG now story wise, since he and Marcus are on better terms than when the game starts. Kait has problems with the COG; the swarm; the original locust, and possibly soon her mother. She has a lot more she must figure out and if JD dies it puts her front and center to experience the core of this new Gears experience. This article is just speculation about the story, and should not be perceived as fact, yet.
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