Why the Masterchief Works | Video Essay
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- Опубликовано: 18 авг 2019
- So in between making essays, I played some Halo and this whole idea for an investigation came to me.
Patreon: / implicitlypretentious
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Yeah so I think I may have sounded a bit too negative towards Halo 4, because I don't hate the game or anything. I think the Cortana storyline was a marvellously written drama. But it's a game where I had difficulty identifying with, since the mode of address was so drastically different that something as small as Chief speaking during gameplay disrupted my engagement.
But hey, I know a lot of people love that game, so don't let my criticisms effect your own enjoyment :)
But you also need to realize that bungie likely had that planned from the beginning, like they did with Master Chief being the proto didact. That was teased in the first Halo game. Halo has been written from the beginning with a planned story arch that needs to be told. Now, I know how you feel about Halo 4, and why. I felt the same way for the longest time, but then I started to realize bungie would've told the same story, bungie had this planned from the beginning, and lastly, Master Chief as a character has developed. By humanizing him, they went away from him just being a husk that he needed to be for people to relate to him. They're now branching out to him losing things in his life, which he hadn't really experienced that yet in any of the Halo games up until the third game when he lost Sgt Johnson. Before that, he hadn't lost any battles, lost too many people, he was an unstoppable force that was yet to meet an immovable object.
I don't agree with everything 343 did, and I surely don't agree with Halo 5, but by making him care, it opens up new routes. He is Human, underneath all that armor. And sometimes it's nice to be reminded he is by more than just a one liner.
I didn't like halo 4 or 5 the whole game multiplayer and all it really sucked
I agree, that some of the dialogue in 4 (and most all dialogue in 5) were distracting during gameplay. But his cutscenes with cortana were rather well crafted and impactfull. I might suggest for his personal character portrail to be restricted to cutscenes only, as it always was. Whether he shouldn't show more character in general, is a different subject though.
@@pIeasestand_by that destroys it though. He shouldn't be human
Don't worry. Halo 4 had a terrible story that tried to make halo something it's not
I think I you're pretty spot on, though I'd argue that the arbiter's more fleshed out story is the perfect counter-balance to the Chief's story in Halo 2. The arbiter being a fleshed out character that is the other side of the coin from the Chief with both halves then coming together full circle in Halo 3 as they finish the fight together. But definitely the arbiter is a defined, independent character (and a damn fantastic one at that), while the chief is a symbol that we are able to put ourselves into and see ourselves in.
I would say The Rookie from Halo 3: ODST is the pure perfect crystallization of the Chief being a vessel for the player, as the rookie is a silent protagonist through the whole game, but unlike the chief is just a regular human soldier like us. A badass ODST, but still just a normal man, not a super soldier, and Halo 3: ODST's story perfectly allows us to be the Rookie, making it one of the most impactful, atmospheric, "I was there" games I've ever played.
Arby is great, by far my fav
@@thelvadam2884 I'm glad to have the Arbiter's support 👍
the rookie is a seriously underrated character. totally agree on your thoughts about ODST and Arby's character.
I think ODSTs have agumentions but like a 200x less than spartan 2s and 3s
I had actually began typing what was essentially this exact comment before scrolling down the tiniest bit to see the feeling was already shared. Arbiter's playability enriches the story and the contrast between him and Chief even thought he only gameplay difference is a cloak or a flashlight.
I agree with all this. Except maybe it's because my feelings mirrored Chief in four that I thoroughly enjoyed his found humanity. My only dissonance was in five but seeing as it's not mentioned I'm going to assumed the feeling is mutual in regards to the story. I think for the series needs Chief to evolve to continue but I think that begins a debate on should he still be going, etcetera etcetera. Definitely feel like the self insert gets a bad wrap though these days and unfairly too I might add.
Yeah I do think halo 4 is a marvelous written game, especially with all of Cortana's scenes but it's such a drastic shift in terms of presentation that it became way too distracting for me to appreciate it whenever I replay it, so the compromise I would've preferred if it was more gradual so when the Chief first speaks in gameplay, could've been an emotionally shocking moment half way through the campaign instead it just happens 2 seconds into the game. But hey that's just me :)
@@ImplicitlyPretentious i don't really have a problem with him talking from the start but i feel like it might of helped that transition for sure, its kind of like the thing with the armor style, i think in 4 the armors aren't as bad as what people make them out to be and if chief had started the game with his halo 3 armor and transitions into the new one half way through that might of helped with that transition as well, like I'm not as much of a fan of all of 343s alterations but i think for me 4 still stands as one of my favorite halo games along with CE but i get the resistance some people get when confronted with the "all new bad ass yet emotion master chief" in 4 cause i was some what the same, but interesting take on 4, i really wonder if easing into the new stuff would of gotten them less backlash
@@JBzucc I actually felt reaaally weird about chief talking as much as he did. I was kind of surprised? I deffinately think the gradual move across would have been much better. I felt a little more like I was watching a cinematic progress rather than feeling like I was the one making it all happen.
As for the armours, The sudden tansition didn't help very much but at the same time, I feel they abandon the established aesthetic a little too much. Whether they do or not I suppose is subjective. Chiefs armour was one of the best in the game though - regardless if I don't like it as much as more traditional styles - I think the rest of them weren't that great. I just don't like the more sci-fi, edgy / blocky, overcomplicated thing. I think it takes away from the feeling of Halo for some reason.
Overall, I thought the armours were kind of ugly though in general (especially in Halo 5) and couldn't find many that I liked. I thought Reach had by far the best looking armour in any of the games to date. Gritty, weighty, militaristic and not simple but not overly complicated.
I am looking forward to see where they take the armours in Halo: Infinite. I am guessing that the overall look will perhaps be a traditional aesthetic with a modern lick of paint. More details whilst still in-line with the original stylistic feel.
We will see!
@@Hedgehog1039 i think I'm quite torn cause i do like reaches design but i think in 4 despite some of the bad designs the helmets are the best in the series, i think the body armor is far better in reach but after looking at the helmets in 4 a while back i was surprised at how good i thought they looked, my favorite helmet was always the recon helmet and even though in reach its more similar to 3s recon it feels off, like it fit more on the 3 style spartan armor but i reckon the older helmets they brought back are still very halo
The damn scout has to be one of the coolest halo helmets in the series for me, like i love 3s but 4 is on another level, the EOD is the best in the series for me, i like reaches as well but 4s is just a HD version of 3s, the Gungnir helmet was one of my favorites in reach but i actually prefer the 4 version, its a lot sleeker and smaller but still has the same look as reaches, the warrior helmet feels like a really solid extention, probably one of the better looking helmets, i could even see it fitting in well with the halo 3 armors, Soldier is another really awesome helmet which i think if it was maybe a little less messy i think it would be top tier, the recruit is also awesome, probably the most true to halo in style in my opinion but i can see why it looks a little generic to some people, Air Assault in my opinion is a bit better than reaches but i still really love reaches, i just feel like in reach it seems just the slightest bit big
I think there is some redeeming things about the armor but overall i think the mixing of the two styles like we've been seeing in halo 2 anniversary and infinite, i just kinda feel like they are gonna go too far trying to pander to the reach and 3 fans, which really i think isn't a bad thing but i want my halo 4 recon helmet, i think if they brought some of the better newer armor sets back it will be great, I'm not a crazy fan of 4, i just prefer it after going back and playing all of them, i feel like the gameplay is what sets it above in my opinion but the weapons and the gun play is probably the main part of that not the armors
@@JBzucc Thanks for the nelgthy reply!
I can certainly understand why people may like the newer interations of armour but I really don't like most of them. There are lots of little tweaks and additions on them which make the proportions and shapes feel really weird to me (I can't pinpoint what) and it is really offputting. I gues that's how I feel about most aspects in the last two games.The worst thing about this is that it is totally subconcious reaction and there is no way for me to change that.
As for the gunplay, It is good fun - even if the multiplayer as a whole was lacking - but I felt that the singleplayer gameplay wasn't very fun. I struggled to play through it becasue I just didn't really enjoy any aspects as much as previous games, it felt tedious. I am going to assume that this is due to the large number of changes 343 made from art, models, mechanics and music adding up into one strange feeling.
I am positive that 343 can do something good with infinite. I think that they are playing the chief a little too safe but I do believe that we will see a lot of the armours return in similar form with a cleaner look. I think they will make them look less cluttered and less 'edgy/blocky' and bring them back.
Only time will tell!
I am going through all of them again to prepare for Infinite and I'll see how I feel about it this time around.
Master chief: The most badass virgin of all time
he and Kelly had a thing, wink wink
@@InitialPC Nope
@@isaachinds3736 your right, it was actually with fred
@@InitialPC ok now you sir, you ARE A FORERUNNER
@@InitialPC what
For the real comment though, I totally agree with the fact that video games should be interpretted as a different form of media, able to convey certain emotions that others cannot. I'd love to see more videoes exploring different kinds of media rather than film
Yeah totally, I'd love to analyse comics at some point, but I totally would love to do some essays on video games at some point!
I think doom is doing this
Except with regulations and stuff
Huh, Master Chief works for the same reason as the DOOM Slayer.
A lot of old videos game characters worked that way, Freeman from half life, Link from LoZ and many others. As it was once put, the Master Chief was the last of big badass space marine era of characters.
That’s why many of those older games nailed outing you in their shoes. When characters talked in the mission, they spoke directly to you.
@@zachb1706 The Chief in Bungie's trilogy fails as a pure avatar/blank slate because he talks. This completely breaks the immersion. Link from Zelda is the perfect avatar character because he never says a word other than a few grunts and yells.Links actions feel like our/the players actions. With Chief its his actions not mine. Its always been like this since the beginning. 343 only added to what was already established since CE and the books.
thaneros breaks what immersion? His voice lines never really change the character
thaneros 343 only added to what was established? In artstyle? In sound design? In the character design? Feels like a complete overhaul to me, and that is the undeniable truth. 343 changed halo, and not for the better.
It’s funny how you call me a bungie fan, my first halo was halo 5. The campaign was honest dogshit, but warzone (however broken) was fun. I then got into MCC, played halo ce and loved it. The graphics aren’t great, and the animation isn’t there. But the thunderous ar, the powerful magnum and my personal favourite character was there, Johnson. I fell in love.
Anyway I kept playing, got into halo 2, was amazing (definitely the anniversary cutscenes). More Sargent Johnson and more Chief. His one liners were awesome, him simply saying “boo” is enough to blow me away. It’s not because it’s what he said, but because it’s presented beautifully. He could have sat there and got an exposition from cortana, but instead the game shows you the enemy.
I never played halo 3, though it’s multiplayer is the best. I did however play 4. It’s not bad, it’s multiplayer sucks ass - but it’s campaign is manageable. The prometheans are terribly balanced, and the story and artstyle was radically different - but it was decent. I never hated halo 4, nor the plot. I just hated Chief.
"Thank you sir, may I have another!?"
"NOT!"
Dude, you should have WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more subscribers! Go ALL OUT when you graduate, bro! This should be your career!
6:54 it was subtle but you pointed out something very important here. Conventional wisdom would tell you that Chief was originally generic and that the switch to explicit characterization would have made him less generic.
0:51, not true, The Fall of Reach book was released prior to release of Halo CE, so his backstory was most definitely established before that paragraph in the manual. Unknown to most, sure, but it was there.
Which Bungie didn't like because it literally limited them. It was their title and Microsoft thought, "Hey! Let's mess with it."
I can see what you mean about Halo 4 and 5 but I don't think that necessarily takes away from the character. In fact, Halo 5 probably has my favourite Chief moment. The part where Cortana is calling him John and trying to convince him to join her and Chief simply says to Blue Team "Psychological tactics, using my name" which completely flipped the idea that he was going after Cortana because he was lonely. Instead he was there to stop her. It revealed that he was in fact the machine, answering the question asked at the end of Halo 4. halo 4 and 5 did have problems over all, but that character development was handled pretty well.
the change from 3 to 4 was somewhat jarring, but i would agree that the continuation of that into 5 was then reasonable. I think part of the issue with how the Chief changed is also how soo many other parts changed as well, from characters and factions to art style. for example, the elites seemed to go backward with little explanation from where we last saw them in 3. Cortana went through her own change due to rampancy, but there was just enough of the old Cortana left when she was able to keep a lid on it that her behavior came off strange, especially if you look at how poorly rampancy has been explained in the games.
I would actually argue that the main problem is we have had 2 different halo's, the Bungie halos and the 343 Halos. Bungie halos had good individual tales that players only needed to know the barest minimum outside of the games to understand. 343 halos by contrast have the greater overall story, but require an actual understanding of ALL the material, not just in game / game manual material. as such, each individual story in the 343 halos are weaker, and appear in sharp contrast with the Bungie halos, which is not helped by the stubborn nature of humans towards change.
There was no problem with Halo 4.
@@trinalgalaxy5943 There is a time lapse between Halo 3 and Halo 4 that explains a lot of things like the design change in the Master Chief's suit, in the covenant and other aspects. The same dialogues in the game explain it to you, dialogues between the Chief and Cortana, which is great to see a Master Chef as talkative as in the novels. Bunguie created a hero when he introduced the world to the Master Chief in that 2001 Halo game, but 343 who has been able to expand the saga much better than Bunguie turned the Chief into a human. Halo 4 is a masterpiece that surpasses Bunguie's games, Halo 5 has its flaws, but it's a decent game. 343 has managed to handle things despite the wails of nostalgic fans for bunguie.
@@diegorojas3075 I wasnt talking about the looks or the story notes, but rather the design philosophy and how the story is told. there is a lot of hand waved bullshit for the new look of chief, But i dont actually hold that against the game.
I don't know how big your brain has to be to make this videos, you literally know what to say and when to say it and you always give a very deep look on things we normally don't pay attention to and your writing is so good, amazing video.
Oh wow thank you so much! I'm blushing from how flattering that is! :)
I’m so glad you’re a Halo-fan! Even though Arbiter wasn’t your favourite, I’d love to see an essay about him.
Great job on the video!:)
Yeah Halo 2 was my first game so I'll always have a soft spot for the franchise, and yeah I'd love to an essay on Arby and the Elites in general! :)
Implicitly Pretentious That would make my day!! Keep up the fantastic work!
While I can agree with you on some points, for me Halo 4 was my entry into the Haloverse. For me, the idea of the Chief having his own motives, relationships and suchlike, as opposed to the player giving him some of his character, has always been the way I see him. And having read TFOR, and looked into the cutscenes of the other few games...I rather like the fact that I am in control of the Master Chief, this badass super soldier...but I also see him as a human, a different character to myself. I wouldn't shoot marines just to see what happens, because that's not what he'd do. I like the idea that he is a different persona to me. I generally use RPGs or Real time Strategy games to project my own persona...
As for the Arbiter, I rather like his character arc, and the fact that as the player, you take him from his undying loyalty to the Covenant, through to the disillusionment and betrayal, the discovery of the truth, and finally his allying with the very race he once swore to fight. It provides a great deal of satisfaction to join the characters on these journeys...I find it nice to see them speak and voice their opinions, their motives. It makes them more relatable to me.
Story is my favorite drug. Halo, while enjoyable, was never my game and now I see why. I did really enjoy the experience of playing and put in a lot of hours because it is a joyous game filled with superhero power and a Mario level clarity of mission.
halo has a great story though
hefty magic I agree, but it doesn’t come out very much in the early games. I became invested later, by watching RUclips videos about the lore actually.
@@heftymagic4814 as a halo fan, let me correct you. Bungie could not make a good overall story to save their studio if it depended on it. each individual game has a decent enough story that flows well enough together that you dont really notice, but they all but completely ignore the larger universe. 343 on the other hand has the opposite problem, too much reliance on players learning the larger universe and its story with individually weaker stories in each game that fit better into that larger narrative.
essentially: Bungie = just enough story that you dont ask questions; 343 = soo much story that you ask WTF if you missed too much / an important book/comic
Agreed
First vid of yours I’ve seen my dude, your editing is super slick and the way you source your videos with a time stamp onscreen is fantastic. Keen for more!
>says he doesn’t want to make a game that makes you cry
*kills Johnson and Keys*
)’:
This is an excellent video my guy, you deserve wayy more subs!
As a huge halo fan, I think my favorite part about Halo is the lore, and I like that 4 tries to delve into the person that is The Chief, like it makes sense a man kidnapped and forced into the perfect weapon would not know how to probably handle the emotions of losing someone so close, like Cortana, I really like Halo 4, but not 5, that one was trash, like H4 or not, it told a cohesive story that had huge affects on the Chief and the universe, and then 5 just said fuck that and disregarded everything about H4
I think that the Halo 4 campaign was well written and interesitng. The lore and story is deffinately interesting. However, I felt very disconnected in Halo 4; kind of like watching a movie rather than being immersed. Not only did it take control of the narritive but it injected many new ideas and story lines making it far more complicated than the previous games too.
The story is good, The lore is good but I feel disconnected and - for me - it lost some of the characteristics which defined Halo in some way.
Halo 4 was not a well written campaign. It had promise, but the only part where they took risks was with the librarian, who just blatantly blasts exposition your way.
Zach B there’s a difference between being well written and not liking it, Halo 4 has one of the most cohesive narratives out of all the Halos, and it’s not a narrative mess, just because it did things you didn’t like, or didn’t do things you liked doesn’t mean it’s not well written, it’s just mean that you didn’t like the story
@@tresfordays9644 I don't think it is particularly well written either. The overall story is interesting, yes, with a lot of potential.
The pace was a bit strange and inconsistent and there wsan't much in the way of letting the player know what was actually going on / background.
david bynum it does not. Is blatant exposition your term of cohesion? Or that the entire lore of halo 4 comes out in one god confusing cutscene. Look it’s cool, but it’s just delivered so terribly.
If you want a cohesive narrative: halo 2. It was amazing to watch the two opposing sides celebrate their win, and punish for their defeat. The introductions the gravemind, one of if not the most intelligent thing we know of built up just to wipe out the galaxy.
5:26 freezing on the text frame I see around 3 different good names for Covenant facilities / leadership.
“Foresight of Harmony”
“Harmony of Relevance”
“Higher Harmony”
Fantastic video! It was interesting to hear you break down the differences in how we relate to video game characters vs. movie characters; I had never thought of it that way. Awesome job man, keep it up :)
This perfectly put into words what I have failed to be able to convey for so long. Bravo, sir.
Thank you so much! That's really flattering! :)
Oh that ending scene with the grunt always gets me, this was a really good video essay on a character that i still like to this day. Subscribed!
Man. I don’t know how the rest of your channel is, but if it’s anything exegetical as this one I’ll sub. Thank you for putting words to thoughts I couldn’t explain and on top of that expounding on and explaining the inner workings of how story telling operates to better understand this masterchi... ‘scuse me... masterpiece.
I agree with your points regarding 1-3 because that was what the trilogy really painted the Chief to be. He's the hero, he's humanity's armour, he'll win the fight like always. But the power of the last line in Halo 3, him telling Cortana to wake him when he's needed... it's a great shift in pace when you return in 4. Because, now you're needed more than ever, but it still feels so repetitive. And I liked that Halo 4 captures this by tackling Chief's identity with his own sacrifice of humanity over the humanity of the people.
He is still a man of the mission, but now, with his partner on the fritz and near death, he begins to consider his own life and what exactly can be defined by that. Is he really a machine bred for war? Like Halsey intended? Or does he relate to Cortana's longing for humanity as she's on her death sentence?
Really, coming out of Bungie's trilogy and into Chief's new development in Halo 4 was a nice change because I myself grew when the time came. And now I found myself realizing: this husk I played does have his own story. He plays out the mission because we play out the mission. He lives that way because we make him, and in the end, there's not much else we've really considered.
That said, Halo 5 ruined the entire franchise for me and I do believe 343 could've done way better with it. Not meant to knock your vid down, I really enjoyed it and liked your points! Just wanted to offer my take is all.
honestly the worst part about the change from 3 to 4 (bungie to 343) is the shift in how the lore outside of the games was handled. Bungie Halos needed only a minimum amount of that lore, most of which could be found in the game manuals or picked up in game. 343 Halos, by contrast, require a fuller understanding of the greater universe and lore to make various events possible from the Bungie games. that being said, 5 had major problems beyond the strange lore that started coming out around its events, and its lack of clarification both in game and out.
This was very comprehensive to say the least, you've got my subscription man. Thanks for the new perspective.
the best way id phrase this is that halo 1-3 is 1st person and 4 onwards are third person games really when you see or experience something new you see it outside the chief instead of having the experience yourself
You have an incredible gift for insight, thank you so much for these perspectives.
He has such a wide array of facial expressions. More than any real man.
I agree on most of this, except for Chief's humanity being a problem in Halo 4. I thought it was well done and that, at the end of the day, it was time for his character to become something more than just a machine. The problem, to me, comes in during Halo 5 when essentially all of the major themes from Halo 4 are thrown out the window and instead we get a wild goose chase through environments where the Chief is trying to find Cortana and Locke is trying to find the Chief. It feels like an extremely unnatural change of pace and tone. It also doesn't help that we barely get any time with the Chief while we get most of the game with Locke.
Great video overall though. Your statements on videogame interpretation were on point (at least to me).
it wasnt well done in 4. objectively thats a fact. it can work for few people but it sure as hell didnt for the majority
@@heftymagic4814 comments section says otherwise however
Care to explain why? I would like to know what arguments back up your "fact".
@@heftymagic4814 please give a source? Because the majority of the Halo community would disagree with you.
hefty magic That's not what objectively means, you are literally describing something that is subjective.
Incredible breakdown, loved it.
After watching this video Chief's humanization in Halo 4 seems like a betrayal to the simplistic, to the point and minimal characteristics represented in the trilogy. The chief we needed did not wake up.
I generally hope they get this right with halo infinite.
Mattuiop that trailer answered that question for me
This is seriously very well made im very surprised you dont have more subs
The chief was ALWAYS a human. The games and the books always had a forced dissonance about that, where they didn't believe the audience mature enough to handle a badass warrior that also, you know, had been through some shit. All the way back in Halo 2 he was Human, promising to save Cortana. And in 3 the same is true. He's sad she's missing, wants to save her, and does that the only way he knows how to do anything at all. With a gun and a fist. Then he's sad when Johnson is killed, kneeling to stay with HIM and assuring HIM he would get him out of there.
The Chief has been the same all along. A complicated person, with emotions he didn't deal with, and relationships he couldn't understand. People just seem to forget that when it's convenient to bitch at 343i about it.
Chief played his character through his posture and brilliant one liners. He didn’t talk in game, instead of cortana talking to chief and he responding like in 4 and 5, in halo ce to 3 cortana was talking to you, the player. That’s ducking awesome!
@@zachb1706 There are DOZENS of examples of Chief and Cortana talking throughout CE to 3. Literal dozens of them. The end of CE for one, where they have a brief back and forth. In 2 when he promises he'll be back for er for another.
The problem is Bungie purists will ignore and cherrypick ALL of these. And him conversing with other characters too. Then they ignore them and just go 'He's all one liners and posture! YOU get to be the character.'
Meanwhile, he has entire conversations with multiple characters.
Ozpin Cane during gameplay? I never said he never spoke to her, but when he did it was during a cutscene, and it was a sick one liner.
“I know what your thinking, and it’s crazy”
“So? Stay here.”
“Unfortunately for both of us, I like crazy”
That built up to the scene where he “gives the covenant back their bomb”
Honestly one of the best cutscenes in gaming history.
Ozpin Cane go play ce, on the mission halo. The whole mission cortana talks to you, sharing lore and guiding you while you explore this vast landscape. It is halos most well known level, featured even in the Minecraft mash up pack. But off topic, what I’m trying to say is listening to Fireteam Osiris waffle on as I walk down a linear path to my next fight isn’t very entertaining.
@@zachb1706
*accuses you of cherrypicking examples to your narrative*
"Oh yeah! Well go to this specific mission in the first game for PROOF!"
That is LITERALLY cherrypicking, my dude. The issue here is exactly what I called out before - Purism. YOU have all decided, based on cherrypicked examples, what is and is not and what was and was not the Chief's style of interaction. EVERY instance is ignored if it doesn't fit that preconceived narrative.
Which is why in three, Chief will display emotion JUST like in 4 and 5, but in 3 you ignore it.
"I'll be back."
"I was supposed to protect you."
Both are examples of climactic lines full of Chief's emotion in the new and old trilogies. Both are short, singular sentences.
"So? Stay here."
"We go together."
Again, examples of climactic lines in climactic scenes. But still singular lines. Snappy one-liners, as it were. So even if I GRANT your asinine assertion he never shows proper emotions or talks alot to convey HIS emotions, he does so in BOTH trilogies!
The longest conversations run by the Chief are admittedly in 4. But THAT conversation is only long because Cortana explains she is going into Rampancy. And his response?
"Halsey." Cortana starts to interrupt, and he cuts her off with. "Halsey made you. She'll know how to fix you."
STILL. FUCKING. SNAPPY AND SHORT.
I could - and have, in the past - gone through almost every single line with you to demonstrate this. And invariably one of three things happens. You assert I'm wrong just because, play the 'it's muh opinion' card to nuke the argument, or you just don't comment again.
Two videos in one day!! This is amazing 😍
Thank you!
love your gaming stuff, my dude!
the first clip man, cheif saying boo to that grunt, i remember being like 7 years old thinking that shit was the most badass shit in the entire world
the backstory part at timestamp 47 sec. into the video is false, the first book "Halo Fall of Reach" came out October 30, 2001, and "Halo CE" came out November 15, 2001, granite I know people probably did not know about the book then, that is really the only inaccurate information I found.
True, but I think that the statement is still accurate in the context of the video. That is that those playing just the video games without going out do their way to consume extended universe material got that very minimal amount of backstory. Very little of the characterization in the backstory was touched on in the original trilogy. The biggest character related thing I can think of from the trilogy was Cortana giving her speech about “luck” in Halo 3.
I’ve never liked halo because I could put myself in chiefs shoes. Sure I could, and I do whenever I play, but I always, even from the start, saw him as a character, a person, with his own personality, feelings and goals, no matter how simple. I loved halo 4 and 5’s attempts to explore his character more, because that’s what he is, a character, and in my eyes, characters are the driving force of stories, events are secondary
Even though Bungie didn't try to give him a reason to fight.
Strange...
Agreed.
But the origin story Of a Spartan 2(Master chief's super soildier type)
He was kidnapped and they were train an be replaced by Clones
And becuase of the Spartan Program They see their friends ( Some of cheif's friends are like familys)
Die. And cuz of that they become super soldiers, Until he meet Cortana, chief becomes atatch to that AI .
And humanizing him would make him a more human, like cortana.
Hes more than badass super soldier, He's also human
Somthing bungie try to do in halo 3.
This is why i like halo 4
Solid video man
bugger me mate, im sat here with a thesaurus every time i watch your video's, good essay
Also, Cortana is Chief's main method of interacting with the world, which allows him to maintain his emptiness without being unable to interact with others sufficiently for a deep story.
I agreed and like everything you said except for the take on Halo 4-5 I like seeing Chief show some emotion as I feel it mirrored my own in how I would feel if I were shoes
Aww well respect anyways :)
I agree with most of this, but I think it would only be natural that he'd some emotions for other Soldiers, Halsey, and Cortana,.
This was good, you just helped me realize why giving more character to the chief didn't actually draw in the player more. Thank you
It drew me and many other players in, to the chief as a character.
I understand what you are saying and I can relate to some degree, but a lot of it is subjective. Some, me included, like chief being more than just a blank slate and halo having blockbuster tier cinematic cutscenes, framing characters actions in the best possible manner.
amazing videos one by one from you, many thanks
Thank you!
Agreed with you up until the last part where you said 343 gave Chief a personality. Recently I've read through the first 3 books (Well, 2 and a half) them being Halo: Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood and Halo: First strike and despite them being partially canon because the books add more to situations and add suspense like a Flood Infection form jumping on Chief. Chief going from a "Ghost in a shell" makes sense for what he is during the time, a 7 foot Super Solider that only knows war but to 343's credit they did add character that justified Chief. During Fall of Reach Chief last almost all his brothers and sisters which he served with for decades and he lost them within a week and they were his anchor but after losing them and landing on Halo, he created a strong bond with Cortana and over-time they respected one another and without either, the war would of been lost so when Chief, after years of fighting, his ill proper growing in to an adult might of broken him on an emotional level such as what the cutscene with Halsey at the start of Halo 4. When making an analysis on a character, look at all the sides of the coin, yes 343 botched Halo 5's story big time because they could of done so much more with Blue team but it still added to Chief's character and Halo Infinite will be more about Chief finding his companion and bring her back to the light or kill her... or die trying. Not a bad thing, still liked the vid, nice work.
that comes down to how the different studios have handled the larger story. Bungie was always very minimal on what you needed to know beyond the four corners of the game world. 343 has taken a near maximum requirement to fully understand their games. individually, Bungie's Halos were better, but in the larger context 343's (ignoring most of the worst mistakes of Halo 5, and yes im saying about 80%+ of that game) have been stronger in that narrative.
@@trinalgalaxy5943 Indeed. I just find it unfair to focus on one part of Chief and ignore the other despite looking in to it and seeing it plans out very well with his loss of Cortana, unexpected results of his training and pull in to service at a very young age.
A Far Knight Gaming the books are full canon.. not partial canon.
@@AsharyAsh we know, we are just talking about how the games use the material from books and comics (or dont use in Bungie's case)
@@AsharyAsh Pretty sure Halsey wasn't with Blue team (excluding Chief) and Noble at the same time.
So I'm assuming this is one of those videos that the algorithm gave to me before it explodes in popularity
I love videos like these
6:40 that’s because we’re not playing as the Master Chief anymore. We’re playing as John. The Chiefs a toy soldier, John a human. A person with emotion. And we had that power fantasy ripped from under us when we ran into the Didact. And seeing things that could rip a Sangheili in two. The Chief had his trilogy. It’s time we explore the man behind the green armor and gold visor. It’s time we explore John. The boy snatched from eridanus II
This video spoke my mind
fantastic video my dude
Thank you!
I personally love what they tried to do with Chief in 4, I really love that kind of story. I just think they took it too fast. characters don't go 180 over night like that. ify they ever redid Halo 4(ha) I'd want them to take their time and not have MC go through 20 breakthroughs over the course of a few days
Anyone know where the opening music comes from. I’m obsessed with it
I'd like to know too
I like that Halo 4 humanized John more, I see it as the ending of his arc, it was Cortana and her death that made Chief embrace his humanity and accept that as a soldier he is not a machine, and he finally took off his armor for the first time in years
Dude hope this blows up more
Another great example of this type of story telling from Bungie is also present without the Master Chief. Like you mentioned in the essay, I too was initially unimpressed, and even disappointed the first time I was forced to play the Arbiter, however I felt none of that same worry when being asked to play "The Rookie" in ODST or "Six" in Reach. There did not seem to be as much disappointment from the community once their stories were finished, and I personally find them to be hallmark stories of the Halo Universe. Yet I never cared for Spartan Locke in Halo 5, much less did I want to play as him. Something I never spent time thinking about and yet when discussed seems so glaringly obvious. Another great example was the popularity of Gordan Freeman.
6:00 another thing that make H3's ending so perfect was that it was a complete mirror to the first game. In H:CE Master Chief wakes up from cryo on a ship, the ship has to crash land, the ship is destroyed and there are only a few survivors. In H3 there are only a few characters left on the final mission, they get on a ship to make an escape, the ship is destroyed and Chief goes back into cryo; the trilogy ended as it began.
*this is the most accurate description lf halo*
But by the way i really like the story of the arbiter because some people just get pushed to be somebody and that exactly the opposite of the masterchief. Thats why halo 2 was so good, it showed two entirely different sides
You said some really well thought out stuff. On the arbiter himself i like his character depth as well but the fact that he actually depth to him, i also agree it seems almost out of place in a way as you explained. I think that was an interesting take for Bungie to go but i think it worked well. What is important tho is that they were meticulous in their injection of new dynamics. 343, i think tried that and went too far.
That comment about constantly being the last one left got me thinking. There really is no better adaptation for Halo than something akin to those war movies where the squad gradually takes casualties over time.
Do this with an ODST squad, you can start with tension between Chief and the, then they gradually grow closer and become a team out of necessity. Have Chief show genuine care for their deaths. Don't have him be distraught, just have him show the utmost respect for the fallen.
The only game to have inner dialogue to explain the story.
Finally someone put into words what I was feeling since 2012. Thank you, you earned a sub
While I agree that Halo 2's overall story might have been missing something, with the sum of the Arbiter's parts feeling less than that of the Chief's, something I really appreciated in Halo 3 was, explicitly, the Arbiter. If Chief is about that immersion, about being able to easily slip into the identity of "The Last Spartan" with no component of romance or sadness getting inbetween you are your actions on the world, having the Arbiter THERE helped... contextualized that world in a meaningful way, without enforcing the frame.
I'd like to say that, for every reason the Arbiter felt weaker as a character in Halo 2 as compared to Chief, is every reason he was instrumental in the story of Halo 3 BECAUSE we played Chief. Like you mention with the Flood in Halo 1, the sudden understanding your alone existence is not one of being the alpha predator, there's... sort of a comfort, a poetic sense of finality, in knowing that the world you leave behind after your actions in Halo 3 are left to at least some people with your strength and wit. Humanity as a whole, definitely, as Admiral Hood's speech cements, but also the Arbiter, your stand-in during that shot of the speech.
You never fought FOR the Arbiter, your interests simply aligned. But... that the world exists, with motive and tragedy and hope, in ways BEYOND myself is... important. And having played through the Halo 3 character Arbiter's backstory in a previous game... you, the player, understand that importance.
Which is then passed onto //your// Chief.
John-117 has always been a character, he was a fleshed-out character even before the games, want a self insert Noble 6 and Halo 4's Crimson 1. You can't discount the books and the world-building done by them, as Halo as a franchise is actually built on them, hell Reach doesn't exist without them.
Yeah I agree, but I'm more talking about the mode of address from videogames as a medium more than John as a cross media creation. So for the purpose of this thesis I had to ignore them in order to go deeper into the design continuity through the Bungie games and how his identity is a reflection of a medium at opposed to the other way around
looking back halo 4 was not that bad the story between chief and cortana is so good and is the only time ive shed a tear in a video game
Yeah I'm not sure I cried, but that's the one aspect I absolutely enjoyed, the Del Rio, Palmer and Librarian stuff not so much :p
I really disliked the art style and promethions I wished they added different covenant shits stupid
A character who has a backstory that was originally just a paragraph in the manual.
Novel that gives his backstory: *came out a month before the first game*
While the change of direction for his character is soberingly obvious from 3 to 4 I always felt it was inevitable as Bungie had always described chief in lore as someone who had a borderline obsession with combat and executing missions (which is brought up again in the first cut scene we see blue team in in 5) and that mentality always implied instability as a person. That's why I believe they made halo 3 end the way it did, without the war chief has no purpose so he rests until he's needed again. Because the circumstances of the universe are very different post halo 3, the chief in turn changes to reflect that. He's a hero that became obsolete as the world around him advanced and nothing is the same for him after losing Cortana. Halo 5 (as poorly written as it was) shows chief hiding his grief and clinging to what little remains of his purpose by mindlessly undergoing missions given to him by the UNSC however little they are (they send a team of IV's to rescue Dr. Halsey and send blue team to simply blow up an abandoned station for crying out loud).
Didn't see this coming.
Pretty neat.
Thanks!
You have put into words so many things that I have understood subconsciously, but have never been able to vocalize. Thank You.
Checked out the moment you started off saying Chief having hunan emotions
What's that scene at 7:49? Never seen it before!
I think it was part of gameplay presentation Bungie did for CE. You can find it here on RUclips.
I have found this video to be very satisfactory.
So long story short... it's well written in the context of a video game, and it follows the rule of show don't tell. K
You would've thought 343 understood from Bungie that chief worked because he wasn't over emotional and showed weakness
Halo does make me cry though
this is why the S3s being lobotomized volunteers was a cool plot point
it mades them gamers
hence why Jorge was the only somewhat touchy feely noble
this was extremely satisfying.
Oh wow thanks!
Damn near cried at the nostalgia
These are the same reasons everyone loves the Doom Slayer from the new Doom games
Chief/Cortana romance seemed really off to me, because my Chief wasn't like that.
It's the typical oldschool FPS stereotype with the silent protagonist that allows the player to fill their shoes and feel like them. It started in Doom, occurred in Half-Life, and ebbed into Halo.
I literally wrote a script for a video that had a lot of the same talking points here but it focused more on how the current industry has entirely disregarded the ludonarritive and compared halo ce to red dead 2. Anyways thanks for this video bc i feel so validated lmao
Thank you for this. Finally someone who understands what's actually going on
I partially disagree with your assessment on the sequel trilogy. As a kid, when the first 3 games came out, that vicarious play was king for me. I loved empty-shell chief because I'm actually the one in the suit blowing up hunters. But H4 came out when I was an adult, where my capacity for empathy had grown. Suddenly I feel for chief and good very human inner conflict. And that's actually around the same time I played the MCC and realized how much I loved the Arbiter. I could empathize/related to his redemption arc.
Do I think that there are certain stories that video games are better at telling? Yes. Does that mean that games should stick to those stories? Not always. I was sad for Cortana because we had gone through so much together. I didn't watch that happen; we did those things, slogged through Covenant and Promethean forces together. Hours were poured into that, and a bond was formed That was stronger than any movie could produce.
It's not for everyone, sure, but neither is a blank slate character. In fact, I know some people who found MC *boring* because he had no personality.
H5 sucks, though.
Halo 4 would be much better with a better art style though
Good video! What's the song at the start of your videos tho? Im lovin it lol
I'd like to know too
Next video should be :
Why Doomguy works | Heavy metal Video Essay
I think you just fixed my criticism about the master chief not having a character arc.
As someone who read a lot of the Halo books prior to 343 taking over the franchise, I'm not quite as bothered by their decision to humanize the character, if for no other reason than because I was already reading his book characterization into his actions in the games.
However, even only looking at the games, there are still hints of the Chief's humanity that poke through during Halo 2 and 3, specifically around his relationship with Cortana, which make the expansion of said themes Halo 4 onward less unprecedented than you suggest.
It's true players want to connect to their protagonists. However, the blank slate isn't always the best way to accomplish that. Especially if you want to create a long-running narrative with the main character capable of being directly invested in a manner beyond "accomplish x task".
The books are shit. Actually mist of the games lore is aswell. It's just stock standard sci fi bullshit
perfectly said!
Okay very good video but it is heresy to play the anniversary graphics
To me there is no HALO 4 and 5 there is only THE HOLY TRILOGY, we'll see about infinite
That's silly they're still fun to play
worked* rip chief after 4/5. was as good as watching a childhood friend fading away from drug abuse and over drinking, sad as shit.
Tell me that Chief fighting alone with the flood all over the place saving the galaxy with his shotgun, always outmatched, in silence, while everything around him falls to pieces and becomes living dead, isn't one of the most badass things ever. Yeah i get the duo with the arbiter, but it just hasn't the same feel.
At the end of the game you feel like you have accomplished the freaking IMPOSSIBLE, but not becouse master chief did it, or becouse someone helped you, becouse of a scripted cutscene, but becouse YOU did it, with your skill, your tactics, by clearing all the challenges yourself, while still not breaking immersion with the plot becouse you have Cortana that thinks for you, so you are still connected to your character without him thinking for himself.
You don't need a cutscene explaining how he feels or how other character feel, you already know that he feels the same things as you feel, thinks the same things as you think, and you are the character development.
The same thing happened with Samus Aran, she basically never talked, but becouse of that she became one of the best characters ever made, becouse everything is told though the enviroment, and once they introduced writing they completely fucked it up.
I think 343 could have handled the story they wanted to tell about Chief in Halo 4 and 5 more effectively if Chief had simply graduated to an NPC, and we were given a new blank slate character to experience the stage as. Give us a tutorial mission or two alongside the Chief where he's as awesome as we remember - don't tell us that he's awesome, let us react to him being awesome. But then, show us that there's only so long a human can suppress their humanness before some of it starts to seep through.
Allow us to choose whether we project that onto our character; a nearly-silent protagonist is helpful here. We might ask questions about the blank slate we're in control of as we watch Chief's blank slate take on colour, but that's our job, not the cutscenes'. Make the cutscenes about an evolving Chief, and then have the stage respond to that, and let us respond to the stage. That would have retained the core of what makes the Halo series work, while also letting Chief evolve.
Of course, then they wouldn't be able to milk the publicity cash cow that is "Master Chief returns as a playable character", and given that 343 pretty much only exists to milk a cashcow, that option was pretty much off the table from the beginning. A man can dream though...
You didn’t like Halo 4’s story? I thought it was the best of the all the games. It’s good they actually made Chief into a character, but they did that without losing his personality established in the original trilogy. There’s a lot you could analyze about Halo 4’s story.
Tbh (potentially because I'm just bad and take forever) I kept forgetting what the fuck was going on except for the Cortana problem. Like there's a bunch of robot-skull-teleport boys and also robot wolves and also a BIG TRUCK and also a ball, and some dude, but I don't remember what any of that was about besides trying to fix Cortana.
I think I have a weird relationship with Halo 4's campaign, because on one hand I think the drama is beautifully written, especially everything with Cortana, but the way it's presented is so drastically different from the previously halo games that something as small as Chief speaking during gameplay completely disrupted my ability to identify with the emotions of the story. But hey each to their own :)
Implicitly Pretentious I like the fact that his getting emotion because of cortana losing her mind n shit but I’m pretty sure they reverted him back into an emotionless killing machine in infinite which I’m disappointed in because they worked pretty hard on giving the character emotion but it’s just my opinion
@@avci6084 we're yet to see where that goes. I think they're making him into Halo 3 Chief: obviously going through some separation anxiety but also knowing he needs to get the job done. Looking at how he acted after getting out of the cryptum in 5, it seems like he's emotionally broken due to Cortana's new personality but he still knows that he has a duty to protect humanity.
@@avci6084 It kind of makes sense for him to revert, though, given the circumstances.
Why does this male me question my own existence
Chief becomes the average 4chan user