Why Gears of War is all about Mental Instability

It all dawned on me when Gears of War 2 came out. The very mental fabric of both the COG and the Locust was revealed to me with one simple phrase.

"Revive me!"

This cry for help made me realize so many things about the way the citizens of Sera function.

In Gears of War 1, characters never shouted out to be revived. They started doing this in Gears of War 2, and continue to do it in Gears of War 3.

The first time I heard this a lot of questions came into my head.

How exactly are they being revived after falling to their hands and knees from taking to much gunfire?

None of the characters in the game are medically trained. The only thing they have training in is killing and flexing.

The act of reviving a downed teammate is as extensive as slapping him on the ass and saying something encouraging like "Get back in the game!" "Stand up like a man!" "Fight through the pain!" and other such things.

After that the downed player stands up and they are perfectly fine, ready to keep fighting.

This can only be explained one way: Getting shot does more emotional damage than physical.

It's all in their minds.

Let's use Dom as an example to demonstrate what I'm talking about here.

Dom is taking fire from a Locust. As he is getting shot, his morale is rapidly dropping. His mind is telling him that he can't last like this. It's getting hopeless to press on.

If the fire is concentrated on him for long enough, these mental attitudes will cause Dom to give up hope and just fall to his hands and knees, mentally vanquished, his self confidence stripped of him.

If he takes any more gunfire while on his hands and knees, he will give up all hope. He will become so despondent that his body will just shut down and he will die a sad depressed death.

However, if one of his teammates comes to his side in time, they can extend their hand and tell him to man up.

NO MEDICAL ATTENTION REQUIRED.

Dom is now back on his feet, fit, and ready to fight as ever. His self confidence has been restored by his teammate.

The denizens of Sera exist in a constant fragile mental state that can be tipped to the point of complete physical shutdown after being shot for a short while.

Mentally Stable? Not likely.

This mental instability governs the field of battle. If they had proper counseling, perhaps they would be invulnerable to bullets. A trained psychologist could be the secret weapon the COG need to restore humanity.

The only thing a mentally stable soldier could potentially be harmed by are explosives or bayonets. Though even deaths due to these weapons are theorized to be results of extensive physio-mental entanglement shutdown.

Further research on this is yet to be conducted.




Thanks for reading! I know it's a bit of a departure from what I normally write, but it's something funny I always think of when I play Gears online.

Don't forget!

Enjoy your game.

Enjoy your life.

And please stay mentally stable.