We've had about a billion dystopian scenarios play out in the past two years - from a deadly pandemic, to large parts of the world catching fire. So it's hard to remember that 2020 actually opened on the very real fear that we were minutes away from a third world war. In January 2020, the Trump administration successfully carried out an assassination against Iranian military officer, Qasem Soleimani - a largely popular figure in the country.Thankfully, we avoided all-out international war. But of course, this hardly made Trump a popular figure in Iran, and revenge is clearly still on the minds of many. In lieu of an actual attack, it's now come to light that Iranian officials have put together a weird PSP-era cutscene of Trump being assassinated on a golf course, in case you were wondering how it would play out in a 2008 FPS game.As seen in the strange animation, ex-President Donald Trump is targetted by the Iranian government while he plays a game of golf at Mar-A-Lago, as he is often seen to do. Complete with dramatic music, we see awkward, early 2000s-esque character models complete the attack in revenge for the one on Soleimani.The footage was shared to Twitter by journalist Jake Hanrahan, and originates from MEMRI, an institute that shares media from the Middle East with the West. It is worth noting that the organization has faced accusations of broadcasting fake translations of Middle Eastern programming in the past, but in this instance, the animation clearly shows an attempt to take out Trump.
While two years on it appears that any tensions will be played out via video game cutscenes, at the time the possibility of a real-life retaliation against a big figure in the US felt likely. However, as noted by Iranian cleric, Shahab Moradi, we may have avoided it because all of America's comparable heroes are fictional. "Think about it. Are we supposed to take out Spider-Man and SpongeBob?", he said. "They don't have any heroes. We have a country in front of us with a large population and a large landmass, but it doesn't have any heroes. All of their heroes are cartoon characters - they're all fictional".
Well... a look at the recent box-office returns makes that point pretty hard to dispute. Here's to rampant consumerism, I guess?