Why do I hate Buddy so much?

[PURE SAVAGERY]

I know there has been many topics about whether Brad is a "good guy" or not and I believe that everyone can paint their own picture (which is what the game kinda wants you to do imo). I just really really hate Buddy and her character made it very hard for me to get through The Joyful.

Now don't get me mistaken I LOVE this game, and I do love Brad as a character with all his flaws and fu*k ups. I also love the settings and the whole depressive atmosphere, but I just feel like Buddy is a straight up mean and agressive b*tch. Yeah of course she grew up in Olathe and was taught to kill at young age, but that still does not explain or excuse her actions whatsoever. I just really want to know if you guys also hated Buddy or maybe did I miss something? Here are some points that I based my reasoning on.

- In The Painful it looks like Sticky abused or even ♥♥♥♥♥ her, but that is not true as we find out in The Joyful... so she was basically never truly sexually abused.

- Brad was far from perfect, but just his dedication showed how much he loved Buddy (and the fact he quit Joy for her as well) and yet she still despises him so hard

- In The Joyful it looks like Buddy is aggressive from drugs, but even if you NEVER take any Joy through the game.. And she probably never had it before since Marty in The Painful tells her not to take Joy and the Buzzo in the beginning of The Joyful tells her to stay away from it

- Her logic: "if someone does not wanna fight, then they give up their right to live" is straight up ridiculous and does not seem like something Brad, Rando or any of her close ones would taught her

- She treats Rando like ♥♥♥♥... that speaks for itself.... Rando should be the flippin protagonist of The Joyful... he seems like the ony person with somewhat decent mindset

- What in the fu*k makes her think that running Olathe is a good idea and how dares she kill so many people over power (some of them completely innocent) that's completely hypocritical, especially since she hated Brat for killing people to "protect" her

To me it almost seems like The Joyful was written by a feminist who wrote a story about a strong woman surrounded by men, but yet she manages to put everyone to their knees (or slit their throats)... Like I said before, I LOVED The Painful and I liked how desperate and dark the whole story was and yet in some way it managed to make a whole lotta sense. The Joyful does not make any sense to me and honestly it did not feel good to play. Little stupid kid killing strong man by hundreds just does not fit in... it's not Hotline Miami. What kills me is how much she hates not only Brad but literally everyone... especially Rando who never did no harm to nobody really.

Anyway, if anyone managed to read this till the end, what do you guys think? Am I missing something? Or is Buddy really as bad as I think? It just had been laying in my stomach for a while...

[me]

buddy did nothing wrong 🚫

[LV-04 "Leelee"]

I like Buddy better than any other character. Birth is hell, and it is mathematically impossible to save humanity with one woman. Rando is an idealistic moron and everyone else that's after Buddy are idiots and/or power-hungry perverts. Olathe is a trash pit where people are "living" on mostly beer and jerky and I'm glad Buddy cuts it all down.

[Okami42]

I actually agree with you. After playing the Joyful my same thought was: "damn buddy is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ prick". All the points you mentioned are very much reasonable and the same way I feel. I often thought it was so unneccessary of her to be so mean to everyone especially Rando, the kind soul.
Like also for example When you go into Pacifist Village and kill Mr. Beautiful who doesn't even hurt you for most of the fight. Idk that also was just a little uncalled for of Buddy to do.

[PURE SAVAGERY]

Originally posted by nlolicon:

buddy did nothing wrong 🚫

I don't really believe in concept of right or wrong, but she killed ton of people just for power... It was not even for revenge or for any reason except she wanted blood... Like someone mentioned above she killed Mr. Beautiful who did no harm to anybody, actually Rando even mentions that he did a lotta good for whole Olathe. Same with Shardy Hernandez, yeah he might not be a pacifist like Mr. Beautiful, but his family is mentioned to do a whole lotta good for ppl in Olathe.

Originally posted by LV-04 "Leelee":

I like Buddy better than any other character. Birth is hell, and it is mathematically impossible to save humanity with one woman. Rando is an idealistic moron and everyone else that's after Buddy are idiots and/or power-hungry perverts. Olathe is a trash pit where people are "living" on mostly beer and jerky and I'm glad Buddy cuts it all down.

I do agree with you that it would be impossible to save all humanity with one woman, but that is not the point. I ain't no angel and I enjoy my share of violence and brutality, but it is impossible for me to respect what Buddy is doing... Killing in defense is one thing, but going around and killing innocent people, many of which did not even want to fight her, seem pretty unnecessary and brutal. I love that kinda stuff in Hotline Miami or GTA but in this game it just does not fit in ESPECIALLY since she hated Brad for killing people. Rando might be idealistic about Buddy saving the world, but he somewhat achieved one thing that humanity needs to prosper and that is unity.

Originally posted by Power:

I actually agree with you. After playing the Joyful my same thought was: "damn buddy is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ prick". All the points you mentioned are very much reasonable and the same way I feel. I often thought it was so unneccessary of her to be so mean to everyone especially Rando, the kind soul.
Like also for example When you go into Pacifist Village and kill Mr. Beautiful who doesn't even hurt you for most of the fight. Idk that also was just a little uncalled for of Buddy to do.

Thanks man I am glad I am not the only one. The whole game is something to think about and all you can do is respect the characters. I did not agree with Brad killing people to "save" Buddy but I damn sure respect it... I can't respect Buddy, she has no good reason to be acting like she is. She has a mindset of 10 year old (I wanna go outside and see the world for myself, even tho everyone is after me) and kills like good old witcher with years of experience and training... The two do not mix... Another fun fact is that you kill literally every character you encounter as Buddy whereas Brad only killed people who were in his way and like I said before I can respect that.

[RebHead]

There's a lot of different ways to look at this but I think it's worth pointing out that Brad has raised her not only to be violent (obviously him trying to help her defend herself) but to be distrustful and fearful of all men.

Rando, as good as he was, wouldn't be fully trustworthy to her and be able to undo these feelings in their short time together.

The killing of Mr. Beautiful absolutely sucks and is clearly the wrong thing to do. At the same time though (it has been a *long* time since I played it so I think this is what happens) she even has to ask Rando what a pacifist is because the concept is so alien to her.

Alongside that, if her biggest fear is being confined or captured, which is what would happen and what Brad has instilled in her (both to protect her from other men but unintentionally through essentially holding her hostage, in her view). In a way it's a repeat of what Marty did (outside the sexual abuse) where Lisa wasn't allowed to leave the house and was kept imprisoned.

I think Brad killing Marty hurt her immensely. Without the context of what happened to Lisa she just gets to see her father figure murder a man who saved her life and attack her when she tries to defend him. There's literally nothing left of Marty by the time Brad is done with him.

I'm unsure if the stuff about how Joy makes people act on their innermost desires applies to addicted people, people on their way to mutation or just the mutants but if hers is to be free it would make sense. Brad becomes more and more violent as the game progresses even before his transformation so I'd buy it.

Really, the parts of Buddy that would think killing is wrong were trained out of her by Brad. Her upbringing, trauma and so on really removed any potential for her to be what we would see as a "good person". She's ultimately just a survivor.

[PURE SAVAGERY]

Originally posted by (t)Rebbeuchet:

There's a lot of different ways to look at this but I think it's worth pointing out that Brad has raised her not only to be violent (obviously him trying to help her defend herself) but to be distrustful and fearful of all men.

Rando, as good as he was, wouldn't be fully trustworthy to her and be able to undo these feelings in their short time together.

The killing of Mr. Beautiful absolutely sucks and is clearly the wrong thing to do. At the same time though (it has been a *long* time since I played it so I think this is what happens) she even has to ask Rando what a pacifist is because the concept is so alien to her.

Alongside that, if her biggest fear is being confined or captured, which is what would happen and what Brad has instilled in her (both to protect her from other men but unintentionally through essentially holding her hostage, in her view). In a way it's a repeat of what Marty did (outside the sexual abuse) where Lisa wasn't allowed to leave the house and was kept imprisoned.

I think Brad killing Marty hurt her immensely. Without the context of what happened to Lisa she just gets to see her father figure murder a man who saved her life and attack her when she tries to defend him. There's literally nothing left of Marty by the time Brad is done with him.

I'm unsure if the stuff about how Joy makes people act on their innermost desires applies to addicted people, people on their way to mutation or just the mutants but if hers is to be free it would make sense. Brad becomes more and more violent as the game progresses even before his transformation so I'd buy it.

Really, the parts of Buddy that would think killing is wrong were trained out of her by Brad. Her upbringing, trauma and so on really removed any potential for her to be what we would see as a "good person". She's ultimately just a survivor.

You do make some very valid points. Buddy indeed had no idea what pacifist is, but that still does not explain her slaying everyone she meets.

Like you said she was probably scared of being in captivity more than anything else (and The Joyful makes that pretty clear), but then why did she defend Marty so much at the end of The Painful? She escaped from Brad just to live alone with Marty on his island?

My main point is that she criticised and hated Brad for killing people (meaning she realised it was wrong)... and then five minutes after he dies she goes on a rampage and does even more ruthless killing than him? If that's not hypocriticism then idk what is...

I do understand that Buddy is fu*ked up in the head and I don't blame her for that at all given where (and with who) she grew up. But the idea of her slaying every leader (and human being) in Olathe just seem so random and pointless... I was really looking forward to Joyful and Buddy as a main character, but playing through it was just hard and not really enjoyable since there was basically no decisions to be made, just walking and pointless killing for couple of hours... At least it tied some loose ends from The Painful, but on the other side brought up more questions lol. I would not mind this senseless brutality in any other game and I am not sensitive to it whatsoever it's just the fact that The Painful had so much heart that I don't see in The Joyful.

Last thing - I don't believe Buddy is just a survivor, she certainly was pictured as such in The Painful, but then in Joyful she is basically the anti-hero going around killing everything... that is far from "just a survival".

[A Big Pile of Vanilla]

The whole point of the game was that the very idea of what a hero "traditionally" is is wrong. Brad is the most flawed version of the hero archetype, and Budy is a result of that flaw. Was he as bad as some of the people in Olathe? No. But he was still a deeply flawed, problematic protagonist, and that was the whole point of THE PAINFUL. The brilliant thing about Joyful is that it felt like an extension of the main story that you could still completely appreciate by itself.

[★nd★]

Same, her true colors made me dislike The Joyful. If I remember correctly we learn that she is not entirely human (?) Her age also makes her actions over-the-top. Only the ending (I don't remember which of the two) made me like her just a little.

[chero666]

imo, the entire series is a "cycle of pain" that is done to and BY the protagonists of each story. It's depressing. Lisa and Brad received pain from Marty, Lisa cause pain to Buzzo and Brad, Buzzo caused pain to Brad, Buddy. and Rando, Brad caused pain to Buddy (and eventually Marty who deserves it that most), Buddy caused pain to Brad, Rando, and herself (and eventually probably the entire world). The whole apocalypse just seemed like a bizarre backdrop to the family's pain. Rando is probably one of the least guilty of all of them.

That's just my take. No one looks good in this game, and Buddy is in the ass-end of the cycle and her attitude towards everyone was the result of it.

[Trismegistus]

I just ignore Joyful, tbh. I feel like the dev really dropped the ball on it, much less depth than the Painful, feels like he just shoehorned it in to wrap up the story or something. It feels really artificial to me.

Just pretend Joyful doesn't exist and make up your own ending to the story. Like, my ending for the story is Buddy goes on to maybe find a guy she actually trusts and that cares for her, and she protects him using her badass sword skills and they go off to live on their own somewhere in the wilderness and raise a kid.