Cyrus Temple is the antithesis of everything that Kinzie Kensington is. She's a forward thinking tech loving non-traditional girl that shuns people (although desiring someone to be close to), and he's a conservative, militaristic, traditional man with very good people skills. However, deep down, they're quite similar. Both are extremely vindictive toward anyone they feel wronged them, to the point that they'd screw themselves and betray things they believed in and put a lot of time into to get revenge. Kinzie, when pushed to the edge, enjoys destruction and violence just as much as everyone else, and is willing to get up-close and personal and beat the shit out of people.
Now, what would lead to her hating him that much, him being in her personal nightmare, and her being his opposite yet so similar? Why does she know younger him? Because he was her (abusive, controlling) father. Think about it, why would she end up in the FBI? There's no way she would have chosen to join on her own. It involves working for others, obeying orders, being around tons of people and losing independence. She joined the Saints due to needing to. Why would she want to be in the FBI, unless she was forced to join the government in some way by her father? She's not even too broken up about going from being in a group massively slaughtered by the Saints (FBI attacks in Saints Row 2 at max wanted) to being in the Saints. In fact, she doesn't care. At all. The fact that he's a part of her worst fear seems to be logical, if he was a controlling, abusive factor in her life. And, quite obviously, it would be easy for her to erase any records of their relation. Also, in their homie conversation, Pierce and Kinzie talk about Paul, and Kinzie is about to explain who he is to Pierce, but he threatens her with a secret about something in her White Crib desk. Sexual stuff is no threat to Kinzie, and as secretive as she is, most things wouldn't be kept in a sentimental-type location like a desk. A family photo perhaps?
Additionally, even saying some of who she is genetic, a lot of her issues likely come from some earlier trauma. She doesn't even know to wash her hair, which seems to indicate that her family was extremely dysfunctional, and she apparently had nobody she was close to while growing up, ever, which would make sense if her father was an abusive, misogynistic man with his entire life being focused on his career. Considering that she comments in one of her homie conversations in this game that the Boss has banned her from using the word "sister(s)" due to her constantly seeking a "familial connection", her mother was likely dead as well.
- Word of God states that IV will end the story of The Third Street Saints.
- The Boss returns to Stilwater, albeit a virtual recreation, for one mission.
- From Ultor Exposed:Boss: Why does a mining vehicle need a goddamn turret?Tera: You gotta blast through rock. Makes sense to me.Boss: Were the hell are you people mining?!Tera: You'd never believe me if I told you.—During the second mission, Burden of Proof
- From Corporate Warfare:Boss: Hey, as long as you leave me and mine alone, you can go to Mars for all I care.—After the third mission, Ultor Family Fun Day, to Eric Gryphon, Ultor head of projects.
- Canon, Word of God said so.
- How about this theory? Red Faction is a novel series in the Saints Row universe. The first one was written in the time after Saints Row 1, when the small company Ultor rose to power. The writer fearing Ultor's business practice and general power, used them as bad guys in his novel. Which is the story of the first game. Shortly before Saints Row 2, the novel was adapted into a TV series, however the writers took large liberties with the story changing the name, the personality of the characters and general theme of the novel, resulting in the cheesy Red Planet Red Passion series, whose adds you hear on the radio. In the time between 2 and the Third, a second novel was written under pressure by the publisher. The novel was rushed and not that well written, also because of an Ultor lawsuit the writer was forbidden from throwing in any mentioning of Ultor. Explaining the large difference story wise between Red Faction 1 and 2. Red Faction Guerrilla now is written in the time after Saints Row the Third. With the Gangster in Space movie coming out the publisher wants the writer to bring out another Red Faction novel. The writer inspired by the news of S.T.A.G. taking over Steelport under the guise of helping the people, decides to use Earth's military as the bad guys, which explains the similarity between S.T.A.G. and the EDF (white armor, face covering masks, high tech weapons, even the S.T.A.G. barricades look familiar). It's up to Saints Row IV to drop hints on what inspired Armageddon. The zombie outbreak however could be an explanation for the Bugs in it.
This is the reason the Boss is even tougher in the sequel, and capable of amazing feats of strength like pulling parking meters out of the concrete. By the time the DLC came out, the Boss has found out about all of this, but between their being psychotic and Unkut likely being run by nutjobs ala Aperture Science, they negotiated the Boss's silence in return for exclusive rights to Unkut merch and tattoos.
- Backed up, somewhat, if you consider some lines of dialogue by Britboss in SR3. During one of the Heli Assault Activities:Kinzie: Next stop, Matt Miller's girlfriend's house.Boss: You know where she lives?Kinzie: Everything about you is on the Internet. I even know your real name. It's-Boss: Classified, for a reason.
- During "My Name is Cyrus Temple":Boss (disguised as Cyrus Temple): I'm more of a Stilwater bloke myself.Kia: 'Bloke', sir?Boss: Err... yeah! Picked it up when I was stationed in Britain.Kia: Sir, I've seen your jacket. You were never stationed overseas.Boss: Of course I wasn't. Umm... I've probably said too much. Just forget we ever had this conversation.Kia: O-oh! Of course, sir.
- Trojan Whores also seems to back it up, is it just me or in the end of the cutscene at the party didn't the boss seem professional, the way he disarmed that ho that was about to kill Peirce and then the roll was very convincing that he knows how to get a firearm away and it shows that he must be good at taking cover, I bring this up though because I am playing it right now though.
- A fair few people would go that route.
- Tying in the "Red Faction Prequel" theory, The Boss is both ancestor to Commander Shepard AND Alec Mason: Earth in both universes was heavily implied to be a Crapsack World until Protheon technology was uncovered on Mars: presumably after the unpleasant business in Red Faction: Armageddon, what was left of the Martian Colony unearthed the Protheon tech, and helped both it AND Earth recover to form a space-age empire.
Somehow the Cabel in the Wanted Comicverse ended up wiping themselves out. Leaving a broken and pretty corrupt world behind them. A world where cops can be bribed to ridiculous levels and death games are prime time TV. The Boss is the world's last super-villain, able to become bulletproof, fire unlimited bullets even complete feats of near impossible badass violence. However compared to a certain rapist nihilist blonde who had a habit of shooting up Police stations. He's considered an improvement of sorts.
- Another possibility is that The Boss proved so dangerous back when they were the Playa in the first game that the military decided to make them the first guinea pig for their new super soldier program, because they'd be more likely to survive the tests. And even if they died, who would care about a gangbanger that had caused so much carnage for the city? The treatments were a success and The Boss became nigh immortal, with a healing factor and superhumanly good fighting skills, but then he woke up and got broken out of prison before they could install the mind control, and they ended up with an Axe-Crazy Phlebotinum Rebel.
Ultor started off as a quaint little clothing store in the first game, became a MegaCorp in the second game, and was taken over by the Saints in The Third. Considering the Saints went on to take over Steelport and declare it an independent nation in the game's True Ending, it's not hard to imagine the Saints would, sometime in the distant future, start calling themselves Ultor again.
- Already semi-confirmed and semi-Jossed. It's stated towards the beginning of The Third that the Saints and Ultor merged, which is what has allowed the Saints to become a merchandising empire, complete with movie deal.
- There is actually some credit to this, at least in Saints Row 2. During the fight with Jyunichi, some of the Ronin will remark "we'll protect this boss better than we did O-Ren!" which can be taken as meaning that at least SR 1 & SR 2 are in the same universe as Kill Bill. And also maybe that Kazuo took power after O-Ren got scalped.
- Minimum of 35 by IV, assuming that the Constitution has not been amended to allow presidents younger than 35 (notably, the 31st amendment that's All There in the Manual allows foreign-born presidents, allowing for Cockney Boss and French Boss). Since that's the 31st amendment, though, and in real life we only have 27 amendments, who knows what amendments 28, 29 and 30 are?
Saints Row 2: Anger. Playa, now The Boss, takes a darker turn as he becomes increasingly more vicious and vengeful. When a character in his own fantasy tries to make him stop, he simply kills him.
Saints Row The Third: Bargaining. The truth of a greater reality begins to seep into The Boss' fantasy world, manifesting as bizarre things such as Professor Genki because they're so incongruent. The Boss' subconscious mind desperately attempts to fit these elements into the world it has created.
Saints Row IV: Depression. Subconsciously realizing that there's no use clinging on to the fantasy any longer, The Boss has his fantasy world utterly destroyed. He's still stuck in a false reality, except now, at least on some level, he consciously knows it. The bitterness of his past exploits comes back to haunt him.
Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell: Possibly Acceptance. The Boss finally subconsciously acknowledges the existence of the afterlife as he/she gets dragged into Hell by Satan.
- Here's hoping Kazuo Akuji makes an appearance!
- Sort of. Agents of MAYHEM is set in an alternate universe where the Saints never existed per se, but the individuals still do and MAYHEM itself bears some similarities.
shows that the agency uses a purple fleur-de-lis as their logo, just like the Third Street Saints. Whether or not this is a sequel to Saints Row IV has yet to be determined, but given that the earth was blown up in that game, it's more likely that this is an alternate continuity.- Confirmed. Agents of Mayhem is set in the Cosmic Retcon timeline.
- Saints Row: Nigh-nonexistent. The game is very much grounded in reality, with almost no unrealistic elements.
- Saints Row 2: Emerging, The Boss (possibly) believes he underwent a Gender Bender and can go naked without consequence. Sidequests are by far the most comical the series had been up to this point.
- Saints Row The Third: Nigh-severe. The Boss believes the Saints are celebrities and starts to become more comical him/herself. However, they still are able to comprehend the world around them and can still do gang operations.
- Saints Row IV: Severe. The Boss’s grip on reality has all but completely gotten out of touch with reality, believing that they are the president and that they are fighting an alien empire.
- Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell: Still severe. The Boss reacts to them being taken to an insane asylum as them being Dragged Off to Hell by demons while they think the Saints are heroically saving them, when in reality they are a metaphor for The Boss’s last sliver of them being in touch with reality being slowly taken away. The Cosmic Retcon ending is a metaphor for that sliver going away for good.
- Agents Of M.A.Y.H.E.M.: Completely out of touch with the world around them. The Boss starts to be unable to comprehend their own existence, creating an imaginary world inhibited by fantasy versions of their former allies with them nowhere in sight.
