![]() ![]() Clearly, Talion is a fiercely impressive fighter, which is precisely why the ranger half of the skill tree is utterly incompatible with him. He is, according to official material, ‘one of the most experienced guardians of the lands bordering Mordor’ whose training ‘shaped him into a lethal force’. One of the most obvious benefits is how Dirhael would keep mechanical elements consistent within narrative context. So there’s that.īut it’s not just a case of Dirhael making for a slightly less rubbish narrative there would be actual positives to his inclusion. I will concede, however, that having Dirhael as the protagonist would undermine the parallelism Talion shares with the wraith-who is perhaps the only worthwhile narrative element in Shadow of Mordor. So, why not Dirhael? All of the same ingredients are there-he’d even still be an awesome, attractive, and angsty white dude! If Shadow of Mordor must rest upon such a woefully overdone foundation as revenge, then at least opt to pursue the road less travelled. (Conspicuously, Talion encounters a vision of his wife during the game but never has one of his son.) He has some basic sword skills and is also murdered in precisely the same way that Talion is murdered and presumably loves his mother just as much as his father does. He’s a mostly grown man and a wannabe ranger. Hint: how about the frigging kid? Dirhael, son of Talion, is not an infant. I mean, who else could be cast as the hero? Only the brave ranger whose family is tragically murdered could embark upon such a perilous quest. And Talion? He’s only along for the ride because he’s the angsty hero type. I’m only along for the ride because Talion kicks serious butt. I would have thought that saving the entire world from suffering the same fate as your family would have been a more pressing concern and not just a by-product of revenge, especially given the whole ‘I need no sleep or sustenance, which allows me to fight forever, and suffering fatal wounds just causes me to reappear at a sweet ghostly tower’ thing. ![]() ![]() He is the solemn guy who must turn his back on the world of goodness and dispense some seriously kickass ‘justice’ to soothe his aching soul. Talion is the Tolkien universe’s answer to Max Payne. Even after the Black Hand of Sauron straight up murders me (Talion), the only emotional investment I have in Talion is that I just watched his family die and he seems pretty bummed about it. ‘Hey, that digital dude totally murdered the digital wife of digital you go and kick his digital butt!’ As a player, I have no actual reason to give a damn-the short opening sequence, where I use the exact same buttons to give my (Talion’s) wife flowers that I later use to stealthily assassinate orcs, does little to instil a sense of concern. But throughout the entirety of the actual plot, his sole purpose is the definitely-not-overused-as-a-concept pursuit of revenge-one part for his family and one part because his soul is apparently trapped on this plane until justice is delivered.ĭead wives and girlfriends are second only to kidnapped wives and girlfriends as the laziest, most ham-fisted way to eke an emotional response from the player. Rather, my point is that Talion is absolute garbage for a number of other reasons.īy the end of Shadow of Mordor, Talion has actually blundered into some character development and found himself a noble, interesting goal. It definitely is an issue and one that we need to tackle, not just in videogames, but throughout all media. But that’s not to say that our overabundance of straight, white male characters isn’t an issue. Representing him differently would be unfaithful to the source material I wouldn’t want an angry mob of Lord of the Rings fans carrying replica Andurils outside my door, baying for my blood, over showing some creative license with character creation either. Except that he sucks.īoth Tolkien’s work and Jackson’s adaptations have made it clear that men of Gondor are white, so the fact that Talion is represented as a white guy is not that objectionable. And the murder of his family leaves Talion with a particularly angsty disposition, causing him to forgo kinship or aid under the notion that he alone must claim bitter vengeance-and not because, you know, he’s now immortal. Talion’s shaggy, bearded face and chiselled ranger’s physique secure him a spot alongside paragons of masculinity Aragorn, Faramir, and Eomer. He free-runs across Mordor, destroying enemies with supernatural finesse and brutality. Talion is the perfect AAA protagonist: awesome, attractive, and angsty. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is the gripping tale of an angry white guy murdering and enslaving hundreds of orcs because some other guy murdered his wife and son (and him, I guess). ![]()
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