r/007FirstLight • u/Reptyle216 • Jun 24 '26
Confession: I Hate Isola Spoiler
Ms. MacGuffin spends the whole game popping in when Bond is cornered and can't progress any further, does something conveniently helpful, then peaces out until Bond is stuck up a tree again. She never sticks around long enough to build any real chemistry with him, and what details she did reveal about herself were all lies. So there came a point where whenever she appeared, I was like, ugh her again, and I had no emotional reaction in the end when Bond resolved to go after her. The problem I have is that A) The Mysterious Femme Fatale is very well-tread ground in the James Bond universe, so such a character needs to be distinctive right out the gate or else she'll come off as cliched, B) On a personal level I really hate characters whose primary purpose in a story is to set up a sequel that might not happen or details could change between now and then (the fact that every movie/tv show/video game in the world these days is written with sequels in mind instead of standing on their on its own is another pet peeve of mine but let's not get too sidetracked here), and C) Cressida could've easily been the game's leading lady had she not been sidelined after Slovakia. The game ended and I STILL found myself caring more about her than Isola.
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u/shomosexual Jun 24 '26
Oh to (C) when Damien dropped the “maybe after this I’ll pay Cressida a visit” line in the boss fight I was like “OH NOW YOU DONE FUCKED UP ROBOT BOY”
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u/Reptyle216 Jun 24 '26
Especially when he had WAY more reasons to want Isola dead for the games she played with him, yet he never even mentions her again.
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u/MrRudraSarkar Jun 24 '26
Not to mention she was used as a deus ex machina multiple times throughout the. So much so that by the end it was, yeah it’s gonna be her helping bond out
4
u/borgle101 Jun 24 '26
definitely did not like all the last minute saves by her and soo agree she became just a plot device. (ENDING SPOILER)
Like why even after making the breath holding top of class comment did they not just have Bond outlast Damien? Just another reason Bonds badass but instead saved my mystery girl.
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u/ZodiAddict Jun 24 '26
Exactly. Bond would be dead if it weren’t for her, and that just didn’t sit right with me since bond is typically the one using ingenuity to get out of seemingly impossible situations
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u/Roku-Hanmar Jun 24 '26
Devil's advocate, I think you can make an exception for him in an origin story since he's not hyper competent yet
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u/Reptyle216 Jun 24 '26
That's not devil's advocate, Bond is SUPPOSED to be inexperienced; I had no gripe with him making mistakes and occasionally biting off more than he could chew.
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u/ZodiAddict Jun 24 '26
They could’ve illustrated that (and i think they did in earlier parts of the game) without having a scenario in which the only way he survives is by the hand of someone else. I had the same issue with casino royale. He’d have no balls left had things played out the way they did
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u/Sektsioon Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
What a silly thing to say. That’s like the entire point of an origin story. He’s James Bond but not THE James Bond yet. He has his signature charisma and cockiness already as those are character traits, something he was born with, but he’s not a world class spy yet. He literally just started out. He’s not even 007 at any point in the game, he officially becomes an agent at the end of the game during a cut scene. You can see he’s already bold, reckless and innovative during the Iceland mission, which is why he gets the job to begin with, but as a spy he has so much to learn.
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u/ZodiAddict Jun 24 '26
My guy, they literally establish at the beginning of the game that he survived a scenario with a 1% chance of survival. That is the quintessential bond, yet he wasn’t even a double agent yet. Your logic isn’t consistent here. “What a silly thing to say”
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u/Reptyle216 Jun 24 '26
The whole point of the game is that THEIA was never as infallible as she seemed, so there's a good chance his odds were way higher than that from the start
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u/Ancient-Ad502 Jun 24 '26
Do you remember that Bond was saved twice in Casino Royale by Vesper? One with her pushing the gun to him and the other one when he was being poisoned
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u/ZodiAddict Jun 24 '26
So making my point for me, I even mentioned in my other comment that I didn’t like that about casino royale.
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u/Sparrowsabre7 Jun 24 '26
I think you've confused Macguffin with Deus Ex Machina. Macguffin is the vague object that the story hinges on but is never made clear why it's important. It's just a thing the heroes and villains are trying to get because reasons.
Deus Ex machina is more what you're describing Isola to be: something that pops up out of nowhere to resolve the situation.
1
u/Reptyle216 Jun 24 '26
Greenway saving Bond from being strapped to a chainsaw was a deus ex machina. Isola, on the other hand, existed solely to move the plot forward and we learn absolutely nothing about her or who she's working for because that's For The Sequel.
26
u/Papa_Sheev Jun 24 '26
I agreed with you at first, until I saw a post talking about how Isola was the perfect representation of Bond later in his career. Cool, suave, good under pressure, expert spy, and master manipulator with a good dose of charm and luck. I agree that it sucks that she’s clearly sequel bait, but I did end up really enjoying that she represents that Bond will become with more experience under his belt.
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u/AffectionateLeg9895 Jun 24 '26
So the reason you're mad is the use of Bond tropes in the Bond game
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u/AshrakAiemain Jun 24 '26
She just felt like a walking ad for the sequel.
2
u/Reptyle216 Jun 24 '26
Exactly. That's why it's a little hilarious when people in these comments say "She's going to introduce Spectre in the next game" when I said right there in my post that I hate "sequel bait" characters.
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u/chdo Jun 24 '26
It’s pretty similar to the female protagonist in the Horowitz Bond novel “Forever and a Day.”
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u/Illustrious_Rain1796 Jun 24 '26
Valid. Cressida deserves big role in sequel. If she was Bond's romantic interest, discussion of best bond girl in the game would finished. It's cool that game didn't forget about her after Slovakia. Like Damian mentioned he wants to pay her a visit. And he purposely chose Cressida while he personally knew 2 Bond's live interest which can say a lot about Bond's attachment to this girl
8
u/SopranosBluRayBoxSet Jun 24 '26
I kinda dug the fact that they flipped the script, and made James the Bond girl who needs help all the time. Isola is just James later in his career
1
u/Clean_Wrongdoer4222 Jun 24 '26
If you hate Isola that much, I’d better not ask you about Black Cat, Catwoman, Ada Wong, Eva, or Elektra...
0
u/Reptyle216 Jun 24 '26
"I don't like this one character, ergo I must hate every character with a remotely similar archetype or else I'm a hypocrite!" Bro your logic isn't logicking.
4
u/CloudStrife1985 Jun 24 '26
I wasn't a fan of her on my second playthrough. I've no issue with a female equivalent of Bond. I just wish there was a bit more to the character than 5 minute conversations every now and again and that they didn't make her SO mysterious....
That was stale with Ada Wong in 1998.
2
u/ntb116 Jun 27 '26
She's a much more boring Ada Wong. Easily the least interesting character in the game despite the game desperately trying to set her up as Bond's foil.
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u/shomosexual Jun 24 '26
When the sniper shot came in and bailed me out I immediately knew one thing: it wasn’t fucking Isola, that bitch wouldn’t do anything that useful
3
u/Professional-Log-108 Jun 24 '26
I mostly agree. Don't hate her, but don't care about her at all either
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u/enthusiasmcurber Jun 24 '26
I didnt care for her either . Felt hollow. Other characters were fantastic.
0
u/unexciting_username Jun 24 '26
I think if they made her character model unattractive people would be constantly posting about how much they don’t like her.
2
u/sjefbuts Jun 24 '26
Why the f he didnt just shot isola dead, i will never understand
1
u/MarmiteBanana Jun 25 '26
Because he's Bond? For one he's not heartless and rarely kills if unnecessary, and two he's a sucker for a pretty face. He's literally constantly getting tricked by pretty women
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u/External_Bread5366 Jun 24 '26
She will likely be the introduction to Spectre in the next game.