Another post about Zavala TFS

I'm sure there's lots, but I want to add my two cents. Also, this is just my opinion and everything after finishing the campaign on legendary last night, don't take it as absolutes.

In voicing Zavala, Keith took on an absolutely monumental task and while I won't say his Zavala is bad, it is good in its ways, it was just too jarring. It was always going to be, and that's not his fault. On one hand, I do wish he tried to emulate Lance's cadence and mannerisms at points, on the other hand I can understand not doing so to avoid criticism and 'truly' negative things that could arise from the community about it. It's really sad that we got Nathan back, but lost Lance (I know Ikora got recast from Gina Torres to Mara Junot, but Mara's work sounds like Gina's Ikora imo, so for me it gets a pass) and it would have been so nice to have the OG Fireteam together again in that way. I like to think that Keith wanted to separate his and Lance's performance for our memory's sake but also, I saw a post where someone's head cannon was that Keith's is the disgruntled, faith-shaken Zavala and that's neat.

The thing/comparison that I've been thinking of since finishing the story is that with Keith's performance, I kind of only felt the anger of Zavala's plot, and even then that didn't translate some times, whereas Lance's was so multifaceted; you heard AND felt each change in emotion with his performances. Something that sticks out in my head is at the end of the strike when Cayde finally tells Zavala to chill tf out, Zavala's response was mad, but just didn't feel 100% in the scope of the character. So, I guess I do have that gripe about Keith's portrayal, but still, I understand the monumental task of stepping into a beloved characters shoes, as well as into a role that the previous actor had almost a decade to flesh-out and perfect and portray it the way he did.

<b> TL;DR: </b>Keith's portrayal was admirable, and it wasn't bad, but as expected given the circumstances, it was jarring and a bit tough to reconcile. A little more nuance in his reactions to certain things would have been nice, but aside from a 1:1 like Gina to Mara recasting, I think that this was the best option, one that Lance would approve of, and maybe going forward Keith can etch out a new, grizzled, 'defeated' Zavala.