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| Re: Character Development: An Arbiter's Tale | |
| Posted By: scarab | Date: 9/30/10 10:57 a.m. |
In Response To: Character Development: An Arbiter's Tale (Hawaiian Pig) : 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,
: : I think you discount his ability to show his feelings a bit too much because
: In your response above, you have good points about ambiguity in the
: Like many of you do with Kat (and whomever else in Noble you see great
: The difference is that I feel these inferences are well supported given
: Look, I can quote mine too! :P I wasn't quote mining. Quote mining is taking quotes out of context in order to make them appear to say the opposite of what the author intended and, usually, to give the impression that the author's opinion is the opposite of his actual opinion. It is a deceitful practice often employed by Creationists to 'back up' claims that leading figures in evolutionary science believe that evolution hasn't happened or that it can't possibly work. Their 'quotes' don't lack context by accident, the context is deliberately removed. Often parts of a sentence are removed, sometimes the missing parts are replaced by ellipses (...) which is something to look out for. The removal of the missing parts is what changes the meaning of the sentence and hence the meaning of the quote. I quoted those scenes in their entirety. I put a part in bold for emphasis. The closest I came to quote mining is that I didn't give the source of the quotes. This is a typical quote mining crime because it makes it difficult for someone to check the original source (to see if the quotes are accurate). It 's also an attempt to hide the origin of the quotes because the origins are often Creationist websites and are therefore not an unbiased source and this bias may prompt someone to look for the real source of the quote to see if the words have been edited (they often have been). I usually give attribution when I quote the story page. You can check my past record on this forum to see if this claim is true. I didn't do this in my last post because I forgot or was too lazy. It was a sloppy sin and not an attempt to deceive. I probably assumed that everyone would know where I got the quotes from. I assume that you made that assumption with your own quotes because I didn't see your attribution either. :-) I'm inconsistent with my quoting. I know better but I am lazy. Narc seems to be the most conscientious quoter on HBO. He doesn't even split paragraphs, rarely omits stuff without a [snip]. I wish I could be like him :-) Anyway... :
: TARTARUS: Who do you think? : ARBITER: The Demon is here? : TARTARUS: (snorts) Why? Looking for a little payback? : ARBITER: (clenches a Carbine tightly in his hands) : Retrieving the Icon is my only concern.
: Show. Don't tell. No that was 90% tell (T telling us what we should be thinking) and 10% show (A's hand clenching). The hand clench was unnecessary because even someone with his back to the screen would be thinking that A was bullshitting. OTOH given his total dedication to whatever task he is doing at the time - the hand clench could be A's annoyance at T's total lack of understanding of A's priorities. Has anyone ever told you what you are thinking, been totally convinced that they have pinned you for a hypocrite, and also been totally wrong? Its annoying isn't it? Point is that there are at least 2 interpretations of the hand clench but the fact that A brought up the subject suggests that he was thinking about payback, its still possible that he was worried about the Chief's possible, adverse, impact on his mission but my inference is that he was thinking of himself and personal issues. That's what I project onto that exchange. He got caught out thinking of himself rather than of his mission. Going back to tell then show - this is what we saw when Kat presented her plan to Carter. J says that K has C wired in (or whatever the term was). We then saw that, indded, K has C wired in. At least Bungie are being consistent in their story telling methods. : Here you can see that he clearly harbours disdain for the Demon, and you also
No - I see somebody who is letting his personal feelings get in the way of thinking about his mission. T caught him out and called him out on it. T found it funny. I also don't see disdain, he didn't say,' that dirty Demon' or, 'that perfidious Demon'. Maybe the term itself shows disdain but it is the term that is used by all the Covenant. Its practiaclly the Chief's name in their language. :-) Though aren't we called Demon in ODST? Maybe anybody who annoys a Covenant is called a Demon. But since the term isn't unique to A and is used genrally then should we infer much about A when he uses the term? : Tartarus
1 A shows that he is not without ego . This goes against his, ' I am not worthy' sentiments expressed to Truth in the Mausoleum.
The first point is a direct statement about A's internal state. 2 & 3 serve game objectives and are directed at the player. OK A doesn't like MC. : Moving forward...
: This is telling you straight up: he cares about the Great Journey a whole
No - it is a task statement. The game is based on a sequence of tasks/goals. The player or player/character must achieve these goals, it is a requirement of the game. The player/character must perform steps that take him/her towards those mandatory goals. Therefore they must perform those steps irrespective of the fictional character's internal state. The mention of the task statement serves two purposes: 1 it reminds the player what must be done.
It is possible to project or infer something about the fictional character's character from his utterance of the current mission statement but this is of dubious utility because the character would have made the statement regardless of his internal state. A could have been an atheist intent on saving his self from a nasty public execution. He could be a task driven individual who just needs a task to perform and does it with little regard to the meaning of the task (for example: exterminate a species) or he could have been a religious zealot and totally in the power of religious fervor. Either way he would still utter his task statement. : Next, we've got a biggie. This whole scene does some wonderful contrasting of
: ARBITER: Demon! : Gravemind gestures to the Master Chief. : GRAVEMIND: This one is machine and nerve and has its mind concluded. : Gravemind switches his attention to the Arbiter. : GRAVEMIND: This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded. : ARBITER: Kill me or release me, parasite, but do not waste my time with talk. : GRAVEMIND: There is much talk, and I have listened, through rock and metal
: Gravemind brings in 2401 Penitent Tangent and the reanimated corpse of
: 2401 PENITENT TANGENT: Greetings! I am 2401 Penitent Tangent. I am the
: REGRET: And I am the Prophet of Regret, Councillor most high, Heirarch of the
: 2401 PENITENT TANGENT: A Reclaimer? Here? At last. We have much to do. This
: REGRET: Stay where you are! Nothing can be done until my sermon is complete! : 2401 PENITENT TANGENT: Not true. This installation has a successful
: REGRET (to Arbiter): Of all the objects our lords left behind, there are none
: 2401 PENITENT TANGENT: And you know nothing about containment. You have
: GRAVEMIND: This one's containment... : Gravemind gestures to 2401 Penitent Tangent : GRAVEMIND: ...and this one's Great Journey... : Gravemind gestures to Regret : GRAVEMIND: ...are the same. : Gravemind removes 2401 Penitent Tangent and Regret. : REGRET (offscreen): Huh? Augh! AAAAAAAAAAAH! : GRAVEMIND: Your Prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence,
: MASTER CHIEF: This thing is right. Halo is a weapon. Your Prophets are making
: ARBITER: Your ignorance already destroyed one of the sacred rings, demon. It
: I love Audrey in that one... : When confronted with a direct "Look man, your beliefs are wrong,"
Yes I see this as an unambiguous statement that he has faith because its not a task statement and there is no Covenant audience that requires this statement. : Moving forward still! We come to your quote:
: ARBITER: Murdered. By the Brutes. : SPEC OPS LEADER: Vile disloyal beasts! The prophets were fools to trust them.
: Woah! What happened to that faith? Well, a lot. : If you follow the transcripts along on the Halo Story Page (which you seem to
: 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
: Let's give this scene some context. : This level, Uprising, actually has about the least dialogue in the game...
: Like the atmospheric sections of Reach (I've got Exodus and New Alexandria in
: A little selection of various dialogue snippets:
: They have shed our brothers' blood... and for that, they must die! : ZEALOT : Make haste! There are more Brutes to kill! : Ha ha! Long have I waited for this : BRUTE : Not all dead? Raise the alarms! : COWARDLY GRUNT : Please ... no hurt! Me like Elites! Brutes stinky bad-bad! Me stay here, make
: As 'Vadam and the allies enter a hallway with dead Elites, Grunts, and
: SPEC OPS ELITE (praying to dead Grunts and Elites) : Start the journey... be at peace.
Yes all statements by other characters. : 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
: This is me inferring things here, but not without reason... It is clear to A that HJ is suffering from a major misapprehension. This is critical information, information that touches on everything that the Elites hold dear. Information that HJ needs to fully understand the situation. The Elite's cause could suffer seriously because A withholds this information. If the Elites make the mistake of trusting on aide from the Prophets then they would be vulnerable to betrayal. They need to know that the Prophets are not to be trusted. Unfortunately telling HJ would waste time and interfere with A's current task. Maybe A made the correct choice to withhold this vital info because the lives and the cause of the Elites are more threatened by the activation of the ring. But it is a cold choice. I would have tried to explain and expedite the task at hand. That might not have worked but I would have cared more that HJ knew the tuth. That may have turned out to be a mistake but I think that most impulsive or people centric people would have done the same. My inference is that A is not a people person. He is calculating and extremely task focused. These are not nice qualities but they are definitely useful and would have helped him in his career. He is probably the kind of person that you would want in charge of a program of genocide. This inference is consistent with what we see him do, his reluctance to engage with others even when it would be natural and important to engage. Its also consistent with his career up to his setback at Halo. He is the guy who masterminded the murder of 700 million people on Reach. And who knows how many billions over his career. The majority of whom would have been civilians. : I'd imagine his solemn four word response is a result of his shock and
: It's the Great Schism. : So he spends the whole level in visceral combat with those who were once his
That is not what I expected or wanted. Read what I am saying again. : We're starting to see the wool come off his eyes... and it's gradual not
: Forward!
: SPEC-OPS LEADER: Where the Councilors were meant to watch the consecration of
: GRAVEMIND: There is still time to stop the key from turning. : ARBITER: I must get inside.
: Although his world has come crashing down around him, part of his character
: Yeah, it's a one liner, but it's delivered with purpose. The context of my post was a discussion of A's role as a leader of a rebellion. The quotes I used showed the only thing I could find that came close to an order. It also showed his aloofness and a lack of engagement with the very people that he was supposed to be the leader of. In the context of this post I would say that his words are definitely a task statement but the fact that he has accepted the task is significant. The player has no choice but to accept it (or he/she will never finish the game) but it makes sense from a story perspective that we can assume that the character has accepted the task and, therefore, the reason for it (otherwise the character wouldn't have been doing it). And the echo of GM's words suggest that it is GM's argument that is influencing A as opposed to a desire to kill T. So A has been swayed by GM's words (the ones that I put in bold). : Next, we've got the full elucidation of truth for the Arbiter in the game's
: TARTARUS: Impossible! : ARBITER: Put down the Icon. : TARTARUS: Put it down? And disobey the Hierarchs? : ARBITER: There are some things about Halo even the Hierarchs do not
: TARTARUS: Take care, Arbiter. What you say is heresy. : ARBITER: Is it? Oracle! What is Halo's purpose? : 343 GUILTY SPARK: Collectively, the seven- : TARTARUS: Not-another-word! : SGT. JOHNSON: Please... : The camera cuts to reveal Johnson standing behind the Arbiter, Beam Rifle at
: SGT. JOHNSON: Don't shake the light-bulb. : SGT. JOHNSON: If you want to keep your brain inside your head, I'd tell those
: SGT. JOHNSON: Go ahead. Do your thing. : ARBITER (to the Monitor): The sacred rings... what are they? : 343 GUILTY SPARK: Weapons of last resort, built by the Forerunners to
: ARBITER: And those who made the rings? What happened to the Forerunners? : 343 GUILTY SPARK: After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators
: The camera cuts to the Arbiter, a look of sadness on his face. : 343 GUILTY SPARK (After a pause): Would you like to see the relevant data? : ARBITER: Tartarus. The Prophets have betrayed us. : TARTARUS: No, Arbiter! The Great Journey has begun! And the Brutes, not the
: Now this scene comes after a brother-in-arms truce with the humans. And the
: Now that's just one game! I even skipped out the entire Heretic section,
: A lot has happened, but if anything at all has changed, it's his faith in the
: We open his story with the oath of the Covenant, and conclude this game with
: To say nothing changed for this character is downright unfair. But that isn't what I said. This is what I said: He had several changes of hat but how did it effect him as a person? What was he thinking? The change of hats refers to this: But he goes from passionate war-hero to disgraced soldier to symbolic figure to leader of a rebellion, throughout the whole game. There is character change, and lots of it. I was not denying that he underwent change. We know that he A faith and we know that he lost it. We can make a safe guess why: he preferred the Oracle's account over the Prophet's account. But has he lost all faith? Is he now an atheist? Why did he kill Truth? What was he thinking when he killed him? How does he feel about his (A's) murder of Humans/Forerunners? As an asside: I don't think that you have answered my questions about A's thoughts when he killed Truth. The question wasn't addressed to you but can you answer it? How certain are you about your opinion of what was on A's mind? : This isn't inferring that someone is questioning authority because of a
: The next game even shows growth in other aspects; we see the Arbiter take
I saw that he needed our cooperation an that he did what was necessary to get it. Did he respect us or did he just need us? Did he loveus? Does he think that we are cool? Was he thinking, 'Suckas!' the whole time? : I don't feel like going through that whole game for you as well, but two
: SGT. JOHNSON : Chief, wait! : The Master Chief jams the pistol between 'Vadam's mandibles. : SGT. JOHNSON : The Arbiter's with us! : 'Vadam glares at the Master Chief, showing no sign of discomfort or making
: SGT. JOHNSON : Come on now. : Johnson grabs the Chief's shoulder. : SGT. JOHNSON : We got enough to worry about without you two tryin' to kill each other! : The Spartan slowly lowers his gun. 'Vadam derisively clacks his mandibles
Derision? Who does he feel dersion towards and wy? : ARBITER : Were it so easy. : LORD HOOD : I remember how this war started. What your kind did to mine. I can't forgive
: Hood holds out his hand to the Elite. : LORD HOOD : You have my thanks. For standing by him to the end. : The Arbiter slowly shakes Admiral Hood's hand. And, as usual, kept really quiet, didn't say a word. : After letting go, Hood's eyes
: LORD HOOD : Hard to believe he's dead. : The Arbiter looks away, toward the Shadow of Intent, hovering silently in
: ARBITER (quietly) : Were it so easy.
So what did he mean? What would have been easy about the Chief being dead? What wasn't easy about the Chief not being dead? He had some human-free time with HJ afterwards. What did he say about Humans now that there wasn't a Human audience to hear (when, maybe, he could say what he felt without regard to political expediency)? A is a character that had shit happen to him. He had a change of opinion, a loss of faith. This can be deep shit. But the game doesn't dwell on it, doesn't really explore it. A superficial treatment of deep stuff does not make a deep story. It is merely a story with deep shit in it. An opaque and distant character that has deep shit happen to him is not a deep character; he's just a guy that had deep shit happen to him. Did A ever wonder WHY Truth did what he did? Did he know? Did he care?
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