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Saints Row is actually a part of the same verse as Red Faction.

Ultor's presence isn't just a reference to Red Faction, but actually makes the Saints Row series a prequel. Dialogue from the Ultor Exposed and Corporate Warfare expansions hints at this:

• From Ultor Exposed:

Boss: Why does a mining vehicle need a goddamn turret? Tera: You gotta blast through rock. Makes sense to me. Boss: Were the hell are you people mining?! Tera: You'd never believe me if I told you. —During the second mission, Burden of Proof

• From Corporate Warfare:

Boss: Hey, as long as you leave me and mine alone, you can go to Mars for all I care. —After the third mission, Ultor Family Fun Day, to Eric Gryphon, Ultor head of projects.

• Canon, Word of God said so.
• How about this theory? Red Faction is a novel series in the Saints Row universe. The first one was written in the time after Saints Row 1, when the small company Ultor rose to power. The writer fearing Ultor's business practice and general power, used them as bad guys in his novel. Which is the story of the first game. Shortly before Saints Row 2, the novel was adapted into a TV series, however the writers took large liberties with the story changing the name, the personality of the characters and general theme of the novel, resulting in the cheesy Red Planet Red Passion series, whose adds you hear on the radio. In the time between 2 and the Third, a second novel was written under pressure by the publisher. The novel was rushed and not that well written, also because of an Ultor lawsuit the writer was forbidden from throwing in any mentioning of Ultor. Explaining the large difference storywise between Red Faction 1 and 2. Red Faction Guerrilla now is written in the time after Saints Row the Third. With the Gangster in Space movie coming out the publisher wants the writer to bring out another Red Faction novel. The writer inspired by the news of STAG taking over Steelport under the guise of helping the people, decides to use Earth's military as the bad guys, which explains the similarity between STAG and the EDF (white armor, face covering masks, high tech weapons, even the STAG barricades look familiar). It's up to Saints Row 4 to drop hints on what inspired Armageddon. The zombie outbreak however could be an explanation for the Bugs in it.

The fourth Saint's Row game will be a Red Faction prequel.

• With the above guess established as canon, at some point in the fourth game The Saints will, in association with the Ultor Corporation, colonize Mars and the logical thing will happen from there.

Respawned people are hallucinations.

You regret killing people subconsciously, so your subconscious creates fakes to make you stay sane.

• Wouldn't killing the respawns then make you really insane?
• What makes this all the more insanely possible is the fact it would explain a lot of things, and that, while some events of the Saints Row series may be real, others could be the result of the Protagonist's mind becoming more and more warped:
  • It would explain the shift from the somewhat reality-themed first game to the surrealistic sequel, as a result of the people he/she murdered, and he/she also probably got hit in the head in the boat explosion, which caused a form of permanent brain damage that makes him/her see things, making his/her's "hallucinations" problem even worse.
  • Lin's, Aisha's, and Carlos' deaths were met with no small amount of denial by the Protagonist, and fueled by his/her inner desire to have them back, they DO return with a phone call to a voodoo company... but given his/her insanity, he/she only remembers that he/she was the cause of their deaths, so he/she only "sees" them as zombies and hears comments over the radio that they are zombies, corrupting the good memories he/she had of them.
  • The killing of Julius Little (the closest thing he/she had to a father figure) and the betrayal of Dex (a non-psychotic former close friend) actually wrecked the Boss' mind even more, to the point half the people he killed in the Looney Tunes-like mission "Ultor Family Fun Day" in the mission pack "Corporate Warfare" were either hallucinations, or real people he/she was actually killing -- And the ninjas at the rooftop? Either cops trying to put you down, or the memory of all the Ronin you slaughtered coming back to haunt you.
  • ...The thing that may dismiss this theory, I admit, is the fact that, after I killed a cop, one of them said: "Don't worry! Nobody stays dead in Stillwater!". I kid you not.

American Psycho is a prequel to Saint's Row

Bateman can get away with what he does because Stillwater's police system is far from perfect if he even does it. Due to his status as an Unreliable possibly schizophrenic Narrator, his location would have been a lie. Not much is given about the high class lifestyle in Stillwater, but we could take a guess and say Patrick was working for Ultor. Stillwater is the perfect place to be a serial killer, after all.

The Boss is an ancestor to Parker and Mason from Red Faction

Exactly What It Says on the Tin

Female Boss is a transwoman (and Latin female is Caucasian female's father).

She's into girls just as much as the boys, one female voice quotes something another female's father said, and several comments about having male anatomy. Add that to the fact that in the original Saints Row, you could ONLY play as a male. In SR2, you can suddenly play as a female. "Something with your hair" indeed.

• • Word of God states that if you start SR2 as a woman then the character was female in SR1.

The pimps have unionized

In Saint's Row 2, all the pimps will unite if one of them is attacked. This is because the pimps have formed a Weird Trade Union.

• Can you blame them? Pimpin' ain't easy.

The underlying plot of the game is war between Ultor and Unkut

Just the transition from clothing company to multinational omnicorp takes MASSIVE resources; and if one company was raking in those kind of of profits, it's not unlikely that Unkut, as the most visible competitor, was pulling in similar amounts. When Ultor started pulling ahead in the world-domination race, Unkut looked for some way to sabotage their plans. Somewhere down the line, they hear about an insanely determined gangster convalescing in hospital. Over the next couple of years, they pump the Boss full of cybernetic enhancements, bio-boosting drugs, and whatever else they could find, knowing that when they woke up the first thing they'd point himself/herself at was the biggest authority figure in sight, namely Ultor.

This is the reason the Boss is even tougher in the sequel, and capable of amazing feats of strength like pulling parking meters out of the concrete. By the time the DLC came out, the Boss has found out about all of this, but between their being psychotic and Unkut likely being run by nutjobs ala Aperture Science, they negotiated the Boss's silence in return for exclusive rights to Unkut merch and tattoos.

Dex is the leader of the STAG (Special Anti Tactical Gang) in Saints Row 3

This is more of a Wild Mass Hope, I Really hate Dex at the moment, since he attempted to kill Julius and Boss. Another thing that supports this theory is that Boss at the end of Corporate Warfare vows to track Dex down when he flees to another city, the city that Dex is hiding in could be Steelport

Boss can become female in the gap between the two games because they were Transsexualism

Admittedly, there's not a lot of evidence for this one... but it's the explanation that makes the most sense -- after all, the physical part could just be a medical error... but being able to move and sound "like a woman" takes practice. They were oddly withdrawn -- they virtually never talked, even though the game established they could, and didn't seem to get very close to their fellow gang members. On top of that, they're shown in the first game to know an awful lot about women's shoes. (In the final Carnales mission, he points out the girl from that line is lying about her shoes being the this year's latest, and says that they're actually last year's fall collection). As for how they actually ended up getting the sex change? Can we use the "used the wrong picture to reconstruct their features" bit? As for why no-one comments... They have a reputation for killing absolutely anyone who crosses them, regardless of how strong their opponent is or how badly they try to stack the odds against them. Would you give them trouble if they decided to transition?

• • Jossed. According to Word of God, if you choose to be a female in Saints Row 2, it retcons the Boss as being a female in the first game as well.

SR2 is in an alternate universe to SR1

Some details are sketchy in this, but look at the facts. Dex is different, talks different, looks different, etc. The Boss is different, he/she talks, he/she kills for fun, despite originally just trying to stay out of the conflict, etc. And lastly, the boss can be a girl.

Before the shootout at the beginning of SR1, Playa/The Boss was...

In the military. He is able to shoot like a pro just moments after buying his first gun and is capable of using just about every weapon he acquires with ease, he has no problem driving and flying a wide range of vehicles, and he's good at shutting up and doing what he's told (up to a point, anyway). Hell, one of the expressions in SR2 is a military salute.

• Backed up, somewhat, if you consider some lines of dialogue by Britboss in SR3. During one of the Heli Assault Activities:

Kinzie: Next stop, Matt Miller's girlfriend's house. Boss: You know where she lives? Kinzie: Everything about you is on the Internet. I even know your real name. It's- Boss: Classified, for a reason.

• During "My Name is Cyrus Temple":

Boss (disguised as Cyrus Temple): I'm more of a Stilwater bloke myself. Kia: 'Bloke', sir? Boss: Err... yeah! Picked it up when I was stationed in Britain. Kia: Sir, I've seen your jacket. You were never stationed overseas. Boss: Of course I wasn't. Umm... I've probably said to much. Just forget we ever had this conversation. Kia: O-oh! Of course, sir.

The bosses attitude towards Shaundi after she got kidnapped wasn't because he/she lost faith in her ability to fight

It was because he/she was actually worried about losing more friends. They lost Lin in the first game, and then Aisha in the second. If you play the missions in the order they're set, he/she just lost both Carlos and Aisha, both of whom he/she was friends with, and nearly lost another. While Johnny Gat also nearly died, he/she knows Gat didn't nearly die because he wasn't tough, but because he was momentarily distracted by accident. Plus, Gat would be a lot more annoyed then Shaundi was if he/she ignored him. Shaundi however was, in his/her opinion, physically the weakest of the remaining lieutenants, and they were up against a particularly sadistic and cruel gang who worship Loa gods.

STAG is a State Sec military group that was set-up to counter gang activity.

Come on, what other kind of organization would have laser-armed VTOL? The directors have pretty much confirmed this anyways. Furthermore, This Troper predicts that the next step of tropedom will continue into Saints Row 4. In SR2 it was a Mega Corp, SR 3 is a State Sec, so logically SR 4 will have a NGO Superpower as one of the enemies.

• Jossed. The official trailer says STAG is a PMC.
  • Apparently the Joss was Jossed. Congress enacts STAG through the STAG Initiative.

Kinzie Kensington will turn out to be an Expy of Harleen Quinzel

More of a WMG until more details come out but basically switch Arkaham Asylum psychiatrist treating The Joker with FBI Agent investigating the Saints and they seem to be very similar.

• • Turns out she joins up because the Deckers got her kicked out the F.B.I.
  • If anything, she's more like Barbara Gordon.

Donnie will be in the Deckers.

Think about it. The Decker's gang color? Blue. Their choice of vehicles? Tuners and speed bikes.

• • Then again, after the last two games, he probably wants to stay as far away from the boss as humanly possible.
    • Which would make it all the more hilarious when he does that by moving to a completely different city, only for the Saints to show up and ruin his life again!

Gat will survive I'm Free - Free Falling

It will seem like he died and he won't appear until the final mission set where he will show up, in perfect health, to save The Boss from a bad case of Cutscene Incompetence. The Boss' response? Either "I fucking knew it!" or "It's about fucking time".

• • Afraid not. He stays dead, both endings.

The Boss is a Reality Warper whose powers grow with his/her influence.

Specifically, s/he is subconsciously reshaping the world to be more conductive to his/her destructive and extravagant criminal lifestyle, possibly after playing too much Grand Theft Auto. As s/he grows in power, the world becomes more accepting of the Saints and his/her rampages, possibly because now anyone can be shot, stabbed, exploded, beat with a giant purple dildo, run over, drowned, and fall from 10,000 feet up and be fine after getting rushed to the hospital.

Near the start of the mission Deckers.Die

Kinzie didn't make the Boss' avatar a toilet or sex toy by accident. She's being passive aggressive over Boss' sarcastic "Great plan Kinzie" at the start of the mission.

The Boss is an ancestor of earth born Commander Shepard.

Well, my Shepard and Boss both look relatively alike due. And with how the Saints are spreading in Saints Row the Third I wouldn't be surprised if they end up plunging a lot of the world into gang warfare. And if you choose to give Shepard a history of running with gangs then it all seems to fit together so nicely.

• • A fair few people would go that route.

Oleg Kirlov is the grandson or great-grandson of Heavy Weapons Guy.

They're both massive bald Russian men who wield miniguns and frequently take down enemies with their bare hands. Furthermore, they're both quite intelligent; Heavy Weapons Guy has a Ph.D in Russian literature, while Oleg is the only one who understands Kinzie's Techno Babble and regularly plays chess against Pierce. Furthermore, they're both completely crazy: Heavy Weapons Guy is a Blood Knight who treats his guns like women, while Oleg thinks nothing of tackling an in-flight VTOL jet fighter to serve as just a distraction. The Heavy wore either red or blue, while Oleg wears purple. The only big differences are that Oleg is much faster and more relaxed in disposition. The fact the player character can be voiced by The Medic also makes this theory more amusing, in this troper's opinion.

In 'Gangstas In Space' that isn't Killbane at the end.

It's an actor playing him.

• • More precise it's Oleg, explaining Killbane's heavier more brutish walk and size. Also we have both Shaundi and Pierce in it playing themself and Kinzie as voice of the mission control. Viola is most likely too uninterested in the movie and Zimos has to keep up his business. Leaving Oleg as only other Saint who might have an interest in playing a role in the movie and who is better than him at portraying Killbane as brutish super scientist?
  • Possibly an actor. It doesn't sound like Killbane when it's revealed it's a movie, but then again it doesn't sound like Oleg either. And while both have massive frames Killbane has a different build to Oleg.
    • On the other hand the Boss fight is essentially a Brute fight, complete with the same quick time survival actions and as My Name is Cyrus Temple shoved, plastic surgery is rather easy and completely reversable in the world of Saints Row. Than again it might someone entire.
  • It's more likely to be an actor than not. If you're doing the movie shoot, that means that you let Killbane escape. He has no reason to come back to Steelport considering all that you've done to him (not to mention Angel would likely still want him dead even if The Boss forgave him). The Killbane at the shoot seems too friendly. The only evidence that would suggest Killbane is playing himself in the movie is the news report not mentioning an actor playing Killbane. Killbane is obsessed with his name, ego, and legacy, especially considering the speech he gives The Boss in the more dramatic and serious ending. Playing as himself in a cheesy Recycled in Space movie after his defeat (and possible unmasking, depending on player actions) at Murderbrawl XXXI is unlikely good for that as it portrays himself as a washed-up has-been. And unlike the serious ending, the silly ending has the Saints rise to fame due to STAG and not Killbane, so he can't even be a legendary villain to famous heroes (ala Elan's father in The Order of the Stick).
  • Maybe the announced DLC Gangsta In Space will shine more on that.

Before the start of Saints Row 3, The Syndicate captured and replaced Gat and Shaundi with clones

Basing this on two different steps:
-Personality wise, Shaundi is completely different. She stopped smoking Pot, doesn't appear to want to sleep around much, and has lost her Fun Personified personality. Its possible that the Shaundi clone once got high during her impersonation, blabbed about her clone status, and while everyone thought it was just mindless babble, she realized that she needs to be careful to keep her identity, and stopped smoking pot. Because of the stress from going cold turkey, she became bitchier which lead to her new personality and clothing style. The reason she wanted to hunt them down so much was that they were supposed to allow her to return instead of her escape with the Boss, which caused her to believe Loren had abandoned her and killed the Gat clone, whom she was close to on the grounds they were both secret clones.
-SR 3 Gat being a clone is a theory many have had, but the fact he Got killed by The Morning Star thugs offscreen when in the previous game he took on the ENTIRE Stillwater police force and won is enough to prove this isn't the same Gat. There's also the fact that the Zombie Gat homie runs around like an idiot hitting things with his barehands instead of using his brain and picking up a gun (like other zombie homies in previous games), similar to the Oleg clones, along with the fact the zombie Gat lacks any visible gunshot wounds, implying it died of some other cause. In the second mission, when Gat dies it was actually them shooting the radio to make it sound like he died, before then tossing him out of the plane since he had outlived his usefulness later, where he landed near the area that soon became home to those zombies, resulting in him rising, covered in blood from his landing.

The entire third game was an in-universe film

Its a common fan-theory and in all fairness, best way to explain so many bad decisions and ideas in the plot. Pierce wrote the script, its why he gets more respect this time around and Shaundi acts so mean and unlikable this time. Love the game, but the plot is so weak. A DLC pack or even Saints Row 4 will be about the film's financier, Ultor, deciding they want the money they spent making it back, resulting in the Saints having to fight them off again.

Shaundi stopped smoking pot...

...and started doing coke when the Saints got rich and famous. Consider how relaxed and chill she was in SR2, to how strung-out and stressed she is in SR 3.

• • Or she stopped smoking pot period. Heck, aside from drinking, they didn't use any drogs while on the job this time around. Also, it's likely she just grew out of her "college drop out stoner phase", the game is set some years since the last one after all.
  • Here's my take on it. She had a bad spring break in Steelport, and if she and Zimos are in your party it's suggested she was used as a prostitute. We don't know what Shaundi might have been like before SR2 but maybe the experience reduced her to a sleeping around crackhead. Then the Boss shows up, recruits her, and forces her to take a level in badass to stop the gangs. After that Shaundi gets cleaned up.

The Boss is a Scion

The only possible explanation for her extraordinary endurance and charisma.

The Boss is the reincarnation of The Boss.

All that built-up karma from being a war hero comes in handy when you're throwing yourself into all sorts of risky, illegal business. Martial prowess and leadership seem to have spilled over too.

Josh Birk plays Johnny Gat in Gangsta in Space

Somebody's got to play him.

• It does sound like Birk's voice actor if you listen closely.
  • • Really? It sounded a lot like Daniel Dae Kim, and I'm sure it was him voicing him there as well.
  • I was wondering where he might have been, given how deliberately narmtastic the film is.

Dex will become the President of the United States

• If The Third's bad ending is the canon, then this could be a great set up for the 4th game. Especially with Steelport becoming it's own country run by the saints.

Female Latin Boss is the true Boss character

• She makes a lot of references to the first and second games. And she is the only returning voice in The Third.
  • What about the second male voice, or Urban/black voice? They return. I'd assume the true one is the default one, since they're, you know, default. And, Troy Baker is refereed to in the credits as 'Default boss' while the other voices are given names like 'Male 2/Male 3/Female Default/Female 2/Female 3.
  • I just went through the voice files again and I am certain they're different. The second male voice you pointed out is Robin Atkin Downes rather than Charles Shaughnessy, Troy Baker is The Other Darrin for Nolan North, and I looked up Kenn Michael (the negro voice in the second game) and can't find him listed for The Third.
  • I recently beat the game again, and from memory, here are the voice credits as they were in Saints Row The Third's end credits:

Default: Troy Baker Male 2: Kenn Michaels Male 3: Robin Atkin Downes Female 1: Laura Bailey Female 2: Tara Platt Female 3: Rebecca Sanabria Zombie: Steve Blum

• • Just checked the credits and Kenn Michael\s does do one of the voices in both games. He sounds different. The female Latin voice you're thinking of and I'm referring to belongs to Rebecca Sanabria. So we could argue that either of them could be the proper main character. Take it as whether you played male or female?

We'll still be seeing The Syndicate in the upcoming games/dlc

• Loren said that the Syndicate was a multinational organization, and I doubt that an organization that spans possibly around the world would die out that quickly.
  • Or he just meant it's made up by people of different nationalities. The Morningstar members are from all over Europe, the Deckers are all British and the Luchadores, except Killbane and Angel are said to be Mexicans.
  • If that is actually what he meant, he would have said multiracial. It's also heavily implied that the Syndicate is a global organization.

A future DLC could be about how Shaundi, Viola, and Burt Reynolds survived

• Either saved by a cloned Johnny Gat no less or Birk, after the latter had taken a level in badass... or having become his vampire character.
  • Kinzie seems to believe Vampires are real, maybe Birk get bitten by a real vampire?

Johnny Gat died because he was suffering from Badass Decay

• Think about it. After SR2 there was no reason to engage in combat. The Saints were paying off the cops, who were lead by ex-Saint Troy. Ultor has partnered with the Saints. There were no other rival gangs. The Boss has mellowed. The Saints were clean-cut celebs, and Johnny was forced to drive around in the GatMobile giving inspirational speeches to kids in schools. This went on for years, it's fairly obvious the guy was a little burned out. He was also captured without any weapons, and went up against a criminal overlord and countless armed guards by himself. Even then, it took a stab wound, a criminal overlord, several armed guards, and a distraction before he could finally be taken down.

Johnny Gat knew he was going to die.

• With Aisha dead and his friends having become sellouts, slowly but surely abandoning the gang lifestyle - his last remaining joy in the world - in favor of branching out into more legit business ventures just to make more money, Gat figured that holding off an entire gang on his own to buy some time for his friends to escape from an airplane would be a good way (and perhaps his last great opportunity) to go out in a blaze of glory.
  • Gat sold his likeness for Gangsters in Space, something even the quote unquote sellout Boss is upset about. Make of that what you will.

Phillipe Loren will turn out to be the Big Bad of Saints Row 3

• Or rather, a clone. As extensive as his Brute-cloning operation was, it wouldn't be surprising if he had a backup plan in the case of his untimely demise. Also, based on the title of one of the future DLC packs, clones will appear as a plot point.

Zombie Lin will return

They keep making references to her and it seems she's still roaming around Stilwater.

Saints Row is set in the Wanted Universe and the Boss is the last Supervillian on the planet...

Somehow the Cabel in the Wanted Comicverse ended up wiping themselves out. Leaving a broken and pretty corrupt world behind them. A World where cops can be bribed to ridiculous levels and death games are prime time TV. The Boss is the worlds last supervillian, able to become bullet proof, fire unlimited bullets even complete feats of near impossible bad ass violence. However compared to a certain rapist nihilist blonde who had a habit of shooting up Police stations. He's considered an improvement of sorts.

Shaundi's Ex in Steelport is Professor Genki

One of the loading screens features Professor Genki sitting down and watching television in what looks like Shaundi's Ex's Apartment. Considering all the people Shaundi's been with...

Shaundi's personality in the Third is her true personality.

After mystery Steelport adventures, she started using drugs and sex as a coping mechanism to deal with her anger issues and possible depression, which is where she is in 2. After getting kidnapped by Veteran Child, she gets Nailed to the Wagon by Boss and the Saints (which explains her increased competence in the rest of the Samedi missions) and is slowly forced to detox over the years between 2 and the Third. This results in a return to her original state, albeit aggravated by the general crappiness of the Saints' Row world and the supposed death of Johnny Gat. In the fourth game, she'll have finished her detox and potentially gone to therapy and mellowed out again.

The Boss is the result of a military experiment

Sometime before Saints Row, the Boss (and maybe his/her lover) were attacked by a gang. The military saved them, and started working on them so that they'd be the Ultimate Soldiers. But his/her lover died during the experiment. The Boss however survived. They performed plastic surgery on him/her so nobody would recognize them (if the Boss is female, it explains why she looks like a man in the first SR -- to hide her true identity. But then the restoration in SR2 puts her back to normal) But he/she escaped, and now wants to take over by whatever means necessary so that he/she can prevent it from happening again. It's why He/She is able to regenerate health, and get simple treatments to come back from the dead.

Josh Birk has brain damage

He got it after the Saints kidnapped him. More specifically, when The Boss punched him in the face. The Boss has super-human strength, getting punched by him/her would be sure to rattle Josh's poor, tiny brain quite a bit. His mind split in two and now he suffers from a form of split-personality disorder. Which is why your able to have both Josh and Nyte Blade as your homies. Because, half the time, he truly believes he's Nyte Blade.

Possible plot of Saints Row 4

First of all the story will be slightly different depending on which final mission you did first if you have a game save of Saints Row the Third, or, if not, the game gives you a choice of whether or not Shaundi is alive. No matter the choice, the Boss is forced to return to Stilwater either way, but the HOW is different:

• If Shaundi is alive (Route A), the Saints return to Stilwater for the premiere of Ganstas in Space there, but the Boss is attack and/or the festivities are ruined when a gang shoot out erupts between members of three upstart gangs wishing to fill-in the partial vacuum left by the Saints during the events of the third game. Thus, the Boss has to boot out these losers from Stilwater.

• If Shaundi is dead (Route B), the Saints are chillin' in the Broken Shillelagh or the Mayor Pierce Washington's office when a mysterious black garbed gang attacks them out of the blue. Though dispatched easily, the last remaining member blurts out a cryptic warning, saying that Stilwater will be the center of the coming reckoning before dosing himself with cyanide. This sparks worry in the Boss and feeling a bit homesick at this point with returns to Stilwater.

At this point, both A and B have established that Stilwater is under siege by three rival gangs, all of whom are connected to the Syndicate whose true colors are significantly DARKER than all the other groups faced before or after. The three major gangs are:

• The Deckers: Though returning and still having the neo-cyber-futuristic look, they drop the Goth and Emo trappings as Matt Miller officially quits when he is ordered by the leading gang of the Syndicate to set up shop in Stilwater, wanting to avoid the Boss at all costs. They are instead led by a new female leader and makes the gang in Stilwater a mostly all-girls club with a new style to compliment the neo-cyber-futuristic look.

• The Sons of Samedi: Another returning gang, it turns out that the Sons are in fact members of the Syndicate and have becoming much bigger internationally since their defeat in Stilwater, becoming far more successful in their home of the Carribean and in Africa. The gang is led by the cousin of the General, who was once an African warlord turned crime lord after the death of his brother. Initially volunteers to gain territory in Stilwater to take revenge against the Boss.

• The Remnants: Either the combination of whatever dregs still remained of not only the Brotherhood but also of all three gangs from the very first game forcefully puts together by the Syndicate or an entirely different group all together.

One major plot point during the game would be the intense rivalry between the Sons and the Deckers, not only due to differing methods of crime and beliefs, but also because the Sons' new leader is a chauvenist who believes women are only good for making children and is forced to be in League with a a entirely made up of girl that can go toe-to-toe with his gang. The Saints take advantage of this and excellate the rivalry to where the leaders of both factions duking it out in a no holds barred dreamscape of epic proportions with the Deckers' leader using a tricked out internet avatar similar to what Matt Miller used and the Sons' leader using a dream avatar induced from drug-induced trance. The Boss uses BOTH methods simultaneously to enter the fight and make a MeleeATrois, with you choosing which one to take down to make permanently brain dead, forcing you to defeat the remaining fighter back in the real world.

Meanwhile, the overall story arc will involve the Saints directly facing against a group calling themselves The True Syndicate,the gang that controls the entire Syndicate and the guys that Phillipe Loren used to answer to before he was killed. The leaders, whom are never seen and fought until the very end of the game, believe themselves to be the ancestors of the few sinners whom survived God's cleansing of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and use their global organization as their way of bringing together all of the planet's Evil together and spreading the word of their near-fanatical devotion to crime, making the group essentially a cult bordering on Satanic. Backstory reveals that Killbane , having no idea the true leading group ever existed and thinking the Syndicate was merely a equalized coalition or something went rogue by electing himself the new leader after Phillipe's death without going through proper channels.

In Route A, the Boss chews out Viola about this when she reveals she knew about these guys from beginning and never bothered to tell him/her.

Things are further complicated when STAG is involved. However, leadership, interactions with them, and ultimately the story depends on the Routes:

• Route A: Commander Cyrus returns with a new second-in-command, forced out of retirement and once again clashes against the Saints. However, Cyrus is a bit more mellowed out towards the Saints due to the TRUE Syndicate revealing themselves and seeing them as the bigger threat, leading up to a an epic Enemy Mine when the Syndicate go into their master plan.

• Route B: Kia is the Commander of STAG due to Cyrus getting killed off. She comes back after somehow surviving her own false terrorist plot to incriminate the Saints due to unseen cybernetic implants and replacements and quite possibly even MORE extreme then before, resulting in STAG not only managing to COMPLETELY decimate the Syndicate but also starting to plan possible world domination to eradicate all crime off the face of the Earth.

Now comes the endings, dependent on which Route is taken and once again having a choice of final missions that effects the final ending:

• Route A: The TRUE syndicate has revealed that their final plan is to summon the single demon or legion of demons the leaders are worshiping onto the Living Realm, sacrificing the souls of all of Stilwater and using the city as said demon('s/s') main landing spot. The Saints then team up with STAG to siege the Syndicate's base of operations and then battling against its leaders one by one, whom allow their patron "gods" to take control of their bodies, turning them into horrendous monsters. The Boss finally encounters the Top Leader of the Syndicate. Instead of fighting the villain, he bounces instead into the now, thankfully, human sized portal into Hell. Here you have the choice of either following the madman into Hell, or just shutting down the portal.

• • Going Global: The Boss shuts down the portal and is declared a National Hero by the President. Skip to somewhere in Switzerland where The Syndicate, no longer having the TRUE Syndicate as its leader, come together to decide who will run the entire organization. Killbane makes his appearance to declare himself the leader and for anyone who objects to face him in combat. Enter the Boss. This leads to a giant shootout mission where you have kill off all the Syndicate Leaders and then search out and kill Killbane himself all within a time limit. Afterwards, the Syndicate then belongs to the Saints, making the Boss essentially ruler of all crime on Earth.

• • Fallen Angels: The Boss winds up in Hell. The True Syndicate Leader ambushes him with a more powerful demonic form and ready to kill the Boss.........but then he gets rescued by Julius and Johnny Gat . They then become your homeys in this final battle where you not only have to destroy the True Leader but also the souls of every single major rival gang leader the Boss has ever killed in the entire series. Soon the battle is over, and the Boss meets up with all the other members of the Saints whom wound up in Hell. Flashforward, with a funeral set up for the Boss with control the Saints going to Shaundi and Kinzie, who reveals that she had feelings for the Boss. At the same time, in Hell, the Boss has become one of the top ranking Lords as well as gaining the ability to freely go between Hell and the Living Realm freely without having to possess someone. The final scene has the Boss, along with Julius and Johnny Gat, bursting into Lucifer's throne room and preparing to takeover Hell itself.

• Route B: The President of the United States along with delegates from the United Nations converge together in Stilwater under the pretense of discussing how to deal with international crime, especially the Saints. Kia, however, plans to rig explosives around the meeting location, basically a repeat of her previous successful plan to discredit the Saints but on a much, MUCH larger scale. Kinzie catches wind of this, and the Boss goes off to save the day. He manages to disarm the bombs and publicly reveal that Kia was the one who blew up the national landmark from the previous game. However, at this point, she's mentally at a state where she doesn't care anymore and, in a fit of rage, uses the President of the United States as a meat shield to make her escape.. A chase ensues, and during and after you are given the choice of either rescuing the President or focusing entirely on killing Kia.

• • Klingon Promotion: The Boss manages to rescue the President, but then Kia gets away. Luckily, the President orders a full on missile strike on Kia's escape vehicle, which is soon completely destroyed with little chance of her being alive. The Boss is then declared an international hero recognized by both the US and the UN. As a reward for preventing Kia from taking over the world, the Saints are allowed to keep Steelport as a separate city-state as well as one other wish. Flashforward to a random country in either the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa, or South East Asia ruled by a bloody and violent dictatorship. NATO ships and choppers arrive, but instead of soldiers, members of the Saints arrive with the final mission being a gansta blitz on the country, with the Boss gunning down the leaders of the country and becoming its new ruler. It is revealed the Saints are to be the ones officially sent in by the UN to various dictator controlled countries who refuse to crack down on human rights violations with the gang allowed to conquer the first country they are sent to with automatic UN membership. The Boss chooses Oleg to become the country's new president, which has become the Saints' first ever non-US turf. A short epilogue plays, telling how the country became prosperous and enters a new golden age while under the Saints' control, with the small country becoming a major player in world politics and the Boss eventually revered as a God by the inhabitants.

• • New World Order: The Boss allows the President to be killed, by Kia gets away anyway. A few days later, nothing is heard from Kia........until she makes an international announcement that STAG has officially broken off all ties to the US and plans to systematically destroy every major city on the planet unless the governments of each country enact and carry out death penalties to every single criminal and gang member no matter the crime, even littering, with Stilwater being the first city she wipes out just to show STAG's power. She arrives in a truly MASSIVE airship that's even BIGGER than the Daedelus. Basically World War III erupts, with STAG against the entire UN with the Saints spearheading the attack on the airship. The Boss manages to get inside and cause it to self destruct and/or strapped enough bombs at major weakpoints to blow the ship out of the sky, but then has to face off against Kia, who has strapped herself inside a freakin' giant mech, while under a time limit. The Boss emerges victorious and escapes the airship. The Boss is declared a National Hero and (s)he becomes so revered by the US public that (s)he's unanimously elected as President. A short epilogue plays where the US under the Boss's leadership leads to the country reaching a level of prosperity unseen since during and right after World War II, and (s)he becomes so popular (s)he is the first president to have four consecutive terms of office. His final act as President before willingly stepping down and retiring was to officially open the very first completed colony on Mars......

• • Unlikely and since Hughes is running for president and will likely be in office by the time of Saint Row 4, she probably won't help them and she will more than likely be the main antagonist. Also, KIA dies in both endings, she either dies in the explosion if you go after Killbane or the boss kills her if you rescue Viola,Burt and Shaundi.

The cannon ending is the one where Shaundi dies.

Since the Saints Row games have not so far bothered with with any saved game import feature, there will likely only be one canonical ending Saints Row 4 can incorporate and this will be the independent Steelport ending.

• First, this is the only ending where the fates of Killbane and Cyrus are resolved. Additionally, this is the only way the foreshadowing of the Daedalus pays off. Basic storytelling 101 demands these things happen.
• Second, the games traditionally never end on a happy note.
• Thirdly and most importantly, just before the plot diverges based on player choice, the Boss, as part of the completion of his game-long storyarc, declares to Pierce that he no longer wants the Saints to be sellouts and rejects his film script. This makes it extremely unlikely he would canonically ever appear in Gangstas in Space.
• However, the Gangstas in Space DLC proves otherwise.

Maero is supposed to be a (non-canon) pre-mutant version of Marcus from Fallout.

Think about it. They sound the same (both are voiced by Michael Dorn). They're both ****ing huge. Maero fights with a minigun, just like Marcus. And Maero gets exposed to toxic waste, a reference to Marcus's mutant nature. The way I see it, Maero was a shout-out the Fallout series.

Angel has lost a little... more than his mask.

Even writing off his training regime for the boss as just some manner of testosterone poisoned lucha madness ("a fucking tiger?!"), Angel seems to have a very warped view of how the world works. This mostly comes out when he suggests de-masking Killbane over killing him outright. He's so lost in his luchadore-centric world that he think taking his mask will destroy him. Instead, even just beating WITHOUT taking his mask drives him to launch a city-wide war. Surely Killbane's old partner would know him well enough to know where they'd land between "shamed to death" and "start wars".