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"Mature Content Warning!" |
Trust me, this guy is a disgusting pig, both in a metaphorical and literal sense.
Hello everyone, and welcome to my new proposal. Today I bring you a candidate that I had in mind for a while and eventually decided that is worthy of a shot here. Let's begin:
What is the work?
Dead Rising 2 is the sequel to the iconic Dead Rising, a sandbox/zombie game of Capcom fame. Here, we take the role of Chuck Greene, a biker that needs Zombrex (a special drug that prevents anyone infected from fully turning into zombies) for his daughter Katie, leading him to partecipate to the reality show "Terror is Reality" at Fortune City (built on the ashes of Las Vegas, who got destroyed from an outbreak) in attempt to win some money to ensure some of that drug. Unfortunately, that is exactly the day a zombie outbreak happens there, forcing him and Katie to seal themselves there. Eventually, Chuck gets framed of starting the outbreak by an unknown party, forcing him to make his way around to clear his name and unravel the truth about the outbreak.
There's also Dead Rising 2: Off The Record, a What If? scenario that sees Frank West, the protagonist of the first game at Fortune City instead. There are some differences in story and gameplay, but the game is mostly the same.
A primary threat faced by both Chuck and Frank are the Psychopaths, humans that either went mad from the outbreak or are taking advantage from it for their selfish goals. Our candidate for today is one of the aforementioned Psychopaths of the second game:
Who is the candidate?
Randall "Randy" Tugman is a minor antagonist of the game, being the main antagonist of the "Here Comes the Groom" scoop. He is a fat, sex-addicted creep that took advantage of the outbreak at Fortune City to lose his virginity, at all costs and no matter what. To achieve this goal, he kidnapped a woman named Danni Bodine and his father Emanuel to "organize a wedding", with the former being the "bride" and the latter being the "priest". The two clearly look terrorized from this, with Danni even attempting to escape, only for Randall to block her and force her to say "I do", even telling her that "other women mean nothing to him" while looking at a dead bride, showing how he tried to do this whole thing with another woman and then killed her for that. Right before the "ceremony" could end, Chuck/Frank make his way, with Emanuel attempting to shout for help, only to be accidentally killed by Randall, claiming that the former "wants to ruin the happiest day of his life", thus beginning the fight. Randy loses and then ends up getting eaten up by the dead bride, now turned into a zombie, putting an end to the shitshow.
Does he standout?
Here's the part that I wanted to discuss the most: Dead Rising, as a series, has a pretty high Heinous Standard, with deranged lunatics and corrupt authority figures being basically all over the place. Does Randy stand out in his own? Let's see: from what I described, is made pretty clear that he literally tried to rape a woman by forcing her into a marriage, also kidnapping his father for that. And considering the dead bride, this isn't the first time he tried to do that. However, Randy isn't the only character to ingage in rape/sexual assault through the series as we have:
- Jo Slade, a corrupt police officer from the first game, who is also a rapist and yet has a much higher number of hostages (she went after seven people in total). She isn't in charge of a large army or anything like that, she is on her own and fully stands out with no issues.
- Dylan Fuentes in the third game, who kidnapped two people (three, if you count the zombie there, which counts as necrophilia as well). He is Insufficiently Heinous, falling to Jo Slade, but is heinous enough to be NPE at least.
- Hilde Schmittendorf, also from the third game, who aids John Hemlock in his plans of world domination, killed two survivors for no reason besides sadism and sexually harrased Nick Ramos. She isn't exactly a rapist, and thus fails the HS as well. Being in charge of a large army and lacking other unique crimes doesn't help there.
So, Randy has willingly killed one person, attempted to rape two, accidentally killed one (his father) and tried to kill another. Now, his act of patricide is unintentional, so I am unsure if that should be listed. However, I think that his act of rape while also keeping two people under hostage is enough to be at least there. I think that he is around Dylan Fuentes, heinous but at the point of fully standing out, with the two falling to Jo Slade. Again, while he isn't the first in doing that, rape isn't exactly a crime that 90% of the villains in Dead Rising do. Randy is also on his own, mind you.
Redeeming qualities? Sympathetic traits?
Little to nothing. His reason to do all of this is incredibly petty, considering how he tried to rape a woman because he "didn't want to die a virgin". His "love" isn't genuine considering how he sees his "bride" as a way to lose his virginity and nothing more. And while his death of being devoured by a zombie is definitely gruesome, this isn't played for sympathy in any way, with Chuck/Frank only giving a sarcastic remark to his death, which is pretty much deserved considering his crimes.
However, there's one positive thing that can be said about this pig: he does care for his father. While he did kill him, that was accidental on his part, being mad over that and shouting to Frank/Chuck "That was my dad!". Yes, he did kidnap him and isn't exactly willing to admit that this was his fault, but I think that this line shows that he did hold some twisted care for him.
Verdict?
I will go for a decent Yes for this scumbag, but I want to hear your thoughts about it first.