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> I think the 4’s are portrayed as being cocky partly just because of the way they are initially presented… by Halo 4 they’ve already been around for years, and they were presented as though they were already a proven part of the lore. In Spartan Ops, I felt like your fire team acting cocky was a key and repeating theme, I don’t really have the time or interest to go back and find specific examples.
You are thinking of Fireteam Majestic, the team we play in Spartan Ops is Crimson. Crimson doesn’t have any dialogue or personalities because they are supposed to be the player’s canon spartan-IV. Their actions on Requiem show that they are among the most professional spartans in the franchise. As for Majestic, only two spartans, Demarco and Madsen, fit the “fratboy” trope that many fans mistakenly associate with all the IVs (I will say, they redeemed Demarco in the comics, there he is a much better character and has a truly heroic death). The rest of Majestic are fine, especially Grant and Thorne. Spartan Grant is a perfect bridge between the spartan and human aspects of the S-IV program and Spartan Thorne of Majestic demonstrates a very level headed personality that would be expected from a II. As for the IVs as a whole, there’s only been about 4 that are considered “fratboyish”, this is only 4 out of more than 500 S-IVs.
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> In the campaign though, I felt that bits like this: “We come a long way together. A long way yet to go. Let’s make a good jump, like we mean to and handle fools like we need to. And may Buck buy the first round when we get back” weren’t something I would expect SPARTAN-IIs to ever say and seemed pretty cocky and unprofessional.
is that line bad writing? yes. And its not something that would be normally said by a II. But it is not all unprofessional or cocky. Unprofessional and cocky would be Palmer saying talking down to a marine and saying “I know your not a spartan, spartans don’t miss” or Emile taunting a member of his own team and being outright hostile towards that team member for trying to comfort a civilian. Tanaka’s dialogue is simply just someone trying to give a pep talk to to people that they know (albeit, coming off a bit awkward and cringeworthy. again, bad writing). Interestingly, characters like Emile ( a S-III) and the members Grey Team (a team of S-IIs) have quite a bit of cocky and unprofessional dialogue and behavior, but this hasn’t stopped them from being loved by fans.
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> As for your last point, the idea that 343 has established lore claiming a SPARTAN-IV could match a SPARTAN-II if they’re both wearing armor doesn’t really make sense. They were trained longer and had more drastic enhancements, its only logical to think that armor would give them all a similar boost, and the SPARTAN-IIs would still have a clear advantage.
Yes, a IV should not be able to out match a II. however, this does not mean the IVs are push overs. Before they became spartans, the IVs were from all branches of the UNSC’s armed forces, where they were trained to fight and become warriors. Then they had to fight against the covenant for the fate of humanity (all with out power armor and advanced augmentations). following the war, they continued to fight against covenant remnants, insurrectionists, forerunners and whatever happens to threaten humanity. after being hand picked for their actions enter the spartan program, they undergo training again by spartan IIs and IIIs. by the time a new spartan-IV enters active duty, they already have decades of training and combat experience. While they may be lacking in raw strength due to augmentation differences, they make up for it in outstanding creativity and resourcefulness, traits that the Master Chief himself is stated as finding admirable in the IVs. But the raw strength and speed of a II would make it a close, but ultimately futile fight.
as for the training that each generation received:
The IIs were trained to fight humans
The IIIs were trained to fight humans and covenant
The IVs were trained to fight humans, covenant, forerunner enemies, and the flood
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> When Bungie introduced the idea of SPARTAN-IIIs in Ghosts of Onyx, I found the dynamic between them and the original Spartans very interesting. When 343 took over they clearly wanted their own group of Spartans so they came up with the IV’s, and as much as I want to like them, I don’t think they’ve made them compelling or interesting… in the writing I see 343 trying to assert their new characters as “challengers” to the originals (i.e. Hunt the Truth.)That’s just my opinion. Clearly popular opinion was against them, so in Infinite we’re playing as an S2.
the main problem with the main/named IVs is that they suffer from poor writing. in the books and comics and the mobile games, the IVs are great, almost being on par with the writing of the IIs and IIIs. But not everyone reads the books and comics, and a large majority only know the IVs from the games, and of the ones from the games fans only focus on the IVs that aren’t good, namely Palmer and Locke, leading to the inaccurate mindset of S-IVs being either unprofessional or boring.
343 didn’t actually create the IVs to replace or challenge the older generations of spartans. while in lore, yes, they do sort of replace the older generations, but that is because the UNSC is still in need of super soldiers, especially since most of the IIs and IIIs are dead. 343’s purpose for the IVs is to be the players’ spartans for a canon multiplayer, and it helps to give a reason for there now being so many spartans in the canon multiplayer when so many spartans are KIA.
as for Infinite, its not likely the the multiplayer spartans are going to be IIs (again, most are dead) due to multiplayer being canon. And considering that there are still going to be IVs in Infinite (Spartans Griffin and Stone) it would make sense for IVs to still be in the multiplayer. However, this does not mean that players can only play as IVs in the multiplayer, you may also be a III (this is more of an up to interpretation thing, as in 343 isn’t explicitly stating the the infinite multiplayer spartans are only IVs, and there are certainly quite a few surviving IIIs. so you could claim that your spartan is a III without any issue). Both IIIs and IVs are now now using the new Gen-3 armor platform, and spartans of both generations are generally the same hight and build so it would still fit well within canon
