Why Vassili is such an interesting character.

(blisteringOwlNest) #1

So we all know Vassili is a fun loving guy who makes meme jokes and works at a grocery store. My point is he shouldn’t be.

In studies done in the army, snipers are found to have the highest rate of PTSD, and it’s often very severe. Mainly, it’s because they have to watch their targets heads explode to confirm the kill, in great detail due to the high powered scope. You can see why that’s have some side effects.

So what’s with Vasilli? He seems unconcerned with the exploding heads and gruesome executions he delivers daily. Is he a psychopath? Maybe. Is he suppressing this PTSD by acting immature and innocent?

What do you guys think?

(Drac0rion) #2

After an apocalypse, people just don’t give a f***. When you’re living where killing is an everyday thing, you just grow accustomed to it, it’s just gonna be as casual as hitting a nail into a wall. That’s my guess.

And my guess is based off my personal experience, while I served 11 months in the army, I had a loaded gun(AK-4) with safety off pointed at my head during a shooting exercise by accident of course, but honestly I was just so tired of shooting my own gun all day and on top of that being the machine gun assistant, that I just couldn’t really be arsed to put too much thought into it.

It’s like, if you’re born with a silver spoon in your mouth and then later thrown into the streets with nothing, you would hate and get stressed out by everything, but someone already born with nothing would just be casual about it.

(blisteringOwlNest) #3

@Dracorion yeah that does make sense, and would explain a lot. And he has a history of being a sniper, so I could see him not care.

(Hallaw) #4

Wait, guys, I think I am onto something… Vassili is a russian name, if you google vassili you will be linked to vassili zaytsev, a russian sniper in the second world war who killed 225 soldiers during the battle of Stalingrad, 2+2+5 = 9. 9? 9/11. 9/11 was done by al-Qaeda terrorists in 2001. 2+0+0+1 = 3. Triangles have three sides. It is a commonly accepted fact that triangles are linked with the so called “loominarty”, the enlightened. Vassili is the best sniper in any game ever, and he is enlightened in the art of missing every single shot oh god please stop buying vassili as your first merc just please, I can’t take this anymore.

I think I was onto something, but I forgot.

(Drac0rion) #5

Illuminati or Half-Life 3 confirmed, one or the other, good job mate.

To be honest the russian name with that extremely english accent bothers me about him more than anything else. :smiley:

(blisteringOwlNest) #6

Yeah, still cool how his name has heritage though. Even though it’s Russian xD

(Reddeadcap) #7

It’s really funny, as it suggests that Vasilli is meant to be an analogue to the usual “mlg” first person shooter player.

many of his taunts sounding just too childish to take serious or informing how he worked at a supermarket, especially stacking store shelves, which to some is a pretty lousey and low paying job, like working at a burger place.

Some of his lines even have him compare himself to an aimbotter, blaming his misses on lag and even explaining that the reason why he’s in the containment zone was mostly to get away from his parents.

As for the name, just like how every other merc goes by a nickname Vasilli took the name of a famous sniper to further inform people how good of a sniper he is, which some lines even make it sound like he really is talking out his ass, which could really fit many instances where many players pick the sniper character because we imagine snipers to be the most bad ass character types, usually seen as cold and distant and a high skill/high reward playstyle

which many people don’t have the skill to play as but still try to, practice is practice sure but remember you have a heart beat sensor that can help your team out!

(Dawnlazy) #8

[quote=“Redcap;125888”]It’s really funny, as it suggests that Vasilli is meant to be an analogue to the usual “mlg” first person shooter player.

many of his taunts sounding just too childish to take serious or informing how he worked at a supermarket, especially stacking store shelves, which to some is a pretty lousey and low paying job, like working at a burger place.

Some of his lines even have him compare himself to an aimbotter, blaming his misses on lag and even explaining that the reason why he’s in the containment zone was mostly to get away from his parents.[/quote]

This. DB is full of references to pop culture and ironic characters, like Rhino being an academic rather than a brute with a big gun, Stoker being a polite gentleman rather than a pyromaniac, Phantom being childish and a joker rather than an edgy silent hitman and so on. Vassili is one of the best in my opinion, his lines are all great.

(Frogteam) #9

I wish they’d reveal more about some of the mercs. I want to know about Arty’s band t-shirt Splash Damage. I need to feed off the characters’ over intricate backstories!

This is a real Signature.

(CCP115) #10

V-7-9-1

“Anything to get away from my parents”

V-7-9-2

“I’ve stacked smarter things than you on a grocery store shelf, like uhh… YOGHUT”

I have a feeling that being the edgiest most angsty British teen ever means he honestly doesn’t care about war. He also gets paid to shoot guns, what edgy teen doesn’t want to do that?

(Reddeadcap) #11

[quote=“Dawnrazor;125906”]
This. DB is full of references to pop culture and ironic characters, like Rhino being an academic rather than a brute with a big gun, Stoker being a polite gentleman rather than a pyromaniac, Phantom being childish and a joker rather than an edgy silent hitman and so on. Vassili is one of the best in my opinion, his lines are all great.[/quote]

Indeed, one can even look at this in Rhino’s gameplay style, some think all you need to do is go head first into a fight and tank up damage, but sadly that’s not the case and the minigun should be used with a bit more situational awareness, which fits the idea that Rhino is smart enough to know how not to get himself killed right away (really wish he had a shield or faster move speed with it revved though)

Fragger I guess you could say is that he isn’t the usual american soldier. He’s around his late 30s-early 40s has a mole and is pretty hefty guy, along with a bit of weight, unlike the usual handsome, clean shaven soldier in his 20s seen in other shooters
(Take a look at Scrub from the trailer for an example.)

Proxy is very athletic and runs into and out of a fight and has the smarts to deal with machinery, unlike the usual gruff engineer, and rather than going all out Engineer = Smart Sciencey guy, Proxy and the other engineers are pretty fancy and funny.

Personal love goes for Phantom, one would imagine he’d be like Reaper from Overwatch or be a full blown weeabu but the guy just sounds like he was born watching too many 1990s saturday morning cartoons, a history of bad conduct and an outright prankster.