What are your possible theories for finishing off the Chief’s story arc? He can’t continue fighting forever, (not saying he’ll end up in some old folk’s home on Arcadia but…) what’s the best way to finish his story?
Fulfilling the overall moral of the entire franchise, and his core belief set by Mendez after augmentation. To spend his life accordingly at the time of death and not in vain for the protection of mankind and to those close to him, rather than waste it. He almost fulfilled this at the end of Halo 4, but Cortana saw the chance to save him and not have his life wasted away when there was the smallest yet possible chance of rescue. So, in all essence, a self sacrifice of the utmost significance. This is at least what I personally would like to see, but however his fate occurs, I’ll accept it. But his luck has got to run out eventually…
Sincerely,
p1ay4OURFUN
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> Fulfilling the overall moral of the entire franchise, and his core belief set by Mendez after augmentation. To spend his life accordingly at the time of death and not in vain for the protection of mankind and to those close to him, rather than waste it. He almost fulfilled this at the end of Halo 4, but Cortana saw the chance to save him and not have his life wasted away when there was the smallest yet possible chance of rescue. So, in all essence, a self sacrifice of the utmost significance. This is at least what I personally would like to see, but however his fate occurs, I’ll accept it. But his luck has got to run out eventually…
>
> Sincerely,
> p1ay4OURFUN
Well said.
To me, because of the status of Master Chief, as a massive gaming icon, to many a childhood hero, and one of the greatest video game characters ever created, 343 must give him a proper send off. Whatever it may be, it needs to be impactful, necessary, emotional, and worthy. Its like the ending of a film series, like Vader dying in Luke’s arms, Frodo and Sam finally destroying the One Ring and Aragorn battling at the Black Gates, Katniss and Peta living in Panem in peace, and Harry, Ron and Hermione seeing their children go off to Hogwarts for the first time. Its such a big deal to Halo fans that if 343 messes up, they will do a huge disservice to us. But I am confident they can do it when the time is right. The ending of a series is just as important, if not more important, to starting it.
Man that’s going to be sad.
If 343 kill him they will get a lot of hate
Well in-universe.
Currently by October 27 2558. John is considered dead to the public. Cause ONI decided it. Despite him still being alive.(Hunt the Truth Season 2)
And by at least 2590. John has a symbolic burial near the battle site of the Battle of New Mombasa.(Halo 3: Believe Burial Site)
That is like our only hints at Johns overall fate. Granted he might not be really dead. But still.
I think he’ll probably die trying to wipe out the Flood.
He’ll never die
I was thinking recently about the old advert for Halo 3 with the huge model depicting the battlefield with the Chief surrounded and outnumbered. What if this ends up being the final part of Halo 6 with the brute being Atriox and the Chief sacrificing himself with the plasma grenade to take him out.
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> I was thinking recently about the old advert for Halo 3 with the huge model depicting the battlefield with the Chief surrounded and outnumbered. What if this ends up being the final part of Halo 6 with the brute being Atriox and the Chief sacrificing himself with the plasma grenade to take him out.
Nope. That Diorama is depicting a scene we dont play during Halo 3. 
but it still happens.
John doesnt die during that battle at all. He simply goes missing. Which is actually what happens at the end of the War in 2552. To only appear again in 2557. Then be called “dead” on October 27 2558 by ONI to stop the public going crazy over him going AWOL.
He then has a Symbolic burial in around 2590 without a body.
In the fiction, the diarama was created in 2610 and placed in the Museum of Humanity to commemorate the Chiefs selfless dedication to Humanity. The scene it depicts is not dated and could have happened anywhere in the timeline. Just because the trailer was released at the same time as Halo 3 does not necessarily mean that it is from Halo 3. True that the symbolic burial was without a body but if your holding a plasma grenade then there’s probably not going to be much left anyway. Its not like they haven’t gone back and retconned anything before though is it, and we all know Spartans never die 
Given what has been said here, maybe MC will be turned into Forerunner ones and zeroes?
It would be interesting thought if MC became an AI and you fight Cortana in the galaxy’s most epic hacker war.
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> Fulfilling the overall moral of the entire franchise, and his core belief set by Mendez after augmentation. To spend his life accordingly at the time of death and not in vain for the protection of mankind and to those close to him, rather than waste it. He almost fulfilled this at the end of Halo 4, but Cortana saw the chance to save him and not have his life wasted away when there was the smallest yet possible chance of rescue. So, in all essence, a self sacrifice of the utmost significance. This is at least what I personally would like to see, but however his fate occurs, I’ll accept it. But his luck has got to run out eventually…
>
> Sincerely,
> p1ay4OURFUN
I would actually like Chief to maybe change his view on death. Mendez has instilled him to make use of his death, and John always follows this advice. Every suicide mission he goes on he goes because his life would be sacrificed for the greater good. He will be able to make the same sacrifice so many people made in the war, including his friends. He always accepts this, and he views it as something that will happen eventually.
But I want John to change. Before Halo 4, he was always what Humanity needed him to be. A soldier, a killer, a hero, a symbol. He just does his job of protecting people. But in Halo 4, he is not in the Great War anymore. Humanity is now able to live without worrying about going extinct. Chief is not in a war. His friend and closest ally(even more than Kelly, I believe) is dying. He goes into protector mode, and his top priority becomes to get her home. Then Didact is awoken, and his job gets another goal: Stop the Didact. Cortana only worsens, and on Infinity he is judged as inferior and outdated by the captain of the ship. Del Rio is ready to “retire” Cortana due to her increasingly volatile nature. Chief then disobeys direct orders and verbally yoink-slaps Del Rio, stating that he and Cortana will stop Didact if Infinity wont.
This is important. John has always been the soldier that does the right thing. He is not mindless, but he isn’t really that questioning either. A.I.s gone rampant are extremely dangerous, and Chief would probably not hesitate to terminate one if it meant protecting Humanity.
But he doesn’t even hesitate to keep her away from Del Rio. He will not let Cortana be killed, especially if there is a chance to save her(a miniscule chance, though). His whole career as a soldier is put on the line to help an A.I. However, he does not see Cortana as an A.I. She is as alive as anything else in his eyes. She is also so different from anything that he has seen. A machine that wants to be human.
Cortana questions Chief after he saves her, asking which one of them is really the machine.
John is shaken by this. Throughout the game Cortana gets more and more scattered and begins to stop functioning right. Chief is not able to rely on her as much, and things get worse and worse to the point where he and Cortana board the Didact’s ship in order to save Earth from being composed. They both know that it is likely a one way trip. They are too late and Didact begins to compose New Phoenix. Chief and Cortana are ready to try and take out the Didact when Cortana is destroyed. Chief, who is usually very reserved, shouts in anguish. He tears through the Prometheans and readies the nuke, now that Cortana is gone.
He is unable to beat the Didact and is about to be killed when Cortana reappears and distracts Didact, allowing Chief to knock him off the bridge. He takes one last look at Earth, hesitating for a second before finally hitting the nuke.
He is saved by Cortana, and is caught off guard by the fact that she is normal sized now. She looks almost human. He asks her how they are going to get out of there, and then she tells him that she isn’t coming with him this time. He is at first unable to register her, but after she tells him that she only left enough of herself to get him off the ship he begins to see that she is right. He says it was his job to protect her(he always has been the protector) but she asserts that they were supposed to take care of each other, and they did. She touches him for the first time and in that moment she is what she always wanted to be: Human. John is frantically trying to think of a way to save her, not wanting to believe that she is already done, but Cortana cannot be saved , and all he can say is “Please”. She starts to go away and John pleads with her to “Wait” but she simply says" welcome Home John" and fades away. Chief is left standing frozen, still processing everything.
Cortana went out on her own terms, but instead of sacrificing herself for Humanity like Chief has always envisioned for himself, she does it for just one person.
That person is him.
John is later contemplating everything by himself on the deck of Infinity, probably trying to make sense of it all. Lasky joins him, and Chief goes back into military mode, stating “Our duty as soldiers is to protect Humanity. Whatever the cost.” He says this hollowly, not really believing his own words. Then Laskey says it. “Soldiers aren’t machines. They’re just people.” John is affected deeply by this, and Lasky leaves him to think. Upon hearing those words, John is able to figure something out. Cortana died for him because she saw him as a person more than he did, and because he saw her as a person more than anyone else did.
After Halo 4 the Master Chief was started on a journey. He would begin to question himself and start to become his own person again instead of military hardware. Halo 5 happened, Halo 4 was forgotten, but now we can start to get back to where H4 left off.
…also sorry for the novel I just wrote here, but I get inspired on this stuff.
TDLR: Chief needs to become his own person before he dies, or maybe be able to live a life away from the war and the UNSC and live as just John.
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> If 343 kill him they will get a lot of hate
I don’t think so. If they kill him the wrong way, they will receive much backlash.