SPARTAN-B312: Difference between revisions

According to [[Bungie]] staff, including ''Halo: Reach'' design lead [[Christian Allen]], creative art director [[Marcus Lehto]], concept artist [[Isaac Hannaford]], and environmental artist [[Vic DeLeon]], B312's gender is determined by the player, and no canon gender exists for B312.{{Ref/Twitter|Serellan|1626429882954842112|Quote=So, let's get a simple statement that Noble Six's records are redacted in canon, and Noble Six is whatever gender YOU played them as. Noble Six is all of us. "But you belong to Reach. Your body, your armor, all burned and turned to glass. Everything...except your courage."|Quotee=Christian Allen}}{{Ref/Twitter|game_fabricator|1035335254590930944|Quote=Technically correct!|Quotee=Marcus Lehto}} {{Ref/Twitter|Isaac_Hannaford|1624294040610164737|Quote=You are absolutely correct Christian.|Quotee=Issac Hannaford}}{{Ref/Twitter|vicdeleon|1624318828086964224|Quote=Aye. The ayes have it, periodt.|Quotee=Vic DeLeon}} However, supplementary material produced by [[343 Industries]] shortly after the release of  ''Halo: Reach''—the ''[[Halo Encyclopedia (2011 edition)]]'' and ''[[Halo: The Essential Visual Guide]]''—explicitly used "he" pronouns for B312, thus suggesting B312 as male. ''Halo'' community member [[Stephen Loftus]], who served as a consultant on the production of ''Halo: The Essential Visual Guide'', stated that both Bungie and 343 Industries regard Noble Six as canonically male,{{Ref/Site|URL=https://www.halopedia.org/index.php?title=Talk%3ASPARTAN-B312&type=revision&diff=1045056&oldid=1045055|Site=Halopedia|Page=SPARTAN-B312 discussion page|D=17|M=2|Y=2023}} and care was taken to refer to B312 using masculine pronouns in ''The Essential Visual Guide''.{{Ref/Site|URL=https://www.halopedia.org/index.php?title=Talk%3ASPARTAN-B312&diff=1045242&oldid=1045238|Site=Halopedia|Page=SPARTAN-B312 discussion page|D=17|M=2|Y=2023}} The Spartan was also explicitly referred to as a man by Jun-A266 in 2015's ''[[Halo: New Blood]]'',{{Ref/Reuse|HNBC7}} though the novel's author, [[Matt Forbeck]], would later state that Jun's statement, being open to interpretation, was not intended as an indicator of B312's canon gender.{{Ref/Twitter|Id=TwittermforbeckN6|mforbeck|1626413254594420736|Matt Forbeck|Y=2023|M=2|D=17|Quote=Any of the above!}} Between 2018 and 2019, official ''Halo'' social media posts also explicitly used "he" pronouns for B312.{{Ref/Reuse|TwitterHaloNobleSixDead}}{{Ref/Reuse|TwitterHaloNobleSixNA}} With the release of ''[[Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition)]]'', 343 Industries has similarly taken care to ensure no gendered pronouns were used when referring to B312.{{Ref/Twitter|haruspis|1624175374404911105|Alex Wakeford|Y=2023|M=2|D=10|Quote=On this, I would point to the more up to date 2022 Halo Encyclopedia where care was taken to ensure no pronouns were used in reference to Noble Six.}} While the absence of gendered pronouns does not sufficiently indicate that previous sources were retconned, it hints at B312’s gender being kept ambiguous if the character appears or is mentioned in future media.

SPARTAN-B312 is neither shown on the box art of ''Halo: Reach'' nor featured in any promotional image of NOBLE Team. This was done to avoid portraying Noble Six as outside the player's control, preventing them from building a definitive mental image for the character, as Noble Six's armor and gender can vary depending on the player's choice. Players can customize Noble Six's armor using a vast selection of armor permutations (including a robotic arm), colors, and emblems; the player's chosen character model is used in the campaign, multiplayer, and [[Firefight]], allowing players to better integrate themselves with the character. The version of Noble Six seen in early media was male, wearing a [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark V (B)|Mark V [B]]] armor and helmet with an Up-Armor plate, no shoulder pauldrons, no chest attachment, a wrist-mounted UGPS, no leg attachment, FJ/PARA knee guards, and colored steel. As it became apparent that Noble Six's appearance and gender would be entirely customizable, the Spartan's armor was changed to fully default armor in most promotional material afterwards. When displayed in most promotional material dated shortly before the game's release, SPARTAN-B312 is portrayed as wearing the default [[B-class Mjolnir|Mark V[B]]] armor and helmet with steel coloration. In addition, the Spartan's emblem is customized as the first emblem with the first background on their respective lists in the Armory: steel-colored [[Seventh Column]] with no background. This is done to avoid portraying Noble Six as a character outside the player's control, as Noble Six's appearance depends on the player's armor customization and gender choice. The only exceptions to this are when a screenshot was released to prove that cutscenes would display player customization, and in various concept art wallpapers, where Noble Six is shown with a plethora of armor combinations. However, the Noble Six [[McFarlane Toys/Halo: Reach Series 1#Noble Six|action figure]] was not redesigned with fully default armor.

In the ''[[Halo: The Essential Visual Guide]]'', the main render image of B312 on the Noble Six page is equipped with a never-seen-before armor combination: [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/UA#UA/Base Security (W)|UA/Base Security [W] chest plate]] with [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/FJ/PARA variant#Shoulder|FJ/PARA shoulder pauldrons]] and [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/FJ/PARA variant#Knee Guard|knee guards]].{{Ref/Reuse|evg}}