#pagan control

Sooo in conjunction with my fanfic project, I’ve been falling down a rabbithole of making an indepth analysis of Pagan Min: Control. I’ve seen a few takes on the DLC that I feel are missing key points, and though I’m a bit late to the party, here’s a first draft of my thoughts. (For those reading my fic, yes, this perspective informs the way I write Pagan.)

UPDATE: Read the finished version of this on AO3!

Note: All of this is written from a death of the author perspective. This means I am not concerned with authorial intent, only about interpreting the actual textual evidence. Textual evidence here refers to anything that occurs or is depicted/said/written in Far Cry 4 and Pagan Min: Control. I will not include the comic in this analysis as I have not read it, nor any other external sources of information, even if they are ‘official’.

When I write ‘Pagan’, I mean Pagan as a whole — the man who is having the vision where he is at war with himself. I call the playable character in Control ‘PC Pagan’.

What is actually happening?

Control could either be a vision brought on by Pagan dying, or something that happens later, if he’s left alive. PC Pagan’s comment to the Tyrant that he wants people to think he’s dead (rather than boring) suggests that he is alive. Given his lifelong proximity to drugs, the vision may well be a drug-induced hallucination.

There is also evidence that Pagan is dying, or at least believes he is dying. When PC Pagan reaches the final area, where he believes his family are waiting for him, there is a voiceline where he says that this must be heaven. And, of course, stepping through a door into blinding light is a very common metaphor for passing on. (Again, this may simply be a symtom of a belief that he’s dying.)

Quick aside: Guilt (more on that later) + drug trip suggests to me that Pagan entered something of a downwards spiral after leaving Kyrat.

Pagan is an unreliable narrator.

Control is explicitly stated to take place inside Pagan’s own mind, and Pagan is an unreliable narrator. Everything that happens, every word spoken, is a manifestation of his own thoughts and feelings. What’s said by the various entities PC Pagan encounters is thus either something he believed or wished them to have thought, or his own thoughts projected onto them.

This is perhaps most strongly evidenced by Lakshmana’s presence as a young girl rather than the infant she was when she was killed.

Another clear example of this is his fractured view of Ishwari: She blames him for Lakshmana’s death, only to claim she must have been confused in the next breath — except she is also distantly screaming that she hates him. The clearest voice of Ishwari is the version of her he longs for, and beyond that first accusation that he could have saved Lakshmana, she is supportive and loving.

Even Pagan’s memories cannot be taken at face value.

Just as we cannot trust that anything that is said is actually representative of the people in his vision, we cannot assume that his memories are accurate depictions of what happened. For one, there are memories of things he presumably was not present for (i.e. Ishwari’s death).

In other words, all memories we see/hear are either what Pagan believes happened, or what he thinks ought to have happened (consciously or subconsciously). Though most of them are probably built around a kernel of truth, they are all filtered through Pagan’s perception of events; his self-aggrandisement, wishful thinking, and guilt.

The Tyrant is as much Pagan as PC Pagan is. He cannot be defeated.

The Tyrant claims that “You hate yourself, so everything in here wants you dead.” Of course, this applies to the Tyrant too: He is also Pagan, and PC Pagan wants him dead, supported (if obliquely) by Ishwari and Lakshmana. By fighting, PC Pagan is simply proving the Tyrant right: Pagan is ruthless and revels in bloodshed. “The more you kill, the stronger you’ll get. It’s the same in here as it was out there, love.”

PC Pagan calls the Tyrant a ‘personification of his flaws’, but the opposite is equally true. From the Tyrant’s perspective, it’s PC Pagan who is that personification. They just have different ideas of what ‘flaws’ mean. But in the end, both of them use a definition that is pushed on them from outside sources — Yuma, in the case of the Tyrant, and everyone else, in the case of PC Pagan.

Pagan may feel guilt, but he doesn’t feel remorse.

PC Pagan’s aim is not to change, but simply to cover up his crimes, to appear to be the person he believes could be with his family. He wants to control the narrative. This is made explicit in the bell tower mission, and in his fabricated memory of saving Ajay’s life (where he tells the Tyrant “I want people to think I’m dead, not boring.”). While this is a trait he displays in the real world as well, it’s particularly interesting that PC Pagan is concerned with the narrative even inside his own mind.

The Tyrant obviously isn’t, and also appears to be fully aware that none of it is real. PC Pagan seems more confused on the matter. Again, the bell tower mission is a good example, with PC Pagan worrying that ‘anyone could hear this’, when in fact he is the only audience. And, of course, towards the end, he says, “I can be with my family, here, in this place?”, as though he has forgotten where he is.

It seems as though PC Pagan is in fact engaged in an attempt at active self-delusion. He believes he could be happy with his family, if only he can convince himself of two things: That his family would accept him if he covers up his ‘flaws’ (the overarching mission of gathering the mask), and that he actually wants to be a faithful, loving father (the bell tower).

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On the page, there were the 3D models of most of the Deputy’s outfits, including the rings, as well as some other NPCs’ clothes. It was very helpful, so if you’re interested too, it’s here!

Undoubtedly, just like Insanity, Control is beautiful. It’s a pleasure to visit this dreamlike version of Kyrat and to hear Troy Baker play Pagan Min again. But, just like its predecessor, the DLC has a few problems, especially when it comes to the story… and its consistency with Far Cry 4.

Pagan

The purpose of Pagan’s “mental journey” is to collect three pieces of a mask that will hide his flaws, the dark part of him, because he hates who he truly is. But he was in Far Cry 4, on the contrary, unapologetically himself and unashamed of his “monstrous” side. He never hid it from Ajay and talked about it frankly. He had a few regrets, sure. For example, he wished he’d had the courage to visit Ishwari when he was in the USA. But he also talks about how he ruined Noore’s life and still thinks it was hilarious. Pagan knows very well who is; he’s not ashamed.

The DLC also “reveals” that other children hated him because he was “different”. And his father never helped him, he only mockingly called him his “daughter”. I like characters with a tragic past but, in the case of Pagan, I don’t think it works. What we know about him is that he was always “flamboyant”, powerful, and ambitious. There’s nothing about him being anyone’s punching bag or “soft” (not before he fell in love, at least). I don’t think this backstory suits Pagan or that he needed it.

And there’s one last detail I honestly didn’t think I would have to mention, but... In the DLC, we see him kiss Eric, his body double, and his father gets angry at him for “fucking men”. But, in Far Cry 4, he tells Ajay that, “contrary to the rash assumption some may make about [his] appearance”, men are “not [his] cup of tea”. Pagan’s attraction to men in Control is of course absolutely not a problem in itself, but it contradicts Far Cry 4, and this is a problem. By the way, in the DLC, Pagan comments that “they really did get [his] cheekbones right” when he meets Eric, which suggests they were surgically enhanced. But, in Far Cry 4, he said Eric was in fact “born” with them.

Pagan’s parents

In Control, his father’s name is Gang Min. But according to Mark Thompson, narrative director on Far Cry 4, Gang was actually Pagan’s birth name. That said, in Yuma’s description on the official Far Cry website, Pagan’s father was indeed called Gang Min, so who this name originally belonged to in the minds of the original writers is unclear. Mark Thompson also said Pagan took his new name after his father was killed but, contrary to what we see in Control, he never said he was the murderer. Him renaming himself “Pagan Min” in reference to a Burmese king who succeeded his father after having family members (his rival brothers) killed was a subtle message.

In Control, The Tyrant says Pagan “always needed a mother”, as if he never knew his mom and was only raised by his father. According to Mark Thompson and Dan Hay (executive producer), she was a British expatriate and Pagan wears pink as an homage to her. He knew her and nothing suggests she never raised him.

Ishwari and Pagan

Control shows it was Pagan who requested to meet Ishwari because she was the Tarun Matara and he wanted to “bolster [his] Kyrati cultural image”. In reality, she was sent to the Palace by her husband to spy on him. We don’t even know if he had previously heard of her.

In the DLC, Pagan visits the Ghale Homestead and implies he’s been there before. But has he, really? There, he reads Ishwari’s diary in which she “reveals” she never loved him, that he’s no better than Mohan, and that she was just “a prize to them”. While I think Ishwari never wrote this and it’s just what Pagan’s fears make him believe, I just don’t like the way their relationship is written in general… In Far Cry 4, the Pagan Yuma described in her journal is deeply in love with Ishwari and would have done anything for her. She trusted and loved him more than Mohan and, to Pagan, she was not just “a prize”. He didn’t want her simply because she was a “Goddess” and he thinks he deserves the best, or because she was Mohan’s wife and he wanted to spitefully “steal” her from him.

In the Delusion “Sound And Fury”, we hear Pagan’s “thoughts”. He says he can’t be “tied down to one person” and that Ishwari would probably be angry if she knew about “the others” he’s seen behind her back. That seems unlikely…

In “Thicker Than Water”, we also hear a conversation between Ishwari and Pagan about her planning to leave for America. He reacts angrily and tells her she must stay because she belongs to him. First, this conversation never happened. We know, thanks to a letter she wrote for Pagan (that he kept and framed in his Palace) that she left hurriedly without even saying goodbye. As for Pagan telling her he owns her… Sorry but, again, I highly doubt he would have said such a thing.

Mohan and Lakshmana

The story told in the DLC implies Mohan met Lakshmana before he killed her, and even that they lived together because Ishwari convinced him that she was his daughter. What’s implied is basically that Ishwari was a spy during the day at the Royal Palace and went back home with Mohan every night. But, in his journal (Chaitra 1988), Mohan told her, “Return only after we have achieved victory”. Ishwari most likely never returned to her husband while she was spying on Pagan. He never thought Lakshmana was his because he only met her the day he murdered her, presumably at the Royal Palace and certainly not at the Ghale Homestead. He even wrote in his journal (Ashwin 1990) that he didn’t know her name!

In her diary, Ishwari wrote, “Mohan will pay”, because of what he did to her daughter. While, again, this is most likely just what Pagan imagines she could have written, the goodbye letter she left in Far Cry 4 implies she wasn’t planning on killing Mohan or avenging Lakshmana’s death at all. She fled because she was scared of her husband who, according to Willis, wanted to kill her too. She did end up shooting him (presumably in self-defense) but it was unpremeditated.

Yuma

It’s true that Pagan gave Yuma the heads of three men who tried to steal her dead father’s inheritance. However, did she believe Pagan only did this because he loved her? Was she really “rash” and “undisciplined”? Did he only do it because he wanted to use her and her money? And how did it “avenge [her] father’s death” since he was killed during a raid by INTERPOL and the NNCC? Plus, Yuma was everything but naive…

In Control, it’s also “revealed” that it was Yuma who told Mohan that Ishwari was having an affair. While she hated her because of the way she affected Pagan, and while nothing in Far Cry 4 discounts this possibility with absolute certainty, I doubt Yuma talked to Mohan. I don’t think she would have betrayed Pagan, and neither Mohan nor Yuma mention this in their respective journals. She admitted that she could have killed Ishwari if she’d had the chance, but that’s it.

Finally, Yuma was a villain to Ajay, Ishwari’s son, and it’s one of the reasons why Pagan made him kill her. But was she really a villain to Pagan? She had become a nuisance, yes, but a villain?

Pagan and Lakshmana

Pagan suggests Ishwari should get an abortion and looks annoyed when she tells him she’s pregnant in Control. It was a good opportunity for her to have a “my body, my choice” moment, which isn’t bad or out of character, but I doubt that’s how he reacted.

In “Sound And Fury”, he says can’t stand his daughter’s shrieks and that he’s jealous of her because he wants Ishwari’s undivided attention. In “Thicker Than Water”, he carries her (with a gun in his hand), tells her that, as “the offspring of their King and their Goddess”, people will love her, and calls her “papa’s prop”. But we know he truly loved Lakshmana and that she changed him. In Mohan’s journal, we learn that Pagan met with members of the Golden Path to discuss peace shortly before or after his daughter was born. He wanted the war to end, and it was probably because of her.

And just like in Rite of Passage #2, Pagan is partly responsible for Lakshmana’s murder because he didn’t listen to Ishwari when she “begged” him for help. In reality, they were at the Royal Palace when Mohan killed their daughter, and there was nothing Pagan could have done. It’s possible he blames himself, yes, but Mohan is the only one responsible.

Pagan and religion

Control says Pagan outlawed religion to help Ishwari, because she didn’t like being the Tarun Matara, and to save Lakshmana who was going to succeed her mother. Then, it’s revealed he in fact never cared about them, only about himself, and did it because he was jealous and wanted people to worship him and him alone. Firstly, again, he did care deeply about his lover and daughter. Secondly, the fact that Lakshmana was going to be the next Tarun Matara is purely speculative. Thirdly, what he says in Far Cry 4 suggests he only outlawed religion after Ishwari left because losing his loved ones made him “a cruel and angry young man”. By the way, he mentioned “slamming rails of coke” during this radio call (and did it) but Control never addresses his drug use.

The post-credits scene

I’m sorry, but suggesting the bombs that destroyed Hope County came from Kyrat doesn’t really make sense. It was a fun attempt at connecting the games and it was nice to hear about Gary again but, story-wise, it doesn’t work…