Gears Of War: Anya’s Mystery Death Explained

Anya Stroud is a key character from the original Gears Of War trilogy, but here’s her mystery death in the fourth title explained. Gears Of War is responsible, alongside Resident Evil 4, for the evolution of third-person shooters in the mid-2000s. Gears Of War, in particular, pioneered the cover shooting mechanic, where players hide behind walls or other pieces of cover to take potshots at enemies. A cult 2003 shooter called Kill Switch acted as inspiration for the game, since it also placed heavy emphasis on cover combat.

Pretty much every third-person action game in the years that followed took a page out of Gears Of War’s book, including Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Dark Sector and even parts of Dead Space. Fans were drawn to the surprisingly involved mythology of the series too, which would evolve greatly with sequels Gears Of War 2 and 3. Main character Marcus Fenix would also become something of a gaming icon. The franchise is still going strong, with the most recent entry Gears 5 being considered a return to form, while turn-based strategy title Gears Tactics is set for release in April 2020.

Alongside Marcus’ late bestie Dom, Anya Stroud was a fan favorite from the original trilogy. Anya is the daughter of COG Major Helena Stroud, with Anya taking up a communications and support position during the Locust War, working closely with Marcus Fenix’s Delta-One squad. This was the position she maintained for the first two games but for Gears Of War 3, she donned her own armor and joined Delta as a soldier. She and Marcus also fell in love over the course of the three games, and once the war ended, they married and had a son named James.

Gears Of War 4 revealed Anya was able to conceive James despite being previously infertile due to a birthing program created by Mina Jinn. Anya died when James was 6 and players can visit her grave in the fourth game. How she died isn’t revealed but a conversation between Dom and Jinn in Gears 5 heavily implies Anya’s death was due to complications from trying to have a second child. The curious thing about this is that the games are so vague about the specifics surrounding her death, implying there might be a future revelation about Anya’s passing or Jinn’s fertility program itself.

Anya is still much missed by Gears Of War fans, as she evolved from tactical support in the first game to fully-fledged Delta soldier. While later games fully embrace her legacy, it would still have been nice to see her be part of the story instead of dying of vaguely defined causes between games.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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