Titanfall 2 is an exciting romp full of amazing guns and giant mechs. But it also harbors a tragic tale of deprivation, theft, and heartbreak. This is the story of a sad little robot who just wanted to do their job.
Having rendezvoused with a unit of militia troops, our ever-generic protagonist Jack Cooper and his absolutely adorable giant robot buddy BT-7274 are tasked with powering up a satellite tower to send a distress signal to an allied fleet. To do this, they must venture deep into an underground relay station to activate the dish.
Cooper needs to get his hands on an ‘arc tool,’ a sort of sci-fi power gun that can charge up machines. Throughout the game, there are little service bots called Marvin units that wander around doing menial labor. The only arc tool in the area rests in a lonely Marvin’s clutches. Cooper, the cold-hearted bastard, commits a grand act of theft.
Ripping the gun away from the robot, the display on its chest turns from a cheerful smile to a glum frown. I have decided to call this robot Sad Marvin. Sad Marvin is sad. Who can blame him? Imagine if you were a robot with no other desire than to serve and then some jerk takes away your tools. What the hell is life now? What is your purpose? It’s nothing. You’re nothing. And so is Sad Marvin.
He’d scream if he could but he’s a robot. He was not programmed for screaming. He was only programmed for silent sorrow.
This is the true crime at the core of Titanfall 2. It isn’t the mass war being waged between the Militia or the villainous Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation. It isn’t the death of Cooper’s pilot mentor. It isn’t the construction of the world-destroying doomsday device. It is the cruel mistreatment of Sad Marvin.
Worse, this is but one fate that can befall our heroic worker bot. I’ve seen many videos where players shoot him without a second thought. He’s just chilling and thinking about binary stuff and then he gets shot in the back with a grenade launcher. Is this the end of Sad Marvin? Yes, it is. Did this unit have a soul? No clue. All I know is that he’s dead.
God bless you, Marvin. You were too good for this sinful world.