Human relationships are not transactional but they are reciprocal, which I think many of you with your ‘i don’t owe anyone anything’ shtick are too happy to forget
Some of you are far too comfortable with dismissing Ultimis Richtofen's position on the Nazi Party. While I am often first to bat that he is not a Nazi because he does not share their ideals and they would kill him without hesitation, he is still incredibly complacent in his position.
His single comment towards Maxis about the funding is "what business of ours is this war?" He doesn't care about the war because he doesn't care about what they're supposed to be doing to assist. Because he's selfish. He wants to work on the thing HE wants to do, regardless of who is funding it. He is dismissive because he does not care.
Again, while I don't believe he is a Nazi in the sense of believing their ideals or following them, he is not a good person, even before his MPD-induced world domination ideals. I fear too many people want it in black and white that he either is or isn't a Nazi, but it isn't that simple. It's merely the way that got him what he wanted with the least amount of effort or kickback.
I believe the dismissal of his part is because people want to like him without the baggage of liking a character that anyone outside will view the model of and their first thought is "Nazi". It's okay, you can like the complicated character. Actually, you look even worse by completely removing that aspect of his character because it makes you uncomfortable. The shame complex I've seen with fans of (specifically Ultimis) Richtofen is unlike anything I've ever seen anywhere else.
Further, perhaps more complicated rambling below the cut v
The references to Richtofen as a sort of Christ figure has always rubbed me a certain way.
His initial journey to Shangri-La has so much to unpack within the real life context and reference to Nazi conspiracy and Asian mysticism. The Nazis visited Tibet in the late 1930s in what some believe to be an attempt to further their search for Agartha, with Asia as the continent they believed to house knowledge of such a place. (The map is called Shangri-La in obvious reference to the fictional "promised land" in Tibet of the same name. Of course it is referencing the real life expedition.)
The idea of the indigenous peoples there worshipping him as a sort of God is obviously a play with him being a megalomaniac and charismatic enough to convince anyone to worship him, but it's so deeply rooted in the idea the white saviour- the idea that these people are so uncivilised that they worship the first white person they see.
The Nazis were believed to have visited Tibet to research whether it was fit to be "the cradle of the Aryan", and through the writings about the Vril-ya that is also incorporated through the CODZ storyline, we can assume by this it's meant that they would annihilate the indigenous peoples of this space to have it as their own.
While Richtofen is a character in a story (of a Call of Duty game, no less) you have to be very careful with the way you depict things like this without it bordering on propaganda. Obviously that's what Call of Duty is, and I can't imagine reading it as anything beyond delusional, but he is a product of conspiracies that are rooted in Nazism.
The idea of a promised land where he can be The One, the direct references with the usage of words like Agartha and Vril, the references to him as a Jesus-like figure with "the carpenter" and "the second coming" and "the one".
I'm by no means saying you can't like him or that you are a Nazi if you do, but you really should be doing your own further reading and coming to your own conclusions. Instead of reading directly into a story heavily based in real life World War II told through fucking Call of Duty and coping with your feeling bad by ignoring or outright removing the part you are uncomfortable with. This is real life history that affected millions of people, and I fear some of you are so detached from the reality of it all in your attempts to appear like a Good Person.
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