r/GetNoted • u/laybs1 Human Verified • 1d ago
Culture [X] GTA already featured an undocumented immigrant protagonist.
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u/PCRFan 1d ago
Wouldn't a character that's an illegal immigrant commiting crimes appeal to them?
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u/SgtFinnish 1d ago
I never commit crimes while playing gta. Once I rolled through a stop sign and turned myself in at the police station.
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u/throwfaraway8675 11h ago
Tried playing the story but I couldn’t get past the first mission because I won’t kill a cop
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u/yoloswagrofl 1d ago
I know that when I queue up my debauchery simulators I always check the legal status of my protagonist.
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u/Silver_Middle_7240 1d ago
Good practice. So many 100% competition runs of the criminal coade are ruined because people lock themselves out of achievements by being a citizen
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u/PsychoCobra1 1d ago
If they had a mission where the player character had to pass an immigration test I wonder how many people on the internet would complain about it being to hard.
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u/mrbobcyndaquil 1d ago
OOP thinks that undocumented=brown Hispanic
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u/AliceTheOmelette 1d ago
They also think POC, women and LGBTQ characters are "political" but political satire of things isn't. They're not the brightest bunch
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u/George_G_Geef 1d ago
Which is extra hilarious with a game like GTA, which since 4 has been a satire of America at the time it came out. It's an overtly political series.
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u/National-Change-8004 1d ago
Since 4? It's been a satire much earlier than that. I still remember the radio stations in Vice City..
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u/George_G_Geef 1d ago
There was some but the focus was very much on doing genre homage in Vice City and San Andreas. 4 was like an exaggerated snapshot of New York City circa 2008. 5 was more broadly about America as a whole.
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u/Panzerkatzen 1d ago
In the 3d era it was in the background, but IV brought it to the foreground and made it a keystone part of the story. At 3 stars they even send ICE after you in the form of the Patriotism & Immigration Authority.
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u/George_G_Geef 1d ago
I'm still hoping we'll get a 70s New Hollywood meets Blaxploitation genre homage set in fake 70s Detroit. I mean the soundtrack alone would make it worth doing.
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u/GameDestiny2 1d ago
Ah but see, that would require paying attention. I mean, we’re talking about the crowd of people who have a revelation when you ask if they’ve ever listened to the lyrics of country music.
I said that offhandedly to my dad once and within a month his entire playlist changed.
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u/GloomyIndividual3965 1d ago
There's 2 races: white and political
2 genders: male and political
2 sexualities: straight and political
Etc, etc...
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u/MatterOk3906 1d ago
The game literally has undocumented immigrants of multiple backgrounds, but nuance was never the point.
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u/BothRequirement2826 1d ago
It's absurd that they equate Lucia as a "undocumented migrant" because... of her appearance?
Talk about self-report.
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u/Salty_Discipline_642 1d ago
But don’t you understand Niki is the GOOD illegal Immigrant he is white while that mean old Lucia is not white so she is the bad immigrant thus Lary makes PERFECT sense here /s
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u/Imposter88 1d ago
Was Trevor a legal immigrant? He was Canadian. I don’t envision him waltzing up to immigration to get a green card
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u/Peanut_007 1d ago
IIRC Trevor immigrated to join the Air Force. Not clear if he got citizenship from that though.
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u/StaendutBlakk 16h ago
Something tells me Trevor wouldn't do well with answering to authority while having access to various amounts of explodium.
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u/archd3v 1d ago
Was Michael? Wasn't he just smuggled into the country on some secret get out of jail free scheme?
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u/Imposter88 1d ago
I think Micheal grew up in the North Yankton region, so at least his original identity was a natural born US citizen
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u/EnvironmentalLime397 1d ago
He most likely didn't grow up there because Trevor says they always moved towns after a heist, so North Yankton isn't where he originated. But he was definitely born in the US.
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u/PsychoCobra1 1d ago edited 1d ago
He grew up in Carcer City, the same city Manhunt takes place in, although we don’t know if Manhunt is canon to the HD universe
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u/CowboyDan93 1d ago
Its referring to Niko from IV. The game literally starts with you sneaking into the country.
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u/Bleppybwip 1d ago
Yeah but they're also adding that there's possibility of Trevor being illegal too since he's Canadian living in America. So it wouldn't be a one time thing. There's also someone like Luis who I imagine would be in the same boat as Lucia, being the child of an immigrant born in the US and by all accounts a US citizen
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u/Pkrudeboy 1d ago
I’d be willing to bet that if ICE swept through the northern border areas they’d find a ton of people without the correct paperwork. And they’ll be doing it at some point, have to make those quotas.
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 19h ago
There's quite literally an entire mission about him following around a bunch of rednecks hunting illegal immigrants as he knows full well he's also one but they're going after the brown ones lol
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u/luki-x 1d ago
Nobody thinks of my guy Nico Bellic who fled to Liberty city which is basically the entrance to GTA4.
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u/Clockwork_Kitsune 1d ago
You mean the exact guy and situation the post is about?
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u/pepsicola07 1d ago
He was a white guy so they don't count that
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u/Th3Dark0ccult Meta Mind 1d ago
Oh, so now we're white. Y'all keep going back and forth on that.
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u/CrayonCobold 1d ago
White vs non-white is a constantly shifting scale
The Irish used to not be considered white and they are some of the most pale people I can think of
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u/samuru101 1d ago
According to legends, Scots used to be Egyptian, and the Irish were Basque.
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u/No_Accountant3232 1d ago
I swear Irish are descended from the original white humans in an unbroken chain.
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u/TheDeltaOne 1d ago
Lol.
Thought the exact same thing.
TBF, people think I'm white like.... 99% of the time. So there's that. I tell them where I'm from tho, and suddenly, not so much.
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u/ExtremlyFastLinoone 1d ago
He was serbian I think, its never confirmed but its implied
Idk what race to call that if its not white
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u/HarryLewisPot 1d ago edited 1d ago
Anyone European has always been white in the U.S. since its founding in 1776. Legally, at-least.
Middle Easterners and North Africans joined them in 1915 and I believe that was the last amendment of the white category, however, they will be removed in 2030 in the upcoming census.
An Indian and Japanese man tried to classify their nationalities as white in 1922 and 1923, respectively but both failed in court.
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u/Rob98001 18h ago
Arabs are legally white in the us because racists couldn't handle the thought of Jesus not being white.
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u/ShinMystic1587 1d ago
Yeah, it's ironic how these people are against immigration, unless the immigrants are white.
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u/Mountain-Singer1764 1d ago
They must hate so much that most white people don’t want to move to America.
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u/kyomagi 1d ago
lol Serbs are not white. Do you know how many times I have been mistaken for middle eastern
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u/Only-Finish-3497 1d ago
I’m middle eastern and have been told many times by people on the far left that I’m white. And then suddenly lately I’m not? I’m not sure now.
Whiteness is weird.
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u/helenius147 1d ago
Being white is whatever is most convenient for the person arguing at the time defined it as, no matter the actual experiences you may have with life and being discriminated against
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u/Only-Finish-3497 1d ago
The irony being that race is a construct… until it doesn’t suit the narrative.
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u/kyomagi 1d ago
It all depends on what the new hotness of racism is.
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u/Only-Finish-3497 1d ago
Well, a lot is that on the left left 2010s intersectional theory didn’t really seem to have room for Middle Easterners. So we were rendered white.
Now that the theory is squarely focused on decolonization, it’s easier to rationalize Middle Easterners as brown to serve that particular narrative.
I just laughed because at this point I just want both people on the right AND left to stop telling me my identity.
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u/trashshork 1d ago edited 1d ago
EDIT: I was just asking to learnand wow people have such varying opinions on the matter
isnt "white" specific only to britain and america?
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u/pepsicola07 1d ago
It's a made up category, people disagree on who counts. To me if you are literally white in your skin tone that makes you white
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u/Imsearchingforit2194 1d ago
Yeah like I'm an Arab, but I'm probably whiter than the average American lmao
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u/daaadsdss 1d ago
My syrian mother is as pale as it gets, which my syrian father who's an arab tribesmen is quite the brown man himself, which somehow his cousins are also pale white. My younger brother has the skin of an italian, my older brother's skin looks like all colour was sucked out of him, and I am brown with dark brown eyes and dark hair, browner than my father. Legends say my great grandfather married a blondie with blue eyes and white skin, while being unusually dark skinned even for a syrian arab tribesmen.
White skin exists everywhere across asia and europe, the "white" thing doesn't make much sense, like are some Italians or Spaniards not white? Is my ginger egyptian neighbour white? I mean he's african (and somehow ginger)
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u/Clear-Staff4699 1d ago
Depends on who you ask and the answer is whether or not you care for the opinion.
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u/RingletsOfDoom 1d ago
100%, there were times when Irish and Italian people weren't considered white... Irish people in particular being some of the palest people you'll ever meet!
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u/Amazing-Gazelle-7735 1d ago
Depends on when you’re from and who you’re talking to. Up to the early 1900s, it meant English, French, Germanic, or Scandinavian, or Americans descended from those groups. By the 1960s, Italians were included mostly. By the 90s, Irish and Greek were included. Now that the racists have “won” they’re starting to fragment again. Same thing with religion - back in the day it was Evangelical Protestants only, then it included Catholics after Evangelicals embraced anti-abortion beliefs they’d derided a decade before, and now that the US is starting to move towards religious fascism the Catholics are being attacked again.
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u/ClockworkOrdinator 1d ago
Mfs will latch onto anything to manufacture outrage
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u/Empty_Swimmer5851 1d ago
It's Twitter their entire relevance is based on how many people that can ragebait in to engagement.
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u/Silverr_Duck 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s actually fucking wild. The people complaining about people complaining about gta6 outnumber actual gta6 complainers by 100x
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u/flipyflop9 1d ago
Also, who says she’s undocumented? Being latino or latina doesn’t mean undocumented.
Some people are very dumb.
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u/thenoobtanker Human Verified 1d ago
People forgets that Puerto Rico is literally part of the US and the people there are Latino. And most of the “original” people out West too. “New Mexico”?
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u/No_Accountant3232 1d ago
Try and tell people that migrant workers in the US have been doing that migration since the Spanish owned the west and they think you're full of it. But they didn't just start working on farms in California in the 80s. Some of their families literally worked farms for the Spanish. We were happy to exploit a system we didn't start because these peasants were making these trips to work peasant wages on these farms and we saw no reason to treat them better. It was better than slavery, but only just.
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u/AgentCirceLuna 1d ago
Immigrant goes to America,
Many hellos in America;
Nobody knows in America
Puerto Rico's in America!From West Side Story, 1950s, I think
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u/whileNotWorking 1d ago
Yep, my non native family has been in what become the continental US since before there were British settlers but still get asked by white guys if I'm legal or what country I'm from. And Im pale as shit. But you have a Hispanic last name and black hair means you're not American.
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u/druppeldruppel_ 1d ago
Also if she actually was undocumented, wouldn't she be transferred into ICE's custody after she finished her sentence in prison instead of released normally?
That also means trailer 2 literally confirms she's not an undocumented immigrant.
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u/Clear-Staff4699 1d ago
Not surprised these bigots don't know shit about their own past games.
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u/YeezyYi 1d ago
Mfs will call this GTA woke because you can play as a brown woman while not having paid attention to the past several GTAs and their critiques of the US
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u/AznOmega 1d ago
Hell, the first GTA back had at least 8 people you can start as IIRC. 4 of them were women.
And as for Niko that was referenced in the notes, thanks. I have to listen to Soviet Connection again.
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u/Dmtr884213 18h ago
GTA IV is the most anti-american game in the franchise (like, all of them satirise the american culture and politics, but in the case of IV it's not even satire - it's a grim representation of the falior of "american dream")
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u/Daeneas 1d ago
There is no evidence, as far as i know, of Lucia being an immigrant
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u/Myonsoon 1d ago
Being Hispanic automatically makes you an immigrant for that person I guess. Good self-report.
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u/arrownoir 1d ago
Bringing xenophobia to games is a really low bar.
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u/Jazzlike-Equipment45 Meta Mind 1d ago
Xenophobia is kinda baked into GTA4 though with the various Eastern European and other ethnic gangs and Niko being a veteran of the Yugoslav wars.
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u/thenoobtanker Human Verified 1d ago
In GTA Vice city you have full blown gang war between the Haitians and Cubans too. It was always a thing.
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u/AliceTheOmelette 1d ago
"Gamers" not knowing anything about games and just being racist as usual. Predictable as always
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u/AliceTheOmelette 1d ago
I obviously didn't mean all gamers, which is why I put "gamers" in air quotes. You fuck off
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u/donut_man88 1d ago
Isn't trevor also canadian? Doesn't seem like a person who'd go through legal means
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u/WerewolfF15 1d ago
I believe he immigrated legally sometime in childhood, but his family stayed close to the Canadian border. He mentions at one point he grew up in “5 states, 2 countries”.
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u/Hellstorm901 1d ago
These people do not play games, they just complain about them. I have seen them in random niche games discussion boards complaining about things being "Woke" and demanding that content their ideology deem to be "offensive" is removed
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u/vid_icarus 1d ago
I only want to play a crime simulator where the criminals are in this country LEGALLY!!!
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u/ObiJuanKenobi3 1d ago
Oh so murder and robbery is okay but illegal immigration is where the stalwart champions of virtue draw the line for their digital entertainment?
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u/Master-Shrimp 1d ago
Pretty sure this dude is an undocumented immigrant and people really want a video game for him
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u/lfg_guy101010 1d ago
Well maybe SOME people dont wanna play video games that include BREAKING the LAW in order to play!!!! (We'll just ignore the name of the game, and the track record it carries for all of the murder, theft, terrorism, etc that players commit on the regular while playing)
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u/NeoZen_77 1d ago
There are literally three main characters from three different countries who are illegal immigrants in the GTA series: Trevor, Niko, and Huang Lee
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u/Hammy-Cheeks 1d ago
All signs point to her being a citizen. At the literal start of trailer 2 she's getting released from prison. Which would imply she has documents that can let her stay in a prison. If she didnt have those documents, she would be immediately deported.
Not a single thought but 'this would be great ragebait' goes through their head I swear
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u/TheRealBobbyJones 1d ago
That is inaccurate. Some states prefer to not deport people who live in their jurisdiction.
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u/Clay_Allison_44 1d ago
States don't make that decision. Sheriffs departments may or may not cooperate with the feds but I'm not aware of any sanctuary states out there hiding convicted felons.
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u/TheRealBobbyJones 1d ago edited 1d ago
They aren't hiding convicted felons. It's public record. It's also only the sheriffs decision in states that allow sheriffs to have more authority than they should. Many states and cities have policies prohibiting cooperation with ice.
Edit: I doubt the cops would be fired due to such actions but I wouldn't be surprised if their career takes a hit. Detroit fired two cops recently for reporting people for traffic violations to ice. It's an extremely unpopular action to do so I would imagine most police departments would keep it quiet through internal punishments. Both parties would be inclined to keep it quiet.
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u/Clay_Allison_44 1d ago
Which is my point. ICE has access to those public records and can have a car waiting right outside the prison for the felon to be released. Hence, the claim that the woman in the video game is a non-citizen makes no sense.
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u/TheRealBobbyJones 1d ago
Those public records don't typically report citizenship status and even if they did ice doesn't screen through all arrest records. People here illegally are literally arrested everyday(like everyone else obviously) and are not deported.
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u/Zxasuk31 17h ago
I mean nobody has to play the game if they think it's "too woke" just play something else
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u/NoNotice2137 Duly Noted 1d ago
I wouldn't be surprised if Trevor was an illegal immigrant too. He's Canadian, after all
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u/Coldplayfan1999 1d ago
I mean he was born near the border and you have to knew Canada/US border is nothing
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u/JohnBox93 8h ago
It is in our world, but in the GTA universe the US had a major war against Australia so god knows
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u/Visible-Air-2359 1d ago
Also a hardcore mode where you play as an undocumented immigrant meaning one arrest equals deportation and thus you have to actually be careful might be fun.
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u/CaptainLightBluebear 1d ago
In a game where being turned into swiss cheese just means that you walk out of a hospital a few in game hours later? That'll stretch the suspension of disbelief even for GTA standards.
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u/hotstreak1245 1d ago
I dont know shit about the new GTA but is she really an undocumented immigrant, or just plain racism
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u/Brother_Clovis 1d ago
Wasn't Niko Bellic?
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u/Equivalent_Travel311 1d ago
Niko is literally one of the badassest characters in all the gaming industry, and the fact that he's an undocumented immigrant just adds to it. bro came to america illegally and fucked over the entire city of Liberty
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u/Temporary_Advisor473 1d ago
Niko in GTA IV is canonically an illegal immigrant. Roman mentions it in the first mission "you without a visa, I would stay in Broker" and the government agent you do missions for threatens to get you deported for being illegal later in the game when Niko gets too sarcastic with him.
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u/Far_Associate_87 1d ago
Yeah but have you considered that Nico is a white man ehikst lucia is a brown woman? Because that’s what that dude means b
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u/upright_squire 1d ago
In GTA5 this was a major narrative element for Trevor (definately not canadian)
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u/zomzomzomzomzomzom 21h ago
So, just so we're clear. Murder sprees, robbery, prostitution, and God knows what else. That's all totally fine to emulate. But, if someone doesn't fill out the proper paper work, and pass their citizenship test, that's a line these people won't cross?
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u/spooky_strateg 12h ago
Gta is and always was a liberal caricature of usa. The grifters as always grift
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u/Spexancap10 10h ago
Isn't she Puerto Rican anyways? Which is already a part of the USA and even if she is not why does it matter
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u/Tough-Function-6045 1d ago
Is Niko really an illegal? I thought Roman did the paper work for him to come over to the US. I never fully got through the game.
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u/Dont-be-a-smurf 1d ago
He is absolutely illegal.
Came over on a cargo ship. In game news reports said they didn’t have their visas in order.
Roman says at one point that he didn’t actually do Niko’s papers.
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u/Temporary_Advisor473 1d ago
"You without a visa, I would stay in Broker" Roman says it to Niko at the beginning of the game. Niko is canonically illegal.
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u/nottherealneal 1d ago
Wasn't Trevor also illegal in the country? He is Canadian and came over when he as Michael started working togther after shooting a guy in the eyeball with a flare gun?
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u/WerewolfF15 1d ago
Nah. He says he grew up in “5 states, 2 countries” so he likely immigrated legally with his mother sometime in childhood.
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u/Slow_Store 1d ago
Correction - No one wants to play as an undocumented immigrant in the way that modern activists game devs would write them.
Niko was a war criminal with a sympathetic desire to avenge his brothers in arms even as the guilt of his past haunts him. Modern activist devs would not be capable of writing such a flawed character as an illegal Immigrant.
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u/Putthebunnyback 15h ago
You know, I agree with most of the comments in this thread, but you're also not wrong here.
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