Gears of War - Jacinto's Remnant

[Natorgator]

A new Gears of War book is out. It continues directly from the ending of the second game, where the COG end up sinking Jacinto in order to flood the Hollow underneath.

I picked it up last week and finished it in a few days. It was really engaging, and the story has taken a different direction than I anticipated. There's a lot of character development and it continues storylines that were started in Aspho Fields. They actually managed to make Marcus not seem so one-dimensional as he appears in the games. Parallel to the current storyline is also the plot of what happened in the weeks before Prescott killed most of the planet with the Hammer of Dawn, and we see the motivations of the major players and why they did it.

All in all, very interesting and I highly recommend it. Anyone else have a look yet? If so, what were your thoughts?

[Duckie]

Does it still have Mandalorians Gurkhas being the centre of the story and implausible biology for the Locust?

[Natorgator]

They left pretty much everything about the Locust untold. It's briefly touched upon but not much, so I assume it will be addressed in the next game.
Spoiler

For instance no one has figured out why they heard recordings of Adam Fenix in the underground computers, and it's a subject that no one really wants to talk about.

[Peptuck]

I'm leery about this book. I've already read the pile of printed shit she put out that was Aspho Fields.

Does this one still have the ridiculous special forces wank and the uber-perfect-awesome-misunderstood-poor-tribal-super-warriors who-are-totally-absolutely-not-Mandalorians? Does it have the blatant sexism and the COG's horribly limited industry despite the fact that they field massive armored columns and helicopter squadrons?

I'm normally very tolerant when it comes to sci-fi, but the shitfest that was her last effort at GoW just sent me into a twitching, frothing geek rage.

Should I read this because its actually good or should I read this so I can work out the last few months' worth of stress in paper-rending fury?

[Ford Prefect]

They actually managed to make Marcus not seem so one-dimensional as he appears in the games.

Marcus is in no way 'one dimensional'; this is precisely like the comments that 'Gears of War has no plot'.

[Stark]

Ford, I heard that there might be something between Marcus and Anya. What family story central to the plot? What buddy relationship driving the story?

[Natorgator]

Does this one still have the ridiculous special forces wank and the uber-perfect-awesome-misunderstood-poor-tribal-super-warriors who-are-totally-absolutely-not-Mandalorians?

There's a little bit of Gears wank, but there aren't any special forces in this one. Everyone is referred to as Gears and despite their larger and obviously more well-fed size I didn't get the impression of too much wank. There isn't much about the tribal Gears, though Tai does make a few cameos (but mostly it's about how weird he is.) Mataki plays a much bigger role and it explores her painful past.

Does it have the blatant sexism and the COG's horribly limited industry despite the fact that they field massive armored columns and helicopter squadrons?

Not really mentioned much except that what they took from Jacinto was all they had left. They ride around in tanks quite a bit and helicopters are still functioning. Nothing struck me as sexist. And in fact,
Spoiler

The women in the story hold their own a pretty good bit. Mataki is of course tough as nails despite being old, Anya starts following in her mother's footsteps and does a little frontline work, and Hoffman's painful marriage is explored.

Should I read this because its actually good or should I read this so I can work out the last few months' worth of stress in paper-rending fury?

I'm a Gears fanboy and I loved it, but you seem to get hung up on the little stuff a lot more than I do.

Marcus is in no way 'one dimensional'; this is precisely like the comments that 'Gears of War has no plot'.

I guess I should rephrase that he's still in large part a blank state; we don't know as much about him as we do the other major characters, for instance Dom.

[Connor MacLeod]

Frankly it sounds like some editor actually stepped in and put brakes on waht Traviss could put in the novel. It wouldn't surprise me. There's enough evidence that Traviss can do a decent job of writing if there is someone to prevent her from inserting her own little pet notions - its always those pet notions that ruinthe book (EG the specops wanking and the sexism.) Given Hard Contact I can quite believe that this might be a decent novel.

My fear, however, would be that this one sells well and Traviss is suddenly allowed to write without constraint again - it seems the temptation for her to self-insert her own little ideas is too strong for her to resist on her own.

[open_sketchbook]

Good to see somebody intervened; when I encountered the blatant sexism of the first book the volume hit the fucking wall. I had never throw a book before or since but goddamn that pissed me off.

[Natorgator]

Good to see somebody intervened; when I encountered the blatant sexism of the first book the volume hit the fucking wall. I had never throw a book before or since but goddamn that pissed me off.

What exactly about the first book did you hate so much? I don't recall it being that objectionable.

[open_sketchbook]

Something about the COG using women as breeding farms (because a generation of soldiers 20 years down the line when we`ve already lost is so much better than a generation of soldiers NOW) sorta set off the pro-feminist alarm bells in my head. Honestly, I just cannot sympathize with a government who has a policy of keeping women pregnant and in the kitchen, it is just completely contrary to every value I have. It made the COG seem completely disguisting and irredeemable, and I would have started rooting for the Locust but hey! turns out they have to rape the females in order to mate. Anyone wondering if the patriarchy is still in full force? Exhibit-fucking-A.

[Natorgator]

Something about the COG using women as breeding farms (because a generation of soldiers 20 years down the line when we`ve already lost is so much better than a generation of soldiers NOW) sorta set off the pro-feminist alarm bells in my head. Honestly, I just cannot sympathize with a government who has a policy of keeping women pregnant and in the kitchen, it is just completely contrary to every value I have. It made the COG seem completely disguisting and irredeemable, and I would have started rooting for the Locust but hey! turns out they have to rape the females in order to mate. Anyone wondering if the patriarchy is still in full force? Exhibit-fucking-A.

Fair enough. Their civilization, or what remains of it, is more socialist than ours and it's mentioned fairly frequently. Citizens know their duties to the state and vice versa; the social compact is much more overt so a lot of the women think they have a duty to help repopulate. It's also why everyone hates the Stranded so much, because they have turned their backs on those values (there is a creed that is spoken about but its name escapes me at the moment.)

And keep in mind we're also talking about a civilization that has lost 99% of its population and the remaining number are measured in thousands. So it's kinda like the situation in neo-BSG, where there are a few tens of thousands left to try to figure out how to get their numbers back up. So either way the "breeding farms" aren't glorified, they're simply seen as a necessity to a human race desperately trying to survive.

[open_sketchbook]

But from a simple strategic point of view, it`s an incredibly bad idea, nevermind the fact that it`s disgustingly sexist (which is what got me) AND contradicts te presence of female pilots in the games. Humanity is on the fucking ropes, down to, say, 100,000 people of serving age. Now, would you rather have 48,000 soldiers now and the vague promise of replacements in two decades, or 100,000 soldiers now, and worry about repopulation when you`ve dealt with the WORLD ENDING FUCKING THREAT?

It`s just the thinking that details like that expose, the idea that gender equality is something that you can just drop when things get rough... I just cannot sympathize with that. There isn`t anything redeemable about a society that has, through legal means or social manipulation, enslaved fully half the population for reproductive purposes. And it shows quite a bit about the author`s mindset too; `When things get bad, the only function women can possibly serve is breeding stock.` I can`t find heroes there. It`s just nauseating. When a culture spends a decade or so with policies like that in place, imagine how it`ll be when it comes out the other side? It`s just wrong on so many levels.

[open_sketchbook]

Ghetto Edit : Your comparison to neo-BSG is kinda bullshit. There were still female pilots and female soldiers, and the concept of the breeding farm was portrayed as utterly horrific, where here the idea is... vaguely patriotic. Ugh.

[Peptuck]

Something about the COG using women as breeding farms (because a generation of soldiers 20 years down the line when we`ve already lost is so much better than a generation of soldiers NOW) sorta set off the pro-feminist alarm bells in my head. Honestly, I just cannot sympathize with a government who has a policy of keeping women pregnant and in the kitchen, it is just completely contrary to every value I have. It made the COG seem completely disguisting and irredeemable, and I would have started rooting for the Locust but hey! turns out they have to rape the females in order to mate. Anyone wondering if the patriarchy is still in full force? Exhibit-fucking-A.

It also goes completely against what we see in the actual games. Aspho Fields basically posits that there are no females in combat roles - Mataki is considered an anomaly. This is despite the fact that there is a female King Raven pilot in the very first game, and in the second, we have female Gears, Centaur crews, and King Raven pilots left and right.

But this is Traviss, and she likes to shit all over canon anyway, like with that whole thing about there being no real heavy industry in the COG despite the presence of the massive Grindlift Rigs in the second game that could only have been produced after E-Day.

Of course, it was also horribly annoying that Traviss wanks the Gears so much that the Locust killing a half-dozen of them is somehow more important than destroying a convoy of food and farming equipment critical to Jacinto's survival. Or that the Locust can only breed through rape, where the ones being raped are giant, ultra-violent concrete-smashing armored monstrosities that can pulp a man with a single swing.

[Duckie]

But this is Traviss, and she likes to shit all over canon anyway, like with that whole thing about there being no real heavy industry in the COG despite the presence of the massive Grindlift Rigs in the second game that could only have been produced after E-Day.

What's even weirder is that those can only have been produced after the first game, because they're an option chosen out of desperation due to manpower depletion and losing the war. And further the fact that all this shit (helicopters, tanks, etc.) is getting blown up every single time it's sent out (name a time where we see a helicopter near an enemy that doesn't die), and general depletion of supplies like ammunition and guns should mean that the war should be fought with spears made of sharpened wood with wheelbarrows as the only vehicles by now if either side had no industry.

[Stark]

It's been said before , but it's clear from the games that Jacinto is the last SANCTUARY, not the last human surface area. We know how big Jacinto is now, and it ain't big enough to sustain the military they've got.

Ergo, Hawx and I are smarter than Karen Travis.

[open_sketchbook]

You are saying that like it`s an accomplishment. Really, if that`s what your settling for I think you`re set the bar too low.

I think the point is the Karen Travis just doesn`t understand how to build a consistent universe but really wants to, and so she fucks around with whatever universe she`s writing for. She needs to learn to stick to the facts of the goddamn universes she`s writing for. She does do characterization really well, I just don`t understand why she always has to ruin it with stupid.

[Havok]

You guys are talking about the writer that, IIRC, said she didn't watch the movies before she delved into the Star Wars universe and who tries to insinuate the Jedi are accomplices with Palpatine's schemes. What do you expect to get?

[Stark]

You are saying that like it`s an accomplishment. Really, if that`s what your settling for I think you`re set the bar too low.

I think the point is the Karen Travis just doesn`t understand how to build a consistent universe but really wants to, and so she fucks around with whatever universe she`s writing for. She needs to learn to stick to the facts of the goddamn universes she`s writing for. She does do characterization really well, I just don`t understand why she always has to ruin it with stupid.

No, I think she ALREADY built a universe and just puts the branding for whatever franchise she's working for over the top. If you play the games, pay attention, and have a brain, her first book is OBVIOUSLY massively contradictory horseshit. Epic even blatantly contradicts half of her shit in Gears2.

Thus, the books suck, are obviously not canon, and are less interesting than a fanfic Hawx and I could write.

But I hear the locust have huge numbers even though there's no evidence for this and they've got serious domestic problems? UH OH.

[Peptuck]

Jesus....

I just started reading the first issue of the latest GoW comic ("The Barren") and it makes Traviss' blatant sexism in Aspho Fields look like progressive pro-feminism. Its like someone took the whole "COG WOMEN MAKE BABIES AND STAY IN KITCHEN" bullshit she came up with and just ran rampant with it. It features "birthing farms" where they forcibly impregnate fourteen year-old girls. Yeah, the COG is supposedly running literal rape camps.

I wish I was making this shit up.

At least in the comic its presented as a horribly sick thing (unlike with Traviss' work....) but at the same time....

Oh, and it features the incredibly stereotypically cliche "action girl" soldier. I'm talking so goddamn cliche that you can predict what tough girl trope she's going to do next with each panel.

Seriously, stay the fuck away from this comic. I'm seriously considering reccommending it to Atop The Fourth Wall for riffing.

This comic seriously proves that that writing for GoW should be limited solely to Epic's team. Everyone else just fucks it up.

[Ford Prefect]

That's just ... man, I don't even know how to reply to that. How do you go from the COG in the games, which while ruthless, stingy and having a rather spotty record is otherwise fairly decent, to rape camps? How?

[loomer]

Seriously, rape camps? For 50% of the population (more, if only men serve in the military, since they'll suffer proportionate losses)?

Good god, that's a horrific waste of a possible labour force. If the circumstances are so incredibly dire that mankind needs bloody rape camps, clearly they should be pressing every single woman capable into military service, fertilizing the others and then keeping them working in the munitions factories until they are physically no longer able to.

The same use - munitions and manufacturing plants - can be used for anyone infirm or infertile, or soldiers wounded to a point where they are no longer militarily viable. Simply slash their food ration to barely above starvation (or below, depending on how bad things get) level and force them to work in the factories and mines. Once they are too weak to work viably in the long term, recycle them into valuable resources or, assuming nothing like CJD is present in the populace, food.

If people are going to go all grimdark to the extent they have rape camps, is it really that much to ask they take it to the proper degree, with full industrial mobilization?

[Peptuck]

Don't get me started on the rest of that issue. That last post I made was when I'd only covered up to about halfway through it. I just finished reading it to see how much worse it would get, and I literally went on a twenty-minute rage-bender when I got to the last panel.

It is so goddamned cliched, predictable, and fucking stupid, and worst of all, it isn't freaking Gears of War. That's the only way I have to describe it. Its like a really, really goddamn bad juvenile fanfic in comic book format. The last goddamn page of the issue is so much complete fail and bullshit that....words don't describe it.
Spoiler

The surviving women from the rape camp have now all become Mad Max-style scantily clad hot amazon warrior women with improbable hair styles. Some of them wear nurse uniforms, too.

I swear I am not making this shit up.

This comic is worse than shit. It is like someone took a bucket of shit, mixed it with a bucket of piss, and blended it with pure liquid fail, and then sprayed it over the pages.

[open_sketchbook]

I have a theory. Perhaps the writers of this comic, trying to get the tone of the universe, went onto Xbox Live multiplayer and assumed that the racial slurs and insane sexism of the average fourteen year old player was a part of the universe and wrote it in. That`s the only explanation I can think of that doesn`t end with me stabbing everyone responsible for that comic. It`s like they went out of their way to fuck with a pretty neat universe so that I have no choice but to hate every character.