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Spec Thoughts Part I: The Crisis of the Sangheili | |
Posted By: Marius Hamilton <punchface@gmail.com> | Date: 12/9/04 9:16 p.m. |
For my first post, I will first come out of the closet so-to-speak, perhaps forever marking myself as something of a zoo animal when held up next to the vast majority of Halo fan-boys (and the occasional fan-girl, may the Forerunners bless you and keep your souls dear to their hearts for all eternity), I must confess: I am a late-comer to the Halo scene as I have only been playing for perhaps six or seven months. I have never played Halo vs. another human being either on XBL or in a LAN party of any kind. I take great pleasure in playing co-op with a friend…I don’t care that much of a shit for FPS’s in general, I love Halo because of the story and ONLY because of the story. Some pride in me (I don’t really understand it) is driving me to continue tinkering with Legendary on Halo2. I feel like I can’t say that I’m any good at this game until I can play and do reasonably well, beating the game on Legendary without dying more than half a dozen times per level. After all, who doesn't wish to be good at those things that they enjoy? I resent those things in Legendary that adversely affect my suspension of disbelief and thus my enjoyment of the story ie; An Elite can kill me with a plasma rifle melee in one hit but I can’t do the same to him even with the mighty plasma sword. Or the Jackals being able to snipe me dead with one shot, ME, the feared legend, John117…but my marine buddies can be shot two or three times before they go down…etc. etc. But this post isn’t about my troubles with Legendary, this post is about the story. I think about the story a lot and I’ve got to thinking about what is forthcoming and about the absolutely critical role that the Sangheili must play in the resolution of the story arc in Halo3. As a side note, we had Halo: Combat Evolved, now we have Halo2: Strategy Evolved. Why not Halo3: Victory Evolved? Anyway, I digress, onwards then, to the Crisis of the Sangheilli: Part One, The Arbiter and Commander Half-Jaw
Halo2 ends. Mere minutes before, the Arbiter has defeated Tartarus, the mighty chieftain of the now bitterly hated Jiralhanae, a feat that will surely earn him a complete pardon in the eyes of the Sangheili public. Truly has he redeemed himself in their eyes and is worthy of regaining his name (if the Prophets stripped him of it) and whatever status he may have had as a fleet admiral. God, I wish I knew the Arbiter’s name. BUT, (and the news will surely get out considering its enormous import and sheer novelty) the Sangheili were not alone, another can rightfully claim his warrior’s share of the Arbiter’s triumph, right along side of the other Sangheili who fought Tartarus and died for their bravery. Holy Forerunners Batman, did I hear that right? A HUMAN?! Who is this Avery Johnson? Who is this Amanda Keyes? I am going to assume (because the assumption serves to further the story in a favourable way) that the Elite/Brute space battle in and around the now evacuated High Charity is won by the Elites. Assuming that the newly freed Sangheili Heirarchs/High Councilors who had been imprisoned on Installation 05 are willing to play along with the likely decision by the Arbiter and Half-Jaw to continue the truce and working relationship with the human faction on Installation 05, one of the first tasks that faces the Arbiter is to convince the highest ranking living Sangheili naval officer in the immediate vicinity of High Charity and Installation 05 that the truce with the humans is a thing to be respected. Within the first hour or two after Halo2 ends, the Arbiter and Halfjaw have to complete the following tasks:
Good God, what a bunch of tasks, and in such a horribly short amount of time. Thank the Forerunners that the Arbiter has Half-Jaw at his side. Half-Jaw, who has displayed nearly every noble character trait that one could possibly want from him. A Spec-Ops commander, silent, invisible, used to working behind the scenes while those in Gold Armour receive glory. On at least one and probably more occasions during the events of Halo2, Half-Jaw guards the back of the Arbiter, willingly sacrificing a position in the vanguard where glory is found that he might guard the life of he who has won his loyalty. Half-Jaw the humble Sangheili, who’d have thought??? But one must be a great follower to be a great leader. Half-Jaw has also displayed a clear sense of value for the lives of those who serve under him, an officer who values his men. Further, more than just about any other of the Sangheili, and certainly more than the gold armoured ship masters and heirarchs, Half-Jaw has been in close, probably within arm’s reach of humans. Half-Jaw, behind the secrecy of his cloaking device, has probably listened to the speech of humans for long periods of time, listened to their conversations with each other, their jokes, their dreams, their fears. Then he killed them haha! BUT, my guess is that Half-Jaw and those like him, make up those portions of the Sangheili military machine that have grown to respect humanity and have begun to understand the potential that humans have as allies or even, someday, friends. In the labours ahead, the Arbiter will have no greater asset than Commander Half-Jaw who by all rights should wear the gold.
Part 2: The Heirarchs, the Sangheili as a whole, and those loyal to them
Once the heirarchs figure out how to deal with all of this super-heavy stuff, (and they better damn-well do it mighty quick) then they have to convince everybody else as well: All of the remaining Admirals, warriors, mates and children as well as the Lekgolo and the Unggoy. If not all of them, then enough of them to keep the others from rebeling.
Seriously, can any of us who haven’t seriously contemplated suicide ever imagine how f’d up things are for the Elites right now? The fabric of their reality has fallen apart. Bungie could potentially exploit a very powerful (mythic, one might say) story hook at the end of Halo3 by having the Master Chief and the Arbiter die fighting side by side as heroes of their respective races in such a way that peace and forgiveness can begin to bloom between humanity and their former enemies. When heroes become martyrs for peace, they become truly legendary and their stories become a thousandfold more powerful.
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