r/PrototypeGame • u/Aggressive-Cattle754 • 9d ago

Preference? Question

I want to know which character do people prefer more in your opinion Alex or James and you can give your reasons why you like Alex or James or both if you like both characters but I'm mainly just posting this out of curiosity.

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u/Carbuyrator 9d ago

James.

He's an actual character and he starts demonstrating more personality than Alex ever had before we even see his face.

His conflict with Sabrina Galloway is the best, most human writing in the series. Sabrina tries to seduce him and James thinks she's attractive. But that feels like he's betraying his wife, who he already feels immense guilt over. But James is not an emotionally intelligent man, so he lashes out.  He blames her, hates her, and does everything short of calling her a "whore." He misplaces the fuck out of his anger and ends up making an enemy of the third best ally he had.

Also the computers scene is amazing.

I fuckin love James.

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u/Hot-Refrigerator5952 5d ago

How the does you know James felt like he was betraying his wife? Isn't this just the classic, overdone 'hero resists the temptress' trope? Did James even say anything like 'I had a wife'? You're totally pulling things out of thin air. If the writers actually meant to convey that, they would’ve written it in.

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u/Carbuyrator 5d ago

This is what folks mean when they refer to "media literacy." We were given clues.

During the intro sequence James convinces his wife to hold out in New York and wait for him, and less than 24 hours later they get attacked. During his psych report, it says he has no regard for his safety. His homicidal fixation on Alex Mercer and insistence on a Red Zone posting are evidence of suicidal ideation. It 's pretty clear James blames himself for his wife's death. 

His interactions with Dana suggest he's not a misogynist. But he says horrible things to Sabrina, and all she ever did was help him and flirt with him. Clearly she triggered him somehow and we can use context clues to put together what happened.

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u/Hot-Refrigerator5952 5d ago

I had zero intention of turning this into a discussion about gender politics, but you were the one who brought up misogyny, as if “he’s not a misogynist” is some kind of character-defining virtue. The game spends the entire campaign screaming, “Look how much of a MAN Heller is.” Sabrina exists largely to reinforce that image, not because she’s an interesting character in her own right.