A More Apt Candidate ("The Rookie")

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

[RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS]
I’m trying to keep this topic as brief as I can, because I’m more interested in hearing your thoughts AFTER you have READ the post in its entirety:
(tl;dr hop below)

Brief analysis of campaign, and final judgement:
In truth, I was so excited for this game, and I’ve been particularly partial to 343 given their acknowledgement of the flaws of Halo 4, and their desire to give a solid “Sophomore effort”. And while I think that Multiplayer in general has the most enjoyable gun-play I’ve experienced in any shooter, that I’ve ever played, I think that 343 ultimately failed hard with doing justice to Halo’s narrative. I think that the campaign was not only lack-luster, but an actual pain for me to work through to its end, resulting in me shelving the campaign for two weeks, in favor of multiplayer, which is not something I’ve EVER done with a previous Halo game. The major reason I couldn’t carry on with it was the lack of interesting characters, and a general lack of care for anyone in Fireteam Osiris, with exceptions to Buck, though I think his performance doesn’t do complete justice.

(tl;dr hop end)
Why is “The Rookie” a better alternative to Jameson Locke:
Before everyone on Waypoint pursues the notion that “The Rookie” isn’t an actual character, and is merely an implement for players to insert themselves, just hold on. Think this: What is different about “The Rookie” than Locke? Well, we’ve stepped into his shoes, and have a golden opportunity to develop him as a character by giving him progressive dialogue, thereby fleshing out his character and giving us an organic transition from his original role as a fresh-newbie ‘detective’, to an experienced, hardened soldier, and agent of the ONI. This growth, would be particularly reminiscent of the Master Chief, who had only a few lines more than “The Rookie” back in CE, and the player (who has played through H3:ODST) would relate, and feel responsible for this change. There is so much more potential with a pre-established, and partially-shrouded OG from the series, than some “New Guy” who is cheaply portrayed as a “Tough Guy” in 35 seconds of Covenant Dummy Soldier obliteration in the intro cutscene.

That’s just my thought on this, I want to hear more from you guys.
Do you think “The Rookie” could have been a better candidate, given the circumstance I’ve painted above?

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I hate to burst your bubble, but… Rookie is dead.

3

Well…Except the Rookie is dead.

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Spoiler Alert!

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I’m completely aware, and have read New Blood. The [RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS] opening of this post is supposed to make that clear. Let me edit, then please give a substantial reply.

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> 2533275011491088;4:
> Spoiler Alert!

Whoops sorry, I put my post under a spoiler tag.

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> 2533275012991297;5:
> I’m completely aware, and have read New Blood. The [RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS] opening of this post is supposed to make that clear. Let me edit, then please give a substantial reply.

So you’re saying if the rookie didn’t die he shouldve been in h5? Maybe but stands a reason that it would have been the exact same character with a different name.

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I’m not really sure the comparison to the Chief really holds up. The Rookie was a complete non-character. He had no personality or voice. He had pretty much no background. He was, for all intents and purposes, literally the vessel of the player. Not to mention the fact that, technically speaking, The Rookie wasn’t really a rookie when he joined Alpha-Nine. And he worked in that way. If they were to develop him into a character after that point, they would be completely contradicting that and getting in the way of the notion of him that players had in their minds. The alternative would be to continue him as a blank slate avatar, but that’s not really consistent with 343i’s approach to characterization. New Blood handled this very well, in my opinion. By contrast, John has always been a character, even when simplified in the games.