After killing Quinn, and Aiden monologues about "not feeling empty" and comments about that expected revenge trope, but instead says "lol no fuck you I feel amazing" is the very reason I think it's great character development.
Play 1 all the way through then play 5 minutes of 2 and I bet most people would be begging to go back to 1 I know I was. The is a reason ive finished watch dogs 1 4 times across 3 different platforms where as I only finished 2 once
An emotional enough revenge story can still be really good... John Wick does get extra points for pulling on puppy heart strings though so that's something to consider... though I think WATCH_DOGS is a pretty good game overall anyway, when you look at it from a perspective not butthurt by the launch day controversy
@@TaHoMasWilliams Gotta respect Aiden! Dude deserves so much more credit and shouldn't be put down as a bad protagonist because Ubisoft lied about the graphics before the first watch dogs release! Aiden forever!
I am so glad someone decided to analyze Aiden without hating on the game for once. And for it to be a well-researched and fascinating video on top of that, you are so underappreciated and I hope your channel grows.
I feel the same way as you do when it comes someone analyzing Aiden too. I will say this I prefer him over Marcus any day, at least Aiden was consistent for what he does as the vigilante.
@@samrg94 I agree with you on what you’ve said about Aiden. Many players who didn’t like him really didn’t look into the deeper meaning of Aiden’s character.
The people who don't like Aiden but Marcus are the teenagers that just don't want to admit that their Instagram life is not real; they don't want to look into the complexity of the real life. And when their bubbles burst, they either go mad and become Karens complaining about everything or they run again to look for a bubble to get into, grow tired and give up. P.S. these are pop and hip-hop music listeners. That's why they like Marcus.
This was an amazing listen, Aiden in my eyes has always been a complex character that I can relate to in a many instances and have sometimes came to question if some of our motives are similar. Sure he’s a bad guy but the intent is good whether it’s for personal gain or satisfaction and maybe even believing you’re making a difference. I will definitely be coming back to this video every once in a while after more play throughs of the game. Had to have beaten it 10+ times and I’m always interested in learning more about his character.
Absolutely, I really enjoyed his character as well! The details and minutiae in the game's narrative really do offer more nuance than critics gave him credit for during release. I always love discussing this kind of thing, so if you gain any new insights from your future playthroughs, feel free to share them here - I would love to hear them! Thanks for stopping by!
@@_prizma You know what, I will take you up on that offer. You’ve also earned a subscriber! One thing I wanted to bring up, for Aiden’s destructive nature do you think in the Demon Digital trip with the muscle car (can’t think of it off the top of my head) I was thinking it was Damien trying to compare Aiden again. Compare him to his more destructive and adventurous behavior. By saying the terms “There’s nothing wrong with showing off” “You think you’re better off without me? Prove it” and others. What’s your input?
Hmm, this is a really good point! I think across the narrative, there was this motif with Damien constantly challenging Aiden to do better, or even a competitive rivalry between the two (see the dialogue in Sometimes You Still Lose). It would make sense to say that Damien's voice in the Madness digital trip is supposed to represent an internalisation of that relationship. It's definitely possible that this plays a part in Pearce's aggressive patterns of behaviour, where goal attainment has been impressed as a priority via social learning. Especially when combined with other ideas like social strain and reinforced deviance, I think you could make a case that Aiden is socialised to resolve problems with direct, and often destructive action. Of course, this is mostly speculation as I'm not too familiar with the literature on the social/cognitive/emotional processes behind reckless and destructive behaviour, but this line of reasoning is at least cogent on a prima facie level.
@@_prizma To definitely back up your idea on Damien challenging Aiden and his skills, the first few missions has Aiden and (at the time) Badboy17 to track a crank call and locate a hidden signal eventually bringing him to Damien. Damien even says “Hope you don’t mind the games, wanted to see if you’d lost your edge” either meaning to see if he’s still up to the task or to even see if Aiden is willing to reunite the old team again. I know Aiden pursues dangerous activities to either help him cope with his emotions but that leads me to another question. Do you think Aiden went to San Francisco to continue the chain of revenge involving anyone connected to Quinn or do you think he had to continue his work as a vigilante somewhere else since there was too much heat with him staying in Chicago? In the mission leading up to freeing Aiden you find and audio log from one of the gang members saying “Physco’s following threads out of Quinn’s fuck up in Chicago” so we have the group he’s going after but not his internal motive.
Yeah, that's right! I completely forgot about that line from Damien. With respect to Aiden's appearance in WD2, I interpreted it as being more rooted in general vigilantism than in revenge. It seemed to me that by the end of the first game, Aiden was fairly satisfied with what he had done in Chicago. In Guys Like Us, he tells Maurice that he's the final loose end, implying that his quest for vengeance had effectively come to an end. But I suppose that the player's choice in this mission is somewhat meaningful as well: if you spared him, you are communicating that Aiden has the willpower to end that chain of revenge; if you killed him, who's to say that Maurice would actually be the last? I've heard from modders that the game files consider killing Maurice as the canonical ending, but ultimately, it's really hard to say what his motivations are after the events of WD1, considering the 2-3 year gap between it and WD2. As I mentioned in the video though, his continued long-term participation in vigilantism might be evidence that it's an example of the sublimation defense mechanism, but beyond that it's anyone's guess. Love these questions, they really get you thinking! What are your thoughts on this?
The voice actor could've done a lot better. His line delivery comes off as really flat and forced, as if he's doing his best Clint Eastwood impression rather than playing a character. I think the voice acting is behind a lot of the criticism.
Funny how I've just played WD for the first time, and was completely baffled about Aiden - I only remembered that he was not a well-received character at all. By the end of the game, my disappointment grew as well, but not about Aiden himself - rather about the fact that WD2 won't feature him. :) I found him very compelling, and his revenge/vigilante story was one of my favourite campaigns from these last few years. I've only had time to watch the first fifteen minutes, but I'll come back to it. Keep it up, it was really engaging from the start (though you could work on your speech a bit, sometimes it's a bit fast and not quite clear :) ), and I'm really happy that someone else thought that Aiden's character is worthy of such a deep analysis.
Thanks, I'm glad this is an interesting topic! I know my VO can be a bit difficult to understand at times, and that's definitely something I'm still trying to improve. I should mention that all of my videos are captioned in English, so hopefully that can remedy any ambiguity in the narration.
Aiden shows up in a side mission in WD2 called "shadow" i think you dont get to talk to him but you break him out and he looks at the camera and nods (like saying thank you)
@@stevevigilante9944 yeah you’re in the minority there. Got better reception than the first game. But yeah I prefer the first game over all but that doesn’t mean the second game is bad. I love the second game like most people do. It was a nice contrast in tone to the first game. Good balance between the two.
Great video! Also Aidens controlling behaviour seems to not be entirely based on trauma from being unable to prevent the death of his niece, considering how he's already mentioned both by Damien and himself as being pretty proficient at social engineering prior to the incident. One of my friends suggested that his drive to control people and the world around him is an adaptation to his inability to relate to other people from early childhood, not due to psychopathy/aspd, but due to a form of HFA.
Hm, that's a really good point and something that I hadn't thought about. I originally had a section in the video about Aiden's lack of interpersonal trust that got cut, but I think that this perspective would explain both that and several other aspects of his behaviour. Well done!
@Rehtric I’m happy and relieved about that too. He’ll always be one favorite video game character. Vigilantism really can help stop lots of crime in very corrupt cities especially Chicago since it’s one of the most dangerous city in the u:s.
Many thanks to everyone for watching and leaving such encouraging comments! I am overjoyed by the positive responses and will strive to maintain (if not improve) the quality level on future videos. A couple things I wanted to note though: 1) Erratum: At 50:53, I said "adaptive pathway to cognitive dissonance" in my narration, when I meant to say "cognitive consonance." 2) Erratum: At 57:56, Lance Brenner is not grievously injured by Pearce, but by his accomplice, Jordi Chin. Brenner is optionally killed by the player following a cutscene. Thanks to Julia Rose for pointing this out. 3) Video production is a time consuming process, and as a student, time is a resource in short supply. As such, it often takes me months to get my research and footage together. Please keep this in mind if you are considering subscribing to my channel. 4) My interests span across a diverse set of subjects, so my future videos will likely have little to do with character analysis. Again, please take this into consideration if you wish to follow my future projects. Once more, thank you all so much for watching (and reading in this case). Hope y'all have a good day! -John
Hey, you made a video basically making it super easy for us Aiden fans to tell haters that he isn't a bad character. He is very complex and we'll thought out. And for that. You have my respect. My love. And my Subscription! You deserve it!
I like Aiden due to his past making him the guy he is now. His unnecessary need to fix things for his sister as well as walking in his Dad’s shadow alongside his moral ambiguity mentioned in the watch dogs artbook really makes me wonder if Aiden was protrayed incorrectly or it was intentionally this way.
I’m pretty sure it was intentional. I remember seeing an interview many years ago where a dev (think it was Dominic Guay) said that Aiden was meant to be a deeply flawed character, as that’s what helped move the narrative forward.
@@lukas.ferreira3916 I meant more so the acting, Aiden’s actor is awesome abd Bloodline proved the character is great. But I wonder if they directed him right. More so because he monologes too much. I could see someone passive on Aiden not liking him. Also I think if more characters were critical on him more people would get it. Not just Damien and Jordi
@@chasethecringewolf2195 Reason being because he masks his personality so that nobody knows who really he is, which is why Damien was such a powerful antagonist: because he was the only one who could make Aiden snap. And much of the characters’ opinion (especially the general public) depends on how the player plays the game. I mean, sure, regardless of how you play there are people in-universe who think he’s a goddamn psychopath. But if your reputation is at “Vigilante”, there is absolutely no reason why the general public shouldn’t support him. Especially when all his efforts are directed towards bagging scumbags who are hated by just about everyone. One way or another, he’s a way better character than people at the time gave him credit for.
@@lukas.ferreira3916 Mind you i literally agree with everything you say butttt... In game if you look at news stations some list Aiden Pearce as the suspect who is the Vigilante...as early as the baseball mission. So this entire time there were news reports on Aiden that Jackson and Nicole watched and they thought, “That vigilante guy is cool,” Obviously it isn’t intended but thats the point. This game had went through alot of changes before release, the Defalt club is now what the demo used to be and while gameplay is obviously different (You could summon help with Fixxers as well as let someone ride cameras and hack shit for you, wish it was still in there. Along side just having one pistol and the weapon wheel would be a hacking wheel.) The story probably has just as much change in it too. True it could be better than what they planned but it could also be worse than what they planned too you never know. My point is in the demo we see the same Aiden, he talks different and he emotes more than main game Aiden, just from a simple conversation with Aiden and Joesph Demarco’s “Message,” its still better than main game. It makes me think they were going to have Aiden do more in terms of personality than what we got. The Watch Dogs artbook told me that Aiden was designed to be visually ambiguous and blend into crowds while also representing his moral greyness and thats when the character clicked for me. I didn’t get that from the main game and as a result I thought it was trying to make Aiden better than he was, but no he’s pretty good in fact. Aiden is definitely my favorite protagonist so far in Watch Dogs maybe even the whole of Ubisoft series, (tied with Jason Brody and Shay, and maaaaybe Ezio but idk) But I get the feeling there are things left out about Aiden that should’ve made it to the main game. Just happy to see Bloodline doing that, having characters criticize him and point out his faults. While its not completely subtly it 1, reels in people who might’ve hated Aiden and 2 Makes people who like him love him even more. But one fantastic example I love of this in the first game is the Fixer mission where you and Jordi take down a boss and then interrogate him to find out who is trying to figure out Aiden’s identity. In the end you find out its a guy names Angelo. So how does Aiden find this guy? But going through his fucking niece. Sound familiar? It’s such a subtle detail I doubt no one gives it any mind at all but holy shit thats perfect in terms of story through gameplay. Just wish there was more of that in the story.
@@chasethecringewolf2195 Completely agree. The presentation could’ve been better. His banter with Jordi in the 2012 demo was great and I really wish he stayed somewhat like that, but I still love what they went with. Another great example is Bedbug. Bedbug is a criminal who thinks he deserves more than what he has, but he’s also a kid who’s facing a lot of uncertainty and despair. Aiden gives him a fearsome reputation but also blackmails him, forcing him to get inside the Viceroy’s nearly impenetrable fortress and potentially put his own life at risk. “I can give, but I can also take.” But even as he threatens to ruin his life, Aiden still cares about him and does his best to not get him hurt. Hell, he even opens up to him and reveals the reason why he’s going after the servers: because his family got hurt. When Bedbug nearly dies, Aiden genuinely worries for his safety, asking himself if he got him killed for… what? A portion of the data? And when Aiden finds out he’s still alive, he feels relieved, thanks him for a well done job, and lets him go without a second thought instead of forcing him any further. When push comes to shove, Aiden does whatever he feels necessary, believing in “taking one life to save a thousand”. But he also knows the value of a life, and taking one away is not a decision he makes lightly.
Yeah except he isnt intrested in a creed he cares about people He doesnt hunt people because they are templars he does so because of their actions Something some of the assassin creed games forget
This was a fantastic analysis, well done! I liked the concluding remark that the writers may not have done that much research for Aiden but his character sure is worthy of discussion, awesome, detailed work and I hope to see more of these types of videos! (Character suggestions: 47 from the Hitman franchise and The Father from Far Cry 5)
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'll definitely give Agent 47 and The Father some consideration; there's a lot to unpack especially with The Father.
Within less than 5 minutes, i wondered "man, why haven't I seen this guy before?" and then I realized how small this channel still is! Would've never guessed from the incredible quality of the video! This was amazing. I hope this blows up because I really want to hear more of your analysis
Really cool video, man. My only real note is that you should perhaps speak a bit slower and try to enunciate your words more cleanly. You tend to slur your speech a bit due to the speed at which you're speaking. Other than that, really dope and thorough examination of a character that gets slept on by most, even though his game has quite a few relatively major issues.
Aiden has always been my favourite character in the Watch dogs Games I think they did a lot right with an at the time pretty over used concept. Aiden isn't the first Gun toting Vigilante in video games but I personally think his one of the most intresting
I have this video in my playlist, but haven’t watched it fully yet. I’ve gotta say that Watch_Dogs Legion and Watch_Dogs 2 did a disservice to the character of Aiden Pearce. In WD2, the main issue is that he gets captured. Watch_Dogs 1 shows him as a man who is always steps ahead of others. He’d never let himself get captured without reason. In Watch_Dogs Legion, they show him getting captured after getting knocked off a drone by Wrench. In his dialogue, he seems very tired of repeating the same cycles of revenge and had previously retired from Fixer contracts. This is a guy who saw the worst of Chicago crime- murder, serial killers, corrupt politicians, gangs, human trafficking, etc. and in WD1, he was always in control of every situation he was in. It seems very uncharacteristic of him to suddenly feel like being the Vigilante is too much for him, but it’s definitely possible for him to have grown tired. I think his final dialogue about not looking back, but looking forward was ignored in Legion. Legion shows it as Lena haunting his mind, but I think at the end of WD1, he had come to terms with her death and realized how much good he could do for the world by stopping these criminals, corrupt politicians, and corrupt businessmen. The vigilante aspect of WD1 was one of the most appealing parts of the game, and you can save so many regular citizens from criminals. That’s the part that’s missing from Legion and WD2.
Watch Dogs 2 is silly boring generic garbage. Watch Dogs one has some of the best atmosphere and one of the better Revenge Tales I've seen in video games in the last decade. I can't wait for Aiden to be back in Watch Dogs Legion
People don't like and are angry at people like Aiden, people with anti social behavior or introverted people because they think they are above everyone they judge it quickly, Aiden is an amazing character, but people are retarted to understand characters like him and people in real life
Totally loved part 1, HATED part 2 and am thoroughly enjoying the blend of tones in Legion. Can't wait for the Bloodlines DLC to finally release to play as Aiden in London.
In Watch Dogs Dedsec was a hacker group what people feared or cheered. In Watch Dogs 2 it was a total dissapointment to see who they really are. Bunch of kids. Not respecting Ray at all and stuff. I really love too that they bring him back in Bloodlines.
@@laszlonagy02 i mean dedsec does have different cells across the world that operate differently. Horatio even says that in one of the Audio logs in WD2. Like the San Francisco cell avoids killing it's targets, the London cell doesn't hesitate to go lethal. Plus the Chicago cell is more hostile in how it operates than the SF cell
@@laszlonagy02 Unfortunately they seemed to have completely forgotten about T-bone. I think they went too far in time and should’ve focused more on Aiden’s story. He had potential to become a great video game icon, but they probably skipped over a lot of his story because of the negative feedback to WD1 from people who just hated the game because it wasn’t exactly the same quality as the gameplay previews.
Aiden is a better version of Batman. Aiden is totally realistic. He has his own flaws, he is not a perfect human being. Becoming a real life Aiden Pearce is possible. Same can't be said about Batman.
I absolutely loved this video, and was very surprised to see many people didn’t see Aiden’s deeper character traits. I felt it was very prevalent at some points in the game, but maybe it depends on how you play the game to some degree? I personally played it run-and-gun and focus abused, so it was very present Aiden was a mass killer. I guess that‘s a prime example of ludonarrative dissonance, as much as I feel the term is overused. :) definitely think you should do more of these character analysis! Would love to see your takes on movies too.
Thank you, I'm glad the video still holds up all these months later. If I come across another character that I feel adequately exemplifies certain theories (and of course is as interesting as Aiden), then I will consider it :)
Video was too long. Halfway through it, I got hungry so I left it playing and went to the kitchen to fix my self a sandwich. But then I found out that I'm out of mayonnaise so I went to a store. There, I saw the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my whole life. But I'm really a shy person so I took up a three-year personality development course so I can introduce my self. She was very friendly and all, but unfortunately, she has a boyfriend. So I said, all good, I'm a mature person. I want the best for her and I harbor no illusion that I am the best person for her and she seems happy with her boyfriend, so I did not bother her anymore. But we kept in touch and we became friends and I got over my crush on her. Then she broke up with her boyfriend, we drank some alcohol because of it, I told her she'll be fine and I wished her well. I still think she's the most beautiful woman in the world, but like I said, I am over my crush on her. It was like five years already when I first saw her. Besides, I am quiet happy with the friendship I developed with her. It was more important than a crush. So we kept hanging out, drinking, having coffee, and all. I had a girlfriend, she started dating other guys. My girlfriend wants to live some other life without me in it, so I said, okay, I want the best for you and I want you to pursue your happiness. My lady friend and I drank alcohol about it, and she gave me the same advice I gave her when she was in that position and I became okay with the breakup immediately. But we were really drunk, so she spent the night in my apartment. I only have one bed, so you know what that means: She took the bed and I slept on the couch. But on the couch, I really can't sleep. Something was bothering me. So I tossed and turned for about three hours, then I finally can't take it anymore, I stood up and went straight to my room where she's sleeping. I approached the bed, gently sat on it and I reached for her shoulder to pull her closer to me. She stirred and woke up. She asked what's up. I told her, you know, the first time I saw you, I was watching a video and left it playing to get my self a sandwich then went to the store to get some mayo then I got distracted by life that I forgot to finish the video. She said, you know what, I've been wondering about a weird noise in your night drawer. So we opened that drawer, and lo and behold, there's my phone and this video still has two minutes of play time on it.
I honestly find it kinda funny the pushback Aiden got at first. Aiden is very Bruce Wayne, like with the execption of being rich. That's funny because Batman is very much liked, yet Aiden is still decisive at best. And so I can show my bias. Yes, I have liked Aiden since the game came out.
Ngl, I don’t like Watchdogs for its hacking; I like it’s driving. Get a Nissan and start driving like you’re being chased, and it feels surprisingly good. The NPCs aren’t borderline suicidal like in GTA, and that helps more in driving than you think.
Thank you, that means a lot to me! I took a lot of inspiration from more professional creators like Vox and Ahoy. Still nowhere near their production quality, but who knows, maybe one day.
@@_prizma You are near their level of quality! Don't say that! I am looking forward to more of your works take your time, ahoy takes months to create a video and he delivers so do you!
Name:Aiden Pearce The Vigilante The Fox Ethnicity:Caucasian Nationality:Northern Irish American Gender:Male Alignment:Neutral Weapon:N/A Varies Vehicle:N/A Varies Age:30s 40s Species Classification:Human Occupation Profession:Fixer Vigilante Grey Hat Hacker Affiliations:N/A Unknown Residence:Chicago St. Louis Status:Alive
Didn't Aiden Pierce not grow up in Northern Ireland? I know the lore somewhat and the timing at his age in the game would have him growing up during the troubles at their height, it was a warzone here, in many ways it still is, just thought maybe that would go towards your analysis of his character, WD1 was by far the best in the series, it's dark gritty tone set it apart from the likes of GTA, WD2 shift in tone was jarring, Aiden Pierce is still the best protagonist in the flagging series, I only bought 2 off the back of 1 and only bought 3 because of the Bloodlines dlc which I recommend to any fan of the series, play it before the soulless base game as you can use Pierce and even Wrench as playable characters in 3 and it makes 3 bearable.
He was born in belfast but he moved at like 10 due to his alcoholic father. Though I think this was a retcon because Lena mentions going hunting with their father which would be a difficult thing to be able to do with kids that young in that kind of setting. Yes, he was born in the 70s and would have seen the worst part of the troubles. His surname being spelt as Pearce as opposed to Pierce (or go forbid Piers) links me to Patrick Pearse (that could be a stretch) and that makes me think he was from a Republican/Catholic family. Though the games use of "links to IRA" being a negative attribute ascribed to enemies in the profiler lays Ubisoft's (and honestly my own) views on the provisional IRA bare.
Holy moly this was really good. When I first saw this I imagined you as being a very popular youtuber, just by the sheer level of quality. But I see now that you are a hidden gem. I'll definitely be checking out your other videos and giving you a sub. Keep up the good work man.
The video itself is extremely well done not to mention the educational value. Speaking of Machiavellitism, it’s interesting that Aiden also manipulates random mobsters if he have a chance in game (that when the player used the distraction feature, the message he types on the individual’s phone is often related to his CtOS scan results mentioning certain weak points of his target), in my opinion that pattern might trace back to aiden’s criminal past with Damien. Also it would be interesting if Aiden used his social engineering skills on himself to analyze his own psychological self-image and weakness. I really like Aiden. Such deep character cannot be found on his successors.
Those game reviews of Aiden being a Batman clone seriously feign ignorance. He would be more of a death wish guy or punisher type given hes a lot older and has less time to develop any skills to start on his new path. I swear, name me one time game journalists did their job well.
hearing the first statement reminds me of why watch dogs is one of my favorite series of all time, they were able to make a dark gritty environment with the first game and then for the second game make the exact opposite with a colorful sunshine atmosphere. to bad ubisofts quality for games has downgraded tremendously and they fucked it all up with legion
In my opinion, I think Legion is cool. But I see your point. But the more you think of it, Legion does have a dark theme of oppression & totalitarianism.
@@atas2561 yeah I'm not saying legion is a shit show of a game because I think its good for casual fun but compared to the first 2 its pretty bad. And I would agree with how legion has a dark theme but its hard to since they combined the games "dark" tone with cheesy jokes and writing.
I absolutely love watch dogs 1 and aiden is an amazing character. I like he is almost a anti-hero and he is complex and even crazy I love it so glad he is back for bloodline however I wish he got a second game entirely
Why do you talk so fast man? It's like a mumble rapper giving a game review. 0:49 "morally ambiguous streetsofvhsinagohauai" 0:53 "light hearted and congibleiablelysvu toneofthesequel" ...what?
I think Watch Dogs 2 is great, but I personally prefer the much darker and grittier tone of the first game. I also think Aiden and his crew were more interesting than Watch Dogs 2's group of young hipsters. I'm excited to see what Aiden is up to by the events of Legion, but I wasn't too big on Legion as a whole, as I feel like it went a little too futuristic. Watch Dogs 1 and 2 worked better because their settings were mostly realistic and were therefore much more relatable.
75 minutes of scholarly breakdown of the misunderstood hero of a tragically underrated franchise? I'm at half mast Edit: I had to slow the video down to 90% to keep up with you, and that's a compliment
@@lukas.ferreira3916 isn't that a sociopath? I'm pretty sure sociopaths are the emotional driven/impulsive and psychopaths were the emotionally disconnected/calm?
@@GothicGator But it’s much more than just being driven by impulse. They don’t lack empathy, they don’t compulsively lie or manipulate, etc. The word you’re looking for is “antihero”. They fight for the right reasons, but don’t always use morally acceptable methods. Both ARE good, non sociopathic people. It’s just that they’re willing to go the extra mile.
I am so glad you have done this and actually know what you are talking about. I hate character studies of psychology where they dont know shit. Like this one fallout NV character with D.I.D I always cringe when they say "multiple personality disorder"
I really enjoy Alone digital trip, and recognize the background voices as Nicole's but couldn't figure out what she says (except demands to find him) before watching this. Such small details, but really helps to build his lore. What do you think of him in Bad Blood campaign? He's basically unreachable most of the time, so I wonder what he's actually doing. Love your video quality, and adding cc really helps.
Human psychology and criminology have always been a joy for me to research and read about not to mention that I love Watch Dogs. Thanks for the deep analysis man. You deserve a sub from me
I never understood why Aiden Pearce was disliked in the first place. I thought he had more depth and motivation than Marcus from Watchdogs 2. I couldn't stand marcus.
Marcus is someone I wouldn't mind hanging our with but he doesn't work as a protagonist. Sure, he's likeable but he isn't interesting as a character. He doesn't undergo any psychological journey throughout the game and has little to no personal motivation to do all the things he does.
@@alexanderl9721 I agree completely, I didn't get his motivation or urgency to go around doing what he was doing. Aiden on the other hand, may not be as likeable but I understood and empathized with his motivation of revenge. Aiden also undergoes change from just revenge to becoming the fox and evolving into something bigger. It makes for a more interesting journey.
0:40 does this loading screen transition exist in the game? ive seen it in both here and the trailer but never happened on my walkthrough, it just cuts right into the game
I think I know why it doesn't show I found a TH-camr. Named MKIceandFire, and he had a PC version of it with ultra graphics and mod system, and the same loading screen transition pops up on his play through if you go to his play game go to 6:33:59 and it has the same transition. Sorry for this long explanation. My apologies
Hello Prizma! Thank you for working so hard to produce such an amazing, incredibly in-depth, satisfying and enjoyable video. Admittedly I watched it late at night whilst looking for content to listen to whilst organising some files, but I still loved it nevertheless. I especially loved the clips of Chicago you used as background. I enjoy getting to see Aiden calmly walking through the streets. I like to imagine he's somberly walking in the rain whilst you discuss the subconsciousness, and awkwardly shifting his weight between his feet during the psychopathy section, hehe. Granted, probably wouldn't be feeling anything, now that you've thoroughly outlined his character, but I think it'd be cute. Thanks for conducting a well-needed psychoanalysis on Aiden's character. I typed "Aiden Pearce character analy--" on TH-cam and was taken aback to see it auto-fill and for your video to be the top result. I was pleasantly surprised! Especially more so that it was released just 11 days or so ago. Perfect timing for Watch Dogs Legion, eh? How long did it take you? You study psych, so I'm sure you had a lot of knowledge of it beforehand, but I'm still curious. I always knew deep down that Aiden was a complex character with a lot of nuance and depth to him than just being a "strong, aggressive white male" and I was always disappointed seeing others call him boring and bland, and label the classic revenge plot cliché. I've always been an empathetic person and prior to your video, I had my own reasons why I liked and could empathise with Aiden more than the main characters in Watch Dogs 2. Because we have more opportunity to spend alone time with Aiden, listening to his monologues, learning his past, and aiding him on his very personal mission, plus the fact that the other characters weren't forcibly included for screentime, it was easier to grow attached to him. I also think the easily understandable plot makes it easier to understand and hence the player will have a better time with plot points slowly added on over the course of the storu. Heck, I actually think the camera perspective also makes a significant difference. In Watch Dogs 2, the camera is much farther away from Marcus than in WD1, where the Player is directly behind Aiden, like his companion. Marcus feels like a very distant character to us -- someone we're controlling but perhaps ultimately someone whose life we're watching. Our visual closeness to Aiden, I feel, plays at least a minor role in our attachment to him. I honestly hadn't realised that Lena's death could lead to so much trauma within Aiden, fuelling his attitude and behaviour like this. It's a misguided belief on my part. I noticed another comment here discussing that perhaps the developers needed to do a bit more research when writing Aiden's character, and this video has ultimately taught me the importance of that. As a creative writer, this video definitely helped me think about how to make characters much more raw, relatable and realistic. I personally like to think that the good rep/Vigilante route is canon, especially given the ending credits sequence where the police are implied to have some level of gratitude towards him. Since it's described in his WD2 appearance I like to believe he starts actively pursuing giant crime rings, especially targeting human and sex trafficking. Perhaps he sees Lena in these people, particularly women and young girls. Heh. As an ending note, isn't it amazing how many people called Aiden "bland and boring" and then likely many of these same people are cheering about Aiden's return in Legion? Classic. I wonder what his story will be this time. "Older but not necessarily wiser"... at least his mask is realistic to carry around readily and put on quickly! Sorry for all the rambling in my comment, I just wanted to share my thoughts and experiences with Aiden's character, hehe. I hope you found it entertaining. Your channel is so criminally underrated, and it's such a crime that there's so little comments here. You've earned my sub, Prizma! Looking forward to the new content.
Hi Katie, Thank you so much for this message, it really made my day! To answer your question, I started working on this video in September of last year, so it took a little over a year to get everything together. The majority of my time was spent doing research because 1) psychology was a subject matter that I didn't have too much background in, and 2) I wanted to make sure my writing was supported at least somewhat by literature (though admittedly subject to a bit of confirmation bias). This meant I spent September of last year to June of this year reading up on the science and trying to put together a cogent argument. Most of the actual video production was done over the past few months in my free time. I originally hadn't planned to publish the video alongside the release of Legion, but because it got delayed from earlier this year, in addition to announcing that Aiden would return in Bloodlines, things kind of worked out by complete coincidence. I definitely agree with your thoughts on the presentation of Aiden's character, and I think part of the reason why so many people brushed him off as a bland character is because most don't have the time or energy to invest themselves into the lore. I'm a sucker for this kind of linear narrative world-building, so it was really interesting learning about Aiden on a deeper level through supplemental story elements. I really like your point about the camera placement of both WD1 and WD2 as well, I hadn't actually thought about it that way. It makes a lot of sense though; where WD1 is about one individual seeking personal revenge, WD2 is much more focused on the social aspect of a close-knit group. This of course doesn't make one game better than the other, but it's interesting how such a small mechanical change like camera placement can demarcate the drastic tonal shift between the two. Anyways, thank you again for your kind words, I really appreciate messages like these. More videos will be coming eventually, though they'll probably be about something totally unrelated. Cheers, -John
Just finished my second play through of Watch Dogs and was dying to dive deeper into Aidan’s character to prove that he wasn’t as one dimensional as critics make him out to be, and here you pop into my recommendeds! Amazing video, picked at my brain and made me really think, which I love when it comes to documentary like videos like this! Odd request, but, do you ever plan on doing more character analysis’s like this? And if so, I would like to make a request for the next character- that being either Arthur Morgan or Dutch Van Der Linde from the Red Dead Redemption series! I love Arthur more, but I do think Dutch is a much more interesting character to pick apart in terms of mental interest. Thank you for making such brain picking content! I hope you find the time to do more!
Hey, thank you so much for the kind words! In terms of future content, I'm currently experimenting with a couple different subjects so I don't have any character analyses planned at the moment. I really enjoy working on that kind of content though so it'll definitely make a return eventually and I'll keep Red Dead Redemption characters in mind. Thanks for stopping by!
Great video, hope this gets more attention. Ive always loved the first Watch Dogs and really liked Aiden Pearce especially since, to me, he is relatable. Pearce’s story is something I want to explore more and this more gritty “real” story keeps me coming back to this game.
Me who has autism and beaten the game 5 times on Realistic and trying to investigate evidences, solving crimes to keep the good reputation, first now understands that i am trying to be a good guy to justify my actions i put against the civilians and other people to achieve my personal gain.
The Fox is something like the Punisher or Death Wish with hacker abilities. The Nazi nut job antagonist appeared early in the game that hates f*ck-ups. Aiden Pearce's case it's more a personal vendetta. He may be transitioning to the role of vigilante in the future like Batman but he's not there yet. Aiden Pearce wouldn't be stealing money from poor, laid off terminally ill people on the streets. Oh, this one has terminal cancer, this one lost his job, better leave them alone. I tried not to kill and steal only from evil people but the game doesn't make that easy with horrible driving mechanics, NPC with a death wish running into my path, and info cards that can be tedious to read. Many side quests have me stopping a hit etc only to kill several people during car chases to save one or two lives. Pearce is no different than the ones he hangs with. The only difference being he's out for revenge. The mini-games like chess and poker are very odd since you have to actually learn to play these games to 100% it.
No wonder every chump from other games gets frightened just by hearing his name. I'd have still bought Legion with all it's janky animations and removed features if the whole game was based on Aiden and Wrench.
Now this is high quality analysis and perfectly made essay. Thank you for huge work sir, I really love Aiden as a character, he had a rough times in his life, yet he still does his thing and his believes are strong and true.
aiden pierce.... his life in watch dogs 1 is just sad and emotional. it all started because of a fail heist and then the lost of his niece. he then started his plot for revenge against the one who destroy his life only to dig too deep to the point it endangered not only him but his entire family as well. but, he didn't stopped. he knows that the world is against him, he knows there will be many walls that he needs to tore down and he just go through it all like nothing. in the end of watch dogs 1 he promised to himself that he WILL use his power so he can protect the weak and punish the evil ones. in watch dogs 2 we can see his rampage against once more and in legion he also done it again. and that's what i like about him. HE IS THE VIGILANTE. and he take that name seriously. his such a underrated character in gaming. his story, life and history is just well written, emotional and amazing. i wish more people know more about this character.
I hope they don't ruin the aiden pearce character in watch dogs legion he is my favorite and I want watch dogs 4 to have a story similar to the first watch dogs maybe have jackson pearce as the protagonist in a 2025 version of New York I think watch dogs Legion is in 2024
I always liked Aiden Pearce. Aiden got way too much hate back in the day. People misunderstood Aiden. He was never meant to be a likeable character in the first place. He was only meant to be interesting, nothing more. I like him because he is similar to Batman and Walter White (two of my favourite movie TV/show characters). Aiden definitely has a personality, he is a protective person who will do anything to keep his family safe. That's exactly what gives him a personality. Aiden is definitely one of my favourite videogame protagonists alongside Niko Bellic. Fortunately I wasn't biased by the E3 crowd because I learned about the existence of WD1 after it was already out. I even upgraded my PC to play this game back in early 2015. Now, WD1 is one of my all time favourite videogames alongside GTA IV and NFS Carbon. Always play the game by yourself (or watch a good gameplay video) and form your own opinion. Never trust reviewers. Amazing video btw (Actually a masterpiece). This video needs more attention from the Watch Dogs community. Thank you for making an amazing character analysis video. Btw, your channel is underappreciated.
Hello John, I don't know whether you would read this at all, but if you do, I have something to share. I really liked you video. It gave me a glimpse into the psyche of Aiden Pierce, a character who rarely expresses emotion and seems quite monotonous, and thus is very hard to judge and understand. I love Aiden's character a lot. I feel so connected to him, that at times I can very well imagine myself doing the same things or being motivated by similar pain/trauma/remorse that I have personally experienced, that I feel like a vigilante (or a psychopath), just like Aiden. I don't say that I AM a Psychopath, but by realising the various stages and traits you have mentioned, I am now very much aware of how close I might be. I can clearly see my own psyche being evaluated, or atleast being discussed in this video. The effects of trauma, the coping mechanisms, the flow of decisions, the resultant mental construct. It's.... quite revelatory and frightening at the same time. There was a point in time (2014- around the release of watchdogs) when I couldn't grasp the character of Aiden at all. I dismissed Aiden as bland and boring (Watch Dogs too) just like everyone else at that time. Maybe I was quite young at that point of time to understand what Aiden was going through or maybe I was just expecting a different game. I don't know. But, A lot of time has passed since then, and...I have been through a lot... of bad experiences since then. I feel like I am a very different person now. And just in 2020 I played watch dogs once more, this time going quite far in the game's story. Now, I can clearly see and feel for Aiden, and suddenly I love Watch Dogs. I had a similar experience with Niko Bellic and GTA IV (perhaps my most loved game of all time). I hated the game when I was younger and naive, but I absolutely love it now, as I have grown older and been through shit. I can genuinely feel the rage, the self questioning, the sense of being wronged, and the lack of fulfillment that these characters have. Seeing your video has opened my eyes as to how my own experience might have drastically (and perhaps even destructively) changed my behaviour, and my psyche. It allows me to understand what drives my moral compass, what affects my morality, my rage, my empathy, my reasoning. And now I understand why I love and feel for Niko and Aiden at such a personal level. Honestly, the mood, theme and soundtrack of both the games reinforce this 'feel' of the characters 'broken' psyche. I absolutely love GTA IV's soviet connection and Watch Dogs' menu screen music (idk the name for it), for example. They just... amplify all those emotions. Thank you for your laborious and painstaking work. It might not be an academic or professional diagnosis of Aiden's psyche, but I love its finesse none the less for a TH-cam video. I don't know of any other video or piece of media in general that has confronted my sub-conscious and self understanding to such a degree. Perhaps that would be my greatest compliment to you. Thank you, John.
Hi Shivesh, Thank you so much for your message. I am both humbled to hear how impactful this video was for you, and simultaneously saddened by the things that you have had to go through. Perhaps the greatest gifts that artistic media (including video games) can give us is that of an emotional connection and an opportunity to learn more about ourselves in the process. Watch Dogs especially, a game that explores why people do what they do even if only with a cursory eye, prompts us to reflect on our own motives and values. It sounds like the game had quite the effect for you, and hopefully it has and will help you work through any troubles you have. As Niko Bellic succinctly laments, “life is complicated.” But how we carry ourselves in the face of adversity says the most about us as humans. So whatever happens, I hope you can make peace with your past and move forward with a fresh perspective on life. And don’t forget, you aren’t in this alone. Even Aiden needs his Clara, T-Bone, and Jordi, so be sure to seek help if and when you so choose. Wishing you all the best, John
The world is a dark place and watch dogs 1 shows it. WD2 showed a colourful world with kids and harmony. Ubisoft had something special in their hands but they dropped it to appeal to the masses
actually, by the end of the game he doesn't see himself as a vigilante, the townsfolk are the people that do, so even if he doesn't fit those criteria from the beginning, he doesn't care, he just does what he does, wich is funny because in the second game he is a Legend, you actually find a bunch of dead corpses in a container and Marcus said that these are the people Aiden killed, a bunch of thugs, very scary, he becames a technomonster later on and ubisoft doesn't know what to do with him. ( please don't give me spoilers from aiden dlc in legion, i want to see it by myself )
I've been waiting for the right time to watch this video in one sitting and was skeptical to begin with, but I was surprisingly impressed with the quality and your deep analysis. I don't think this game gets the credit it deserves and the character of Aiden Pearce is much more complicated than people think. Clichés will exist until the end of time and no piece in modern day storytelling is without some. Thank you for the insight.
The first game is the best i wish we would get a remaster or remake with aiden again hes easily the best character i prefered the darker tone rather then the hipster dedsec
Aiden is a combo of john wick and batman plus the first game was soo good man its sad these games will die because nowadays is soo hard to please people. We will miss these games hopefully we will leave to see another watch dogs with Aiden as the main character hopefully during his troubled youth times
I love how haters tried to say Aiden is basically Batman. Which is so untrue,batman in his core is good, Aiden on the other hand is a deeply troubled, traumatized and morally questionable at times. Aiden is not a Mary Sue, he has his own flaws which makes him infinitely better than Batman. Aiden feels real, because there is and have been people like him.
![ผัวเถื่อน - ยูริ โตเกียวมิวสิค [ OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P08ORRVDGl8/mqdefault.jpg)
After killing Quinn, and Aiden monologues about "not feeling empty" and comments about that expected revenge trope, but instead says "lol no fuck you I feel amazing" is the very reason I think it's great character development.
And actually this is an reference to GTA IV and Niko finally getting his revenge.
Yep, agreed on this. He clearly breaks the usual trope.
@@buzzard3983 I say it's the antithesis of the ending of GTA IV, when Niko gets his revenge he feels empty, when Aiden gets it he feels full.
@@andrestl7052that’s because GTA iv is a satirical critique of the American dream while watch dogs is just edgy for the sake of it
@@TheReck12 "edgy for the sake of it"
brother gta 4 was edgy for the sake of being edgy aswell
IGN: “Aiden is just an empty trench coat”
Me:huh?
The San Francisco Dedsecs are a bunch of empty nerd kids then
Huh? They said that? Another reason I don't watch IGN since 2012 xD
Play 1 all the way through then play 5 minutes of 2 and I bet most people would be begging to go back to 1 I know I was. The is a reason ive finished watch dogs 1 4 times across 3 different platforms where as I only finished 2 once
Ikr
@@trickytheimprobableclown2211 I get what u mean but I liked both of them the same
Ain’t it funny how people complain about watchdogs being cliche, but not John wick? It’s just aNoThEr typical revenge story.
An emotional enough revenge story can still be really good... John Wick does get extra points for pulling on puppy heart strings though so that's something to consider... though I think WATCH_DOGS is a pretty good game overall anyway, when you look at it from a perspective not butthurt by the launch day controversy
WaTcH dOgS tAkEs ItSeLf ToO sErIoUsLy!!
I personally enjoy both however I find Aiden more interesting as a character where John for me is carried more by Keanu's performance
@@brandonvanzyl7725 So what you're saying is, everyone would've loved Watch_Dogs if they not only killed Lena, but her puppy as well. God dammit
Thing is though it started out to be a revenge story and it flipped don Aiden. He didn't get his revenge until after the game.
Here before people start liking Aiden Pearce because of his come back
Og fan here too. Hearing how he's making a return made me want to get Legion
Also an OG fan! Loved his game. His character. Bought his hat and mask and even his fugurin.
And soon when he comes out Legion I'ma make him my main!
@@FrankByDaylight My man!
@@TaHoMasWilliams Gotta respect Aiden! Dude deserves so much more credit and shouldn't be put down as a bad protagonist because Ubisoft lied about the graphics before the first watch dogs release! Aiden forever!
@@FrankByDaylight same here brother
I am so glad someone decided to analyze Aiden without hating on the game for once. And for it to be a well-researched and fascinating video on top of that, you are so underappreciated and I hope your channel grows.
I feel the same way as you do when it comes someone analyzing Aiden too. I will say this I prefer him over Marcus any day, at least Aiden was consistent for what he does as the vigilante.
Aiden is badass whoever doesn’t like him, just a shame i mean idc if people dont like them but it’s ridiculous.
@@samrg94 I agree with you on what you’ve said about Aiden. Many players who didn’t like him really didn’t look into the deeper meaning of Aiden’s character.
nice pfp
The people who don't like Aiden but Marcus are the teenagers that just don't want to admit that their Instagram life is not real; they don't want to look into the complexity of the real life.
And when their bubbles burst, they either go mad and become Karens complaining about everything or they run again to look for a bubble to get into, grow tired and give up.
P.S. these are pop and hip-hop music listeners. That's why they like Marcus.
This was an amazing listen, Aiden in my eyes has always been a complex character that I can relate to in a many instances and have sometimes came to question if some of our motives are similar. Sure he’s a bad guy but the intent is good whether it’s for personal gain or satisfaction and maybe even believing you’re making a difference.
I will definitely be coming back to this video every once in a while after more play throughs of the game. Had to have beaten it 10+ times and I’m always interested in learning more about his character.
Absolutely, I really enjoyed his character as well! The details and minutiae in the game's narrative really do offer more nuance than critics gave him credit for during release. I always love discussing this kind of thing, so if you gain any new insights from your future playthroughs, feel free to share them here - I would love to hear them! Thanks for stopping by!
@@_prizma You know what, I will take you up on that offer. You’ve also earned a subscriber!
One thing I wanted to bring up, for Aiden’s destructive nature do you think in the Demon Digital trip with the muscle car (can’t think of it off the top of my head) I was thinking it was Damien trying to compare Aiden again. Compare him to his more destructive and adventurous behavior. By saying the terms “There’s nothing wrong with showing off” “You think you’re better off without me? Prove it” and others. What’s your input?
Hmm, this is a really good point! I think across the narrative, there was this motif with Damien constantly challenging Aiden to do better, or even a competitive rivalry between the two (see the dialogue in Sometimes You Still Lose). It would make sense to say that Damien's voice in the Madness digital trip is supposed to represent an internalisation of that relationship. It's definitely possible that this plays a part in Pearce's aggressive patterns of behaviour, where goal attainment has been impressed as a priority via social learning. Especially when combined with other ideas like social strain and reinforced deviance, I think you could make a case that Aiden is socialised to resolve problems with direct, and often destructive action. Of course, this is mostly speculation as I'm not too familiar with the literature on the social/cognitive/emotional processes behind reckless and destructive behaviour, but this line of reasoning is at least cogent on a prima facie level.
@@_prizma To definitely back up your idea on Damien challenging Aiden and his skills, the first few missions has Aiden and (at the time) Badboy17 to track a crank call and locate a hidden signal eventually bringing him to Damien. Damien even says “Hope you don’t mind the games, wanted to see if you’d lost your edge” either meaning to see if he’s still up to the task or to even see if Aiden is willing to reunite the old team again. I know Aiden pursues dangerous activities to either help him cope with his emotions but that leads me to another question. Do you think Aiden went to San Francisco to continue the chain of revenge involving anyone connected to Quinn or do you think he had to continue his work as a vigilante somewhere else since there was too much heat with him staying in Chicago? In the mission leading up to freeing Aiden you find and audio log from one of the gang members saying “Physco’s following threads out of Quinn’s fuck up in Chicago” so we have the group he’s going after but not his internal motive.
Yeah, that's right! I completely forgot about that line from Damien.
With respect to Aiden's appearance in WD2, I interpreted it as being more rooted in general vigilantism than in revenge. It seemed to me that by the end of the first game, Aiden was fairly satisfied with what he had done in Chicago. In Guys Like Us, he tells Maurice that he's the final loose end, implying that his quest for vengeance had effectively come to an end. But I suppose that the player's choice in this mission is somewhat meaningful as well: if you spared him, you are communicating that Aiden has the willpower to end that chain of revenge; if you killed him, who's to say that Maurice would actually be the last? I've heard from modders that the game files consider killing Maurice as the canonical ending, but ultimately, it's really hard to say what his motivations are after the events of WD1, considering the 2-3 year gap between it and WD2. As I mentioned in the video though, his continued long-term participation in vigilantism might be evidence that it's an example of the sublimation defense mechanism, but beyond that it's anyone's guess.
Love these questions, they really get you thinking! What are your thoughts on this?
Everyone: Aiden Pearce is an empty, unlikely and not insteresting.
Me: Why would he want to be insteresting?
Exactly, he wants to be Uninteresting, blending in the shadows
That's not what people meant.
@@thereseemstobeenanerror1219 Marcus is boring
@@stevevigilante9944 the hero from two? I mean, the worse I could say is that his character can be inconsistent. Especially if the player goes lethal.
Man has mastered the ways of the grey men. There are a interesting videos about this. Weird but intriguing way to live
I don't get people who say that "Aiden is boring" there is so mucho to him, he is such a badass, he is the punisher of video games, great video!
Exactly
I would say batman than punisher (I feel like aiden pearce could've been more brutal than using an baton or anything)
The voice actor could've done a lot better. His line delivery comes off as really flat and forced, as if he's doing his best Clint Eastwood impression rather than playing a character. I think the voice acting is behind a lot of the criticism.
@@jaffarebellion292Tbf a flat delivery adds to his troubled feelings as he's struggling to adapt to a death and lost emotionally
@Johnatron2008 Sure, but there's a difference between deliberately flat and "trailer voice".
Funny how I've just played WD for the first time, and was completely baffled about Aiden - I only remembered that he was not a well-received character at all. By the end of the game, my disappointment grew as well, but not about Aiden himself - rather about the fact that WD2 won't feature him. :) I found him very compelling, and his revenge/vigilante story was one of my favourite campaigns from these last few years.
I've only had time to watch the first fifteen minutes, but I'll come back to it. Keep it up, it was really engaging from the start (though you could work on your speech a bit, sometimes it's a bit fast and not quite clear :) ), and I'm really happy that someone else thought that Aiden's character is worthy of such a deep analysis.
Thanks, I'm glad this is an interesting topic! I know my VO can be a bit difficult to understand at times, and that's definitely something I'm still trying to improve. I should mention that all of my videos are captioned in English, so hopefully that can remedy any ambiguity in the narration.
Aiden shows up in a side mission in WD2 called "shadow" i think
you dont get to talk to him but you break him out and he looks at the camera and nods (like saying thank you)
He’s in Watch Dogs 2 through a side mission. You don’t talk to him though.
@@AustinNGrayson that doesn't mean anything. the second game is trash
@@stevevigilante9944 yeah you’re in the minority there. Got better reception than the first game. But yeah I prefer the first game over all but that doesn’t mean the second game is bad. I love the second game like most people do. It was a nice contrast in tone to the first game. Good balance between the two.
"Everything is connected, and I'll use that to expose, to protect, and if necessary - to punish."
- The Vigilante
he didn't say that
@@SadGamersWD you didn’t finish the game did you
@@SadGamersWDi thought you knew everything about the game. Did you only play decryption this whole time?
Great video!
Also Aidens controlling behaviour seems to not be entirely based on trauma from being unable to prevent the death of his niece, considering how he's already mentioned both by Damien and himself as being pretty proficient at social engineering prior to the incident. One of my friends suggested that his drive to control people and the world around him is an adaptation to his inability to relate to other people from early childhood, not due to psychopathy/aspd, but due to a form of HFA.
Hm, that's a really good point and something that I hadn't thought about. I originally had a section in the video about Aiden's lack of interpersonal trust that got cut, but I think that this perspective would explain both that and several other aspects of his behaviour. Well done!
You know that is a really good point, especialy after Bloodline
I’m so happy and relieved people still talk and make content about this game. One of my favourite characters
WD1 is underrated imo the story isn't anything ground breaking but Aiden is great. The modding scene is kinda crazy also
@Rehtric I’m happy and relieved about that too. He’ll always be one favorite video game character. Vigilantism really can help stop lots of crime in very corrupt cities especially Chicago since it’s one of the most dangerous city in the u:s.
Many thanks to everyone for watching and leaving such encouraging comments! I am overjoyed by the positive responses and will strive to maintain (if not improve) the quality level on future videos. A couple things I wanted to note though:
1) Erratum: At 50:53, I said "adaptive pathway to cognitive dissonance" in my narration, when I meant to say "cognitive consonance."
2) Erratum: At 57:56, Lance Brenner is not grievously injured by Pearce, but by his accomplice, Jordi Chin. Brenner is optionally killed by the player following a cutscene. Thanks to Julia Rose for pointing this out.
3) Video production is a time consuming process, and as a student, time is a resource in short supply. As such, it often takes me months to get my research and footage together. Please keep this in mind if you are considering subscribing to my channel.
4) My interests span across a diverse set of subjects, so my future videos will likely have little to do with character analysis. Again, please take this into consideration if you wish to follow my future projects.
Once more, thank you all so much for watching (and reading in this case). Hope y'all have a good day!
-John
Hey, you made a video basically making it super easy for us Aiden fans to tell haters that he isn't a bad character. He is very complex and we'll thought out.
And for that. You have my respect. My love. And my Subscription! You deserve it!
@@FrankByDaylight preachhh
@@Shanetor thank you brother!
Any thoughts how it could have been different if the psychology for him was well researched?
I like Aiden due to his past making him the guy he is now. His unnecessary need to fix things for his sister as well as walking in his Dad’s shadow alongside his moral ambiguity mentioned in the watch dogs artbook really makes me wonder if Aiden was protrayed incorrectly or it was intentionally this way.
I’m pretty sure it was intentional. I remember seeing an interview many years ago where a dev (think it was Dominic Guay) said that Aiden was meant to be a deeply flawed character, as that’s what helped move the narrative forward.
@@lukas.ferreira3916 I meant more so the acting, Aiden’s actor is awesome abd Bloodline proved the character is great.
But I wonder if they directed him right. More so because he monologes too much. I could see someone passive on Aiden not liking him.
Also I think if more characters were critical on him more people would get it. Not just Damien and Jordi
@@chasethecringewolf2195 Reason being because he masks his personality so that nobody knows who really he is, which is why Damien was such a powerful antagonist: because he was the only one who could make Aiden snap.
And much of the characters’ opinion (especially the general public) depends on how the player plays the game. I mean, sure, regardless of how you play there are people in-universe who think he’s a goddamn psychopath. But if your reputation is at “Vigilante”, there is absolutely no reason why the general public shouldn’t support him. Especially when all his efforts are directed towards bagging scumbags who are hated by just about everyone.
One way or another, he’s a way better character than people at the time gave him credit for.
@@lukas.ferreira3916 Mind you i literally agree with everything you say butttt...
In game if you look at news stations some list Aiden Pearce as the suspect who is the Vigilante...as early as the baseball mission. So this entire time there were news reports on Aiden that Jackson and Nicole watched and they thought, “That vigilante guy is cool,”
Obviously it isn’t intended but thats the point. This game had went through alot of changes before release, the Defalt club is now what the demo used to be and while gameplay is obviously different (You could summon help with Fixxers as well as let someone ride cameras and hack shit for you, wish it was still in there. Along side just having one pistol and the weapon wheel would be a hacking wheel.)
The story probably has just as much change in it too. True it could be better than what they planned but it could also be worse than what they planned too you never know.
My point is in the demo we see the same Aiden, he talks different and he emotes more than main game Aiden, just from a simple conversation with Aiden and Joesph Demarco’s “Message,” its still better than main game. It makes me think they were going to have Aiden do more in terms of personality than what we got.
The Watch Dogs artbook told me that
Aiden was designed to be visually ambiguous and blend into crowds while also representing his moral greyness and thats when the character clicked for me.
I didn’t get that from the main game and as a result I thought it was trying to make Aiden better than he was, but no he’s pretty good in fact.
Aiden is definitely my favorite protagonist so far in Watch Dogs maybe even the whole of Ubisoft series, (tied with Jason Brody and Shay, and maaaaybe Ezio but idk)
But I get the feeling there are things left out about Aiden that should’ve made it to the main game. Just happy to see Bloodline doing that, having characters criticize him and point out his faults. While its not completely subtly it 1, reels in people who might’ve hated Aiden and 2 Makes people who like him love him even more.
But one fantastic example I love of this in the first game is the Fixer mission where you and Jordi take down a boss and then interrogate him to find out who is trying to figure out Aiden’s identity.
In the end you find out its a guy names Angelo. So how does Aiden find this guy?
But going through his fucking niece.
Sound familiar? It’s such a subtle detail I doubt no one gives it any mind at all but holy shit thats perfect in terms of story through gameplay. Just wish there was more of that in the story.
@@chasethecringewolf2195 Completely agree. The presentation could’ve been better. His banter with Jordi in the 2012 demo was great and I really wish he stayed somewhat like that, but I still love what they went with.
Another great example is Bedbug. Bedbug is a criminal who thinks he deserves more than what he has, but he’s also a kid who’s facing a lot of uncertainty and despair. Aiden gives him a fearsome reputation but also blackmails him, forcing him to get inside the Viceroy’s nearly impenetrable fortress and potentially put his own life at risk. “I can give, but I can also take.”
But even as he threatens to ruin his life, Aiden still cares about him and does his best to not get him hurt. Hell, he even opens up to him and reveals the reason why he’s going after the servers: because his family got hurt.
When Bedbug nearly dies, Aiden genuinely worries for his safety, asking himself if he got him killed for… what? A portion of the data? And when Aiden finds out he’s still alive, he feels relieved, thanks him for a well done job, and lets him go without a second thought instead of forcing him any further.
When push comes to shove, Aiden does whatever he feels necessary, believing in “taking one life to save a thousand”. But he also knows the value of a life, and taking one away is not a decision he makes lightly.
This guy presenting this as his homework meanwhile he looks his professor on the eye
"I'm gonna destroy this whole's man career"
With all these spelling errors? I doubt it
This guy is the closest to a modern day Assassin, i will be replaying WD1 soon, loved Bloodline
Yeah except he isnt intrested in a creed he cares about people
He doesnt hunt people because they are templars he does so because of their actions
Something some of the assassin creed games forget
I’ve loved Pearce as a character since release. Glad to see his depth is being recognised
This was a fantastic analysis, well done! I liked the concluding remark that the writers may not have done that much research for Aiden but his character sure is worthy of discussion, awesome, detailed work and I hope to see more of these types of videos! (Character suggestions: 47 from the Hitman franchise and The Father from Far Cry 5)
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'll definitely give Agent 47 and The Father some consideration; there's a lot to unpack especially with The Father.
and Kane & Lynch
"just another revenge story" revenge stories are good. Stupid ign, stupid critics
Happy 50th birthday Aiden!
(May 2, 2024)
Within less than 5 minutes, i wondered "man, why haven't I seen this guy before?" and then I realized how small this channel still is! Would've never guessed from the incredible quality of the video! This was amazing. I hope this blows up because I really want to hear more of your analysis
This really means a lot, thank you so much!
Despite the negative comments for this character, i love playing as Aiden and the way he was in the game. He is so fit to be a hacker/vigilante.
Really cool video, man. My only real note is that you should perhaps speak a bit slower and try to enunciate your words more cleanly. You tend to slur your speech a bit due to the speed at which you're speaking. Other than that, really dope and thorough examination of a character that gets slept on by most, even though his game has quite a few relatively major issues.
Ima need 23:10 song or instrumental asap.
Aiden has always been my favourite character in the Watch dogs Games I think they did a lot right with an at the time pretty over used concept. Aiden isn't the first Gun toting Vigilante in video games but I personally think his one of the most intresting
I have this video in my playlist, but haven’t watched it fully yet. I’ve gotta say that Watch_Dogs Legion and Watch_Dogs 2 did a disservice to the character of Aiden Pearce. In WD2, the main issue is that he gets captured. Watch_Dogs 1 shows him as a man who is always steps ahead of others. He’d never let himself get captured without reason.
In Watch_Dogs Legion, they show him getting captured after getting knocked off a drone by Wrench. In his dialogue, he seems very tired of repeating the same cycles of revenge and had previously retired from Fixer contracts. This is a guy who saw the worst of Chicago crime- murder, serial killers, corrupt politicians, gangs, human trafficking, etc. and in WD1, he was always in control of every situation he was in. It seems very uncharacteristic of him to suddenly feel like being the Vigilante is too much for him, but it’s definitely possible for him to have grown tired. I think his final dialogue about not looking back, but looking forward was ignored in Legion. Legion shows it as Lena haunting his mind, but I think at the end of WD1, he had come to terms with her death and realized how much good he could do for the world by stopping these criminals, corrupt politicians, and corrupt businessmen. The vigilante aspect of WD1 was one of the most appealing parts of the game, and you can save so many regular citizens from criminals. That’s the part that’s missing from Legion and WD2.
I clicked to see how complex Aiden Pearce's personality really was... I'm left with a new found love of the topics of psychology, x3
Watch Dogs 2 is silly boring generic garbage. Watch Dogs one has some of the best atmosphere and one of the better Revenge Tales I've seen in video games in the last decade. I can't wait for Aiden to be back in Watch Dogs Legion
they’re both great games in their own ways honestly. but imo i like the og watch dogs because of its dark atmosphere
People don't like and are angry at people like Aiden, people with anti social behavior or introverted people because they think they are above everyone they judge it quickly, Aiden is an amazing character, but people are retarted to understand characters like him and people in real life
Yolanda Mendez wants to know your location
Totally loved part 1, HATED part 2 and am thoroughly enjoying the blend of tones in Legion. Can't wait for the Bloodlines DLC to finally release to play as Aiden in London.
In Watch Dogs Dedsec was a hacker group what people feared or cheered. In Watch Dogs 2 it was a total dissapointment to see who they really are. Bunch of kids. Not respecting Ray at all and stuff. I really love too that they bring him back in Bloodlines.
@@laszlonagy02 In Legion they were better. A reeistance.
@@laszlonagy02 i mean dedsec does have different cells across the world that operate differently. Horatio even says that in one of the Audio logs in WD2.
Like the San Francisco cell avoids killing it's targets, the London cell doesn't hesitate to go lethal. Plus the Chicago cell is more hostile in how it operates than the SF cell
@@laszlonagy02 Unfortunately they seemed to have completely forgotten about T-bone. I think they went too far in time and should’ve focused more on Aiden’s story. He had potential to become a great video game icon, but they probably skipped over a lot of his story because of the negative feedback to WD1 from people who just hated the game because it wasn’t exactly the same quality as the gameplay previews.
Holy shit, this channel is small and it’s surprising because this is some good shit.
This game is underated af i always said it
Aiden is a better version of Batman. Aiden is totally realistic. He has his own flaws, he is not a perfect human being.
Becoming a real life Aiden Pearce is possible. Same can't be said about Batman.
Wouldn't say "Better" but he's a good character.
I absolutely loved this video, and was very surprised to see many people didn’t see Aiden’s deeper character traits. I felt it was very prevalent at some points in the game, but maybe it depends on how you play the game to some degree? I personally played it run-and-gun and focus abused, so it was very present Aiden was a mass killer. I guess that‘s a prime example of ludonarrative dissonance, as much as I feel the term is overused. :)
definitely think you should do more of these character analysis! Would love to see your takes on movies too.
Thank you, I'm glad the video still holds up all these months later. If I come across another character that I feel adequately exemplifies certain theories (and of course is as interesting as Aiden), then I will consider it :)
Damn i wish Watch Dogs had more attention
Me too, this game really is compelling in its own way.
Video was too long. Halfway through it, I got hungry so I left it playing and went to the kitchen to fix my self a sandwich. But then I found out that I'm out of mayonnaise so I went to a store. There, I saw the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my whole life. But I'm really a shy person so I took up a three-year personality development course so I can introduce my self. She was very friendly and all, but unfortunately, she has a boyfriend. So I said, all good, I'm a mature person. I want the best for her and I harbor no illusion that I am the best person for her and she seems happy with her boyfriend, so I did not bother her anymore. But we kept in touch and we became friends and I got over my crush on her. Then she broke up with her boyfriend, we drank some alcohol because of it, I told her she'll be fine and I wished her well. I still think she's the most beautiful woman in the world, but like I said, I am over my crush on her. It was like five years already when I first saw her. Besides, I am quiet happy with the friendship I developed with her. It was more important than a crush. So we kept hanging out, drinking, having coffee, and all. I had a girlfriend, she started dating other guys. My girlfriend wants to live some other life without me in it, so I said, okay, I want the best for you and I want you to pursue your happiness. My lady friend and I drank alcohol about it, and she gave me the same advice I gave her when she was in that position and I became okay with the breakup immediately. But we were really drunk, so she spent the night in my apartment. I only have one bed, so you know what that means: She took the bed and I slept on the couch. But on the couch, I really can't sleep. Something was bothering me. So I tossed and turned for about three hours, then I finally can't take it anymore, I stood up and went straight to my room where she's sleeping. I approached the bed, gently sat on it and I reached for her shoulder to pull her closer to me. She stirred and woke up. She asked what's up. I told her, you know, the first time I saw you, I was watching a video and left it playing to get my self a sandwich then went to the store to get some mayo then I got distracted by life that I forgot to finish the video. She said, you know what, I've been wondering about a weird noise in your night drawer. So we opened that drawer, and lo and behold, there's my phone and this video still has two minutes of play time on it.
Most underrated comment ever
Wild
I honestly find it kinda funny the pushback Aiden got at first. Aiden is very Bruce Wayne, like with the execption of being rich. That's funny because Batman is very much liked, yet Aiden is still decisive at best. And so I can show my bias. Yes, I have liked Aiden since the game came out.
Ngl, I don’t like Watchdogs for its hacking; I like it’s driving. Get a Nissan and start driving like you’re being chased, and it feels surprisingly good. The NPCs aren’t borderline suicidal like in GTA, and that helps more in driving than you think.
Lemme just say, I love it when people link their sources and I love it when it's correctly formatted. Absolute kudos to you.
Nice video! Supprised by the quality, it looks like something that will stream on some high-quality documentary streaming website.
Thank you, that means a lot to me! I took a lot of inspiration from more professional creators like Vox and Ahoy. Still nowhere near their production quality, but who knows, maybe one day.
@@_prizma Awww, don't put yourself down! It really was fantastic. Background footage was spot on and editing was great.
@@_prizma You are near their level of quality! Don't say that! I am looking forward to more of your works take your time, ahoy takes months to create a video and he delivers so do you!
Aw, thank you guys so much, I really appreciate your confidence. I'll do my best to deliver!
Name:Aiden Pearce The Vigilante The Fox
Ethnicity:Caucasian
Nationality:Northern Irish American
Gender:Male
Alignment:Neutral
Weapon:N/A Varies
Vehicle:N/A Varies
Age:30s 40s
Species Classification:Human
Occupation Profession:Fixer Vigilante Grey Hat Hacker
Affiliations:N/A Unknown
Residence:Chicago St. Louis
Status:Alive
“Species Classification: Human” are there aliens among us?
Are you ready for me.... London.
Didn't Aiden Pierce not grow up in Northern Ireland? I know the lore somewhat and the timing at his age in the game would have him growing up during the troubles at their height, it was a warzone here, in many ways it still is, just thought maybe that would go towards your analysis of his character, WD1 was by far the best in the series, it's dark gritty tone set it apart from the likes of GTA, WD2 shift in tone was jarring, Aiden Pierce is still the best protagonist in the flagging series, I only bought 2 off the back of 1 and only bought 3 because of the Bloodlines dlc which I recommend to any fan of the series, play it before the soulless base game as you can use Pierce and even Wrench as playable characters in 3 and it makes 3 bearable.
He was born in belfast but he moved at like 10 due to his alcoholic father. Though I think this was a retcon because Lena mentions going hunting with their father which would be a difficult thing to be able to do with kids that young in that kind of setting. Yes, he was born in the 70s and would have seen the worst part of the troubles. His surname being spelt as Pearce as opposed to Pierce (or go forbid Piers) links me to Patrick Pearse (that could be a stretch) and that makes me think he was from a Republican/Catholic family. Though the games use of "links to IRA" being a negative attribute ascribed to enemies in the profiler lays Ubisoft's (and honestly my own) views on the provisional IRA bare.
Holy moly this was really good. When I first saw this I imagined you as being a very popular youtuber, just by the sheer level of quality. But I see now that you are a hidden gem. I'll definitely be checking out your other videos and giving you a sub. Keep up the good work man.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!
And now in Watch Dogs Legion: Bloodline we can actually see what’s going on in his mind
The video itself is extremely well done not to mention the educational value.
Speaking of Machiavellitism, it’s interesting that Aiden also manipulates random mobsters if he have a chance in game (that when the player used the distraction feature, the message he types on the individual’s phone is often related to his CtOS scan results mentioning certain weak points of his target), in my opinion that pattern might trace back to aiden’s criminal past with Damien.
Also it would be interesting if Aiden used his social engineering skills on himself to analyze his own psychological self-image and weakness. I really like Aiden. Such deep character cannot be found on his successors.
Those game reviews of Aiden being a Batman clone seriously feign ignorance. He would be more of a death wish guy or punisher type given hes a lot older and has less time to develop any skills to start on his new path. I swear, name me one time game journalists did their job well.
fucken love watch dogs 1&2 great game (i refuse to believe legion exist) sad how they never made a 3rd game
hearing the first statement reminds me of why watch dogs is one of my favorite series of all time, they were able to make a dark gritty environment with the first game and then for the second game make the exact opposite with a colorful sunshine atmosphere. to bad ubisofts quality for games has downgraded tremendously and they fucked it all up with legion
I wish they had stuck with the dark atmosphere.
In my opinion, I think Legion is cool. But I see your point. But the more you think of it, Legion does have a dark theme of oppression & totalitarianism.
@@atas2561 yeah I'm not saying legion is a shit show of a game because I think its good for casual fun but compared to the first 2 its pretty bad. And I would agree with how legion has a dark theme but its hard to since they combined the games "dark" tone with cheesy jokes and writing.
Best character hands down.
Absolutely insane that you only have 400 subs. Remember me when you go viral.
I absolutely love watch dogs 1 and aiden is an amazing character. I like he is almost a anti-hero and he is complex and even crazy I love it so glad he is back for bloodline however I wish he got a second game entirely
Why do you talk so fast man? It's like a mumble rapper giving a game review.
0:49 "morally ambiguous streetsofvhsinagohauai" 0:53 "light hearted and congibleiablelysvu toneofthesequel" ...what?
He's too skilled
@@disgraceful7701 man's a rap god
I think Watch Dogs 2 is great, but I personally prefer the much darker and grittier tone of the first game. I also think Aiden and his crew were more interesting than Watch Dogs 2's group of young hipsters. I'm excited to see what Aiden is up to by the events of Legion, but I wasn't too big on Legion as a whole, as I feel like it went a little too futuristic. Watch Dogs 1 and 2 worked better because their settings were mostly realistic and were therefore much more relatable.
75 minutes of scholarly breakdown of the misunderstood hero of a tragically underrated franchise? I'm at half mast
Edit: I had to slow the video down to 90% to keep up with you, and that's a compliment
WD1 is literally the only game where you play as a sociopathic vigilante other than Max Payne 1. And I love it for that.
Disagree about the “sociopathic” part, though. Both characters care about other people’s well-being much more than they say they do.
@@lukas.ferreira3916 isn't that a sociopath? I'm pretty sure sociopaths are the emotional driven/impulsive and psychopaths were the emotionally disconnected/calm?
@@GothicGator But it’s much more than just being driven by impulse. They don’t lack empathy, they don’t compulsively lie or manipulate, etc. The word you’re looking for is “antihero”. They fight for the right reasons, but don’t always use morally acceptable methods. Both ARE good, non sociopathic people. It’s just that they’re willing to go the extra mile.
trust me it is not the only game lol. but it is one of the best
You don't even know what sociopath means.
I am so glad you have done this and actually know what you are talking about. I hate character studies of psychology where they dont know shit. Like this one fallout NV character with D.I.D I always cringe when they say "multiple personality disorder"
I came for Watch Dogs, I stayed for the Criminology - a Criminologist
I really enjoy Alone digital trip, and recognize the background voices as Nicole's but couldn't figure out what she says (except demands to find him) before watching this. Such small details, but really helps to build his lore.
What do you think of him in Bad Blood campaign? He's basically unreachable most of the time, so I wonder what he's actually doing.
Love your video quality, and adding cc really helps.
As an fan of the series, good video.
Human psychology and criminology have always been a joy for me to research and read about not to mention that I love Watch Dogs. Thanks for the deep analysis man. You deserve a sub from me
I never understood why Aiden Pearce was disliked in the first place. I thought he had more depth and motivation than Marcus from Watchdogs 2. I couldn't stand marcus.
Marcus is someone I wouldn't mind hanging our with but he doesn't work as a protagonist. Sure, he's likeable but he isn't interesting as a character. He doesn't undergo any psychological journey throughout the game and has little to no personal motivation to do all the things he does.
@@alexanderl9721 I agree completely, I didn't get his motivation or urgency to go around doing what he was doing. Aiden on the other hand, may not be as likeable but I understood and empathized with his motivation of revenge. Aiden also undergoes change from just revenge to becoming the fox and evolving into something bigger. It makes for a more interesting journey.
I didn’t mind Marcus, it’s just Aiden was much better
0:40 does this loading screen transition exist in the game? ive seen it in both here and the trailer but never happened on my walkthrough, it just cuts right into the game
Yeah it does when you fast travel I think
only sometimes
i dont know what causes it but it happened a few times
I think I know why it doesn't show I found a TH-camr. Named MKIceandFire, and he had a PC version of it with ultra graphics and mod system, and the same loading screen transition pops up on his play through if you go to his play game go to 6:33:59 and it has the same transition. Sorry for this long explanation. My apologies
@@Flvkoセノミック thanks man that was helpful!
It does
Hello Prizma! Thank you for working so hard to produce such an amazing, incredibly in-depth, satisfying and enjoyable video. Admittedly I watched it late at night whilst looking for content to listen to whilst organising some files, but I still loved it nevertheless. I especially loved the clips of Chicago you used as background. I enjoy getting to see Aiden calmly walking through the streets. I like to imagine he's somberly walking in the rain whilst you discuss the subconsciousness, and awkwardly shifting his weight between his feet during the psychopathy section, hehe. Granted, probably wouldn't be feeling anything, now that you've thoroughly outlined his character, but I think it'd be cute.
Thanks for conducting a well-needed psychoanalysis on Aiden's character. I typed "Aiden Pearce character analy--" on TH-cam and was taken aback to see it auto-fill and for your video to be the top result. I was pleasantly surprised! Especially more so that it was released just 11 days or so ago. Perfect timing for Watch Dogs Legion, eh? How long did it take you? You study psych, so I'm sure you had a lot of knowledge of it beforehand, but I'm still curious.
I always knew deep down that Aiden was a complex character with a lot of nuance and depth to him than just being a "strong, aggressive white male" and I was always disappointed seeing others call him boring and bland, and label the classic revenge plot cliché. I've always been an empathetic person and prior to your video, I had my own reasons why I liked and could empathise with Aiden more than the main characters in Watch Dogs 2. Because we have more opportunity to spend alone time with Aiden, listening to his monologues, learning his past, and aiding him on his very personal mission, plus the fact that the other characters weren't forcibly included for screentime, it was easier to grow attached to him. I also think the easily understandable plot makes it easier to understand and hence the player will have a better time with plot points slowly added on over the course of the storu. Heck, I actually think the camera perspective also makes a significant difference. In Watch Dogs 2, the camera is much farther away from Marcus than in WD1, where the Player is directly behind Aiden, like his companion. Marcus feels like a very distant character to us -- someone we're controlling but perhaps ultimately someone whose life we're watching. Our visual closeness to Aiden, I feel, plays at least a minor role in our attachment to him.
I honestly hadn't realised that Lena's death could lead to so much trauma within Aiden, fuelling his attitude and behaviour like this. It's a misguided belief on my part. I noticed another comment here discussing that perhaps the developers needed to do a bit more research when writing Aiden's character, and this video has ultimately taught me the importance of that. As a creative writer, this video definitely helped me think about how to make characters much more raw, relatable and realistic.
I personally like to think that the good rep/Vigilante route is canon, especially given the ending credits sequence where the police are implied to have some level of gratitude towards him. Since it's described in his WD2 appearance I like to believe he starts actively pursuing giant crime rings, especially targeting human and sex trafficking. Perhaps he sees Lena in these people, particularly women and young girls.
Heh. As an ending note, isn't it amazing how many people called Aiden "bland and boring" and then likely many of these same people are cheering about Aiden's return in Legion? Classic. I wonder what his story will be this time. "Older but not necessarily wiser"... at least his mask is realistic to carry around readily and put on quickly!
Sorry for all the rambling in my comment, I just wanted to share my thoughts and experiences with Aiden's character, hehe. I hope you found it entertaining.
Your channel is so criminally underrated, and it's such a crime that there's so little comments here. You've earned my sub, Prizma! Looking forward to the new content.
Hi Katie,
Thank you so much for this message, it really made my day! To answer your question, I started working on this video in September of last year, so it took a little over a year to get everything together. The majority of my time was spent doing research because 1) psychology was a subject matter that I didn't have too much background in, and 2) I wanted to make sure my writing was supported at least somewhat by literature (though admittedly subject to a bit of confirmation bias). This meant I spent September of last year to June of this year reading up on the science and trying to put together a cogent argument. Most of the actual video production was done over the past few months in my free time. I originally hadn't planned to publish the video alongside the release of Legion, but because it got delayed from earlier this year, in addition to announcing that Aiden would return in Bloodlines, things kind of worked out by complete coincidence.
I definitely agree with your thoughts on the presentation of Aiden's character, and I think part of the reason why so many people brushed him off as a bland character is because most don't have the time or energy to invest themselves into the lore. I'm a sucker for this kind of linear narrative world-building, so it was really interesting learning about Aiden on a deeper level through supplemental story elements. I really like your point about the camera placement of both WD1 and WD2 as well, I hadn't actually thought about it that way. It makes a lot of sense though; where WD1 is about one individual seeking personal revenge, WD2 is much more focused on the social aspect of a close-knit group. This of course doesn't make one game better than the other, but it's interesting how such a small mechanical change like camera placement can demarcate the drastic tonal shift between the two.
Anyways, thank you again for your kind words, I really appreciate messages like these. More videos will be coming eventually, though they'll probably be about something totally unrelated.
Cheers,
-John
You should totally do a video about Bloodlines Aiden.
this dude made an hour-long video on a character that doesn't exist
Just finished my second play through of Watch Dogs and was dying to dive deeper into Aidan’s character to prove that he wasn’t as one dimensional as critics make him out to be, and here you pop into my recommendeds! Amazing video, picked at my brain and made me really think, which I love when it comes to documentary like videos like this!
Odd request, but, do you ever plan on doing more character analysis’s like this? And if so, I would like to make a request for the next character- that being either Arthur Morgan or Dutch Van Der Linde from the Red Dead Redemption series! I love Arthur more, but I do think Dutch is a much more interesting character to pick apart in terms of mental interest.
Thank you for making such brain picking content! I hope you find the time to do more!
Hey, thank you so much for the kind words! In terms of future content, I'm currently experimenting with a couple different subjects so I don't have any character analyses planned at the moment. I really enjoy working on that kind of content though so it'll definitely make a return eventually and I'll keep Red Dead Redemption characters in mind. Thanks for stopping by!
Underrated, Aiden is my favorite character of all the time! You should do Arthur Morgan, Keep Your work man
Aiden pearce is awesome, he was my profile picture for at least 3 years
Well. Ofcourse he's your favorite. Bro you litterally are Aiden Pearce lmao. Godda love yourself dawg
Great video, hope this gets more attention. Ive always loved the first Watch Dogs and really liked Aiden Pearce especially since, to me, he is relatable. Pearce’s story is something I want to explore more and this more gritty “real” story keeps me coming back to this game.
Me who has autism and beaten the game 5 times on Realistic and trying to investigate evidences, solving crimes to keep the good reputation, first now understands that i am trying to be a good guy to justify my actions i put against the civilians and other people to achieve my personal gain.
So... Captain Walker from Spec Ops the Line.
when ubisoft wrote good characters
The Fox is something like the Punisher or Death Wish with hacker abilities.
The Nazi nut job antagonist appeared early in the game that hates f*ck-ups.
Aiden Pearce's case it's more a personal vendetta.
He may be transitioning to the role of vigilante in the future like Batman but he's not there yet.
Aiden Pearce wouldn't be stealing money from poor, laid off terminally ill people on the streets.
Oh, this one has terminal cancer, this one lost his job, better leave them alone.
I tried not to kill and steal only from evil people but the game doesn't make that easy with
horrible driving mechanics, NPC with a death wish running into my path, and info cards that can be tedious to read.
Many side quests have me stopping a hit etc only to kill several people during car chases to save one or two lives.
Pearce is no different than the ones he hangs with.
The only difference being he's out for revenge.
The mini-games like chess and poker are very odd since you have to actually learn to play these games to 100% it.
Yeah I couldn't be assed with learning chess so just skimped from a guide though I was familiar with poker and actually enjoyed playing it lol
Please do a similar video with Raymond Kenney (T-Bone)
No wonder every chump from other games gets frightened just by hearing his name. I'd have still bought Legion with all it's janky animations and removed features if the whole game was based on Aiden and Wrench.
Nice Video.
Now this is high quality analysis and perfectly made essay. Thank you for huge work sir, I really love Aiden as a character, he had a rough times in his life, yet he still does his thing and his believes are strong and true.
aiden pierce.... his life in watch dogs 1 is just sad and emotional. it all started because of a fail heist and then the lost of his niece. he then started his plot for revenge against the one who destroy his life only to dig too deep to the point it endangered not only him but his entire family as well. but, he didn't stopped. he knows that the world is against him, he knows there will be many walls that he needs to tore down and he just go through it all like nothing. in the end of watch dogs 1 he promised to himself that he WILL use his power so he can protect the weak and punish the evil ones. in watch dogs 2 we can see his rampage against once more and in legion he also done it again. and that's what i like about him. HE IS THE VIGILANTE. and he take that name seriously. his such a underrated character in gaming. his story, life and history is just well written, emotional and amazing. i wish more people know more about this character.
Damn dude an hour on a video game character?! Hell yeah!
my favorite video game of all time, i love that somebody else see's it the way i do and gives it the attention it deserves. i love this video.
Your speaking so fast your nearly tripping over your words. Please slow down stop quickly reading through a script!!
I hope they don't ruin the aiden pearce character in watch dogs legion he is my favorite and I want watch dogs 4 to have a story similar to the first watch dogs maybe have jackson pearce as the protagonist in a 2025 version of New York I think watch dogs Legion is in 2024
I always liked Aiden Pearce.
Aiden got way too much hate back in the day. People misunderstood Aiden. He was never meant to be a likeable character in the first place. He was only meant to be interesting, nothing more. I like him because he is similar to Batman and Walter White (two of my favourite movie TV/show characters).
Aiden definitely has a personality, he is a protective person who will do anything to keep his family safe. That's exactly what gives him a personality. Aiden is definitely one of my favourite videogame protagonists alongside Niko Bellic.
Fortunately I wasn't biased by the E3 crowd because I learned about the existence of WD1 after it was already out. I even upgraded my PC to play this game back in early 2015. Now, WD1 is one of my all time favourite videogames alongside GTA IV and NFS Carbon.
Always play the game by yourself (or watch a good gameplay video) and form your own opinion. Never trust reviewers.
Amazing video btw (Actually a masterpiece). This video needs more attention from the Watch Dogs community. Thank you for making an amazing character analysis video.
Btw, your channel is underappreciated.
Hello John,
I don't know whether you would read this at all, but if you do, I have something to share.
I really liked you video. It gave me a glimpse into the psyche of Aiden Pierce, a character who rarely expresses emotion and seems quite monotonous, and thus is very hard to judge and understand.
I love Aiden's character a lot. I feel so connected to him, that at times I can very well imagine myself doing the same things or being motivated by similar pain/trauma/remorse that I have personally experienced, that I feel like a vigilante (or a psychopath), just like Aiden. I don't say that I AM a Psychopath, but by realising the various stages and traits you have mentioned, I am now very much aware of how close I might be. I can clearly see my own psyche being evaluated, or atleast being discussed in this video. The effects of trauma, the coping mechanisms, the flow of decisions, the resultant mental construct. It's.... quite revelatory and frightening at the same time.
There was a point in time (2014- around the release of watchdogs) when I couldn't grasp the character of Aiden at all. I dismissed Aiden as bland and boring (Watch Dogs too) just like everyone else at that time. Maybe I was quite young at that point of time to understand what Aiden was going through or maybe I was just expecting a different game. I don't know.
But, A lot of time has passed since then, and...I have been through a lot... of bad experiences since then. I feel like I am a very different person now. And just in 2020 I played watch dogs once more, this time going quite far in the game's story. Now, I can clearly see and feel for Aiden, and suddenly I love Watch Dogs. I had a similar experience with Niko Bellic and GTA IV (perhaps my most loved game of all time). I hated the game when I was younger and naive, but I absolutely love it now, as I have grown older and been through shit. I can genuinely feel the rage, the self questioning, the sense of being wronged, and the lack of fulfillment that these characters have.
Seeing your video has opened my eyes as to how my own experience might have drastically (and perhaps even destructively) changed my behaviour, and my psyche. It allows me to understand what drives my moral compass, what affects my morality, my rage, my empathy, my reasoning. And now I understand why I love and feel for Niko and Aiden at such a personal level.
Honestly, the mood, theme and soundtrack of both the games reinforce this 'feel' of the characters 'broken' psyche. I absolutely love GTA IV's soviet connection and Watch Dogs' menu screen music (idk the name for it), for example. They just... amplify all those emotions.
Thank you for your laborious and painstaking work. It might not be an academic or professional diagnosis of Aiden's psyche, but I love its finesse none the less for a TH-cam video.
I don't know of any other video or piece of media in general that has confronted my sub-conscious and self understanding to such a degree. Perhaps that would be my greatest compliment to you.
Thank you, John.
Hi Shivesh,
Thank you so much for your message. I am both humbled to hear how impactful this video was for you, and simultaneously saddened by the things that you have had to go through.
Perhaps the greatest gifts that artistic media (including video games) can give us is that of an emotional connection and an opportunity to learn more about ourselves in the process. Watch Dogs especially, a game that explores why people do what they do even if only with a cursory eye, prompts us to reflect on our own motives and values. It sounds like the game had quite the effect for you, and hopefully it has and will help you work through any troubles you have.
As Niko Bellic succinctly laments, “life is complicated.” But how we carry ourselves in the face of adversity says the most about us as humans. So whatever happens, I hope you can make peace with your past and move forward with a fresh perspective on life. And don’t forget, you aren’t in this alone. Even Aiden needs his Clara, T-Bone, and Jordi, so be sure to seek help if and when you so choose.
Wishing you all the best,
John
yeah im not reading that
@@SadGamersWDwho gaf
The whole campaign was about Aiden avenging his niece's death
It sure was.
No shit sherlock
The world is a dark place and watch dogs 1 shows it.
WD2 showed a colourful world with kids and harmony.
Ubisoft had something special in their hands but they dropped it to appeal to the masses
actually, by the end of the game he doesn't see himself as a vigilante, the townsfolk are the people that do, so even if he doesn't fit those criteria from the beginning, he doesn't care, he just does what he does, wich is funny because in the second game he is a Legend, you actually find a bunch of dead corpses in a container and Marcus said that these are the people Aiden killed, a bunch of thugs, very scary, he becames a technomonster later on and ubisoft doesn't know what to do with him. ( please don't give me spoilers from aiden dlc in legion, i want to see it by myself )
I've been waiting for the right time to watch this video in one sitting and was skeptical to begin with, but I was surprisingly impressed with the quality and your deep analysis. I don't think this game gets the credit it deserves and the character of Aiden Pearce is much more complicated than people think. Clichés will exist until the end of time and no piece in modern day storytelling is without some. Thank you for the insight.
The first game is the best i wish we would get a remaster or remake with aiden again hes easily the best character i prefered the darker tone rather then the hipster dedsec
3:10 "Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and brother, I hurt people"
So. Every thought about doing a follow-up to this considering there’s an actual mission focused on his psyche in the new DLC for Legion?
Aiden is a combo of john wick and batman plus the first game was soo good man its sad these games will die because nowadays is soo hard to please people. We will miss these games hopefully we will leave to see another watch dogs with Aiden as the main character hopefully during his troubled youth times
Last thing is it weird how I think am a lot like wrench but also a lot like Aiden I just relate to both of them a lot
Holy fucking shit this channel is so underrated
I love how haters tried to say Aiden is basically Batman. Which is so untrue,batman in his core is good, Aiden on the other hand is a deeply troubled, traumatized and morally questionable at times. Aiden is not a Mary Sue, he has his own flaws which makes him infinitely better than Batman. Aiden feels real, because there is and have been people like him.
Any knowledgable reader knows how deeply flawed Batman is. So I'm not sure where this comes from.
Aiden Pearce is honestly my number 1 favourite Ubisoft character so far. I love the way he’s written.
Holy shit how do you not have more subs? This video was great!
I dont know why so many people bitch about Aiden. For me he was great protagonist. Game was deep and interesting, much more than WD2 and Legion.
Most underrated video ever
and now he is back for the Bloodline DLC
Duly Noted
The whole time I have no idea what was happening but I still listen because it sounds interesting