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> > > It was a massively wasted opportunity. Jul could have made for a great secondary villain throughout the campaign, directing his forces to take down Osiris at every turn, but the writers pretty much tossed his carcass in a dumpster.
> > >
> > > At the very least, that cut scene should have been a boss battle. It had the potential to be a re-imagined Heretic boss fight (one of the only good boss fights in Halo, since Halo just has never been that good at boss fights imo). The arena was set up quite well with sheer cliff faces, a phantom in the background, and several Elite guards. The first time I played the campaign, I sat there ready to do battle with Jul and his guards… how stupid do you think I felt watching that whole thing go down in a few seconds of bad choreography?
> >
> > Perfectly stated. The whole design of that cutscene / story arc was quite hypocritical. Halo 5 requires a ton of outside and/or secondary info to fully comprehend. Jul was the main antagonist of Spartan Ops, a secondary mode in H4. But instead of having a fairly reasonable expectation of players knowing who he was or being able to easily find out, they simply killed him off. Meanwhile, there are all sorts of new locations and brand new Spartans flying around with no explanation whatsoever. Additionally, Jul’s character was flushed out reasonably well in a couple of novels from the time of H4. Wasted opportunity and yet another reason I’m glad 343i got a new narrative lead.
>
> To be fair about the Spartans, at least with Osiris, you don’t really need their expanded universe content. Locke’s ONI background is mentioned in his talk with the Arbiter, Tanaka mentions her colonial background during Meridian’s mission, Vale talks about learning Sangheili during the Sanghelios missions, and most people know who Buck is already.
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> Way I see it, plenty of Halo characters have been introduced without any warning or diving into their backstories, so it strikes me that fans feel like they need that with folks in Osiris. Never delved into Johnson’s history. Or Lord Hood. Or Miranda Keyes. I’m sure someone will say why that’s different, but it just strikes me as odd.
Fair point. But, the thing with the classic three in my
mind was how we were shown who they were and not told. We didn’t need to know about their history because what was presented in the games was plenty. And it wasn’t through straight up exposition either. For instance, at no point does anyone say, “Look, this is Johnson. He is the ultimate badass. Even Chief loves him. Everyone respects him.” We were shown that, not told.
Osiris only talked and it seemed robotic and forced. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read the outside material and listened to the exposition in game and it makes me want to get to know them and like them. They could make for a sweet new Spartan team.
Problem is I think the H5 writers did not do them (and Blue Team for that matter) enough justice when writing about them. For instance, I learned and felt a greater bond with Vale only after reading a book she was a main character in. If a game can’t flush out characters with all the advantages visual media has over books (eg., clearer presentation of sarcasm), then there’s definitely something wrong. I like Osiris and hope the new writers do a better job than the H5 ones.
That’s the reason I take issue with the way they handled Jul. There was tons of exposition and build up in H4 and they just ended it with a cutscene. That arc could have gone somewhere which is a bummer.
