Grand Theft Auto 5took a new approach with its story, but it led to one of the game’s antagonists being severely underutilized. The game had no shortage of villains that set out to make life difficult for the three main characters through the story’s various arcs. However, not all of these villains were treated equally. While many held the gravitas that they should have, there were a few instances where a character managed to miss the mark. In one major case, a significant villain inGrand Theft Auto 5suffered from a lacking presentation during the story.
Havingthree protagonists inGrand Theft Auto 5led to the game working to balance several characters and stories. Each of the protagonists started in different areas of Los Santos, and had their own supporting casts, side missions, and occasionally unique enemies. To the game’s benefit, this led to a lot of content, as well as a solid incentive for players to switch between all three protagonists. Each character having their own bank account, as well as unique collectibles only expanded this. Balancing three lead characters was an unusual experiment for Rockstar, butGTA 5managed to get some mileage out of it.
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Stretch Was Grand Theft Auto 5’s Least Notable Villain
The three protagonist experiment wasn’t without flaws, though.Grand Theft Auto 5’s Story Modebeing split between three characters means that the storytelling itself can be disjointed, with some characters and plot hooks not getting as much emphasis as they could have. The biggest example of this comes in the form of Stretch, one of Franklin’s enemies. Stretch is a gangster who holds disdain for Franklin and Lamar, and the animosity is mutual on Franklin’s end. This feud leads to Stretch attempting to set the two up to be killed, although Franklin thwarts the attempt and the trio get revenge on Stretch in the end.
Stretch’s biggest problem is a major lack of relevance in the story. In theviolent world ofGrand Theft Auto, criminals are everywhere, and the story’s villains need to do something to stand out. Stretch, on the other hand, does barely anything in the game. After his introductory mission, he doesn’t physically appear again until Ending C, although he is talked about by Franklin and Lamar and can be called by Franklin after certain missions. This lack of screentime hurts his reputation despite his and Franklin’s shared animosity, because he never actually builds himself up as a threat to the protagonists.
A look at the game’s other villains reveals where Stretch falls short. Devin Weston and Steve Haines are utterlyvileGrand Theft Autovillainswho commit multiple cruel crimes in addition to constantly displaying their undeservedly smug personalities. In addition, even though Wei Cheng appears about as little as Stretch, he casts a larger shadow thanks to the missions involving him being very tense and unnerving, complete with eerie locations like a graveyard and a meat processing plant. With the game’s other villains finding terrifying ways to make themselves stand out, Stretch ends up feeling like an afterthought in the grand scheme of things.
Despite Stretch’s attempts on Franklin and Lamar’s lives, he’s one of the more forgettable villains in the series. It should say something that inGrand Theft Auto 5’s canon ending, Franklin himself is surprised when Stretch is one of the targets for the group’s final big plan. Of course, while getting rid of Stretch is a good thing for them in the long run, it’s easy to forget about him entirely when compared to Weston, Haines, and Cheng. Stretch may have had the makings of a solid villain, butGrand Theft Auto 5never gave him the opportunity to show it.
Grand Theft Auto 5is available now for PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
