Travis Touchdown & Loneliness (Spoilers for the entire No More Heroes Series)

Notes: wrote this months ago and barely edited idc anymore

In nmh1 Travis’ only friend is Bishop (he also has his cat Jeane). Other than that he quite literally had no one which may have been one of the reasons Travis’ wanted to get revenge for the death of his parents. He had no one else growing up other than his parents since it seems that he was separated from his siblings early on. This also explains why he loves anime and video games so much as they were one of the only things that have stayed by his side since he was young.

He constantly pushes others away especially when they are trying to help him. This more-so occurs starting from nmh2 with Shinobu helping him with the ranking battles. He constantly pushes off Shinobu’s help because he has always done everything on his own and he also doesn’t want to get her involved in his problems. Travis does care for the few people in his life, but at least at this point he has a hard time showing it. I think another reason why Travis has a desire to be alone isn’t just due to him putting his friends and family at risk because he’s an assassin but because of trust issues. Again, he has always been alone and done things on his own so its natural for him to keep doing so and with being an assassin it’s probably not easy to trust others either to begin with. Besides this, the only important people in his life have betrayed him. Sylvia manipulated him, Jeane killed his parents, and his parents turned out to be terrible people.

In tsa, Travis leaves behind Sylvia and his children to protect them. Since reaching number 1 twice in a row a lot of assassins have been after Travis to take his throne. Travis’ need to self isolate isn’t only to protect his friends and family or simply because he desires to truly be alone but because he feels that deserves to be alone. After all the trauma with his family and all the needless bloodshed that he created throughout the first two games he most likely feels that he isn’t meant to truly be happy (or to find paradise?). His marriage with Sylvia didn’t exactly work out either (which I will touch on later).

Another point shown through out the games is the price an assassin will ultimately pay for all the people they slaughter. They are basically destined to be alone. Like with Dr. Peace, Bad girl, and Fu. Dr. Peace lost his relationship with his family and his daughter, Bad girl lost her relationship with her father and she pretty much lived only to fight and kill other assassins, Fu lost all of his “friends” or rather his companions he had no friends to begin with the other aliens only followed him out of fear and in the end he was still alone. Travis was headed down this same path in the first game, he became so blind sighted by his bloodlust that he forgot why he was actually participating in the ranked fights. This bloodlust set Travis on a path in which he cannot escape the life of an assassin (Travis not being able to kill his past).   

I think it’s also important to note Travis regards dreams as a place where someone can truly be happy. Like it isn’t possible for him or anyone in the real world. When he kills Jeane he tells her “I hope your next dream is a more pleasant one.” When he kills Kimmy he says, “see you again in my dreams. This is goodbye.” Or after killing Electro Triple Star he tell him “goodnight.” These killings were painful for Travis but the way he tells them good night or see you in the dream world show that Travis felt that this was the only outcome and that in his dreams are the only place that these people will ever be apart of his life.  

In nmh3 Travis is constantly seen hanging out with Bishop and towards the end of the game all his friends come together to help him with the final battle. The people that he has been constantly pushing away come to his side and Travis seems to finally accept that he doesn’t have to be alone. In this game and in a bit of tsa we also see Travis act a lot softer with his friends. In nmh 1 & 2 he constantly bitched people out or encouraged people in a kind of rude way. In tsa, Travis befriends Kamui and when Kamui tries to fight Travis, Travis says that he won’t fight a friend. This causes Kamui to cry and Travis comforts him. In nmh3 Travis visits Bad girl and Shinobu to cheer them up and comfort them by talking about anime and wrestling. But the one relationship Travis was never able to work out was his and Sylvia’s or him and his family. Even though Travis has allowed himself to have friends, he never will be able to have a family again. 

It is almost as if the universe is punishing Travis for the events of the first game and how his senseless killing down the path of revenge has kept him stuck in a cycle which he cannot escape the life of an assassin. Travis cannot kill his past. And how can he move on with his life and find friends, family and paradise if he can’t kill his past? All of them are tied too deeply to it. Travis will be able to rest for a bit, but he will never find true peace or happiness, or completely move on (I could go on another tangent about how Travis can’t die but I won’t here at least). But he is content with his friends and everything else that he has now.