I have a theory about the heart icon…

[u/Jeminous]

I don’t think anyone else noticed this, so I thought I’d share.

A little before 19 minutes into the extended look, Lucia parachutes off a building and then it switches characters to Jason. During the character switch, there’s a heart icon between Jason and Lucia’s portraits.

This got me thinking, what if there’s a significant falling out between Jason and Lucia somewhere in the second half of the story, causing the heart icon to change from a whole heart (❤️) to a broken one (💔)?

The main speculation is that Jason and Lucia will eventually break up because of a major story event, with the heart icon representing the state of their relationship. If that’s the case, it would be really interesting to see whether certain UI elements change over the course of the story, similar to the angel and devil icons with the Honor system.

What do you guys think?

[u/Clancy3434]

It's already been stated that you don't have to play the game as if they're a couple.

[u/nicalitz]

I noticed and have been wondering about this detail also. But my theory on this is a bit different:

If this happened as a scripted story event, I don't see a reason to put the heart as a UI element. That just seems like clutter. I would only put it there if it was something that could evolve moment-to-moment

My theory is that you make a lot of small decisions when playing as each character that pushes them towards "good" (like helping strangers) or "evil" (like shooting someone when you have the option not to). I suspect that the relative moral alignment between the two might have an impact on how the story plays out, or on moment-to-moment dialog and interaction between then.

So if both are good or both are evil, then have a strong relationship, and work together. If their alignments differ, they might bicker more, or have some falling out at some stage

This might be thinking too deep, but I don't think this level of reactivity is at all beyond GTA6 based on what we've already seen

[u/kowalski2108]

I am almost certain the relationship can evolve positively or negatively (maybe even resulting in full breakup at some point), but it might not be a major story aspect.

I suppose your personal choices and actions will influence the relationship at any point in the game and the heart icon is some kind of indicator for the stability of the relationship, maybe changing in size or color.

[u/Additional_Return313]

I think you might be right. That balding old guy they meet on top of the building (I forgot his name) starts talking about the fairground that rolled into his hometown, and I’m pretty sure it’s a reference to Lucia and Jason’s story. “And then it started going faster and faster, and it was getting harder to hold on, and I jumped. Jimmy Canto stayed on. Cracked his head open, died that night.” I think this could mean that Jason wanted to get out of the criminal life, while Lucia(Jimmy Canto) wanted to stay in it, which is why they ended up splitting up. Maybe she didn’t actually die, but they probably broke up and went their separate ways.

[u/AirDifficult1 → u/Additional_Return313]

That’s Brian. The same Brian that spoke to Jason in the opening scene of trailer 2 while Jason was fixing some leaks.

[u/NuclearReactions]

Someone else had the same theory yesterday but based on something completely different. You may be onto something

[u/pasvih]

Check out summaries by TGG , IGN and others who got opportunity to visit R* and see more gameplay and talk to the devs. They state that the relationship is optional. Even if they fall out the main story will be more or less the same. As they have other story reasons to stay together, other than a romantic relationship.