I remember a while back there was a thread about 'tragedy in games' and at the time I hadn't really put enough thought into my answer because I couldn't really think of great examples. But, I have thought for a while about really great tragic moments in games and it occurs to me that some of the best and greatest tragic moments in games and indeed in modern storytelling are when they are character driven. Either happening to the character or affecting said character on a personal level, so now I figured I could make a whole new thread based on characters who have had tragedy befall them. Either through their own direct intervention or simply through consequences.
In some cases the tragedy is not shown but is greatly implied and is left to make you the player imagine how the character must be feeling, I myself had a moment like this when I was playing Halo 2 and it reached the final level of the game in which the Arbiter faces off against Tartarus, also for the record there are a few spoilers here. I figure most people have already played Halo 2 by now but just in case I'll keep the warning up, as in order to properly explain it I need to deliver the whole thing into a compressed three act structure (there are also spoilers for the book 'the Cole Protocol':
It was actually quite recently while doing some thought on the subject that I came to a realization:
The Arbiter's story in Halo 2 is a Greek Tragedy.
Or at least it can be judged as one the same way the first God of War could.
Remember what Daniel Floyd said, that the three main ingredients for a Greek Tragedy were the following:
1. A person of high status brought low by their actions.
2. Said person making many terrible mistakes oblivious to the truth in an attempt to fix that problem.
3. Upon realizing what they have done and the mistakes they have made the main character is lead to remorse.
So, looking back on the Arbiter's story let's keep this in mind:
Thel Vadam is made the commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice upon executing his friend Zhar who harbored treacherous ideas of making peace with humans. While becoming one of the most treasured instruments of the Covenant he leads the Fleet of Particular Justice to great victory many many times, including the destruction of Reach. But finally he suffers from the greatest failure possible, he is unable to prevent the destruction of the newly discovered Halo ring. This shame an failure causes him to be stripped of his rank, and his armor, to be labelled a heretic and failure and have the Mark of Shame branded into his chest.
Element number 1: Check
Now lowly and at the bottom of society, outcast and considered less than filth he is given a chance to redeem himself by becoming The Arbiter, hence he is no longer a pariah and is now being given a chance at redemption. Accepting it he soon finds himself being sent off to do various missions for the Prophets.
He is lead to kill the 'Heretic' uprising on a Gas Station on the planet beneath the remains of the ring he failed to protect. However seeds of doubt are planted in his mind when he sees that the Holy 'Oracle' appears to be giving out information to the Heretics. But he swiftly denies those doubts.
These doubts get greater after the death of the Prophet of Regret and the Brutes replace the Elites as the Prophet's guards.
Later on he succeeds in capturing the 'Sacred Icon' only to find himself, and his people, being betrayed by the Brutes as a new power struggle has begun. He has, obliviously, put a lot of the galaxy at risk by giving over the key to a superweapon that everyone has mistaken as something of holy origin.
And yet, he refuses to listen to that when told as much by the Gravemind. But even though he is in denial he still is given no choice but to listen to the Gravemind's orders and is now sent off the Library.
After being tricked, twice, into undermining his own people while blindly holding onto the hope of redemption the Arbiter has unwittingly caused more problems.
Element number 2: Check
Upon confronting his new nemesis Tartarus in the activation center of Delta Halo, the deluded and confused Arbiter finally asks the 'Oracle' what the true purpose of Halo really is. To which he learns, finally and without any possible remaining doubt, that the Halo rings are not going to send his people on a divine journey. That they are actually a weapon of last resort used to eliminate potential flood hosts and that those who made the rings did not transcend, they merely died.
He then hangs his head in a moment of depression, possibly reflecting on how he had been betrayed by the Prophets so completely.
He is left helpless for a moment but when he makes one desperate attempt to make peace with Tartarus, Tartarus refuses to listen and in a final moment of stubborn denial attempts to activate the ring. And the Arbiter who had spent so long trying to preserve the Great Journey now had to be the one to end it.
Element number 3: Check
So yes, in some respects I actually do believe that even though he is also a total badass, that the Arbiter is one of the more tragic characters in games. Although the game itself only shows him hanging his head low for a moment, in my mind I suddenly found myself trying to imagine what he might have been thinking and the results weren't nice.
First of all the realization that there is no 'Great Journey' and that the idea of transcendence and following the gods into the next world and freeing his people from a doomed existence was simply not true. And that therefore all the various terrible things he had done in his life in service towards the Great Journey was all for nothing.
One example being that he was in the book 'the Cole Protocol' where at the climax of which he is lead to kill his closest friend, a fellow Zealot named Zhar, because he had been harboring ideas that the Prophets were wrong and that war with humans was not a just war. So this means looking back retrospectively, the Arbiter killed his friend who was actually telling the truth, unwittingly but nonetheless the truth.
Then of course as the new commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice he is lead to being the primary overseer in the destruction of Reach. Being among the ships to deal the first blow and burn the planet until there is nothing left, killing millions of innocents in the process but at the time being able to justify it because he had been told that the very existence of the human race threatened the divine salvation his people now fought for.
Then he killed the Heretic Leader and unwittingly just prevented the ones trying to lead his people on the right path from doing so and also allowed himself to be a pawn to retrieve the 'sacred icon' believed to be the thing to send the Covenant to salvation and now realizing the truth means that he very nearly allowed the destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy to happen instead.
So essentially to recap he has allowed himself to become a ruthless murderer and a tool used to commit genocide, that he has left an entire planet's worth of innocent people dead, unwittingly slain the 'good guys' and now stands dangerously close to all life in the galaxy being wiped out and it was all in the name of a belief that he now has to accept never existed. That what he has done is terrible and what his people have become is fanatical and psychotic.
That is a lot of weight to carry on one's shoulders.
True, like I said, we don't see this reflected greatly in game apart from his one moment of hopelessness when he finally learns or rather, accepts the truth. But if I had the power to redirect that scene I would have him fall to his knees and damn near weep.
As it stands though the best possible rendition of that kind of 'what have I done' mindset of the Elites in retrospect after the Covenant is probably still the animated graphic novel called 'the Return' on Halo Waypoint. But still all the same things could apply to the Arbiter and it really helped me relate to him as a result, or at least greatly sympathize with him.
So yes, anyway that's my huge and epic example up, so how about you? Who do you think is the most tragic character in games either through action or through the hard problems of their lives as a result of the events in the story? Like I said, it doesn't have to be incredibly well presented in the game but if you can imagine how they might be feeling then that counts.
In some cases the tragedy is not shown but is greatly implied and is left to make you the player imagine how the character must be feeling, I myself had a moment like this when I was playing Halo 2 and it reached the final level of the game in which the Arbiter faces off against Tartarus, also for the record there are a few spoilers here. I figure most people have already played Halo 2 by now but just in case I'll keep the warning up, as in order to properly explain it I need to deliver the whole thing into a compressed three act structure (there are also spoilers for the book 'the Cole Protocol':
It was actually quite recently while doing some thought on the subject that I came to a realization:
The Arbiter's story in Halo 2 is a Greek Tragedy.
Or at least it can be judged as one the same way the first God of War could.
Remember what Daniel Floyd said, that the three main ingredients for a Greek Tragedy were the following:
1. A person of high status brought low by their actions.
2. Said person making many terrible mistakes oblivious to the truth in an attempt to fix that problem.
3. Upon realizing what they have done and the mistakes they have made the main character is lead to remorse.
So, looking back on the Arbiter's story let's keep this in mind:
Thel Vadam is made the commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice upon executing his friend Zhar who harbored treacherous ideas of making peace with humans. While becoming one of the most treasured instruments of the Covenant he leads the Fleet of Particular Justice to great victory many many times, including the destruction of Reach. But finally he suffers from the greatest failure possible, he is unable to prevent the destruction of the newly discovered Halo ring. This shame an failure causes him to be stripped of his rank, and his armor, to be labelled a heretic and failure and have the Mark of Shame branded into his chest.
Element number 1: Check
Now lowly and at the bottom of society, outcast and considered less than filth he is given a chance to redeem himself by becoming The Arbiter, hence he is no longer a pariah and is now being given a chance at redemption. Accepting it he soon finds himself being sent off to do various missions for the Prophets.
He is lead to kill the 'Heretic' uprising on a Gas Station on the planet beneath the remains of the ring he failed to protect. However seeds of doubt are planted in his mind when he sees that the Holy 'Oracle' appears to be giving out information to the Heretics. But he swiftly denies those doubts.
These doubts get greater after the death of the Prophet of Regret and the Brutes replace the Elites as the Prophet's guards.
Later on he succeeds in capturing the 'Sacred Icon' only to find himself, and his people, being betrayed by the Brutes as a new power struggle has begun. He has, obliviously, put a lot of the galaxy at risk by giving over the key to a superweapon that everyone has mistaken as something of holy origin.
And yet, he refuses to listen to that when told as much by the Gravemind. But even though he is in denial he still is given no choice but to listen to the Gravemind's orders and is now sent off the Library.
After being tricked, twice, into undermining his own people while blindly holding onto the hope of redemption the Arbiter has unwittingly caused more problems.
Element number 2: Check
Upon confronting his new nemesis Tartarus in the activation center of Delta Halo, the deluded and confused Arbiter finally asks the 'Oracle' what the true purpose of Halo really is. To which he learns, finally and without any possible remaining doubt, that the Halo rings are not going to send his people on a divine journey. That they are actually a weapon of last resort used to eliminate potential flood hosts and that those who made the rings did not transcend, they merely died.
He then hangs his head in a moment of depression, possibly reflecting on how he had been betrayed by the Prophets so completely.
He is left helpless for a moment but when he makes one desperate attempt to make peace with Tartarus, Tartarus refuses to listen and in a final moment of stubborn denial attempts to activate the ring. And the Arbiter who had spent so long trying to preserve the Great Journey now had to be the one to end it.
Element number 3: Check
So yes, in some respects I actually do believe that even though he is also a total badass, that the Arbiter is one of the more tragic characters in games. Although the game itself only shows him hanging his head low for a moment, in my mind I suddenly found myself trying to imagine what he might have been thinking and the results weren't nice.
First of all the realization that there is no 'Great Journey' and that the idea of transcendence and following the gods into the next world and freeing his people from a doomed existence was simply not true. And that therefore all the various terrible things he had done in his life in service towards the Great Journey was all for nothing.
One example being that he was in the book 'the Cole Protocol' where at the climax of which he is lead to kill his closest friend, a fellow Zealot named Zhar, because he had been harboring ideas that the Prophets were wrong and that war with humans was not a just war. So this means looking back retrospectively, the Arbiter killed his friend who was actually telling the truth, unwittingly but nonetheless the truth.
Then of course as the new commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice he is lead to being the primary overseer in the destruction of Reach. Being among the ships to deal the first blow and burn the planet until there is nothing left, killing millions of innocents in the process but at the time being able to justify it because he had been told that the very existence of the human race threatened the divine salvation his people now fought for.
Then he killed the Heretic Leader and unwittingly just prevented the ones trying to lead his people on the right path from doing so and also allowed himself to be a pawn to retrieve the 'sacred icon' believed to be the thing to send the Covenant to salvation and now realizing the truth means that he very nearly allowed the destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy to happen instead.
So essentially to recap he has allowed himself to become a ruthless murderer and a tool used to commit genocide, that he has left an entire planet's worth of innocent people dead, unwittingly slain the 'good guys' and now stands dangerously close to all life in the galaxy being wiped out and it was all in the name of a belief that he now has to accept never existed. That what he has done is terrible and what his people have become is fanatical and psychotic.
That is a lot of weight to carry on one's shoulders.
True, like I said, we don't see this reflected greatly in game apart from his one moment of hopelessness when he finally learns or rather, accepts the truth. But if I had the power to redirect that scene I would have him fall to his knees and damn near weep.
As it stands though the best possible rendition of that kind of 'what have I done' mindset of the Elites in retrospect after the Covenant is probably still the animated graphic novel called 'the Return' on Halo Waypoint. But still all the same things could apply to the Arbiter and it really helped me relate to him as a result, or at least greatly sympathize with him.
So yes, anyway that's my huge and epic example up, so how about you? Who do you think is the most tragic character in games either through action or through the hard problems of their lives as a result of the events in the story? Like I said, it doesn't have to be incredibly well presented in the game but if you can imagine how they might be feeling then that counts.
