[This article contains spoilers for the Gears of War series]
Hype for The Coalition's newest entry into the Gears of War franchise, "E-Day," is starting to heat up. With rumors left and right about remastered collections appearing on other platforms and release date speculations, it's a crazy time to be a Gears fan. Unfortunately, that is not what I'm here to discuss right now. What I want to dive into is none other than Gears 5's "The Choice"!
Anyone who has played through the entirety of Gears 5 knows which choice I'm talking about. The end of Gears 5 sees protagonist Kait Diaz face off against the leader of the Swarm, who just so happens to be her dead mother, Queen Reyna. Kait's closest friends and fellow squadmates, JD Fenix and Del Walker, attempt to surprise the Queen and flank her from behind, only to fail and get trapped in her tentacles, which strangle both of them.
At this moment, Kait (the player) unsheathes her knife that once belonged to her mother and is prompted with the choice to save only one of her friends. Whoever you decide to save is cut from Reyna's tentacles by the knife that is thrown by Kait, while the other gets his neck snapped and tossed aside. Whether you love it or hate it, everyone has an opinion on whom it is they should save.
In no way whatsoever do I want any member of Delta to die, but when it came to the choice, it was a no-brainer on who I'd save, JD. When it comes to Del, I have no issues with him as a character. My problem is that he's a blank canvas with unlimited potential that gets wasted the moment the player chooses to save JD. Del's backstory had so much open story to dive into, from his childhood memories with JD, Marcus, and Anya at the Stroud Estate, to exploring more about his deceased parents. Del was just missing that key element strong enough to make us really attach to him, making it a harder choice for the player to decide on whom to save.
Think of it this way: if you had to save only Marcus or Dom, who would it be? Hard decision, right? Well, if you take Dom's character and remove his entire Maria arc, then who is he, just Marcus's best friend, aka Del. The choice becomes easier for most then because there was no meat to the character's story arc. Del just needed more time to have his story told, and a great place that could have helped him would have been a novel.
The Gears of War novels have done tremendous work on pulling back the curtains of certain characters and showing us a whole new side of them that we never witnessed in the games. Hoffman is the best example of this. The games make him the most unlikable guy from the start, whereas the novels show him in a whole new light, turning him into one of the best-written and sympathetic characters in the entire series. Given the right push, so could have Del.
Ask anyone who saved JD why, and I promise you nearly everyone will say because they can't do that to Marcus; he's lost too much. These people are not wrong at all and are completely justified. The thing is, though, there's a better reason to save JD, and that comes from a scene shortly after meeting back up with Marcus and the revelation that Del didn't make it.
Marcus goes to grab JD and sees the pain in his face, and Marcus has a moment where he realizes that JD just lost his best friend, he just lost "his" Dom. JD is experiencing the same exact pain his father went through all those years ago. This moment was the very thing they both heavily fought against. No matter how much Marcus didn't want it, as much as JD tried avoiding it, JD is becoming more and more like his father. This now opens up a stronger character arc for JD going into a future Gears 6.
We can possibly see Marcus and JD's relationship start to heal and dive more into their personal history. We can see the evolution of JD from a cocky kid cracking jokes to a hardened, serious, and beaten down soldier like his father. He's got something to avenge now, he's fighting for Del, he's fighting to protect the ones he loves so nobody else has to meet the same fate. This is the point where I truly feel The Coalition would hit their stride in terms of storytelling with JD and the rest of the new generation of Gears. Every story starts somewhere, and sometimes we have to just enjoy the ride we were given so we can look back and see the larger picture one day.
Now that my rant is over, it mainly comes down to two things. Killing JD is best for Marcus's story, and killing Del is best for JD's. Seeing Marcus absolutely rage and go after Queen Reyna, having nothing else to lose, would be pretty interesting. However, Marcus has been the face of the series for nearly 20 years and is literally oozing enough character development to last a lifetime. If the Coalition is serious about moving forward with the new generation of Gears, then they need to double down on these new characters and not have them being overshadowed by the past.
(Side note: Marcus is my boy. I love that man. If you touch a single hair on his dirty little doorag head or his tomatoes, I swear I'll find each and every person involved and…cry…a lot.)
I truly believe in you, The Coalition. Best of luck with Gears of War E-Day and beyond!
