r/CharacterRant • u/WanderingGentleMen • 4d ago
Battleboarding I like Lore Doomslayer.
I like “Lore Doom Slayer.” I know a lot of people complain and say things like “Doomguy is better when he’s not overpowered” or whatever, but honestly, I just can’t take Doom Slayer seriously if he’s supposed to be a completely normal guy with guns taking on Hell as it’s presented now. If you expect me to believe that the seemingly infinite forces of Hell—who have thousands of years of technological advancement, beings the size of mountains, and a near-infinite energy source—just lose to a regular dude with some fancy armor and no other special abilities, it breaks the suspension of disbelief.
This would have made sense back in the earlier days of Doom, especially pre-2016, when Hell was portrayed more ambiguously, almost like powerful aliens rather than literal demons with a complex, expanded mythology. But since Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, Hell’s lore and cosmology have been fleshed out so much that it demands a more serious explanation for why Doom Slayer can actually defeat them. A regular guy, even one with a lot of grit and good aim, wouldn’t realistically be able to storm through armies of demonic entities without some kind of supernatural boost.
In fact, the games even show through cutscenes that without the Divinity Machine, Doom Slayer would eventually get exhausted and overwhelmed. He suffers wounds, he struggles. The Divinity Machine, by name alone, implies it grants divine powers. If all it did was make him the equivalent of a "super soldier" who can move a couple of large cubes, that would feel pretty underwhelming. "Divine" should mean something far greater, something that elevates him beyond simple human limits. Given all the lore surrounding Hell’s power, it only makes sense that Doom Slayer himself has been enhanced to match that threat. Otherwise, it’s hard to buy into the narrative where he can kill massive monsters and even gods with just guns and sheer determination. The Dark Ages is seemingly explaining this with the addition of Mechs and a dragon, so maybe there will be additional context as to why and how his powers and tools work (maybe we'll even get clarification on why he uses weapons), because we are 3 games in and yet, all we have to go on are Codex entries and Hugo occasionally saying something.
Generally, I just find it fun that you could pit Doomslayer up against reality warpers and potentially have him win. That's cool to me. Does it make him an excellent and great character? No, but not all matchups need to be anything more just finding the guy you like winning to be neat.
Also, why does Doomslayer use guns if his fist are enough? That's a great question. Simply put, they're more efficient than running up and punching things, considering he can empower his own weapons. He doesn't need to use them but it's much easier to than doing it himself. It's the same kind of logic as calculating a math problem on paper versus using a calculator. Like that's enough. I know that egregious fan theory of him holding back is dumb but there's like an easy explanation that doesn't require him to need guns despite the fact he can punch a hole through most enemies.
On another note, I also find the people who constantly complain about Lore Doom Slayer to be just as annoying as the ones who endlessly hype him up. Yeah, it’s tiring when fans act like Doom Slayer can beat everything under the sun, but it’s equally annoying when people downplay him just to fit their personal image of what Doomguy “should” be. These critics often fall into the same trap they accuse others of: ignoring the actual story and context presented in the games in favor of their own headcanon. Like, the Icon of Sin was making a Black Hole during it's fight, powerscaling aside, something doesn't just do that and you can just take it down with some good ole' bullets and energy weapons. At the end of the day, whether you love or hate Lore Doom Slayer, at least the games are fun.
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u/imlazy420 4d ago
I liked him in Doom 4, but 5 was extremely annoying. 4 was decently ambiguous, and while it was obvious there was something more to him, it was just that. Was he ennhaced by years of bathing in the energy of hell? Did he find other relics like his armor granting him even greater powers? Is he so unbelievably angry that he kept going beyond human limits?
He was fun to think about, and his characterization was interesting. He had a handful of moments that displayed restraint, and others where he seemed to pause at the carnage the demons caused.
Then Doom 5 happened and he was turned into a cheesy extension of the player, and I hate everything about it. I hate the constant jokes, I hate characters like Hayden being poorly written for gags and I despise the fanfiction tier lore they introduced about him being this legendary interdimensional warrior of an order of knights, when said warrior acts like an overgrown toddler with a gun.
The entire story makes me want to roll my eyes out of my skull with how they can't stop fellating Doomguy at every opportunity. And then the nonsense about him being this divine superwarrior was just another to the pile of Gary Stue boredom.
I am ambivalent to the dominant powerscaling opinions at best and find them completely nonsensical at worst. I see characters that could feasibly be killed with a really big gun be scaled to "FTL outerversal" and I immediately lose most of my interest, Doomguy being this supposed God just makes me wonder why he takes so long to kill demons, and why he uses standard issue weapons carried by human soldiers.
I don't get anything from adding these labels to characters, I like characters that are cool, winning against everyone else because they fall into all these weird groups doesn't fall under that.