Legion Reinvents… Jesus?

This column is a reprint from Unwinnable Monthly #190. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price.

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Finding digital grace.

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I knew we’d get here eventually. How do I unpack the mess that is Bioshock Infinite? That is a great question. Let me think – Oh hey, who left this TV on? Oh is that Legion, directed by Rudi Berden? Hey, I’ve got some thoughts on it! *brushes away pile of games*

Spoilers For Legion Ahead

For those unfamiliar, Legion is a proper hot mess of a Biblical Epic (Yes! An actual Biblical Epic!) with some really twisted shit. Some of it works incredibly well as a horror story. Seriously, that possessed kid with the knife will haunt your dreams. And that damn ice cream truck. That… damn… ice cream truck… Yet it also actually tries to grapple with theological horror in some interesting, if not always precise, ways. It both is and isn’t a story of the apocalypse, and weaves a ton of different Biblical stories and apocrypha together.

It’s framed at first as God just being done with humanity’s bullshit, and the angels are so ready to tear us apart. Well, that is, save for the Archangel Michael, who goes rogue, gives up his wings and becomes discount Kyle Reese. Yes, this is basically a Terminator movie where Heaven is Skynet. And also the Agents from The Matrix, able to possess the “weakest” of humanity. They outright say at one point that the plan is to turn the weak on the strong, which is a helluva nasty turn on “the least shall become the most, and the most shall become the least”, lemme tell ya!

Michael reveals that the angels unleashed on the earth have gone… wrong. They’ve become the “dogs of heaven,” absolutely loathing humanity’s wickedness. Yet he reflects on the parts of humanity that give him hope, like our audience surrogate, Jeep. Yes, that is actually his name. Jeep is just a kind hearted young man who tries his best, doesn’t let the world drag him down and cares for those that most of society casts off as nothing. He’s loving, doesn’t judge and is slow to violence. Alongside him is Claire, the mother of a new messiah. She’s a burnt out, self-loathing woman who almost aborted her pregnancy that resulted from a one-night stand, yet she’s not presented as this horrific object of ridicule. If anything, she’s looked upon with pity at how this world has harrowed her.

And as they and their array of (surprisingly well developed) redshirts fend off waves of the possessed, it all culminates in Michael’s brother Gabriel coming knocking, with divine weaponry in hand. And he kills Michael. He almost comes around to Michael’s way of thinking, but insists that God’s order must be followed. Yet minutes later, when Gabriel has got Jeep and Claire cornered, Michael is brought back to life by God. Why? Because, as Michael puts it, “You gave Him what He asked. I gave Him what He needed.” This parallels Jeep’s own journey with his father, who lost his faith and became a bitter divorcee, but over time Jeep brings him back into striving to have hope again.

Furious, Gabriel attacks, but in the end, Michael turns the other cheek and spares him. Proving Michael’s point, Gabriel admits he wouldn’t have shown such mercy. “I know,” Michael answers, “that’s why you failed Him.” And Gabriel flies off, furious.

If this story sounds at all familiar? Well, that’s because they essentially remixed The New Testament. For the unfamiliar: the New Testament’s whole point is Jesus. Jesus is, functionally, the Christian God in human form. He puts Himself in our shoes to see for Himself if humanity is just fundamentally broken or if it’s just shitty circumstances and we need to be cut a break. And it’s a rough journey – for every heartening story, there’s an immense struggle. It’s to the point that right before Jesus gets betrayed by Judas that God even offers Jesus an out because He does not want to see what’s coming next. Except Jesus insists on seeing it through, recognizing the inherent worth of humanity despite everything that’s gone wrong.

Legion rearranges things so that it’s Michael who dies and comes back the second time round. The existence of Christian iconography and terminology indicates that Jesus did happen in this universe, but for some reason Michael’s substituting for Him here? Theologically, it’s a big question mark, but I think I understand the intention. It’s to communicate how trying to fulfill God’s will in a malicious, hateful ways is the opposite of what’s actually intended. The allegory is certainly blunt, but sometimes you have to be blunt. In service to a broader message, I can understand bending the underpinning theological logic here. As I wrote before – Biblical Epics are messy.

The thing is, though, reinventing Jesus is in of itself a very awkward situation. I get why it’s gnarlier to just say your Messiah character is Jesus – that was a big hurdle Rise of the Tomb Raider particularly tip-toed around apprehensively. Yet even if you don’t make your Messiah be Jesus, you can’t exactly ignore Jesus’ presence without raising more questions. Take our previously discussed Dante’s Inferno for instance.

Dante’s whole deal is doing Jesus’ thing of taking on the souls of the damned in Hell to bring them into Heaven. It’s how forgiveness, empathy and healing have been missing from Dante’s world for too long. Right on, totes agree! Yet, the game’s premise only really works if Jesus weren’t a factor in the setting to begin with…except without Jesus you don’t have Emperor Constantine forming the Catholic Church, and without the Catholic Church you don’t have the Crusades, among other things. So, it begs the question: Where exactly has the Holy Son gone off to in these universes?

It’s fascinating, because creators could go the route of the extra legwork of a world without the New Testament, but it would mean fundamentally reworking the entire Western Hemisphere’s history. It’d be a world without Catholicism, or the Protestant Reformation, or Puritan Pilgrims. What spurs the growth of printing presses? The entire dynamics of European politics alone would be massively different. I would actually be curious to see this explored in fiction at some point!

Or you have to explain Jesus’ absence somehow through metaphysical shenanigans – which could actually be a really interesting story hook too! Yet what I keep seeing more often are stories that retread the cliff notes of the New Testament like it didn’t happen. Which is to say, they’re kinda doing to Jesus what Uber did to taxis. Legion at least has the excuse of a very clear allegory of Scripture being wielded with cruelty and malice, of religion letting itself become nothing but a spewing of hate. It’s still weird, but it’s a suspension of disbelief (pun not-intended) in service to the story. Regardless, it’s fascinating, horrifying and well-worth watching.

Now what game were we talking about? *rifles through pile of games* Oh right. Bioshock 2. We’ll get to that one next month!

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Elijah Beahm is an author for Lost in Cult that Unwinnable graciously lets ramble about progressive religion and obscure media. When not consulting on indie games, he can be found on BlueSky and YouTube. He is still waiting for Dead Space 4.