Yeah, I know building a characters isn’t exactly a small order but Bungie suffered from this before, obviously with Destiny so this isn’t about an bias, thought I’m sure some of you out there will try to find it. Shame on you, also no TL:DR
One thing that pretty much is certain is that new characters into a long running series will never get proper ups even in times where they show their greatness. Mostly because they come into a heavily developed and set up group of characters and kind of get shoe horned in. They get an unnecessary amount of focus because they’re still pretty raw and need to be built up which draws from other favorite characters, like Jai.
The only time these characters don’t seem like a burden to the story is if the hero is still pretty early on into their journey or when the character is set up pretty well before they become apart of the main cast. With Halo 5 the only character who was set up before(in terms of other games) was Buck. While the Arbiter and Palmer aren’t new, they weren’t on the screen at all points in the game.
If we take a trip back to the past, back in Halo 3 ODST Buck was probably the least favorite of the troopers. Why, because he was hyped up and sort of took the center stage in a series of events where he didn’t seem pivotal when there we’re better characters already available to take up his role. Buck is the one we see the most, other then The Rookie and half the story is literally him getting back together with his ex. It was alot of unnecessary focus on a character most at the time didn’t care for.
Certainly 343i is capable of building a universe but the moment it is applied like in Halo 4 it all comes crashing down. I have to say, without reading the Forerunner books I was completely informed and aware of what was going on with Halo 4’s story. I understood why The Didact was upset, I understood why he wanted nothing to do with us and I understood why The Librarian had to try and stop him. That being said, the crumbling wasn’t on the Didact’s end, it was for The Covenant.
Tell, me, at what point was the Covenant important to Halo 4’s campaign story? You could say as an early enemy but I could say that Halo 4 could of totally skipped the first mission and started off with MC waking up on Requiem with Cortana telling him,
“We drifted too close to a planet and it pulled us into it.”
“Drifted into it?” MC would ask as he and the players are beyond confused on why there’s -Yoinking!- STAR! to which Cortana could reply
“It’s a Forerunner shield world.” then explain it’s usage against -Yoink- in the universe and BAM, straight to the Prometheans.
The reason why this was mismanaged is because 343i needed to do two things.
- Find a reason for The Arbiter to not be involved with Halo 4 along with not letting him spend his life searching for MC and
- Get the Covenant back as an enemy because they’re easily designed and have reconcilable combat patterns that have been developed over 11 years.
Ironic how they ignored the other developments made over the past 11 years but whatever this is a story thread. So Civil War, The sangheili are mad at us now because we miffed them up a bit and for some reason literally none of them able farms or ships despite them using Grunts and Drones to do that. So they have a war of attrition, bad things get discovered, Jul gets captured, frees himself, becomes super god of the rebelling elites and finds Requiem. All of that becomes even more unnecessary when you look at what I said above. Jul wasn’t needed for Halo 4 to kick off and nothing he did against humanity added up to anything. It didn’t even add up for character development because every one of the characters involved in the mess we’re, newly introduced people to whom no one cared for when our favorites are already capable of dealing with the threats and getting built up.
So what’s the best way to get these people into the story without piling on the hate? Subtly introducing them, similar to how Johnson was just some dude in Halo CE he became a beloved character. People wanted more and they got more, developing characters like that allows us to see if they are liked and FORCE FEED them to he masses. Honestly I don’t think any Halo fan got their fill of Johnson and loved him as much, if not then more than MC himself.
I know many of you might be thinking that of course 343i can’t see into the future, how can I demand such a thing of them? Well, I’m only writing this because I too am an artist with a pen currently writing a story called Masters of War as I’m making this post. While I am certainly no god with a the pen I understand things that a writer needs and one critical element is FORESIGHT!
Being able to predict and live out your characters is key to writing and if you can’t do that, then we get Halo 5. I could totally understand if Brian Reed couldn’t identity with the characters of Halo which made it extremely hard for him to write their stories but since nothing has been said on it I think he’s just accepted that in the eyes of the Halo community his work wasn’t tough enough and is hopefully seeking to do better in the future.
So how could 343i introduce characters without forcing them down our throats? Well for one media that isn’t completely dedicated to that one character because it again just annoys people that they aren’t getting a story of their favorites like Jai. The funny thing is that both Tanaka and Vale technicality did get this kind of style done for them which is why I think people are more kind to them compared to Locke but they still are hurt from the way it was done. None of us believe that Hunters in The Dark would of been made if Vale wasn’t going to be a pivotal character in the future and even then Tanaka still got her on focused story.
Since this is a video game series, one tactic seems to be undeniably the best for the old and newly introduced. Just make them side characters 
Many RPG’s do it because fans just want to see their favorites, know that they’re alright and helping the main character with their struggles.
Here’s a couple of throw away turned into universe expanding lore.
Imagine that during the mission on Argent Moon Gray Team was on the other side of the station. 343i wouldn’t even have to show them just the knowledge that they’re doing something would be great. Instead of the Pelican being destroyed by The Covenant MC could order Gray Team, who could of been closer to the craft at the time to take it while Blue took the Prowler they saw before. (implying that the prowler you leave in should of been the one you see at the beginning.) Blue could go AWOL (lol) and bam, game, while you’ve introduced new characters to the masses and pleased your long time fans.
Why not make it so that N’tho thanks Locke during the Battle of Sunion after destroying the AA batteries which we’re railing his crew and/or why not make it so that he is leading the wing of banshee’s against the Kracken? Have Vale talk about Usze, then have him say he’s attacking the Corvette with a spec ops team? Why not have Juran pilot the phantom guiding Osiris unless you’re doing what I just talked about with introducing an up in coming character but at this point you have a little too many on your plate.
There’s alot to build up then a year post launch saying “That guy in the background bowing there is the main antagonist.” You have to field your characters otherwise you’ll just put your fans in a state of mistrust.
Thoughts?