#gigadumpster mention

[hancockstan]

Ok so here is my promised examination on why The Citadel and all its warboys got so immediately popular while The Legion are mostly hated as a group despite both post apocalyptic factions being patriarchal and the foundations of both are based on slavery.

I want to start by saying that obviously not everyone likes the warboys and not everyone despises the legionaries and that anyone who enjoys making fanworks or dunking on either are completely valid in doing so.

Spoiler warning from this point forward for both franchises.

The first thing I want to start with is Joe and Edward themselves as well as their high command. The two leaders have a lot of similarities at first glance; costumes of their own design, sicknesses that neither have the means to cure, misogyny out the wazoo, a cult of personality centered around them, empires built on military conquest and subsequent exploitation of the conquered people, the list goes on. (Also, more of an opinion but they always struck me as just a little beyond their pay grade in terms of actually leading a thriving society.) The difference I want to focus on is the fandom reaction and interpretation of both of these characters. A large portion of Fallout fans make killing Caesar one of the most important moments in their fanworks and relatively few ships involving him exist, let alone with any popularity. In contrast while Joe’s death is also a staple of character examinations and (at least in my experience) considered completely cheer worthy by audiences, its also not hard to find Immortan fans. At its peak, the Fury Road fandom had an active sub-tag called the gigadumpster which included any works (especially nsfw) featuring Immortan Joe, Bullet Farmer, or People Eater. Now it stands to mention that while Caesar himself doesn’t tend to be popular, Vulpes, Joshua, and Lanius have a decent following, at least enough to rival the popularity of the Gigadumpster trio. Which brings me to my next comparison: the Bullet Farmer and Joshua Graham. Both helped establish their factions and were close enough to their leaders to be in high positions of influence and power. Both even called their leaders their brothers. But more importantly, both eventually failed their respective leaders although Bullet Farmer didn’t live to face the consequences this may have held for him. I think that this is the first key to understanding the popularity of The Citadel. We know that for his failure Josh was set on fire and pushed into the Grand Canyon. His character allows for many different interpretations on how this has changed him. Some people take his word in the dlc that he has changed and found god again while others see him as the same man except opposed to Caesar now. Alternatively, Kalashnikov didn’t live to face the repercussions of his actions, an important distinction. When left to imagine how Joe may have reacted to the Bullet Farmer’s failure if he had lived but still failed to bring back his wives or even more extreme; accidentally killed one, the fandom tends to imagine him more forgiving than we should perhaps give him credit for. In a deleted scene (if we can assume this is what canonically happened to Miss Giddy given that nothing in the theatrical release contradicts it) the teacher who Joe has trusted enough to allow her to live with his wives was subjected to torture at the hands of the Organic Mechanic and then left in the desert to die with Splendid’s corpse. While I’m not suggesting that Miss Giddy would be anywhere near equal to the Bullet Farmer in terms of freedoms Joe allows them I am saying that we have at least one example of The Immortan not being the most forgiving guy. In addition to this we never see a scene where Joe mourns for Kalashnikov as he did for Angharad. This suggests that canonically he cared more for either this enslaved woman or the idea of having an abled son to carry on his legacy than he did about K.

Now to switch gears a little bit I’d like to point out the difference in the roles of women in the Citadel vs the Legion. Both have explicitly shown that women are treated as property and experience sexual violence. Furthermore, both the Legion and Citadel philosophies state that every person is a servant to their power structures, emphasized especially when the wives toss Nux out of the war rig and tell him he’s an old man’s battle fodder. To address the elephant in the room, one of the most powerful positions in the Citadel, under the Immortan’s family and the other two warlords, are imperators. The only named imperator in the film being of course, Furiosa. This in and of itself suggests that while extremely rare (she’s visibly the only women in their society holding any power) it is possible. Also, as others have pointed out some of the overall wearing warboys in the war party are played by stuntwomen. Miss Giddy doesn’t seem to hold any sway in the Citadel’s chain of command but she is afforded the “privileges” that the wives are in the vault as well. Educated, allowed to teach the wives, and afforded some level of comfort in comparison to the wretched at least, she’s another example of a woman in the Citadel that has more nuance than rag wearing slave. The only woman in the Legion that might be a good counterpart comparison is Siri. As she was taken from her home before she could complete her medical training and forced to serve the Legion as a doctor she is very careful not to do or say anything to get in trouble. Miss Giddy is introduced when her character is well passed the point of caring about consequences and points a shotgun at Joe while yelling, “You can not own a human being! Sooner or later someone pushes back!” It’s fairly easy to say which of these portrayals is more satisfying.

Finally, what might be the most obvious reason the warboys are loved and the legion remains its game’s least popular faction. The warboys are shown sympathetically. Namely, Nux. After being forsaken by his leader he takes a lesson in humanity from Capable and does his best to help the warrig family escape and later take the Citadel. It actually starts earlier in the film than some people may have noticed though, while Furiosa drove through Buzzard territory, our titicular protagonist was still strapped to the front of a car. While we weren’t revealed Furiosa’s motives yet the movie is framed in such a way that encourages us to root for her over the buzzards when she turns down Ace’s suggestion to turn around and run them into their backup (the warparty sent to capture her). During this scene we see Morsov get shot with a crossbow. There’s a short lull in action as Nux quietly encourages, “Get up, you can do it.” Finally he does, in order to leap to his death, destroying the Buzzard car along with him. And so it is revealed the warboys purpose. Obviously, the movie format doesn’t allow for choices like a video game. The Legion is at its biggest disadvantage in this regard because in order to learn anything humanizing about them you have to decide to play the legion route.

Anyway, that’s my analysis. Please yell at me for overlooking things and tell me how much you hate the warboys or love the legion. I’m only accepting comments in the form of bullying right now.