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| Character Development: An Arbiter's Tale | |
| Posted By: Hawaiian Pig | Date: 9/29/10 5:31 p.m. |
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This is in response to scarab's fine post here. He brings up a point about the Arbiter that I see get raised fairly often; that he's static, that he doesn't emote or demonstrate his feelings... that we don't "know" whats going on in his head. I wrote up a response that's supported with a lot of specifics from Halo 2, and didn't want it to get swept away in the mess of stuff on the forums. I think it's an interesting look at character development. I think you discount his ability to show his feelings a bit too much because he doesn't explicitly state them. Now I know that one of my gripes about others' treatment of Noble team is that they seem to be inferring what I don't see is there, but I've yet see a demonstration of character that strongly draws from their representation in game. A few posts up, I took Lobster's characterization of Kat, and broke it down to what ended up being a heck of a lot inferred from analyzing a Datapad and one or two snippy retorts to Carter. In your response above, you have good points about ambiguity in the character, yes. Like many of you do with Kat (and whomever else in Noble you see great depth), with the Arbiter inferences are made. The difference is that I feel these inferences are well supported given narrative context. Look, I can quote mine too! :P
Show. Don't tell. Here you can see that he clearly harbours disdain for the Demon, and you also get a sense for how devout he is in his convictions to do the will of the Prophets. This inference is not a stretch by any means... Tartarus practically does the speaking for him, and there's no reason they would write that line with any other intent. Moving forward...
This is telling you straight up: he cares about the Great Journey a whole lot. Next, we've got a biggie. This whole scene does some wonderful contrasting of the Chief and Arbiter and demonstrates his headstrong convictions; showing he clings to his faith in the Great Journey:
I love Audrey in that one... When confronted with a direct "Look man, your beliefs are wrong," he calls the Chief ignorant and swears to stop him from desecrating this ring. Definitely still a devout follower of his faith. Moving forward still! We come to your quote:
Woah! What happened to that faith? Well, a lot. If you follow the transcripts along on the Halo Story Page (which you seem to have), it seems like a pretty jerky jump. This scene, however, comes after a heck of a lot. As a result of this jump, you say: "Now T may have been lying but the Arbiter doesn't even seem to care about discussing this with HJ." Let's give this scene some context. This level, Uprising, actually has about the least dialogue in the game... but it shows quite a bit. Like the atmospheric sections of Reach (I've got Exodus and New Alexandria in mind), the whole level is spent witnessing the split of the Covenant. The Elites band together, and faith is lost in the prophets. The Arbiter doesn't say "God damn! Curse you vile Prophets!" Instead, we witness the schism first hand, and our Seperatist comrades do much of the talking. A little selection of various dialogue snippets:
Finally the level climaxes and culminates in a meeting with Half Jaw... HJ asks about the Councilors, and fearing the worst his sentence trails off. And the Arbiter sorrowfully deadpans, "Murdered... by the Brutes." To me, after what occurred, this seems like an expected and completely natural line for the occasion. This is me inferring things here, but not without reason... I'd imagine his solemn four word response is a result of his shock and disappointment; his disillusionment. I mean, up until this point, he has been utterly devout, doing the will of the Prophets. Suddenly, in a fairly rapid coup, the Brutes take over and slaughter his political leaders. There's turmoil and skirmishes among squads... It's the Great Schism. So he spends the whole level in visceral combat with those who were once his allies, and finally, in a lull, he meets HJ. After what just occurred, his delivery on this line seems in line with nature of the meeting. Sorrowful and bitter disdain. It didn't seem to me like a moment where he should have dropped to his knees and cursed the sky as you seem to imagine he should have. We're starting to see the wool come off his eyes... and it's gradual not explosive. Forward!
Although his world has come crashing down around him, part of his character stays true. He's determined. He's clearly compelled by his budding sense of revenge here, rather than a devout sense of faith. Yeah, it's a one liner, but it's delivered with purpose. Next, we've got the full elucidation of truth for the Arbiter in the game's climax:
Now this scene comes after a brother-in-arms truce with the humans. And the Arbiter finally really hears what Halo is all about. Heck, he even tries to bring this truth to Tartarus with the intent to liberate him as well; he's met with the same headstrong blind faith that he once subscribed to... and is forced to fight. Now that's just one game! I even skipped out the entire Heretic section, which too, helps characterize him. A lot has happened, but if anything at all has changed, it's his faith in the Great Journey, in the Prophets, his perspective of the Covenant and by extension his very world itself. We open his story with the oath of the Covenant, and conclude this game with his realization of truth. To say nothing changed for this character is downright unfair. This isn't inferring that someone is questioning authority because of a Datapad and some snippy retort... this is a well presented fall from faith. The next game even shows growth in other aspects; we see the Arbiter take his tentative truce with the Humans from simply having a mutual enemy to harbouring great respect. I don't feel like going through that whole game for you as well, but two scenes just about sum it up without description.
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