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In the ''Halo'' science fiction universe, the Arbiter is a ceremonial, religious, and political rank bestowed upon alien Covenant Elites. In the 2004 video game ''Halo 2'', the rank is given to a disgraced commander as a way to atone for his failures. Although the Arbiter is intended to die serving the Covenant leadership, the High Prophets, he survives his missions and the Prophets' subsequent betrayal of his kind. When he learns that the Prophets' plans would doom all sentient life in the galaxy to extinction, the Arbiter allies with the Covenant's enemies—humanity—and stops the ringworld Halo from being activated. The Arbiter is a playable character in ''Halo 2'' and its 2007 sequel ''Halo 3''; a different Arbiter appears in the 2009 real-time strategy game ''Halo Wars'', which takes place 20 years before the events of the main trilogy. The appearance of the Arbiter in ''Halo 2'' and the change in perspective from the main human protagonist Master Chief to a former enemy was a plot twist ''Halo'' developer Bungie kept highly secret. The character's name was changed from "Dervish" after concerns that the name reinforced a perceived United States-versus-Islam allegory in the game's plot. Award-winning actor Keith David lends his voice to the character in ''Halo 2'' and ''3'', while David Sobolov voices the Arbiter of ''Halo Wars''. The Arbiter has appeared in three series of action figures and other collectibles and marketing in addition to appearances in the games. Bungie intended the sudden point of view switch to a member of the Covenant as a plot twist that no one would have seen coming, but the character in particular and the humanization of the Covenant in general was not evenly received by critics and fans. ''Computer and Video Games'' derided the Arbiter's missions as "crap bits" in ''Halo 2''. Conversely, IGN lamented the loss of the Arbiter's story in ''Halo 3'' and missed the added dimension the character provided to the story. ==Character design== The Arbiter in the video games ''Halo 2'' (2004) and ''Halo 3'' (2007) is voiced by Keith David, a New York actor. David noted that he enjoys voicing complicated characters who have a past. To make an impact with voice acting, he says, is difficult—"it's either good acting or it's bad acting". David is not a frequent video game player, but stated that he has become more known for his work as the Arbiter than for his film and other voice roles. The Arbiter changed very little during development, as the overall appearance of the alien Covenant Elites had been designed and developed for the previous game, 2001's ''Halo: Combat Evolved''. The only substantial difference between the Arbiter and other Elites is ceremonial armor seen in early concept sketches and which appeared in the final design. During ''Halo 2''s early developmental stages the character's name was "Dervish", a name from the Sufi sect of Islam. Out of context, Microsoft Game Studios' "geocultural review" consultants found nothing wrong with the name. However, as Tom Edwards, a consultant who worked with Microsoft during the review noted, "within the game's context this Islamic-related name of 'Dervish' set up a potentially problematic allegory related to ''Halo 2''s plot—the (States )-like forces (Master Chief/Sarge) versus Islam (the religious Covenant, which already had a 'Prophet of Truth' which is one title for Muhammad).〔 Since this incident was not long after the September 11 attacks, sensitivity to the name remained high, and the character's name was changed to the "Arbiter". In an interview with MTV, ''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" and explains that Bungie was able to keep the public uninformed about this until the game's release, to the point that O'Connor never even considered including it on the weekly development updates posted at Bungie's webpage. O'Connor also stated that Bungie "had some other things that were secrets within secrets" and claimed that there was material related to the Arbiter that was kept secret during the development of ''Halo 3'' because "There is an aspect of the Arbiter's character that is still secret to this day and will remain so for a good reason."〔 Story director Joseph 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 (the events of ''Halo 3'' )". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Arbiter (Halo)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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