Jack of Harts

One of the things I loved about the Halo games is they showed people with fear. They showed people with courage. Cunning. Scheming. They showed us humanity with all our flaws and strengths.

They showed us all of that, and they let us play the strong and silent hero with a snarky companion as we waded through the chaos. And everywhere we went, people knew us and rallied around us. They didn’t just say we were the biggest baddass in the area. They let us play the biggest baddass, and then showed the real life reactions people would have around a real life badass, but one who didn’t flaunt it.

We were the ones who did, and everyone else stood up taller and did around us. We got to see humanity dying and standing up at the same time. And we played the character that when asked how we were all going to survive the next few minutes responded with simple statements like “Finish the fight” or “give the covenant back their bomb” or “I won’t.”. We said impossibly simple things while death was all around us, and the humans still alive stood up a little taller and walked in behind us.

Bungie wrote a story about death and destruction and fear and the end of the world, and then put the hero front and center and let us play him. Halo was fire…