Do you have any thoughts on the Flynt family
Oh Boy, do I Ever have Thoughts on the Flynt family !!!
The Flynts are an interesting case study on the kinds of politics that dominate Pandora. Baron and Captain rule their respective regions with an iron fist, their territory was achieved and maintained through bloodshed and aggression, showing their fellow bandits why they’re the leaders through sheer brutality alone, real survival of the fittest … but that’s not usually enough to keep dozens, maybe hundreds of armed folks pinned under their thumb all around so much land for as long as they were in power. You’re telling me Baron was in power for long enough to see Dahl enter AND leave Pandora and not Once was anyone like, “You know what, if we all got together we could probably kill this scrawny bastard easily” ? I don’t buy it.
For there to be a functional ecosystem in which people like the Flynts fit in, you need others to depend on something they are doing too. It’s not enough for there to be a Strong Guy, because clearly that wasn’t enough to stop both the VH teams, you need to be providing a service that would make you valuable to keep around. Bandit clans form out of necessity— community, resources, numbers, you name it— and while making yourself fearsome and unbeatable works in the short term (See: The Slabs accepting Brick’s bullshit), but at some point you have to consider that there’s Many of them and only one of you. Where am I going with this ? You’ll see.
The microsms of characterization we get on the Flynts is very skewed because we are playing the perspective of their aggressors. They are fully on the offensive and throwing what they can on the vault hunters because they are In Their Houses, so we don’t exactly catch them at a very nice moment. If we weren’t so explicitly expected to murder both of them for a resource they have, then we’d find a different perspective: They’re competent leaders Outside of the murderous tendencies too. They provide safety from the world within their clans, there’s structure to how the society is built, seconds and thirds in command to oversee different areas the leaders themselves can’t be around for, ranks for whoever is closest to the top, you get the idea. There’s Structure. They’re still violent and hostile, even to their own troops, but they’re still competent enough to understand that without those people, they literally have nothing. Captain has multiple dialogue lines reminding Bandits what to do and what they should avoid + giving them updates on things, Baron immediately puts a bounty on your head when one of his more important men are killed (but does show to be comparatively more uncaring to his lackeys, which probably says something more about him than it does about bandit leaders as a whole). They’re also constantly mobilizing troops to other places and certifying they’re where they need to be (see: Liar’s berg, The Rust commons.)
What it tells us about bandit society is that Bandit leaders aren’t Just some big idiot who gives everyone orders. No, these guys are like. Small district politicians actually. They’re not good people, but they’re necessary, and when removed from their respective positions it’s hard for the rest of the groups to bounce back. And that the Flynts especially are a family that has been continously involved with politics from all around Pandora for a long time.
Also Zane is silly I wanna throw him at a wall.
Tldr: These guys are literally generals / politicians to some degree and they’re not only essential to the Pandoran ecosystem, but good enough at what they do to not get immediately murdered by their men.