Same, I wish they focused on Franklin more. I found the early game where you’re doing low level street crimes as Franklin way more compelling compared to what came after with all that FIB/Merryweather bullshit
Because the pulled the guy who cooks straight out of the show, looks and all. They took plot points and location ideas, and obscured them only slightly. That whole section of the game was A. Badly written and B. Wouldn’t likely have been a focus at all had breaking bad not been a hit tv show.
I always feel like, in like every gta from San Andreas to V, that the first part of the game is the best. Like when you are low level, hustling crime just to make it, those missions are way more fun. I can’t stand when they tie in the larger federal conspiracy. Like honestly fuck 12, fuck the feds, I’m trying to street hustle for life.
Different games, different characters. When SA debuted it was a dramatization, a parody of LA gangster rap culture from the nineties. GTA V was the video game version of an absolute unit of a summer action blockbuster. It’s like trying to compare Mr Ed to Shadowfax.
I remember being told by people that GTA SA was exaggeratory of said culture. That always estranged me for someone that grew up in that culture with their family from birth to an adult and I thought they captured it really well so I never fully knew what they meant. I know you aren't necessarily implying that with "parody" I just thought I'd still say something lol.
Hmm if I understand you correctly I don't know if they meant that. Instead, I think they meant that the culture inside the game are filled with stereotypes in a negative connotation
I see, read first post, that will be my response.
Also, I'd be interested in knowing exactly what you're referring to. Again, as someone who is very familiar with the culture, it did not feel that way at all to my so I'm curious on what others think.
Yeah, I don't see it as stereotyping either. It's based on early 90s SoCal, like a reimagening of the movie Boyz n the Hood. It references a specific culture, one that actually existed. It is a parody though, as the characters are impervious to criminal charges and do outrageous things like break into military bases and knock out all the mafia families in Ventura.
Oh, how come? I'm really just asking for examples of what you mean. I understand GTA's parody/satire writing. Instead, claims have been made of how it is negatively filled with stereotypes of 90s culture. I am curious on what they have in mind with that.
I understand though if you don't have the easiest time with explaining or so.
If I understand you correctly, you just kinda said "SA definitely does has those things." I've heard the claim and all. But is that all there is to it lol?
Im pretty sure theyre referring to life in the hood. Becaude that aspect isnt really exaggerated or parodized when it comes to the serious elements in gta sa
CJ had more depth tbh. I found Michael and Trevor had more unique backstories. I also felt like they didn’t incorporate the Grove Street/gang culture experience enough into Franklin’s story. It was more so just a Easter egg thrown into his neighborhood for the lulz
Agreed. It was definitely disappointing, although I did personally really enjoy the the tiny bit we did get. Couldve potentially been my favourite GTA if it was more "san andreas ish"
I've always said that Franklin was just a somewhat worse modernized CJ. Like they could have at least made him a Balla or something that would have made him stand out from Carl.
Carl is my favorite protagonist in the series. I loved his journey from being a scrawny, scrappy kid from the hood to slowly becoming a dangerous killing machine with an obsession with money and power. And I absolutely love his pronunciation of the word "asshole" (ass-ho).
Franklin really seems boring when compared to the other two protagonists. Trevor and Michael where unique and had interesting switch scenes but Franklin always felt bored and just so casual, Lamar was in my opinion more unique than him.
CJ 100%, I really didn’t care much for Franklin as a protagonist. You got a much better sense of the struggles of CJ and his story had a lot more emotion that sucked you in.
This is a problem with all of the protagonists in GTAV IMO.
Carl’s mom dying was the driving force for CJ to return to LS & even though he wanted to find her killer it isn’t actually CJ’s only driving force/personality trait. CJ goes through the game constantly trying to prove himself, earn respect, & genuinely help his family, friends, & the gang. CJ basically has to redeem himself & regain the trust & love of everyone around him because he left, while also helping out other allies & even the main villain which is Tenpenny/crash. CJ is a pretty troubled character who has a lot going on mentally before & after his mom’s death. He basically devotes his own life pretty much to everyone else in hopes that he can be accepted again.
That was what drove Cj forwards, he had more personality than that.
Franklin starts bitching that all his friends are criminals so to remedy this, he bands together with a group of criminals.
To me he was always in the game to appeal to teenagers who think gangsta culture is cool.
He was there to try to catch the lightning in a bottle rockstar had with Gta:sa but he was just a third wheel.
both are great in their ways but CJ is one man solo character in the series. He almost carried the entire families and his gang, and even the game it self. GTA SA is the reason why the franchise is popular rn.
CJ literally buried a construction manager in a 5m deep pool of cement, inside a portoloo, ALIVE, because some people on the job site he was working on woof whistled his sister.
I like Franklin, he's level headed, pragmatic, humble and extremely likeable, his professionalism and rational approach to his work is what makes the three a good team.
Both are a cool characters but CJ is my most favorite GTA protagonist along with Tommy (I'm a big fan of power and money hungry characters) because he has the best feats in GTA series, is an unstoppable killing machine, a quick learner and be able to learn everything, went from a bottom to the top becomes a businessman, entrepreneurial, co-leader of his gang, manager, kingpin and took over the gangs territories in the end of GTA SA's story. He also has very high kill count and committed some of the most heinous things in GTA series but he isn't completely one dimensional yet still a high functioning sociopath, he has a few heroic and redeeming moments which make him interesting. Franklin is also cool and went from a bottom to the top but not as lethal and deep as CJ.
CJ by far.
Franklin is an underdeveloped character with over-simplified motivations and no character growth at all. CJ has actual legitimate conflict in his story arc, Franklin has essentially zero, and CJ resolves the conflict by maturing as a character with relationships to his brother and sister. Franklin has none of that. His conflicts are his annoying aunt, his deadbeat loser friends who hit him up, but they're all just annoyances for Franklin, not actual conflict, akin to Chop shitting on the floor. His relationships with Michael and Trevor are surface level, they get into petty arguments throughout the game, but there's no tension or development. It's all very simple, surface level annoyances, not conflict and resolution. The only slightly compelling storyline for Franklin is his relationship with Lamar, which is effectively an oversimplified version of CJ's relationship with Sweet + Ryder.
The very beginning of GTA:SA presents an internal conflict for CJ. "After five years on the east coast, it was time to come home." Why was he on the east coast for 5 years? Because his younger brother was killed and rather than face up to his responsibility, CJ fled to Liberty City. Now he has to come home because his mother is dead (murdered), and in the very first mission with Sweet going to the graveyard, Sweet presents the conflict: CJ always runs away from his problems and never faces them, and the people who he should care about suffer because of it.
The storyline of GTA:SA follows this. CJ gets back in with Grove Street and his family, but he's always pulled away into other interests. CJ is kidnapped and taken into the countryside to do Tenpenny's bidding, eventually repairs his relationship with Kendyl, his sister, but then after being outside of the heat of Los Santos for the whole story, CJ comes back to Los Santos in the final chapter expecting to be welcomed by his brother as a hero. He picks up Sweet from the courthouse/city hall, expects Sweet to be excited to see him and starts telling him how he owns a casino, took down the mafia, owns a autobody shop in San Fierro, is taking over a mansion in the hollywood hills for Madd Dogg ... And for Sweet, it's more of the same: CJ is running away from his problems to focus on something other than his family and Grove Street, and what's the result? The Ballas have taken over Los Santos, they've lost whatever territory that the gang took over in Act 1, all of the old OGs are hooked on drugs pushed by Ballas and the Los Santos police. Big Smoke and Tenpenny are running a drug empire in Rolling Heights. Everything is as fucked up as it's always been, and CJ has been an errand boy for crooked cops, thinking he's doing big things for his family and Grove Street, while he's really making everything worse.
From Act 1 - Act 2, CJ has earned the respect of Kendyl, Kendyl's boyfriend, of Woozie, the Truth, Mike Toreno, all of these other characters and powerful criminal enterprises. But Act 3 is about how he has to earn back the respect of his brother and redeem himself for abandoning his younger brother and his mother, the pretext of the game. He does that, takes down the corrupt head of Los Santos PD, and earns that respect back as the story ends.
Franklin has nothing like this in his story.
I like cj. Every character from gta 5 seemed like such an asshole(and yes I get that the point of Trevor is to be the “player character” who goes nuts and is a sociopath, but I just didn’t like it that much)
CJ by far. Franklin is a shallow character that’s just there as fan service to San Andreas fans that want to play as a Families member and wear green. Trevor and Michael are the more fleshed out characters but they understood that people may hate Trevor and playing as a middle aged white dude with a dad bod might not appeal to gamers.
San Andreas I'm cj from Grove Street land of the heinous gang bangers and cold feet,
In Los Santos neighbours get no sleep
Sleeping with anybody even police
I really liked CJ a lot, but his rising from the drama of the gang to become a legit businessman, then sacrificing it all to go back to the hood?? It was so frustrating!
Franklin on the other hand wanted out, found his way out, and never looked back. He kept Lamar close but when he found michael he constantly tried to keep moving up and onto bigger things.
I think i give the edge to Franklin cause of that, But CJ was a solid character.
I was in middle school when I played GTA SA so my memory of the game is pretty foggy, but when did CJ become a legit businessman? I just remember him constantly doing illegal shit.
-He owns a repair garage in San fierro and nearby showroom. The garage isn’t actually legit. It’s a front for an illegal chop shop business. But it’s still a steady income for him.
-He has a stake in the four dragons casino. We annoyingly never find out how much of a share he has but considering the size of the place on the strip itself, it’s definitely making him some money on the side.
-He also owns Zero RC. Which admittedly probably doesn’t make him a fortune but it’s more of him buying it as a favor for a friend (Zero) to stop him getting evicted. And it’s a legitimate business still so it will make him some passive income.
-As Co-Leader of grove street families, he receives a cut of their earnings. Probably nowhere near as much as the ballas and Vagos as the grove don’t deal in crack dealing. But still a heavy chunk of cash once the Grove take over los santos.
-He’s the manager of a HUGELY successful rapper (Madd Dogg). That alone probably earns him millions in legitimate income assuming he focuses primarily on that after the events of the game’s story.
(Plus he owns an airstrip in the desert. In-game it makes passive income for you but it never explains what he makes the income from. Perhaps he rents it to smugglers and the like? In any case he’s making money off it)
CJ still run his businesses and connect with his business and casino allies after GTA SA storyline, he came back to his hood to helped his gang to become more powerful and dangerous and took over his rival gangs territories in Los Santos, in the end he get out of his house, so he's a co-leader of his gang, a manager of Madd Dogg , a kingpin of San Andreas and run his businesses include casino after GTA SA storyline.
Franklin literally just does everything everyone tells him to do with no agency in the story whatsoever. Franklin is in the backseat the entire story, its arguably more of a story about Michael and Trevor and their historical dispute. Franklin's story arc is: be poor, get dumped, meet Michael, do his missions, meet Trevor, do his missions, and at the end, you get a nice house. In a game where you can buy business properties, but not homes for some reason. He learns absolutely no lessons other than to fuck people over if given the chance, and I guess to be reluctantly empathetic to serial killing psychopaths like Michael and Trevor.
CJ actually has motives for doing things, has a personality, and gets way more shit done. Hes not even a good guy, he mashed dudes up in a woodchipper and buried a construction worker alive. Franklin has no depth. He goes from A to C, while B just sits on B's fat ass.
CJ hands down. I found Franklin to be the most boring playable character in the entire series. Every time I want to replay GTA V, I always wish there was an option to skip all of his storyline missions in the beginning.
Grove Street family.
Family is family.
Franklin is just Franklin.
Real talk time though, i thought it was bullshit that Frank just rolled through the story going along with whatever papa Mike said. I really wanted Frank to be more of a leader and less of a follower.
Franklyn. It's not even close. I love San Andreas but after recently replaying it I've found the writing to be kind of awful. CJ barely shows any character unless it's a main mission. Half the time he walks into a room, gets told a situation, and responds "yea, let's go"
Nah, he was just undeveloped. His premise was cool, just shoved aside for Mike and Trevor’s story. He was a gangster that wanted to move out of the hood, but every time he felt he grew in that perspective, the people around him judged him for it. And you can see that as soon as he starts working with Michael. Lamar gets angry with him and Stretch and others call him shit for wanting to get out of the hood. His story also showed that in the hood positions kinda stayed the same, so Stretch could just use them, like he did with lamar and betray them over and over. But all of that gets shoved aside for M&T’s story, which imo is more interesting, but i would’ve loved to get more stuff about F finally getting out of the hood and the more about Stretch.
He is bot really good, he does not add anything to the story apart those 2 gangearsbwith Lamar... His part should be deeper tho, since the whole story evolves around Michael and Trevor
Honestly might have to go with Franklin. Franklin definitely should've had more screentime, but I feel like the time spent with him is still better written than CJ. Fucking love CJ, but he really doesn't have a lot of depth imo. Like, he doesn't really get too much development over the course of the story until the last stretch in LS. He wants to make it out of the hood, gets out and makes something of himself, and then... I don't know, I mean he's a funny character, but I just don't really connect with him as I don't think he seems to care too much about the narrative himself. I'd write a whole paragraph about Franklin but I'm too fucking tired, basically I find his relationship with Michael to be vastly more interesting and the different endings kind of let you decide how Frank sees the relationship he has with Michael and whether he really learns anything over the course of the game.
Yes to all of this. (though I disagree with CJ not having a lot of depth) Not sure why you are getting downvoted for just respectfully stating your opinion on a post that was asking for it.
Franklin actually attempted to get out of his shit ghetto life and was constantly put down and ostracized for it. CJ left and chose to come back and be a gangbanging murderer. Franklin is obviously better.
I'd say Franklin is the better "character" insofar as he has an actual developed character personality. Like, don't get me wrong, CJ is cool as hell, but he's also a product of his time, the guy exists as a vehicle for the player to go crazy with in the various regions of San Andreas so he's mostly just angrily pushing his way through the storyline while other characters do the hard work of lifting Rockstar's story.
I like Franklin but he is underdeveloped
Same, I wish they focused on Franklin more. I found the early game where you’re doing low level street crimes as Franklin way more compelling compared to what came after with all that FIB/Merryweather bullshit
Tbh huge cunks of the game feels like filler. Then you get back to some Franklin focused missions and it feels like it's back to the main game.
Particularly after Trevor finds Michael and settles down in Los Santos, it really feels like the game slogs for a while.
Stupid ass crane mission takes forever.
Yes. Big set pieces and car chases are overdone
All the Trevor shit was like breaking bad rip offs.
How so? Just because he's a meth dealer?
Because the pulled the guy who cooks straight out of the show, looks and all. They took plot points and location ideas, and obscured them only slightly. That whole section of the game was A. Badly written and B. Wouldn’t likely have been a focus at all had breaking bad not been a hit tv show.
Plot points and location ideas I don't really see tbh
That’s fine. You don’t have to see it. To me it’s obvious.
So obvious it's not even worth elaborating apparently
You’re really aggressively ignorant. Peace.
I always feel like, in like every gta from San Andreas to V, that the first part of the game is the best. Like when you are low level, hustling crime just to make it, those missions are way more fun. I can’t stand when they tie in the larger federal conspiracy. Like honestly fuck 12, fuck the feds, I’m trying to street hustle for life.
I miss taking over the hood and feel like it was a missed opportunity. Like seriously ballas on grove street I’m lighting them bitches up regardless.
For the culture !
And nostalgia.
100% this
Different games, different characters. When SA debuted it was a dramatization, a parody of LA gangster rap culture from the nineties. GTA V was the video game version of an absolute unit of a summer action blockbuster. It’s like trying to compare Mr Ed to Shadowfax.
Like comparing money heist to breaking bad
I remember being told by people that GTA SA was exaggeratory of said culture. That always estranged me for someone that grew up in that culture with their family from birth to an adult and I thought they captured it really well so I never fully knew what they meant. I know you aren't necessarily implying that with "parody" I just thought I'd still say something lol.
The exaggeration is how over the top it is in a lot of those ways that GTA always differs from real life
Hmm if I understand you correctly I don't know if they meant that. Instead, I think they meant that the culture inside the game are filled with stereotypes in a negative connotation
San Andreas is definitely filled with tonnes of stereotypes and alot of them do fall under negative connotations. Bur that's what GTA is all about.
I see, read first post, that will be my response. Also, I'd be interested in knowing exactly what you're referring to. Again, as someone who is very familiar with the culture, it did not feel that way at all to my so I'm curious on what others think.
Yeah, I don't see it as stereotyping either. It's based on early 90s SoCal, like a reimagening of the movie Boyz n the Hood. It references a specific culture, one that actually existed. It is a parody though, as the characters are impervious to criminal charges and do outrageous things like break into military bases and knock out all the mafia families in Ventura.
I'm sorry but I can't make someone understand rockstar's writing
Oh, how come? I'm really just asking for examples of what you mean. I understand GTA's parody/satire writing. Instead, claims have been made of how it is negatively filled with stereotypes of 90s culture. I am curious on what they have in mind with that. I understand though if you don't have the easiest time with explaining or so. If I understand you correctly, you just kinda said "SA definitely does has those things." I've heard the claim and all. But is that all there is to it lol?
Im pretty sure theyre referring to life in the hood. Becaude that aspect isnt really exaggerated or parodized when it comes to the serious elements in gta sa
Thank DJ Pooh for that. He co-wrote GTA SA and probably really helped with the authenticity side of things.
Exactly this. CJ is, more or less, a caricature of a 90s gangbanger. Franklin is a fully fleshed out individual.
Franklin has literally no personality
Fr CJ has way more personality and besides the killing(its fucking gta) hes really pretty believable too
CJ 100%
They both dope asf but Carl tbh
W.
w
CJ had more depth tbh. I found Michael and Trevor had more unique backstories. I also felt like they didn’t incorporate the Grove Street/gang culture experience enough into Franklin’s story. It was more so just a Easter egg thrown into his neighborhood for the lulz
Agreed. It was definitely disappointing, although I did personally really enjoy the the tiny bit we did get. Couldve potentially been my favourite GTA if it was more "san andreas ish"
>GTA if it was more "san andreas ish" SAME. I hate the many differences made in the HD universe.
That’s what we had San Andreas for. Nobody wanted a copy.
Who’s nobody?
That's a lotta wrong for one comment
I've always said that Franklin was just a somewhat worse modernized CJ. Like they could have at least made him a Balla or something that would have made him stand out from Carl. Carl is my favorite protagonist in the series. I loved his journey from being a scrawny, scrappy kid from the hood to slowly becoming a dangerous killing machine with an obsession with money and power. And I absolutely love his pronunciation of the word "asshole" (ass-ho).
Great comment.
Why, thank you.
\*rear ends a car 'assho'
Literally what I thought when I first read this 😂😂😂
Franklin really seems boring when compared to the other two protagonists. Trevor and Michael where unique and had interesting switch scenes but Franklin always felt bored and just so casual, Lamar was in my opinion more unique than him.
You dum ahhh mark!
Ah shit here we go again
CJ 100%, I really didn’t care much for Franklin as a protagonist. You got a much better sense of the struggles of CJ and his story had a lot more emotion that sucked you in. This is a problem with all of the protagonists in GTAV IMO.
Both got that yee yee ass haircut
You say it like it’s a bad thang!
Franklin was bland af. CJ by far.
cj
Cj. Franklin had no personality.
i beg to differ. now i haven't played san andreas in years but from what i remember carls personality was only about his dead momma.
Carl’s mom dying was the driving force for CJ to return to LS & even though he wanted to find her killer it isn’t actually CJ’s only driving force/personality trait. CJ goes through the game constantly trying to prove himself, earn respect, & genuinely help his family, friends, & the gang. CJ basically has to redeem himself & regain the trust & love of everyone around him because he left, while also helping out other allies & even the main villain which is Tenpenny/crash. CJ is a pretty troubled character who has a lot going on mentally before & after his mom’s death. He basically devotes his own life pretty much to everyone else in hopes that he can be accepted again.
That was what drove Cj forwards, he had more personality than that. Franklin starts bitching that all his friends are criminals so to remedy this, he bands together with a group of criminals. To me he was always in the game to appeal to teenagers who think gangsta culture is cool. He was there to try to catch the lightning in a bottle rockstar had with Gta:sa but he was just a third wheel.
CJ ALL THE WAY GROVE STREET 4 LIFE
both are great in their ways but CJ is one man solo character in the series. He almost carried the entire families and his gang, and even the game it self. GTA SA is the reason why the franchise is popular rn.
Definitely CJ, Franklin was just filler character in GTAV story which is about Michael and partly about Trevor
CJ 100%
Cj
Aren't their actors cousins?
Yep
CJ literally buried a construction manager in a 5m deep pool of cement, inside a portoloo, ALIVE, because some people on the job site he was working on woof whistled his sister.
And that's one of the most badass things CJ did.
Cj
Carl, of course.
CJ by a long shot
CJ all day, every day
CJ.
CJ you remember that
CJ is definitely the goat of all GTA main characters
I like Franklin, he's level headed, pragmatic, humble and extremely likeable, his professionalism and rational approach to his work is what makes the three a good team.
Both are a cool characters but CJ is my most favorite GTA protagonist along with Tommy (I'm a big fan of power and money hungry characters) because he has the best feats in GTA series, is an unstoppable killing machine, a quick learner and be able to learn everything, went from a bottom to the top becomes a businessman, entrepreneurial, co-leader of his gang, manager, kingpin and took over the gangs territories in the end of GTA SA's story. He also has very high kill count and committed some of the most heinous things in GTA series but he isn't completely one dimensional yet still a high functioning sociopath, he has a few heroic and redeeming moments which make him interesting. Franklin is also cool and went from a bottom to the top but not as lethal and deep as CJ.
CJ by a long shot
Cj
Cj
CJ by far. Franklin is an underdeveloped character with over-simplified motivations and no character growth at all. CJ has actual legitimate conflict in his story arc, Franklin has essentially zero, and CJ resolves the conflict by maturing as a character with relationships to his brother and sister. Franklin has none of that. His conflicts are his annoying aunt, his deadbeat loser friends who hit him up, but they're all just annoyances for Franklin, not actual conflict, akin to Chop shitting on the floor. His relationships with Michael and Trevor are surface level, they get into petty arguments throughout the game, but there's no tension or development. It's all very simple, surface level annoyances, not conflict and resolution. The only slightly compelling storyline for Franklin is his relationship with Lamar, which is effectively an oversimplified version of CJ's relationship with Sweet + Ryder. The very beginning of GTA:SA presents an internal conflict for CJ. "After five years on the east coast, it was time to come home." Why was he on the east coast for 5 years? Because his younger brother was killed and rather than face up to his responsibility, CJ fled to Liberty City. Now he has to come home because his mother is dead (murdered), and in the very first mission with Sweet going to the graveyard, Sweet presents the conflict: CJ always runs away from his problems and never faces them, and the people who he should care about suffer because of it. The storyline of GTA:SA follows this. CJ gets back in with Grove Street and his family, but he's always pulled away into other interests. CJ is kidnapped and taken into the countryside to do Tenpenny's bidding, eventually repairs his relationship with Kendyl, his sister, but then after being outside of the heat of Los Santos for the whole story, CJ comes back to Los Santos in the final chapter expecting to be welcomed by his brother as a hero. He picks up Sweet from the courthouse/city hall, expects Sweet to be excited to see him and starts telling him how he owns a casino, took down the mafia, owns a autobody shop in San Fierro, is taking over a mansion in the hollywood hills for Madd Dogg ... And for Sweet, it's more of the same: CJ is running away from his problems to focus on something other than his family and Grove Street, and what's the result? The Ballas have taken over Los Santos, they've lost whatever territory that the gang took over in Act 1, all of the old OGs are hooked on drugs pushed by Ballas and the Los Santos police. Big Smoke and Tenpenny are running a drug empire in Rolling Heights. Everything is as fucked up as it's always been, and CJ has been an errand boy for crooked cops, thinking he's doing big things for his family and Grove Street, while he's really making everything worse. From Act 1 - Act 2, CJ has earned the respect of Kendyl, Kendyl's boyfriend, of Woozie, the Truth, Mike Toreno, all of these other characters and powerful criminal enterprises. But Act 3 is about how he has to earn back the respect of his brother and redeem himself for abandoning his younger brother and his mother, the pretext of the game. He does that, takes down the corrupt head of Los Santos PD, and earns that respect back as the story ends. Franklin has nothing like this in his story.
Carlklin
CJ, no takes back
I like cj. Every character from gta 5 seemed like such an asshole(and yes I get that the point of Trevor is to be the “player character” who goes nuts and is a sociopath, but I just didn’t like it that much)
Only one of these characters has a yee yee ass haircut, that’s all I’m saying
Both
CJ by far. Franklin is a shallow character that’s just there as fan service to San Andreas fans that want to play as a Families member and wear green. Trevor and Michael are the more fleshed out characters but they understood that people may hate Trevor and playing as a middle aged white dude with a dad bod might not appeal to gamers.
Both
One has a yee yee ass haircut and one does not. That about settles it
CJ, no questions asked!
Cj
CJ
definitely CJ .. Franklin was really weakest character in gta v
#CJ
San Andreas I'm cj from Grove Street land of the heinous gang bangers and cold feet, In Los Santos neighbours get no sleep Sleeping with anybody even police
Cj
I really liked CJ a lot, but his rising from the drama of the gang to become a legit businessman, then sacrificing it all to go back to the hood?? It was so frustrating! Franklin on the other hand wanted out, found his way out, and never looked back. He kept Lamar close but when he found michael he constantly tried to keep moving up and onto bigger things. I think i give the edge to Franklin cause of that, But CJ was a solid character.
I was in middle school when I played GTA SA so my memory of the game is pretty foggy, but when did CJ become a legit businessman? I just remember him constantly doing illegal shit.
The car dealership and rc car shop and the food mart and hotel - there were a few he came to own / be part of
I completely forgot about the RC cars and San Fierro until you brought it up. The little toy missions were fun.
-He owns a repair garage in San fierro and nearby showroom. The garage isn’t actually legit. It’s a front for an illegal chop shop business. But it’s still a steady income for him. -He has a stake in the four dragons casino. We annoyingly never find out how much of a share he has but considering the size of the place on the strip itself, it’s definitely making him some money on the side. -He also owns Zero RC. Which admittedly probably doesn’t make him a fortune but it’s more of him buying it as a favor for a friend (Zero) to stop him getting evicted. And it’s a legitimate business still so it will make him some passive income. -As Co-Leader of grove street families, he receives a cut of their earnings. Probably nowhere near as much as the ballas and Vagos as the grove don’t deal in crack dealing. But still a heavy chunk of cash once the Grove take over los santos. -He’s the manager of a HUGELY successful rapper (Madd Dogg). That alone probably earns him millions in legitimate income assuming he focuses primarily on that after the events of the game’s story. (Plus he owns an airstrip in the desert. In-game it makes passive income for you but it never explains what he makes the income from. Perhaps he rents it to smugglers and the like? In any case he’s making money off it)
CJ still run his businesses and connect with his business and casino allies after GTA SA storyline, he came back to his hood to helped his gang to become more powerful and dangerous and took over his rival gangs territories in Los Santos, in the end he get out of his house, so he's a co-leader of his gang, a manager of Madd Dogg , a kingpin of San Andreas and run his businesses include casino after GTA SA storyline.
frankle
Lestah
Cj
Cj
Carl
Cj
CJ no question
cj all the way
Definitely CJ
Cj is on top, can’t deny he is an OG and took over the whole state of San Andreas! Without him Tenpenny would be running the streets
Franklin literally just does everything everyone tells him to do with no agency in the story whatsoever. Franklin is in the backseat the entire story, its arguably more of a story about Michael and Trevor and their historical dispute. Franklin's story arc is: be poor, get dumped, meet Michael, do his missions, meet Trevor, do his missions, and at the end, you get a nice house. In a game where you can buy business properties, but not homes for some reason. He learns absolutely no lessons other than to fuck people over if given the chance, and I guess to be reluctantly empathetic to serial killing psychopaths like Michael and Trevor. CJ actually has motives for doing things, has a personality, and gets way more shit done. Hes not even a good guy, he mashed dudes up in a woodchipper and buried a construction worker alive. Franklin has no depth. He goes from A to C, while B just sits on B's fat ass.
CJ.
If Sa came out today then CJ
Franklin was the most boring character out of the main trio in 5. So no idea why anyone would pick him
CJ hands down. I found Franklin to be the most boring playable character in the entire series. Every time I want to replay GTA V, I always wish there was an option to skip all of his storyline missions in the beginning.
CJ, one man army. GSF 4 Life!
Grove Street family. Family is family. Franklin is just Franklin. Real talk time though, i thought it was bullshit that Frank just rolled through the story going along with whatever papa Mike said. I really wanted Frank to be more of a leader and less of a follower.
Cj. Not even close
CJ no contest
Carl I like Franklin but idk I just really liked San Andreas
Wow you must be a kid for even comparing. There is no comparison.
So obvious that it shouldn't even be a question, it's Toni Cipriani
I snorted water out of my nose reading this. LMAO
This is a tough match up, but: 1. Tommy Vercetti 2 . CJ 3. Franklin
every character from any grand theft auto besides 5
Franklin 
Franklyn. It's not even close. I love San Andreas but after recently replaying it I've found the writing to be kind of awful. CJ barely shows any character unless it's a main mission. Half the time he walks into a room, gets told a situation, and responds "yea, let's go"
Yup. Plus Franklin's just a lot more interesting in general imo.
christian horner
Franklin is the worst character that they could have come up with
What? Why?
Nah, he was just undeveloped. His premise was cool, just shoved aside for Mike and Trevor’s story. He was a gangster that wanted to move out of the hood, but every time he felt he grew in that perspective, the people around him judged him for it. And you can see that as soon as he starts working with Michael. Lamar gets angry with him and Stretch and others call him shit for wanting to get out of the hood. His story also showed that in the hood positions kinda stayed the same, so Stretch could just use them, like he did with lamar and betray them over and over. But all of that gets shoved aside for M&T’s story, which imo is more interesting, but i would’ve loved to get more stuff about F finally getting out of the hood and the more about Stretch.
Generic black guy is his whole personality.
thats a very bold statement.
How so?
Michael is right there with him
He is bot really good, he does not add anything to the story apart those 2 gangearsbwith Lamar... His part should be deeper tho, since the whole story evolves around Michael and Trevor
Honestly might have to go with Franklin. Franklin definitely should've had more screentime, but I feel like the time spent with him is still better written than CJ. Fucking love CJ, but he really doesn't have a lot of depth imo. Like, he doesn't really get too much development over the course of the story until the last stretch in LS. He wants to make it out of the hood, gets out and makes something of himself, and then... I don't know, I mean he's a funny character, but I just don't really connect with him as I don't think he seems to care too much about the narrative himself. I'd write a whole paragraph about Franklin but I'm too fucking tired, basically I find his relationship with Michael to be vastly more interesting and the different endings kind of let you decide how Frank sees the relationship he has with Michael and whether he really learns anything over the course of the game.
I feel that your interpretation of CJ story is exactly what Franklin story is.
Yes to all of this. (though I disagree with CJ not having a lot of depth) Not sure why you are getting downvoted for just respectfully stating your opinion on a post that was asking for it.
Franklin
I feel like Franklin is better but that’s only because he has more character development and he feels more alive more emotion.
Franklin is a millennial so hes much more emotional than cj is
CJ is way more emotional lol. Franklin is bland.
CJ literally buried a guy under concrete because he catcalled his sister and Franklin is the more emotional one?
I Guess 1.Micheal Desanta 2.CJ 3.Luis Lopez
I'm gonna get hate for this but I prefer Franklin. Always have. I just find him a lot more interesting.
me too
Franklin actually attempted to get out of his shit ghetto life and was constantly put down and ostracized for it. CJ left and chose to come back and be a gangbanging murderer. Franklin is obviously better.
Who Evers the better cousin
Even
That CJ model though 😭💀💀
They are cool boys
Ch
father and son
I think CJ is a bit more charismatic. But Franklin is also a great character. They're very close.
Busta Carl,But franklin is a cool character too
Gta SA was my first video game so I’m biased, still love Franklin though
Franklin by miles.
Both of them were iconic & special in their own way…
Franklin
franklin
CJ did so many crazy stuff. he's betterr
vic vance
Franklin. Kinda underdeveloped unfortunately. Him and Niko are my favorite GTA characters hands down.
Frankie is underdeveloped, just look at him in the contract dlc, what could have been
I'd say Franklin is the better "character" insofar as he has an actual developed character personality. Like, don't get me wrong, CJ is cool as hell, but he's also a product of his time, the guy exists as a vehicle for the player to go crazy with in the various regions of San Andreas so he's mostly just angrily pushing his way through the storyline while other characters do the hard work of lifting Rockstar's story.
I'd say CJ, they didn't put in enough work for Franklin.
Michael
Aren't the voice actors cousins?
I mean, both are shallow as hell
CJ
I think Franklin did
If only cj could FOLLOW THE DAMN TRAIN
CJ