Echo 216, our new pilot buddy, comes across as a sad, stressed individual in a war he doesn’t want to fight.
He’s scared, he whines alot, and he gets angry at Chief at alot of things, but I feel like the events in the campaign could have been reordered to make his behaviour make sense.
Spoilers:
Echo 216 was initially stranded until he found Chief, thinking it was his ticket home. Chief instead brings him on a journey but he keeps -Yoink!- through and through this early which honestly rubbed me off the wrong way. He was later captured and tortured and rescued, but seemingly gains the resolve to fight???
I feel like this is kinda awkward in terms of development. It would make more sense if all the events leading up to his capture occured earlier, then his capture and torture was what triggered him to become defeatist in attitude, before a final moment before the end where he redeems his character and strengthens his resolve by coming in to support the Chief near the end.
Just me throwing out ideas here:
After defeating the Harbinger, Chief is making his escape, but instead of escaping through a portal, Echo 216 crashes his Pelican through the debris and manages to fly Chief out of the Auditorium far enough before the Pelican fails. As his Pelican is no longer serviceable, The Weapon then asks the pilot what his name is, since Echo 216 is destroyed and he has no use for that callsign, which he then reveals his name.