Arbiter (Halo)

voiced Thel 'Vadam, the Arbiter of Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 5: Guardians. The concept of the Arbiter came from early story discussions for Halo 2. Bungie designer Jaime Griesemer and story director Joseph Staten discussed playing from the perspective of an alien soldier to see the other side of the war between the human United Nations Space Command and alien Covenant. "What if you were the guy whose butt was on the line for protecting the most valuable religious object in the entire world, and you blew it?" said Staten. "That seems like a pretty interesting story, and one we should tell." Halo developer Bungie's former content manager Frank O'Connor said that the inclusion of the Arbiter as a playable character in Halo 2 was supposed to be a "secret on the scale of a Shyamalan plot twist" which Bungie kept the public uninformed until the game's release; O'Connor never included it in the weekly development updates posted at Bungie's website, and insisted story details about the Arbiter's past would remain mysterious. Staten said that the purpose of introducing the Arbiter was "to offer another, compelling point of view on a war where telling friend from foe wasn't always clear-cut. We knew we had a trilogy on our hands, so we were looking past the shock of playing as the enemy [to the events of Halo 3]". While there were those in Bungie who were against the Arbiter as a player character, Staten chalked its inclusion in the game to a combination of wearing down his opponents and the gameplay sandbox opportunities that came from having Covenant allies. During Halo 2s early developmental stages the character's name was "Dervish", a name from the Sufi sect of Islam. The switch came so late that the game's voice lines had to be re-recorded, and some game manuals were printed with the wrong name. 343 Industries designed the armor to look "medieval" and antiquated, and incorporated brass and leather accents instead of something more futuristic. The Arbiter in the main video games is voiced by American actor Keith David. David noted that he enjoys voicing complicated characters who have a past. To make an impact with voice acting, he said, is difficult—"it's either good acting or it's bad acting". David is not a frequent video game player, but stated in 2008 that he had become more known for his work as the Arbiter than for his other roles. ==Major appearances==

Presented in Halo 2, the rank of "Arbiter" is bestowed upon a Covenant Elite by the Covenant leadership—the High Prophets—during a time of crisis; the position is typically given to shamed Elites as an opportunity to regain their honour prior to their deaths via suicide missions of importance to the Covenant. The Arbiter in the main Halo games is named '''Thel 'Vadamee'. Previously a commander in the Covenant military, he is shamed for failing to stop the human soldier Master Chief from destroying the Forerunner ringworld Halo (as depicted during the events of Halo: Combat Evolved''); the Covenant revere the Forerunners as gods and believe the rings are the key to the salvation central to their religion. Thel 'Vadamee is spared execution by the High Prophets and becomes the newest Arbiter. His first mission is to silence a renegade Elite who has been preaching that the Prophets have lied to the Covenant. The Arbiter is then sent to the newly discovered Delta Halo to retrieve the key necessary to activate the ring. Though he succeeds in his mission, the Arbiter is betrayed by the Brute Chieftain Tartarus; Tartarus reveals that the Prophets have ordered the replacement of the Elites with Brutes in the Covenant power structure. Though the Arbiter is believed dead, he and Master Chief are rescued by the parasitic Flood intelligence Gravemind. Gravemind reveals that the activation Halos are weapons of destruction, not salvation, and sends the Arbiter to stop Tartarus from activating the ring as the Covenant falls into civil war. In the process, the Arbiter and allied Elites forge an alliance with the humans Miranda Keyes and Avery Johnson. Together they kill Tartarus and stop the activation of Delta Halo, triggering a failsafe; the remaining Halo installations are put on standby from remote activation from a Forerunner installation known as the Ark. For much of Halo 3, the Arbiter assists human forces in their fight against hostile Covenant forces alongside Master Chief. They follow Covenant forces through a portal to the Ark, where the Arbiter kills the final surviving High Prophet. During the escape, the ship Arbiter and Master Chief are on is split in two; the Arbiter crashes safely to Earth while Master Chief is presumed lost. Novels and other works detail the Arbiter's efforts in the subsequent civil war that breaks out among the Sangheili. Taking place 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, Ensemble Studio's Halo Wars (2009) features a different Arbiter from the character seen in the trilogy. Lead designer David Pottinger described Ensemble's Arbiter as a "mean guy. He's Darth Vader times ten." The characterization stemmed from a desire to make the Covenant more basically "evil" in order to provide a good-guy–bad-guy conflict. Parts of the Arbiter's backstory before the game's events are explained in a tie-in graphic novel, Halo Wars: Genesis. Other appearances An Arbiter is depicted in Halo Legends, a collection of anime short films developed between 343 Industries and numerous Japanese animation studios; "The Duel" shows how the position of Arbiter was stripped of its prestige and influence. An Arbiter makes a non-canon appearance as a guest playable character in Killer Instinct: Season Three, voiced by Ray Chase. He uses several weapons from the Halo series in combat, and fights in the Arena of Judgment, a stage set in the midst of a battle on Sanghelios. According to franchise development director Frank O'Connor, this character is an "amalgam" of historical characters. Thel 'Vadam also appears in several Halo novels, including Halo: First Strike and The Cole Protocol, the latter of which his name is first mentioned, which details his career before and during the events of Combat Evolved and Halo 2, prior to being named the Arbiter. An Arbiter named Var 'Gatanai leads the Covenant's war against humanity in season two of the Halo TV series. In the season finale, he was defeated by the Master Chief in a vicious duel and then killed with his own energy sword by the Spartan. ==Cultural impact==

Merchandise Following the release of Halo 2, Joyride Studios released an Arbiter action figure. This particular model was reviewed by Armchair Empire's Aaron Simmer as a "great translation of the source material into plastic". Several models of the Arbiter are featured in the Halo ActionClix collectible game, produced as promotional material prior to the release of Halo 3. McFarlane Toys was given the task of developing a Halo 3 line of action figures, and a sculpt of the Arbiter was released in the second series of figures after the game's release in July 2008. A large-scale, non-articulated Arbiter figure was produced by McFarlane as part of the "Legendary Collection". Other Arbiter merchandise includes MegaConstrux toys and Funko Pops. Critical reception The initial reception of the Arbiter as a playable character in Halo 2 was mixed from fans and critics alike. O'Connor described the Arbiter as the most controversial character Bungie had ever created. Several publications enjoyed the added dimension to the Covenant by having the Arbiter as a playable character, and praised the added stealth gameplay and new story afforded by the character twist. Critics from The Artifice and The Escapist argued it was the Arbiter, not the Master Chief, who had a realized character arc in the game, and whose active participation made the ending of the game richer. Reviewer Jarno Kokko said that while he did not personally dislike playing as the character, the idea of "people disliking the concept of playing on the other side in a game that is supposed to be the 'Master Chief blows up some alien scum' show" was a plausible complaint. Among some fans, the character was reviled. critics highlighted the perceived poor quality of the Arbiter's missions compared to those played as the Master Chief. Looking back at the game's release ten years later, Den of Geek described players as having a "love–hate relationship" with the character, and that the furor over the twist was only overshadowed because of the controversy of the game's cliffhanger ending. The reception of the Arbiter's elimination as a main playable character in Halo 3 was similarly mixed. Hilary Goldstein of IGN decided the change took away the "intriguing side-story of the Arbiter and his Elites", in the process reducing the character's role to that of "a dude with a weird mandible and a cool sword". Likewise, Steve West of Cinemablend stated that the one important event in the game for the Arbiter would be lost on anyone for whom Halo 3 was their first game in the series. Goldstein took issue with the poor artificial intelligence of allies in the game and singled out the Arbiter in particular, describing the character as useless. The New York Times Charles Herold found that in comparison to Halo 2, where the character played a central role, the Arbiter in Halo 3 was "extraneous". On the opposite end of the spectrum were reviewers like G4tv, who argued that the Arbiter was more likeable, not to mention more useful, as an AI sidekick instead of the main player. MSNBC rated the Arbiter one of game's top alien characters, and Comic Book Resources described the Arbiter's reception as a transition from divisive character to fan favorite. Halo Warss cinematics and voice acting were widely lauded, although one reviewer wrote that the characters were stereotypical and unlikeable. Dakota Grabowski of PlanetXbox360 considered the Arbiter the most confusing character in the game's story. Conversely, GamePro described the Arbiter as one of the best things about the game, saying that while it was a different character than the Arbiter seen in Halo 2 and Halo 3, he was "like an alien Jack Bauer amped up on drugs". Despite the resistance to the character, Bungie staff defended the character's introduction. "I'd much rather experiment and do something surprising, and not have everybody appreciate it, than just turn the crank and do another alien war movie with a space marine," said Halo 2 design lead Jaime Griesemer. Community lead Brian Jarrard attributed some of the fan backlash to a discord between the game's marketing and the actual gameplay. "I think, even more so than playing as the Arbiter, the thing that people were disappointed with and angry about is that they were promised this experience, through the marketing, of being really backs against the wall, Earth's under siege, we're going to do all we can to save our home planet... In reality, the game only had two missions that actually did that." Referring to Halo 2s cliffhanger ending, Griesemer said, "I think if we'd been able to finish that last couple of missions and get you properly back on Earth, a lot of the reaction would have been placated." A piece in The Escapist stated "Thel 'Vadam is the only character in the Halo games with a proper character arc" and "All told then, more than 15 years after his introduction, the Arbiter continues to hold an uneasy but influential place in the Halo franchise. When he was introduced, he expanded the series's scope with grand narrative ambition but some frustrating gameplay choices. When he was mothballed, that ambition seemed to leave with him." ==References==