Overlaps with Genius Bonus. The sermon on Pastor Jeffries church is Jeremiah 23:16 a.k.a "Do not listen to what prophets are prophesying to you: they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord." Is there a more appropriate Bible passage to speak of?
A massive case of this combined with Fridge Horror is Joseph Seed's actions. His attempted takeover of Hope County and forcing everyone into the cult makes sense if he's trying to force them all into his bomb shelters, confiscate their supplies, and prepare everyone for what is probably going to be a long underground stay in confined quarters. It's just his three heralds are all batshit insane and torturing the people he's trying to save. Joseph actually tries to tell the Deputy this during the second Bliss vision-quest but it just comes off as insane ranting.
This coincidentally helps explain why New Eden in Far Cry: New Dawn seems so committed to the primitivist lifestyle and eschewing "old world technology". It's a lot easier and practical for Joseph Seed to push that angle when all those efforts to prep up for the apocalypse were thwarted if not blown up thanks to the Deputy.
Why is Hope County not getting rescued by the United States government? Willis Huntley says the President is being blackmailed by Joseph Seed. There's also a national crisis going on. Combined with the fact you are the authorities who were sent to pick him up (the leader of whom is on the side of the cult due to Bliss), it makes sense things are not presently being dealt with. The cult has also blocked all the roads in and out as well as destroyed all telephone wires/cellphone towers.
One of your earliest Bliss journeys has you jump off of Father's statue and survive where so many other cultists died. What's the difference? You probably have a parachute.
More probable is perhaps the fact that the jump was merely a hallucination, otherwise the Marshall's body would be down there too. And besides, how would Faith physically get the Deputy to the top of the Father's statue? It's more probable they laid him down among the other bodies to try and convince him that Faith speaks the truth. Alas, as quoted by many characters in the game, never trust Faith.
There are actually at least two locations where you can wake up after the jump: in the pit of corpses, or in a field of Bliss flowers a considerable distance away. It's not clear what trigger decides which one you get, but given at least the second case, it's obvious that the entire sequence was a hallucination that never happened.
The location you wake up in is based on whether you've killed any of the other heralds yet. If you didn't, you wake up in the Bliss flowers and if either John or Jacob are dead you wake up at the base of the statue. It's also affected on whether or not you haven't rescued the Hope County Jail yet, as if you haven't, you'll wake up in a field of flowers right in front of it, prompting you to do so.
Throughout Faith's region, you'll sometimes see a hallucination of her dancing in the field due to all the Bliss. But quite notably, your reticle turns green when its aimed at her. Likely a subtle attempt to brainwash you into thinking she's on your side.
Jacob's actions are completely at odds with the rest of the cult as they want to save everyone but he is determined to "cull the herd" and "kill the weak." The thing is, Jacob is the only trained soldier in the group and he's also facing the only actual armed force, the Whitetail Militia. Joseph is thus letting him play soldier against the only real threat to their plans.
Joseph Seed says the Seals will be broken and there's a lot of apocalyptic things coming from the Book of Revelations. One notable passage from said book is: "I saw when the lamb opened the first Seal, and I heard, as it were the voice of thunder, one of the Four Beasts say 'Come and see!' And I saw. And behold it was a white horse and hell followed with him." He is arrested by Sheriff Whitehorse and you are behind him—the man who slaughters all of his congregation.
The Seed family represents the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as well with John representing Famine (stealing all the crops), Jacob representing war, and Faith representing Pestilance with her diseased Bliss. Joseph, himself, represents Death. Alternatively, and more in keeping with the actual passage about the 4, Faith could just as easily represent Conquest (since pestilence was originally just an aspect of Famine) given her association with white and how Bliss is one of the "peaceful" methods that can completely consume a person's mind.
The Fifth Seal is a reference to great numbers of martyrs who might represent the cult of Eden's Gate or the people they've slain.
The Sixth Seal is a great earthquake with nuclear war certainly involving that.
The Seventh seal involves seven angels and you have seven allies who turn on you in the finale.
The intro of the game shows Marshall Burke deciding to try and bring a three-man squad to try to arrest Joseph right from the middle of his compound. Beyond the obvious inclinations of being Too Dumb to Live, there's probably a real reason for this; the only information directly known of what Eden's Gate were doing was the video that kicks the game off, something Burke seemed to be shrugging off. While Sheriff Earl tries to warn him that they're diving into something real dangerous, both he and Burke are taken off-guard by the sheer number of cultists and the size of the compound. Considering the police dispatcher's The Mole status that likely covered up the authorities being stranded shortly thereafter, Joseph's probably controlled and silenced enough information that even a genuinely large assembly of police wouldn't have had any idea of what they were in for.
Just as well, Burke isn't off the hook considering his actions. To further compound this, later in the game he just opts to try to let the Bliss work itself out of his system and hope for the best. This backfires so horribly that it's very easy to intuit that Burke in general is very bad at making a solid judgment call in high-tension situations.
May overlap with Fridge Horror, but if you take the in game news reports regarding Moscow into account, recall how in Far Cry 3, Agent Willis mentions "Task Force 141". Depending on what year the game is set, the chaos going on in the world at large may be the work of one Vladimir Makarov...mind you this would set up a posssible intercompany crossover if this isn't a mere Shout-Out, but you gotta admit it's uncanny.
There's repeated mention of how the cult's armed rather well, and for the most part it's easy to rectify their arms simply by the black market providing the majority of their equipment. However, their possession of attack aircraft and flamethrowers might throw some people off. It can be rectified by remembering that John Seed bought out the majority of farms in the region. By excusing the aircraft as crop dusters and the flamethrowers for burning off dead brush and vegetation, John Seed easily laid the ground for the eventual fighting through Hope County.
Why don't the Judges attack the cultists? Because they've consumed Bliss, which is based on scopolamine.
Dmitri's bunker has a red star on it. The red star is one of most known symbols of Russia.
Why most of the Chosen use compound bows as a standard issue weapon instead of having guns like previous "elite enemies"? Because it's the best weapon! It's silent and its ammo can be reused. And it's also 100% legal to have one. The Chosen are the most important assets for the Peggies, so they wouldn't risk their most important soldiers getting caught by police. It would also become a viable long-term weapon in a nuclear apocalypse, where resources for conventional weapons would decrease in availability drastically. This is exemplified in New Dawn, where New Eden almost exclusively uses bows and arrows.
Why is it so hard to tell the Angel's gender? Because "real" angels are supposed to be genderless.
Take note of the album covers for the game's soundtrack. Each of the Peggie tracks has three different versions, the choir for "When the World Falls", a rockin' tune for "Into the Flames", and a new-age ambience for "We will Rise Again". The characters on each of these covers are John, Jacob, and Faith Seed, respectively. When the names of these albums are put together, they form a complete sentence (and a lyric in one of the songs), hinting the player in conquering their regions in that order. They also perfectly reflect each of the heralds' duties.
Jacob having fewer resistance points than his siblings is justifiable for a couple of reasons:
He's the only one who actually recognizes the Deputy as a threat and is more willing to fight them than John and Faith. His plans are also more strategic, as he brainwashes the Deputy into killing Eli and wants to tie up the last loose end by killing the Deputy afterwards.
Deputy aside, he's facing an organized militia with a competent leader in an environment favoring guerilla tactics and those familiar with the terrain. Unlike his siblings, he's not in a situation where he can just steamroll through with little opposition.
From a meta-perspective, the reason that the Whitetail Mountains requires fewer points is likely due to the relatively low number of outposts present in the area, no doubt due to the region's steep geography, making it more difficult to establish properties there.
In the secret ending, where the player refuses to cuff the Father, right before the Sheriff decides to back off and retreat Joseph Seed says "sometimes it best to leave well enough alone", repeating what the Sheriff said earlier on the helicopter ride. This probably unnerved the Sheriff, and tips off that someone was listening in on their communications (probably aided by Nancy from Dispatch, though they do not open up communications with her until after the Sheriff says the line), which means Joseph knew they were coming and prepared an ambush.
Fridge humor. Miss Mable compares Peaches to "that Drubman whore" in that "give her a treat and she'll do anything for you". And what else do Peaches and Adelaide Drubman have in common? They're both cougars!
The Deputy's trigger song playing on the radio during the "Walk Away" ending is on the surface a major Contrived Coincidence. But remember that during the opening section of the game Dutch mentions how the cult has either cut or taken control of phone lines and radio communications. Chances are that Joseph, having heard from Jacob about his progress in brainwashing the Deputy, specifically had that song broadcast so it could set off the Deputy, preventing them from getting reinforcements while eliminating his biggest threat in the process.
Why doesn't the Deputy use a knife as a melee weapon unlike Jason Brody, Ajay, or the Captain? Because they're a police officer and they don't use knives as a melee weapon.
Why does John Seed have so much trouble getting the Deputy to say "Yes?" All their confrontations involve him either trying to torture/mutilate them or threaten the same on their friends, and they keep ending with the Deputy being given windows to escape. And even when it seems like he's finally succeeded, it just sets his downfall in motion. In other words, he keeps doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Fridge Horror
At first it seems a bit odd that after defeating John, Jacob, and Faith Seed presumably dealing a heavy blow to the cult, you end up getting overpowered by Joseph Seed, without any winning options. Why does the game not let you kill Joseph Seed? For the same reason that arresting him didn't work- his hold is too strong. Just trying to arrest Joseph Seed was enough to provoke violent retaliation from the cult. Killing Joseph would only turn him into a martyr and potentially spark even worse violence from his followers.
Inverted with the "Resist" ending. While it sucks the Deputy has been captured by Joseph Seed and everybody died, the simple fact is that they've already been captured by the Seeds 5-6 times already and managed to escape every single time. As Vaas would say, what is the definition of insanity?
Played straight with the fact the Deputy and Joseph both wanted to save everyone in Hope County but only succeeded in saving each other.
There are No Yay implications for the Resist ending if the player has a female character as you are the 'last' woman on earth, or at the very least in Hope County, and he's a religious nut, the implications of an 'Adam and Eve' scenario is evident. Mind you, his dialogue is identical to a male Deputy, but still, one wonders if Seed has once more "found his Faith..."
Arguably, it is another bit of twisted religious symbolism in a game full of them, a cynical reinterpretation of the Eden Apple; a woman resists the control and plans of a evil man, grows more skilled during the fight back, is unfairly vilified for it and blamed for all the sins he committed.
Another inverted example is the fact the nuking of the world may mean Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon could be canon.
Alas, no since Blood Dragon 3 is an in-universe movie and it's set in 2017 (the actual Blood Dragon is set in 2007) not 2018 like what the game suggests.
Except for the fact that Takkar was able to find a Blood Dragon Skeleton in the Mesolithic Era, long before the Blood Dragon movies would have started production. This means they can't be entirely fictional.
All these notes are debunked as Far Cry: New Dawn takes place a long time after this ending.
At least four Faiths existed as a Selene, Rachel, Lisa, and the original Faith all existed. What happened to them? Did they die at Joseph's hands or due to the Bliss? Or did they die at the hands of each other?
A note in a Prepper Stash reveals the previous Faiths have all been tossed into a mass grave, alongside the Angels.
In the "walk away" ending, you might think you managed to avoid getting everyone killed... until you realize that, by this point in the game, you've already destroyed all three of the cult's bunkers. If those nukes are incoming, then you've already doomed everyone no matter which choice you picked. Only this one is arguably worse because you and Joseph will probably die as well.
Although previously true, this was fixed in an update. Destroying Faith's bunker will now stop the Bliss fumes for good.
To the south of the Sacred Skies Youth Camp, you can find the Administrator's Cabin. You can't enter the cabin itself, but, in a boarded-up storage shed nearby, you can find a recording of what sounds like a child crying.
In the "nuke" ending, Joseph would still be "defeated", even if he survives, his two own brothers are still dead, and they cannot be replaced like Faith, which means he won, but lose the things he loves most.
If the "resist" ending is canon, consider that both the Protagonist and Joseph have been exposed to a nuclear blast. They would probably die from radiation poisoning.
Well, They have been confirmed to appear in the sequel.
According to Faith, she was a teenager with a very difficult childhood that included drug addiction and attempted suicide before Joseph Seed helped her find a reason to live again. It's hard to tell how much of this account is accurate since she's an Unreliable Narrator at best and obviously quite biased, but assuming her story is at least partially true, there is another much darker way of interpreting it that makes Faith seem a lot more sympathetic. While she tries to spin her introduction to Eden's Gate as a positive development, her story could also be read as Joseph Seed exploiting a vulnerable teenager with nowhere else to go in order to turn her into his personal weapon. The fact that it's implied that there have been several women adopting the name "Faith Seed" also leaves one to wonder if Joseph really considers her a sister, as he claims, or if he only regards "Faith Seed" as a tool to spread his message.
The government knows full-well the sheer scale of what's happening in Hope County. Even after the botched arrest, remember that there's a second Federal agent on the ground in Hope County. And what's his primary mission? Recovering the Piss Tape. Whoever's in charge of the Federal government considers recovering blackmail material a greater priority than sending help to save the people trapped in Hope County. John Seed wasn't kidding when he died. Look who's in charge indeed.
The "walk away" ending ends with the officers leaving, and cuts to the end credits just as the player starts to react to hearing the song "Only You" on the radio (the same song that Jacob conditioned them to respond violently to hearing). Now it is possible that a disaster have been averted if the Sheriff turned off the radio immediately (he could have simply thought the Deputy was sick and turned off the radio thinking quiet would be better for them). But assuming the radio wasn't shut off there are two logical outcomes, neither of which is especially optimistic. Either:
1. The Junior Deputy turns on their former allies (the same ones they worked so hard to save) without any control over themself and ends up killing all of them.
2. The Junior Deputy turns on their allies, tries to kill them, and the the other officers are forced to kill them in self-defense.
In addition, despite Jacob Seed's death, his conditioning on the Deputy has never gone away. There may not be a cure at all, as the Whitetail Rangers certainly tried to do so, to little effect.
Even assuming that the deputy eventually manages to overcome that conditioning, or at least manages to reduce its effect (i.e. learning to contain the violent impulse when the song is played), there's no way one could go through something like what happens in the game without severe mental scars. It wouldn't be that crazy for the deputy, as well as some of the other officers (especially Hudson and Pratt) to develop PTSD. Both endings also mean the deputy also has to spend the rest of their life with the physical scars to remind them of what happened in Hope County.
Assuming the Deputy survives in the "Walk Away" ending, Joseph Seed's mental conditioning, combined with any psychological and physical trauma that would no doubt come from their experiences, would pretty much destroy any chance the Deputy had of any kind of normal life. At best, they'd probably be living in perpetual fear of losing control and going into a rampage simply because the song "Only You" just happened to be on someone's playlist.
On the bright side, assuming a causal paradox preventing the other pressing issue, there is one community where Dep can live safely because everyone gets that problem, and live like a god themself after saving everyone.
Thought John Seed was less threatening than his siblings simply because he never resorts to direct mind control on the Deputy? Wrong! He still forces the Deputy to say "Yes".
Jacob Seed became what he is because he was separated from his unit, starving for seven days, and thus forced to cannibalize his comrade, Miller. He tells you this story after he’s starved you for seven days, and has fed you a mysterious kind of meat...
