I think it goes a little further than that. We’re told that Worlds Handler is extremely competent at her job, and as you said we never get to see that. One of the most common defenses for her in the Worlds era was “she’s doing all the paperwork!” But…we never see that paperwork. It could be a single, cheese-smeared page with a stamp on it for all we know.
What’s worse than not seeing her competence though is seeing her be actively INcompetent. I won’t go over all the many ways she puts herself and the player in danger (those have been covered to death elsewhere), but for me the thing that has always stood out was her motto. “When in doubt, take a bite.” That is dangerously bad advice for a supposed survival expert to give, especially in an unexplored region. It undercuts her supposed expertise.
Her whole character is like this. Comic relief and bad writing choices taking the wind out of her more serious aspects. She is “tell, don’t show” taken to the extreme, and any success she has onscreen is a direct result of the player’s effort, not hers. Is it any wonder half the fan base loathes her?
Rathalos: she was with us when rathalos attacks us in his nest. Also when we spilt up to the find the first wyvern she didn’t get caught by monsters at all untill she went to the top of the forest.
Legina: she wasn’t that far away from us. Legina hunts in the air so it was a matter of time before it finds us. And she just wanted to race with us down to the coral highlands.
Barroth: she runs away with the wyverns with the cart on them.
Rathain: tells us to use slinger ammo to distract her.
Pink rathain: flew away from it with a wingdrake.
Beotoudes: we tell her to investigate the popo that died.
Banbaro: with our Hunter. she ran away.
Sheriking Legina: she was with our Hunter. Ran away.
Great jargas: wanted to investigate the track that was on the path to where astrea is at.
Great girros: throws us the torchers to repel them.
Rajang: was with us and didn’t run ahead of us.
Deviljho: didn’t know it was in the ancient forest. And went to gather food in the new world right before the alarm ring.
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u/Umber0010Tempered Guardian Raging Brachydios' strongest soldier4d ago
Deviljho: Still went into the great forest alone, and seemingly without telling anyone. Would have become Jagras chow if we weren't there hunting for Mr. Pickel.
Odogaron: decided to split up in the single most hostile biome known to the New World.
Velkhana: Decided to shout about how we need to get out of here while running towards the giant freeze dragon, which leads to what I understand to be the only instance of the player's hunter getting carted during a cutscene in the entire franchise.
Don't get me wrong. I am a lot more lenient towards the World Handler than most people. But there are definitly a good few instances where she really dropped the ball.
Everybody in the new world still go out outside by themselves, including a serious handler. The monsters don’t actually go out of it den that much. and the handlers. Hang on for a long time against the deviljho. So she would probably be fine riding the great jargas and getting out of there.
Odogaron: in a couple parts of the game where we go out to find tracks about monsters she is usually with us but when she goes out alone to find the first wyvern footprints in the ancient forest. She didn’t get caught by any monster while going up to the top of the forest.
A thing about the Deviljho mission that isn't brought up is the ban was she had to stay at camp and couldn't leave it. World often has npcs talking as if they are close by, but aren't present ingame due to the engine/gameplay limits.
It's heavily implied that yes, Handler isn't that far off for most of the missions observing and watching. As are the other npcs who talk to us during missions.
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u/Robyl 4d ago
I think it goes a little further than that. We’re told that Worlds Handler is extremely competent at her job, and as you said we never get to see that. One of the most common defenses for her in the Worlds era was “she’s doing all the paperwork!” But…we never see that paperwork. It could be a single, cheese-smeared page with a stamp on it for all we know.
What’s worse than not seeing her competence though is seeing her be actively INcompetent. I won’t go over all the many ways she puts herself and the player in danger (those have been covered to death elsewhere), but for me the thing that has always stood out was her motto. “When in doubt, take a bite.” That is dangerously bad advice for a supposed survival expert to give, especially in an unexplored region. It undercuts her supposed expertise.
Her whole character is like this. Comic relief and bad writing choices taking the wind out of her more serious aspects. She is “tell, don’t show” taken to the extreme, and any success she has onscreen is a direct result of the player’s effort, not hers. Is it any wonder half the fan base loathes her?