Saints Row (series)/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

 * Julius' fatherly relationship to the Boss and his sudden betrayal seem like they came out of nowhere. Then I realized, Julius had been captured by the cops and they had him dead to rights. All of the stuff about cleaning up the Row was just justification for the fact that he was always in it for himself.
 * It's further backed up by the fact Julius is taking over the Columbian Drug Trade when the Vice Kings consider it a Moral Event Horizon.
 * This troper has found himself wondering why in free-roaming crime games like GTA and Saints Row the world is always portrayed as very cynical, greedy and generally crapsack. I assumed it was just for comedy, but then it hit me. There is no other way to explain why the protagonist can waltz into a store and walk out with a rocket launcher, get away with killing thousands of cops, soldiers and civilians with nothing more but a fine and a slap on the wrist, and generally get away with anything. In a more balanced and sane realistic world the player would be jailed and probably executed lickity split.
 * In fact, most Japanese crime sandbox games shows what happens when murder was committed, it is taken quite shockingly by all sides. Hell, cop fighting is not encouraged in Yakuza or Kenka Bancho let alone murdering policemen.
 * Related to the above, I found the character of Johnny Gat to be boring and flat. A gangster jerkass who loves killing, bo-o-o-oring. Until I realized that he is a satirical version of the Grand Theft Auto III protagonist, made into an NPC.
 * Well, his name -is- an anagram of GTA.
 * Gat's supposed death in the very beginning of Saints Row: The Third may actually have a meaning to it, to signify that this time, for once, the series no longer merely follows the leader but has gone completely Off the Rails.
 * I kinda wondered how known criminals The Saints could get sponsorship deals and reality shows and the like, then a thought occurred to me. If the world is in recession, then the Saints Row world may turn that Up to Eleven be in a full blown Depression. The Great Depression being when gangsters like Al Capone were seen as Celebrities.
 * According to a brief line in Saints 3, they've been paying off the Stilwater police. They would do the same in Steelport, but they don't have Ultor backing them there. However, the Great Depression parodies are eerie, maybe deliberate.
 * When the Saints try to airlift the vault the police will shout that Troy can't protect them. Troy had been made chief of police in the second game and had done a lot to help the Saints, from refusing to have the Boss' life support switched off to protecting Gat when he was in prison. It could be interpreted that with a little prodding Troy got the Saints to move more away from petty crime and use Ultor, who were Complete Monsters, to show them as the gang that cleaned up Stillwater like Julius wanted.
 * Possibly similar to the thieves' guild in Discworld, the Saints control the criminal activities in Stilwater, including going against non-Saints members committing them. Likewise, the official site states the Saints motto is "say thank you when robbing people".
 * If Red Faction is still a canon continuation of the timeline, Earth, or at least the United States, is on its way to become a Dystopia Police State. Considering one of the endings for Saints Row 3 involves Steelport leaving US jurisdiction, one can wonder if this kind of occurrence was what forced the government to cut down on personal freedoms. Nice Job Breaking It Hero.
 * It might be possible that the other ending, though, leads to an alternate storyline, in which the Red Faction plot is only a What Could Have Been speculation on the part of movie producers, as the final mission shows.
 * Near one of the two endings for Saints 3, Kinzie says she's not a Deus Ex Machina when the Boss asks her to do something. Ostensibly, a bit of self-indulgent literary reference by Volition. Except that Kinzie, throughout the game, is nearly incapable of talking in Laymans Terms, even when she specifically sets out to do so. It makes perfect sense for her to use a specialized term most people won't understand when "I'm not a miracle worker!" or suchlike would do.
 * Well, that and it would be hard to use any other euphemism for Lampshade Hanging on the sheer amount of tech experts with New Powers As the Plot Demands in stock plots. "Sorry, I'm not a plot resolution device" doesn't have the same ring to it.
 * It was mentioned in Headscratchers that a lot of characters have changed come The Third, but think about it, they're now international celebrities. Think about how the looks and attitudes have changed - they're cleaning up their appearance and their act to fit in with the idea of being celebrities.
 * Shaundi, in particular, if you pick up on a few clues, her backstory works like this: she had a bad spring break in Steelport, and it seems Zimos is partially to blame. She wasn't always a stoner sleeping around, but that's what she was reduced to until Boss found her and helped turn her life around. Now by the third game, she has matured, and the reason for her being rather dickish is because of
 * Birk even mentions this in the first mission and later Gat agrees saying that they had changed. Then at the end, Killbane takes credit for turning the Saints to what they once were, a feared gang.
 * Why is Shaundi so shocked and troubled by, despite having been present when other friends died in 2? Because back than she was constantly stoned, so the horrors of the gang warfare barely touched her mind. Likewise she hardly knew any of the other Saints members. Now she is sober and they are her friends, so unlike Boss or Pierce who are hardened against that, she is shocked.
 * I think you might be right. There's a trick in the second game where you can jump in a homie's car and have them drive you around. When doing this with other characters throw a grenade and they'll scream and start driving like they've lost their minds. Shaundi appears too stoned to care. It's very safe to say that she's off the drugs in the third game.
 * The zombie virus unleashed late in the story of Saints Row: The Third on Arapice Island? It didn't come from the STAG cargo plane; the debris from the crash ruptured several canisters at the chemical plant there. Who owns the plant? Ultor. Who, in the "Ultor Exposed" DLC for Saints Row 2, had been conducting biological experiments, leaving mutated gray corpses that the Boss had to dig up. Potentially one big, cleverly hidden Brick Joke.
 * Killing  in the bad ending bugged me because it wasn't even a fight, it was just a lame quick time event. Then it hit me... I sacrificed   just to kill a man who I have already beaten. It was supposed to leave you empty and unfulfilled.
 * For that matter, the bad ending seems to suck because you've just killed off three of the characters, and have now turned to terrorism. But by allowing yourself to be consumed by revenge, you sacrificed your friend, your idol, and someone who at least helped. Then the government sends the army to kill everyone in the city, during a funeral no less. It's less the Boss becoming psychotic and more being crazy with rage at everything the government had done, so naturally he/she would lash out the way he/she did.
 * There's also an in-universe shade of Fridge Brilliance in regard to the anticlimatic final "fight" with  Boss was playing the game when s/he   When they fight for real on the airport runway, Boss just   S/he's been a hardened killer for the better part of a decade, after all... maybe even longer, depending on some of the voice options.
 * Shaundi gets a bit of flak because she was a poor fighter in the second game. However, if you think about it, this is because she was constantly stoned and shagged out. A lot of jokes are made about the ridiculous amount of boyfriends she's had. Numerous references are made about her drug habits (including one phone message about being really baked) and when Boss is drugged, he/she can't fight well either. So you have someone firing a Kalashnikov while higher than a kite.
 * Gat sells his likeness for a Gangsters in Space comic, that the Saints turn into a movie. Now one might wonder why he'd do that if he's against how Merchandise Driven the Saints have become. Take a look at the film. Take a look at the Bad Bad Acting. Gat was getting his jollies invoking Springtime for Hitler.
 * Could also be a reason why The Saints do the movie in one of the endings, despite Boss previous claiming they are done being media whores, they simply do it because Gat actually would have wanted it. Could also explain Boss horrible acting.
 * One would wonder why Hulk Hogan would voice Angel rather then Killbane, then it hits you when you realized that Hogan is basically playing the character he has been playing for the past decade: the aging pro-wreslter who loves the spotlight and would do anything to get back into the ring.
 * The final choice between taking out  seems to be thrown on the player with little to no warning.   Except the entire game has been preparing you for it. After the first mission, Gat says he doesn't want to be a corporate whore. The theme starts right there, and continues throughout the entire game. The first choice, blowing up or keeping the Syndicate tower, is a choice between sending a message that the Saints are not to be fucked with, or keeping a crib because it looks cool. Then, not long afterwards, you can either sell some hos to the Morningstar, or keep them. Does a gang really need money coming in from hookers, or is it just to boost your image?
 * The Gothedral in Steelport seems to be a random, kind of funny, but ultimately useless building with no influence storywise, right? Wrong.

Fridge Logic

 * Micro Soft was hacked a few years ago. Microsoft. A multi billion dollar company that would be harder to crack than the Pentagon. And Matt is an electronic god. If you know what you're doing you can work around something and get it to work in a way it's not supposed to, with relative ease (think getting your XBOX high def without the proper cables or TV, except on a much grander scale.)
 * Micro Soft was hacked a few years ago. Microsoft. A multi billion dollar company that would be harder to crack than the Pentagon. And Matt is an electronic god. If you know what you're doing you can work around something and get it to work in a way it's not supposed to, with relative ease (think getting your XBOX high def without the proper cables or TV, except on a much grander scale.)