“Jason is a Cuckold” – We Need to Talk About the Grifters Targeting GTA 6

Most of the discourse around the GTA 6 Extended Look has been very positive. Compared to just about any other game in history, GTA 6 looks absolutely amazing. But the modern internet has become an incredibly toxic place, with too many creators and social media users feeding off the rage of others.

I have become used to it, and it’s surprisingly easy to ignore if you assume that these are just deeply unhappy people looking to project their frustrations onto others, and that we shouldn’t take it personally. But the latest round of critical discourse around Jason is so laughable that I just had to say something about it.

Like almost everything you see on the internet, this is an opinion, so remember that as you read.

Jason is a Softie Cuckold

Alright, I used “softie” instead of the word I’ve heard floated around, simply out of respect for you, dear reader. But I had the very unfortunate experience of watching a particular video on the subject. This video pointed to the fact that Lucia buys clothes for Jason as a sure sign that he is not a real man, and that this story is just “feminist slop.”

Newsletter Free

The Vice Gazette

GTA 6 news, leaks and rumours — rounded up and sent to your inbox. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

• Release-date and trailer news the moment it lands
• Leaks and rumours, with our credibility rating attached
• Map, character and vehicle deep-dives from the wiki

You’re on the list.

The next edition of The Vice Gazette will land in your inbox.

Get the full GTA 6 Bible experience

Daily game streaks, comments, and your rumour votes saved across devices.

Create a free account

Email address

Subscribe Subscribing…

By subscribing you agree to receive The Vice Gazette by email. Unsubscribe any time. See our Privacy Policy.

It then goes on to argue that Lucia “bosses him around” and that no man has ever asked his partner what they were going to wear, as Jason did in the Extended Look. Another popular content creator who reacted to this video then went on to say that no guy knows what sequins are.

I will tackle these points in a minute, but let’s cover a few more of the arguments brought up in the video, shall we?

Jason and Lucia’s relationship is then compared to Floyd and Debra from GTA 5, which was an incredibly toxic relationship in which Debra showed zero respect for Floyd. This is then used as proof that Rockstar used to make fun of this sort of thing and now embraces it.

The video yammers on, mostly showcasing the content creator’s incredibly broken view on relationships, and projecting this onto Rockstar as proof that, I suppose, a group of “woke feminists” wrote GTA 6.

This is probably the dumbest thing I’ve heard all year, and I’m sure we’ll learn even more. But before I get into how we deal with it and what each of us can do to take better care of our own mental health, let me show you the stupidity of these arguments.

A Relationship is an Extremely Complex Mechanism

Okay, the first thing to understand here is that your relationship with your spouse won’t be the same as my relationship with my spouse. Every single person has different specific likes, dislikes, personality, expectations, etc. etc.

This all weighs into our different relationships. Furthermore, relationships evolve over time. A man once told me in my youth that a relationship is like rubbing two stones together. It’s rough and difficult at first, but over time it gets easier as the stones take each other’s form.

Yeah, I thought it was a dumb analogy back then, but I was only 16. Now, I can see that that is absolutely true. And from my perspective, having been mostly happily married for 14 years, Jason and Lucia’s relationship looks really solid. They show each other plenty of mutual respect throughout the Extended Look. But this is only a small snippet of the relationship, and given how complex and nuanced these things can be, there will be plenty more to learn as we start to actually play GTA 6.

So the idea that Lucia bosses Jason around is built on one scene that completely falls flat once you look at the idea of a relationship from a rational, experienced perspective, as I have done above. Also, no guy knows what sequins are? Incorrect.

Any guy who respects his wife or girlfriend enough to listen to them when they talk (the key to a happy marriage, by the way), and whose partner likes sequins, will know what sequins are. I’ve spoken to several men over the last few days about this, and do you know how many didn’t know what sequins were? One, and he was the youngest of those I spoke with.

So, if you rephrase it to say that no guy who is totally inexperienced with women will know what sequins are, then I agree. And Jason asking Lucia what she might wear does two things. First, it shows that Jason has a real interest in Lucia, a valuable trait of any man looking to keep his partner. Second, it potentially shows that Jason is a little nervous about this meeting – but that’s only if he doesn’t normally ask about Lucia’s dress plans. Unfortunately, those making these videos are too obsessed with finding something to hate to actually catch these subtle story devices.

Debra was an outright abusive spouse who did make a cuckold of poor Floyd, and if you can show me one take from the trailer where Lucia abuses Jason, I’ll buy you a copy of GTA 6. It simply isn’t there, and it’s a brain-dead argument. Why didn’t they compare Jason and Lucia to Michael and Amanda? If you’ll remember, Michael’s wife is also cheating on him with his tennis coach.

Easy. Because it doesn’t quite fit their narrative.

Now, we can understand, with a few very rational arguments, that this guy’s worldview is the problem. I mean, he even blames the jews at some point. He talks and acts like an insecure boy who has never met a woman before, and with almost a million views, I’m really worried about this guy’s influence on young, mouldable men.

I’ll get into what you can do to immunize yourself from idiots like these in a minute, but first, here’s how people like this are reading Jason wrong.

The Real Jason is Already a Very Good Character

I remember a time when a certain GTA protagonist had serious underlying trauma. He had a good heart, treated others with respect where due, but was also ruthless towards his enemies. He was a good guy, trapped into a life of crime by the opportunities presented him, and haunted by the traumas of war.

I speak, of course, of Niko Bellic, my favorite protagonist in the GTA universe. Now, imagine, for a second, if GTA 4 — celebrated by this content creator, by the way — were made today. He would probably show you why GTA 4 celebrated illegal immigration and that no man would put up with Roman’s antics.

He would tell you that Niko was a cuckold for buying a girl a certain substance instead of just kicking her to the curb and leaving her to the streets.

Jason has many similarities to Niko. They call Jason a sad boy; they make fun of the fact that he’s seen without a shirt, showing off a muscular body (that second one is just insecurity talking). From these takes, it’s pretty clear they’ve never dealt with a traumatised man before. And they completely forgot who Niko Bellic is.

Jason has some deep shadows beyond those eyes of his. We’re dealing with a complex character here, who I think is just barely holding it together. He’s one snap away from becoming Trevor.

He also comes across as self-assured, despite his past in the military and the things he must’ve seen. I already notice many layers to both Jason and Lucia, but if you’re looking at the Extended Look, nitpicking a reason to hate GTA 6, then you’ll miss these things, and you might miss out on one of the best stories to ever come out of Rockstar.

So how do we shield ourselves against these vile takes that, just because they hate everything, want everyone around them to become filled with hate, too?

It’s Called Critical Thinking

When faced with a new opinion, many are too quick to accept it — especially if it aligns with their own values. We all need to learn to pause in this situation. To analyze this new opinion and decide if it is valuable or not. Most people have this power; they just need to use it.

Think about why these people, both the extreme views on the right and left, are doing what they do. Rage has become currency on the internet. The more controversial your take, the more clicks you’ll garner, the more ad revenue you’ll get. It’s to the point where you can’t even tell if someone is being genuine to their values or just trying to get your clicks and your angry comments so they can buy more useless stuff, or potentially even fund their purchase of a certain console and the new GTA 6.

We need to always be aware of the motivations of those around us. Understanding that everyone’s trying to accomplish some goal can really help to insulate yourself against a lot of the trash online.

It sounds to me like these people want Jason to be a domineering A-hole, with Lucia being a meek little lamb (despite being a Latina fighter – remember Cataline from San Andreas?) who stays in the kitchen and makes sandwiches, and bows down to Jason’s every whim and wish, or she gets a beating. For some reason, a balanced, mutually respectful relationship is some sort of taboo in this guy’s poisoned mind.

I hope you don’t need me to tell you that that’s not okay, and this sort of vile rhetoric simply has no place if we want to see more healthy, lasting relationships.

So, the next time you see a politically charged video hating on something, either ignore it and save yourself the unpleasantness, or think critically about the things it tells you.

Don’t let them ruin what could very well be the best game we ever get out of Rockstar.

And, of course, if you’d like to discuss this further, constructively, the comments are always open.

Disclaimer: If things like this affect you negatively too often, I can highly recommend seeing a qualified and recommended psychologist. I’ve seen a few to try help with various problems, including trauma and early losses of loved ones, and while some didn’t help at all, others did me a world of good. Seeing a good psychologist can help build a healthier worldview, improve on your flaws, and become a stronger, more resilient person. It is not a sign of weakness, but a reasonable path to better understanding yourself and the world around you, and I speak from personal experience.