#hangar 13

[tochtotyesh]

[melis-writes]

MAFIA II: DEFINITIVE EDITION (2020) Hangar 13 & 2K Games.

[chimiye]

Gianluca "Luca" Trapani Mafia: The Old Country (2025) | Dir. Alex Cox

[randominternetgifmaker]

Enzo Favara MAFIA: THE OLD COUNTRY

[gebo4482]

Mafia: The Old Country by Martin Zgrnd Tomori

[angelozheart]

📌 ▍ “ WHAT MAKES SAM ATTRACTIVE? ”

﹙Analysis of the attractiveness of Sam Trapani «brief analysis»﹚

✍🏻 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ! English is not my native language, so any kind of grammatical or narrative errors are my fault, and I will try to improve for future English content of MAFIA.

Hello! I hope you are doing very well today! Today we meet in my publication to talk about something I had saved since 2023 (it took me just a little while haha), And it is a topic that is really brief to analyze, it is not important for the game, but it is important to analyze to know a little about the great taste of people for this character, With his charisma and presence, he captivated more than one of us, and for a portion of the MAFIA audience, he is considered one of the best characters in the 2020 video game, Sam Trapani.

We will do a brief analysis of this small point that is part of Sam's personality, his great appeal to the public. We will talk and I will comment (from my point of view, and a brief analysis of some of its characteristics), what makes Sam so attractive to the eye and the senses, and I am not just saying it: This is also said in the game MAFIA: DEFINITIVE EDITION, Characters like Sarah have mentioned that Sam is called “Ladykiller” due to his great popularity among women.

But what are the things that make Sam attractive? Let's look at some things I've taken into account, researching people's general tastes, some personal things of mine, It would even be great if people who want to give their opinion would leave it respectfully in the comments!

📌. LOYALTY: Sam stands out for his great loyalty. A member of the Salieri family, he demonstrates a deep commitment to his loved ones and colleagues. His loyalty leads him to take significant risks for the benefit of his team, prioritising the safety and well-being of others over his own. This ethical trait makes a difference in his chaotic environment, where loyalty is one of the few values that remain strong.

And although at the end of the game this loyalty is highly disturbed by his fear of assuming the consequences of his actions (or the actions of Tommy or Paulie, And that fear led him to make hasty decisions that led to his death), Beside the game, except for the final parts, we can't complain about his camaraderie and loyalty towards Tommy, we can't even complain about his loyalty to himself and what he thinks is right.

We as people feel highly confident in the loyalty that a person can give us, because that demonstrates their commitment, whether it is a friendship or romantic relationship. Even simpler relationships like work relationships. So this characteristic of Sam, even though it is flawed, is what initially attracts us to him.

📌. PRAGMATIC: Despite being loyal, Sam exhibits a remarkable pragmatism. In an environment where decisions are made quickly and often violently, Sam opts for a realistic and disillusioned approach to criminal life. He is willing to do whatever it takes to protect his family and maintain his position. This combination of loyalty and pragmatism makes him an intriguing character, as his ability to think logically can clash with moments of emotion or affection.

This can be seen reflected in certain decisions, although sometimes he may have stumbles in his pragmatism as a character, for example: when he asked Tommy not to kill Michelle, But they will spare her life, leaving her to live, because they are under orders to kill her directly for spreading things, He was clearly affected by the idea of her being killed, so against orders he chose to leave her, far far away.

But in other moments, like his choice to kill Paulie and try to do the same with Tommy, he already showed a little more of that pragmatism, but not in such a stoic way and not in such an emotional way, He did it out of fear, as we already emphasized in the previous point. He cared not only about maintaining his position in the family, but obviously about his own life.

He knows perfectly well how the life he is in works, he even seems to respect it much more than Tommy or Paulie did, who eventually turned disloyal.

Something that always attracts us to a person's pragmatism is their emotional intelligence, their way of analyzing and being able to do certain things, Certain things that can directly affect it or affect ourselves, that emotional intelligence will always help us because it can get us out of many problems, A person with these characteristics provides us not only emotional comfort, but can also do so physically (depending on the situation).

📌. PROTECTIVE: Sam's protection of Tommy and others close to him is evident, acting as a father figure while guiding him through the world of crime. This duality between his protective instincts and his involvement in criminal activity gives his character depth, allowing the player to connect with him despite his controversial actions.

The way Sam mentored Tommy and tried to toughen him up to be ready to deal with the world he was getting into is something that is seen in the game, They advise him, sometimes they act for him. Why? To keep him on the right path in the life they are living, so that he doesn't suffer the consequences of the actions they commit, He cares about Tommy, and Sam also did the same with Paulie, these two having a much closer relationship, In Paulie's moments of alcoholism, Sam tried to help him. And if he couldn't, he tried to get someone else to do it, but always keeping an eye on his friend, And another point that may not seem so explicit but we know it's there, Michelle. . .

We do not know for sure how the relationship between these two was, from what I have seen it has had many interpretations, but to ensure their safety, For this very reason Sam asks Tommy to spare Michelle's life and let her know that he has to go far away, to protect her life!

The point of a protective person is ALWAYS going to delight us as human beings, someone who supports us, who lets us know with actions or words that we are important, And a touch of adrenaline for the situation with Sam, is that he is a person who is exposed to constant danger, and that he can also be dangerous, So that adrenaline rush is something that can attract us to him, because we know he's not just words, he's also actions!

📌. CHARISMA: Sam has a charisma that appeals to other characters and to the player. His way of speaking and acting generates empathy, which makes the audience feel connected to him, His charisma is one of his strong points, we love how he speaks, how he expresses himself, how he presents himself to everyone.

Something that appeals to us as gamers (and women in the game. 🌚), It's not just Sam's physical side, but also his great charisma, he knows how to joke at the right moments, he knows how to be serious in the right situations, The attraction he generates with his use of words, and the way he says them and when he does so, is powerful.

I personally love how he expresses himself, even the tone of his voice is just right for the words he says I don't know how to explain it haha (We must praise the voice dubbing in this case), Not for nothing does He have the extraordinary nickname of “Ladykiller” among women, I am absolutely sure that if he came and tried to convince us with a few right words, he would convince us of anything!

📌. PHYSICAL ATTRACTION: In physical terms, Sam is depicted as a robust man, embodying his toughness and strength. His appearance is complemented by an attitude of confidence and assurance, these things are traditionally considered attractive in protagonists or characters in these types of stories, we often see characters with these types of attributes and are naturally drawn to them in some way, Sam has the great advantage of having an attractive, engaging, but not sweet or vulnerable charisma and physical appearance.

If we take Tommy (the main character) as an example, he also attracts us because of some physical characteristics similar to Sam, They can be, for example, height, build, way of carrying oneself, BUT, In Tommy's own physical appearance, especially in his facial features, we can see a touch more of sweetness, vulnerability and even humanity, These characteristics are reflected in their physique and way of speaking or acting.

Instead, Sam's imposing, expensive, and confident appearance is reflected in his physical appearance and his way of carrying himself, We already talked about his way of speaking, expressing himself, it went very well hand in hand with his physical appearance, more correct, untouchable, intimidating, His physical appearance has definitely also been one of the important factors in making him so popular among women.

He has a lot of physical advantages haha.

📌. INTERNAL CONFLICTS: Sam does not fit the mould of a typical villain; he displays inner conflicts and vulnerabilities that make him seem more human. Throughout his life of crime, he deals with traumas, insecurities and painful experiences that cause him to reflect on his actions. This combination of being part of the crime and feeling regret for what he does creates a complex and moving story that establishes an emotional connection with the player.

We have already talked a little about how his emotions and decisions have had repercussions throughout the plot. Not only for him, but for Tommy or Paulie, Part of this internal conflict is the fear of the wrath of his own actions, the weight that would fall on him if he is not loyal to what he promised to be, which is to Don Salieri, Although he has often done things that benefit him and his friends but without breaking the codes by which they are governed, Certain vulnerabilities that the player shows make us feel empathy for him in some cases, maybe not in all cases and not for all people.

We sometimes find the vulnerability that a person shows attractive, not because we want to feel superior to them, but because it demonstrates the conflicts they keep to themselves, And how that person deals with those conflicts. Sometimes that gives us a small opportunity to allow ourselves to reach out to that person and comfort them, just as they comfort us, depending on the situation.

So to see someone like that having internal emotional conflicts or things that they have yet to resolve, shows us that they are really human, they are afraid of making mistakes, They are afraid of reliving certain situations that have marked them, They are not soulless shells, and Sam was not a soulless shell at all.

Well! After this journey talking a little about Sam, I would like to be able to read some opinions from others, as I repeat this is solely based on my opinion, and a little research regarding the character, If anyone has any creative differences or disagreements, please comment! 🤍

A next part I would like to analyze Tommy, maybe Vito, trying to do it from the most popular characters to be able to understand why we love them so much, why they have become so important, What is it about them that we love!

credits for : @iamcxlleigh

28. 06. 2025

[tani-b-art]

Gaming is very influential.

Subconsciously, when you play video games, you grow a connection with the characters. You empathize and sympathize with them. You’re playing these games for hours and hours, so naturally, you do grow very attached to them even though it’s escapism and fiction. It’s an immersion into these characters and their storylines with timelines that span over many years and generations.

Consistently seeing only certain characters as heroes and saving the world subconsciously does wire our brains to see protagonistic qualities in only those who represent those heroes and saviors of the human race.

If everytime you play a game and there are rarely or never any characters that don’t reflect how the real world is, your brain starts to get programmed. Subliminally, your brain gets wired (maybe even trained) to consistently see only one demographic represented all the time. Representation works in both ways — and with that, the subliminal turns to explicit. The characters will reinforce stereotypes or can enforce reality.

If you’re a gamer and majority of the time the games you play and spend hours and days on have characters that are not Black, then you are getting conditioned to think that Black characters do not exist in fiction and Black people aren’t protagonists. If 90% of the games developed have storylines for white heroes or survivors of a zombie apocalypse or saviors of humanity because they’re immune to a virus—in a subtle yet invasive way, it sends messaging that Black folk aren’t any of these things. But if you see this consistently with white characters, then that becomes the influence of your belief system.

It’s a habit that the industry has become excessively obsessed and comfortable with. The cowardice problem in the gaming industry by game developers: lack of Black protagonists.

The gaming developers play a huge role in the reaction of racists gamers having the false idea that all of society’s illusory default is white. That same unreality bleeds into fiction—the gaming world.

The repetitive developing of barely creating games with Black protagonists truly has done a major disservice to gamers and their mentality. Those gamers who feel that anytime any character or storyline centers Black characters, then it’s automatically offensive to them or simply credited to meeting some quota versus the developers’ intention to make the game that way.

Reality check: white is not default.

Some gamers and game watchers have been so conditioned To where if anytime, one out of the million characters are Black, in their minds, it’s an infringement on territory they sense entitlement to.

This practice is NOT improving the gaming industry whatsoever. And there’s no excuse to continue operating this way.

It gets repetitive, redundant and monotonous and stagnant.

It’s habitual abnormality. Because we constantly hear that “the world is diverse”, yet, in fantasy, it doesn’t ever reflect it. So which is it?

The gaming industry as a collective continues to make franchises and new games never or barely with Black protagonists, main characters and because it’s so the norm now, that the one singular time out of thousands of games, a game has a Black character, some of the gaming community is in shambles. That subset of the community acts a fool. It’s as if the industry has assaulted their entitlement. Or even when someone makes a post on sm putting the idea out there, people retaliate with all kinda circular, reductive opposition to the suggestions by simplifying it to thinking “just make a character Black”. That is not at all what we’re suggesting but because it’s been this normalized that main characters are practically never Black in gaming, this is the visceral reaction to simply suggesting reality.

For there to only be like a handful of games that are created annually with Black characters after all these years is deplorable. It’s weak. It’s pathetic. If developers would’ve been making games with more characters that are Black rather than scattering it in wide gaps of time, there would be no “outrage” for South of Midnight, Assassin's Creed Shadows’ Yasuke character (which from my understanding, is based in historical fact—and some people were still pressed about a historical figure), Mafia III.

It’s so rare that some within the gaming community fr think they aren’t realistic or it’s merely meeting “agendas”. Continuing to sprinkle Black side characters or sprinkle games that center Black characters here and there is how we have the climate in the community now. This is why we hear the recycled “woke” script left behind in the comment section on uploads of gamers’ walkthroughs and twitch streams from people anytime one out of a million games has a Black main character. Because of the industry’s incessant, redundant pattern of exclusive, segregated behavior. The industry has made this too regular that anything that isn’t that is irregular.

Expansion of creating games with Black main characters becomes “political”. They’ve set such a bad precedent of barely making the protagonists Black, that racist gamers are triggered to just function in their bigotry and use their bastardized stamp of our word “woke” to any games that have Black main characters. They’ll leave behind their “woke” and “diversity” comments on videos like those words are slurs because the gaming industry has very much indirectly and directly aided and abetted them to think this way.

And no, one single Black character in a game is not a quota met. No matter if they’re not the main character. If not that, it’s the typical Black character that gets the designated ancillary role. OR the single Black character gets bodied or bitten within their introduction chapter or you get a good 7 minutes of play until they go onto glory (David, Marvin, Tyrell). It isn’t reality or inclusion, it’s the facade of diversity because they’re disposable characters that only feed the storyline rather than being integral to it — because they didn’t survive. The only Black characters are incidental (or probably even accidental) to the plot. Or just fillers to meet the “we put a Black character in the game, see”. If they’re always dying within 15 minutes or right when they’re introduced, then it’s continuing the tired trope. They also shouldn’t get “the help” treatment either. Which is another trope that gets put on cycle. So, you did nothing special at all.

It’s BORING! And they’ve normalized the boring.

There are so many characters in countless franchises that have healed themselves and come back from their infected states but the few Black characters are just full stop RIP?

Are they not bored? Bored of the wash, rinse and repeat?

Whole franchises since 96 with over a dozen versions, remakes, editions, variations, part 2s, part 3s, 8, 9 and 10s, dlcs, side quests etc and a slew of different character storylines to continue the universe—got 8, 29, 50 Resident Evils and only one has a Black lead (isn’t it co-op?). Sheva is the only Black main character for all of RE. Or when they finally decide to be real and have an option for a Black main character, it’s the end of the partnership with the developers and the company and they parted ways so it seems like a leftover (Little Nightmares).

The incessant side character typecasting but not side quests characters. Or again, they’re offed right away (the only Black character either gets impelled, partially decapitated or turned). Black characters aren’t an accessory.

At the very minimum, they could make a demo with a Black character. But alas, even that isn’t an idea to break their immoderate norm. But because some franchises are so celebrated and have decades under their belt, I don’t think the franchise gets that criticism. And imo, mods don’t count.

Isn’t that mundane? Perpetuating unrealism even within fiction?

Let’s say developers don’t want to make more Black protagonists…what about antagonists? I mean, they can be bosses that the protagonist have to battle, right? They ain’t even doing this.

They never develop it regularly— if you do something on a regular basis, that becomes the norm and it wouldn’t feel like an abnormality. So much so that it’s just now getting to a point where there’s actual customization for different hairstyles for the Black characters. it took y’all forever to finally feature styles other than an Afro. Now, it’s locs + a fro! (but even that is so limited because the half-shaved locs is getting so oversaturated). Still loads of work needs to be done.

Developers don’t want to make more Black protagonists or Black main characters of their games. It’s a choice. It is a pervasive choice with how oversaturated and excessive the redundancy is.

If they made a choice to do it more often than how it’s been, regularly do it, there will be no room for the faux backlash of “diversifying” your games. Were Amanda the Adventurer and South of Midnight the only 2 games of 2025 that had Black characters as the main? Don’t yall think this is pretty unacceptable? Isn’t that very unreal? (And the whole excuses of Black people didn’t exist in xyz era is crap. Or when some use the tired “Black people aren’t part of my everyday world” makes you sound rather simple because all the outlandish things in games aren’t part of your everyday world such as lickers, Mr.X but that’s repetitive with white main characters with zero requirement to be real).

It’s starting to feel like some developers and creators bank and rely on the faux outrage so that they can fall back on the “see, when we do make games with Black protagonists, they don’t do well” only to be able to repeat the cycle.

Tbh, I think they rely on this and it’s a plus that they can so they don’t have to be inclusive. To be able to fall on those default responses — 1-Black characters aren’t marketable 2–majority of games are developed outside of America and Black people are a small demographic outside of America 3–there’s a lack of Black workforce in gaming

These are weak excuses.

Black American culture is global. Black American influence is global. People all around the world watch what we do as an ethnic group and that influence is seen in how people dress like us, talk like us, dance like us, sing like us, rap like us, play sports like us, style their hair like us …. So those excuses are unacceptable. Our cultural markers here get dispersed globally and get mirrored by those outside of America so there’s zero reason to not also reflect that in gaming.

And the workforce of not hiring Black people…? Why is this still happening?

(movie tangent)

Y’all remember the scene from Hidden Figures — where Taraji P Henson, who plays Katherine Johnson makes her colleagues aware that the reason she’s consistently away from her work station for 40 minutes a day is because she has to trek around the entire campus to relieve herself in the only ONE colored restroom? How it’s an inconvenience just to do that and all her white peers never even had to think twice about it?

This is the gaming industry in a nutshell.

They inundated the world with the consistent “default” they want to keep pushing AND then when they finally break from that false sense of the real world, some consumers automatically are enraged! You’ve already programmed your audience to the fiction so the nonfiction becomes a trigger to them.

Also, with this same scene in HF, I read that never really happened—when Katherine’s boss tore down the restrooms’ “COLOREDS” sign. But of course, to at least make one white person the “good one” you have to insert the white savior complex to keep the trope alive to coddle the white audience. Same goes in gaming. South of Midnight shouldn’t feel like a finally. Nor should it feel like a checkmark to wait until another 15 years to create a game with a Black protagonist.

Some games will come out glitchy as heck and crash prone but barely ever get the criticism to the same degree as South of Midnight did. That’s because the industry created this attitude around gaming. It’s a standard that almost only gets assigned to the games with Black protagonists and the card of perfection must be met and that’s very odd.

It’s cowardice that Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory changed from Black to white when the writer wrote him as Black. It wasn’t going to get made if he didn’t concede.

What’s underwhelming is that across entirely different companies, everyone very much is copying storylines and creating replicas. Or even the same developers keep making the same thing just in different eras… The Quarry is Until Dawn from many years ago but they still didn’t even choose to make it different in any sense. Everything is the same. Friends go on a trip to some spooky cabin and the entire friend group is white except the only nonwhite person is a biracial Black man. What could’ve been refreshing is possibly having 2 Black friends instead of the quota one.

I want to know if this monotony is not boring to the developers. Isn’t the recycling banal? No?

And the cyclical excuse of “well, we can only make games from our perspective.” Stop acting like you’re in the 1920s AND HIRE BLACK DEVELOPERS, BLACK ARTISTS AND BLACK WRITERS who have equal talent, skill, knowledge and experience to make the games from THEIR perspective. No, you don’t have to make games with Black protagonists written/created/designed by a non-Black person when you can hire a Black writer/creator/designer. Just do it.

The maintaining of this methodology is easy. Almost safe for appeal. To keep catering to the loudest, wrong feedback.

(on this real quick) Is the multiracial casting approach reserved only for fantasy films with Black protagonists?

The multicultural/colorblind ensemble requirement seems to strictly be a phenomenon when Black characters are the main characters in fantasy, mythology and musicals.

Whether it’s a remake or original, it’s a recurring theme.

Why does casting always have to be so overly exaggerated in diversity when we’re at the center of fantasy and mythology? Brandy as Cinderella, Halle as Ariel, Journey in Jingle Jangle, Tiana in The Princess and the Frog. (I get that both Cinderella and Ariel and Tiana are original stories of white women; so there’s not much criticism I have there).

It seems like the films or musicals that are Black lead are forced with the “represent every ethnic group” card when no one else has to do that.

Even when it comes down to parentage:

Brandy’s Cinderella…she has a white stepmom, one Black sister and one white sister; the Asian prince (the actor is Filipino but I don’t think his specific ethnicity was ever a focal point as the character) has a Black mother and a white father — Halle’s Ariel…her father is said to be white Hispanic (based on the actor’s ethnicity) with all her siblings being all different ethnicities.

Gonna include the gaming industry as well — Hazel Flood has a Black mother and white father; Lincoln Clay from Mafia III and it’s assumed his father is white Italian and mother is Black Dominican.

I’m Not sure why there’s a need to pivot away from having a Black main character have two Black parents. Do developers and some writers have a notion that Black is synonymous with biracial?

Then to also continue with the multiracial motif, Princess Tiana didn’t get married to a Black prince, Halle’s Ariel also didn’t get married to a Black prince and neither did Brandy’s Cinderella.

But notice, no other Disney characters are forced to create this unrealistic world. It’s reserved for the only (and few) Black led characters for this genre.

I get that the idea of visually seeing diversity seems to solve the “race” problem in escapism but why must our characters and stories have to be the ones to lesson-give?

(back to video games)

The gaming industry has set an unreal precedent with the pattern of underrepresenting Black protagonists and over-representing white protagonists. And operating this way feeds into the biases and prejudice and racism that the community feels comfortable in. And it’s all a choice — from top to bottom. I’m ready to see them make the real choice that represents how the world truly is.

[trystontayshawnjackson]

The Mafia Protagonists = Tommy Angelo, Vito Scaletta, Lincoln Clay and Enzo Favara