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The official Xbox Twitter account is opening old Gears of War 2 wounds as of late, it would seem. Recently, the account posted a reference to one of the most gut-wrenching moments in the entire game, and the design director, Cliff Bleszinski, responded with a short and succinct "Fire the intern."Namely, Bleszinski got angry about the Gears of War 2 tweet because it was making light of the state in which the game's main sidekick, Dominic Santiago, finds his wife. As fans of the old Xbox classic will know, Dom ends up having to euthanize Maria due to her being tortured and severely catatonic as a result of being one of the humans that were initially enslaved by the Locust Horde.As it turns out, while the in-game situation was heavy enough, Bleszinski was making biting real-world commentary with what is undoubtedly one of the saddest moments in Gears of War. Specifically, Gears of War 2 was making a point about Terri Schiavo, a woman who suffered massive brain damage caused by going into cardiac arrest at the age of 26. Schiavo was successfully resuscitated but ended up in an irreversible persistent vegetative state, with her husband and her parents arguing whether she should, or should not be euthanized to ease her suffering.
The legal battle surrounding Terri Schiavo was long and arduous, and it would take over 15 years before her husband would be allowed to stop enforcing the prolonging of Schiavo's vegetative state. Bleszinski claims that one of the greatest and most hard-hitting moments in Gears of War was always about "love and right to death," explaining his reaction to the original Xbox tweet.
What's particularly surprising is that the discussion didn't stop following Bleszinski's comment. Both the official Xbox Twitter account and the tangential Xbox Ambassadors account continued commenting on the matter in a joking fashion, with Bleszinski exclaiming that "this shit is corny." Though the next Gears of War game is years away, according to rumors, this back-and-forth may well sour things up for some fans of the IP.
Though there's no Gears of War 2 remaster coming, after all, Bleszinski's explanation of the situation between Dominic and Maria, and presents it in a new light. As other Twitter users have mentioned, virtually nobody had connected the Schiavo case with Gears of War 2's Maria, and many people are perturbed by the reveal.
Gears of War 2 is available exclusively for Xbox 360.
