Before... (Day 18)

The three main characters (The Vagrant, The Cowboy, The Law) and two key settings (The Dust and Valentine).

A thought whilst playing Halo 3...
Halo is often mistaken as having a poor storyline, but this is not actually the case. The storyline is quite rich and definitely engaging enough, it's just delivered very badly (or not at all) during the course of the three games. This means that players might actually receive the story, what was once the end product of narrative-entertainment, even after engaging with the deployment device. Ergh. If you take your time to do your research it can really enrich the game, and the multiplayer stands alone with no story necessary (although what multiplayer games do really support story?) but even a game that is fun to play should deliver on narrative. There are two reasons to play games a) because they are fun and b) because they entertain. Narrative entertains through scenarios that prompt emotional responses. It is tantamount.

Speaking of which...Another excellent film, I'll just get right on to why it's good:
Interestingly enough it has two main characters, neither dominating the other (confusingly enough one was The Bad in the next film, and the evil El Indio is played by the same actor as the evil Ramon in the first film). The bad guy shows the same simple callousness for human life as in other films but also an extreme cowardice and paranoia somehow related to memories of a woman he raped channeled by her musical pocket watch. Blondie and The General are both bounty hunters (the great anti-hero) but operate with a very different philosophy that's highlighted during their macho-standoff when Blondie tries to eliminate the competition. Looking at the three movies it's almost like: One cool character, Two cool characters, Three cool characters. Again they get captured and beaten up by the bandits but are underestimated which leads to a showdown and a pseudo Mexican standoff where The General kills El Indio and then reveals that the raped woman (who then killed herself) was his sister. Something I like about these final climaxes in the films is that the buildup to them is intense but once the dust settles it's over and done. The sudden finality of death.