But Jerome is part of the iconography. He has had a better rap than pretty much any Spartan other than John and blue team.
I agree. They need to pull Jerome into his own FPS game. Whether or not it’s a DLC. He just needs more spotlight IMO
to be honest this type of mindset is why we keep getting more Chief stories. Bungie made Halo 2 and people complained about the Arbiter, then he was made less of a character in Halo 3.
in retrospect, a bad choice.
Halo 4 happened and people complained about Chief’s story. [and it was either cold feet or office politics or whatever, but assuming trailers were correct 343 wanted to continue what they did in Halo 4’s story.] Halo 5 pulled back on that, and even made Spartan OPs more useless by replacing one of the character’s on Osiris team with Buck and immediately closing that narrative thread. in a cutscene.
and now, what is the thing people liked about Halo 4…the Chief and Cortana emotional story.
so yet again, in retrospect, a bad idea.
and now many fans just want Chief side-grade.
how do you think that’d hold up?
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TLOU2 
(20 cartridges)
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Do a separate game. I’m tired of franchises just replacing staple characters. Especially for a “oh we want something new” then have characters actually MEET UP and interact. Implement them the way Arbiter was If the story calls for it.
You say Chief gets butchered…but Jerome is just like him and you want him…to replace John…clasp hands together No. And if you want chief to die? Then the franchise has to end RIGHT then and there. Lord knows what hollow character that reflects today’s social climate awaits us at that point. Spartan 4s feel like generic soldiers who don’t even feel interesting and feel as if they come from COD.
While I agree with most of your general sentiment, if a franchise runs long enough chronologically then eventually non-immortal characters either get too old to be active and/or die. I love Chief, but he is not immortal (though cryosleep and his Spartan augmentations keep him kicking longer than most). He is also a single viewpoint/entity in a relatively large lore, albeit an important character for sure.
I think there’s definitely room for additional games with other protagonists. Of course, they have to be fairly well written while respecting previous characters that came before. But changing who the story follows isn’t always just “replacing staple characters.”
I think a lot of the Wario games are actually unironically fun lol.
But while I overall agree with your sentiment about main characters, I feel like additional side stories from other characters perspectives wouldn’t be unwelcome. I love Halo 3:ODST taking a break from Spartans and while I don’t fully like with Reach did with the lore, I again liked seeing a different aside from God Emperor Chief soloing whatever threat was present.
Of course I don’t want Chief fully replaced as the overarching protagonist, I would love to see some side stories and mini-campaigns that flesh out other people.
It would have been a good idea like I think halofollower or hiddenxperan said to leave MC in cyro sleep. Then they can do other stories, and if they need MC in a game just take him out of cyro should have just left him on the other half of Foward onto Dawn. So, then they can have Jerome as the main character and Blue Team while keeping Chief away with a lore explanation like Boba in the book of boba also this is a minor spoiler so don’t click this like when boba has his flashback in the bacta tank, like a bantha, and that healed him so do the same thing with MC. Also, any member of blue team should take MC place also arbiter would be the one they pick because he did in halo 2 take Chiefs place a bit.
+1 on this post needing paragraphs…
but yes! Holy crap this describes exactly my feelings.
Bungie knew at the end of 3 that Chief needed to be set aside for a while. 343’s obsession with him as the heart of Halo has just been downright unhealthy. The opportunity was really a decade ago, when Halo 4 should have been about an interesting cool new character, eventually finding Chief and bringing him in as a badass NPC, the new Johnson. After all this time, I think he should be injured to the point where they aren’t sending him to active service, then he can dive in and get his hands dirty in some kick -Yoink!- cutscene.
The plan (likely now failed) to make Halo Infinite a 10 year game just takes a dump all over my interest in the plot. There is no danger, everyone important has plot armor, because they will just drag things out and minor, Spartan Ops style stories, until they stop making money.
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He’s not immortal? THATS FINE. When have we ever mained a character until their time was up and they were old and past their prime? Could certainly add interesting gameplay mechanics, seeing a realistic growth and end rather then just disappearing or aging off screen. What would be special about the next character? Cause they certainly didn’t have the reputation Chief had, nor the key roles he had. Anything this new character would see, you could easily do with Chief and nothing would be different except age and how much more difficult it could potentially be. The ONLY way I could see something different happening is if you’re an ODST or the Arbiter
Master Chief should never be replaced. Any future Halo games without him should be after a time skip and separate from his story or prequel stories like Reach.
Don’t raise your voice at me. I feel like you missed that I largely agree that the Chief is VERY important to Halo and that I also don’t want characters replaced just for the sake of replacement.
But you act as though Halo simply cannot exist at all without Chief. Yes he shouldn’t just be replaced in the main story, but there are plenty of side stories and characters that are either already interesting or could be made interesting. I think its a dangerous route of thought to say “Well, if a character in the future isn’t special like the Chief then the story just shouldn’t exist.”
I do not want Chief to go, but I also reckon that he can’t live forever. So I guess he has to go, somewhere down the line. Also, I wish they’d make Halo Wars 3.
Locke could. But he’s not who I’m talking about.
I do not meant anyone we know currently. I am not that kind of fan or writer.
Besides. Locke is a fine character. It would be pretty cool if he got another chance. I for one remember when The Arbiter, was so reviled for daring to take the stage away from Chief.
Now The Arbiter is a beloved character, who we basically all want to return.
Well then maybe Harry Potter would have a chance at actually being good.
It wasn’t that bad. It was better than 4.
lol, you’re definitely not a writer. You can continue a series past its main character. Last I checked, Halo was called Halo, not, “Master Chief”. It can be about someone else.
There have been occasional talks about it starring someone else. Someday we’ll see a Legend of Zelda game where Link is not the protagonist, and it will be wildly successful.
Another reasonable suggestion.
Characters don’t need to die for their stories to rest. The mindset that they do, is an illness in modern writing that must be purged.
Thank you for saying this.
(It’ll be fine) Honestly I don’t see John’s story lasting another ten years. Steve Downes is old now. He’s 71. I don’t doubt they could find a successor but I mean… We really need to think about the health of the actors.
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That’s fair. I think he should finally be put to rest, but damn I still love the idea of him as an NPC, showing up in a Pelican to pick you up and at some point maybe sacrifcing himself to save our new custom Spartan?
In the same way that Noble Six’ sacrifice was made significant by passing the torch to Chief, I think Chief should pass the torch to us. Having at least one campaign with the new Spartan and Chief as our NPC buddy would be a good way to smooth that transition for me.
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Wouldn’t be so bad.
But I certainly don’t need to see Chief die. Not unless it makes sense for him to do so narratively.
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But I did in my post and everyone else here did same with me and not being mean, but we do forget Chief is the poster boi of Microsoft so then I guess that guy from Gears Of War will be also Chief toys like McFarlane or whoever make those Black series toys and most importantly Mega Constructs or Mega Blocks Halo sets they make Microsoft money with Master Chief figures or Master Chief with other figures.
So, if they change master chief to Jerome or blue team members it would take money away from Microsoft and those companies. Arbiter might be a better pic but still he isn’t as well-known too normal people who just buy stuff. And how would they make an arbiter costume to sell to kids. So, making someone else take Master Chiefs place would cause bigger trouble than just the halo games. So, Microsoft will just milk Master Chief reach did work but that was just a standalone game making someone else take the light for more than a couple of years or games would make Microsoft just sell Halo to someone else.
He may have better rep, but he isn’t exactly the star character of Halo Wars. Halo Wars 2 gave him more prominence by actually saying his name instead of having players sift through information in HW1 to find out the names of the Spartans we can deploy.
HERESY!
Halo 4 was all about the fact that John was losing Cortana again and this time, there was nothing he could do about it, though he sure struggled to find a solution only for the inevitable to happen.
Then Halo 5 came around, spat in the face of Halo 4’s narrative points, and is completely made up of Fanfiction tropes.
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Character who died in a somber fashion is now back again… as a villain !?
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Main character is sidelined by the presence of new OCs that are supposed to look cool and awesome and save the Main Character to show how awesome and cool they are (most fan-fictions tend to be power-fantasies in which the OCs do more “cool and amazing” stunts than the Main Characters. Also Blue-Team was playable for only 3 out of 15 chapters. Abhorrent.)
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The characters make illogical choices left-and-right, making choices that the character builds are not supposed to make in the first place. (Master Chief bonked his head, had a vision, and said “Cortana” is on Meridian. Blue Team’s response SHOULD be “Chief, you bonked your head and we have been running non-stop missions… you probably have a concussion.” Their response shouldn’t be “Okay, we believe you. Lets go AWOL and not be actual characters.”)
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Fan-Favorite side characters are part of the team for no real reason cited other than the writer wanting to have the story jam their character in the narrative. (Edward Buck is a great character played by Nathan Fillion… and serves little-to-no purpose in Fireteam Osiris. Locke is he leader, Vale is the Sangheili specialist, Tanaka is the tech-expert, and Buck… is just Nathan Fillion)
For Halo 5 to be considered a “good story” it would have to use the original script the game had before Brian Reed rewrote it a year before release, so all the marketing materials were wrong and we wasted three hours listening to Hunt The Truth.
Actually I am a writer.
Yes you can continue a series past the main character. But is the successor series as popular as the main series that came from it. Does it stand up to the test of time? Not really, unless the original writer had planned for it. For example - The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Two separate stories, each supporting on one another to convey their messages.
A lot of other franchises screw this up. Partially because they forgot the magic that made the original work so memorable and likeable.
- Avatar followed by Korra, which was also essentially fan-fiction made canon as it broke most of the established themes of the series. It replaced the four-nations iconography we saw in each episode with 1920s Americana and contradicted a lot of established lore in the series.
- Harry Potter followed by Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them. Last I checked, those movies don’t really have that big of a following outside of the REALLY dedicated fans of the Harry Potter series. People got magic and wands, but the story had loose ties to the original as it is a prequel that wasn’t planned in the original narrative but was constructed anyway.
I’m literally a heathen, heresy means nothing to me.
Yes, this was weird and bad. I wonder why it happened? Oh right, fans complaining that Cortana died.
Who cares? Osiris were properly developed as characters.
You say it like you don’t like Buck. Anyway I’ll agree there only because I’d have liked to - in retrospect, see Thorne there instead, since I think he deserved that elevation.
Not a problem for someone like me, who never has listened to a podcast outside of the game. It’s almost like you shouldn’t rely on external material to tell your core story. Something 343i FINALLY learned with infinite.
Had Akira Toriyama had any -Yoink!-, Gohan would have been a proper and frankly far superior-as-a-character successor to Goku. But eh. You a fan of JoJo? Pretty much never follows the same characters in different parts, even if they end up supporting roles in sequel parts. Stories should be allowed to evolve.
It’s almost like things change.
Harry Potter isn’t good period. It has nothing to say as a story anyway.