#so in the sense of pure logical progression joe or nicky makes sense

[wickedpact]

Wildly unpopular opinion time: i love Nile, I do.

But narratively it made the least sense for her to kill Merrick. She literally only has one scene with him and that’s the scene where she kills him. Imo it was badass but it felt empty, lacking of any real emotional pull. She only kills him because she’s the main character if we’re being honest. Otherwise it makes zero sense. It would have felt more rewarding if Joe or Nicky had killed him as they’ve had the most scenes with him out of all the OG crew. It would have even been more rewarding if it had been Booker, redeeming himself. But honestly Nile, who virtually has no real idea who Merrick is, killing him, the big bad? Felt like a I’m The Main Character So This Is Why It’s Happening And No Other Reason moment. Sorry??

i get what youre saying but.. idk i like that nile kills merrick. or to be specific, i like that nile&andy kill merrick. bc the movie is all about nile and andy’s relationship, theyre the two heroic leads, and merrick is the one villain lead. it makes sense that the Big Bad would get killed by the Big Good (ie. nile and andy) rather than one of the borderline-side characters (as much as i do love joe and nicky and booker) (also the idea of booker killing merrick to redeem himself is fascinating)

idk its like... merrick is both reminiscent of & the exact opposite of what the old guard stands for. merrick is, essentially, a man who does bad things for a good outcome. he kidnaps and tortures the squad for cancer research. but the thing is abt him is... hes not doing it for good reasons. hes doing it for money. greg talks a little in the podcasts about how good should be done for the purpose of Doing Good, not for moral desserts.

meanwhile the immortal squad is both That and the exact opposite. they do bad things (murder) for a good outcome(to save people) and the thing is abt merrick vs. the squad is that merrick gets rewarded for doing that (money) and the squad doesnt. they dont even get the reward of knowing for certain that theyve done a good thing, they just have to kind of believe. they get literally no reward for it. killing merrick is a bit like rejecting the idea of doing ‘good’ for selfish reasons

so it makes sense to me in that regard that nile and andy kill merrick. especially considering how they do it -- with an inside joke/reference (do you think he speaks russian), which the squad passes around throughout the whole movie (bedhead/malta, sao paulo 34, etc). its like a shorthand to show how close they all are, that they can communicate so easily that they rarely have to say exactly what theyre thinking. nile being involved in one of those jokes for the first time shows how shes beginning to actually be a part of the group, and nile killing the guy who stands for the opposite of what the old guard does also accomplishes a similar purpose

& like you said it is kind of ‘I’m The Main Character So This Is Why It’s Happening‘ but it would feel kind of weird if nile, the protagonist, wasnt involved in the killing of the main villain. if joe or nicky had done it, itd make sense in that they have the most beef with merrick, and it would kind of be a ‘GET HIS ASS’ moment, but it would kind of derail the story too. is this narrative about nile growing into her immortality or is it about Joe And Nicky’s Torture Vacation? if it were the latter, joe and nicky killing merrick would make sense, but its not. joe and nicky are there to be the Sexy Kidnapped Lamp and to add thematic and narrative flavor. they arent the focus of the story, nile is