: At least Tanaka comes across more like a person that might actually exist,
: her backstory involves having to work and overcome obstacles to become a
: badass, and even then her skillset isn't as arbitrary as Vale's. Sure, her
: inclusion in Osiris is pretty random and she came out of nowhere, but
: there's something I like about her. Maybe it's just because I often tend
: to root for characters who don't get as much hype.

I like Tanaka because unlike Vale, and a lot of other Spartan-IVs, we see her learning the skills that make her Spartan material. She isn't just a prodigy at them like Vale, and she isn't just an uber-badass who can launch a hog onto a Phantom and regularly solos missions in what we are meant to take as impressive but come across as unfathomably selfish (guess who). We see her from her days as just another colonist, her struggle for survival, her lessons on survivalism and mastery of those skills, and that these skills have impressed somebody enough to recommend her. Same with Buck - we've seen exactly why he's Spartan material, and we've seen him struggle against the odds. They're not perfect, but that's what makes those two stand out. They EARNED it.

I like Vale well enough, but I wouldn't have mourned her if they'd dropped her for another character like I would have with Buck. And I haven't seen Nightfall yet, so I don't know if that lets Locke come across as someone overcoming odds, but at the moment he's being carried by the charisma imparted by his voice actor (which is considerable).

I hope that changes with Halo 5. I really do. I hope I end up loving Osiris as much as I do Mickey or Dutch or Halsey or Jorge. I certainly don't want to hate them, even if some small, mean corner of my heart remembers the hysterical voice of a rampant Cortana, "they don't care about you, they REPLACED you." I don't think these are replacements for the Chief, nor should they be - they're more supporting cast to surround him with, like Captain and Miranda Keyes or Johnson, and if we end up loving them all the better.