I know I’m going to get a lot of hate here but here goes.
I believe everyone has been wanting to see his face. In order for his character to be finally revealed and be really authentic, the face reveal needs to happen sometime.
Everyone wants to know the face that saved the galaxy twice already.
I was actually happy for the ending of Halo 4 Legendary.
I don’t really think seeing his face would ruin the mystic.
> I know I’m going to get a lot of hate here but here goes.
>
> I believe everyone has been wanting to see his face. In order for his character to be finally revealed and be really authentic, the face reveal needs to happen sometime.
>
> Everyone wants to know the face that saved the galaxy twice already.
>
> I was actually happy for the ending of Halo 4 Legendary.
>
> I don’t really think seeing his face would ruin the mystic.
It would, you’re mistaken.
His face won’t be anything special, it’s been described to an extent in the book. I don’t want to see it and if I have to see it then that will be the last Halo game.
> > I know I’m going to get a lot of hate here but here goes.
> >
> > I believe everyone has been wanting to see his face. In order for his character to be finally revealed and be really authentic, the face reveal needs to happen sometime.
> >
> > Everyone wants to know the face that saved the galaxy twice already.
> >
> > I was actually happy for the ending of Halo 4 Legendary.
> >
> > I don’t really think seeing his face would ruin the mystic.
>
> It would, you’re mistaken.
>
> His face won’t be anything special, it’s been described to an extent in the book. I don’t want to see it and if I have to see it then that will be the last Halo game.
I just think it needs to be well done and his face must project all his accomplishments and deep suffering.
The ending of Halo 4 gave us a glimpse of that. I enjoyed it.
No thanks, the eyes were more than enough.
We can’t see his face. We want to feel connected with him. He is an icon. When we play online, we see his helmet on every single player. He is us and we are him.
> I don’t really think seeing his face would ruin the mystic.
Now imagine what Star Wars fans went through when Vader’s face was revealed in Return of the Jedi…
He didn’t really live up to his mask-on image did he? Chubby, pale, scarred. Certainly not the face of evil as many would have expected.
Showing his faced served the story to a degree, but it also can be considered to be somewhat of a scar on his image to many.
Now lets compare that to Chief.
A character initially intended to be a pure vehicle for the player, a la Gordon Freeman in Half-Life. Became popular and his character was filled in more and more. Causing the dilemma of having a character described somewhat in books contradicting to what players thought the guy looked like behind his visor.
We’ve seen his eyes in H4, we’ve read his description as a child and an adult in the books. That should be enough. With those two things we as players have some things to hold on to and to fill in the gaps ourselves.
Because really, our epic hero is a pale skinned, bald headed, scar faced guy in his 40’s/50’s that doesn’t really resemble the Schwarzenegger-esque figure people are expecting, but more the pale old guy that Darth Vader turned out to be.
In short: leave it at what we’ve seen already. Maybe show his head from behind. But do not show his face.
> We can’t see his face. We want to feel connected with him. He is an icon. When we play online, we see his helmet on every single player. He is us and we are him.
No… that couldn’t be farther from correct.
The Master Chief is John-117, an individual character. He has a character, a backstory, personal motivations, a physical appearance.
The Master Chief is NOT the player. He never was, as evident by the Fall of Reach, which established John as a character before the first game even game out.
Bungie used the player connection concept as an excuse to not connect Chief to the books and not characterize him in-game.
It hurt Chief as a character. In Bungie’s trilogy, he was just a generic space marine. Now he is a character lost in the truth, questioning his beliefs and what it means to be human. The dilemma of being a Spartan, and realizing his place.
Save the “You are the character” thing for characters who aren’t actually developed, like the Rookie or Noble Six. Chief is developed as a character, and should be treated as such in game, like what they did in Halo 4.
> > We can’t see his face. We want to feel connected with him. He is an icon. When we play online, we see his helmet on every single player. He is us and we are him.
>
> *snip
Agreed on this one, we should move on from the “he is us” stuff and accept that he is his own character now.
But that doesn’t mean his face needs to be revealed, even if it is I would say they should keep it for the last game in his story as an epic moment when he removes it and charges into the enemy he faces.
> > Because really, our epic hero is a pale skinned, bald headed, scar faced guy in his 40’s/50’s that doesn’t really resemble the Schwarzenegger-esque figure people are expecting, but more the pale old guy that Darth Vader turned out to be.
>
> after seeing his eyes, i actually want him to be black haired not bald
> however on the rest i agree with you
> > I know I’m going to get a lot of hate here but here goes.
> >
> > I believe everyone has been wanting to see his face. In order for his character to be finally revealed and be really authentic, the face reveal needs to happen sometime.
> >
> > Everyone wants to know the face that saved the galaxy twice already.
> >
> > I was actually happy for the ending of Halo 4 Legendary.
> >
> > I don’t really think seeing his face would ruin the mystic.
>
> It would, you’re mistaken.
>
> His face won’t be anything special, it’s been described to an extent in the book. I don’t want to see it and if I have to see it then that will be the last Halo game.
Basically this.
> It would, you’re mistaken.
>
> His face won’t be anything special, it’s been described to an extent in the book. I don’t want to see it and if I have to see it then that will be the last Halo game.
Wow. So you’re going to quit an entire franchise just because one characters face is revealed to the audience. Thats pretty sad…In fact thats beyond sad! I’m going to skip the melodrama and just say it; I absolutely agree with the OP. Chief’s face has to be shown at some point. At the very least, in the end.
As JSA343 said, Bungie’s ‘player connectivity’ concept, was a lazy method by Bungie to avoid characterising him, because its much easier to have a silent soldier with no personality whatsoever, who just simply follows orders, to get the job done.
There’s no way i’d accept chief’s story starting an ending with but a helmet on his face, and nothing more. He may as well truly have just been a cyborg, then. He started with a face, and should end with a face.
The best time to show his face would be if he was to die. But even if he doesn’t, i’m sure removing the helmet in the end would be a solid way of saying ‘the hero has served his purpose. The end’.
> > It would, you’re mistaken.
> >
> > His face won’t be anything special, it’s been described to an extent in the book. I don’t want to see it and if I have to see it then that will be the last Halo game.
>
> Wow. So you’re going to quit an entire franchise just because one characters face is revealed to the audience. Thats pretty sad…In fact thats beyond sad! I’m going to skip the melodrama and just say it; I absolutely agree with the OP. Chief’s face has to be shown at some point. At the very least, in the end.
>
> As JSA343 said, Bungie’s ‘player connectivity’ concept, was a lazy method by Bungie to avoid characterising him, because its much easier to have a silent soldier with no personality whatsoever, who just simply follows orders, to get the job done.
>
> There’s no way i’d accept chief’s story starting an ending with but a helmet on his face, and nothing more. He may as well truly have just been a cyborg, then. He started with a face, and should end with a face.
>
> The best time to show his face would be if he was to die. But even if he doesn’t, i’m sure removing the helmet in the end would be a solid way of saying ‘the hero has served his purpose. The end’.
No? I just think it’s stupid to do so before the end. Spartan-II’s especially are defined by their armor - people see them as heroic mythical figures. As the player you experience that, in reality the person inside has emotions and is a human…but humanity sees them as soldiers. The player here is seeing MC through the eyes of humanity, especially when you consider a large percentage of the player base hasn’t read into the Spartan-II program.
From a marketing perspective - who is he sold as? He is sold as the Master Chief, not John. He is sold as a super-soldier badass, not a kidnapped human weapon. I don’t disagree that he can remove it at the end - but only at the end. Removing the helmet and showing the face is incredibly symbolic, then the fight is truly over.
Do you see how your first paragraph makes little sense now? Even you admit that removing the helmet and showing the face is tantamount to the end of the game. You don’t do it half way through a series.
Though on his appearance I don’t know if he’d be bald? I don’t think the Spartan-II’s had a hair-loss side effect in their augments, or at least I can’t recall it being mentioned. Though I haven’t read the Halo books in a while…feel free to correct me with facts xD
> From a marketing perspective - who is he sold as? He is sold as the Master Chief, not John. He is sold as a super-soldier badass, not a kidnapped human weapon. I don’t disagree that he can remove it at the end - but only at the end. Removing the helmet and showing the face is incredibly symbolic, then the fight is truly over.
Or it could be indicative of the fact that under all of that heavy armour is just human flesh, therefore, he is not a machine, he is a human. The semi face reveal in Halo 4 served its purpose well. It showed the humanisation of the chief. Though i agree that, for the time being, they should not show anything else.
> Do you see how your first paragraph makes little sense now? <mark>Even you admit that removing the helmet and showing the face is tantamount to the end of the game.</mark> You don’t do it half way through a series.
Yes…That is exactly what i said. Your first comment was suggestive of the fact that if his face is shown at all, you will quit the series. Hence, my first reply. I don’t think i ever implied that his face should be shown near the middle. I said it should be shown right at there end, a way to go out with a bang, just when he is going to make his final move before the game/story ends.
> Though on his appearance I don’t know if he’d be bald? I don’t think the Spartan-II’s had a hair-loss side effect in their augments, or at least I can’t recall it being mentioned. Though I haven’t read the Halo books in a while…feel free to correct me with facts xD
Well in the Halo 4 Scanned trailer, they do show the chief with a bald head. Additionally, almost everyone recruited in the military gets their head shaved, don’t they? Such is the case with Fireteam Majestic as well. All of the male characters are bald, except for maybe Madsen, i think. I don’t know if it is explicitly stated that he is bald in the books though?
No, that would ruin part of the immersion for me. I really enjoy playing as a mystery character who can be anyone I want him to be.
> Yes…That is exactly what i said. Your first comment was suggestive of the fact that if his face is shown at all, you will quit the series. Hence, my first reply. I don’t think i ever implied that his face should be shown near the middle. I said it should be shown right at there end, a way to go out with a bang, just when he is going to make his final move before the game/story ends.
Ah, I see where you could have read that. My mistake, excuse the poor wording, I meant that it’d just be stupid to do it before the end of the game. As in an extremely poor choice from a literary perspective.
> Well in the Halo 4 Scanned trailer, they do show the chief with a bald head. Additionally, almost everyone recruited in the military gets their head shaved, don’t they? Such is the case with Fireteam Majestic as well. All of the male characters are bald, except for maybe Madsen, i think. I don’t know if it is explicitly stated that he is bald in the books though?
They do, but I would call that shaved rather than bald. I mean there’s nothing to say that his hair hasn’t grown a bit, but certainly throughout Halo’s 1-4 he’d be shaved for the most part. I think he is, but as I said shaved rather than bald - being bald is something which is uncontrollable and comes with age/illness etc. Shaving your head is a choice 
With that said I think that’s just semantics, the two are probably interchangeable.
The baldness of Chief comes from one of the books. Don’t quite remember which one exactly. Probably either Fall of Reach or First Strike.
Chief is being described as being really pale, which scared normal folks because Spartans spend so much time in their armor they turned unnaturally pale.
His face is described as riddled with scars. His is head is bald or shaven, but those really are details.
The fact still stands that Chief is not a pretty sight to be seen. He certainly doesn’t fit the Schwarzenegger or Statham type of ‘action hero look’, but more the Darth Vader look I described above.
I’d rather they didn’t show his face. Personally I like bungie’s master chief more than 343’s. I was playing halo 4 yesterday and it seemed as if master chief was trying to make up for 4 years of not speaking lol.
if they’re going to show his face at least do it at the end but I dont want it being forced. If they do it because they feel they have to it won’t have the same effect if they were to do it because it was the right time and way to do it.
> The baldness of Chief comes from one of the books. Don’t quite remember which one exactly. Probably either Fall of Reach or First Strike.
>
> Chief is being described as being really pale, which scared normal folks because Spartans spend so much time in their armor they turned unnaturally pale.
> His face is described as riddled with scars. His is head is bald or shaven, but those really are details.
>
> The fact still stands that Chief is not a pretty sight to be seen. He certainly doesn’t fit the Schwarzenegger or Statham type of ‘action hero look’, but more the Darth Vader look I described above.
“The Flood” described him too.
> I’d rather they didn’t show his face. Personally I like bungie’s master chief more than 343’s. I was playing halo 4 yesterday and it seemed as if master chief was trying to make up for 4 years of not speaking lol.
>
> if they’re going to show his face at least do it at the end but I dont want it being forced. If they do it because they feel they have to it won’t have the same effect if they were to do it because it was the right time and way to do it.
If you want to talk about different Chief’s the one from the books is the best imo, I don’t think there’s too much difference between MC in 4 and 1-3, aside from him having a better personality in 3/4. In 1/2 he mostly acts as the straight man for jokes and says “yes sir” soooo…
i’ve been a halo fan since day 1 in 2001 and i’ve grown up playing John. not once have i wondered what he looked like. if they did show his face, i think i would be done, i never ever want to see his face. i think 343 should not show his face because both the people who dont and the people who do want to see his face will remain happy.