- Juan Teran
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- Noble Member
Oh, Mister Emilio, where to begin with the second character I hated the most in Halo: Reach? Of course, the trophy for the most hated character in the campaign is owned by Kat, but this thread is not about Kat, it's about Emile, the guy who never takes his helmet off, which ironically goes against the principles of this game, to show that the spartans are humans. I mean, sure, they failed miserably at proving that, as they are nothing more than cardboard characters with zero emotions, development, etc. It even makes me wonder if they tried at all?
Let's begin with the Spike VGA 2009, shall we? Before that event, there was only a silhouette of the main characters and Reach behind them. We were wondering so many things about them, who could they be? All we knew is that there were two Spartan-III thanks to the E3 2009 teaser of the game, and that's it. Is that Linda? Master Chief? Who are those guys in the background, we must know! 6 months of constant debate (when we thought that Bungie cared about the universe), hell, some people wouldn't stop saying that Master Chief traveled back in time after the events of Halo 3, an idea that haunted my dreams for so long, but after playing this game, it wasn't that bad, you know? Some guys at IGN even wondered if one of those destroyed ships in the teaser had a Spartan-II floating in the space.
So the day arrived, and we saw Noble Team for the first time. Quite an interesting trailer, I admit, I liked it, everything calmed, the Spartans getting ready for this invasion. However, there was one small detail in the trailer that we all hated, Jorge's comment about Pegasi Delta, as there were only two survivors, and Noble Six wasn't a part of that operation.
But there was another thing that caught my attention, Emile, of course. Oh, look at me, I have a skull on my visor, and I just happen to be sharpening my knife, I MUST BE BADASS! It didn't helped that GameInformer informed us (see what I did there, it's a joke... because the magazine is GameInformer and I said... ahhh -blam!- it) that he happened to be the silent Spartan-III of the team, or something like that. I think they only played the first level, and the game was still far from finished, so Emile still lacked of dialogue. It was still too early to judge the character, but I already hated him back then, I just happen to hate that kind of characters, they are extremely boring because the developers say "oh, you don't get it, he is absolute, he doesn't needs personality, he just shoots and saves your life, that's how he rolls!", so in other words, you are too lazy/don't care about developing the character at all, let him/her just be a silent guy who happens to know how to get the job done, and that's it.
Time passed, and Bungie made that Halo: Reach ViDoc "A Spartan will Rise", perhaps the most offensive material I've seen in Halo. "Why offensive, Mister Juan Teran? It was incredible, and an important part of the Campaign". Oh yeah, no doubt about it, I like that ViDoc, but that's also one of the main problems with the game, they used that ViDoc in order to save some time. We don't have time to correctly develop the characters in the game, so we will do it in this ViDoc, BRILLIANT! I mean, we don't need to see Carter being a great leader, if the ViDoc says so, we'll believe Halsey. She says that Jun is the best sniper of all time? Why bother making an acceptable A.I. for the character, the community already tolerates our horrible friendly A.I., so they will take the bullet for us. Ironically, the character I hate the most (Kat) is the only one to use her hacking abilities to our advantage, to say it this way. As for "brilliant" for having that excellent plan to destroy that Supercarrier, I'll pass, it was more like lazy writing. I mean, the heart of the UNSC can't against Corvettes? Those things don't have shields. The planet is being destroyed by a single Supercarrier, but when we destroy it, more Supercarriers arrive, why didn't the planet fell immediately then? The fact that the fight lasts for a month doesn't makes it better, in fact, it takes away the feeling of loss from the novel. Oh, sorry, forgot this was a thread about Emile, sorry, my frustration takes me to other places.
So yeah, Halsey said that Emile was the "wrath of Noble Team", or was it the monument? Yeah, it's the same thing. You know, the macho strong guy in the team, and we heard him talk for the first time. Alright, so he may say some cliche/stupid dialogue, but at least he talks, who knows, maybe he will be interesting. Sadly, he barely appears in the Campaign, most of his dialogue is unimportant, and overall, he is useless for the team. Let's check each mission in the game, shall we?
First mission: Very few, yet interesting things about his character. Yes, I did note the way he was holding his shotgun towards that civilian, while the rest of the team just happened to talk with him. I guess it could show that he takes the fact that he is a Spartan-III too seriously, or hate towards the civilians. Maybe he thinks that he is far above them, and has the privilege of holding the shotgun the way he wants. Luckily, this is further elaborated the rest of the mission, where he talks about Jorge and makes fun of the fact that he worries about a civilian. Who wouldn't? They are Spartans, where did he even learn humanity to begin with? The two start to fight, and Carter calms them, showing us the great leader he is! Alright, I've learned two things in this mission, that he doesn't likes Jorge, and that he doesn't likes civilians, I hope this is further elaborated in the campaign (inb4disappointment).
Second mission: He appears and does nothing, making us wonder what's the purpose of being in a squad of Spartans.
Third mission: He doesn't appears, again, making us wonder what's the purpose of being in a squad if we are constantly separated from them.
Fourth mission: He doesn't appears.
Fifth mission: While Noble Team finds a place to discuss, he is just chilling, doing nothing at all. Then Kat grabs his knife (naughty girl :P), but before she can grab it, he is like "whoa". Maybe he doesn't trusts them enough, which again, goes against the principle of the game. You see, you are a replacement for Thom, and Carter makes a comment that some members of the team would like that space to remain empty. Too bad this is never elaborated, bonds are never created, the characters are always boring, they die and there are no emotions involved, gosh... Anyways, why is he surprised that Kat wants to touch his knife? Is there any trust in the team? Yeah, it builds his character, sadly it raises questions and we never get answers. In just ends as being a random action.
Sixth mission: Emile doesn't appears.
Seventh mission: He appears at the end of the mission, just laughing at the fact that Jorge dies. Again, why? People think that his character is being developed for making a random action/saying something random, but the fact that this is never elaborated is the real problem. He could be drawing an elephant with his knife in the sand, but if we never get an answer, it just ends being random AND unimportant.
Eight mission: He appears, and that's it.
His last mission: Have you guys ever watched the Ricky I review of AVGN? Ricky I is a parody of Rocky (duhhh), but it fails miserably in every level. James says that there is a theme song in the movie, but you hear it almost at the end of the movie, and at that point of the movie, you no longer care. I can relate to him in "The Pillar of Autumn", for the first time, Emile finally starts doing stuff that build up his character correctly, but I don't care anymore, I want this game to be over.
So yeah, he tells Carter that it has been an honor to serve him, despite the fact that he has done nothing, then when Carter is seconds before sacrificing himself to save them (notice that he was on a Pelican, and yet, only told Noble about that Scarab on the last second, the hell?) he tries to convince him that there is another way. So yeah, perhaps he actually respected Carter, I don't know, at this point I don't care.
So yeah, I hope you understand why I hate Emile this much, he was boring, got himself and Six killed thanks to that horrible cutscene where he finally dies. What happened to that Spartan who was able to destroy a Banshee with a grenade launcher? Was his helmet broke or something? Couldn't he see that there were two Elites? And no, stop saying that there were Grunts and Elites all over the place (you know, when he dies and you have to take his place, you have to get your hands dirty to destroy that Covenant ship) and he was doomed anyways. If that was the case, then Noble Six would die before he gets a chance to fight his last stand in "Lone Wolf". You see, there are many Banshees and Phantoms shooting at the guy, generally, you destroy that ship with little to no shields, you just make that last shot for the mission to end, and suddenly, all the Phantoms and Banshees disappear. So no, Emile wasn't doomed, if he had done his job right, and kill those two Elites, Noble Six could board The Pillar of Autumn and survive. Gosh... I hate Emile so much.