Maero

Maero is a character in Saints Row 2 and Saints Row IV.^[3]

You really think that a couple washed up bangers like you and Gat have a chance against the Brotherhood?

— Maero, during his first meeting with Playa^[4]

Overview

Maero is the patriarch of The Brotherhood of Stilwater, and serves as the main antagonist of The Brotherhood arc.

Sometime after forming the Brotherhood, Maero became good friends with Donnie, a former member of the Westside Rollerz, and Matt, a tattoo artist and lead guitarist for the Feed Dogs. He and his girlfriend Jessica then expanded The Brotherhood's influence in the city.

Maero towers over everyone he meets. Not only is he tall, but he also packs an unbelievable amount of muscle, which for the most part, is covered in tattoos. Maero is a violent man, straightforward and blunt with his tactics, but still cunning in the predatory sense. One of his favorite hobbies is participating in the Demolition Derby competitions held at the Stilwater University. Here he drives a customized Atlasbreaker to crush the competition and work up his reputation.^[5]

In Saints Row IV, a reconstructed Maero is unlocked as a Homie after defeating him in Pierce's Loyalty mission.^[6] Maero has multiple homie conversations.

Appearance

Maero is a large, physically imposing man with dark skin and long red hair cut into a stylized mullet. He has several piercings, including an eyebrow ring and a chin stud, and wears a gold tribal bracelet on his left wrist, brown slacks with a fanged belt buckle and gold belt chain and red leather boots. For the first two missions, he wears a red short-sleeved, button-down shirt with tribal designs on it's sleeves.^[4]^[7] For the rest of the game, he is shirtless.^[8]

Maero has several intricate tribal tattoos all over his body. This became the largest part of his appearance, even more than his tribal clothing. He also has a large, red, multicolored wolf tattoo on his chest and a stylized cross at his sternum, flanked by two letter B's mirroring each other, which represented his affiliation with his gang. He also has tattoos on his arms and many other places which are not available at Rusty's Needle, such as the cheeks and neck.

Biography

Saints Row 2

When he hears that the 3rd Street Saints are back, Maero asks to meet their leader in the Stilwater Caverns to form a secret pact, but their meeting is interrupted by the Stilwater Police Department.^[9] Together, they escape and head to The Brotherhood HQ in the southern docks. There, Maero proposes an alliance between the Saints and The Brotherhood, but offers them only twenty percent of all profits. Angered by this, Playa refuses his proposition.^[10]

Playa harasses Donnie by forcing the timid mechanic to sabotage some of The Brotherhood's trucks,^[7] and later steals some radioactive waste from the Nuclear Power Plant. After acquiring the toxic material, he delivers it to the Rusty's Needle near the Brotherhood hideout. Matt unknowingly uses it to tattoo Maero's face, which results in a severe and painful burn as well screaming.^[11]

Angered by this, Jessica orders for Carlos to be killed,^[12] as he is the Saint assigned to take down The Brotherhood. Determined to avenge Carlos' death, Playa kidnaps Jessica while she is at the Stilwater Savings & Loan bank, and locks her in the trunk of her Phoenix, before driving it to Maero's Demolition Derby.^[13] As Maero is crushing cars in his Atlasbreaker, he hits a ramp and lands directly on top Jessica's car, killing her. Before taking his leave, Playa tosses Maero the keys, and tells him that he should have made the Saints a better offer when they first met.

Enraged by Jessica's murder and the subsequent events that followed; such as the crippling of Matt after Playa crashed one of his Feed Dogs concerts,^[14] Maero decides he needs all the help he can get. So he breaks into the office of Dane Vogel, and demands that the CEO use Ultor's connections to free all The Brotherhood members who are in the Stilwater Penitentiary. When Vogel refuses, Maero dangles him by his neck out of his office window, and threatens to drop him if he does not change his mind. Vogel unwillingly agrees to Maero's terms, and orders the Chief of Police, Troy Bradshaw, to schedule a massive prison release,^[15] but Playa finds out about it, and kills all of the prisoners before they are released.^[16]

Maero confronts Vogel a second time, but the Ultor CEO is no longer willing to help because he sees nothing to gain from doing The Brotherhood any more favors. As the Masako escort Maero out of the Phillips Building at gunpoint, Vogel smugly hints that Ultor is taking possession of the Brotherhood's upcoming arms shipment, arriving by freighter.^[17]

After Playa raids the freighter and steals The Brotherhood's shipment,^[18] he decides that the time has finally come for the Saints to get rid of Maero. A fierce battle soon breaks out at The Brotherhood HQ, and Maero is eventually forced to confront Playa. But he does so on the roof armed with a Mini-Gun and some Satchel Charges. After an intense shootout, Maero runs out of ammo, and resorts to attacking Playa with his bare hands. In their struggle, the two gang leaders fall through the roof of The Brotherhood HQ, and into Maero's "office", where Donnie and Matt are hiding. Donnie flees as Playa gains the upper hand against Maero, nearly killing him with one of Matt's tattoo needles, but Matt intervenes by tackling Playa to the floor while Maero flees. As a result, Matt ends up sacrificing his own life to allow Maero to escape.^[19]

Maero later calls Playa, and challenges him one last face-off in the Ultor Dome. Playa decides to come alone, unlike Maero, who has planned an ambush with his Atlasbreaker and the remnants of The Brotherhood. Playa manages to successfully kill all of The Brotherhood before destroying Maero's Monster Truck. Maero survives the explosion, but is badly injured and unable to continue fighting. His last words are "Go to hell!", before Playa shoots him in the head.^[20]

Saints Row IV

In Saints Row IV, Maero is featured in Pierce's Loyalty mission.^[6] The mission replicates the things the Saints did while taking out The Brotherhood, these include destroying trucks^[7] and collecting nuclear waste.^[11] Playa and Pierce then travel to the Wesley Cutter Intl airport and fight Maero in his Atlasbreaker. He is unlocked as a homie after mission is completed.

Maero is also a Security Deletion target in The Grove, driving an Atlasbreaker.

Trivia

In Maori folklore, the name 'Maero' comes from a story based in the forests of New Zealand, where large beasts with long, dirty hair and thin, bony, claw-like fingers kidnap those that walk alone and encourage them to fight. When fought, the Maero regenerates its health almost immediately, including re-attaching limbs, and kills the victim by stabbing him with its bony, claw-like fingers. The 'Maero' could also refer to the 'Moehau man' of New Zealand, similar to a bigfoot or sasquatch, with long arms and long fingers/claws.

Saints Row 2

Maero is among the Stilwater Police Department's most wanted fugitives.
During Drug Trafficking missions, Luz remarks that Hector Lopez and Maero knew each other.
Despite being one of the most violent and angry of the gang leaders in Saints Row 2, he is the only one who isn't immediately hostile to the Saints, seeking to form an alliance with them at first.
Maero's voice actor, Michael Dorn, played Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Weasel in I Am Weasel, and provided the voice of Mata Nui in Bionicle: The Legend Reborn.
During "Showdown", Maero's model is the same as during "First Impressions", without the facial scarring acquired from "Waste Not Want Not".
While battling Maero on the rooftop of The Brotherhood HQ,^[19] he has 12000 hitpoints, 18000 in Co-op, which is the most hitpoints of any enemy in the game. The next strongest enemy is Veteran Child, who has 6000 hit points, 9000 in Co-op.^[21] It takes 6 hits with the Pimp Slap to kill Maero, as the Pimp Slap does 2000 damage per hit.
Maero is the only enemy gang leader who is a Homie during a mission.

Saints Row: The Third

In Saints Row: The Third there is a hairstyle named the "Maero Mullet", though it differs greatly in length, closer resembling Matt's hair.
He is indirectly mentioned in Cyrus Temple's speech to Steelport, only saying Jessica Parish had a boyfriend that unknowingly crushed her in her car, his involvement with The Brotherhood of Stilwater is omitted, as well as Jessica's.^[22]

Saints Row IV

Benjamin King and Maero are the only leaders of a rival gang who are ever recruited as a homie at some point in the game. Neither of them are "rivals" at the time they are Homies.
As a Homie, Maero is shorter than he is in Saints Row 2.^[23] This is because the developers did not implement characters of different heights in Saints Row: The Third onwards.

Quotes

Your little buddy screamed like a bitch when we trussed him up... How 'bout you bitch? You gonna scream?

— Maero to Playa during "The Siege"

Who the fuck do the Saints think they are turning me down.

— Maero

Maero: "I've heard about the connections Ultor has...you're gonna get my boys outta jail and help me destroy the Saints."
Dane Vogel: "Your bargaining posture needs some work."

— Maero and Vogel after the events of "Retribution"

Did I ever tell you that Victor was a friend of Maero's? It was a tattoo thing.

— Luz in Drug Trafficking, revealing Maero's past.

What kind of city doesn't have Freckle Bitch's?

— Maero, when called as a Homie in Saints Row IV

I miss Jessica.

— One of Maero's Idle lines in Saints Row IV

If I can kill Maero, what chances do you have?

— Playa Male Voice 2, when killing civilians or enemies after Maero's death.^[20]

Audio Logs

Main article: Audio Logs

When I heard the Saints were back in Stilwater, I figured it couldn't hurt to have a little more muscle on The Brotherhood's side. 20/80 was a fair split for a bunch of has-beens from the Row. After all, we were the strongest crew in the city. What did we have to fear from them? If their leader wasn't such a greedy asshole, maybe things wouldn't have escalated like they did.

— Maero Audio Log 1

After what the Saints did to my face, they had to expect a little payback. Carlos was an easy target, and hurt their boss the most. But Jessica? That was going too far. Then Vogel rips off my shipment after letting my crew get killed. I wasn't about to let The Brotherhood go down because of some prick in a suit.

— Maero Audio Log 2

I thought I had that Saint dead to rights. I mean, they couldn't kill me in my own home. What chance did they have to survive my trap? I had the perfect setup, even used the truck that killed Jessica for a little poetic justice. But it didn't matter. I lost. Fucking Saints...