Special:Badtitle/NS90:User talk:DocColress/The great big examples suggestions topic 2: The Twin Snakes/reply (4)

I do, actually! There's two of 'em, but they're both from the same series: Brock Mason and Marion Mallon from the Dead Rising series of video games.

Now Brock I'm a little iffy on. TV Tropes cut him because he didn't do enough on-screen and they said he was a punch-clock villain. I agreed a while back and cut him here as well, but I'm starting to have second thoughts for reasons I'll explain in his write-up.

'''Who is Brock Mason? What does he do?''': Brock Mason is a grim military official who heads a Special Ops team of shock troops who the government sends in to clean up Zombie outbreaks. However, along with eliminating all zombies he also kills civilians to cover up the fact that the government itself is responsible for accidentally starting the outbreaks in the first place (Long story: Americans were eating too much meat, the government tried to make it to where cows could grow fatter quicker, this gene was spread onto wasps that in turn infect humans and infest them with parasites that zombify them... I haven't played the first game in a while, ha ha). This however happened in the past: His in-game actions which are doing the same thing to Willamette, Colorado and trying to kill protagonist Frank West aren't quite enough for this trope.

However, what he did in the past could qualify him for this. It wasn't on screen, but in the past his first operation was over in a South American village called Santa Cabeza where he destroyed the town, killing everyone zombie and innocent alike to cover the government's ass. However, he left behind two survivors named Carlito and Isabella Keyes. Carlito was traumatized by what happened and vowed to bring down the United States by spreading zombie outbreaks all across the country, and the effects are felt not just through Carlito's motivations, but through all the other games as Brock is more or less the catalyst for the entire series. Basically, Brock is responsible for Carlito becoming a domestic terrorist and doesn't care at all. Hell, his whole stance on what he did in Santa Cabeza is that it was a "cleanup operation", and even takes a sense of smug satisfaction for what he did showing no real regret for it. Whenever Frank calls him out on the fact that innocent people died, he blows him off and tries to kill him anyway. Basically, this shows that he definitely shows signs of being a sadist and likely isn't just a punch-clock villain. And given how the government itself receives no characterization until the third game, you could consider Brock to be face of the Government in regards to zombie affairs.

Is he heinous by the standards of the story?: Indeed he is! In the first game, most of the other villains are insane or paranoid, and don't meet the heinous standard (With the exception of repulsive rapist cop Jo Slade). As for the series as a whole, there are other military officials who have the same type of resources as him, with one being a true Well-Intentioned Extremist and the other being a greedy power-hungry asshole (General John Hemlock, who I have listed on the Video Games Monster page). Brock is well in his right mind.

Any redeeming qualities, Freudian Excuse, yadda yadaa?: Nope. His loyalty to the government isn't bought up and he doesn't seem to care that much about his troops (He shows more annoyance that his men screwed up when getting rid of survivors as opposed to anger or sadness that Frank killed a lot of them).

I'll go over Marion Mallon after you weigh in on Brock.