LA Noire - Cole Phelps' Past 

How so?

@@xxxxxx5868 He had learnt from his mistakes during his time as a Lieutenant, that's what made him a great detective.

Also his meticulous attention to detail and desire to do everything by the book

@@crazy4gta1 yeah spending an entire hour meticulously combing through a crime scene might be great as a cop not so much in an active warzone

@Josuke Ruins Everything I think you make a lot of good points. I question if Phelps was ever really a good man, though. His sacrifice to save Elsa and Kelso may have been the only truly selfless act he commits through the whole game. Even when he was in arson he was looking for a big case as a way to redeem his reputation. His stature as hero seemed more important to him than seeing justice done. Maybe that's why Roy Earle pulled strings to get him into vice.

Wel i think that's the genius of Cole's character, he learnt from his mistakes in the war and it changed him.

He started off wanting to make a name for himself, as opposed to actually wanting to fight for his country. What a selfish ass. But the guilt he felt after winning a medal (for essentially hiding in a hole) changed him into the present day Cole which was still trying to make a name for himself but more towards helping people.

L.A. Noire is not an Rockstar game they helped Team Bondi + they bankrupt them too that end up get L.A. Noire licensed

Angelo Busato ffs im about to play the game and you just spoiled his death for me

ffs is your fault that you check comment section not his fault

very sharp performance.

I just wish they gave him more job opportunities 😞

Especially when you consider he's having to do that while sitting still in a chair surrounded by a bunch of cameras, in a studio with nothing around you to help you get into character.

@@EightThreeEight absolutely incredible performance, never seen anything like it outside of a Rockstar game. their casting & direction put the industry to shame, no other developer even comes close. but Rockstar's an auteur with a demon, a crippling addiction to shark cards

​@@jackclark4598I agree, no game has beaten RDR2 since it launched..m Cyberpunk ended up being a great game after 3 years but RDR2 has been a masterpiece since launch..

I liked Phelps *because* of his past and questionable behavior; flawed characters are my favorite because they are realistic and believable

@@DeadlyTowersSux exactly, no one is perfect

While his early war days Glory-Seeking were clearly selfish and self-centred, I don't think the Cave Fiasco was really his fault. Or at least, it could have been much worse. Hogebooms idea to bring in Tanks would have taken too long (and Tanks in a cave might get stuck, further hampering things) and while Kelso's decision to blow the cave could have saved alot of time, it would have resulted in hundreds of people trapped in a cave slowly dehydrating to death, as no-one would know they were there. Keep in mind, these people were Civilians, not combatants, so their deaths were purely tragic and not "A Necessary Part of War". Cole's decision to clear the caves with Flame-Crews and then Escort out Civilians WOULD have worked. But when they were moving in, they were ambushed, and Hogeboom escaped from the Troop and lit the cave up anyway. A Big Part of the War Flashbacks in Cole Sympathising with the Japanese (Talking about Pearl Harbor for instance, and how he doesn't blame them for attacking US Soil), which makes him Unpopular Amongst his men. Kelso wanted to Bomb the cave and move on because he didn't care for his enemy and only saw the Pragmatic Nature of the War. Cole Genuinely felt bad for his Enemy and was trying to Save Civilian Lives, but his need to do so and his inability to do things any other way but 'By the Book' caused his greatest Tragedy. That's my Two Cents. It's his Fault, sure, but the Alternative was a Slow Death. He couldn't adapt and (in his own mind) had to Follow Protocol. It let him down, but he made the choice he thought was right and isn't a Collosal Failure like we all make him out to be.

@@DeadlyTowersSuxthis is exactly why I didn’t like Sadie Adler in Red Dead 2. They didn’t give her any shameful flaws like other rockstar characters.

i feel like there is one thing about coles character they could have removed And thats his kids They arent even shown Barely mentioned even and all they do is make cole more of a dick when he cheats on his wife without the kids it would be sucky but that that bad

Red dead noire

How is the whole games plot directly and indirectly his fault? I get that Ira wouldn’t be burning down houses but they could’ve gotten someone else too.

@@conormartin3476 No, it had to be Ira, as he was a special case, and without Phelps' self serving actions in the war, maybe his squad wouldn't have gone into the dope business.

@@rustyshackleford1508 @Rusty Shackleford The dope business thing I agree with but I still think they could’ve done it without Ira.

@@conormartin3476 Maybe, but pyromaniacs are rather hard to come by, so Ira presented an ultra convenient shortcut by means of offering to "treat" his PTSD.

You do play as jack, just later in the game.

westben2000 You can play as Jack Kelso. But only later in a game.

Jack should be the protagonist in a sequel.

You must not have got far as Jack's playable.

Yeah, I know, 5 years later. Anyway, playing the remastered PS4 game brought me here. Jack Kelso is definitely a more admirable character. He's courageous. He has lines he won't cross, but has sympathy too for those who do and pay the price. But playing as Phelps is in keeping with traditional film noir, which generally feature otherwise decent people who make mistakes, and do cross lines that can't be uncrossed. That's Phelps, the doomed hero.

Well said.

+lockandloadization Always stick by the man beside you and fight for him. your life is in his hands and his is in yours. Work together and you get to go home when it is all said and done. That is how my great grandfather survived WW2, Korea and Vietnam.

+Travis M Simpson wow props to your grandad

unless at you were at ohama beach. there you just tried to survive.

+hey buddy *you

BobBX542 And how he did the same thing to the dying civilians in the burnt down hospital that it’s destroyed. Pretty hypocritical

Buster The Bear That's different though. The wounded guy could've been saved. The people _on fire_ in the hospital were pretty much dead. They just did a Mercy Kill to end their suffering of being burnt alive.

@@LittleBigPlanetian Wounded guy could've been saved... yeah, I doubt that judging he got put out of his misery by an experienced medic.

Old comment but nice profile picture, I legit was just looking at Willam Blake’s The Great Red Dragon 10-15 minutes ago. What a coincidence.

It definitely pissed off his platoon when he ordered the Marines to humanely kill the civilians but blasted the medic for mercy killing their own injured

Hi Shepard. :D

John Shepard ww2 game

Vietnam war will work better i think

Yea that would be cool

If they'd make a war game the US government would ban the game right away. It would show the war as it is, not like how the media does it. They encourage our kids to kill themselves in the name of "freedom". Anyways, they really should make one, it would be awesome!

I think he tried to kill Phelps too, when he clicks his flamethrower after emptying it on civilians.

@@boochie-yj7un He probably did, because he was so horrified by what he’d done on Phelps’ orders

But at the end, he said i dont blame you when phelp face him in the sewer

@@mannypacqiao Yeah but that's only because he went insane and thought Phelps helped him to'discover his purpose'

It's so sad that after killing some innocent people for the suburban redevelopment fund that he convinced himself that he is helping them get to heaven. He really needed something to cope with after all the innocent people he has accidentally killed.

saifuddin jamil Present Phelps: Cheats on his wife and destroys his life, lolol...

Bubbles also present Cole has demons and heavy guilt on his shoulders that he can't bear to get over

@@mikkokivisto4414 Humans make mistakes, what a shock, right?

Life has a way of humbling your pride. I'm talking from experience.

We all make them... then make the choice that can make or break your life

In WW2, Cole was no different from Roy Earle.

@@jorgebersabe293Yes he was. Earle was just a douche, who’d do anything to both get on top while also being crooked and not carrying about any citizen (also racist) while masking to others. Cole on the other hand just wanted to get to the top and was willing to sacrifice himself and comrades, however, you can argue that he only did what he was told and followed the rules layed out. He understood war and even respected the other side which were the Japanese. If you’re only looking at it from one angle then yeah they are similar but as a whole they are very different.

i hate his integrity

Why?​@@themagicalgamer6522

Yung Zoink The face scan stuff is incredible but super hard and expensive to make. Also uses a fuckthon of space

When this game first came out it had four discs because of the cutscenes and there's like 12 hours of them so it's like a mini series.

Have you seen what triple A games had become? And not ony for Quantic Dream games, it DID became a standard the ability of making every face photo-realistic

@@alienatedmind9703 I remember that four disc system for the game. I borrowed the game from a friend and his copy was four discs all the way back.

@@alienatedmind9703 it's 3 for the 360

I think Cole knew, they were having a heated arguement not too long ago so Courtney made perfect sense as the shooter. However, I also think Cole chose to remain silent about the matter because of his stubborness to prove himself for the Silver Star he thought he didn't deserve made him into a reckless person/officer and he knew he messed up at the cave giving an order that accidentally led to the death of civillians so Courtney puttimg him out of commission was actually a big favor to put a broken man out of a situation he no longer suited to be in. This also explain why Cole was so defensive toward Courtney being insulted by Roy Earle, he knew Courtney was a good man at heart despite shooting him in the back at Okinawa

When did he get shot? I missed it

@@cottoneyejoe8285 The scene where he orders his men to finish off the dying Japanese 18:08 He gets shot in the back by Courtney Sheldon

@@_Peremalfait Thank you

He knew, he also kept the .45 he was shot with for the rest of his life.

I still love this game :) I'm not sure about the details, but I feel like Team Bondi members got the short end of the stick. They worked so hard on this (and the outcome is great), but it cost so much for them and Rockstar just swooped in and collected the spoils. I imagine Roy having always been an entitled, smug, racist asshole who stabbed people in the back wile rising in the ranks :D But yeah, I wish lots of other characters in the game got the same kind of flashbacks as Cole did.

+Aivottaja That's not what happened at all. Team Bondi was struggling trying to finish this game, and Rockstar coming in was the only reason why it's as good as it is today.

Loctiter true

.

Roy's backstory? Sounds like a good prequel. Call me crazy, but I'd like to see Roy Earle in a sequel. Maybe he gets some redemption too. God knows he needs it. But it could make a hell of a story line, and after seeing what Rockstar did with Red Dead 2, they are definitely the ones who could pull it off. I mean, he must've been a good cop too once upon a time, right? Maybe something happens that's even too much for him to bear.

He wasn't a good leader. He was constantly getting all his men killed because he couldn't ever adjust to the situation. That's exactly what all these flashbacks are trying to get across. His failure in the military and guilt are a constant thing that hangs over his head.

The Samurai Cop I didn't say he was a good leader, but he wasn't a bad one either. Tactics were something he wasn't brilliant at, too rigid and by the book with no room for adjusting when needed. Morally, he was good, although too idealistic.

+Reon Thornton Well you said he wasn't a bad leader so that either means he was average or good. He was neither of those.

The Samurai Cop Actually he was average. The majority of fresh out of training Officers behaved on similar levels to Cole. He was not some anomaly, he was what a typical new officer was like. Unfortunately, unlike most officers, his lesson to improve him came very very harshly through a serious mistake, rather than being able to learn it from the more experienced or something more minor.

While Kelso's decision to seal the caves on Sugar Loaf Hill allowed his unit to advance more quickly, he likely entombed plenty of civilians and is responsible for more collateral damage than Phelps is. Phelps just had the misfortune of actually seeing the victims of his unhinged replacement flamethrower operator; he did not order Hogeboom to charge in as he did. Throughout the game, Phelps is a victim of the system. He excels at OCS and makes an adversary of Kelso. He tries to stick to procedure in Okinawa and sees civilians incinerated. He does solid police work and outs some of the city's scum with Kelso's help, but is publicly shamed by a dirty cop and then unceremoniously killed. I saw young upstarts like Phelps all the time in the Air Force and I admired their discipline, but when I became an instructor, I made sure to tell trainees that they would one day have to improvise and simply use their best judgment, as well as solicit feedback from more experienced people.

Neil Daryl Sulit his rank is Superior Private

So, like a PFC in the US Army?

I don't get it, if Phelps asked for his rank and name and the Japanese gives his rank, then why Phelps slapped him?

@@diasifec9564 He was speaking in quite a colloquial way. 第十四大部隊所属兵だ means "I'm a soldier attached to the 14th battalion" - I don't think he actually states his rank. Japanese has different tiers of politeness and he spoke to Phelps as if he was talking to a friend basically. If he spoke to a superior officer in the Japanese Army the way he did, he'd probably receive the same response.

Essentially if we translate the IJA soldier's tone in English, it's the equivalent of "Bruh I'm from the 14th battalion." Very casual and informal way to address someone.

Cole S YES!!!

Release the Voice-Cracken

Chris stone But thats the point it was a stressful situation.

Chris stone grade fucking A performance in my opinion. It was eerie to me so I had to re-listen to it.

When you hear a baby crying in public.

As others pointed out, that was intentional. Very good voice acting

It doesn't help that Roy and the chief aren't punished, either.

@@jesusofsuburbia9128 yeah

@@jesusofsuburbia9128 yeah I wanted to kill that Roy and Mayor in the end none of them faced justice and it showed how dirty the system is. I hope Rockstar make LA Noire 2 with Kelso as a playable charachter.

Same...

And people say games don’t teach anything.

He is exacly the same, it's just the circumstances that make him a bad G.I. and a good detective.

@@kentuckyfriedchildren5385 true, he didn't really change until his last seconds of life. The difference is that he was terrible at being a leader during war time, but great at being a detective for the LAPD.

"They all got little moustaches!" "KILL 'EM!!"

Well are they?

@@saintniccage2818 I don't know.

But he was actually the one who burned the village 🤔

@@galilalexandro4392 he was fooled into burning houses with innocent people by the Doctor. After the doctor lost control of Ira, Ira convinced himself that he is doing the people he killed a favor by sending them to a better place. It's really tragic that he accidentally killed a group of innocent people in the war and now that he's asking for help he was again confronted with him burning innocent people he didn't knew that was there.

JAILHOUSE BLUES YEAH!!!

Even Kelso tells him he shouldn’t be so hard on himself for it. Courage and cowardice aren’t switches you turn on or off, they are just reactions that exist in everyone.

Cole ended up being bad juju in the end.

Later some of Kelso’s guys ended up dead cuz of poor choices and naïveté….

It helps to highlight how Courtney and Cole are not so different, but they differ in that Cole started as a selfish man but turned selfless, Courtney started as a selfless man but turned selfish.

Courtney and Cole were also incredibly smart but misused their smartz

@@jorgebersabe293but Courtney wasn’t really selfish he entered the world of crime to better the lives of all the men he fought alongside the problem was that he was naive and underestimated the dangers of getting involved with gangsters

@@darthuchiha1418True, but selfish or not, both of their actions ended up killing multiple people and ruining several lives. It’s telling that Jack, who probably had the highest respect for Courtney in the war, can barely conceal his disgust for what he’d become.

Not to mention that when things got rough, he completely forgot that he was in charge.

Bllasae A good cop, but a bad soldier indeed, he just should have learnt to adjust to the situation.

But he did respect the enemy and learned from his mistakes after the war.

he spoke japanese fluently they would have realistically put him in code translation or interogation for prisoners not the infantry

I personally would love if l a noire happened in 1948 Los Santos,the same universe as GTA,and in 5 we would see 90 year old kelso or his descendant. I would literally sell my kidney to make this happen

@@sanddebil I'd love to see an old kelso interacting with the protagonist in the next GTA game.

@@jeffcase7827 yeah,but unfortunately la noire happened in Los Angeles,not in GTA universe,so this will never happen

You can't water down war otherwise you're lying, it is what it is.

Entregador de Leite Those darn moslims and their soo shitty opinions.

Courtney was a really interesting character. He told Mickey Cohen he was just a small man in a big coat.

@@entregadordeleite3133 Dude, don`t do that. You don`t have to be a racist asshole. You can be better than that

@@phreak761 so you just gonna let the person discriminate the muslim just because muslim "wasn't a race" pfff zionist shill as always use excuse for blaming muslim for everything

@@youraverageinternetperson4323 You are a zionist shill with the worst discriminative statement to ever existed let alone you taste that wws determine by your playlist is horrible

Salem Sunset I agree that it wasn't entirely Cole's fault, but he did give the order to clear the cave, not inspect it. And who knows, if they did inspect it and there were juts civilians, then Cole would be both publicly wrong and also still behind as he wouldn't leave until, "The Job was done." Obviously he didn't want that to happen, but if it didn't, it would arguably be less of an interesting story OR maybe even more hate on Cole's end.

Actually it comes down to either a) clearing the cave out with the flamethrower like what Cole did b) quickly sealing the cave shut with explosives, trapping the Japanese inside and allowing the squad to move up like what Jack wanted to do. c) having the Shermans blast the ever living fuck out of the cave like what one of his squadmates suggested. It does not end well for the civilians inside either way

The guys blame him because if he was capable of listening to anyone else's advice, it wouldn't have happened. The people giving him the advice weren't doing so to avoid casualties at all but it still seemed like cole was getting his just desserts for constantly sending his men to clear positions that in the grand scheme of things they probably didn't have to. He was following stupidly unrealistic orders that assumed it would be possible for total annihilation and a pace that was practical for the overall operation. Cole wasn't leaving any room for reasonable deviations in his war effort due to orders and it was getting his men killed. He just doubled down after winning a star for being the only person in his squad that wasn't blown up.

Nah we should play as bekowsky

@@galilalexandro4392 I was hoping for a story about the Zodiac Killer...

Still Phelps failed to adjust to the situation itself yes the flamethrower dude did rush in and acted on just burning everyone alive and caused him to lose it also Phelps was falling behind to but also gave him the order to roast the cave thus as leader it is Phelps is fault

Mikey Holland how the hell was Cole supposed to know that it was a field hospital for civilians?

@@jeffcarroll1990shock thats what I was saying

Or or or.....Phelps could have kept his flamethrower operator in reserve, advance on the cave entrance to visually confirm hostile targets or civilians considering his entire team was packing BARs Thompsons or Shotguns. Notice how we never see a M1 Garand or carbine throughout any of the cutscenes or the game. Which i don't know why they went the route of recycling the games current arsenal but still a fine game indeed.

war is hell

More like COD World At War

That is good but, seriously, 'Japanese attack pearl harbor because American cut their oil' this kind of nonsense, out of line. What this Cole guy even thinking? Watch Japanese expand their territory? Instead, the maker of this game should put their fault of invading Philippines and those irony that they get along well with Japanese before broke the promise to acknowledge both of their colonies.

이진우 No, we did cut their oil beforehand. The oil embargo resulted in the Japanese losing upwards to 80 percent of their entire oil imports. Looking back, it's no wonder why they got so pissed.

Precision That is only half true. guess what happen before that happen. Japanese invasion to china and South east Asia and slaughter committed there. That oil nonsense is what Japanese 'patriots' say when they defend their war crimes against 'ignorant' westerners.

Jack Rodden I not mad at you or anything. You certainly don't like sarcasm. My apologies. But still half true. cutting off of oil is what Japanese expansionism of that time bring. Blaming US for that is just excuse.

Jack Rodden I think he's raging because he and many Koreans and Chinese are upset that a lot of Westerners do not know about or ignore Japanese war crimes. When you look at what Japan did before the oil embargo was enforced (Mukden Incident, Nanjing Massacre, comfort women, chemical/germ warfare, and Unit 731), you'd think the cutting off of oil supplies is a slap on the wrist.

Zachary Dorer you don't need another shooter, if you want to play play in ww2 play call of duty

Being able to play during short snippets of gameplay in the ww2 flashbacks would have brought more depth to Cole's history.

how you have come to that conclusion from wha he said i don't know, he said action, as if the game should have been about action. the premise of the game wasn't to be soldier in ww2. LA noire didn't need to be that, rockstar has such a wide range of third person games where you can go on a killing spree.

World War 2 was about action. I would have loved the game like I do now even if it did not have the ww2 story arc because I love the game and how it challenges you to think. Not many games were able to do that like L.A Noire. But what I was trying to get at was such an important story arc should not be saved for just cutscenes because its a video game. I hate when games leave some of the most important parts unplayable and just showed through cutscenes. Its a game. You are supposed to play it. I can understand it being a cutscene if its just dialogue but if its a war scene like some of these it should have been playable (on a side note I love the history of WW2 so that may influence my opinion a little)

Augustus Sammons But there is action in this game....

Holy Crap, Never Noticed it. Thanks for Pointing that out.

Drill sergeants were often like that to toughen up soldiers. Watch "Full Metal Jacket"which had a real drill sergeant in to get a better glimpse into how bad it was

***** Yeah that one was just cruel

Lowest army rank, so it should be like "soldado raso" or something

+Laurie Coulthard May I ask you a question, sir?Is the drill sergeant being exceptionally hostile to Phelps and his friends 'cause they are OCS or is it a common occurence to everyone in marine corps back in the day?

I think that's called a military handshake

And they mistakenly construed his respect for the Japanese as being a “Jap lover”. No wonder Courtney was able to easily convince them later.

While his early war days Glory-Seeking were clearly selfish and self-centred, I don't think the Cave Fiasco was really his fault. Or at least, it could have been much worse. Hogebooms idea to bring in Tanks would have taken too long (and Tanks in a cave might get stuck, further hampering things) and while Kelso's decision to blow the cave could have saved alot of time, it would have resulted in hundreds of people trapped in a cave slowly dehydrating to death, as no-one would know they were there. Keep in mind, these people were Civilians, not combatants, so their deaths were purely tragic and not "A Necessary Part of War". Cole's decision to clear the caves with Flame-Crews and then Escort out Civilians WOULD have worked. But when they were moving in, they were ambushed, and Hogeboom escaped from the Troop and lit the cave up anyway. A Big Part of the War Flashbacks in Cole Sympathising with the Japanese (Talking about Pearl Harbor for instance, and how he doesn't blame them for attacking US Soil), which makes him Unpopular Amongst his men. Kelso wanted to Bomb the cave and move on because he didn't care for his enemy and only saw the Pragmatic Nature of the War. Cole Genuinely felt bad for his Enemy and was trying to Save Civilian Lives, but his need to do so and his inability to do things any other way but 'By the Book' caused his greatest Tragedy. That's my Two Cents. It's his Fault, sure, but the Alternative was a Slow Death. He couldn't adapt and (in his own mind) had to Follow Protocol. It let him down, but he made the choice he thought was right and isn't a Collosal Failure like we all make him out to be.

Peter's evil brother Thaddeus but Elsa was better than Marie any day from what we see of Marie Phelps she seems like a jerk

I wouldn't say better but he is a good character. Cole is more complex which makes him perfect protagonist.

BunkerWulf 44 it doesn’t make a difference if she was a jerk or not. He cheated on his wife, maybe that’s why she was such a jerk cuz she knew he was shit

Phelps was a broken man, even if he did not show it to a lot of the characters

@@Bunkerwulf44 Elsa was a slut and we never really saw Marie in the game just two times,the first one in the beginning and she looked like a caring wife and mother and the second was when she was all heartbroken because she found out that Cole cheated on her

+legobatmanfan22 Corpsman* lol

Yes he shot Cole because he was pissed at his decisions not to kill him but to get him disbanded, then took the morphine from the war and like he said tried to make a future for those who fought for it. Ended up getting people killed when he dolled it out to the Cohen Mafia then got himself killed for trying to stop it.

@Lord Farquaad in the Marines and Navy, the correct title is "Corpsman." Only Army and Air Force are they referred as medics. I would know because I served in the Air Force as a medic.

Also The Flamethrower guy was also in the newspapers

Lol you're catching on

Thomas Diez marine*

@Idk Idk No they're not. Marines and Soldiers are two different kinds of servicemen, get it right.

@@officercat7907 Bullshit lol Marines are just soldiers deployed from ships and capable of fighting at sea. I get it but really. Lol

@@officercat7907 Marines and soldiers are the same thing. It's marines and army men that are different.

ikr

yeah yeah....swears... so funny ...maybe for kids but whatever

+Bartosz Skorupa Have you seen, full metal jacket?

Mr.Blonde Gaming Yes. It was the most pathethic excuse for a humor I ever seen.

You seem like a fun guy.

Very great insight. Perhaps he felt ashamed of the glory he wanted in the war, but instead found guilt and devastation. And now as a great detective that guilt comes back whenever he receives a citation for closing a case.

Yeah, but Cole genuinely set out to be a good person, and redeemed himself. By Going against the GI housing fund, he knowingly sacrificed his image in pursuit of justice and truth.

Biggest heart but the smallest brain.

Makes sense he's a medic after all

Yeah biggest heart to go out and kill his fellow injured soldiets

It’s a bit ironic, in the war Kelso probably had the highest respect for him but later in the game he loses all of it due to poor decisions and naïveté. Meanwhile Phelps he borderline hated, but slowly gained respect for him while investigating SRF.

@@matthewriley7826 I don't think Kelso ever stopped respecting Courtney; I think Kelso just understood that Courtney didn't know what he was getting himself into. That's why Kelso still backed him up. Courtney was known for taking risks for his fellow men, whereas Phelps was known for risking his fellow men for himself. One thing to note about Phelps is how he got partnered up with Roy Earle. In many ways, Phelps was like Roy, during the war. Phelps didn't care much about who he screwed over; he just wanted the quickest path to glory. In the flashbacks, it's apparent that Phelps helped screw Kelso over during training (as part of some bureaucracy in camp). When Kelso got picked up by Phelps and Roy, he expected Phelps to still be the same man he knew during the war.........So Phelps sacrificing himself was like his redemption.

exactly

I noticed since GTA 4, most of Rockstar Games' stories focus on the theme of characters trying to redeem themselves of their past actions.

It’s also damn disrespectful of them towards Kelso to go through stealing it anyway.

True, but sometimes it’s better for troops to have a clear cut good vs evil mentality, rather than the reality that the war was largely about Japan’s lack of resources. It’s the same with the American civil war. Freedom vs slavery is an easier sell than preservation of a union and federal system that didn’t really exist in the mindset of many Americans of the time.

I never thought about that; considering their facial expressions it is quite impressive

Lucipurr I like it because it highlights that leadership doesn't just come from rank. A rank is a rank, but the man makes it real. Phelps was an officer who was by the book in everything he did and strove to ascertain glory. This made him extremely dangerous to be around, because he had no qualms about ordering his men to their deaths if it meant that he would make rank or earn a medal -- to become famous. Because he was so by the book, he was incapable of adapting to the way in which the Japanese fought (which was extremely unconventional) and that made him weak and predictable. He was in charge, but never once was he in control, and that made him a terrible officer. Kelso, on the other hand, dropped out of OCS, enlisted at MCRD San Diego, and gradually became an Enlisted NCO. He was such a respected leader that he went from a Private First Class (E-2) all the way to a First Sergeant (E-8) in less than four years. Although Kelso technically answered to Cole by way of not being an officer, Kelso also had the respect of his men and realized that war is not a black and white scenario where one must fight one way all the time. In fact, those who fail to adapt and diversify their strategies are often the first ones to die, or even worse, the first ones to get their men killed like Cole did. This entire flashback is all about playing with perceptions. Kelso is perceived initially as being callous and dismissive, the very type of person who you think would be a bad choice for leadership, but it is turned on its head when Kelso actually ends up being the perfect foil to Cole (and a better leader than him, in my opinion) because of his ability to NOT be so by the book.

Lucipurr AMEN!

Good characters and good leaders are two different things.

@@Duskets Cole is like Lord Shimura: A terrible leader due to his rigidness and being so by the book, that he fails to readjust his strategies when everything goes to shit. Jack is like Jin Sakai: A man who obtained more chances of success due to his ability to think outside the box.

Too bad Kelso couldn’t convince the others not to steal the morphine…

​@@matthewriley7826He didn't want to anger his marines so he just let them but he made sure to not get involved am

He seems like he was straight out of officer camp. He is bad because he only follows his order instead of adjusting to the situation . He failed to do that. An Okinawa was hell .

The military has a word for guys fresh out of OCS and unable to adapt: Bootenants.

hell of a detective though

He is, he is the kind of leader who will sacrifice all of his men under in his command for a piece of ribbon and he sees the war and his leadership role as a means to get fame and fortune hell if it means the well being and lives of his troops are spent

@@Duskets So in the other words, they play by the textbooks

In war you make the choices that ensure your survival

1945joshuaruiz I know your comment was over 2 years ago but he couldn't even do that. His decision making was poor and he ended up committing a fucking war crime and constantly got his and other people's men killed for no reason since he was an absolute failure as an officer.

Jay Thompson I think he was trying to finish the people.

TheDEATHHIT Nope he wanted to kill Cole but his flamethrower ran out of fuel.

Vaickingo2.0 Yeah looking back I think so too.

TheDEATHHIT you can hear the clicking of his trigger as he runs up screaming, he's out of fuel and tried to kill cole

fritzVirginSteeler Indeed, for me Ira is a tragic villain.

"Goodbye..." That Haunts Me To This Day But I Can Understand Now Why He Sacrificed Himself

Because he was way too rigid and didn't really adjust. And no one was second guessing his orders, his orders were getting people killed and he couldn't see that.

Jack's badass, Rockstar should make him the protagonist in a sequel.