MCM- Juan Rainer

I started out just drawing a straight portrait of this guy but then thought… shouldn’t he be naked? lol

This is Juan Rainer, an NPC in my favorite game Dying Light 2. He’s one of the faction leaders in the game and also bisexual, though we see him with men more than women and he’s very flirty with you (you play a young man named Aiden) in the game.

Dying Light is a zombie apocalypse series with a couple of principle differences from others. One is that night time is a lot more dangerous than the day (hence the name), and the other is that parkour is a key to survival (zombies for the most part can’t parkour). I enjoy the parkour a lot, but an aspect of this developer’s games I really like is the post-capitalist society. It truly does take an apocalypse and a real start-over for the world to get out of the death grip of the economic system. I also appreciate the queer content of the game. It isn’t over the top, it’s non-existent in the first game, but in 2 it’s everywhere. Rainbow flags in dwellings and workshops, lesbian flirting heard in background chatter in public spaces, a few side quests involving gay men’s relationships… and Juan Rainer. Kinda surprising from a Polish developer… Poland isn’t known for being very progressive around LGBTQ+ issues.

At one point in development there were many factions that you could choose to side with, but as the game exists now, there are two, and the world and the ending of the game changes according to what decisions you make, who you side with. More like two and a half. Juan’s faction isn’t one of the two that made the cut, but they still exist as a group and you can choose to work with him during the game, all the way to the end if you want… he has an “ending” to the game. I have played many times all the way through and usually side with the “survivors”, who are “free folk” and live communally. The other faction is the “peace keepers”, a literal militia who want to take over as a police state. There are good and bad people within both, but the vibe of the game is that the Survivors are the preferred crowd and have the best ending (I would agree with this setting) and the PKs are semi-fascists, their commander is framing people to get their outcome, and their ending is bleak. But… halfway through the game you meet Juan and he tries to convince you that there’s conspiracy afoot. You can go along with him or not, and I usually do until I have to choose between him and the survivors. I have played through all possibilities at this point and you know what? He’s paranoid about his conspiracy theories but they are all 100% correct. Unfortunately, his ending is the worst of the possible scenarios. It doesn’t really fit with the character but I guess it was the leftovers from the other two factions’ endings. Recently I played the Peace Keepers all the way through and at one point they execute Juan… I hadn’t considered this a possibility and was literally shocked by it. It still bothers me.

Anyway, thank you for reading my little essay on a game I have put so many hours into you really would be surprised.