Characters / Saints Row Saints Row 2 Gangs

Saints Row Main Character Index
Original Universe: The Player Character | The Third Street Saints | Saints Row Gangs | Saints Row 2 Gangs | Ultor Corporation | Saints Row: The Third Gangs | STAG | Saints Row: The Third DJs/Radio Hosts | Zin Empire | Legions Of Hell | Other Characters
Other Universes: Agents of Mayhem | Saints Row (2022)

---

Rival gangs who served as antagonists to the Third Street Saints in Saints Row 2

---

The Brotherhood

A group of social outcasts who like tattoos, large trucks, and tribal mullets. They mostly operate down near the Stilwater docks and operate through gunrunning and racketeering. They take pride in their working-class outlaw status and listen to heavy metal.

In General

• Animal Motifs: The symbol for their gang is a tribal wolf that reflects the gang quite well, both in terms of their ruthless tactics and their sense of unity compared to the other two gangs. Brotherhood members will occasionally howl as a battle cry.
• Dumb Muscle: Most of the rank and file, as a reflection of their turf, aren't going to be able to learn the subtle nuances of fraud or the drug trade, so they stick to weapons deals and protection rackets to bring up their money.
• Gang of Hats: The Brotherhood are a mixed Caucasian and Hispanic gang that specialize in arms dealing with protection rackets, prostitution, and drug dealing on the side. Their signature color is red, they drive massive trucks, and they listen to heavy metal. They brand themselves with intricate tattoos, numerous piercings, and tribal haircuts. Usual attire consists of canvas pants, leather boots and vests, tribal belts, and either tank tops or ripped t-shirts. They wield sledgehammers and heavy firearms, and utilize pro wrestling moves in close-quarters combat.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: A few of the gang's mooks wear leather vests, with some females wearing assless chaps.
• Homage: Their gang colors and uniforms are similar to the eponymous gang of The Warriors.
• Hummer Dinger: The Brotherhood use big, tough-looking trucks as their vehicles of choice, and they get progressively larger as you get higher Notoriety with them. Their largest truck is a huge Ford F650-Expy called the Compensator.
• Mighty Glacier:
  • Their vehicle choices. In contrast to the Ronin, they're not likely to win racing competitions anytime soon, and they are't as flashy as the Sons of Samedi's classic lowriders, but they're massive and have plenty of stopping power behind them.
  • Their fighting style is this. Their punches has a slightly slow wind-up time (especially their charged attack), however, this fighting style deals more damage, and their takedowns can be devastating in the right hands.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Their gang colors. Higher ranking members also wear black biker vests and red leather or snakeskin pants, and are covered in large black tribal tattoos.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They have basically the same gang colors as Los Carnales, who also specialized in arms dealing, and Maero was apparently a close friend of Victor Rodriguez; both are The Brutes of their respective games. Brotherhood associate Donnie is a former member of the Westside Rollerz, who, like the Brotherhood, loved automobiles.
• Tattooed Crook: They love getting inked almost as much as they love causing mayhem.
• Weapon Specialization: The Brotherhood wield sledgehammers, GDHC .50 pistols, 12 Gauges, SK9 Threats, K6 Krukovs, pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, and RPGs.
• White Gangbangers: Most of their members are white with hints of Native American fashion, as shown in their hairstyles.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Their takedowns consist of wrestling moves, such as a chokeslam, and backbreaker.

Maero

Maero

"You really think that a couple washed up bangers like you and Gat have a chance against the Brotherhood?"

Played By: Michael Dorn
Appearances: Saints Row 2 | Saints Row IV

The towering, tattooed head of the Brotherhood. He initially meets the Boss to form an alliance, which the Boss swiftly rejects due to Maero's belief that the gang is too weak to have more than a small fraction of power. Following this, the Boss decides to humiliate Maero in any way they can.

---

• Accidental Murder: He didn't know that the car he ran over in his monster truck had his girlfriend locked in its trunk up until the Boss gave him the keys.
• Arc Villain: Of The Brotherhood missions.
• Ambiguously Brown: While it's never brought up, judging by his name, his skin tone and his tribal tattoos, he is possibly of Maori descent.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Maero is a big boy, and he earns his spot on top.
• Badass Boast: Actually gets the Boss to back down from a fight with one of these.
  Boss: Where's your crew?
  Maero: I don't need one.
  Boss: You sure about that? (puts a gun to Maero's temple) I could kill you right now.
  Maero: No. (stands up to reveal his full height) You couldn't.
  • Which foreshadows the fact that the Boss kills him exactly like that at the end of the Brotherhood storyline.
• Barbarian Longhair: The Brotherhood are not the most civilized gangsters, and Maero has the longest hair of them.
• BFG: A minigun, to be specific. He uses it against the Boss after they raid the Brotherhood's hideout.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Out of all the gang leaders in Saints Row 2, Maero is the one that the Boss opts to not just attack, but personally humiliate (scarring him with his favorite pastime, destroying his precious cars, harming and killing his best friends, among other things).
  • In Saints Row IV, if you have him and Keith David as homies at the same time, Keith will tell Maero that it's strange that the Boss has never talked about him. Maero assumes that the Boss must kill so many people that they barely give them any thought at all, but no, they have talked about every one of their vanquished enemies except Maero. Even Donnie got a mention before Maero did.
    Keith: Well, I've heard all about Phillipe Loren, William Sharp and his nephew, and that Mr. Sunshine fellow.
    Maero: You heard about that psychotic witch doctor before me?!
    Keith: Oh, and some mechanic named Donnie.
    Maero: Are you fucking kidding me?!
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Offering 20% to a reformed gang and acting condescending about it would make sense if it was any other gang leader besides the Boss. Maero knows who the Boss and Gat are, as they were Julius' top killers who took down the former gangs who held Stilwater with an iron fist, he should know better than to make an enemy out of the Saints. This becomes worse if the Sons of Samedi or the Ronin have been wiped out before meeting Maero, since the Boss will have publicly proven that they're capable of taking on another gang and winning.
  • To a lesser extent trying to bully Dane Vogel. While it is impressive the first time Maero marches into Vogel's office and demands he uses Ultor lawyers to get his gang out of jail, Vogel is still the ruthless head of corporation and Maero's a jerk with a warehouse, so when Maero tries to intimidate Vogel again Vogel has him escorted out at gunpoint and takes his weapon shipment.
• Cowardice Callout: A villainous version when he's confronting Donnie for planting bombs in the Brotherhood's trucks at the coercion of the Boss. Maero gets so angry that he subjects Donnie to a Neck Lift, and would have strangled him if Jessica didn't remind him that she needs Donnie to fix her car.
  Donnie: I didn't have a choi-!
  Maero: (lifting Donnie by his neck) You had a choice, Donnie! You chose your life over the rest of us!
  Donnie: (gasping for air) I had a gun to my head, man! What was I supposed to do?
  Maero: Have a spine!
• Defiant to the End: When the Boss pins him down and prepares to shoot him, they allow him time for last words. What are his last words? "Go to Hell."
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: In Saints Row IV, Maero is incredulous that the Boss talked about all their other fallen enemies except him. Even Donnie got talked about over him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He loves his girlfriend Jessica, and is both heartbroken and enraged when she becomes a casualty in the war. He also cares for his friend Matt and gets pissed when the Boss cripples him trying to squeeze information out of him.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Gets upset with Jessica when she makes an offensive remark about Carlos, although it's possible he just didn't like her insulting the guys he just invited over to negotiate with.
  • Likewise, despite needing a scrimshaw, Maero absolutely leaves his friend out of the loop, refusing to allow him to get mixed up with the violence and ruining Matt's fame.
  • He's the only gang member to offer a truce, to prevent any violence between the Saints and the Brotherhood. Too bad it was a shitty deal.
• Evil Redhead: Has an auburn mullet to fit his outlaw appearance.
• Evil Sounds Deep: As can be expected, given who voices him.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: "Go to Hell".
• Flipping the Table: He does this to Dane Vogel's desk in order to coerce him into releasing the Brotherhood members imprisoned earlier.
• Gatling Good: Maero uses a minigun in his bossfight.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Gets one in-universe after his death, thanks to Cyrus Temple making him out to be an intimidating but law-abiding monster truck driver in order to demonize the Saints and justify STAG's existence and actions.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The obviously huge guy in the equation.
• Irony: When he meets the Boss he calls them "a has-been with burn scars", which is more or less what Maero, with his face scarred from toxic waste and his gang wiped out, is reduced to by the last level.
• Large and in Charge: Maero towers over everyone he meets and he's not afraid of using his size and strength to get his way. It's also telling that, in a gang that prefers huge, gas-guzzling SUVs, their leader drives a monster truck.
• Jerkass Has a Point: His deal is obviously designed to benefit the Brotherhood first and foremost - but at the start of the game, the Saints are just an escaped burn victim and a couple of their friends, hiding out in an abandoned building with pretty much nothing but the reputation of the original Saints to back them up. At this point, his assessments are entirely correct; the Boss just came out of a years-long coma and hasn't proven they still have what it takes, he doesn't need protection to deal with them, and the Saints are a has-been gang consisting of about three people skating on hopeful dreams, and thinks the Boss should be grateful he's willing to cut them in on anything at all. Of course, if you've done even a few missions of the other storylines, he is far off the bat. Even more so if you've already taken out one or both of the other two gangs, wherein he comes off as a blowhard that didn't watch Channel 6 News often enough when he decided to step to the Saints.
• Made of Iron: During his boss battle, he can take several RPG rounds to the face and only lose a small amount of health. In fact, he has the highest amount of hit points out of all the characters in the game, something like 12,000 - even the Boss has less health if it's maxed out.
• Meaningful Name: In Maori mythology, the Maero are a race of large, arrogant, brutish humanoids.
• Moral Myopia: In one of his audio logs in the fourth game, he thinks that the Saints killing Jessica as retribution for Carlos' death is going too far despite, you know, the Brotherhood killing Carlos in the first place.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When the Boss gives him the keys to Jessica's car, and he finds her body in the trunk.
• Neck Lift: He is really fond of doing this, whether it's to actually make a point or to simply intimidate someone. Just ask Donnie and Dane Vogel.
• Never My Fault: His audio logs in the fourth game show that he accepts no responsibility whatsoever for starting the increasingly brutal Cycle of Revenge between the Saints and the Brotherhood, claiming that the terrible deal he offered the Boss was totally fair and that it was all the Boss's fault for being "too greedy".
• Rasputinian Death: It takes two missions to kill him. First he and the Boss fight on foot, which will involve a lot of bullets or RPG rounds. Then there's a cutscene fight with the Boss which consists of him falling through six floors of cement warehouse, being stabbed with a tattoo needle in the neck, and punched a few times. Then you face him in a second boss fight in his monster truck, and after the truck is destroyed the cutscene shows that he's still alive so the Boss finally finishes him off with a point-blank headshot after kicking him and pistol-whipping him a few times.
• Scars Are Forever: After "Waste Not, Want Not", he has a large burn scar covering half of his face from Boss and Carlos putting radioactive waste in Matt's tattoo ink.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He firmly believes that the Brotherhood is the strongest gang in Stilwater. He goes on believing it even after the Saints start tearing him a new one. If you've already defeated the Ronin and Samedi before him, he only controls the poor southern districts of Stilwater while the Saints now control the other richer districts of the city.
• Tattooed Crook: Numerous tattoos. This turns into a major plot point early in the Brotherhood storyline, after the Saints contaminate his ink with radioactive waste.
• Trauma Conga Line: The Boss delivers several to Maero after their failed deal. Starting off by having Donnie rig his gang's trucks, and then lacing his tattoo with radioactive waste that scars him. After Jessica has Carlos killed, they get back at Maero by making him kill Jessica during his monster truck show, cripple Matt, and kill several gang members Maero pressured Ultor to release, causing Ultor to appropriate his guns shipment. And after the Saints steal the equipment, they attack the Brotherhood's hideout before the Boss finishes him off in a monster truck rally.
• Two-Faced: He was supposed to be getting a wolf tattoo on his left cheek to match the one on his right. Instead, thanks to the Boss contaminating his ink, what he gets is a ton of scar tissue.
• Villain Ball: He makes three big mistakes when he goes to meet the Boss at the start of the Brotherhood storyline. First, he has his shotgun sitting on the bench next to him rather than holding it and lacks any backup in a place perfect for an ambush ("Where's your crew? I could kill you right now."), leaving him at the mercy of the Boss, Badass Boast or not. Then when the trio escape the police, he leads them right back to his hideout and introduces them to his friends. The final nail in the coffin is letting both the Boss and Carlos walk away after they turn down his deal. His girlfriend actually asks if he wants them taken care of right then and there. His response? "No. They'll be dead soon enough."
• Villainous Friendship: According to Luz Avalos, Maero used to be friends with Los Carnales enforcer Victor Rodríguez, before the latter was killed. "It was a tattoo thing." IV reveals that he and Jessica were apparently also on good terms with DJ Veteran Child, despite him being a lieutenant in a rival gang.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The only time he wears a shirt is in the first two Brotherhood missions. Subverted in IV, where he keeps his shirt on the whole time.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Brags about how Carlos "screamed like a bitch when we trussed him up" while fighting the Boss.
• Your Size May Vary: He was freaking huge in 2, but his appearance in IV has him no taller than an average NPC.

Matt

Matt

"You gotta believe me, I just tattoo the gang, they don't fill me in on what they're doing."

Played By: Anthony Pulcini
Appearances: Saints Row 2

The vocalist for the Feed Dogs, tattoo artist, and a good friend of Maero.

---

• Anti-Villain: He is Maero's best friend and a scrimshaw for the Brotherhood. That is it. He even helps keep Maero's temper in check on a regular basis.
• Butt-Monkey: Maero and Jessica finds his musical career going nowhere, a lot of people talk about the Feed Dogs being trash and even the newspaper about the Boss ruining their concert takes a jab at them.
• Fingore: The Boss uses fireworks to damage one of his hands so he can't use a guitar anymore.
• Locked Out of the Loop: His only role within the Brotherhood is tattooing Maero, something he attempts to tell the Boss to no avail.
• Nepotism: Only in the gang because his best friend, Maero, gave him a job as a tattoo artist. He even tells the Boss that Maero deliberately keeps him out of the loop so that he would not get mixed up in the violence. A strange case, though, as he is an excellent scrimshaw and the Brotherhood certainly has use for that skill-set.
• Non-Action Guy: He is just a scrimshaw. The only time he tries to fight ends up getting him killed with a brick to the head.
• One-Steve Limit: With Matt Miller from Saints Row: The Third. Lampshaded in SR4 where Maero talks about his Matt to Matt Miller... and how he ended up with his arm burnt to a crisp. Miller meekly admits that he knew the story was not going to end well.
• The Rock Star: Is the lead guitarist for a local band, the Feed Dogs.
• Running Gag: A few cutscenes and bystanders comments are about how his group sucks. Hell, you can even put "The Feed Dogs SUCK!" as a logo on your clothing.
• Tattooed Crook: And a tattoo artist.
• Token Good Teammate: He is not even a criminal, he's just friends with a kingpin and he doesn't even take part in the Brotherhood's activities because Maero didn't want him getting mixed up in the violence. He is a collateral in the feud.
• Villainous Valour: He saves Maero from being killed by the Boss at the cost of his own life, likely knowing full well that he did not have any hope of matching the person who just wiped out an entire building full of mooks not five minutes beforehand.

Jessica Parish

Jessica Parish

"Do me a favor. When you're scraping up your buddy's face, just remember Maero gave you a chance to be his partner."

Played By: Jaime Pressly
Appearances: Saints Row 2

Maero's snippy rich girlfriend. She is implied to be the brains and financer of the gang.

---

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When the Boss locks her in the trunk of her own car and leaves her at Maero's monster truck rally to be run over. Given what she did to Carlos, the Boss refuses to let her out.
• Asshole Victim: While her manner of death is undoubtedly horrific, the fact that she was responsible for Carlos's brutal death ensures that the player is unlikely to feel sorry for her.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As the girlfriend of Maero, this goes without saying, but she really shows a sadistic streak when she has Carlos dragged to his death by a Brotherhood van.
• Call-Back: Her death "by gangbangers" gets referenced by STAG leader Cyrus Temple in The Third as part of the reason that the unit was started in the first place. Although he blatantly leaves out the part where her and Maero were in a gang themselves, downgrading Maero to simply being a tough guy who drives monster trucks and her as an innocent caught in the crossfire.
• The Dragon: She finances the Brotherhood and likely calls the shots as well, if Carlos' murder is anything to go by.
• Evil Redhead: Auburn-haired and has no qualms about having her boyfriend's enemies brutally tortured and killed.
• Eviler than Thou: Way less pleasant than Maero, and directly responsible for ordering the brutal murder of Carlos, despite not even being the leader of the gang.
• Faux Affably Evil: She is pretty nice to the Boss when she first meets them. Right after the Boss' failed meeting with Maero, however, she insists on having the Saints assassinated. It's not until Maero ends up getting scarred that she decides to take matters into her own hands. She even speaks to the Boss in an insincerely polite voice when telling him what the Brotherhood are going to do to Carlos.
• Gory Discretion Shot: We don't get to see what her body looks like after Maero has run her over by accident, but he does. And clearly it shocks him.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Like her boyfriend, she gets an in-universe one thanks to Cyrus Temple rewriting history to make the Saints look worse and argue in favour of STAG. The way he tells it, she was just an innocent bystander.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Especially when compared to Maero.
• Idiot Ball: She's able to kidnap a lieutenant of the Saints and have them tortured to the point of needing a Mercy Kill, but she doesn't realize how much this pisses off the Boss, since she felt secure enough to go to a bank with none of the gang guarding her. Which ends up with her death.
• I Shall Taunt You: She phones the Boss to smugly tell him that she's having Carlos dragged around the streets to his death. Deconstructed, because now the Boss knows who to take revenge on.
• It's Personal: Basically how she takes the Boss contaminating Maero's tattoo ink and disfiguring him. Mess with her man, she messes with the Boss' man... or well, rather the closest thing to it, being the wannabe gangbanger the Boss has a soft spot for.
• Kick the Dog: Has Carlos dragged through the streets to drive the Boss insane with grief. It doesn't end well for her...
  • Also, right before she visits the bank where the Boss captures her, she nearly runs over Shaundi, who's playing hackey sack, and insults her for not getting out of the way. Shaundi promptly phones the Boss, and he knows where to find her.
• Missing White Woman Syndrome: How she is treated by Cyrus in Saints Row: The Third. He leaves out the fact that she had brutally killed Carlos and had a leadership role in the gang, instead making her appear as a rich girl who foolishly ran off with a gangbanger and was caught up in the violence of the Saints.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: At first she seems to merely be Maero's girlfriend and her requests to deal with the Saints are ignored. Then she manages to kick off the gang's war by having Carlos keelhauled.
• One of the Boys: Or so she tries to be.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: After she has Carlos tortured and keelhauled to the point of having to be put down, in return the Boss kidnaps her, put in her car's trunk, and crushed over by Maero's monster trunk.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Downplayed. In her introduction cutscene, she remarks that Carlos (who is Hispanic) looks like her old housekeeper. Almost everyone else in the room, including Maero, is put off by this comment.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: According to an exchange between Maero and Veteran Child in IV, Jessica loved collecting small plastic unicorns, and VC knew the right guy to sell them to Maero. For the "Psychopathic" part, look what she did to Carlos.
• Punk in the Trunk: The Boss stuffs her in the trunk of her car, then tricks Maero into running over it.
• Rich Bitch: It is implied she was one of these before running off with Maero.
• Sadist: She makes sure that Carlos' death is slow and torturous purely to spite the Boss.
• Slumming It: She comes from a rich background but hangs around with a gang who primarily operate in the most impoverished part of Stilwater.
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: She's put her in the metaphorical fridge. Although the Boss murders her to avenge Carlos, part of it is to hurt Maero.
  The Boss: Y'know, up until this point, we've been toying with Maero... kill his bitch here, steal his money there.
• Too Dumb to Live: You would think it might not have been a good idea to openly drive to a bank with no guard or even attempt to hide your movements from the gang whose leader you just pissed off. Especially so when you end up bumping into one of the gang's lieutenants (though she apparently doesn't recognize Shaundi).
• White Gangbangers: Though she isn't that involved with gang activity, it is implied that she finances the gang and plots some of the decisions for Maero. This would explain how she managed to do ahead with having Carlos killed and her financing the shipping of Maero's weapons.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Discussed. After their botched meeting, she begs Maero to eliminate the Saints as soon as possible, although he refutes her by saying that they would be dead soon enough. It isn't until Maero gets scarred when she decides to take things into her own hands by ordering Carlos' death.

The Ronin

A Bosozoku group of new age samurai who are implied to be backed by the Yakuza. They control most of northern Stilwater with casinos and other high value businesses, operating out of the metropolitan areas and suburbs. They like to drive fast cars and also use motorcycles to get around the city.

---

In General

• Badass Biker: Many of their members drive powerful motorcycles.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The more powerful members wear black jackets with an eastern dragon design going throught hem, while the normal grunts wear plain yellow jackets.
• Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Their logo is a stylized Eastern dragon surrounded by clouds, which appears on the clothing they wear and even on their motorcycles.
• Extremity Extremist: When fighting in hand-to-hand, their fighting style consists almost entirely of kicks, they only use punches as part of their takedown.
• Fragile Speedster: Their gang vehicles are some of the fastest in the game, but cannot take the same amount of damage as the vehicles used by the other gangs.
• Gang of Hats: The Ronin, whose membership are primarily Asian with some Caucasian members, are a Yakuza branch that style themselves after Bōsuzōku biker gangs, and specialize in "vice crimes" such as prostitution and gambling with street racing and protection rackets on the side. Their signature color is yellow, they drive sports cars and motorcycles, and listen to techno music. They typically wear leather jackets, and almost always have katanas strapped to their backs. Aside from said katanas, they typically use light firearms and resort to martial arts when unarmed.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Steve Jaros confirmed in a tweet that The Ronin were indeed the buyers that William Sharp mentioned in the ending cutscene of Escort Service.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Their melee weapon of choice. Jyunichi even carries two around with him.
• Non-Indicative Name: Traditionally, a ronin is a samurai without a master. Some Enemy Chatter lampshades this, asking why they're called that when they do have a leader.
• Samurai: A lot of their imagery is based off this.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Ronin are a composite of the Vice Kings and Westside Rollerz from the original game. Like the Vice Kings, the Ronin's main rackets are prostitution and gambling, and like the Rollerz, the Ronin's gang cars consist of Rice Burners and both gangs' memberships consist of Asians and Caucasians.
• Weapon Specialization: Members of the Ronin carry katana with them (Jyunichi even has two), as well as VICE 9 pistols, GAL 43 submachine guns, and K6 Krukov rifles.
• White Gangbangers: Although they are a Japanese gang, most of their rank-and-file soldiers are either white Americans recruited locally or former members of the Westside Rollerz. The lieutenants on the other hand are usually Japanese.
• Yakuza: It's heavily implied that the Ronin in Stilwater are just a branch of a much larger group based out of Japan suggested to be, or at least are supported by, the Yakuza. Early concept art even refers to them as "Yakuza soldiers".

Kazuo Akuji

Kazuo Akuji

"Be thankful for the merciful deaths you and your rabble are receiving... it's nothing compared to what I will do to the Saints when I'm through here."

Played By: Steve Blum
Appearances: Saints Row 2

A famed Yakuza oyabun and Shogo's dismissive, stubborn father who runs the Ronin's Japanese operations. After the Ronin's casino is robbed, he flies in to try prevent the gang from falling apart.

---

• Abusive Parents: Frequently tells Shogo right to his face that he fills him with shame. After Jyunichi is killed, Kazuo tells Shogo that he laments Jyunichi's death just as much as he does the fact that it leaves him alone with Shogo.
• Arc Villain: Of the Ronin arc.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: More like Arrogant Japanese Swordsman. Which is why the Boss decides to be a Combat Pragmatist and bring a gun to their sword fight.
• Asian Rudeness: Whether he's speaking to Dane Vogel, his son, or the Boss, he rarely has anything polite to say to anyone.
• Badass Boast: Gives one while impaled on a katana just seconds before dying in a boat explosion.
  Akuji: "When I escape, the WORLD WILL NOT BE BIG ENOUGH FOR YOU TO HIDE IN!"
• Bilingual Bonus: During his meeting with Dane Vogel, he rudely asks why he should care about him in Japanese. Vogel's response indicates that he understands Japanese and knows exactly what Kazuo said.
• Control Freak: Doesn't seem to take it well whenever he isn't fully in charge: a single disruption in the Ronin's American operations is enough to make him to drop everything in Japan and fly to America to personally take the reins away from Shogo, and he immediately severs the gang's ties with Ultor purely because Dane Vogel wouldn't kowtow to him unquestioningly.
• Defiant to the End: He spends his final moments pinned to the deck of his ship right before it explodes vowing revenge on the Boss if he escapes.
• The Dreaded: The stuff he's done in Japan is enough to impress and unsettle Johnny Gat.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Zigzagged. While he's an abusive parent to Shogo, he's clearly upset by Jyunichi's death, lighting a candle in his memory.
• Evil Old Folks: He is the most dangerous of all the rival gang leaders. He beats the Boss in a sword duel (something Jyunichi could not even do while accompanied by a team of mooks) and forces the Boss to take him out with his gun Indiana Jones-style.
• Evil Sounds Deep: When you're voiced by the same actor as Wolverine, Spike Spiegel and Amon, this is a given.
• Fish out of Water:
  • Whilst Kazuo is a ruthless Yakuza Oyabun, he has no idea how American gangs are run, leading to many mistakes and, through them, the ultimate downfall of the Ronin and his defeat. Because he's used to a strict honor system in Japan, it never crosses his mind that the Boss would just whip out a gun and shoot him at the end of their sword duel.
  • Kazuo is so used to getting his way, he never thought the other side would take their revenge on him. It never occurs to him that when he severs the Ronin's ties with Vogel and Ultor, Vogel would betray his lieutenants to the Saints.
• Hate Sink: Kazuo is an egotistical, arrogant, and condescending Jerkass who treats his son like garbage and only manages to further drag the Ronin into the ground with his poor decision making, while placing the blame on his son instead of himself.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Challenges the Boss to a sword duel, beats them... then gets shot, then stabbed with his own sword.
• Honor Before Reason: Although he is more mature and intimidating than Pretty Boy Shogo, he is also more condescending towards Dane Vogel: he scoffs at his request to rein in the Ronin after they shot up a hospital trying to kill Johnny Gat, and essentially cuts off all ties between the Ronin and Ultor because Vogel was not subservient to him. This bites him in the ass HARD because, A) Ultor pretty much controls the Stilwater Police Department, meaning the Ronin missed a chance for legal protection and B) Vogel turns right around on Akuji immediately after the meeting, ratting out one of their largest bases of operations to the Saints. This also gets him Hoist by His Own Petard in the final mission when he did not think about the Boss being a Combat Pragmatist, and shooting him before impaling him on his own sword.
• Hypocrite: When the Saints start ruining some of the Ronin's operations, he swiftly takes over everything under the assumption that Shogo is an Inadequate Inheritor. Instead, his arrogance and inability to understand gang wars results in him further driving the Ronin into the ground.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The Boss sticks his own katan through his back to pin him to the floor of the burning junk they're fighting on. They then waggle the sword about in his wound so that Mr. Wong can hear him screaming down the phone.
• Informed Ability: Despite being talked up as a feared Yakuza boss, he proves to be even worse at leading the Ronin than Shogo, thanks to his stubborn traditionalism and complete lack of experience when dealing with Western gangs.
• Irony: He comes to America to take control from his son to salvage the Akuji's operations, but instead ends up being the factor that leads the gang to its destruction due to burning bridges with Dane Vogel and making no effort to adapt to how Stilwater's gangs work.
• Jerkass: Oh yes. He's a much bigger asshole than his son, who ironically understands American gang life better than him.
• Katanas Are Just Better: And he knows how to use it. Unfortunately for him, he puts a bit too much stock in it and doesn't consider that the Boss might just decide to shoot him.
• Knight of Cerebus: Subverted. He is played up to be a major threat to the Saints, as an infamous yakuza coming to take control of the Ronin from his laid-back and incompetent son. Instead he ends up being even worse than his son and ruins most of the gang's operations.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Kazuo is the only gang leader in the game who keeps attacking the Saints or their allies until the last gang mission. The General has to be tracked down and Maero sets an ambush after escaping the attack on his compound but Kazuo keeps going all out as his numbers dwindle. He also boasts about coming back from being impaled to a flaming yacht for revenge with the Boss unimpressed as Kazuo is completely defeated at that point.
• The Man Behind the Man: Much more feared and competent than his son. Unfortunately for the rest of the Ronin, Kazuo has no understanding of Western gangs and wants things done his way.
• Master Swordsman: He can best the Boss in a swordfight; given the Boss is a killing machine no matter the handicap, that's impressive.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Due to his Honor Before Reason tendencies, he never really thought the Boss would pull this and expected him to use a katana like him. Unfortunately, he is wrong and this trope gets him killed.
• Never Found the Body: He was left impaled on a flaming ship.
• Never My Fault: Big time after arriving in Stilwater. Whilst his initial criticism of Shogo is justified, Akuji undoes all the good Shogo did for the gang (such as his deal with Ultor guaranteeing police immunity) and screws up every major decision, leading to the Ronin being routed from the city.
• Noodle Incident: The things Kazuo did in Japan even had Johnny Gat disturbed.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite coming off as more incompetent than Shogo (As noted in Informed Ability and Small Name, Big Ego), he almost beats the Playa in a sword duel.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Shogo dies before he does, but considering Kazuo's low opinion of his son, he most likely would not mourn him if he knew.
• Perpetual Frowner: Kazuo never smiles at any point onscreen. Then again, given that he has to visit a country he doesn't like, put up with his son's stupidity and the death of a lieutenant who he liked a lot more than his son, and confront his old rival Mr. Wong, he doesn't have any reason to smile.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Not only a huge Jerkass, but also a useless leader too. Say what you will about Shogo, he at least understands how things work in the U.S.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He calls Wong's translator (who had been shot in the leg for a mistranslation five years ago) a cripple in the "Big Problems in Little China" cutscene.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Despite all his condescension about his son's leadership skills, he manages to totally screw up every decision he makes regarding not only his son, but also dealing with Ultor and the Saints.
• Strategy Versus Tactics: He embodies the tactics to Shogo's strategy, being far more decisive and ruthless than his son. His inability to recognize how different things are in America however means that his decisions are very short sighted, with no thought spared over the long term consequences of his actions.
• Too Dumb to Live: The only reason he outlived his son was because he was tougher, and he didn't see the Saints as enough of a threat to openly confront until the end, at which point the Boss promptly disposes of him. He is a stubborn traditionalist, to the point that he doesn't even consider listening to his son, who, despite being a prat himself, still has more experience dealing with Western gangs. His idiocy culminates when he cuts ties with Ultor, one of the only advantages the Ronin had over the Saints, and not long after the Ronin are completely kicked out of the city.
• Undignified Death: The Boss pins him to the floor of his own junk with his own katana and leaves him to burn to death when the boat explodes. They even twirl that sword in his wound so that Mr. Wong can hear Kazuo screaming down the phone in torture.
• We Will Meet Again: He threatens as much in the final confrontation, before the Boss leaves him in a burning junk boat with him impaled to it.
• Why Are You Not My Son?: He very obviously favors Jyunichi, who's more traditional, over his Americanized son Shogo, which prompts Shogo to betray Jyunichi to the Saints. Even then, Kazuo is just as grieved by Shogo being left as his only heir as he is by Jyunichi's death.
• Yakuza: He's explicitly stated to be an Oyabun, and he looks and acts the part.

Shogo Akuji

Shogo Akuji

"But how about you let me deal with my father and you deal with whatever the fuck I tell you to deal with."

Played By: Yuri Lowenthal
Appearances: Saints Row 2

The son of Kazuo Akuji, Shogo is an arrogant, image-obsessed biker who leads the Stilwater branch of the Ronin.

---

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He begs Johnny and The Boss to kill him painlessly instead of burying him alive.
• And I Must Scream: In "Gat Out of Hell", Shakespeare punishes him for his attempted coup by writing a play where he re-enacts Shogo's death. The play is very, very popular, and so Shogo gets buried alive repeatedly for the rest of eternity.
• Asian Rudeness: He's more Americanized than his father, but he's his equal in rudeness.
• Asshole Victim: Johnny Gat beats him to a pulp and buries him alive, but after he indirectly had Aisha beheaded and then crashed her funeral to try and kill Gat, you'd be hard-pressed to actually sympathize with him.
• Badass Biker: Subverted. While he has the imagery of one, he's merely spoiled punk who screws up fighting the Saints to the point his father has to fly in from Japan just to try and clean up his mess. Even Gat points out that he spends more time on his hair than his gang.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He makes himself out to be a Badass Biker, but he's just a cowardly punk with bad leadership qualities. As soon as his father comes into the picture, he loses his control of the gang.
• Bilingual Bonus: He only speaks Japanese in one scene briefly, but it is good Japanese. Helps that his voice actor is fluent in the language.
• Bullying a Dragon: Trying to kill The Boss and Johnny during Aisha's funeral was really not a good idea. Not only does it enrage both of them, it results in him being overpowered and then Buried Alive. Had he just obeyed Gat's warning to enact his revenge another time, he would have likely survived a little longer (and gave him a much quicker death).
• Buried Alive: Courtesy of Gat.
• Combat Pragmatism: He is a coward who will have his men attack hospitals and funerals to kill his target.
• Cowardly Boss: He shows up to Aisha's funeral, demands a fight... and then runs away when he's outgunned.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Getting buried alive is an awful way to go, and he knows it.
• Dirty Coward: As soon as his attack on the Saints at Aisha's funeral starts going badly, he attempts to flee. And once he's caught he instantly begins groveling to Gat, whom he'd been insulting before the fight while hiding behind his squad.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Of the Ronin arc, since Kazuo takes over from him only five missions in. He's also killed before his father.
• Dumbass Teenage Son: As Gat puts it, he spends more time on his hair than on his bike, and he's first shown brushing off the casino heist while having a drink. He also ends up setting off the gang's wrath by having Aisha killed and Johnny incapacitated, then trying to fight them at the former's funeral.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his first scene following the casino heist, he blows off his Hypercompetent Sidekick Jyunichi's concerns over both said robbery and his own personal safety (and berating him for speaking in Japanese instead of English), slams the door in his waiter's face when they ask for a tip, uses Jyunichi's katana as a bottle opener, then tells him to shut up, keep his head down and do as he's told while he handles both his father and all the important gang operation stuff... while receiving head from a prostitute without a care in the world. Rude, arrogant, dismissive, spoiled, selfish, irreverent, and completely ineffectual when it comes to actually running his gang? That, ladies and gentlemen, is Shogo Akuji for you.
• Evil Is Petty: He sells out his best man to the Saints just because his father told him to speak to him. He also killed Mr. Wong's dog as a kid, though it's never explained why.
• Fatal Flaw: His desire to impress his father ended up with him selling out the most competent gang member and doesn't argue his case in Ultor's favor when Kazuo cut the deal with the corporation, but finally, desperately trying to kill Playa and Gat at Aisha's funeral. It ended up with Shogo buried alive.
• Freudian Excuse: He would have made a much more effective gang boss if he were not so desperate for his father's approval.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: When the Ronin start losing the fight with Boss and Gat, he tries to escape on his motorcycle. He does not get very far.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He deeply resents his enforcer Jyunichi because his father likes him more. So much so that he decides to get the Boss to kill him by proxy.
• Hidden Depths:
  • While Shogo is hopelessly inept at executing his schemes, do note that his schemes themselves are rather sensible. Cutscenes reveal that Shogo was the one who partnered up the Ronin with Ultor, giving the Ronin access to Ultor's lawyers and PR team in exchange for protecting Ultor's properties on the street, securing the gang a reliable and lucrative income. Also, while he really shouldn't have come after Gat and the Boss at Aisha's funeral—tactically speaking, he gets it right: Aisha's funeral is the one occasion when he could count on Gat and the Boss to show up in public alone, no matter how ugly it gets on the street.
  • Shogo has a much better understanding of how American gangs work in comparison to Japanese gangs. While true that he's portrayed as incompetent, it is also his inexperience talking (though considering his schemes, he's not that bad at it). Part of the Ronin's downfall is Shogo's desperation for his father's approval that he pretty much allows his father to undo and screw up American Ronin operations.
• Hookers and Blow: Hookers and booze, more like. It's the first thing he's seen doing.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: He begs for a swift death before being buried alive.
• Improbable Use of a Weapon: He uses Jyunichi's katana to remove the cork from a champagne bottle.
• Inadequate Inheritor: To put it mildly. His only real accomplishment was making a deal with Ultor so he can spend his time drinking and having sex without worrying about the cash flow and the cops. His father keep hammering how ashamed he is to have such an offspring.
• Japanese Delinquent: With his dyed blonde hair, his rude disposition, and his lack of respect for his more conservative enforcer, he certainly fits the stereotype of somebody who has grown into a Yakuza Royal Brat.
• Jerkass: He is a petty, stupid, vindictive punk who has no idea how to effectively use the resources at his command.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Though he only uses his in one scene.
• Knee Capping: Johnny stamps on his knee in order to break his leg, so when he forces himself to his feet, he mistimes his punches.
• Meaningful Appearance: He has the tips of his hair dyed yellow, symbolizing his allegiance to the Ronin.
• Mugging the Monster: Or in this case, "Ordering the Murder of the Monster's Wife". Johnny would have put off taking revenge on him if only he hadn't followed it up with Bullying a Dragon.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He is on the receiving end of a brutal one from a very furious Johnny Gat, and is then Buried Alive afterwards. This is what happens when you attack a funeral held for Aisha, Gat's girlfriend, especially when your gang is responsible for said death.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Has the Boss kill Jyunichi by proxy simply because the latter had shifted his loyalty towards his father. Later, when Gat tells him he'll fight him after Aisha's funeral, he snidely brushes the offer off.
  Shogo: How noble. Nobility is sorely overrated.
• Non-Action Guy: Spends the whole game giving orders and living off the Ronin's success. When he gets captured by Boss and Gat and tries to fight them, he gets his ass kicked and then buried alive.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Justified, because Shogo grew up in America, where he presumably lost his accent.
• Noodle Incident: He killed Mr. Wong's dog Sadie when he was younger, which further fueled the rivalry between Wong and the Ronin.
• Puppet King: His father is the real one in charge, Shogo has almost no say in the matter and everyone in the gang stops listening to him when Kazuo is about to arrive.
• Pragmatic Villainy: For all his selfishness and arrogance, he is still savvier than his father with how to operate a criminal gang in America, as the deal he made with Ultor Corporation provided the Ronin with financial and legal protection in exchange for protecting Ultor's assets.
• Rejected Apology: He apologizes for ordering Aisha's murder, but Johnny refuses to forgive him, because he's only trying to save his own skin.
• Royal Brat: Spends his days living off the success of his father's gang, and when Jyunichi shows him up in front of his old man, he gives the Boss his location to kill him.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tries to pull one of these when his hit on Boss and Gat at Aisha's funeral goes south. The Boss manages to catch him before he can get away.
• Strategy Versus Tactics: He represents the strategy to his father Kazuo's tactics, through understanding the difference between American gangs and those in Japan. By maintaining the Ronin's state-side operations, and making a deal with Ultor to keep the police off their backs, Shogo put the gang in a very strong position before his father takes over. The execution leaves much to be desired however, and the Saints only need to attack their casino to have Ultor doubt his ability to keep his end of the bargain and his resentment toward Jyunichi means he doesn't use his top enforcer to carry out his strategies.
• Suddenly Shouting: When Johnny Gat finally decides to kill him.
  Shogo: Please, no more...
  Johnny: Not so fun where you're fighting someone who isn't tied to a chair, is it?
  Shogo: I DIDN'T KILL HER!!
  Johnny: You ordered it.
• Teens Are Monsters: He's a vicious, obnoxious teen leader of the Ronin's American branch, and apparently killed Mr. Wong's dog Sadie as a child.
• Too Dumb to Live: After sabotaging his own gang, he tries to personally carry out a hit against Gat and the Boss at Aisha's funeral. This makes Gat very unhappy. Gat's retribution and anger is very much Truth in Television, as funerals are one of the few times gangs don't ever pick fights; even going as far as to hire police protection to ensure appropriate mourning and grieving. Gat even earnestly gives him a chance to walk away with his life if he'd just leave them be, yet Shogo earns his cruel fate by pushing for a fight anyway.
• Villainous Breakdown: As soon as the Boss and Johnny Gat kill all his men, he panics and tries hightailing it out of the cemetery. He then spends the remainder of his life desperately screaming and pleading with Johnny not to bury him alive.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: A large part of his issues stem from a need to have father's approval. Going as far as arranging Jyunichi's death, just because he was jealous that his father liked him better. One of the citizens will tell the Boss that Kazuo was more pissed off at this than Shogo being given a Texas funeral.

Jyunichi

Jyunichi

"Die with some honor."

Played By: Brian Tee
Appearances: Saints Row 2 | Saints Row IV

The silent second-in-command to Shogo and chief enforcer. Jyunichi is competent, strong, and loyal.

---

• Anti-Villain: He is honorable to a fault, even when dealing with an impudent boss like Shogo.
• Bald of Evil: Being the Ronin's chief enforcer, this is in play.
• The Big Guy: He is noticeably taller than the rest of the Ronin.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Most of his first appearances in the game contain him speaking in Japanese. He has to be reminded to speak English by Shogo, who gets annoyed by this happening.
  • In IV, his spoken dialogue are entirely in Japanese, without a single trail of English.
• The Dragon: For Shogo. It leads to his end when Kazuo starts treating him positively compared to Shogo.
• Dual Wielding: Use two katanas.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He admits to Aisha that he doesn't take much pleasure in keeping her hostage and would have let her go had she not warned Johnny, something he explicitly warns her about just before she tries to do so.
  • When he challenges someone to a sword fight, he will not allow his goons to shoot his enemies. This plays out in the cutscene where he duels Gat by him disarming a fellow Ronin who tried to just shoot him while he was down, and in the "Kanto Connection" mission, where, since you're designed not to use your guns on Jyunichi, none of the other Ronin supporting him opt to shoot you, either.
• Flunky Boss: He has other Ronin assisting him in a swordfight with the Boss.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite challenging the Boss to a personal duel, the fight against him involves multiple waves of Ronin mooks.
• Hero Killer: By hospitalizing Gat and killing Aisha he becomes the biggest threat for the first half of the Ronin mission and accomplishes way more than both Akujis.
• Honor Before Reason: He disarms a Ronin mook by throwing one of his swords at them, for daring to try shooting Gat during their impromptu duel.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: The only reason Shogo was not deposed ages ago.
• Katanas Are Just Better: And unlike most characters in the game, he wields two of them.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: With Gat and Boss.
• Like a Son to Me: Kazuo holds him in much higher regard than Shogo. It's also why Shogo arranges Jyunichi's death.
• Never Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight: He throws a katana hilt-first at one of his men's hands to knock the gun out of it so that he can't shoot Johnny Gat instead of duelling him with swords like he prefers.
• Noble Top Enforcer: Way more noble than Shogo, who mocks the concept, and Kazuo, who is really just an old jerk despite all his talk of honour.
• Off with His Head!: He kills Aisha like this.
• Samurai: Has even some of the attitude.
• Switch to English: He attempts to speak to Shogo in their native Japanese during the Ronin's introduction cutscene, but Shogo is quick to insist that he speak English as he is in America now. This is fortunate, as the game does not bother to offer subtitles for different languages and Jyunichi's dialogue is simply labelled "*speaks Japanese*" until he begins speaking in English as Shogo requested.
• Undying Loyalty: Even when Shogo makes an ass out of himself. It is only after Kazuo arrives that he stops being respectful to Shogo.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He calls Shogo out for not showing up to defend his father at the airport, like Jyunichi himself did.
• Would Hit a Girl: In his defense, he did promise to let Aisha live if she did what he asked. In her defense, what he was asking was for her to stay quiet and let him kill her husband and his friend.

The Sons of Samedi

A group mostly made up of college kids and narcotic dealers from the Caribbean. The Samedi make most of their business on the drug trade, with their own signature Loa Dust bringing in most of their profits. They make use of voodoo themes and have a high-ranking member who can actually perform voodoo spells.

In General

• Ax-Crazy: Even without Mr. Sunshine as an enforcer, many of the gang's mooks are all too eager to engage in battle. There's a reason Shaundi warns the Boss about them in "Have Dust, Will Travel".
  I CAN'T DIE YET!!!!! I HAVE FAR TOO MUCH KILLING TO DO!!!!!
  SCREAM! SCREAM WHILE YOU STILL CAN!
• Dance Battler: Their fighting style is inspired by Capoeira, albeit with the liberal use of hands as a combo move, and their takedowns often employ momentum to throw off their foes.
• Fantastic Drug: Their Loa Dust. All the game tells us is that it's a designer drug that one smokes that contains some high grade pot along with some other substances.
• Gang of Hats: The Sons of Samedi are a mixed Black and White drug ring influenced by Voodoo and with origins traced to military corruption in Haiti. They specialize in a designer drug known as Loa Dust, which is popular enough in Stilwater to give them a monopoly on the city's drug trade. Their color is green, they drive vintage muscle cars, and they listen to reggae. Members wield machetes and a wide array of firearms, and use capoeira in unarmed combat.
• Green and Mean: Their gang colour.
• Hollywood Voodoo: They milk this image for all its worth.
  Shaundi: [as the Boss mows down a seemingly endless horde of them] How can there be this many people who think voodoo is cool?!
• Improbably Cool Car: The gang use heavily-modified lowrider cars, convertibles and classic sedans and coupes suitable for drive-by shootings as their gang vehicles, with their main two models being a Cadillac Coupe De Ville and a Lincoln Continental in all but name. While these cars are quite durable and allow for better drive-by shootings, they tend to be very heavy and slow.
• Interface Screw: Most of their missions involve raids on their drug labs, which leave a blurring effect on the screen for a short time. The mission "Bad Trip" even has this effect for the entire level since the Boss is heavily doped during the beginning.
• Machete Mayhem: They seem to favor machetes as their main melee weapons.
• Non-Indicative Name: But "Sons and Daughters of Samedi" doesn't have the same ring.
  Female Voice 3: [while drunk] ...Why are they called the Sons of Samedi if they got women?
  • Shaundi pokes fun at this when introducing their main product, Loa Dust, which despite the name is smoked, stating they really suck at marketing.
• Nothing Personal: Despite Veteran Child kidnapping Shaundi, the Saints only fight the Sons of Samedi to corner the drug market. Unlike the Ronin and the Brotherhood, who each invoke personal stakes against them (by injuring Gat and killing, respectively, Aisha and Carlos), the Saints only really fight the Sons of Samedi to corner more of the market or to destroy their competition. Goes both ways as the General never seeks revenge for either Veteran Child or Mr. Sunshine and simply fights for business.
• Punny Name: Their name appears to be a mixture of Baron Samedi and Son of Sam, the alias of American serial killer David Berkowitz.
• Room Full of Crazy: Most of their turf is covered in voodoo markings and symbols. The creepiest example is probably their slaughterhouse, because it also has a lot of dead animal carcasses hanging around.
• Scary Black Man: The black members of the gang are this, but the Caribbean women take the cake. Almost all of their quotes have some tone of violence to them.
• Snakes Are Sinister: The gang's logo has two serpents entwined around each other. In addition, The General was originally going to wear a snake medallion as shown in his concept art. The medallion is actually an item the Boss can wear.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: SOS fills a similar role to Los Carnales, as they're a narcotics-focused gang who drive around in lowriders and old muscle cars and have a high-ranking member who's tough to kill. A small portion of their turf also used to belong to the Carnales.
• Weapon Specialization: The Sons of Samedi wield machetes and a very wide variety of firearms: their pistols are NR4s and VICE 9s; their SMGs are TK3 Urbans and SKR-9 Threats; their shotguns are 12 Gauges, Tombstones, and AS14 Hammers; their rifles are K6 Krukovs and AR-50 XMACs; and for good measure, they have explosives like RPGs, hand grenades, pipe bombs, and Molotov cocktails.
• White Gangbangers: Only about half the gang is Caribbean. The other half is white stoner college students. Even a majority of the gang's black members are actually quite light-skinned.
• The Yardies: They are an American take on the typical Caribbean street gangs, though the rank and file are college-age street kids who are simply duped and doped into the Hollywood Voodoo schtick.

The General

The General

"Gentlemen, I'm through meeting with my "adversary". If you please, dispose of this trash."

Played By: Greg Eagles
Appearances: Saints Row 2

The ruthless, yet calm head of the Sons of Samedi.

---

• Arc Villain: Of the Sons of Samedi arc.
• Bad Boss: Downplayed. He's patient and professional in his decision making, but mutilation for failure is his policy.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: A slick, white suit.
• Bald of Evil: Big time. He leads the Sons with an iron fist and is willing to cut his friend's ear off because he failed him.
• Being Personal Isn't Professional: He might lead a gang made of stoned students and psychos, but he is the only gang leader who has no personal animosity and keeps it professional when dealing with the Saints. He is also more polite towards Veteran Child than one would expect.
• Cigar Chomper: You don't often see him without a cigar in his hand or his mouth.
• Cool Car: He seems to have very good taste in cars, seeing as how he hardly ever bothers to leave his pimped out limo and uses a powerful armored car during his boss fight.
• Cowardly Boss: Never has the guts to fight you face to face. And spends his final boss fight hunkered in his limo. And then when the limo blows up, he runs into the mall to face the Boss in a machine gun-mounted truck.
• Disproportionate Retribution: If you steal from him, you'll lose a hand. You fail him, you'll lose an ear. And if you really mess up, you'll get burned alive.
• Everyone Calls Them Barkeep: Only known as The General.
• Evil Sounds Deep: A deep tone of voice that sounds threatening even before he suggests cutting off hands.
• Faux Affably Evil: Maintains a calm, professional façade. But do not be fooled, he is a ruthless whackjob.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He's frequently seen smoking a cigar in his limousine.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Despite being the head of one of the most violent and malicious gangs ever to invade Stilwater, all he seems to do is ride around in his limo all day, giving orders to his underlings. In fact, the player never actually fights him directly and his boss battle simply consists of chasing him down while his gang attacks you. However, you do fight him when he flees into the mall and into his machine gun-mounted truck
• Scary Black Man: Second only to Mr. Sunshine in the scary department.
• Slouch of Villainy: Likes to conduct his business while casually reclining in the back of his limo.
• Underestimating Badassery: When he captures the Boss and brings them into his limo, he says "I wanted to look upon the face of the individual who has caused me so much trouble. So far, I find the experience to be... underwhelming." The Boss, while still high from Loa Dust, promptly shoots two of his men, escapes his limo, and makes their way back to the Saints' hideout to save Shaundi.
• Villain Ball: Averted. He's the only gang boss to not make stupid decisions when dealing with the Saints; he only loses because the Saints are just plain better than the Sons of Samedi.
• Villainous Friendship: With Mr. Sunshine. He even apologizes for cutting off his ear after he loses a shipment to the Saints, but states that he needed to punish someone for failure.
• Villain in a White Suit: His white suit does a lot to distinguish him from his more casually dressed underlings.
• Wall of Weapons: As a testament to how dangerous he is, the walls of his limousine are lined with guns and machetes, including two very prominent assault rifles mounted behind him.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: After deciding the Boss is enough of a problem to warrant his personal attention, he opts to shoot them... in his limo, no less. The Boss, however, is pretty hard to kill even unarmed and high as a kite.
• Wicked Cultured: Sharply dressed, smokes fine cigar and knowledgeable of voodoo.
• You Have Failed Me: And for that you will lose an ear, hand, or be burned alive.
• Yubitsume: A non-Japanese variant that doesn't connect to fingers. He cuts off Mr. Sunshine's left ear to punish him for losing their drugs to the Saints. He doesn't like having to do it, though.

Mr. Sunshine

Mr. Sunshine

"No, you will not. You are upset and want your drugs, this I understand. But there are other solutions."

Played By: Phil LaMarr (2), Phil Morris (IV)
Appearances: Saints Row 2

The General's mysterious right-hand man and enforcer with unexplained voodoo powers. Sunshine is fiercely loyal and blood-thirsty.

---

• The Aggressive Drug Dealer: To the point that he shoots a junkie when he suggests buying from someone else who actually has the product they're after.
• Ax-Crazy: His way of getting the attention of Veteran Child at his record store is to hack one of the customers to death with a machete to the back.
• Back from the Dead: He returns as the reggae radio station's DJ in Saint's Row IV, though he's most likely not really back from the dead and just a virtual copy like Maero, Julius, and the other dead characters brought back for the game.
• Beard of Evil: A creepy goatee.
• Creepy Monotone: He speaks in a low, frightening whisper and a heavier Caribbean accent than the General.
• Decapitation Required: The Boss resorts to chopping his head off to keep him down.
• The Dragon: To The General
• The Dreaded: If bystander dialogue and remarks by some of the radio jocks are to go by, he's certainly seen as this. Even the Boss refrains from letting Shaundi join them in taking him down because he would rip her to shreds.
• Ear Ache: The General reluctantly cuts off one of Sunshine's ears after his repeated failures. But he's not particularly upset and doesn't even react to it at all, saying he only needs one ear to hear the whispers of the Loa.
• Expy: Of Screwface of the Steven Seagal flick Marked for Death, who is also a drug-dealing Caribbean with a Rastafarian aesthetic who claims to have voodoo powers that make him invincible.
• Evil Is Petty: One of the first things Sunshine is seen doing is shanking an unaware man in a record store to scare everyone off. He also shoots one of his buyers when he decides to buy from the Saints.
• Evil Sounds Deep: A low, creepy baritone voice.
• Fluffy the Terrible: A machete-using, voodoo-powered, unhinged nut... named Mr. Sunshine.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: He has really off-putting yellow eyes.
• Hidden Depths: He apparently really likes music. The DJ of The Mix 107.77 even claims that his favorite song is "Karma Chameleon". This is alluded to in IV where he's the DJ of Four-20 FM.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Boss finally decapitates him with his own machete.
• Hollywood Voodoo: His whole shtick.
• Laughing Mad: He laughs in a creepy manner when the Boss confronts him in the slaughterhouse for their fight.
• Lean and Mean: He's pretty thin, and a creepy sadist.
• Machete Mayhem: His weapon, shared with the rest of the Samedi. He also gets his head chopped off with his own.
• Made of Iron: In a crazy way his voodoo power makes him near impossible to kill; the Boss has to cut his head just to be sure, and then for good measure throws it onto a conveyer belt.
• Manipulative Bastard: He sends a bunch of junkies after the Saints after they stole his cargo of Loa Dust, by promising that those who survive the assault will be able to keep whatever they can steal for free.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Even without his voodoo doll, Sunshine simply reanimates every time he's shot dead by the Boss. That is, before the Boss decapitates him with his own machete.
• Nightmare Face: The Boss first sees him when they're intoxicated with Loa Dust, and smoke fills the limo, distorting his face. The Boss openly describes Mr. Sunshine's face as "fucked up".
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Probably the creepiest bastard in the series. It'd be easier to find aspects of him that aren't unsettling.
• Off with His Head!: The Boss cuts off his head and puts it on a conveyor belt to finally kill him.
• Rasputinian Death: Gets up three times after the Boss has filled his body with bullets, until the Boss decapitates him.
• Red Right Hand: Only has one ear after the General cuts the other off as a price for his failure.
• Religion is Magic: His voodoo doll gives him telekinesis and Nigh-Invulnerability.
• Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: To make sure that he stays dead this time, the Boss cuts his head off.
• Scary Black Man: Really scary. The Boss refuses to have Shaundi tagging along because a psycho like Sunshine would tear her apart.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: His golden eyes fit his scary sorcerer position.
• Undying Loyalty: To the General.
• Voodoo Doll: He uses one during his boss battle, though his works slightly different than normal voodoo dolls; Rather than being used to torment or torture victims, it makes him invincible once he's holding it.
• Wizard Staff: A cane topped with a human skull.

Veteran Child

DJ Veteran Child

"I've been watchin' this place, I know you're here alone..."

Played By: Neil Patrick Harris
Appearances: Saints Row 2 | Saints Row IV

One of Shaundi's many exes, Veteran Child is a Sons of Samedi lieutenant who distributes Loa Dust for the gang. He also works as the DJ of 89.0 Generation X.

---

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Most of the people who call into his radio station seem to be teenage girls with a crush on him.
• Amicable Exes: Probably the sole exception of all of Shaundi's many exes. While all her other known ex-boyfriends are happy to hang out with her and help her with anything she needs, Veteran Child is still very bitter about the breakup and will sometimes go on a rant about the fickle nature of women on air, even dedicating the song "Hate" by the Plain White T's specifically to Shaundi.
• Anti-Villain: He's just a dumbass, drug-addicted DJ whose Loa Dust addiction got him in too deep.
• Asshole Victim: Not even Shaundi feels sorry for him when the Boss shoots him.
  Shaundi: My ex-boyfriend's a dick...
• Back from the Dead: In IV, Zinyak recreates him from Shaundi's memories to torment her after The Boss breaks her out of her first Ironic Hell. He manages to make it into Virtual Steelport, where his attempts to start a legion of fans to take over goes about as well as you would expect. Defeating him allows him to be reprogrammed into a homie.
• Berserk Button:
  • While usually scared of his employers, when Mr. Sunshine tells him to know his place in the gang, he actually gives him a Death Glare.
    Veteran Child: My place?
  • In IV, when paired with Matt as homies, he initially assumes Matt to be another Virtual Ghost like him. He is infuriated to learn that Matt is actually still alive and that the Boss spared him after defeating him, while he didn't recieve the same courtesy. Of course, Matt neglected to mention that he had to bribe the Boss for that to happen, which Veteran Child didn't try to do and probably didn't have anything worth offering as a bribe anyway.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: During his mission, he takes Shaundi hostage as a human shield. The only way to get him to let go of her is by hitting him with a flashbang. He fights the Boss in a club filled with bright lights and a large supply of this exact type of grenade scattered throughout the area.
• Bullying a Dragon: He keeps telling off Mr. Sunshine, apparently unaware what a golden-eyed gang enforcer can do, until the witch doctor grabs him by the throat and The General considers setting Veteran Child on fire for his failures. Then he manages to earn the wrath of the Boss.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • No one in the Sons of Samedi bar The General think highly of him. In fact, members within the gang actually thank you for killing him rather than mourn his defeat.
  • The simulated version of him in IV, big time. A majority of his homie conversations include him being made fun of.
• Casting Gag: He's Shaundi's vengeful ex-boyfriend who attempts to murder her, who is voiced by a gay actor famous for playing a bachelor. Pedestrians even joke about Veteran Child being "a total Barney".
• Dirty Coward: VC is a wuss through and through, only infiltrating the Saints' hideout when the physically weakest of its members is all alone, then using her as a human shield when someone who could beat the tar out of him shows up.
• Dreadlock Rasta: Just like Shaundi.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While he's willing to kidnap Shaundi to kill her (albeit reluctantly), he expresses disgust when a caller asks him to play "Face Down", a song about an abusive relationship, while calling it "romantic".
  Female Caller:: I wanna hear "Face Down" by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus! It's sooooo romantic!
  Veteran Child: That's just kinda fucked up.
• Easily Forgiven: Zigzagged in IV. While Shaundi will argue with him if they're picked as Homies, the simulation of her from 2 will immediately ask him for weed. He even lampshades this to the latter, although he does gives in.
• Evil Counterpart: To Shaundi in 2. Both are stoners who are involved in drug distribution, really get around, are well-known outside of their respective gang (Shaundi for getting around, and VC for being the DJ of a radio station), have dreadlocks, are the brains of their groups, and are the weakest members of their gang.
• The Face: Well, the General isn't exactly a people person, and no one will let Mr. Sunshine anywhere near the Campus without calling the cops. So he handles the distribution, being a local DJ and far more approachable to the Samedi's customers.
• Fan Hater: He utterly despises the Feed Dogs and holds disdain for anyone who enjoys their music.
• Flunky Boss: He isn't much of a fighter, so he has goons assisting him.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Shaundi's evil ex-boyfriend wears Round Hippie Shades and he has no qualms with attempting to kill her.
• He-Man Woman Hater: He often goes on tirades against "evil women" on air, and how to him, they're all "tatty bitches". Though this behavior is likely a result of Shaundi breaking up with him.
• Horror Hippies: Downplayed, but he definitely gives off a hippie vibe and he's a right asshole.
• Hypocrite:
  • While playing "Face Down" by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus on Gen X, he will sometimes comment that he hopes that the Domestic Abuser in the song "gets what's coming to him". He really isn't one to talk, since he later kidnaps his ex-girlfriend and uses her as a hostage to save his own sorry ass.
  • Despite his hatred for the Feed Dogs, in his homie conversation with CID, he asks CID to play Feed Dogs music. CID calls him out for this and refuses to play music for him.
  • He describes Roddy Piper's kilt as "unmanly" in IV. His rasta get-up is by no means universal masculine apparel.
• Insistent Terminology: Despite being a very popular DJ to not be classified as being a Small Name, Big Ego, he insists that he is "triple platinum".
• Kick the Dog: According to Shaundi in IV, he threw her limited edition Feed Dogs vinyl into a fire. In his defense, he was stoned, but Shaundi's still holding it against him.
• Large Ham: Considering he's played by Neil Patrick Harris, this is a given. Just listen to him scream his name on air, or the taunts in all of his boss battles.
  Veteran Child: Nobody can kill the Veteran Child!
  Veteran Child: (holding both Shaundis at gunpoint) Who lives and who dies?
• Me's a Crowd: He does this twice in the fourth game. First during Shaundi's second Ironic Hell, and then during the finale of his boss battle in Virtual Steelport.
• Minion with an F in Evil: He's just a dumb DJ in some deep shit with real criminals.
• Never Bareheaded: Never seen without his rainbow Rasta hat.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Who somehow runs with a gang of crazy murderers. Lampshaded in his homie conversation with Asha in IV.
• Non-Action Guy: Unlike Mr. Sunshine, Veteran Child's merely a drug peddler and a DJ. The one time he's ordered to get his hands dirty, he attempts to lure the Boss into a trap that fails, only to get killed easily. Averted in IV, where he's the same as any other simulated homie.
• Noodle Incident: The details about how and when he and Shaundi broke up are never really explained.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Like with the rest of the SOS higher-ups, he is never referred to by his real name.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Apparently, he thinks Keith David was in "that Ghost Busting movie".
• Really Gets Around: Much like Shaundi, although it's mentioned at a lesser extent.
  Veteran Child: (to Jane Valderama) Me? I'm not a student. I just come here for pussy.
• Round Hippie Shades: Wears a green pair of these that fit in with his New-Age Retro Hippie appearance.
• Ship Tease: He has flirty interactions with Tanya Winters if you recruit both of them as homies in IV.
• Smug Snake: He's in way over his head with both the Samedi and the Saints, and it shows. He captures Shaundi in front of the Boss and attempts to lure them into an obvious trap. When the Boss calls him back to mock him, his reaction is simply "Oh shit!".
• The Stoner: High most of the time.
• Too Dumb to Live: After the destruction of the Loa Dust farm, he is ordered by the General to kill Shaundi, the Saints' weakest lieutenant, after he admits he told her about the farm. Rather than quickly finish her off when she's alone, he kidnaps her and attempts to lure the Boss into an obvious trap that doesn't work. When the Boss does find him, he's out in the open with her as a human shield, surrounded by numerous flashbangs in a nightclub of all places.
• Trash Talk: One of his defining character traits.
• Villainous Breakdown: He has one when he realizes that the Boss survived his trap, and that they are coming to kill him.
• Villainous Friendship: If he and Maero are recruited as homies in IV, he will casually ask him if Jessica liked the pony toys he obtained for her.
• Virtual Ghost: Like several characters who died in previous games, he is recreated as an AI in Zinyak's simulation.
• White Gangbangers: He contrasts a lot with the other lieutenants.
• Would Hit a Girl: If that girl is Shaundi, then yes, he would hit her. And shoot her, though the Boss doesn't let him.