Helldivers CEO wants to keep the 'T-pose of democracy' fall damage bug: 'We'll add inflatable bouncy bags that deploy from under your armpits or some sh*t if we have to'

The "T-pose of democracy," as we learned yesterday, is a recently discovered glitch in Helldivers 2 that enables players to survive fall damage that would normally be fatal by doing a hug emote while sailing through the air like an errant (but loving) cannonball. It's funny and clearly not supposed to be like that, but even so some players are hoping that Arrowhead will leave it alone. And it turns out they have a friend in a high place: No less than Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani.

The glitch is very straightforward: If you find yourself launched into the sky by an explosion or some other bit of kinetic bad news, you can reduce the damage you take on your inevitable impact—and thus increase your chances of survival—by holding an emote before you stick the landing. The «hug» and «salute» emotes both work, but testing has apparently determined that hugging is a little more effective—and yes, the Helldivers have been testing.

Most players are resigned to the likelihood of the bug being fixed, but some are holding out hope that Arrowhead will leave it alone, or at least not make it a priority. Some have even cooked up a canonical explanation for the glitch, which makes about as much sense as anything else in Helldivers 2: The protective power of Super Earth democracy!

Others argue more pragmatically that it's all pretty well balanced as-is, because when you're launched into low-Earth orbit like this it's usually the result of a glitch anyway, so countering it with a different glitch is just fair play.

How well those arguments hold water is a matter of debate, but Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani made it clear on Twitter that he's very much in the «keep it» camp. «Can we please, please keep this?» he tweeted to Arrowhead.

can we please, please keep this? @ArrowheadGS https://t.co/a57PMZ4JtTJuly 8, 2024

He's even come up with a way to justify the long-fall survival, although it will take some work to implement: «We'll add inflatable bouncy bags that deploy from under your armpits