This is just a wordy thought experiment.
I have always believed that the driving force behind any fictional character is the untold story of the heroe's motivation. The thing that drives a protagonist is probably the hardest thing to convey via any medium. Especially if he/she is a character in a video game. When I first played Halo CE, MC was a faceless soldier with whom I layed waste to all those creatures who stood in my way... this fact served me well on legendary. Kill Covenant with extreme prejudice and the mission always comes first.
Then I started reading the books and when I got to Eric Nylund's Fall of Reach, it occured to me that the lone SPARTAN known only as John-117 was a psychopathic killer.
After following his exploits in the other books and in the Halo2 game, I determined he would not be someone that I would want to spend any amount of time with. He'd be like a giant, mute weirdo.
A seven foot tall killing machine. A demigod in peak physical condition weighing in excess of a quarter ton in his armor and weaponry. A chemically and genetically enhanced orphan subjected to torturous medical testing. Wherever he goes he is viewed with an equal measure of curiosity, awe, fear and anxiety. He is a man-child with arrested social skills and a deep-seated case of separation anxiety. He is a hardened combat veteran that has seen millions wiped out by what appeared to be an unstoppable and merciless alien force.
A man imbued with a clinical indifference to his comrades as well as his enemies. Hyper- lethal. And to top it all off, the only friend/guardian to this asexual career soldier is a younger, much nuder, holographic version of woman who seems at once the caring mother figure and the aloof stranger.
As I mentioned this is an excercise, but I wonder if I'm the only one who got the sense that the boys and girls that were 'lucky' enough to lead SPARTAN's life must be burdened with crushing resposiblity and excruciating grief.
If there are any REAL psych majors out there, I would love to hear what you have to say.
I have always believed that the driving force behind any fictional character is the untold story of the heroe's motivation. The thing that drives a protagonist is probably the hardest thing to convey via any medium. Especially if he/she is a character in a video game. When I first played Halo CE, MC was a faceless soldier with whom I layed waste to all those creatures who stood in my way... this fact served me well on legendary. Kill Covenant with extreme prejudice and the mission always comes first.
Then I started reading the books and when I got to Eric Nylund's Fall of Reach, it occured to me that the lone SPARTAN known only as John-117 was a psychopathic killer.
After following his exploits in the other books and in the Halo2 game, I determined he would not be someone that I would want to spend any amount of time with. He'd be like a giant, mute weirdo.
A seven foot tall killing machine. A demigod in peak physical condition weighing in excess of a quarter ton in his armor and weaponry. A chemically and genetically enhanced orphan subjected to torturous medical testing. Wherever he goes he is viewed with an equal measure of curiosity, awe, fear and anxiety. He is a man-child with arrested social skills and a deep-seated case of separation anxiety. He is a hardened combat veteran that has seen millions wiped out by what appeared to be an unstoppable and merciless alien force.
A man imbued with a clinical indifference to his comrades as well as his enemies. Hyper- lethal. And to top it all off, the only friend/guardian to this asexual career soldier is a younger, much nuder, holographic version of woman who seems at once the caring mother figure and the aloof stranger.
As I mentioned this is an excercise, but I wonder if I'm the only one who got the sense that the boys and girls that were 'lucky' enough to lead SPARTAN's life must be burdened with crushing resposiblity and excruciating grief.
If there are any REAL psych majors out there, I would love to hear what you have to say.