Niko Bellic: Difference between revisions

Work was hard to come by following the war. Niko's cousin, [[Roman]], had already moved to [[America]] to start a new life in Liberty City; Niko spent the next decade working in the European criminal underworld, leading to a brief period of incarceratation. After being released from prison, he began working for a human trafficking ring led by [[Ray Bulgarin]]; when a boat involved in the operation sank in the Adriatic during a smuggling run into Italy, Niko swam to safety, but everything and everyone else was lost. Bulgarin believed that Niko had intentionally scuttled the ship and stole his money; the gangster's reach was too great within Europe, so Niko joined the merchant navy to escape Bulgarin's influence.

Niko parted ways with the Platypus crew there, partly to reunite with his cousin, and partly to track down Florian Cravic, who had moved to Liberty City after the war. Roman had been boasting of great success in Liberty City, but in truth his assets amounted to a small taxi depot and rundown apartment, and he was saddled with heavy debts due to his gambling habit. Niko would assist Roman in his taxi business, and protect his cousin from the loansharks who were harassing him. Roman's connections eventually led to Niko taking work with the Russian Mafia, setting in motion the events of the game.

Niko is very protective of his family and loved ones, particularly his cousin Roman, despite Roman's indiscreet nature frequently getting the pair into trouble. He is withdrawn among strangers, but has good manners, and shows a softer side with love interests like [[Kate McReary]] and [[Michelle]]; that said, the horrors of war, both witnessed and perpetrated by Niko, have given him a great sense of guilt, and an ambivalence about the value of human life — he warns away pursuers and expresses regret over his past violence, but also feels that killing is all that he can do, readily taking on jobs which necessarily involve murder. He has an explosive temper when he is lied to, manipulated, or his loyalty is questioned, but he is also quick to help the defenseless and unfortunate, even [[Random Characters|those he merely meets in passing]]; he apparently possesses a sense of idealism which was wounded by his wartime experiences. Unfortunately, such a split attitude leads to hypocrisy — Niko, for example, appears to genuinely sympathise with the [[McReary]]s' grief over the demise of one of their brothers, despite having secretly committed that murder himself.  

Niko's businesslike manner usually leads him to behave more maturely and cautiously than his acquaintances, although with acquaintances like [[Brucie Kibbutz]], [[Bernie Crane]] and Roman, this is no surprise. He has an apparent distaste for illicit drugs, turning down [[Little Jacob]]'s offer of marijuana and warning against Packie's cocaine habit; he also finds it distasteful to traffick in cocaine and particularly heroin, although this may be due to the heavy jail sentences they attract as much as any moral qualms. He is skeptical of American mainstream culture, which he sees as shallow, hypocritical and debauched, and has trouble relating to Roman's fascination with the country.

The surname "Bellic" would not exist in the Serbian, Bosnian or Croatian languages, as these do not allow consecutive consonants (ie, the double-L in "Bellic"); "Bellic" is also pronounced with a hard 'c' ("bel-lik") throughout the game — Niko himself uses the incorrect pronunciation when introducing himself to the receptionist at Goldberg, Ligner and Shyster in the mission [[Final Interview]]. A proper pronunciation would use a hard 'ch' (as used in-game with the names "[[Darko Brevic]]" and "[[Florian Cravic]]"); a more authentic rendering of Niko's surname would be ''Belić''. At one point, Florian, speaking in his native Serbian, pronounces the name correctly; "Bellic" may simply be an Anglicised version of "Belić".