The Silencer: hero or antihero?

How do you see the Silencer? Since the Silencer never speaks we never know his TRUE motivation of switching sides. Is he disgusted by the WEC in general to a point where he honestly believes he needs to fight to get rid of the WEC to make the world a better place (ie the cause of the Resistance)? Or is he just pissed that they tried to kill him and killed his squad and is out for revenge (at least initially).

The latter case would make him an antihero, fighting the proper cause for the wrong reasons. Like Han Solo at the beginning of the Star Wars. He aids the cause of the Rebellion but is a hired gun and is initially in it for the money.

One nice part about the Crusader storyline...it's totally up to us how we see the Captain. I'm a fan of a bit darker storylines and less knight-in-shining-armour routine. I'd like to think the Captain is more in it for revenge than anything else. He realises the WEC is not all that great, he did disobey and order when he got morally conflicted. But I'm not sure his switch to the Resistance was an ideological one, at least not in the beginning. After all, Vittek and Zurovec were debating what to do when they get back, not discussing how best they could leave the WEC or even defect. Of course, since the Captain doesn't speak, he could have had plans of his own. But I think he would be going along with his squad mates. A bond between soldiers in a squad can be tighter than any other bond of loyalty.

He sees his squad mates (friends?) gunned down and the Vetron trying to take him out as well. Of course that's a point when you say "Bugger of WEC, I'm no longer fighting for you. You killed my friends, you will pay."

He knows he can't return in any case. They just tried to kill him, back home a firing squad will be waiting. And since he wants revenge on the WEC, possibly dismantling it in the process as he wants to make everyone pay in the system that killed his friends, joining the Resistance seems the only logical thing to do. Even a Silencer can't take on the entire WEC by himself. He still needs support in terms of supply and movement (someone to hack telepads and stuff).

But I think this is up to everyone himself how to view this. You could try to alter your gameplay in how you see him. Is he a noble hero? Then he will try to avoid civilian casualties if possible, only consciously kill them when they get in his way, going for alarm pads for instance. Or is he just so disgusted by the WEC and out for revenge that he goes and guns down everything in his path?

I've started to see the Captain a bit of antihero. He probably knew the WEC wasn't all to kosher but only defected when they actually came after him. Whether or not he eventually truly took up the cause of the Resistance I don't know, but I do like to think he eventually did. Echo Sector became his new home and the people there his friends and family...and now they are gone. I think by that point anyone might be ready to say "OK, this is no longer about just revenge, the world really needs to change."
 
I always believed that since there's no proof that Silencer, while on a mission(s), saw anything that would contradict the WEC propaganda that he's been fed with since his early childhood, he was simply rational and joined the resistance as he had nowhere else to go. There are two main reasons I believe so:

1. Seeing how much is everything under the WEC control the Silencer knew that they would hunt him down and eventually kill him. To make things worse, not just WEC, but the Resistance is also very "sensitive" to WEC-labeled soldiers in a red suit, so he had basically nothing to lose by going over to the Resistance. Aside from that, I don't think Captain could just "blend in" with civilian population (even without his bright red suit) as he was removed from society while he was still a child and bred to not have a real social life.

2. The only way he could take on the WEC, and eventually revenge the death of his squadmates, was by joining the Resistance.

Now, because of his "fatal flow" (how Dr. Hoffman described his lack of ultimate loyalty to the WEC) I believe Captain accepted the cause that the Resistance is fighting for and he TRULY became one of them ( a "full-time member" so to speak). I mean, after doing certain missions, seeing things, and then seeing what WEC NEWS was saying (lying) about the actions of the Resistance, it is safe to say that he realized what's really going on in the world and who are the real bad guys.

But,

the best part is, as you said, that it comes down to the player to interpret motives and immerse into the role of the Silencer. I think many of us who played the series really wanted to see WEC and Draygan burn not because we wanted to avenge our fellow Silencers, but because we accepted that WEC is bad in the every sense of the word.

So, to answer your question, I think that Captain initially "fought the proper cause for the wrong reasons", but eventually "saw the light" and started fighting the WEC because he believed he's doing the right thing.
 
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