The Arena Commentator (also known as the Arena Announcer) is the name of an unseen male character from the Witchwood Arena, who can be heard through-out the different rounds for The Arena quest in Fable, Fable: The Lost Chapters and Fable Anniversary. His role is to comment on what creatures the Hero of Oakvale must face during each round of the Arena and he also introduces characters like Whisper and Jack of Blades for the audience that is watching the event.
He is voiced by Kerry Shale.
Fable[]
After defeating the White Balverine that was terrorising the town of Knothole Glade, the Hero of Oakvale accepts The Arena quest and is told to make his way to Witchwood where the event takes place. Upon entering the Arena itself, the Arena Commentator can be heard introducing the Hero of Oakvale and highlighting some of his previous quests to the audience. The Arena Commentator then explains the rules of the event and then introduces the first round of enemies, which are the Wasp Horde. During round three, the commentator explains that Whisper has entered the Arena to join forces with the Hero of Oakvale. On the final round, the Arena Commentator explains that there is two winners of the Arena despite there only being one prize for this year's event. This is when he introduces Jack of Blades, who announces that the final round will between the two heroes still standing.
Anachronism[]
Based on the audio that is used for The Arena Commentator, it sounds like he is using some kind of microphone and stereo equipment to amplify his voice to the audience during The Arena quest. This is weird because Fable is a game that is meant to be set in the Medieval era, where that technology should not really exist. It is possible that this is an intentional act of anachronism by the developers, which is a literary device that places someone or something associated with a particular historical time in the wrong time period to achieve a certain result with-in a story.
Quotes[]
| “ | Three, two, one... Go! — Arena Commentator before a new wave of enemies spawn |
” |
| “ | And we're on to the first round! An old Arena favourite, it's the Wasp Horde! — Arena Commentator introduces the first round of enemies |
” |
| “ | Ladies and Gentlemen, for your entertainment, I give you [Hero Title]. Famous for Quests such as Orchard Farm and defeating ex-Hero, Twinblade! — Arena Commentator introduces Hero of Oakvale |
” |
Notes[]
- Even though you can hear the Arena Commentator during cutscenes, he is never actually shown.
- The Arena Commentator will introduce the Hero of Oakvale to the audience and call him by whatever Hero Title the player has chosen, before the quest.
Trivia[]
- The Arena Commentator is also referred to as the "Arena Keeper" in the text files for the game.
- If the Hero of Oakvale is using a Hero Title that the game doesn't recognise, then the line of dialogue used for the Arena Commentator when introducing the player will be completely skipped.
- The dialogue for the Arena Commentator is actually being said by the Hero of Oakvale. This is a clever tactic that the developers use when they except a cutscene to be using a moving camera and allows the audio to be heard by the player, regardless of its position.
Cut Content[]
- There is unused dialogue in the game files for Fable which hint at the Arena Commentator having a different voice actor at one point in development.
- There appears to be various lines of unused dialogue for the Arena Commentator during the quest, where he would shout things like "That's gotta hurt!", "Flourish!", "Fantastic!" and "Perfect Round!" whilst the player was fighting in The Arena.
- There is unused dialogue in the game files for Fable where the Arena Commentator would mention Jack of Blades's achievements, such as killing a Dragon that was named Kyris.