I've been a fan of the Metro series since 2033 released on the 360, and I've played that game many times. Moved on to Last Light to give it another playthrough, and I'm already having a blast with it, but god does the :so-true: "DAE gommulists are as bad as the nazis" shit really get annoying.
They start off by showing the Nazis to be literal skull measuring concentration camp building monsters, but when it comes to the commies, there is minimal ideological exploration. Supposedly the Red Line follows their ideology and there is plenty of the aesthetic with CCCP flags everywhere and comrade this and that and what not, but nothing of value is really shown beyond the same tired tropes of them being traitorous hypocritical thugs running a police state, and the game spends WAY more time emphasizing them as the main antagonists. The first game dabbled in this but it was way further in the background and there was more plausible deniability that it was just a shitty faction using the name.
The irony is that in the original novels, written by a Russian author, the communists aren't a major faction. Artyom meets a few of them and they have a warm exchange and he gets to learn about some of their theory (he thinks Che is a station). Of course, the game devs are Yoooookrainian, it's just so on the nose. Besides this, I really love these games for their world building, atmosphere, and linear experiences. Hopefully Exodus minimizes this shit, as it is the only game in the series I haven't played yet.
As a fun bonus, here is some concept art of what the Red Line officers were originally going to look like
From what i remember, in the book, the communists were a major faction, who artyom meets are the trotskyists who are separate from the communist faction
lmao my memories of the book are super hazy and are from a time when I was young enough that my political conceptions were prehistoric. Were the non trot communists portrayed as badly as the games?
I also dont have a detailed memory of the book, but from what i remember it was standard totalitarianism 1984 etc, though the trots were portrayed quite positively
What relevance do you think Trotskyism would even have in the environment of the Metro? Aside from constantly whining about how the other communists are authoritarian and bad for actually doing anything (I mostly kid :che-smile:)
Apparently the lore or whatever according to the wiki is that after losing a brutal war the Red Line bunkers down and focuses on being a functional state over agitating other stations too much, while the Trotskyists(Just called Revolutionaries) control like one station and a buncha outposts and focus on guerrilla warfare instead.
Maybe they wish to execute permanent revolution throughout all stations in the Metro? Not sure why Trotskyism would even still exist beyond the stereotypical "we're the good commies unlike those ebul stalinists"
That was kind of the point, i think they were meant to look as people too preoccupied with the pre-apocaliptic past, they for example said that they were taking a revenge on the fascists for the revolutionary catalonia when that history was of course completely irrelevant in the metro
lol last thing I expected from this series was a solid dunk on Trots
It was not meant as a dunk specifically against trots, but rather it was a mistake committed by everyone in the metro, people trying to imitate pre-apocalyptic past, not only trots, but also those trying to imitate USSR, 3rd Reich and hanza
Honestly not a bad take :shrug-outta-hecks:
Although these mfs could probably use a little :kropotkin-shining:
Honestly, that's what it sounds like when someone says "XYZ modern politician killed Rosa."