One Last Ride On The Road To GTA VI đź“… 94 Days to launch
We All Have a Story About Ourselves
Maude describes her targets as; “Poor wretches… desperate, alone…”
Trevor responds; “The rigorous administration of justice is one of mine.”
That’s hilarious because Trevor’s definition of justice is… flexible, to put it mildly! There’s a deeper point here though. We all like to believe we’re the hero of our own story. Even people doing terrible things can construct a version of themselves where their actions are justified, necessary or even noble.
Trevor doesn’t see himself as simply a violent criminal. He sees himself as someone with talents. Apparently, one of those talents is justice!
“We are all the heroes of our own stories.” Common saying
Maude doesn’t lecture Trevor. She simply recognises that he’s very, very good at finding people who don’t want to be found. Trevor, in turn, seems to enjoy being given a role that makes his behaviour sound legitimate.
Maude provides the bureaucratic justification. Trevor provides the violent implementation. It’s almost like they’ve created their own little moral loophole:
“I’m not hunting people down because I’m a violent psychopath. I’m administering justice.”
Trevor genuinely seems to like that interpretation.
There’s also a wonderful contrast with Michael. Michael is constantly wrestling with whether his past makes him a bad person. Trevor barely seems to wrestle with the question at all. He simply finds a justification that allows him to carry on doing what he’s doing.
We don’t always change our behaviour to fit our beliefs. Sometimes we change our beliefs to make our behaviour feel acceptable.
That’s a much more interesting Trevor lesson than simply “Trevor is a psychopath.” Rockstar gives us a character who can commit horrific acts while simultaneously constructing a bizarre internal logic where those acts make perfect sense to him.
Maude is absolutely delighted to encourage him!
With Grand Theft Auto VI on the horizon, I thought it was the perfect time to revisit one of the greatest games ever made. Over the days leading up to the launch of GTA VI, I’m returning to Los Santos for one last ride through the narrative.
In this new collection I’m analysing the story in the comments to tell you what I think is going on. Disagree with what I say? Get in there! My challenge is to get the whole game covered by GTAVI launch.
Link to full GTA playlist here:
Level me up by – đź‘Ť đź’¬ đź”” 🔎 Gramepa – 🙏
One thought on “Everyone Thinks They’re the Good Guy _ GTA Analysis Beyond The Mission”
Do you think Trevor & Maude genuinely believe their own justifications, or do we sometimes know we’re fooling ourselves?