Blog 4


 

Blog 4: Stereotypes

By Payton Grady 

 

The Tropes

 

Alex Wawro states that “devs should strive to flesh out their characters as real, believable, multi-faceted people, rather than shells which serve a purpose for the player” (Wawro).

I chose to redesign the Master Chief from the Halo franchise. There were a few common tropes that I think apply to him: cool helmet, plot armor, and powerful weapons that glow. 


Plot Armor

 

Plot armor is the idea that a character is important to the story or destined to succeed in a way that gives him no weaknesses. While I don’t think this character has no weaknesses, 

the character’s backstory suggests otherwise. To tweak this trope, I removed a few pieces of armor from his legs and shoulders to give him some weak points, and bulked up the rest 

of his armor.


The Helmet

 

Another trope I modified was the trope of the “cool helmet”. Throughout several different media from superheroes to sci-fi, major characters both good and evil have worn creatively 

designed masks. I always loved this aspect about Master Chief but decided to change one thing: the visor. This character has always had a feeling of mystery and I realized showing 

nothing but the eyes and battle scars would provide a different look without ruining this altogether.


Other Changes

 

Last, I redesigned his energy sword in a way that respects the unique design it originally had, so that it more closely resembles an actual sword. In addition, I have designed this in a 

way that looks less like it would glow. Another small change I made was to the proportions. Rather than give Master Chief realistic humanlike proportions, I gave him slightly more 

cartoony proportions comparable to Mega Man. This also helps to emphasize the bulkier type of armor I drew for the character.


 

 

 

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