Any story can have protagonist, however the one method to make them nice is to face them with a larger antagonist. The Halo franchise serves as the proper instance of this, with the Grasp Chief and 343 Responsible Spark, respectively. Whereas it is likely to be straightforward to say that the principle antagonist within the collection is the Covenant or maybe the Flood, Responsible Spark serves as the proper foil for Grasp Chief in ways in which not one of the different villains within the collection can.
An vital idea to know is {that a} villain and an antagonist should not essentially the identical. Typically talking, the antagonist can be a villain that additionally serves as a foil to the principle character or protagonist, in Halo’s case being the Grasp Chief. The identical manner that the Joker does Batman, 343 Responsible Spark displays a lot of what drives John all through the collection, however it’s this reflection that additional pronounces the core variations that set the 2 of them aside.
John’s mission when the 2 first met was to destroy the Flood at any value, which was conveniently aligned with Responsible Spark’s protocol, being to comprise any Flood outbreak on Set up 04. Whereas this could been a match made in heaven, the connection soured when Cortana revealed to Grasp Chief that activating the ring would destroy the Flood by destroying all different sentient life, together with humanity. The battle between the 2 then begins as a result of each character’s targets are actually obviously opposed, but their most important goals stay unchanged, creating a superb dynamic between the 2.
If these two highly effective characters shared the identical purpose, then why couldn’t they work collectively to perform it? The reply turned out to be Grasp Chief’s major inside battle: humanity.
To grasp why these two characters couldn’t absolutely align, it must be understood who they’re and the place they got here from. Grasp Chief is a human super-soldier educated from a toddler with the categorical goal of defending humanity from any enemy in any respect prices. Whereas he discovered himself grappling with what it meant to be a soldier, John’s core focus was at all times the nice of humanity. As soon as he discovered that activating the ring would destroy humanity within the course of, he reassessed his mission and needed to work towards Responsible Spark.
343 Responsible Spark, then again, was an “ancilla” or forerunner AI, and he served because the monitor for Set up 04. Whereas he was as soon as a human named Chakas, his consciousness was transferred right into a monitor after he was gravely injured and practically died, which certain him to comply with a set protocol being to guard Set up 04 and comprise any outbreak of the Flood. The strictness of this protocol prohibited him from with the ability to perceive John’s resistance to the activation of the ring, subsequently he deemed John as a direct obstruction to his directive and turned on him.
343 Responsible Spark’s turning on Grasp Chief may need come off as a backstab on the primary play-through, however as later defined in Halo 3 when the 2 meet once more, it was by no means his intention to behave as a villain. The important thing distinction between Grasp Chief and Responsible Spark is the truth that John has the welfare of humanity on the forefront of his intention, whereas Responsible Spark solely sees the significance of his protocol. He doesn’t activate John as a result of he manipulated him or had an ulterior motive, however as a result of in his perspective, he had no different alternative.
This blindness of perspective seems to function extra of a similarity between the 2 characters than a distinction. In John’s thoughts, he’s a soldier firstly, to the purpose the place Captain Lasky and Cortana each wanted to remind him of his personal humanity. His habits slowly progressed into appearing as nothing greater than a machine, dictated by protocol the identical because the monitor who he needed to oppose prior. It then got here because of witnessing Cortana’s rampancy that he was reminded of the vital of the humanity that drove him at first of his journey.
It’s this understanding of perspective that makes it extra really feel extra rewarding when the 2 start working collectively once more in Halo 3, as a result of it doesn’t play like the usual trope of “hero and villain working collectively,” however slightly it reads as two highly effective forces reconnecting over mutual faults. This then makes it really feel much more hurtful upon seeing Responsible Spark kill Sergeant Johnson, as a result of whereas the preliminary response is to hate Responsible Spark for it, it’s adopted by a sense of dreadful understanding that he merely didn’t see every other method to accomplish his directive.
Whereas the variations between 343 Responsible Spark and Grasp Chief are clear, it’s the understanding of the the characters’ background that makes the similarities between the 2 turn out to be clearer. Responsible Spark acts on protocol, which turns into the very factor that John finds himself struggling to not do as he experiences an increasing number of.
Whereas Halo 3 exhibits him being destroyed, his stays have been recovered by the human authorities and after a protracted course of occasions, he took over a forerunner physique and altered his identify to Spark, joined the crew of the ship Ace of Spades, looked for the Librarian and selected to behave on the non-public connections he had made slightly than a set protocol.
This reflection of John’s personal character arc and the way Responsible Spark performs into John’s general improvement reveal why Responsible Spark makes an ideal antagonist. Whereas different villains within the collection just like the Covenant or Flood oppose John by way of their energy, Responsible Spark opposes John via his coronary heart. A protagonist as direct and order-focused as Grasp Chief wants a villain who makes them query what they assume they know, and that’s the reason 343 Responsible Spark makes an ideal antagonist.
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