The Good, The Bad, and What The?: Ajay Ghale from Far Cry 4



Welcome to this week’s article of The Good, Bad, and What The?, where we took a good, long look at characters in movies, video games, anime, and books and put them on the judgement table to see if they are worthy to be in their respective stories. I strongly believe that well developed characters are more important than anything else in a good story, so I always judge them hard. At the end of every character’s evaluation I will give them one of four ratings: Good, for those characters that are developed and deserve their place in the story, Bad, for those characters that have no place being made or interacting with anyone else in the story, What The for the characters I just can’t figure out, and then the characters who are dull as dishwasher will get the rating of Sack of Potatoes. Today on the judgement table, Ajay Ghale: the protagonist of “Far Cry 4.”


Much like in the previous game “Far Cry 3”, you are in a strange remote part of the world. In the third game, it was an island. This time, it is the Himalayan Mountains. You play as Ajay Ghale, a 26 year old man who is here in the nation of Kyrat to spread his mother’s ashes on the mountain Lakshmana. When travelling to the mountain, the bus Ajay is in is attacked by the royal army of the tyrant king known as Pagan Min. Pagan had the bus Ajay was in attacked because he wanted to see Ajay, as Pagan used to be the lover of Ajay’s mother until she left him for Ajay’s father. Pagan then brings Ajay to his castle and of course, through lucky events, Ajay escapes and is saved by the rebel group known as the Golden Path. Ajay then becomes one of the Golden Path and starts fighting in the rebellion to stop Pagan’s rule.


You’re probably thinking, “That’s an abrupt transition. Is there something missing here?” Oh no; that is actually how the beginning goes. Ajay goes from wanting to just spread his mother’s ashes to now fighting against an insane king to save the country of Kyrat. The only reasoning they give is that Ajay’s father was the previous great leader of the Golden Path so they want Ajay to just follow in his footsteps. The problem here is that Ajay just agrees 100% to start murdering dudes for the glory of freedom despite having never picked up a gun. Ajay says one or two lines like “I just want to spread my mom’s ashes, not fight”. Then the Golden Path leaders basically say “You got this man!” Ajay just agrees after that, like “Alright, sure, whatever”. It makes no sense at all. Normal people would try arguing a little harder than that, saying something along the lines of “I don’t want to murder people” or “I can’t use a gun”. But no; Ajay just says screw it and agrees to go fight and die for the great Kyrat rebellion. He gives so little of a damn that it blows my mind. How can this guy who happens to be the son of a great father, who he never knew by the way, just decide that freeing the entire nation is just as reasonable as going to spread some ashes? Once you’re an hour or two into the game, Ajay doesn’t even mention the ashes. He’s just like, “Eh. Busy freeing an entire country”. The difference between these two objectives seems just a tad bit large, don’t you think? I mean, this is just me, but if someone told me I should be at the forefront of freeing an entire country just because my dad did it years ago, I wouldn’t be super gung ho about it. Well, maybe Ajay was a fighter or had done something along the lines of combat before instead of being a random guy like Jason in “Far Cry 3”, right? Pffffft. Nope.


Much like Jason, Ajay is just a young man who got put in a bad spot and suddenly became Rambo. In “Far Cry 3”, they tried to make it seem like Jason wasn’t very comfortable with the whole thing at the beginning of the game. They tried to make it so Jason looked a little green, but in the end they failed this objective pretty badly. With Ajay, they didn’t even try. They didn’t say he had training, or try to make him look green or anything along those lines. Ajay is an absolute professional at everything for no reason! He has god-like gun wielding ability, can grapple like an olympic climber, murder guys with a knife like a ninja, fly a hang glider like a bird…the list goes on. I understand that you are controlling this guy, but if you aren’t gonna give some kind of reason behind why he is Rambo, then don’t try to be serious about everything else. Possibly the worst part about his entire character, though, is his personality; or complete lack thereof, should I say.


Ajay meets a lot of weird people and interesting characters who have some compelling personalities. Ajay, however, is about as entertaining as a rotting log. He barely has any commentary on anything that occurs or is said. Someone tells him to go blow up an entire fort and Ajay just says “Okay, I’ll take care of it”. He speaks so little. When he does, it’s like he just does not give a damn about anything at all. He shoots dudes, does what he is told, and that is basically it. He doesn’t even hit on the female lead, who I assumed was going to be the love interest, but at this point I’m not too sure. Ajay is basically (to quote my favorite YouTuber, TotalBiscuit) a pair of pants. Ajay is meant to be a pair of pants you put on so you, as the player, can live through the great adventures in this game.

Ajay’s verdict is 110% Sack of Potatoes. He has no problem with just agreeing to be a Rambo warrior of freedom and murdering tons of “bad guys”. He barely says anything about any situation or what is going on around him. He has basically superhuman skill for absolutely no reason other than “cause video games,” and to top it all off, he is literally just a pair of super awesome battle pants you put on to blow stuff up. They would have been better off with just a completely storyless and silent protagonist rather than this guy. As for a recommendation, if you liked “Far Cry 3”, you will probably be down with “Far Cry 4”. If you didn’t like it, then don’t play “Far Cry 4″. Other then that, I don’t know. I have little care for this series beyond just watching playthroughs.