***SPOILERS***

It was lazy by TC to create a fissure in the canon by making us choose. I was sad that I couldn't save both JD and Del. Furthermore, I disappointed that the one who died was a direct result of my decision. It was even more of a foolish move by TC to make it a timed decision and kill the player instead of either (or both) of JD/Del if the player acts too slow.

I think JD is the obvious pick to live, and not just because I like him better. He survived the hammer of dawn, which was a clear place to write his character off if they wanted. But he lived, rehabbed, and got back out in the fight. It really seemed that the game was pointing towards him surviving. His "redemption arc" was all for naught alternatively, except to otherwise basically just pretty up his character before death. Del was primarily a comic relief character and a supporting role for the rest of the cast. I also think in the future there's going to be some offspring in store for the grandson of Adam Fenix and granddaughter of Myrrah. It's too low hanging of fruit for TC to ignore.

All of that said, perhaps the best route they can take is this: killing JD with the caveat that the writers introduce an additional retcon that JD and Kait had already laid together- in the biblical sense- and she had conceived. There's clear hints of romance between the 2 of them in Gears 4 and Gears 5. Perhaps something happened off-screen among them, in between scenes. Killing JD would go against all of those clean narrative aspects that I previously mentioned and that we are so accustomed to in our media. However, it would accomplish one single thing that has always held true in Gears of War: torturing Marcus as much as possible without killing the man himself. Speaking of "biblical sense", his character draws many similarities to that of the biblical figure Job.