Quentin's Character in the Galactic Football League

 Warning: Minor Spoilers about some character development

Quentin's character development in the Galactic Football League

Note: I mention the Purist Nation multiple times in this blog post. The Purist Nation is basically the combination of all of the major religions on earth and taking the racist, homophobic, and unfair qualities from all and turning it into 1 religion called “Purism”

I read the Galactic Football League (GFL) a couple years ago and I really enjoyed it then, so I decided to re-read it. I have currently read the first 2 books of the series called The Rookie and The Starter. The GFL is set in the distant future where the different races of the galaxy come together to play football. The protagonist, Quentin Barnes is a human and is from the Purist Nation where all non-human races are viewed as evil and inferior to humans. However, Quentin has a dream of winning the GFL championship and to do that he must play on a team with aliens. Quentin must push past his racist and homophobic beliefs and understand that everyone, no matter how different, are real beings. I think the GFL by Scott Sigler is a very interesting series, in part because of Quentin’s complex and realistic character.

Throughout the GFL Quentin struggles to bond with his those on his team. Quentin does not want to bond with other on his team because he believes they are evil. He does not think of them as beings, simply as evil. Since Quentin does not trust his teammates, they do not trust him. Quentin soon learns this hard fact after losing a couple games. The senior quarterback on the team gives Quentin a pep talk explaining that “Get it in your (Quentin’s) head that you have to stop thinking of different races, and start seeing them, Ki, Quyth, and Sklorno (the other races), as your teammates (Sigler, Rookie 225). After this pep talk and a couple similar experiences Quentin begins to shift his thinking. He begins to try to bond with his teammates and understand them. About halfway through the first book, Quentin has an epiphany. He finally figures out that ‘“If you don’t respect them, they’re not going to respect you. And if they don’t respect you, they’re not following you, they’re just going through the motions”’ (Sigler, Rookie 224). This “Aha” moment is, literally, a game changer for Quentin. He starts to respect his teammates and not simply accept them. He engages with them and learns from them. He does something he has hardly done during his life. He respects others and finds that they respect him because of it.

In other books I have read the protagonist simply has an epiphany and then there is a training montage, and everything works for them. However, Sigler does something different, and more realistic. Even after Quentin has his epiphany about respect and overcoming his racism, he cannot put his entire childhood teachings behind him. Sigler shows Quentin’s slow transition away from his childhood teachings throughout the GFL series, but one instance stands out. In the 2^nd book, Quentin encounters someone who is gay. And for Quentin, who was raised with the belief that everyone who is not heterosexual is evil, this is difficult. But Quentin “knew he was being ridiculous, but it was hard to get past a lifetime of rhetoric” (Sigler, Starter 34). This is another instance where Quentin has an epiphany that builds directly off of his other epiphany. The building off is illustrated right after his conversation with someone who is gay, “He had once thought the Sklorno, the Quyth, and the Ki (other alien races) were Satanic. He’d gotten over that. Maybe he’d get over this as well” (Sigler, Starter, 34). In this epiphany Quentin builds off of his previous epiphany since he has already moved away from some of the Purist Nation’s teachings, so he understands that he can move past other teachings as well.

Sigler creates an amazing story about galactic football, but I think that one of the most interesting components of the GFL series is Sigler’s realistic representation of how someone like Quentin can change even if they have been taught one thing for a lifetime. However, Quentin does not change overnight. He changes over the course of years and has multiple epiphanies that all change him for the better. I think that Quentin’s gradual shift away from the Purist Nation’s cruel teachings makes the GFL a very interesting series and I would recommend it.

-Kai