[SPOILERS] Curly

[Laxhoop2525]

These are just my thoughts on the character after having finished the game once.

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It could be very easy to simply blame Curly for all of the events that took place, or more specifically, his lack of action, but the conversations between him and Anya show that Curly isn’t very capable of reading between the lines. He basically even says as much in the screen conversation, the same conversation where he fails to pick up on any of the hints that Anya gives him, including the most blatant comment about the locks.

This, combined with the fact that he apparently went out of his way to help Jimmy get a job, even after he potentially served jail time, and how he apparently didn’t fully realize what Jimmy intended to do in the cockpit, shows that Curly operates on a very simple level. Not STUPID, but a very "2+2=4, even if there are other numbers, and even a few letters that are also involved" kind of mentality.

He seems to always assume the best in people, especially his crew and his friends. His dialogue with Anya and Jimmy regarding Anya’s pregnancy could easily come across like he’s trying to avoid the problem, but it honestly felt like he was naive to the point where he thought it was consensual. He knew Jimmy, and he didn't think Jimmy was capable of something so awful, to the point where I don't think it even crossed his mind.

Once Anya tells Curly she's pregnant, and who the father is, the level of concern he has doesn’t seem appropriate for a captain who just found out one of his crew had been assaulted. The way he talks makes it sound like his biggest concern is that a birth would be very difficult in their current situation. And the way he talks to Jimmy afterwards suggests that he thinks Jimmy’s main concern is being a deadbeat dad. Ironically, you need to read in-between the lines to realize that Jimmy isn’t really able to do exactly that, and it leads to many issues.

I mean, for Christ’s sake, he was the only member of the crew who didn’t expect the company to fall apart like it did. Even Daisuke only expressed shock at how quickly it happened, and Anya’s main shock came from how this meant they wouldn’t get paid. She fully expected this to happen, just not during one of their runs, and she’s not naive enough to believe they will be paid for this mission now. Daisuke just immediately begins talking about how he already had other options prepared.

This news seems to have only been a complete shock to Curly. And taking all of this into consideration, as well as how the company rarely put appropriate people into appropriate positions, it stands to reasons that Curly possibly wasn’t the best choice to be the captain, despite what Jimmy keeps saying. He might have been the best person to steer the ship, but not command a crew.

Because a good captain isn't naive to what was actually going on around him, and Curly clearly was. Now, being naive doesn’t excuse the fact that he allowed all of that to happen while he was the captain, and therefore responsible for everyone’s safety, but as a person, as an individual, well, if we begin to blame people for always seeing the best in those around them, then we have truly failed.

And I think the final, crucial piece of evidence, is how Curly NEVER stops looking at Jimmy after the crash. If someone had expected that kind of betrayal, they normally would do their best to look away from the betrayer, to not give them the satisfaction of being acknowledged. But Curly NEVER stops looking at Jimmy. He looks at him so hard that his eyes constantly vibrate. His is a look of utter betrayal and hatred. Perhaps, only once he was literally burned by Jimmy, did all of Anya’s words finally connect in his mind.

He was Captain, but he failed to notice what was happening around him, and the ship crashed because of it. He was a man who just saw the good in people and wanted to believe things were always better than they were, and he allowed horrible things to happen because of it. He suffered because he thought his friend was a friend, and not a monster.

If Curly had been in any other position besides that of complete authority on the ship, I think I could say that his only failure was trusting Jimmy, and failing to recognize social cues. But as Captain, the fate he suffered was cruel, but sadly appropriate.

[Stef32]

Great write up, glad to see this perspective of Curly. He is clearly flawed but people blaming him for what happened to Anya is shocking, and something that never even occurred to me during my play through