I’ve struggled a bit with my vision for Claudio and his Saintscorp because Saints Row is... well, a game about a gang. IV switched it way up, of course, and that’s the kind of framework that gave me my opening to tell a different kind of story than the shoot-em-up narrative that games of this type are usually dependent on, but IV also added aliens and the blowing up of the entire actual planet and shit too, so, I mean...Â
See, the idea of the Saints becoming media moguls is important to me because of how central the media is to modern culture. I need the Saints to use that, not to perpetuate the same tired stereotypes that Ultor et al would want them to perpetuate in order to keep the capitalist mill turning, but to create new images, or at least to debunk the harmful ones.
I think of Claudio in antihero terms, honestly-- the small-time stock villain seeing the error of his ways and using his “badness” in the service of his community instead. Shango and his Loa Dust open Claud’s eyes, make him realise his own power, and the power of the people who would follow him. The first time he brokers an alliance with a gang instead of just raining bullets on them until they capitulate (or die), it feels empowering. The Saints grow stronger. More skills are added to the mix. Sure, personalities might clash and sometimes shit gets heated, but ultimately people learn how to work together on a common goal -- the take-back of their community.
“The community” started with Stilwater (taking it back from the corrupt government that kept the poor nonwhite demographics oppressed), but then when Claudio and the Lieutenants took Ultor, the dream got bigger. Claudio realised that part of the problem was media corporations like Ultor disseminating oppressive thoughts and images about poor nonwhites, which led to violent backlash, which led to “see? look how violent and uncultured they are!” which led to more oppression, which led to more backlash... and now it seems the only option for people like Claudio was to “sell out” and become a race traitor or... to join a gang.
So Saintscorp did use capitalism to their advantage for a while -- they sold shitty energy drinks and purple-branded everything, made movies about elaborate gang robberies and shooting people for fun, whatever. And they banked that money. They invested it. Behind the scenes, Claudio kept working his charm on gangs across the country, gaining attention in other countries thanks to the magic of the Internet. Gang leaders of a similar mind began to do the same-- investing what they robbed, using the same cunning intelligence that powered their organised crime to learn business skills, computer skills, how to navigate their local economies and governments. And on it went.
Eventually, Saintscorp stopped peddling junk to teenagers and started investing in arts funding; started buying up whole blocks of real estate to thwart developers and converting it to good low-income housing; started diverting the flow of money so dramatically that whole governments had to start paying attention. Sure, consumers are mad as hell for a while... but they can’t deny how much their communities have improved. Soon, the only people left mad are the capitalists who can’t seem to bribe, threaten, or suppress Saintscorp, no matter what they do. Because Saintscorp is smarter, and the people are rallying behind them.
“Wait... weren’t you that gang from Stilwater?” some mayor asks, sitting across the boardroom table from Claudio. He’s thinking, so why am I so afraid of you? It blows their fucking minds. But they can’t stop it.
It’s pure wish fulfillment. It’s me wanting to see the propaganda mill that continues to perpetuate the oppression of Black people dismantled, particularly by Black people refusing to participate in it. It’s me wanting people society would consider “bad” and “worthless” to see their own worth and break their shackles, and to have the socioeconomic power to do it successfully. I don’t know how to make that happen in real life, but I sure know how to make it happen in this set of video game headcanons.
