User:Haleth/Pagan Min (Far Cry)

Pagan Min
Far Cry character
First appearance	Far Cry 4 (2014)
Created by	Ubisoft
Portrayed by	Troy Baker
In-universe information
Full name	Gang Min
Occupation	Ruler of Kyrat
Affiliation	Kyrat
Origin	Hong Kong

Pagan Min is a character from Ubisoft's Far Cry video game franchise. He first appears in the 2014 title, Far Cry 4, and was extensively featured in promotional material for the game. In Far Cry 4, he is a foreign interloper who usurped the rule of Kyrat, a fictional Himalayan country, following a protracted series of civil wars. As the self-styled monarch of Kyrat, Pagan Min is opposed by the Golden Path, a rebel movement fighting to liberate Kyrat from Min's rule.

Like Vaas Montenegro, a villainous character from the preceding Far Cry 3, Pagan Min's character arc in the narrative of Far Cry 4 was written to encourage players to think about the path their actions have led them as well as the resulting consequences. Unlike Vaas, Pagan Min presents himself as an eloquent and sophisticated individual. He is portrayed through performance capture by American actor Troy Baker. Baker's audition for Pagan Min, where he improvised dialogue of the character by violently threatening a crew member as if they are another in-game character, impressed the development team so much that he was hired for the role. Baker was given a considerable amount of creative freedom to develop the Pagan Min's personality.

The character initially attracted controversy and accusations of racist imagery following the unveiling of the game's cover art in mid-2014, which shows the light-skinned Pagan Min resting his hand on a dark-skinned individual. The character has received a generally positive reception following the release of Far Cry 4, with critics lauding Pagan Min as a memorable antagonist and an essential element of the Far Cry franchise's identity with its emphasis on villainous characters.

Character overview

Pagan Min is presented as a confident and outwardly charming character, who is also brash and prone to violent outbursts. According to the character's backstory disclosed by Ubisoft staff, Pagan Min is not the character's birth name: within series lore, he is originally Gang Min, the son of a mid-level drug trafficking crime boss based in Hong Kong. Min worked for his father as he grew up, but conflict would escalate between father and son: the ambitious Min grew to resent his father as well as his contemporaries as "dinosaurs" or obsolete relics of the past, and on a personal level he is ostracized by his father due to his flamboyant nature and mixed heritage, a source of shame among the city-state's criminal elite.

According to Far Cry 4 narrative director Mark Thompson, Min took the name of a historical Burmese king from the 19th century after the death of his father, because he did not want to say that he killed his own father, but named himself after the man who did. Min changed the pronunciation to be western to assert his identity as unique. He then assumed control of his family’s modest fortunes to acquire considerable assets and assemble a small private army to make a grab for power and dominance within the Golden Triangle, a geographical location between Myanmar, Laos and Thailand known for being one of the world’s largest regions of opium production. Min's downfall came when his father's allies attempted to assassinate him, forcing him to flee to Kyrat and seek refuge there while it was in the midst of a civil war. Driven by delusions of grandeur and hubris, a 21-year-old Pagan Min participated in the conflict on the arrogant belief that he could save the country from its status as a failed state, and ended up usurping the throne of Kyrat. He rules Kyrat through a "toxic mixture of personal charm, relentless propaganda, criminal sponsorship, and brutality". Pagan Min consistently wears a brightly colored suit, variously described as pink or magenta, as a homage to his unnamed mother, who was a British expatriate in Hong Kong.

Concept and design

Designed by the development team at Ubisoft Montreal, Pagan Min is envisioned to be be a surprising character who is not what he seems at first. The team originally wanted to design a villain that had a "punk-rock mentality" and is representative of "a new generation of criminal who would piss off his father". A character concept that was proposed early in development involved an eccentric military dictator styled after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who would award himself fake ribbons as prizes. The team ultimately abandoned the idea as they felt that the visual style they had conceived for the character was "cool" but lacked originality. The final version of Pagan Min is a combination of ideas inspired by Takeshi Kitano's character from Brother, and Kakihara, a character from Ichi the Killer. A common trait shared by both of the aforementioned characters are the vibrant colored suits they wear, that helped them stand out from the crowd visually. This inspired the team's concept artists to give Min a bright pink suit as his signature outfit, which also motivated Thompson and the game's writers to come up with a more interesting backstory for Min, as they realized that it did not measure up to the interesting visuals developed for the character by the game's artists. Another source of inspiration for Pagan Min are "charismatic but unstable warlords" like the eccentric Liberian warlord Joshua Milton Blahyi, otherwise known as "General Butt Naked". This is based on the notion that extreme characters like Pagan Min seem sane within their universe, but when taken out of context and placed in the real world, they seem very insane.

In comparison to Vaas Montenegro, a villainous character whose popularity helped set the tone of Far Cry as a video game franchise that emphasizes its antagonists as a key aspect of its identity, game director Patrik Méthé considered Pagan Min to be more subtle, clever, and intelligent then the "raw" Vaas. Producer Dan Hay likens Pagan Min to "that friend that everybody has that is really bad for them, that friend who is super dangerous" due to his charm and intellect. Méthé said the team's goal was to convincingly portray Min as a psychotic but charming villain who could hold the attention of the player through his well-spoken mannerisms. Creative Director of Far Cry 4 Alex Hutchinson felt that Vaas' limited screen time in Far Cry 3 was a missed opportunity as he disappeared from the narrative relatively quickly. He claimed that a consensus from the development team decided that Far Cry 4 should focus on the villain as much as the hero, and so Min became a much bigger part of the game when contrasted with Vaas' role in the preceding title. Pagan Min's backstory as well as that of Kyrat is inspired by the real world history of Nepal, in particular the turbulent years of the Nepalese Civil War and its subsequent transition from a monarchy beset to a republic.

The developers wanted to portray a complex relationship between Pagan Min and the player character, Ajay Ghale. Wanting players to guess Min's intentions and add a layer of mystery to him, Ubisoft staff shared teasers and hints of a past connection between Ajay and him in pre-release interviews about Far Cry 4. Hutchinson said Min is a peacock-like tin-pot dictator who wants power and is driven by selfish desires, but also noted that the player characters of many Far Cry titles are in fact not that different since they impose themselves in the environment and commit to a cause of stopping a murderer by murdering people themselves. In this regard, Min serves as the mirror and a reflection of the player's behavior through his constant questioning of Ajay on why he is in Kyrat and what his intended purpose is, a deliberate approach to have the player question their character's own motivations.

Hutchison acknowledged that it is hard to present a believable villain who does not feel "paper thin or artificial" due to the nature of the video game medium, and so the team opted to give Far Cry 4 a branching narrative with various different endings and alternate moments which is intended to respond to any questions that the player might have. To demonstrate that Ajay's relationship with Min had a degree of flexibility from the very beginning of the game and that he is responsive to any available choices a player could make, the player has the option to make a game-altering decision by choosing to obey Min's instructions or otherwise during its opening sequence. Hutchison wanted to subvert a common notion that video game characters often lie to the player character by ensuring that the decision made by any player who obeys Min's instructions during the opening sequence should be paid off because he is telling the truth.

Portrayal

Troy Baker in 2013. Pagan Min is one of Baker's most notable roles.

"So the way that we prepared: it just happened as we were doing it, not so much trying to get in our heads around who Min is beforehand. We were constantly questioning different ways to do this character and how we can do it better than what we've done in the past."

Troy Baker, "Exploring Far Cry 4's Sadistic, Complicated Villain Pagan Min"

Pagan Min is portrayed by American actor Troy Baker through performance capture. Baker was provided with a script for the audition, but he chose not to follow it. When he noticed a production assistant walked into the audition room partway through a scene, he spontaneously invited the assistant to participate in the scene using Min's voice. Encouraged by the fact that no one else broke character and out of his desire to maintain the visceral atmosphere of a Far Cry game, Baker carried on with the scene and ad-libbed a monologue where he switched from a charming tone to a sadistic one and threatened to cut off the assistant's face. Aware of the growing enthusiasm expressed by the interviewing team members towards his performance by this point, he then made a specific threat to put the remains of her face on his own for a "glorious makeover". The team was so impressed with Baker and his charismatic voice, that they decided to cast him for the role.

Baker credited his previous work and reputation as an actor for Ubisoft's willingness to not only cast him for the role on the basis of his improvised work at the audition, but also to give him a significant amount of creative freedom to develop Pagan Min's personality after his casting is confirmed. Baker's preparations for the character was minimalistic in nature; while he did draw on the length and breadth of his experience as a professional actor up to that point in time, there was also an opportunity to build off the successes of previous games in the franchise by identifying which elements resonated with critics and players. To avoid a common trope of what Baker described as "another mustache-twirling systemic obstacle in the path of the player character", Ubisoft had several discussions with him about delivering a fresh and compelling take character-wise for Pagan Min, while still incorporating the principles that worked for previous games. The team gave Baker an overall idea for the theme, setting, and tone they want to see, but encouraged a collaborative approach where he would continue immersing himself in the game world and provide both positive and negative feedback from his experiences. Although Baker had some parameters set for him, including a specific request that he does not reprise the same style and voice he used for the Joker in 2013's Batman: Arkham Origins, he continued the same improvisational approach used during his audition.

Baker would perform his role as Pagan Min on a motion capture stage which is empty aside from stacked boxes and wooden props, and he would have to visualize other in-game characters and objects in his mind when reciting the character's dialogue. Baker said he would "choose the word antagonist" to describe Pagan Min as he does not believe that he is in fact a villain. In his view, Min is caring and benevolent if somewhat temperamental, and that all he wants to be within the narrative of Far Cry 4 is a good king. The alternative ending presented to the player in the game's opening sequence, which Baker described as a canonical set of events "that still leads to the same point, just a different version of it" if the player just do what Min asks them to do, is an unusual creative decision not found in most games as it effectively flips Ajay's story and he becomes the villain of his own story in Baker's view. Reflecting on the role when speaking to IGN staff, Baker is confident that Pagan Min would come to be regarded as "one of the most memorable villains to ever be in a video game". One moment that stood out to him was the shooting of the opening cutscene, specifically a line uttered by Pagan Min as he gets up to a helicopter, because he could visualize all of its elements in vivid detail at the time.

Appearances

Far Cry 4

Pagan Min first appears after arriving in a helicopter within the first few minutes of Far Cry 4. He confronts one of his own men when he discovers that Ajay Ghale had been detained and harassed at a checkpoint after attempting to enter Kyrat in a bus. Min brutally murders the man using a ball-point pen, but then turns on a smile in almost an instant for a selfie opportunity with Ajay. Calling Ajay his "guest of honor", he brings him back to his palace and offers him a meal of crab rangoon while talking enthusiastically about Ajay's deceased mother, whose ashes is carried by Ajay in an urn. He abruptly leaves after a subordinate asks for his presence to deal with rebel forces, but not before telling Ajay to wait at the table until he returns. If the player obeys Min's instructions to wait at the dinner table until he returns, the game will end with Ajay enjoying a peaceful meal with Min. Otherwise, Ajay escapes from the palace and gets involved with the Golden Path, an armed Kyrati rebel movement which opposes Pagan Min's rule.

Pagan Min is depicted as omnipresent throughout Far Cry 4, through loudspeaker monologues or in the form of an effigy around Kyrat, without being personally visible. Min's speeches gradually reveal who he is and where he came from, as well as the history of Kyrat and why Ajay is in the country. During one skirmish, Ajay assassinates who he believes to be Pagan Min, but the individual turns out to be a body double. By the end of the narrative, the player's choices as Ajay determines Kyrat's future, and specifically whether Pagan Min lives or dies.

Other appearances

Pagan Min will make his first appearance as a playable character in Season Pass DLC for the 2021 title Far Cry 6. He appears in a 2021 tie-in comic series called Far Cry: Rite of Passage published by Dark Horse Comics, which sees Far Cry 6 villain Antón Castillo recounting cautionary tales to his son Diego, one of which involve an account of Pagn Min backstory. Castillo retold the story of the manner in which Pagan Min rose to power after taking control of his father's criminal organization, and how he was forced to flee Hong Kong for Kyrat when the organization lost structure and eventually turned on him.

A noteworthy fan mod for Civilization V adds the nation of Kyrat, led by Pagan Min as its elder, as a playable faction.

Promotion and merchandise

Ubisoft released promotional trailers and video interviews which featured Pagan Min to promote Far Cry 4. A special Kyrat Edition for Far Cry 4 includes a figurine of Pagan Min, a collector's box, a poster, a journal, a map of Kyrat, and the missions from the Limited Edition.

Reception and controversy

Pagan Min's depiction on the cover art of Far Cry 4 following its initial reveal provoked controversy, particularly with commentators on social media who denounced the image of a blonde light-skinned man dominating a kneeling dark-skinned man as racist. Some commentators as well as Mark Thompson himself suggested that this was partly due to disapproval in response to the storyline of Far Cry 3, which many interpreted to be a white savior narrative. Hutchinson later responded and clarified by saying that Pagan Min is not a white person, and that the other individual depicted is not the game's protagonist. Hutchinson added that the reaction of the community regarding the cover art was "uncomfortable". Nathan Grayson from Kotaku criticized Ubisoft's handling of the public outcry for its failure to communicate information about Pagan Min clearly and in a timely manner with the general public, and cited the instance as an example of the video game medium having difficulty coming into its own as a culturally powerful force. Speculation also began circulating on the internet following a gameplay demonstration showcase at E3 2014 that Pagan Min is in fact the father of Ajay, though Hutchinson debunked rumors of the supposed plot twist not long afterwards.

Pagan Min's reception following the launch of Far Cry 4 was generally positive, with many critics praising Baker for his memorable performance as the character. Baker received a nomination from BAFTA for the Best Performer award at the 11th British Academy Video Games Awards for his work as Pagan Min. Chris Carter from Destructoid lauded Pagan Min's presence, as he takes the spotlight every time he appears in the game. On the other hand, Steven Burns from Videogamer.com said Min's minimal appearances throughout the story of Far Cry 4 is an important contribution to its narrative success. Dale Driver from IGN said Pagan Min, like Vaas as well as Joseph Seed from Far Cry 5 and its direct sequel Far Cry: New Dawn, have "all easily earned their place in the bad guy hall of fame". Driver noted that while Pagan Min is not nearly as beloved as Vaas, he still received widespread praise from critics ad fans, and is representative of a trend where the role of the villain has become increasingly important to the identity of the Far Cry series. Polygon ranked Pagan Min among the best video game characters of the 2010s, with Colin Campbell praising him as the most "colorful and disturbing" of the psychotic, charismatic villains the Far Cry series is known for. On the other hand, Ian Walker felt that while Min is embellished with an "aristocratic flair that added a layer of charisma to the menace", the character never quite lived up to Vaas.