Someone posted a topic about how many more Halo games Chief has left in’im, and got me thinking: what would a new Master Chief look like? If Chief were to die, or retire, what sort of qualities would we want in a new Master Chief? Obviously, the new guy (or gal, perhaps? Doubtful, but hey!) couldn’t be like Chief, because he’d inevitably just be a less good knockoff. (Whattup Locke: You’re too quiet, and the good things about your character are limited to teeny tiny moments throughout the campaign that ultimately don’t amount to anything. Who are you again?)
So would all these Halo games follow if we couldn’t have Chief? My guess is it’d be something like a fresh-faced Spartan IV recruit. Somebody with a lot of potential but who is clearly still just learning the ropes. Somebody, who over the course the of games, had the potential to go from newbie to rookie to badass squad leader or something, and then maybe on to become the UNSC’s/ONI’s go-to get-it-done (hit)man. I just feel like nobody’d ever be able to be as badass as Chief, and for that reason they’d really have to take a new angle on the whole “face-of-the-franchise” thing. Also, I’m not suggesting that this is going to happen soon or should be done–I’m just throwing out for-fun speculation.
What do you guys think?
Brohammer evolves into … Spartan Brohammer!
Realistically it’ll be another spartan 2 from red or blue team. Spartan 4s still have a negative connotation in people who didn’t like 4/5 and as such it’ll be a bad marketing move to replace chief with a spartan 4.
the rookie and noble 6 were perfectly fine to play as. think you can still have fun games without playing as chief
I think the new protagonist could be something similar to NOBLE six. Silent type, callsign as name, fully customizeable and so forth. That obviously encourages players to create their own image of the characters mentality during action.
Though maybe that could be something for more action based spin-off.
So possibly some new character (if there needs to be more personality in story related to character), Thorne could perhaps have been a candidate for being a protagonist in a game and the rest would have been decided after (as in whether to continue storyline from his perspective), but that plan was kind of blown with how spartan ops was handled so a new character could fair better.
And definitely not Locke, just no.
And whether it should be a silent type or more character with personality depends on what sort of story is wanted.
And I believe this is more of a general discussion type of topic rather than Infinite section topic.
Jerome seems to be the safest bet imo. He’s a fan favorite and well received in the lore community. He’s also been a main character of two games thus far, and while both of those games have had criticisms, I haven’t found anything to say that Jerome was among those criticisms.
Since he is already established, he wouldn’t be seen as a Chief knock off either, so that’s another plus for him. Not to mention, thanks to him being in cryo for over two decades, he’s young and can remain as the series front runner for many many more years.
I love Master Chief as a character, but I got a feeling that he was too tough, he never joked around, had no sense of humour, and didn’t really interact with any marines or ODST. If he were to die, I would want a slightly less experienced spartan with a better sense of humour
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> I love Master Chief as a character, but I got a feeling that he was too tough, he never joked around, had no sense of humour, and didn’t really interact with any marines or ODST. If he were to die, I would want a slightly less experienced spartan with a better sense of humour
Sounds like we have a Buck fan here.
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> > I love Master Chief as a character, but I got a feeling that he was too tough, he never joked around, had no sense of humour, and didn’t really interact with any marines or ODST. If he were to die, I would want a slightly less experienced spartan with a better sense of humour
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> Sounds like we have a Buck fan here.
Kinda, Buck was clumsy, He has a cocky personality, I just want a chief that can have a chuckle with some marines once in a while.
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> > > I love Master Chief as a character, but I got a feeling that he was too tough, he never joked around, had no sense of humour, and didn’t really interact with any marines or ODST. If he were to die, I would want a slightly less experienced spartan with a better sense of humour
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> > Sounds like we have a Buck fan here.
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> Kinda, Buck was clumsy, He has a cocky personality, I just want a chief that can have a chuckle with some marines once in a while.
C’mon everyone could use some more Nathan Fillion lol
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> > > > I love Master Chief as a character, but I got a feeling that he was too tough, he never joked around, had no sense of humour, and didn’t really interact with any marines or ODST. If he were to die, I would want a slightly less experienced spartan with a better sense of humour
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> > > Sounds like we have a Buck fan here.
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> > Kinda, Buck was clumsy, He has a cocky personality, I just want a chief that can have a chuckle with some marines once in a while.
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> C’mon everyone could use some more Nathan Fillion lol
Yea, he’s a pretty good voice actor
Doom Slayer can shoot himself through the BFG 10,000 and land on Mars, so I don’t think it’s too far fetched to think he can cross dimensions and land in the Halo universe 
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> So would all these Halo games follow if we couldn’t have Chief?
I feel like Chief is too iconic to get replaced by some new character. Sure he’s getting old within the storyline as more and more games come out, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he has to die and get replaced eventually. There can be other solutions, such as maybe the UNSC could discover some kind of Forerunner age-reversal technology (which is dumb, but still not as dumb as the whole “genesong” thing).
Besides, the other day I was reading flavor text on some of the weapons skins in Halo 5 and I noticed the Skulls and Roses assault rifle mentions that Spartans get anagathic medical treatments, so Chief could live to be 300 years old for all we know.
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> Also, I’m not suggesting that this is going to happen soon or should be done–I’m just throwing out for-fun speculation.
In that case, if they really had to replace Chief, I think it would be neat for them to do a Jango Fett/Boba Fett scenario where a clone of Chief grows up and uses the original Chief’s armor. That way, it would still essentially be Chief without actually being Chief.
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> Doom Slayer can shoot himself through the BFG 10,000 and land on Mars, so I don’t think it’s too far fetched to think he can cross dimensions and land in the Halo universe
ok, if we’re gonna go there, I’d actually like to see Wario drive his motorcycle into the Halo universe and become the new face of the franchise. I’m not even kidding
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> > Doom Slayer can shoot himself through the BFG 10,000 and land on Mars, so I don’t think it’s too far fetched to think he can cross dimensions and land in the Halo universe
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> ok, if we’re gonna go there, I’d actually like to see Wario drive his motorcycle into the Halo universe and become the new face of the franchise. I’m not even kidding
You know what, I’d be okay with that. But, would the franchise still be called Halo because an upside down “H” is still an “H,” or would it be called “Walo”?
A new Halo protagonist would either have to be a clean slate of armor to fill (Noble-6, the rookie,) or a character who’s very well written, fleshed out, and compelling. And If they go for the latter, they’ll have to go all in. They made a half-baked attempt with Locke, and we saw how that panned out.
So assuming we want a character, not an avatar, we have to ask; what kind of traits and conflicts would be fitting for a Spartan? Why did they join the spartan program, or even the military, for that matter? Was it voluntary, or were they conscripted in some way? How do they feel about being a solider? Where do they stand with their peers? Are they respected, or overlooked? What do they want to accomplish, besides just fulfilling their duties to the UNSC?
On top of these basic things, they’d need something to make them believable and relatable. They’d need flaws and traits that would win over the audience and make them cheer for our hero (or heroine.) A pretty good example of this is actually the Arbiter. His is a story of falling from grace, redeeming himself, denial, and then leading his entire race toward defiance and breaking from the Covenant all in a single game. He had stubborn pride and refused to believe the Covenant was wrong even after they branded him as a heretic, and even betrayed him, leaving him for dead. He was such a fantastic character, which is why he was so memorable and continues to be a fan favorite.
So if a new protagonist arrives on the scene, and 343 doesn’t want to have an “avatar” protagonist like Noble-6, then this would be the way to approach it.