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Del Rio is alright.
By:Quirel
Date: 6/6/15 3:27 am
In Response To: So I'm the only one who likes Del Rio? (davidfuchs)

It's actually kind of refreshing to have a character who is incompetent, and that incompetence is acknowledged within the story. Compare this to Lasky, Gajat, Palmer, Jul, and Clayton, who have all screwed up on the same basic level as Del Rio at one point or another, but the story refuses to acknowledge that they screwed up.

Come to think of it, when was Del Rio wrong? Was it when he elected to GTFO of Requiem? That was the smart thing to do. The Chief can talk all he wants about having to stop the Didact there and then, but he only had storybook heroism to fall back on. Requiem was the Didact's territory, and the Infinity only continued to exist because the Didact didn't care and the writers softballed the Didact's capabilities.

Was it when he had that meltdown on the bridge? Yeah, that was unprofessional. It also happened after the Infinity got curbstomped by Requiem's defenses and only barely fended off an alien attack after the aliens got what they came for. Then the AI that the crew let into the ship's network was revealed to be in the early stages of rampancy. Then the aging indoctrinated-from-childhood-but-who-knows-what's-happened-to-it-in-the-past-five-years supersoldier refuses to turn the AI over into custody. Then the vaunted leader of the Spartan-IV program refuses a direct order to apprehend him.

Overall, not a nice day. It's unprofessional, but understandable.

What about the time when he sent the Chief into a fight without any intel? The terrain and enemy positions weren't scouted for an operation where staying out of the anti-aircraft artillery's line of sight was paramount. And the whole operation hinged on the Mammoth. The Mammoth. A four-story tall lumbering mass of "Shoot me". If the terrain between the start of the level and the site hadn't been tailor-made to drive a Mammoth through, the Mammoth would have gotten stuck or would've wasted everyone's time wandering around for a clear shot. So, yes, it was an incompetently-run operation. But why was Captain Del Rio in charge of it? Why weren't the ground forces commanded by Sarah Palmer?

The writers put Del Rio in charge so he could passive-aggressively insult the Chief. They did it to show that Del Rio is an incompetent blowhard who only got the job because of his political connections. That completely undermines the theme of the Chief making his own decisions. The Master Chief electing to follow his own gut and disobey commands from a superior officer is less meaningful when that superior officer couldn't lead a glee club. Meh, doesn't matter. In my headcanon, it was Sarah Palmer who briefed you at the beginning of the level. Everything about the operation had her fingerprints on it anyway.

There's this annoying thing writers do, where everyone who likes the protagonist is obviously good, and everyone who dislikes the protagonist is bad, stupid, or morally corrupt. That's why I couldn't get very far into the Honor Harrington series. Characters who support the protagonist for selfish or misguided reasons are interesting. Characters who oppose or doubt the protagonists for valid reasons are also interesting. I'll cop to headcanoning away Del Rio's major flaws, but the fact that he can look at the Master Chief and say "You were instrumental in ending the last war. How does that help us in this conflict?" makes me like him.

Contrast his replacement. Lasky is a good guy because he's met the Master Chief before, and in the Chief's hour of need, he shows up with a Pelican. He's certainly not an idiot who let an unsupported soldier wander into enemy territory with a semi-rampant packet of all the information and intel the Didact didn't get on his first raid of the Infinity. And 343i keeps pushing him on us.

So, no. Del Rio is an interesting character hamstrung by bad writing.


Messages In This Thread

Hunt the Truth #10: Gag OrderGrizzlei5/31/15 5:06 pm
     Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag Order *SP*Urban Reflex5/31/15 5:36 pm
           Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag Order *SP*General Vagueness6/1/15 12:29 am
                 Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag Order *SP*Apollo6/1/15 1:09 am
                 Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag Order *SP*Grizzlei6/1/15 1:37 am
                       Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag Order *SP*Car156/1/15 1:52 am
                             How I see Earth and the Outer Colonies right nowGrizzlei6/1/15 2:32 am
     Re: Hunt the Truth #10: *SPOILERS*asa5/31/15 6:44 pm
     Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag OrderCar155/31/15 7:16 pm
           Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag Orderthebruce06/1/15 10:15 am
                 Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag Orderdavidfuchs6/1/15 11:49 am
     Hunt The Truth is AMAZING!Bryan Newman5/31/15 11:03 pm
     Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag OrderArchilen6/1/15 12:58 am
           Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag OrderGeneral Vagueness6/1/15 1:14 am
                 Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag OrderGrizzlei6/1/15 1:31 am
                       Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag OrderGeneral Vagueness6/1/15 12:50 pm
                 Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag OrderCar156/1/15 1:31 am
     Guys... OMG...Car156/1/15 1:48 am
           Re: Guys... OMG...Grizzlei6/1/15 2:36 am
                 Re: Guys... OMG...Car156/1/15 3:09 am
                       Wait a secondCar156/1/15 3:11 am
                       Re: Guys... OMG...Grizzlei6/1/15 4:07 am
     Re: Hunt the Truth #10: Gag OrderThe BS Police6/1/15 2:01 am
     So I'm the only one who likes Del Rio?davidfuchs6/1/15 9:23 am
           Re: So I'm the only one who likes Del Rio?Urban Reflex6/1/15 10:30 am
                 Re: So I'm the only one who likes Del Rio?Car156/1/15 1:17 pm
           Re: So I'm the only one who likes Del Rio?General Vagueness6/1/15 1:38 pm
           Re: So I'm the only one who likes Del Rio?car156/3/15 3:49 am
           Del Rio is alright.Quirel6/6/15 3:27 am

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