- ROBERTO jh
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- Fabled Heroic Member
Posted by: And Im Here Too
Posted by: ROBERTO jh
Except for the part where the Precursors and Flood are still a total mystery. Tell me: what do we know about either of them other than that they are related in some way, and that the Flood is a parasite?
We know enough about the flood that there's really not a whole lot else to be revealed about them.
Honestly, I'd rather we never see the precursors, nor learn anything new about the flood (or see the flood again, for that matter; they've gotten stale).
The Forerunners were fleshed out through the terminals already.
The ones in Halo 3 gave little snippets about them, enough to keep you mystified about them and not showing too much.
343i merely portrayed them as an imperfect race of beings who were thrust into desperate times and desperate situations, while giving them a personality and a face.
Didact is a generic human-hating antagonist with a laser, Librarian is a generic space ghost who helps the protagonist. The Master Builder is a corrupt jackass - again, nothing new or original.
The Didact hates humans because he's lost everything he ever loved to them. At first he wanted to welcome mankind into the fold, to educate them in the ways of peace and the Mantle; he even stood against his own wife when she said they should eradicate them. It was the following series of events--a thousand year war that saw his whole family destroyed, the Forerunners being shunned aside by the Precursors in favor of the humans, and the Librarian turning on him to protect him--that resulted in his hatred of humanity.
The Librarian, conversly, who originally wanted to eradicate us, lived amongst us for centuries and saw within us a potential she had missed previously. It's a contrast between the detatched observation of events from afar (Didact), and the intimate relationships built with individuals (Librarian) that develop their characters.
What they are, and what niche they fill in the story, are unimportant. Charles Foster Kane, considered one of the greatest characters ever put to cinema, was, in essence, a corrupt politician. Does that make him a shallow character? No. The old saying "it is not the end that matters, but the journey" applies to characters. Who they are and what they were, and how they got to where they are now, is what defines them, not just what they are now.
The ultra-enigmnatic race of perfect beings, as they had originally been (as you prefer, apparently) is objectively more cliched and uninspired than a fleshed out character.
If Halo didn't popularize the idea, it was certainly an iconic example of it. Halo 1's entire basis was around its mystery.
The Precursors, on the other hand, can fill that roll because they represent the almost divine force of fate.
Who got driven off by the forerunners, so I wouldn't describe them as divine by any definition of the word. They seem more like a replacement 'mysterious advanced race' now that the forerunners aren't that mysterious or god-like anymore.
We've covered before that we're not even sure that happened to begin with. And I've used the Q analogy numerous times. Whether you choose to listen to me is your choice.
And the Composer was introduced in the books. Are you saying any weapon the Didact could have used would thus have just been cheap? Composer was explained in detail and proved just how far the once pure Forerunners had fallen from grace, to in effect become the one thing they fought against: forcibly converting beings into mindless killing machines is exactly what the Flood did. It is a tragic poetic irony that they had resorted to stooping to the Flood's level.
Quite so.
Tropes themselves are not bad--without tropes, there would be no story. Certain elements are universal to storytelling, and certain kinds of storytelling, such as sci-fi. How they are incorporated into the story, and how the characters develop as a result of these unique uses, are what matter.
Tropes are not bad...as long as they can be used creatively.
The original Halo trilogy was extremely creative and imaginative, with one of the greatest stories I've ever had the pleasure of playing through.
But was Truth not also just a corrupt politician? Was Gravemind not just the giant purple people eater? And was John not just the Big Good?
Sounds like a double standard. 343i has given the characters motivations and arcs to explain themselves as people better. Even the Gravemind now has a logical reason behind what he does. They are not the "characters used for the sake of niche filling" you so clearly detest and accuse them of being, so what is the problem now?
Halo 4 and its story just...isn't the same. It doesn't feel like anything new or original, nor does it have the feeling of wonder Halo 1 had (and Halo 2 and 3 sadly lacked).
That's just me, of course, but I'm kind of disappointed. And I've stated several times my disappointment with the Forerunner Trilogy.