Talk:Great Cleaver

Symbolism?
I was going to add something minor to the article, so let me know if this is a reach, I don't really think it is, but it's worthy of discussion at the very least. Obviously, in the game, we can see the Butcher weild the weapon himself with great proficiency, able to lift and swing it with one hand, which would make sense, given his stature and monstrous capabilites. Now, one could raise suspicion in that during the scene following his defeat, Travis is able to lift it up and drive it into the Butcher with no less ease than the Butcher himself, despite what I can only imagine to be immense weight given the solid metal that it's made of, and Travis needing two hands to weild other objects such as a drip stand or a portable television. It's no secret that Travis and the Butcher are connected in essence. This obviously stems into the supposition that Travis has a repressed spilt personality of being a serial killer himself. The evidence is endearingly subtle, but when you piece the puzzle together it's the most likely conclusion to draw. For starters, amid the garbled static on the radio at the beginning, you can hear the trucker buddy say "Well, maybe if you wadn't always blabberin' about losin' your family when you were little, how you can't even remember how or why...", though it is difficult to hear. This confusion is easily associated with the "Hole in the Sky" ending, where Travis hears the disembodied voices of people being murdered, shouting things such as "Hey! I'm not you're momma! AHGH-" and things of that nature, hinting that Travis was more heavily traumatised by the event than he realizes, even blocking out the half of him that commited the murders, which comes into the symbolism of the Butcher, who has half of his face obscured by metal, and half revealed, similarly to how Travis himself is only half revealed, and the other half of himself is closed off; even hidden. As much as I hate to admit it, Travis also seems to have a sort of sexual repression, the evidence is overwhelming. The Two-Backs seem to represent an animosity in some way, given the horrific nature of their appearance, which is undoubtedly sexual. Now knowing this, and some other information, we can gather together inferences between certain scenes involving the butcher and certain scenes involving Lisa. When Travis runs into Lisa at Artaud, you can see that, much like many of his other interactions, he comes off as cold but concerned. As Lisa grabs him and whispers to him about running off together and being happy, you can, for a brief moment, see Travis have a look on his face as though he's so hopeful he's about to cry. I find it to be more noticeable in the PSP version, but nevertheless, as he realises she's trolling him, the look sort of fades away, and the two part ways. Following this encounter, Travis walks in on Kaufmann and Lisa in the hotel, composing themselves after what can be gathered as them each having sex. Travis seems noticeably disgruntled in this scene. Not long after, preceeding the final confrontation with the Butcher, Travis witnesses him disemboweling a Two-Back, which as we remember is a symbol of sexual anguish. The Butcher begins slowly, and then starts driving it into it with more and more rage, which can easily lead one to deduce that The Butcher is a manifestation of Travis' psyche, the part he's blocking out. Then there's the peep-hole in the hotel where Travis can see the Butcher admiring various photos on the wall, one of which being his father. This further evidences his killing spree, as implied by the "Sorry, son. Hotel's closed." line from the bad ending, it could be inferred that Travis may have visited the place at a point sometime before the events of his childhood and the house fire, most likely in an "alter ego" state of mind, for a lack of better words, and set up a room there for a period after killing the clerk. Then in the bad ending once again, Travis sees the Butcher during his panic attack, and even phases into him briefly for a moment. The evidence is all there, so I was thinking I should just add a little note about how Travis' ability to weild such an almost comically disproportionate weapon with such ease is symbolic of it being no less suited for him than the Butcher, as they are, in a sense, connected. The reason I bothered asking is because TECHNICALLY this is speculation, I think? Wouldn't want conjecture on a facts-based article, eh? Lemme know if it'd be okay. Jellyfishking33 (talk) 20:25, February 13, 2018 (UTC)Jellyfishking13 February 14, 2018, 2:22 P.M.

Personally, I think the possibility of Travis having serial killer tendencies or at least a secret mentality of one may be present when you consider your evidence as well as his morbid descriptions of some objects. I most certainly think he deals with sexual frustration as well. I feel it'd be appropriate to add to the article, but I think we'd best wait for an admin's input. ╟_Ωzz… &#12288; t a l k 22:00, February 13, 2018 (UTC)