Franklin.. Oh Franklin.. If videogame characters were bicycle wheels, you'd be the big, deflated, third one. If this were a big wheel, you'd make a kid cry...
I started to write this in response to the Destructoid community casting call for the same subject, but life and my fickle health made me take more of a detour then I wished, and I missed the boat. But screw it, I'm typing up what I wrote through the week and posting it any way!
There maybe some light GTA V spoilers here.. But, honestly, given we're talking about Franklin, I sort of doubt it'll be anything special. This is going to be ridiculously shorter then my favorite new character post.
Actually, to tell you the truth about this, someone would actually have to pay me to waste any more time on writing about this digital waste of skin. My review of said about as much (in so little) as could be said about Franklin. In fact.. Screw it.. Since it'd just be a rehash of portions of that review any way, heres what I had to say about Franklin from it.
"Franklin is.. Well.. Basically he's a low rent John Singleton character. He's trying to get out of the hood while trying to get his girlfriend, who doesn't want him, back (Edit note: Who would blame her?). Everyone around him aside from Michael and Trevor tells him he never does anything for them, even though he does everything for them. And that pretty much forces him into the arms of Michael, mostly babysitting Trevor, where he still can't bother to say no and simply walk away from everyone. He really is the weakest of the 3, I can't stress that enough."
"Franklin was basically a waste of space, and I really don't know what that was supposed to say about Franklin.
Nothing Franklin does means a whole lot of anything, and he doesn't add anything but a third person to play as. Remember how I say that things sort of just happen to Michael with little rhyme or reason, that are supposed to better his life? That's pretty much the entirety of Franklin's story. Things landing in his lap, including becoming a hired killer (which bares no weight on him what-so-ever, and feels forced considering he tries to be a -pitiful- voice of reason for everyone else through the game.).
At best he's everyone's Morgan Freeman, driving them all around like Miss Daisy. Even when he takes charge, he's never fully in charge. (Edit note: He even falls asleep while in charge at one point, leaving Trevor and Lamar to have one of my favorite conversations in the game). He was boring, and was portrayed as being as ho-hum as he's played out. He doesn't really add anything to the game except his friend Lamar, who says some really really funny stuff during the course of the game.
In fact, I was just reminded of one character that Franklin claims keeps him and his friend Lamar down a few times, that only shows up maybe twice, only to kill him off later as a way to clean his slate so he can lead his own life (instead of simply walking away from everyone and everything the 50 times he could have). Unless I missed something, there really wasn't a huge reason to go after this guy other then to give Franklin a villain of his own. It's forced, just like the rest of Franklin's part in the game.
He was my least played character and he contributed almost nothing to the game by way of story or gameplay, but the game pretty much tells you at the very end that Franklin is the main character, after hours of evidence otherwise.?"
There is very literally nothing more that I can say about Franklin that I haven't said already. After I drafted out my Lara Croft post, I pretty much could only bring myself write out scant notes about Frankin, and I realized I had written them all before (a usual sign of insanity; doing something over and over thinking you'd get different results). Even in weeks removed hindsight, he's still the most underwhelming character in that game.
Oh, actually, no, I'm wrong.. I'd nominate him for the title of one of the worst characters in gaming of all time. So I guess there's that. Funny thing is how this games already started getting Game Of The Year titles, with him at the proverbial helm.
Guess he really is a good driver.
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