On the Couch: GTA V

Rockstar has always been tight lipped when it comes to specific story details of any of their titles pre-release. Or at least, so they think. Thus far Rockstar has released a slew of information on the upcoming GTA V, with images ranging from hang-gliding to sharks, to details about specific gameplay mechanics. But somewhere in there, Rockstar slipped up – they released information about the marital status and interpersonal relationships of all three protagonists. And we here at The Married Gamers, being experts in that field, have taken the time to analyze just exactly what this information reveals about each of the characters and, consequently, what that means we can reasonably expect from each of their stories. So join us now as we place GTA V On the Couch. (Caution: this article theoretically contains spoilers.)

The three announced main characters (Michael, Trevor and Franklin) each have their own unique personalities, and although Michael is the only one that’s married, Rockstar has still given us details on the relationships of the other two. Beginning with Michael, it has been established that he and his wife Amanda have two teenage children: Tracy and Jimmy. The largest detail revealed of Michael is that he is a former bank robber who made a plea agreement with the FIB, entering into witness protection. Apparently Amanda didn’t take well to the mundane lifestyle, and continued her normal spending habits, which now drive Michael back into a life of crime, either to support her or just to get out of the house. Considering that Michael and Amanda have been together long enough to have teenagers, there’s obviously some dedication there on his part to maintain that relationship, so it isn’t much of a stretch to imagine his motives are to continue giving his wife whatever she wants out of life, despite her giving him grief.

Based upon Michael’s motives for getting back into his life of crime, there are several possible outcomes, all of which have significance to the arc of the story. We can obviously expect to see several moments where Michael returns home to be berated by his wife for being gone, but will she come to appreciate or value his efforts to bring money into the household? If Amanda sees that Michael has returned to a life of crime, likely she’ll continue to live lavishly as she did before, while Michael supports her habits and gives her no motivation to change. Yet with Michael placing himself in danger and Amanda being the only real beneficiary of this, eventually Michael will grow discontent again and come to realize that fortune is not the answer to his life’s problems.

This will ultimately culminate in a single fight, where the future of their relationship is strongly questioned. Where they proceed from that point – whether or not it is enough of a wake up call for Amanda to change – will ultimately be determined by her choices, as Michael’s motivation for maintaining his marriage throughout the years surely must not have been just because he wanted someone to spend his money for him. With the addition of the children to the equation, the probable resolution becomes a little clearer: where Tracy likely takes after her mother in wanting money from daddy, Jimmy certainly takes after his father in wanting to be a gangster. Seeing as no responsible father wants his child to jeopardize himself or follow in the trail of his own mistakes (as we sacrifice ourselves so our children might have a life better than ours) then it may be that Jimmy is placed in jeopardy (possibly even critically injured) in trying to emulate his father, which delivers a much needed slap in Michael’s face. Michael left behind the life of crime once. By the end of this story, whether to save his marriage, his sanity or his son, he will do so again.

Playing devil’s advocate to Michael’s struggles, Trevor (who lives in a trailer, down by the river) is a loner who mistrusts others and seeks the thrill of the heist. While likely being the driving force behind the more insane action sequences we’ll see, as far as relationships are concerned, for both Franklin and Michael, Trevor’s lonely circumstances stand as an example of both of their inevitable fates if they cannot resolve the conflicts in their own relationships; which brings us to Franklin and his role in this play.

Franklin is a repo man for an Armenian car dealership. He has a girlfriend — or at least, he has a girl who criticizes him for his life choices and not paying enough attention to her. Franklin too wants to play the role of gangster, in the bling sense of the term, where his love of cars and money is not overly complicated. Upon meeting Michael, Franklin begins to consider crime as an actual profession and is forced to face its ultimate end point. Seeing as Michael, from an outside perspective, has a relatively ideal life, Franklin naturally falls into the pupil/mentor role with Michael, who in turn has the opportunity to reflect on Franklin as a way of looking back into his own past and the choices he made. We can see Franklin being the driving force in the group that would cause them to visit the occasional strip club, where Franklin throws money at women, Michael briefly relives his bachelorhood, and Trevor does something crazy to get all three of them thrown out of whatever club they visit. (This scene happens relatively early in the plot, as a means of firmly establishing each character’s role in the group’s dynamics, while also serving later as a nostalgic moment to reflect upon when the plot begins to take its more tragic turns.)

Ultimately we can rely on Trevor being the most stable, ironically enough, in his relationships with women – which is to say that he has no role in that regard, right up until the very end of the game where, in a humorous twist that provides needed levity to the somber tale, Trevor meets a woman who is every bit as crazy as him, and together they live happily ever after. Michael will certainly reach some form of resolution to his problems with his wife, as that is integral to the conclusion of the story: Michael has been established as the driving force leading the other two in criminal activity, so whatever reason Michael ultimately comes up with for retiring a second time, such signifies the end of the journey (or for us, the Game Over). Whether Franklin flies off into the sunset to take over another city and become a new crime boss as a single or married man ties heavily into the decision Michael makes, and what lesson Franklin learns from his tutor. Perhaps Amanda never changes, Jimmy doesn’t survive his foolish injury, and Michael retires as a tragic character, while crazy Trevor gets his happy ending, and Franklin exits somewhere in the middle as a life-hardened man, determined to conquer the world alone. (Don’t worry though – until you actually take off as Franklin, surely you’ll have the chance to access the assets of both the other characters so you can run rampant and explore the sandbox one last time before finally saying goodbye.)

This session of On the Couch has ended. GTA V, please pay my assistant on your way out.