Like a king without a crown

Note: The following contains spoilers, you have been warned

The following is the winner of the Characters with Character contest, written by forum contributor Robert, aka “whatever.” The words below are his entry, edited with his consent. So please enjoy them and give him high praise for his work!

As gaming has progressed over the years, one of the numerous trends I’ve noticed has been the surprisingly high amount of anti-hero protagonists who have popped up throughout many genres. These characters are still the heroes of their tales and while they are not villain protagonists, the thing that defines an anti-hero is that they do not always decide to take the kindest option available. Be it a predictably tragic past or experiences that have simply hardened the heart, these “heroes” all perform their share of questionable acts.

Normally, I find myself disliking this type of character due to actions not being justified well enough for my tastes, a redemption that often feels completely tacked on, and a common, cliché backstory where someone important was lost that makes so many of these characters boilerplate. However, there have definitely been exceptions to the rule and Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes is a shining example of that fact.

It would be difficult to talk about Travis’ characterization over the course of the series as a whole due to the stark differences to his development in each of the two games. As such, I’m going to separately talk about his development for each. However, the basics of his character are a comparatively simple matter.

Travis is a diehard otaku and wrestling fan who won a lightsa … beam katana from an online auction and decides to become the number one assassin in the UAA (that’s United Assassin Association) to make one of the organizers, Sylvia Christel, in his own words, “do it with him.” To put it as bluntly as possible, Travis is not a nice guy in almost any capacity; constantly insulting nearly all of the ranked assassins he has to kill, murdering innumerable people on his way to the top of the UAA organization, and doing it all for the most shallow reasons imaginable, on the surface at least. However, that’s not to say Travis is completely reprehensible, as he is never seen killing an innocent person. He only kills the assassins above him in the chain or those who are actively trying to kill him on his way there and it’s obvious that he has some standards, muted as they may be.

Travis’ development in the first No More Heroes is sporadic, but can be summed up through three major events that occur over the course of the game. The first being his speech to himself as he fights the first major assassin in the game, the 10th ranked Death Metal. As he fights, Travis talks to himself about how he sees Death Metal as a future version of himself. After he finishes plowing through the ranks he will have an easy life in a mansion with people waiting at his beck and call; seemingly matching up with the initial, superficial personality. However, he goes on to talk about how he is having second thoughts about all of this; questioning himself and how he should’ve thought this through before getting into this situation. From this, it becomes easier to see this sense of resignation to circumstances in everything Travis does throughout the game. He may often enjoy what he’s doing, (as evidenced by him saying that there’s “nothing more gratifying” than fighting his own kind) but, in the end, he goes along with it all because he feels he must.

It’s not hard to see that mentality at work as Travis works through the assassins ranked from 10th to 7th. We may find out a lot about them through Sylvia talking about them and their introduction cutscenes before the fights, but it’s obvious that Travis doesn’t see them as people; merely obstacles to his goal. That changes, however, when he defeats the 6th ranked Holly Summers and cannot bring himself to finish her off. With this and the fact he also didn’t finish off the 8th ranked Shinobu, it becomes clear to both the player and Holly herself that Travis can’t bring himself to kill a woman. Holly mocks him for such a weakness, but in the end, decides she doesn’t mind losing to him because she felt like he had some measure of care for her. She tells him that an assassin must die when they have lost and commits suicide right in front of Travis to prove that point.