It’s an hour before I have to get up for work and I can’t sleep so here’s some character thoughts.
- His name was actually a total coincidence, the relationship with Luz was not.
I had kinda played the SR games in reverse order growing up, and didn’t get to the first two and the reboot until my Junior-Senior years of high school. So I played 3 -> 4 -> GOOH -> 2 -> 1 -> Reboot, and didn’t know Angelo Lopez as a character had existed by the time I made the Saints’ Angelo Vasquez-Castro. Luz was unexpectedly my favorite character, and truthfully I believed she deserved better in the SR storyline (or at least a better model in 2.. it looks nothing like her💔), so I decided to write her in with the Saints’ Angelo, since I didn’t have any story for him at that point and he was just a character concept att.
- He drives the same car in every game, from 1 -> Reboot.
We love consistency in this household. Plus the Hammerhead is really just a classic, it’s hard to be beat.
Angelo originally buys the car off his elderly landlord, who wasn’t using it cause she just couldn’t get it to run. Eventually he works on it for her and she actually sells it to him for cheap, a gift really since she can’t use it anymore.
( I realize I never really mention her as a character, but she’s the initial mentor figure in his life since his parents.. weren’t exactly around… iykyk. Plus this was before Julius and The Saints, so he was very young.)
- He’s very much a doom and gloom type of character.
Nothing about his backstory is happy. I’ll make a separate post for it since it does need trigger warnings, but to put it blankly, Angelo’s life is pretty much hell until he gets with the Saints. Really drives home the whole betrayal thing with Julius, and exactly how reliant he is on Luz in their relationship. Strong guy, but so brittle mentally.
- Jacqueline plays the role of good cop whenever Angelo’s around in the first and second games.
This is especially considering her age and personality at the time. She’s about 17 when Angelo finally lets her work for the Saints, and 21 when she seizes leadership after his death.
In a way, Angelo didn’t prevent at all the one thing he was trying to. (Allowing Jackie to revolve her life around the Saints. They both joined at the same age, but Jackie had been heavily restricted as to where she could help, whereas Angelo was immediately getting into shootouts with VK on day one.)
- Jackie begins to realize that gang life isn’t all that great after Carlos’ death.
First, her best friend dies, and then her brother only a year later. 2009 was a rough year for Jackie. She didn’t have time to grieve, she couldn’t show the Saints exactly how much of her was breaking. Of course, Gat took control of the Saints when Angelo was murdered, but it wasn’t exactly in his mind to stay the sole leader of them for long.
A few months have passed, Jackie finally takes over with the help of Johnny, and after a few years of getting acclimated to her new life, the events of Saints Row: The Third play out.
(But again it’s just another rewrite cause Gat is there LOL)
Again tho, I do have an alternate timeline where Angelo lives, him and Luz stay together, Jackie’s happy, Yareli (AngeLuz daughter) is in Santo Ileso, blah blah blah. I’ll get into that later lol