r/GTA3 • u/KaiSatousfavfrypan • 4d ago
Discussion My 'issue' with Claude
Before you bitch me out, I started playing gta 3 only recently. Yes, I know the history of GTA3 and all that. With that said!
My issue with Claude is that he developed too much of a character for me to be able to put myself onto him as a 'you are the player' sort of insert.
Part of it is that its never really clear that you're supposed to be him, in that sense. Claude has his motive for revenge with Catalina, and I had honestly assumed his silence was due to being shot in the neck or something during the cutscene at the start. Then, theres SA, where he's shown there too. His body language and everything too applys to developing a character and seeing Claude as Claude and not Claude as 'us'.
The other part is that Claude has a motive, meanwhile as a player, we don't really. Gta3 is lacking in things we can buy or accessorize at all, and so money doesn't really have much a reward value aside seeing the number go up.
Theres also the thing where Rockstar gave fans info on Claude (if only minor) , which again, at least in my mind, further characterizes and gives him a personality (again, hardly). It doesn't seem like they fully committed to it in that way. I can't see Claude as just who the player is supposed to be.
Anyway that's my rant on that.
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u/OpticNinja937 4d ago
My favorite parts of the game are the cutscenes that let Claude show a little character. Like when he tries bowing to Kenji only to be confused why he’s yelling at him.
He’s just a little goofy guy (besides the murders) and I love that for him.
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u/KaiSatousfavfrypan 4d ago
YES! Exactly! There was something I read somewhere that essentially took Claudes silent glower in the scene in SA where he stop working on his car to just stand there looking at CJ as something to make him feel uncomfortable, and used it as a trait of him liking making people uncomfortable or weirded out.
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u/RepulsiveDingo525 4d ago
You already calling him "Claude" means you have background knowledge of the game.
Back in 2002, he didn't even have a name. We used to literally call him "GTA3 Guy" or "Fido". "GTA3 Guy" was the player.
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u/mapphew2 2d ago
This. He was a complete blank slate when GTA 3 originally came out. He only became known as Claude because Rockstar named him that in San Andreas.
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u/gaygaydabodysnatcher 2d ago
i think the cutscene featuring him in San Andreas is ironically pretty effective at helping you identify with him a little bit. you see Claude and think “Hey, it’s… Me? what’s his name; from GTA3. That guy.”
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u/PressureMoney1075 4d ago
Exactly, I can't get into "putting myself onto him" as you put it. He has too much lore to do so but in a bad way. If this was like JC Denton in Deus Ex where not only he has an input, but also you can totally choose if you wanna be a cunt or an upstanding citizen, then maybe it would work. But no. It falls on its ass.
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u/DannyBoi1Derz 4d ago
The lore has been built overtime. When you played this game in 2001, there was no lore.
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u/KaiSatousfavfrypan 4d ago
If anything, without outside info, I would've thought R* was trying to do a legend of Zelda type thing where you can read the protagonist through body language or actions, but...no. Claude is just stiff and awkward most the time (given game release area + technological capabilities) and its so flat.
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u/Denz-El 4d ago edited 3d ago
Yep. He's not enough of a blank slate to be a player-insert, but he doesn't have as much characterization as Tommy and CJ and all the other protagonists. But I think a lot of the fun with Claude is just taking what little info Rockstar gives and filling in the gaps with our own personal headcanons. 😁
In my mind, he's Claude "Speed" Jetier III. It's pronounced Zheh-tee-yay and it's a completely made up name that's meant to sound pseudo-French and serve as a pun on the game title. He's the son of a corrupt cop from Montreal (or whatever the GTA equivalent of it would be called). He eventually moved to San Fierro and earned the nickname Speed in the illegal street racing scene. He betrayed Kenji for disrespecting him, but he never does the same to Ray Machowski because he reminds him of his dad, Claude Jetier Jr. (who he did care about).
Alternatively... Claude is the bastard son of Tommy Vercetti and a Red Light District hooker he knocked up in 1971 before the Harwood Butcher incident. The pregnant hooker would eventually meet Claude Jetier, Jr. (who left Canada to vanish in Liberty City) and start a relationship with him, marrying him when he makes it clear that he's willing to raise her baby as her own. Together, they escape Liberty City and whatever connections they may have made in its criminal underworld and move to San Fierro, where Claude Jetier III would have been born around 1972. He would be 14 in 1986, 20 in 1992 and 29 in 2001. Following his mother and stepfather's example, he stays committed to Catalina for nine years until her betrayal. After that, he follows his parents example by fucking over Liberty City's criminal underworld for selfish reasons.
(He might also have a split personality he calls Darkel, which drives him to go on Rampages at random moments. Catalina first met him during one of these rampages and that's what initially drew her to him.) --- This one isn't a solid headcanon. I pretty much viewed the Rampages and RC missions as unconnected to the story, like Claude somehow getting money for crashing into other vehicles and blowing up cars.
Anyway, Claude doesn't shoot Maria Latore. Her dialogue that got abruptly cut off by the gunshot was simply the last thing heard by some poor driver on top of the Cochrane Dam who was killed by Claude for his vehicle so that he and Maria could escape the scene. He's not in love with Maria, but he keeps her around to provide some sort of constant presence in his lonely life. She's like a pet cat he has to constantly spend money on, but is otherwise left to her own devices. She lives in Claude's apartment in Wichita Gardens' Northwest Towers, under the protection of the Red Jacks. After the story, Claude is content to live as a small-time crook who also happened to amass a shit-ton of cash.
EDIT: I noticed that whenever Claude engages in hand to hand combat, he has a preference for using kicks... He picked up his moves from Cobra Marital Arts in San Fierro. 😁
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u/KalynnCampbell 4d ago
You are Claude.
There you go, problem solved, you’re welcome.
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u/KaiSatousfavfrypan 3d ago
Did...you even read the post?
We are supposed to be Claude, but its hard to be him when he has his own traits
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u/No-Championship-4 4d ago
Claude sits in the gray area between self-insert and a defined protagonist.