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This topic has moved here: Subject: Why did Emile never show his face in Reach?
  • Subject: Why did Emile never show his face in Reach?
Subject: Why did Emile never show his face in Reach?

What's hot, sexy and purple?

Ayane (and the Wraith :-D)

Actually you can see his face in the game. Not in a ctuscene or so, but you can see it.

  • 08.09.2011 9:11 AM PDT

Scandinavian Master Race!

Here you go OP.

  • 08.09.2011 3:15 PM PDT

No, no, no, that IS his face.

  • 08.09.2011 3:18 PM PDT
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Yeah he kinda looks like B.O.B

  • 08.09.2011 3:19 PM PDT

Revielle- A small community with the goals of making a difference for our members. We hope to bring together people of far distances, and many differences, into our community for long lasting friendships and new gaming experiences.

So stop reading and join already or Get Simmonsized!

Its his Character.

  • 08.09.2011 3:24 PM PDT

Halo 2 also had way more cinematics and story telling in it than any other Halo game so keep that in mind.

  • 08.09.2011 4:11 PM PDT

In a room filled with kings and queens some days i feel like the jester!...

Basically if we can take anything from canon it's Spartans felt most comfortable in their armor Emile was a man who felt comfortable in his gear it was his skin that carving on his faceplate was his face...he was death to any creature that wasn't human...maybe....

  • 08.09.2011 4:22 PM PDT

I think it's because, out of all of noble team, Emile is the least human. Carter cares about his team when he saves Kat from the Elite in Winter Contingency, Jorge cares for the girl who's father died, Kat cares for six when the glassing starts, and Jun comments on how he kills the enemy, but doesn't hate them meaning he has a sense of honor. Emile doesn't really care about anything. I think Emile is supposed to be a character that's become a true spartan who's void of all emotion. Showing his face would've been inappropriate. This is just speculation though.

  • 08.09.2011 9:04 PM PDT

Expressing my strong liberal views without shame. Favorite quotes below:

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
"One starts to live when he can live outside himself."

- Albert Einstein

Noble Team in general really didn't have personality.

Carter: The generic hardass leader
Kat: The tech girl, but she was somewhat redeemed by her slightly aggressive attitude
Jorge: Fine character, but was completely misplaced in Noble Team. I will never get over the fact that he was being bossed around by Spartan IIIs
Jun: The "meh" character. Don't care for him either way.
Six: No personality, no background, might as well not be there

Emile was the worst character in the game, and I think even Bungie acknowledged this when they didn't give him a face or really understandable personality traits.

  • 08.09.2011 10:07 PM PDT

"I may not be perfect, but always been true."


Posted by: Plasma Prestige
Jorge: Fine character, but was completely misplaced in Noble Team. I will never get over the fact that he was being bossed around by Spartan IIIs


Cause they are totally inferior in every way to the almighty Spartan II's ehhh? They had better ranks than him for a reason, deal with it.

  • 08.09.2011 10:11 PM PDT

Expressing my strong liberal views without shame. Favorite quotes below:

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
"One starts to live when he can live outside himself."

- Albert Einstein


Posted by: RKOSNAKE

Posted by: Plasma Prestige
Jorge: Fine character, but was completely misplaced in Noble Team. I will never get over the fact that he was being bossed around by Spartan IIIs


Cause they are totally inferior in every way to the almighty Spartan II's ehhh? They had better ranks than him for a reason, deal with it.


I am in the camp that Spartan IIIs aren't completely inferior to Spartan IIs, but that still doesn't explain Jorge's placement.

The fact of the matter is that Jorge has almost double the combat experience than that of Noble Team. His skills are wasted in the Spartan III team, and that's just the reality.

  • 08.09.2011 10:23 PM PDT

Bungie should've spent the first 10-15 minutes of the game fleshing out the characters...from back...way back. They should let us know how they were all orphaned at the hand sof the covenant, how they all came to be there.

Then we might have actual feelings for them when they died.

  • 08.09.2011 11:58 PM PDT

well if u know the tribute room glitch u see all of noble teams faces but ur right

  • 08.10.2011 12:04 AM PDT

He's the shy kind of guy.

  • 08.10.2011 12:10 AM PDT

"I pledge to punch all switches, to never shoot where I could use grenades, to admit the existence of no level except Total Carnage, to never use caps lock as my "run" key, and to never, ever, leave a single BoB alive."

2B || !2B - Why don't you look Inside the Machine?

My new theory is that Spartans that take of their Helmets in plain view of anyone die in the canon.

  • 08.10.2011 12:11 AM PDT

My other car is a hummer...

What the hell is a puma?


Posted by: Wazooty
Bungie should've spent the first 10-15 minutes of the game fleshing out the characters...from back...way back. They should let us know how they were all orphaned at the hand sof the covenant, how they all came to be there.

Then we might have actual feelings for them when they died.

This would've made Reach way more interesting to me and it would've given the game more of a connection to the book.

  • 08.10.2011 12:16 AM PDT

Been a Bungie fan since the days of Myth TFL.


Posted by: Hovemond
Because he's the one who's an inhuman killing machine. Contrast him with Jorge, who always takes his helmet off and has emotions. Emile's the one who never lets anything other than his supersoldier Spartan self shine through.


+1. He's a literary character. Two examples spring to mind:

--Emile's comment about Jorge, something like "Big man forgets who he is somethings." A loaded sentence. Jorge is clearly aware of who he is and what he fights for. He removes his helmet to talk to Sorvads daughter, speaks the local dialect. Emile hides behind a mask.

--Emile grabs Kat's hand when she reaches for his shoulder knife. A defense mechanism or something else? Kat's "thanks for sharing" comment leads me to believe Emile's selfish and insecure behaviour is common.

There's plenty of nuance in Reach. I always use the literary analogy: Bungie isn't in the business of creating 'pop' or 'pulp' stories. They make literature, so not everything will be spelled out for you. Infer and let your imagination wander... if you want tidy stories all wrapped up and spelled out for you, you're in the wrong place!

  • 08.10.2011 8:47 AM PDT

I CAN'T HEAR YOU WITH MY BULLET IN YOUR MOUTH
-quote of the day

Because Emile's character is all about the skull on his helmet. Badass and mysterious, you could say the skull was his 'face'. Besides Emile was plenty fleshed out even with his helmet on.

  • 08.10.2011 8:55 AM PDT

Wait a second, people read these?

Maybe he thought he was awesome

  • 08.10.2011 8:56 AM PDT

Riverside23: For all the women of the group, if you've got a real man at least let him have his big piece of chicken.

WhtButterflyLiz: lol. Bring home bigger chikkinz, then, real man!!!

DEATHPIMP72: *throws pterodactyl on table*
Suck it JoeSki!!!

The canon is broken!

  • 08.10.2011 9:10 AM PDT

Been a Bungie fan since the days of Myth TFL.

Posted by: Wazooty
Bungie should've spent the first 10-15 minutes of the game fleshing out the characters...from back...way back. They should let us know how they were all orphaned at the hand sof the covenant, how they all came to be there.

Then we might have actual feelings for them when they died.


Respectfully disagree. This is a game about Reach, not Noble team. Even the legendary edition materials didn't have anything about Noble save for one or two mentions of Jorge. This is a bigger story than a character-based one. Noble are cogs in a machine. Reach could have been about any number of Spartan/army/ODST/navy teams. Think of all the Spartan bodies in the final mission...

  • 08.10.2011 10:22 AM PDT

I think it has to do with his back story. He is a very emotionally scarred man. He tries to hide any emotions. Hide any weakness. He constantly wears a mask metaphorically and physically to try to hide the fact that he's human.

Some cracks in his mask start to show by the end of the game. With Carter's death you can hear the anger in his voice. And the reason he was killed is because he went into such a blood rage that he stopped paying attention. His final words "I'm ready! how 'bout you!" show a bit of his Human side.

Almost everyone interpreted it as a cheesy badass last words type of thing. I saw it more as a man who simply doesn't want to live with all his scars anymore. He and the rest of Noble team are very complex characters if you actually examine them instead of just looking at the outer layer. It's a great story telling device to let you figure things out yourself.

[Edited on 08.10.2011 1:09 PM PDT]

  • 08.10.2011 1:07 PM PDT

Because he is black.

  • 08.10.2011 1:34 PM PDT

WAR IS INFINITE PEOPLE TO FIGHT THEM ARE NOT


Posted by: OniLink147
I think it has to do with his back story. He is a very emotionally scarred man. He tries to hide any emotions. Hide any weakness. He constantly wears a mask metaphorically and physically to try to hide the fact that he's human.

Some cracks in his mask start to show by the end of the game. With Carter's death you can hear the anger in his voice. And the reason he was killed is because he went into such a blood rage that he stopped paying attention. His final words "I'm ready! how 'bout you!" show a bit of his Human side.

Almost everyone interpreted it as a cheesy badass last words type of thing. I saw it more as a man who simply doesn't want to live with all his scars anymore. He and the rest of Noble team are very complex characters if you actually examine them instead of just looking at the outer layer. It's a great story telling device to let you figure things out yourself.


i like how you put it

  • 08.10.2011 1:37 PM PDT

Cave Johnson here, we're done!

PS: If you are reading this comment while imagining my voice, don't panic. That's just a side effect of the testing.


Posted by: Plasma Prestige
Noble Team in general really didn't have personality.


I would have to disagree, the characters have personality.

Carter: The generic hardass leader

Generic Hardass? I can only recall a couple of moments were Carter decided to respond in a significant way to sarcastic remarks given from fellow team members.

And I can't recall when Carter had ever been on their cases for a mistake that was made, or something that they should have done.

Being a hardass is reserved for managers and drill sergeants, not team leaders.

Carter is no different from Kurt when it comes to talking with their team members.

Kat: The tech girl, but she was somewhat redeemed by her slightly aggressive attitude

What did she need to be redeemed from?

Kat showed her aggressiveness only in a situation where decisions needed to be made, or as a kind of self defense. But overall she appeared to be naive for a spartan. She was somewhat childish in a sense that she had an imagination comparable to a child (Something Keyes has but is definitely less prevalent in his character, and it may just be something different).

Kat seems to be weak in a sense, not that she can't fight, or that she can't be useful, but that she feels that she may be not as useful. It's definitely clear that her robotic arm is an issue, now it's not in game but a voice dialogue for firefight indicates that she is somewhat self conscious enough about it. Enough that she has to reassure you that it won't be a problem (Check it out for yourself, she mentions the arm for the preview of her firefight voice).

Jorge: Fine character, but was completely misplaced in Noble Team. I will never get over the fact that he was being bossed around by Spartan IIIs

Makes no difference what you are, higher rank is higher rank, I was much happier to see jorge being bossed around by a spartan rather than seeing chief for three games being bossed around by these tiny little stepping stones of marines.

Jun: The "meh" character. Don't care for him either way.

Jun is by far the character with the most potential, while his portrayal in reach is a little bit annoying (something about his voice), he still has a lot of depth considering we saw so little of him.

Suffers from PTSD, doesn't hate the people he shoots (which is kind of weird for a spartan to say), and overall is very talkative. Opening his mouth and saying things that are somewhat out of line for a spartan.

Six: No personality, no background, might as well not be there

That's because he fills a role that tries to make players take a position on the situations presented to them. It's like the Rookie, you can't really complain about him simply because the blank slate is intentional. While their are some slight hints of personality it's not too much to say really what is going on inside that mysterious head. Hell linda is quite an interesting character even though she is well known for being the "Lone Wolf".

Emile was the worst character in the game, and I think even Bungie acknowledged this when they didn't give him a face or really understandable personality traits.

They didn't give darth vader a face until the very end, and even at that point the face had an entire new representation. Emile never took his armor off for the purpose of being fear itself. Not that he was a badass (Because every spartan is) or that he was tring to be a badass. But just being something that either humans or covenant would fear. His helmet is symbolic of war paint, used only to both instill confidence or to take away confidence. His character on the other head reinforces why he chose to be like that.

Emile is arrogant and slightly ignorant. Not a sociopath but someone who was unwilling to share in both his or others emotions. He was an introvert but still capable of mouthing off. He's a person who either craves conflict or just likes poking the bear to see a reaction. Childish is somewhat a good description of Emile. And gives off the impression that for him to try to make others fear him (aside from the fact that he is a spartan alone) he has to come up with an image that would make those who stand against him fear him. It's a childish approach to something that definitely fits his character.


Overall Noble team has great potential for depth, it's just kind of a situation of the wrong events to really flesh out their characters. They never really had to make decisions that reflected on their weaknesses or strengths, and it was sad to see that they kind of took a backseat of the concept car considering that the story was about humans struggle at the worst of times. The only way we can look in at their characters is through reach, and them being in that story backseat doesn't make them bad characters, just not given the right situation.

Also jumping to conclusions and describing characters as stereotypes only shows some incompetence when it comes to analyzing characters. Any person who has a highschool degree can do this, and not getting past the stereotypes to try to see if there is anything there is poor character analysis. Look deeper, re-read over lines that were said, look for hidden things between the lines. Yes ultimately you will have to come to conclusions that are not 100% objective, you will have to come to these conclusions simply because their is no other way, and ultimately you will have to empathize with a character or learn to hate them. But in the end you will be able to make valid points, add to conversations about characters other than "Yeah they suck", and ultimately you yourself will be slightly deeper, simply because you had to either agree or disagree, and your reason why was somewhat personal.

This is why silent protagonists are interesting to people. People are inclined to put themselves in their position. Filling the gaps where they are open, and finding yourself at odds with these characters when the silent protagonist makes a decisions that you would not.

  • 08.10.2011 2:16 PM PDT