Details of VCS plot you might have missed

[Captain Northstar]

I'm doing a lot of research of Vice City and Vice City Stories plots for the mod I'm currently making and I noticed some interesting details. Some of them are more obvious than another,s but I decided to list them all here for the people to discuss. Hope you will like it.

 

Vic and Louise's romance is all about their parents

According to Phil, him and his sisters had a violent, abusive drunk of a father. Phil says openly that he turned out exactly like him, while with Louise it's a little different: instead of turning into her father, she married a man exactly like her father. Louise is fully aware that Marty J. Williams is a bad man, but she doesn't know how to break up with him because that's the only life she knows. She states it in one of the missions: "How should I know any better?". If not for Vic, she would never break the vicious circle.

 

But what's interesting here is that exactly after Vic killed Marty and broke Louise free, she did all in her power to return exactly to the same lifestyle we were saving her from. She immediately turned Vic into a violent gang leader just like Marty was, even down to such little details as gifting him a Trailer Trash outfit. She pushes Vic to the life of crime and violence, because she doesn't know any other way. This is what she was taught by her father.

 

And it's mutual. Vic also chooses Louise as his romantic interest because she reminds him of his mother: a mess of a drug addict who neglects her child. Both Vic and Louise are people who are unable to escape their fates, which is a huge theme for my future mod.

 

Vic sets up his own death with Diaz and Gonzalez

If Vic didn't betray Gonzalez in 1984 Gonzalez would never have an opportunity to betray him in 1986. All missions for Gonzalez and Diaz are practically Vic setting up his own death. Let's observe them one by one.

 

In "Colonel's Coke" Gonzalez employs Vic to protect Colonel Cortez' merchandise before the future deal. Somebody among Gonzalez' men betrays him and merchandise is almost destroyed by the rival gang. In "Home's On Range" we punish the traitor who happens to be Jesus: a terrible golfer. If you miss first three shots Gonzalez will share details of a future deal: apparently, Colonel Cortez is going to give 200 kg of coke to DEA in exchange for weapons. Weapons are going to be used in Colonel's home country to enforce a regime loyal to America: conspiracy theory that Rockstar frequently uses in their games, most notably with Mike Toreno in San Andreas.

 

Before the deal Gonzalez decides to cut some cocaine and sell it for the personal profit, but Vic almost loses the coke in "Purple Haze" and Gonzalez stops all relations with him. That's when Vic starts working for Diaz. Diaz is the second biggest druglord in Vice City, first being Diego and Armando Mendez, and his main goal is to eliminate the competition. He knows about Colonel's coke being stored somewhere in Vice City and asks Vic and Lance to find it. Vic doesn't hesitate to betray Gonzalez and uses his knowledge of his men to find the coke in "Steal the Deal". Practically, Vic did what Jesus has done. I mean, used inside knowledge of Gonzalez' operation to sell him to his enemies, not sacrifice himself for our sins.

 

After 200 kg of coke is stolen and taken to Diaz, he decides to sell them to DEA himself which leads us to the notorious missions "The Exchange". Vic succesfully delivers the coke (that Diaz already has cut) to DEA in Downtown and delivers Flatbed with weapons to Diaz' mansion. Later Vice City police reports about seizing 199 kg of cocaine, implying that they also cut into the profit, just like Gonzalez and Diaz done.

 

Gonzalez doesn't report to Colonel about his failure, probably afraid of being executed in his home country, and instead pledges his loyalty to Diaz to get his weapons back. Diaz is surprisingly generous. If 20 kilos of coke in 1986 were sold for three millions, 200 kg must cost 30 mil of dollars, which is a big price to pay for one's loyalty. Gonzalez promises to inform Diaz of any future deals in Vice City, directly implying that it was him who set Vic up in the beginning of GTA Vice City. Vic protects him on his way to the airport in the same Flatbed that he earlier delivered from DEA, thus preserving Colonel's interests in Vice City and his own future death.

 

Diego and Armando are kind of right

Diego and Armando had every reason to kill Vic and Lance for stealing the coke from them. And I suspect that's exactly what Diego wanted and that's the reason why he is so grumpy as soon as one of two Vances appear. But Armando believed Vances' lies and decided to work with them, which lead to the destruction of Mendez family. But let's start from the start.

 

In one of my previous posts I explained my reasons to believe that Vic never was a "king of Vice City" a lot of players believe him to be, but rather a small-time gang leader similar to Marty J. Williams. I would like to elaborate on that idea here. After Vic takes over Marty's empire, he has three small-time ventures in Vice City Mainland. Before the mission "Blitzkrieg" it is required to have at least five businesses, so canonically speaking we can confidently say that Vic expanded Marty's territories, probably after him and Los Cabrones destroyed Cholo's presense in the region. It is important to notice, that no matter how many businesses player has at this point of the game, they are considered small time and gang members will always look like a Trailer Park Mafia with less hillbilliness added to the mix. So Vic is considered a small-time gang-leader.

 

Everything changes after he and Lance stole the cocaine from Mendez Brothers. They were delivering a huge shipment into the country with the help of sergeant Jerry Martinez. I suspect the shipment was so huge that could only be brought into the borders with the help of the army, that's why Mendez Brothers used Jerry's services. The shipment was delivered in not one, but two Flatbed trucks. Compare it to 200 kg of coke from Colonel Cortez that was delivered in the hull of one tiny boat. Approximately, Mendez' shipment cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

Lance correctly states that selling this shipment will set him and his brother for life and will allow them to pay off anything Mendez will throw at them. That sounds plausible. Naturally, everything doesn't work exactly as they planned it, with their mother stealing the shipment and them getting into a huge debt with Mendez Brothers. So not only they stole cocaine from Mendez Brothers, they also lost it. They are clearly to blame and in a huge debt. But they successfully lie their way out of it and Armando offers them a partnership. A very generous offer.

 

Naturally, the equal partnership is out of the question: Vances being a small-time brothel owners and Mendez being major smugglers of tons of cocaine into the country. Also, Vances are a in debt, stealing hundreds of millions from Mendezes and losing them. So partnership is not equal: instead, Vances gang works for Mendez gang. In "Hostile Takeover" we learn that for years Mendez Cartel was distributing drugs in Vice City through Vice City Bikers, but Bikers were ripping them off. Now Armando "promotes" Vic and asks him to take over their operation. Promotion is not just a figure of speech: after this mission Vic's gang changes appearance from a small-time crew in wife-beaters to respectably looking gangsters.

 

Gameplay wise nothing changes, but from that point on Vic's gang works for Mendez to repay the debt. It is important to notice that Vic is still not a drug lord himself. He is a street gang leader who uses his connections on the streets to sell the drugs for druglords, similar to how Bikers sold drugs for Mendezes or how San Fierro Rifas sold drugs for Toreno. He is not a king of Vice City by any means, simply the muscle. As the muscle, he does small-time jobs for Mendezes: killing their competition and stealing their drugs from DEA. Ironically, it is similar to the work of another Mendez: T-Bone from San Andreas. Vic practically has his role.

 

Please notice that DEA takes a close interest in Vances operation. They are the new players in town, possibly connected to Brian Forbes disappearance. In "High Wire" it is stated that Armando also blamed them for the arrested shipment. DEA tried to bug Lance's and Vic's apartments, but Vic destroys antennaes to avoid the arrest. In any case, situation is dire and dangerous for Vic and Lance, but they cannot escape it since they are indebted to Mendezes.

 

The issue is resolved in "Burning the Bridges". Armando says that Vances succesfully repaid the debt, but now they have to leave town and give up their interests. Vic and Lance protest. Let's look at the issue closer. Vances' businesses do not really belong to Vances: they are merely a distribution ring for Mendez' merchandise. It is also worth noticing that before Vances took over, the distribution ring worked for Mendezes anyway, because Bikers were their employees. Without Mendezes greenlighting it Vances would never get into the drug game in Vice City. It is true not only from a narrative, but also from a gameplay point of view: you cannot open up a drug business without completing "Hostile Takeover" first.

 

It is also confirmed that all drugs Vances ever moved belong to Mendez in the missions "Taking the Fall" and "White Lies". It was Armando Mendez who told Vic to investigate the disappearance of the cocaine, meaning that is was their mutual business, not just Vic or Lance's.

 

Vic says that he earned a lot of money for Mendezes and then specifies confidently: "money I didn't lose". This is a complete lie on his part. Not only him and Lance stole the cocaine from Mendez, they also indeed lost it to their own mother. The whole issue was created by Vances, Mendez never provoked them in any way and never attacked their interests on the Mainland. The only reason they became big time players is because Armando Mendez promoted them and allowed to move cocaine for him. The offer to take the money and leave town is more then generous.

 

Notice, how Mendez Cartel was destroyed not by Vances themselves, but with the combined force of Los Cabrones, Phil Cassidy, Diaz and then Vances. If Armando didn't give Vances the opportunity to rise, they would never spearhead the whole city's underworld's resistance to destroy the current kings. But unfortunately, nobody listens to Diego.

 

The Story As A-Whole

Now this one is funny. Vic's favorite word in the game is "asshole". I'm not kidding, look for yourself:

 

"Marked Men":

Phil: I said he (Martinez) was an asshole.

Vic: He IS an asshole.

 

"D.I.V.O.R.C.E.":

Louise: I can't believe you killed him. How am I gonna to look after my baby now?

Vic: You WHAT? Marty was an asshole!

 

"From Zero to Hero":

Vic: No. I'm through with this bullsh*t. I don't wanna be a damn drug dealer. It's for assholes.

 

You might see a pattern here. Everytime Vic is judgemental of somebody or something, he proclaims them to be assholes. But you also might notice, that he turns out exactly the same. He inherited gang from the asshole Marty. He inherited coke from the asshole Martinez. And in the end of the day he turned into a drug dealer, another asshole in his book.

 

Writers are aware of that and Louise calls him out on his behavior in "White Lies": 

Louise: God damn, you are so judgmental, like you're a damn saint or something. Why are you being such an asshole?

 

So Vic is calling every villain in the game an asshole, then turns into a villain himself and called out? I don't think it's a coincidence. But if you still don't believe me, then look at the final mission, "Last Stand":

Diaz: You're a hero!

Vic: No! I'm an asshole! I spend all my time running around, making morons rich, while my family fell apart and the woman I wanted died waiting for me to call.

 

Again, very deliberate choice of words. Vic is called a hero throughout the game, but in the end he admits that he himself is an asshole. He has no more illusions about his own moral superiority, he doesn't consider himself above the villains he's fighting and that's how he ends his story: rising to their level, destroying them and leaving the town.

 

A lot of people say that his death in GTA Vice City doesn't allign with his story, but I disagree. Him morally corrupting and accepting who he is is in line with dying on a drug deal two years later. Yes, it definitely could be explained better by Rockstar, especially in the very last cutscene before credits, but all the story beats are there. I hope I helped you to see them and I hoped you enjoyed this long rant.

 

Thanks for your attention.

[universetwisters]

I feel like I should say ellaborate to say but all I can think of is "this is a very good essay". Well done, it was a great read!

[GTAFanLuca]

What an enjoyable read! Much deeper than the usual "bleh, bleh, Stories games have bad story".

[Captain Northstar]

6 hours ago, universetwisters said:

I feel like I should say ellaborate to say but all I can think of is "this is a very good essay". Well done, it was a great read!

Thanks a lot! I appreciate it deeply.

3 hours ago, GTAFanLuca said:

What an enjoyable read! Much deeper than the usual "bleh, bleh, Stories games have bad story".

Thanks! So glad you liked it! I miss a good discussion about the older GTAs and GTAForums is the only place to fill that void.

[dynast]

Awesome, i appreciate a guy who pays attention to the lore of this awesome game, it had way more to delve into than gta vc's classic Scarface montage