GTAV Fan Theory: Michael is Claude

Fan theories for GTA are a dime a dozen. With such a vast universe portrayed across all GTAs it’s inevitable that someone out there in the interweb will eventually come up with a theory that, while it may seem absurd on the surface, starts making sense the more you think about it. One such over the top, yet possible theory has surfaced recently pertaining to one of the three protagonists from GTAV. Micheal (GTAV) may actually be Claude from GTAIII. Dismiss this all you want but the ‘evidence’ is there to support it.

Posted over at the Neoseeker.com forums by ‘Tommy Vercetti’, this theory is one that holds more weight than you’d perhaps expect.

First a bit of back story on the silent protagonist Claude. There are spoilers for both Grand Theft Auto 3 and San Andreas.

Back in San Andreas, we get a brief glimpse of Claude as Catalina’s lover. The year is 1992 (9 years prior to the Claude that we play in GTAIII), and at this point Claude is just a regular street racer. Racing is his livelihood but when he loses a race to CJ, he transfers ownership of his San Fiero garage, packs up and moves to the East Coast with his crazy lover Catalina.  It’s here where he becomes a bank robber that will eventually see him shoot up the criminal ladder in GTAIII.

Fast forward to 2001. Claude and Catalina take on a heist which ultimately sees Catalina double-crossing Claude, shooting him and leaving him for dead. Once Claude gets free of the cops the Leone Mafia take him in, start giving him some odd jobs and eventually he gets treated as one of their own. He’s a made man now, enjoying the life of crime amongst his new family under the head of Salvatore Leone. However, when Salvatore asks him to pick up his wife from a party, a romance then develops between Claude and Maria.  Over time, Salvatore becomes suspicious of the relationship between the two and eventually puts a hit out on Claude. Maria warns Claude about the hit, and they both escape to Staunton Island. Catalina kidnaps Maria, and after a massive shootout in ShoreSide Vale, Claude finally ends Catalina’s life.  The screen fades to black, and we hear a gunshot. Did Maria shoot Claude? Did Claude shoot Maria? Did anyone die? Nobody knows, and Rockstar has left it wide open to interpretation.

 That’s the last we see of Claude in the GTA timeline, which gives fans a lot to speculate on.

During his time in crime, he meets up with pilot Trevor. Perhaps for another heist or perhaps he just gets introduced to him through his many connections. As time goes by, and with Claude not getting any younger, he decides to settle down and lead a normal life. With his deep knowledge of the crime world, and thanks to his past with the Leone Mafia and the Yakuza, Claude manages to get himself a job at the FIB. He plays a big part in the disbanding of a big crime ring and gets put into Witness Protection and relocated to Los Santos. To blend in, he marries a gold digger from Vinewood and eventually fathers two children.

Convinced yet? I agree it’s a bit far fetched, but the evidence provided goes a long way to sway even the most sceptical of fans.

First off, we know Catalina shot Claude in GTAIII. She shot him point blank in the chest and left him hospitalized. One of the trailers for GTAV shows Michael resting barechested on a bed with a scar clearly visible on his chest.

As further evidence Tommy rightfully points out a quote from Michael’s trailer:

Back in town, baby!!

Claude was in San Andreas (during the racing mission referred to earlier) and then he moved to Liberty City to start his new life of crime. So the ‘Back in town, baby’ line may hold some significance.

In the most recent Official Trailer, released yesterday, Michael’s argument with Trevor reveals that Trevor has been torturing Michael about “events that happened over a decade ago”. GTAV is set in 2013, whereas GTAIII is in 2001. Just over a decade apart. This suggests both characters met each other soon after the events of GTAIII.

Which brings us to the most obvious comparison. The appearance of both characters. Do they even look similar? Could Michael from GTAV be Claude from GTAIII? Well here’s a side by side comparison.

Allowing for the advancement of technology, higher polygon count and HD graphics. I think it’s fair to say there may be some truth to this theory.

Full credit for this fan theory goes to Tommy Vercetti from the Neoseeker GTAV forum.