For those of you who don’t know, in the original script of Halo 5, Fireteam Osiris was going to be made up of four characters :
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ONI Spartan Jameson Locke - Spartan Olympia Vale - Spartan Gabriel Thorne - Spartan Holly TanakaEventually, 343 made the decision to replace Spartan Thorne with another character that fans were familiar with; being Edward Buck. But the question that I want to ask is why was Holly Tanaka not replaced by Edward Buck? All the character roles of Fireteam Osiris makes sense within the narrative of Halo 5 Guardians.
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Locke is an ONI Operative tasked with Dr. Halsey and then the AWOL John-S117. - Vale is a Sangheili Cultural Specialist and Linguist, making her a valued asset to listening in on enemy comms and working alongside Swords of Sanghelios soldiers. - Thorne made sense since they were hunting down Dr. Halsey and she was in the possession of Jul ‘Mdama. Given Thorne’s unique history with the two, he would be ideal for attempting to outsmart Jul and convince Halsey to stay in line. - Buck kinda makes sense, given that Locke could’ve requested a reliable Spartan on his team and Veronica Dare could’ve pushed Buck’s file over to Locke for review, and then be impressed by his dedication to the mission in New Mombasa and the dedication to his teammates over his career. - Tanaka…doesn’t make sense. She is a Spartan in Technician-Class MJOLNIR, a hacker specialist… who is never given an opportunity to hack, repair, or sabotage any technology. I mean, sure, you could argue that they were going after Cortana; but that was not Osiris’ original goal. Their original goal was to retrieve Dr. Halsey and THEN it as to hunt down John. But according to her bio, Tanaka isn’t even an expert in A.I. Programming. She is the team’s Electronics and Engineering specialist.Holly Tanaka just doesn’t seem to fit in, and only seems to have been added in after being a more pronounced character in the comics. She honestly just feels like the writers put her in the game to fulfill the Player No.4 slot in Fireteam Osiris.
Anyone else feel similar?
Tanaka is former outer world colonist who survived a glassing that is there to give the player a perspective for the Meridian missions. Pretty much all the reason the story needs to have her.
Thorne being cut wasn’t exactly a story-writing choice. If I remember it right Thorne’s actor wasn’t available at the time of H5’s making, so 343i was kind of forced to find a replacement (and ended up with Buck/Nathan Fillon).
Speaking of “sense”, well Vale never really used her diplomatic skills or Sangheili talent other than non-impactful chit-chat during gameplay, and Osiris levels in general are arguably more action-packed and explosive than Blue’s despite their setting as an intel/spec-ops unit with armor designs inspired by the F-22 stealth jet. So for me Tanaka isn’t the only one who doesn’t really fit with the gameplay.
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> Tanaka is former outer world colonist who survived a glassing that is there to give the player a perspective for the Meridian missions. Pretty much all the reason the story needs to have her.
Sooo… it is just another case of telling not showing?
For the players that don’t read the books, they should have the ability to actually enjoy seeing a glassed world and have to deal with environmental hazards that are caused by it.
Imagine landing at the bottom of the space elevator and then having to go through a firefight WHILE having to duck behind cover more often because getting up and exposing yourself will slowly drain your shields due to a glass storm! Then have one of the characters remark on “We’re lucky to have these shields… I’d hate to be the colonists right now.”
Just seems to be the better option to have the players experience the ordeals of being on a glassed planet rather than just being TOLD through expository background dialogue from a character in game.
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> Thorne being cut wasn’t exactly a story-writing choice. If I remember it right Thorne’s actor wasn’t available at the time of H5’s making, so 343i was kind of forced to find a replacement (and ended up with Buck/Nathan Fillon).
>
> Speaking of “sense”, well Vale never really used her diplomatic skills or Sangheili talent other than non-impactful chit-chat during gameplay, and Osiris levels in general are arguably more action-packed and explosive than Blue’s despite their setting as an intel/spec-ops unit with armor designs inspired by the F-22 stealth jet. So for me Tanaka isn’t the only one who doesn’t really fit with the gameplay.
But Vale makes sense as an asset that you would plan to have on the team, considering that you are both fighting the covenant and wanting to possibly have someone translating their battle-net broadcasts in order to provide your team some intel; which is something she does throughout the campaign.
“Hey guys, listen to this…_sangheilian over the radio_… sounds like they are setting up an ambush up ahead, I would recommend a flanking maneuver.”
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> For those of you who don’t know, in the original script of Halo 5, Fireteam Osiris was going to be made up of four characters :
> - ONI Spartan Jameson Locke - Spartan Olympia Vale - Spartan Gabriel Thorne - Spartan Holly TanakaEventually, 343 made the decision to replace Spartan Thorne with another character that fans were familiar with; being Edward Buck. But the question that I want to ask is why was Holly Tanaka not replaced by Edward Buck? All the character roles of Fireteam Osiris makes sense within the narrative of Halo 5 Guardians.
> - Locke is an ONI Operative tasked with Dr. Halsey and then the AWOL John-S117. - Vale is a Sangheili Cultural Specialist and Linguist, making her a valued asset to listening in on enemy comms and working alongside Swords of Sanghelios soldiers. - Thorne made sense since they were hunting down Dr. Halsey and she was in the possession of Jul ‘Mdama. Given Thorne’s unique history with the two, he would be ideal for attempting to outsmart Jul and convince Halsey to stay in line. - Buck kinda makes sense, given that Locke could’ve requested a reliable Spartan on his team and Veronica Dare could’ve pushed Buck’s file over to Locke for review, and then be impressed by his dedication to the mission in New Mombasa and the dedication to his teammates over his career. - Tanaka…doesn’t make sense. She is a Spartan in Technician-Class MJOLNIR, a hacker specialist… who is never given an opportunity to hack, repair, or sabotage any technology. I mean, sure, you could argue that they were going after Cortana; but that was not Osiris’ original goal. Their original goal was to retrieve Dr. Halsey and THEN it as to hunt down John. But according to her bio, Tanaka isn’t even an expert in A.I. Programming. She is the team’s Electronics and Engineering specialist.Holly Tanaka just doesn’t seem to fit in, and only seems to have been added in after being a more pronounced character in the comics. She honestly just feels like the writers put her in the game to fulfill the Player No.4 slot in Fireteam Osiris.
>
> Anyone else feel similar?
From what I know - the actor for Thorne wasn’t available during Halo 5 production.
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> > 2535472130922237;3:
> > Thorne being cut wasn’t exactly a story-writing choice. If I remember it right Thorne’s actor wasn’t available at the time of H5’s making, so 343i was kind of forced to find a replacement (and ended up with Buck/Nathan Fillon).
> >
> > Speaking of “sense”, well Vale never really used her diplomatic skills or Sangheili talent other than non-impactful chit-chat during gameplay, and Osiris levels in general are arguably more action-packed and explosive than Blue’s despite their setting as an intel/spec-ops unit with armor designs inspired by the F-22 stealth jet. So for me Tanaka isn’t the only one who doesn’t really fit with the gameplay.
>
> But Vale makes sense as an asset that you would plan to have on the team, considering that you are both fighting the covenant and wanting to possibly have someone translating their battle-net broadcasts in order to provide your team some intel; which is something she does throughout the campaign.
> “Hey guys, listen to this…_sangheilian over the radio_… sounds like they are setting up an ambush up ahead, I would recommend a flanking maneuver.”
Yeah but in H5 Elite NPCs just speak English anyway lol
Tanaka’s expertise comes in a couple of ways.
First, she’s the team’s engineer, which has its own slew of advantages when potentially interacting with any human, alien, or Forerunner technology. It’s pointedly utilized when the team needed to exfiltrate off of Meridian, and she had to get the space elevator back up and running before the big grumpy Guardian knocked everything down.
The second, is that she is quite knowledgeable on both outer colonist views and glassed colonies.
The very opening of the Meridian arc was her explaining why we took the longer way down to the surface, and Locke defers to her a few times throughout the following missions on how to act around the colonists who were less-than-thrilled of their presence.
Her knowledge of glassing isn’t necessarily important to the plot, but it does explain some of what we were seeing on the side–like Liang-Dortmund’s machinations–and the future for humanity as a whole; chipping away the scars of the war to start anew.
I wouldn’t say she was uber, super-duper important, but her background expertise and what she was shown providing for the team justifies her inclusion.
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> > 2533275064872824;5:
> > > 2535472130922237;3:
> > > Thorne being cut wasn’t exactly a story-writing choice. If I remember it right Thorne’s actor wasn’t available at the time of H5’s making, so 343i was kind of forced to find a replacement (and ended up with Buck/Nathan Fillon).
> > >
> > > Speaking of “sense”, well Vale never really used her diplomatic skills or Sangheili talent other than non-impactful chit-chat during gameplay, and Osiris levels in general are arguably more action-packed and explosive than Blue’s despite their setting as an intel/spec-ops unit with armor designs inspired by the F-22 stealth jet. So for me Tanaka isn’t the only one who doesn’t really fit with the gameplay.
> >
> > But Vale makes sense as an asset that you would plan to have on the team, considering that you are both fighting the covenant and wanting to possibly have someone translating their battle-net broadcasts in order to provide your team some intel; which is something she does throughout the campaign.
> > “Hey guys, listen to this…_sangheilian over the radio_… sounds like they are setting up an ambush up ahead, I would recommend a flanking maneuver.”
>
> Yeah but in H5 Elite NPCs just speak English anyway lol
When insulting or talking to the player directly, no they do not. But when on comms channels, they speak their native language. It is always good to have a multi-lingual specialist in such scenarios.
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> > 2535472130922237;7:
> > > 2533275064872824;5:
> > > > 2535472130922237;3:
> > > > Thorne being cut wasn’t exactly a story-writing choice. If I remember it right Thorne’s actor wasn’t available at the time of H5’s making, so 343i was kind of forced to find a replacement (and ended up with Buck/Nathan Fillon).
> > > >
> > > > Speaking of “sense”, well Vale never really used her diplomatic skills or Sangheili talent other than non-impactful chit-chat during gameplay, and Osiris levels in general are arguably more action-packed and explosive than Blue’s despite their setting as an intel/spec-ops unit with armor designs inspired by the F-22 stealth jet. So for me Tanaka isn’t the only one who doesn’t really fit with the gameplay.
> > >
> > > But Vale makes sense as an asset that you would plan to have on the team, considering that you are both fighting the covenant and wanting to possibly have someone translating their battle-net broadcasts in order to provide your team some intel; which is something she does throughout the campaign.
> > > “Hey guys, listen to this…_sangheilian over the radio_… sounds like they are setting up an ambush up ahead, I would recommend a flanking maneuver.”
> >
> > Yeah but in H5 Elite NPCs just speak English anyway lol
>
> When insulting or talking to the player directly, no they do not. But when on comms channels, they speak their native language. It is always good to have a multi-lingual specialist in such scenarios.
But sometimes they still speak English even when they aren’t talking to humans at all.
And I deeply regret clicking your link and seeing that thumbnail now I wanna stay off Youtube for a while.