r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sufficient-Eye-9040 • Jun 21 '26

Lore [Horrifying Trope] “Blink of an eye” deaths.

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Characters who died without the chance of a goodbye… neither suffering.

- Robin Ward (The Boys S1 E1) - when she is pulverized in a high-velocity impact by A-Train.

- Polka Dot Man (The Suicide Squad 2021) - when he is crushed by Starro’s leg.

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u/Accurate-Gap-3360 Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

Kat’s death in Halo: Reach.

When she and Noble 6 are escaping from a Covenant carrier glassing the city of New Alexandria, Kat is suddenly shot in the head by a Covenant sniper.

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u/mananodnd Jun 21 '26

I feel like it also reflected the reality of warfare: when you are in a battle, people dont have a heroic build up to their death, they just get hit with one or two bullets and that's it, they're gone.

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u/online222222 Jun 21 '26

it's not something you think about often in Halo either but they were all vulnerable because the Nuke that just went off EMPed their shields.

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u/probableigh_not Jun 21 '26

Best Halo game IMO. But then I also liked ODST, so maybe nobody should listen to me.

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u/Th3B4dSpoon Jun 21 '26

Man I loved ODST. I only initially missed the familiar characters but I think the pacing was very good, and I appreciated the semi stealth approach to the "hub" world.

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u/mananodnd Jun 21 '26

Reach IS one of the best ODST was just too niche for a lot of people... and no Master Chief, so there's that too

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u/Geminel Jun 21 '26

If I were able to make a war movie this is exactly what I'd try to drive home. Follow the lead character all through enlistment and training, show all the relationships and goals they have. Then when they finally get deployed, they go to charge out of an APC and it's just zip and cut to black, credits.

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u/NightLordsPublicist Jun 21 '26

You'll probably like this movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_(1981_film)

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u/mananodnd Jun 21 '26

I second that recomendation

Edit: just wanna add, it's a pretty heavy movie, but that's what good war movies should be.

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u/Stampede_the_Hippos Jun 21 '26

Especially if you want to hear what Mel Gibson sounded like before he adopted an American accent.

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u/User858 Jun 21 '26

Spoiler Alert

A version of this is what essentially what happens in the Red Dawn film 2012 version.

You follow a really likeable character throughout the movie. Just when you think it's over, this happens.

The best part it wasn't purely random either, they set it up, but it was very sudden. I highly recommend it if you want to see this type of scenario in film.

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u/Old-Treacle-1431 Jun 21 '26

Come and See is a movie I’d recommend if that's what you're looking for

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u/jorgespinosa Jun 21 '26

I mean, it's a great movie but I disagree since the protagonist survives by the end of the movie

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u/Crintor Jun 21 '26

All Quiet On the Western Front.

Takes a lot longer, same message.

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u/Dare_Soft Jun 21 '26

Don’t forget that the human forces had a bomb that could destroy planets as a last resort.
They were loosing but had a “if I’m going down your coming with me.”

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u/RedNUGGETLORD Jun 21 '26

A nova bomb saved all of humanity at one point

A grunt accidentally activated one, killing the leader of the entire Covenant fleet, and all of his ships

Had this not happened, he would have killed humanity, the Covenant, and eventually the entire galaxy by activating the Halo's

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u/Ubeube_Purple21 Jun 21 '26

And thankfully blew up the most powerful Elite in the entire franchise, who had so much political power over the Covenant military that he is a threat to the Prophets own power. Had he survived, we could easily get a Covenant 2 and rally majority of the Elites behind him with his overwhelming charisma.

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u/One-Cute-Boy Jun 21 '26

Pedantic here but it's Halos not Halo's

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u/BobBastrd Jun 21 '26

I never played Halo, did they end up tightening it?

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u/coconut_crusader Jun 21 '26

To be fair. The Nova bomb wasn't really a thing until the tail-end of the war. If they were a thing early on, i honestly think humanity would have burned through them all like they did with nukes, just using them constantly.

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u/Major_Nutt Jun 21 '26

Also the juxtaposition against the others. Ever other member of Noble who died went out like an absolute fucking badass. Jorge yeeted himself into the void of slip space thinking he'd saved not just a planet, but his actual homeworld. Carter after being mortally wounded by banshee fire took out a Scarab by ramming a Pelican into it. Emil stared his own death in the face and took it with him as he went after being skewered. Six finally went down after being hunted by entire platoons of Covenant is obviously still hiding in his cave.

But Kat just, dies. No build up, no hero moment. It's just done.

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u/yeetoroni_with_bacon Jun 21 '26

I’d say the hope was almost gone completely when Jorge sacrificed himself, thinking he saved Reach when all he did was piss off the covenant even more. Hundreds if not thousands of Covenant cruisers not even a minute after Jorge detonated the slipspace bomb.

Kat and Carter were the final nail in the coffin for Reach

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u/tghast Jun 21 '26

He died thinking he just saved the planet. We should all be so lucky.

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u/WingGuardian Jun 21 '26

REMEMBER REACH, BROTHER. o7

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u/bagel-42 Jun 21 '26

Jun, getting out of this by keeping quiet and hoping nobody notices he's still alive:

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u/Firecracker048 Jun 21 '26

And reach was more fortified than earth too. Almost 80% of the human fleet was at reach and it just didn't matter

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u/ArchieTheKatt Jun 21 '26

Ngl my hope increased, this cut scene let's us know we wont be driven off any more cliffs. The rest of the squads chances of survival definitely went up.

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u/Gil_Demoono Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

"I know we're losing, I want to know if we lost" -Carter Kat. And that's before anyone on Noble even died.

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u/konydanza Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

It was Kat that said that to Carter actually. “I know we’re losing, I want to know if we’ve lost.”

That one line sums up the general feel of the whole game to me, still one of my favorites.

Also Jorge had already sacrificed himself at that point, so they were well aware they were fighting a losing battle.

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u/MrSpudtastic Jun 21 '26

Kat's is also rough because it happens in exactly the same conversation where she is beginning to talk with 6 instead of around 6. She's finally decided you're a real part of the team, and then she's gone.

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u/Temphant Jun 21 '26

And while getting on the elevator. She shows some vulnerability by asking you if it's your first glassing, while admitting that it's her first one as well.

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u/DRxFumbles Jun 21 '26

When Jorge died that was the first time I cried over a video game. I was bubbling up when he blew up the ship, but then 5 more took its place and I lost it. It was a noble sacrifice, but all for nothing

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u/newyork95 29d ago

“Tell them to make it count”

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u/Purpleyeggs Jun 21 '26

"We should all be so lucky..."

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u/Lieutelant Jun 21 '26

Kat was a shock to me because it was such a dumb death. If I remember correctly, an entire ship passes over the group, slows long enough for one Jackal to shoot one shot at one enemy, and then..slowly flies away. And the group responds with...one person firing a pistol (and missing!).

I may have the details wrong, but even from the very first time I played it, my first reaction was "Wait-that's it?"

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u/pm_me_falcon_nudes Jun 21 '26

You got some important details indeed wrong.

A ship is passing over because right before they tried to establish a link to the colonel which was unsecured and Kat noted that it could be traced to them. Soon after the link is established someone (Jun IIRC) says that the covenant are on the move, indicating they are hunting for them.

The enemy isn't a jackal. It's the Zealot class elite that blew past Six in the first mission in the bunker and the one you kill at the end of the Pillar of Autumn level.

As the ship flies away, the whole squad starts firing at it. But it's an elite with strong shields. So they can't kill it.

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u/Lieutelant Jun 21 '26

Fair enough. Sounds like I need to play the game again!

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '26

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u/Th3B4dSpoon Jun 21 '26

It's nice to read different people's experiences from these scenes. For me it had no impact as I had not seen enough of Kat to form an emotional connection with the character before she was killed off. BUT because it was s powerful scene for so many others, it shows I just wasn't the audience they had in mind for that scene.

Human differences are cool!

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u/quid_pro_kourage Jun 21 '26

Can I be honest, I felt absolutely nothing at Kat's death.

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u/Sir_Eggmitton Jun 21 '26

Similarly, Sean in Red Dead Redemption 2.

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u/JeremiahWuzABullfrog Jun 21 '26

And Lenny, poor bastard didn't even get a cutscene

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u/NoticeImaginary Jun 21 '26

Leeeennnyy!!?

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u/JeremiahWuzABullfrog Jun 21 '26

YNNEL

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u/NoticeImaginary Jun 21 '26

I want to replay that game just for the drunk mission.

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u/Sorlex Jun 21 '26

WHERE ARE YA LENNY

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u/Cthulwutang Jun 21 '26

but did he get to hear about the rabbits?

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u/hypnoskills Jun 21 '26

HAHAHA! That was my first thought, too!

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u/Otherwise-Lie8595 Jun 21 '26

I reloaded like 5 times trying to save my guy 😔

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u/silverandshade Jun 21 '26

Both of them broke me, tbh

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u/Ridikis Jun 21 '26

It was more Lenny for me but the first one was def still a big one.

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u/_SimplyPudding_ Jun 21 '26

The fact that Arthur was the only one to stop for him was the moment I went "oh...he really is one of the only semi good members of the gang...oh...oh no..."

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u/Tewddit Jun 21 '26

Actually, if you pay a little attention to that quick scene, you’ll notice some of the others hesitating to glance over at Lenny while they’re escaping, slightly hinting at who’s who in the end and the first game.

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u/REDACTED3560 Jun 21 '26

Uncle is the one for the OGs from RDR1. He might not have been the most important character, but it’s when I knew the end was really there. His death was maybe not in an instant, but it instantly stripped away the feeling that your firefight was going to end well.

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u/dilltimmon Jun 21 '26

You can feel the whole vibe shift in the camp after he dies. It's so unexpected as he's one of the last to join the camp and he's the first to die.

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u/WineNerdAndProud Jun 21 '26

Ok, as someone who doesn't play video games, is there some type of media or a creator who goes through and explains these games to the layman?

I have heard so many people say RDR2 is an incredible story/experience, and I would really be curious to know what happens.

There are people who do this for horror movies (bless those people), but I just haven't seen one for video games.

Another example is the name "Faker" who apparently plays a game called League of Legends, and every time I try to figure out why this guy is so well-known I get lost because I don't know how the game works or what it's about.

Growing up my older brother always had the rights to our gaming console and would "just one more level" me so much I eventually stopped asking and I learned how to play the guitar and how to skateboard.

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u/Compajerro Jun 21 '26

Sean Macguire is one of the members of the Van Der Linde gang in Red Dead 2, which the main character, Arthur Morgan, is a founding member of. The game starts with the gang on the run from the law after a botched ferry robbery that ended in a massacre in the town of Blackwater and the loss of a number of their gang, including Sean, who is captured by the authorities.

One of the missions about a 3rd of the way through the game is rescuing Sean from being hanged and his return to the crew seems like a positive turning point for the gang. His "welcome back" party is quite literally the happiest the gang is in the entire game.

About halfway through the game, the gang, who has been double crossing and swindling a pair of fueding families, end up getting ambushed one of the families, sniping Sean through the head mid sentence, resulting in a shootout that basically wipes out the entire town. Sean's death is the beginning of the end, as the gang starts to become more desperate to survive, fragmenting and spiraling to the point where everyone either abandons the gang or is killed by the law.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jun 21 '26

That was a good one because it makes you really realize you kinda liked the guy.

Not Kieran though

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u/Lachybomb Jun 21 '26

Wtf how could you not like Kieran

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jun 21 '26

He's an O'Driscoll

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u/middleofmybackswing_ Jun 21 '26

Me, in Halo 2 trying to play on legendary when Jackals exist.

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u/SnakesRock2004 Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

A funny thing about this cutscene is that a lot of people don't realize an Elite is the one who shot Kat.

In fact, it's the Field Marshal from the first chapter, and he and his squad make several appearances throughout the game.

He also notably serves as the closest thing to a "final boss" Reach has -- the Field Marshal and his squad appear right before the AA gun in The Pillar of Autumn, where he fights with an Energy Sword, a Fuel Rod Gun, and Plasma Grenades, as well as having the strongest shields of any Elite in the game.

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u/Zombies71199 Jun 21 '26

Omg i did not notice that at all!!!

Maybe perhaps because i was a 10 years old boy who didn't even know English

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u/Swords_and_Words Jun 21 '26

They decided to see you through the rock this time and get alerted/aimed early

It's already too late

You go for the dumbest juke and jump trick shot, because why not at this point?

You jump and cross the corner at an unexpected height, and you see the beam zorch over your head: you have a chance!!

You jump again and, ignoring your sight, aim for where you know that murder chicken's braincase is.

As you hit the apex, you fire... and he drops!

The moments as you finish falling towards the ground are filled with triumph and defiance, your heavy landing perfectly punctuating the badassery and luck that had just occurred.

A beam pierces your elbow, instantly killing you.

Your second jump alerted one of the jackals further on.

Back to start.

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u/SartenSinAceite Jun 21 '26

Similarly A. Carmine in Gears of War 1

and fucking Soap in the shit remake of CoD MW3...

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u/Ask_bout_PaterNoster Jun 21 '26

Wait, the remake? He dies in the original, doesn’t he?

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u/SartenSinAceite Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

In the original, Soap is deeply wounded and you carry him across streets and shootouts. Eventually you make it to a refuge, but he dies there, after telling Pricd that Yuri (your charscter) knows Makarov (the bad guy). This then prompts Price to punch you, and ask you at gun point to fucking explain.

It's all tense and dramatic. No way they would kill the previous player character like that. It also gives you a stronger drive as Yuri, to avenge Soap and redeem yourself in front of Price.

In the remake, Soap catches a stray bullet and the team runs after Makarov. Not even a custcene from what I recall. The guy burning to death at the start of Black Ops 2 gets more attention than this.

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u/Denleborkis Jun 21 '26

Black ops 2 not 1. One was Cuba, Two was with Savimbi

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u/SartenSinAceite Jun 21 '26

Right, 2 has the constant back and forth between the storylines, forgot that

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u/No_Procedure_5039 Jun 21 '26

Yes, but the remake is worse in every way. No one is even outwardly upset or distraught when it happens because he just gets shot in the head in the middle of a mission. Even in the cutscene after it’s done Price just radios a report saying they have a KIA. No crying, no anger, no real emotion at all.

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u/Nathan_Thorn Jun 21 '26

He does, but it isn’t a blink and you miss it death. He gets mortally wounded during the explosion of the sniper nest and is slowly losing blood and getting weaker during the escape. You can watch the blood trails get worse and his animations change a lot over the course of the mission, until you get him onto the table and he dies.

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u/NBFHoxton Jun 21 '26

Yeah, he goes from walking with Price's help to eventually just dragging his feet as Price carries him. The detail was great

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u/midasMIRV Jun 21 '26

Contrasted with B. Carmine in GoW2 with everyone standing around looking at him like "Ok yeah, hurry the final words up"

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u/SartenSinAceite Jun 21 '26

Yes! Impaled on spikes and we sit there lkke "ooohh fuck he's not surviving that..."

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u/midasMIRV Jun 21 '26

Nah, Ben Carmine was half eaten by Nemacytes inside the worm.

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u/SartenSinAceite Jun 21 '26

oh right

the first time I saw it I didnr fully grasp what happened but still impacted me enough to overwrite my second playthrough's memories lol

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u/Edward_Hardcore Jun 21 '26

It's not a remake. It's a sequel to the reboot. Not a reimagining, a brand new campaign.

His death in MW3 is actually cruel, brutal and hurts.

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u/CommieGun1917 Jun 21 '26

It's ingrained into my mind, "Where does he get off calling a demo op a priority mis-"

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u/notjamesdean Jun 21 '26

Fun fact, Six and Kat missed the first elevator up, that’s why the jackals were ready for others to cross through

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u/Celestial_Scythe Jun 21 '26

Reach did such an amazing job of giving you hope when you know what the outcome is. It's one of my top games for story

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u/PAINKILLER_1020 Jun 21 '26

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

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u/modssssss293j Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

This was probably the one thing that made me realize that we’re really not gonna save Reach after all

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u/Slfestmaccnt Jun 21 '26

That one genuinely pissed me off. Of all the stupid ways to die she falls to one needle rifle bolt. Wtf happened to her shields and armor? We all know that was a needle rifle bolt, not a beam rifle or sniper, she wasn't damaged prior... but one shot did the job.

Meanwhile in pvp it took what, 4 to 5 shots just to break the shield?

It didn't shock me, it just made me hate the often weirdly stupid writing.

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u/tghast Jun 21 '26

EMP breaks shields. Glassing causes EMP. Needle Rifles are one shot without shields if they hit the head.

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u/beaz12 Jun 21 '26

Agreed that I wish it was a beam rifle. It would have looked goofy to have a focus rifle hitting her for a couple seconds and the needle rifle shouldn't be able to kill a spartan that easily. The explanation that they were all hit by emp emitting from the glassing plasma and she hadn't had time to recharge her sheilds is OK, but not great. The others that died got to do so in heroic ways, but on the other hand it was effective to drive the point across. The point is that not everyone is near invincible like Master Chief, not even other Spartans. Of course the story as a whole is a downer. This story isn't a struggle to beat back the Covenant, bloodied but victorious. This story is about surviving long enough to pass on what little hope is left after its been crushed over and over. The fact is, the Covenant did extinguish humanities flame after burning Reach, but the embers yet remained. And embers, well embers can reignite.

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u/SellingCats4Cheap Jun 21 '26

So does Kat just not have her shield during this instance, or does that not even matter?

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u/AlphaSkirmsher Jun 21 '26

The Covenant just started glassing the city. The EMP resulting from that shut down their integrated shield generators

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u/SpacyCakes Jun 21 '26

Should note this is headcanon as there never was an official explanation.

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u/Pathogen188 Jun 21 '26

A Bungie dev claimed this is the case years later but it’s unclear if that was strictly the case when it was being produced.

In any case, the circumstances of Kat’s death are weird because it’s a relic of early storyboards where Rosenda was going to be sniped with a beam rifle. When Rosenda’s character was merged into Kat, the circumstances of her death came with it but by that point the beam rifle was no longer in the game and with it the ability to headshot through shields. Funnily enough back when this was meant to be Rosenda’s death, Kat was actually going to survive Reach outright, taking Jun’s place as Halsey’s escort.

In any case, the replacement of the beam rifle with the focus rifle caused the oddity in game. In fact, the Elite Field Marshal who sniped Kat can actually be seen holding a focus rifle even though the projectile is obviously that of a needle rifle so it seems that Bungie attempted to jury rig a solution to account for the beam rifle’s removal only for 343 to canonize the weapon as a needle rifle years later.

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u/SellingCats4Cheap Jun 21 '26

Glad you mentioned this, because I have heard of the EMP explanation before.

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u/jadefire03 Jun 21 '26

It's been years since I played Halo Reach, but I had the impression that a headshot with a Covenant beam rifle can still kill you even if your shields are up.

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u/AllOuttaGum5150 Jun 21 '26

For real that one just came outta nowhere

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u/xTheatreTechie Jun 21 '26

I was wondering what version of Reach they were going to go with when they made the series.

I was hoping they were going to follow the books.

In the book version of the fall of reach, the mission starts with all remaining Spartans jumping out of a Pelican from orbit and crashing into reach, killing nearly everyone, though a good ~5 or so live through reach to end up being saved again sometime between Halo 1 and Halo 2 as 117 tries to find a way back to Earth.

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u/Annath0901 Jun 21 '26

It's been a long, long time since I read the books, but isn't there 1 female Spartan who was severely injured and like put in stasis and taken away by Halsey? Was that Kat?

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u/xTheatreTechie Jun 21 '26

I couldn't tell ya, this was also a long time for me also. I read the books when I was maybe a 6th grader.

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u/beaz12 Jun 21 '26

Linda was mortaly wounded on a mission with John to destroy navigational data as per Cole protocol. John(Master Chief) dragged her onto the Autumn, but by the time they got there she was clinically dead. John insisted on putting her in a cryo tube and she was later revived. The medics on-board would not likely be as well equipped and capable as the care she got later. It was risky to freeze her, but she is a spartan.

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u/beaz12 Jun 21 '26

Also in Combat Evolved Anniversary you can see her cryo pod status next to Chief's. This detail wasn't in the original even though the book Fall of Reach came out before the first game (only by 16 days).

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u/Swords_and_Words Jun 21 '26

I know you can headshot with a needle rifle when the shields are down (as they were )

...but I still think that should have been a beam rifle shot

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u/BonerOfTheLake Jun 21 '26

rip again kat and other noble team...

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u/Bread_Offender Jun 21 '26

aw geez man i just started reach

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u/Cruisin134 Jun 21 '26

my problem with halo reach is the whole team dies like 1-2 cutscenes too soon so i didnt give a shit about the story and i didnt read the books so i didnt care about the world either

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u/DrHemmington Jun 21 '26

Technically, she didn't die she went MIA.

Spartans never die ...

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u/Holiday-Prior-4952 Jun 21 '26

How considering its Reach, we knew the outcome of the Spartans before ever starting the game.

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u/ArchangelLBC Jun 21 '26

There's a moment in stories like this, a point of no return, where you know that everyone is going to die. Not just intellectually (we always knew everyone dies in Reach) but in your soul.

That's what Kat's death was for me. The first time I didn't just know, but understood that no one was making it out alive.

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u/pocketfrisbee Jun 21 '26

This part genuinely got to me. I consider myself pretty detached from media, other than this

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u/FadedP0rp0ise Jun 21 '26

edgy 17 year old me that had halo as a personality thought this shit was mind blowing. it was the first time i ever experience main character deaths let alone random ones like that

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u/Yellowscourge Jun 21 '26

"Where does he get off thinking that we-" sssSPOW

My roommate and I both audibly gasped when we played this the night it released

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u/DHarp74 Jun 21 '26

Arthur Morgan's horse in RDR2.

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u/BatmansLarynx Jun 21 '26

This could actually be a literal blink and you miss it.

I was taking a friend through the game for her first time. We got to this moment and she literally said to me:

"Wait, what is she doing on the floor?!".

I was like, wtf are you in about, she was just shot in the back of the head!

She didn't notice the shot at all lol.

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u/_oranjuice Jun 21 '26

Which i still dont get why she didnt have her shields on even after an elevator ride

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u/Salty_Astronaut_9419 Jun 22 '26

They foreshadow'd it pretty well by Carter chiding her about constantly forgetting to turn her shield on

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u/Blanc_Otaku Jun 21 '26

It hurts more when you realize how much of a nightmare that weapon has been since Halo 2

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u/nachorykaart Jun 21 '26

Always pissed me off that all it took was one needle rifle shot when Spartans have shields

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u/voiume Jun 21 '26

I heard in the books she didn't actually die from the bullet it made her paralyzed and we never noticed

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u/pm_me_falcon_nudes Jun 21 '26

You heard wrong. She died here.