It is odd that John-117 was not visibly surprised when he first encountered the Spartan-IVs, despite most likely never even having heard of the Spartan-IIIs. Though this could easily be seen as him seeing it as other Spartan-II’s from another class, as Halsey stated she plans to have more Spartans made.
It’s hard for a character as stoic as John to show visible emotion, especially from behind a mask.
You could have all the officers on the infinity riding unicycles and wearing clown make-up and you couldn’t get a rise out of the oh so stoic MC (:
Actually I think that chief and the rest of the II’s only believed that they were the last spartan’s. Kelly’s reaction in Onyx from seeing the III’s.
But I’m more surprised by the non reaction of the IV’s or ANYONE seeing John.
And that old guy was even being a flippin jerk to him. That’s some bad story development there imo.
> But I’m more surprised by the non reaction of the IV’s or ANYONE seeing John.
>
> And that old guy was even being a flippin jerk to him. That’s some bad story development there imo.
Palmer?
Who?
> Actually I think that chief and the rest of the II’s only believed that they were the last spartan’s. Kelly’s reaction in Onyx from seeing the III’s.
>
> But I’m more surprised by the non reaction of the IV’s or ANYONE seeing John.
>
> And that old guy was even being a flippin jerk to him. That’s some bad story development there imo.
So when Del Rio follows protocol in dealing with an obviously rampant AI and a solider disobeys an order, he is being a jerk when confronting him about it?
You think he was acting rational to the man who saved the human race? It’s like when people in the DC universe treat superman like he’s nothing, it’s crazy.
Why weren’t they more welcome to his return? or surprised for that matter? It was all like “Oh hey your back.”
> You think he was acting rational to the man who saved the human race? It’s like when people in the DC universe treat superman like he’s nothing, it’s crazy.
So what if Chief saved the human race? Cortana WAS going rampant, Cortana WAS going insane, Cortana WAS a danger to Infinity and everybody on it. Those are facts. Del Rio was following protocol by wanting to remove Cortana from the system and dispose of her. If it had been any other AI, nobody would complain. Besides, Chief DID disobey a direct order. So he helped save the human race, so did everybody else in the war. Heroes aren’t infallible.
In the end Chief’s choice was justified as he did stop the Didact, but to bash Del Rio for doing his job is a bit insane and borders on hero worship, which can be a really bad thing.
> Why weren’t they more welcome to his return? or surprised for that matter? It was all like “Oh hey your back.”
Maybe those killer death droids and aliens made giving Chief a proper welcome difficult?
Everyone I know has called Del Rio various bad names before we even got the cutscene where he threw a hissy fit at chief.
A lot of his choices made sense, but the way he said things just made it sound like he was trying to tick off chief.
I mean, Keyes managed to stay level headed and he actually lost his ship.
> Everyone I know has called Del Rio various bad names before we even got the cutscene where he threw a hissy fit at chief.
>
> A lot of his choices made sense, but the way he said things just made it sound like he was trying to tick off chief.
>
> I mean, Keyes managed to stay level headed and he actually lost his ship.
Then again, Keyes didn’t exist solely yo make Chief look good. Much easier to look stoic and heroic when disobeying the orders of an -Yoink- rather than the orders of a calm person.
I’m not going to hate Del Rio because 343i wanted to make him a throwaway character.
Master Chief doesn’t exactly show his feelings - it’s been commented before that he acts like a machine at times.
Not acting surprised/shocked when he met Spartan IVs doesn’t really surprise me.
Think about some of the moments he’s come across through the original trilogy and how he reacted to them… finding Keye’s in a proto-gravemind for instance… I need to go back and watch that cut-scene again but I’m pretty sure he didn’t seem shocked…
> finding Keye’s in a proto-gravemind for instance… I need to go back and watch that cut-scene again but I’m pretty sure he didn’t seem shocked…
Found Keyes, shook head in disbelief and then proceeds to put fist through face. It’s that scene and I think the scene with him on the long sword where he actually shows some emotion. Mostly through body language and it’s extremely brief.
It’s the same way in Halo 3. The emotions he shows is mostly in his body language and it’s once again, brief.
> > finding Keye’s in a proto-gravemind for instance… I need to go back and watch that cut-scene again but I’m pretty sure he didn’t seem shocked…
>
> Found Keyes, shook head in disbelief and then proceeds to put fist through face. It’s that scene and I think the scene with him on the long sword where he actually shows some emotion. Mostly through body language and it’s extremely brief.
>
> It’s the same way in Halo 3. The emotions he shows is mostly in his body language and it’s once again, brief.
Exactly, if signs of emotion are included they’re very understated and very brief - blink and you’ll miss it.
The Chief has saved the galaxy from the Flood. He has beaten down the covenant, and was the first chap in a couple of thousand years to see a Forerunner…
I doubt that a human dressed up as a Spartan would surprise him 
He was a hair shocked, kinda froze there for a second.
> > > finding Keye’s in a proto-gravemind for instance… I need to go back and watch that cut-scene again but I’m pretty sure he didn’t seem shocked…
> >
> > Found Keyes, shook head in disbelief and then proceeds to put fist through face. It’s that scene and I think the scene with him on the long sword where he actually shows some emotion. Mostly through body language and it’s extremely brief.
> >
> > It’s the same way in Halo 3. The emotions he shows is mostly in his body language and it’s once again, brief.
>
> Exactly, if signs of emotion are included they’re very understated and very brief - blink and you’ll miss it.
Which is exactly what he did when he met the Spartan IV’s.
^
This
He is actually surprised at seeing the new Spartans, we know this because he focuses on each of them before following them in, the reason the SIV’s weren’t so surprised to see him was because they are Spartans and had a mission to deal with. Sure they mightve have been jumping for joy and had a huge grin behind that helmet but they were surrounded, had wounded, and needed an extraction asap, so celebrations would have to wait
As others’ have said, he was surprised, he’s just very subtle.
I imagine it would be similar to when Halsey first encountered Noble Team. She had no idea about any other Spartan programs at the time, yet these strangers turn up in her Mjolnir armour. They weren’t any of her Spartans and Mjolnir isn’t safe for non-humans. There were more pressing matters at hand however, so she didn’t exactly have time to interrogate them. John had an objective to complete when he first met the IVs, there were more important things to worry about.