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the whole reason why Chief works as a character, even at the very outset with CE, is his dynamic with Cortana. Chief is a being of pure action - give him a goal, give him a weapon, and point him in the right direction. That's what he does, and who he is - that's all we need to know as a player. Cortana is clearly what Chief isn't - she's curious about the world they're exploring, she's outspoken and creative. This dynamic is reinforced later through backstory - Chief's a child solider, who never had a life, Cortana was literally born to help him achieve more. he's a body without a soul, she's a soul without a body. On their own, they are incomplete, and together they make one whole person. it's dead simple, but it's true to who they are and so it works narratively. that's why past Halo 2, every single Chief story is about Cortana - the plot may be about the aliens and doomsday weapons, but his motivation is always firstly to protect her, because she is his soul.

"He's a man of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will" I think this line perfectly sums up his character

He has never been an empty vessel to me, he is his own character even in CE

His more lax and conversational personalization in CE was one of the larger reasons why I loved it so much, he felt like he was a bit more human, a bit more loveable on that aspect.

Dunno how he is an empty vessel when he's voiced, has his own backstory and experiences. He doesn't react like how I personally would. He's John-117 and that's okay.

I think after CE and before Halo 4 he was just a stoic badass (for the most part) but afterwards he is a tragic figure. Infinite manages to combine these two characterizations by showing chief as closed off and stoic at the beginning of the story but by the end he learns to overcome the guilt he feels over Cortana and becomes more open to others.

Chief has always felt like a character to me. That's why I loved how Halo Infinite portrayed him, Halo CE, 2 and 4 are my favorite Halo campaigns and I love the books, so Infinite really felt like the perfect mix of all those, giving him that fun sense of humor, with a compassionate, human side while also being awesome and feared by the Banished, I really hope they keep writing him like this going forward. Now, can we just get Blue Team back in the games please?

I’d like to add something: I think people called him a silent protagonist or an empty vessel because he didn’t talk during gameplay until Halo 4. I think that is one of the big reasons people say his personality was different in Halo 4 because like you said, he has showed emotion in almost every single halo game but he only ever expressed it through cutscenes, never the gameplay

I think people let the infinite multiplayer cloud their judgement when it came to the campaign, the campaign was amazing, it was the first piece of halo content that actually made me feel the impacts of the banished human war (emotionally) they really sold me on this game's story being a dire time for humanity, and that they're in their darkest hours.

I appreciate that you kept this all connected to the more widely acknowledged Halo media (the games and the paramount TV show) But I think the books, primarily The Fall of Reach, The Flood, and First Strike, all really cement the idea of Who not only The Chief is, but all the major players in the Human/Covenant War and beyond. But staying focused on The Chief for a moment, I don't think he was ever an empty vessel. In fact, I quite like how he and Cortana were written in Halo 4, aside from maybe the "chief needs to be more human" assertion from the supporting cast. But that can be chalked up to how the UNSC treated him after he was found and later his detachment once he realized what was happening to Cortana. but I digress. I agree that there seems to be a general and unfortunate misinterpretation of his character from the people writing him. And this misunderstanding is only further serving to split the community and cause the advent of toxicity between multiple types of Halo fans. Most debates devolving into people yelling at one another about what makes a "Real Halo Fan" which of course causes would-be fans to scoff at the community or worse never even give Halo a chance to impress them, thus resulting in this idea that Halo Fans are toxic gatekeepers who are unappreciative of new Halo media, or that there is this mystical split between 343 and bungie supporters, which while i am sure many people have their preference as far as the games go, i dont think any given fan wants to see Halo fail or be closed off to a wider community. In all, i feel that HaloTV served to genuinely damage not only the franchise, but the community as well. As it not only was a complete turnoff to a large portion of the Halo community, but any "new fans" are now being fed incomplete or false knowledge of the characters that the show is writing about, which will ultimately leave them irritated and confused when people who have been fans of halo since before the show tell them that everything they just learned about halo, was completely wrong, but more than that, there are now several interpretations of the chief as a character, and none of them overlap with one another in a way to make him a consistent character in the franchise.

Anytime people called Chief an "empty vessel" or a "shell for the player" I ask if they played the same games. He talks, he has a dry humorous side, a backstory, and motivation. How is that an empty vessel?

I've always thought chief was a strong silent type that let his actions do most the talking. And that was his character. It's like he doesn't say something unless he needs too.

Samus is s great example of this. She's virtually silent but her actions especially in the prime series show she's a person with thoughts and feelings she's not just an avatar

Great video - as someone who is more of the opinion of there being a difference between Bungie and 343s Chief (though I'm not someone who thinks he was an empty shell), it made me consider things I hadn't before, like the CE/H4 comparisons. That said, I think a big thing that makes a very stark difference is how much Chief talks in-game in 343s games, while in Bungie's games, all of his talking is done in cutscenes. Yes, in CE Chief does talk quite a bit, but it's all contained in the cutscenes, and Chief's constant voicelines with Cortana in H4 makes him come off as overly chatty and very different.

This always bothered me. Most people I've talked to about Halo's campaign adamantly believe that the chief is just an empty vessel, which I couldn't disagree more. I brought up similar points to them and they didn't believe me, stating he had never been portrayed as such and it's not that deep, bro. Sure, he isn't the most complex character, but he isn't shallow either. I think these misconceptions about the Chief led to the creation of the totally not badass master cheeks. Since the writers thought he was a non-character to insert the player in, they replaced him with a completely different character. It's sad because Chief is one of my favorite characters, and I feel most people are missing the point of the master chief.

This is a position I've been altering in my head, from one side (vessel) to the other (character) as I work on my own writing, one such character being very Chief-like in many ways, and recognizing that my previous view of it had been flawed. I'm pretty sure there's a recording SOMEWHERE out there of me talking down the Chief's character, probably on one of my friend's stream vods or a video or something... But as of more recently, before this video even, I've found myself very much on the side of the fence that Chief is not an empty vessel. Live. Learn. Adapt. Evolve. In all things, even something as minor as how I feel about a video game character.

Actions speak louder than words.

The reason he doesn't blame anyone and see things the way he does is because of how he was raised. He is a battle hardy machine. Of course not a literal machine but his mind has been trained to be all about the mission and doing whatever it takes to get the job done (sacrifices). Halo 4 tells this story perfectly. He's broken, a broken human that is. Broken from fear, emotions but at the same time a warrior because of his intense training since a child and having to compete as well through those grueling training exercises he has a warrior mentality as well along his natural talent of wits, now pair that with a broken AI meaning that this AI isn't just any artificial intelligence but a brain scan of a human brain so it mimics a human in every way by having emotions while still being perfect in what an AI suppose to do then go and package that to an attractive body. Even from the first Halo game it felt like the Master Chief and Cortana has more than a friendly relationship. The TV show messed all that up.

Interesting that some people feel Chief got more emotional in 4, which is also when 343 insisted on having Steve and Jen record their lines together, which gave Chief and Cortana more responsiveness.

never thought about the similarities to halo CE chief and halo 4 chief, I always liked halo 4 because chief felt right in a lot of ways to me. Love the video man!

This is a really good and detailed video on the Master Chief. All the data used is actually from the games that have been available and what basically was covered, started with Bungie, and I think was a bad thing that they ended up reducing as it felt more engaging to me since it wouldn't be Cortana just talking to herself. There was a meaningful conversation between the Chief and Cortana which made the game feel more fleshed out and interesting especially the way they spoke back to each other based on the situation and the events that take place as you play through the campaign.

I nnnnnnnnever thought the Chief was an empty suit for me to put myself into. He started off as a bit of a barebones character, but he was never flat or non-communicative in CE. Then I read Eric Nylund's Fall of Reach very soon after the game came out, so 20 years ago I was already immersed in a world where the Chief was very much his own person, more than a blank slate. He was a human, a person who made mistakes, a leader who learned to wait for his team before he rang that bell and claimed victory, who knew the strengths and weaknesses of his team, who knew loss... ...who learned the hard way the difference between a life wasted and a life spent. Chief has always been a well-fleshed out, deep and complex character to me.

I don't think he was ever an empty vessel. In CE he was kind of a joker but I feel like it was his lack of any emotion in many situations was just due to him hiding how he feels. He was literally conditioned to not feel emotions so he could better fight in combat. But with each friend he loses he seems to become more human. When he lost Sam he became very silent almost like he didn't want to be reminded of his friend being lost and didn't want anything to make him remember losing him. Not so much with Keyes likely because he knew he was too late to save him but you could tell something in him hurt when he saw Johnson die he feels like he failed Johnson even though he was powerless to help and then he loses Cortana again feeling like he could have saved her like he failed everyone he cared about. Losing Cortana just began his fast spiral downward and his only way to cope was to work harder in hopes of keeping her out of his mind. In Infinite we see him finally coming to terms with the people he has lost he begins to realize that failing is just something we have to experience because there will be times when we can't stop bad things from happening the best we can do is get back up and keep trying. He slowly developed into a very good character possibly the best character to ever come to gaming. We see his journey, his experiences, the lessons he learns, we see him develop.

In shadows of reach he actaully gets angry when he sees what has happened to reach and thinks what he would do to the ones responsible

Every time people say Chief is an empty vessel I firmly believe they are mistaking Noble 6 for Master Chief.

To be honest I think the silent type is obviously the Rookie from ODST, I mean its basically like we're the Rookie just wandering in a lonely city with only enemies around us, and we as the character are trying to figure out what happened to our squad. Through all that the Rookie didn't speak once, he grunts in pain but he never speaks a word even when he met Dare and Buck

I think the empty vessel thing is just a misunderstanding that spiraled. In a CE behind the scenes thing someone from Bungie said, the helmet stays on so the players can project themselves into the Chief. Then the community latched onto this and passed it around as a fun fact until it became the empty vessel idea, probably eventually some of the developers echoed this as well. But that isn't what was meant, they were just trying to say that Chiefs underlying identity was a bit obscured and ambiguous in places. We're left to fill in the gaps a bit, not project a whole character

I feel like the guardian is more of a vessel than chief was in the bungie era

I started reading the book after h2 that really got me invented in the master chief an a character an he is now my favorite video game protagonist

Very insightful and a good video. Thanks! We love the Master Chief for out own reasons and we should see no reason to add to the list from others' own reasons. "Tragic Hero" and "Victory in spite of Sacrifices" are two brilliant observations of our green space robot.

This was an insanely well worded video and addresses a problem that I think the halo community has had for many many years. However the one point I’ll disagree on would be the proposed “similarities” of Halo CE’s characterization of the Chief and Halo 4’s. Master Chief may talk at a similar frequency, but a lot of his scenes in CE were not half as dramatically driven as they were in Halo 4. It gives a different feel, since a lot of what Chief says in CE isn’t too far off from what the standard marine in the universe would say and do in his position, and that I think is why a lot of people still interpret him to be without strict characterization despite his chatty behavior in CE. In Halo 4 however, the Chief is constantly put in situations where he has to speak his mind and emotions directly, either to a volatile Cortana or to his higher ups such as Lasky or the infamous scene with Del Rio. My overall verdict is that while the dialogue may be utilized for Chief in somewhat similar enough pacing across both games, the context and writing vastly differentiates their take on Chief.

I love how you analytically deconstruct these narratives that are just regurgitated among the community. A much better example of an empty vessel character would be Gordon Freeman. Nicely done as always

This is a very intriguing conversation

another great character to point to to disprove lack of dialogue=empty vessel is snake eyes. literally never says a word but lets his actions speak for him

Master Chief has been a complex character since a month before CE actually came out, Fall of Reach came out a month before CE and gave him plenty of character. And the "relatable" player insert is also a stupid argument. John is literally the most unrelatable person literally ever. Unless I'm missing out on something, I can't relate to a being kidnapped at 6 years old by the government and forced into becoming a supersoldier.

Well said, never felt the master chief was empty even in halo 2 and 3 I felt he had a lot of character, I think the way he changes from game to game is really what makes him relatable and human as well as how he deals with that change

I don't think chief every really changed during the halo campaigns. People just talk to him more in the later games.

This honestly may be one of your best videos, among all the very good stuff you provide in your content

Fun little thought experiment: a second poll on who kills Marines in Halo might show a correlation with the empty vessel question's response

Well fucking said, Sir! I’ve always looked at John as an emotion and deep character, especially when you see him in the books. The “halo” tv show should’ve never seen the light of day with the writing it had for Chief.

This was certainly eye opening for me to appreciate Master Chief a bit more than I have in recent time. I was definitely leaning into that crowd of him being a one liner spewing action hero, a stand in for the player, and not much else (for the Bungie games that is).

Empty vessel is an analogy as to how immersed you can be while playing as the character. In the literal sense of empty vessel, any game that has any sort of narrative decision making can jeopardize the illusion of an empty vessel, arguably at least.

I'll add one other thing; while a lines litmus test may not be the best I'd argue that it DOES hold up for a different main character: The Rookie. The Rookie is the only main playable to never have any lines of dialogue. Everything we see of him as a character is purely through gesture so he does clearly have some. But on the other hand the semi open world nature of that game and the decisions you get to make because of it combined with no lines whatsoever actually left The Rookie to be a pretty blank slate. It's one of the reasons that game feels especially immersive.

Happy Haloween Hyperion!!!

Greatly well put my man as always

I don't know what I know anymore, I just came to see wifi done right

I see the empty vessel thought as perfectly valid for Halo: CE and those initial impressions we had as kids at release. Our imagination and multiplayer helped us make a chief or spartan, as we later learned, to be our own. Chief however has had a story and lore made for him now, which Bungie desperately tried to build away from in ODST and Reach. So that we could more easily make our own persona in Halo. That we weren't all stolen from our parents at the age of five. That Halo was much more than Spartans and Master Chief. This has been forgotten by 'the fans' and 343. There's a reason why many crave those marines and the world building Bungie did. I see a lot of similarities between this and the initial release of Boba Fett in the movies and the explosion of clone, mandolorian, and other characters that people would personify.

Great analysis. I think one of the best modern interpretations of a silent character is the doom slayer from the new doom games. The gameplay pushes you to think like him. He hates demons with a very strong rage and the gameplay forces you to kill to keep going, in the fastest way possible. Even when he is with people he doesn’t bother having a conversation because he’s at work! I think your theories are also held up in the gameplay with the marines. Marines are little chatterboxes. They have personality’s. But they usually don’t last long. You suffer loss in gameplay which is part of the theme. I think the cheif does feel bad about the losses but he holds tight. And doesn’t give up. Also side note the same dynamic is on destiny with your guardian and the ghost

I always thought of chief as a silent protagonist in CE because he rarely spoke outside of cutscenes

I know I'm late to the convo but as someone who has lived through the games, read the lore, and been involved with Halo for a long time here's my old school style take on it: Master Chief isn't an empty shell at all. He reminds me of Optimus Prime from the Prime series and the first live action movie. He doesn't have a mountain of quips or sarcasm like Deadpool. He's a Master Chief Petty Officer in a war torn galaxy. Been fighting for years since he was a kid. Any military guy that knows a Master Chief knows they are a unique kind of person. They're the leader you NEED just maybe not the leader you WANT. Huge difference. He has to silently shoulder the burden of being the highest level of enlisted soldier. I've always seen him as a more deep thinker kind of leader. Many thoughts, no unnecessary words if he can help it. Focused, serious, passionate and determined.

Holy shit yet another absolute Ascend W

Well you see, I don't expect a highly trained soldier to get emotional for every cut scene.

I like to think that the reduced dialogue in Halo 3, was because of Chief's mental state knowing Cortana was going through gravemind torture. He was upset, but buried it and stuck to mission.. only really opening up around Sergeant Johnson and Cortana.

I fully agree with this. I always thought Chief had a characater, particularly because of CE. In H3...he had so much character, its the subtle gestures he makes when Johnson dies, he finds Cortana, he faces Arbiter the first time and hesitantly lets go, he and Arbiter have that shared repsect nod after Truth dies, when he argues with Keyes, Lord Hood, the Elite crew to vouch for Cortana...i never understood how ppl keep saying he never had character. I'd argue the only game where he was this void vessel was H2. He really just dropped one liners in that one lol

Could not agree more with you on this Ascend, another very well thought out video! Some of the things you said are so incredibly based for the Halo community...I love it lol.

I'd also add, that while it may have been Bungies goal for an "empty vessel" for the player to control, the reality is that they kind of failed (in a good way) every time they did it with a Halo title. Noble Six is the most self-insert character I've ever seen. Despite him being such a blank slate for the player he/she still has personality that comes across through body language and the few bits of dialogue there are. It doesn't take much to convey a character if the writing is good. The best example of this is in ODST with Rookie, he never says a damn thing, he's the most blank slate of a character you can get, yet there's still subtle hints of his overall character that can be picked up on in the game. His sleeping/relaxing in the back while the other members banter/argue back and forth in the beginning, his slight panic when he wakes up in his pod 9 hours after drop. His body language in the cutscenes with the clues of his squadmates last whereabouts. You could have the most talkative character in video game history, but if the body language doesn't match up they as a character will fall flat. Another great example of a silent character having character without saying a thing is the Doomguy/Doom Slayer from Doom(2016) and Eternal. After waking up and crushing some skulls he immediately sets to figuring how where he is and what's going on, mid elevator ride he's contacted by the leader of the facility on Mars who proceeds to give a big speech about how this is all unfortunate but how the work they were doing was necessary, Doomguy proceeds to look at a corpse down by his feet before punching the elevator controls to stop and open up. Never says a thing but conveys so much of his character, his rage, his thoughts in just one single moment. I guess my main point here is, if the writing is good, even a silent character can convey a great deal of exactly that, Character. And that a silent character ≠ an empty vessel.

Well thought out video Ascend. I would also point out that Bungie did HALO CE without knowing it was going "blow up: the way it did. I think the progression of Chiefs character was appropriate throughout the Halos. Remember Chief is a 24th Century futuristic super soldier. He really doesnt need much "lines" to know his roles in a futuristic war between humans and aliens. His ability to endure and push forward despite loss after loss is what it means to be human. I think you nailed that right on the head.

Very good analysis overall. On a similar note, O]one thing that I think 343 did with Chief compared to Bungie was help show Chief's fallibility more clearly. In the older Bungie games the events that led to the deaths around him were things that felt largely outside of his control, so it was slightly easier to brush off. In Halo 4 onward it becomes much more apparent that his actions, or lack thereof, more directly affect the people around him. They also help remove some of the mythology that had surrounded the Chief in the Bungie trilogy, making him less of a demigod in the likes of Perseus or Achilles and more of a human like you or me. Granted, a souped up human with plot-armor levels of luck, but still a human. This sort of stuff sticks with me the same way Warhammer 40k does with it's Space Marines. For all of the demigod-like status and power that those supersoldiers also wield, they are still as fallible and flawed as they ever were, augmentations or not.

very well put together video, exceptionally fresh baked

One of my favorite moments of Chief's characterization is towards the end of Halo 5. Throughout the whole series, we've never seen Chief have a conflict with Cortana. Even when rampancy came into play, they were a team. However, by the end of H5, when Chief is aware of what Cortana is doing, he resists her, challenges her ideas. He points out her possible crimes with lines like "You know, don't you? The exact body count." It shows that when it comes to protecting humanity, it's not just because he's a soldier and that's his job. He feels morally compelled to stand against any threat to the innocent, even if it's someone like Cortana, who means him no harm but is still causing harm to others. I also want to say that I think his characterization in Infinite is pretty shallow and lazy. There's a mixture of H2/3 one liners and simplistic "human" moments. Chief talking about how everyone makes mistakes and somehow inspiring the pilot to toughen up was nonsense to me, because his only example of a mistake was failing to keep Cortana alive, which he had absolutely no control over. I wish Chief could have gotten consistent and well thought out character development, because the "empty vessel" approach always felt like an excuse for writers to avoid doing more work. And he's certainly his own character in the books.

He is a tragic character that struggles to grasp his own humanity. And cortana is the vessel he uses to understand or rather experience humanity since he never would be able to experience true joy as everything he ever does ends or starts with tragedy. He is broken and a very good character despite his lack of speech.

When I played halo back in H3 days I never saw him as a self insert character, he had a voice, he spoke. Rookie and maybe Noble Six are characters I consider as self insert, Rookie never spoke thus making it as if we were rookie himself, Noble Six however spoke like bungie chief (less words more action) but the thing that makes him a self insert character is that he can be your multiplayer spartan and change gender voices. I don't like how master chief is humanized tho he went from blowing up a giant ship and a halo ring to being sad over a Virtual lady. Maybe it's because there's no one to command him what to do since Johnson, Jacob Keyes, and Miranda Keyes are dead and Lord hood wasn't seen since 3 (In game, besides being mentioned in infinite) thus making Master Chief talk freely I guess. Master Chief dosen't need to be humanized at all he showed emotions before 343, A perfect example is him finding cortana in 3 and his body reaction looking at Miranda Keyes's dead body, And let's not forget the over humanizing master cheif in the halo tv series

I think what is meant by him being an empty vessel refers more to the idea that the his character is tied to the player. There IS a characterization, he is a man of action, as evident from the ce clip, but whose action is that? Yours, as the player. While of course, there is some implicit characterization, what kind of man could go through all the events in all the games, that comes from the fact that you, as the player, are going through the games. That's why even though he has more lines than mario, he feels more of an "empty vessel", one that you can put yourself into, since throughout the gameplay in the campaign, everyone is talking about him as if it was you. From the marines reaction as you walk past them and the part in ce where cortana says "keep your head down" as you are shot at, all of these make the chief feel like you are him, compared to mario. While I havent seen the show, I can imagine that the simple fact that it is not a game that you can control will give the sense that he is no longer the same person that in the games, on top of all the things they made his character do. It is because he is so action driven and the fact that you are controlling his actions the reason why he is called an empty vessel

Its interesting that you suggest a massive shift from 3-4 (and I guess so do a lot of fans.) Having played the games from 3 onwards pretty much back to back (skipping the 360 era and catching up with mcc when 5 was out) I actually got the opposite sense. Halo 3 had a strong focus on Cortana and had the Chief hinge everything on her and of course the "moments." Halo 4 thus strongly focusing on that actually felt like a continuation; to me Halo 4 very much felt like it picked up on where Halo 3 left off in many ways. Of course Halo 3's big Cortana focus picks up on High Charity's ending in the previous game. All in all I do agree that Chief was never really an empty vessel. I think Halo 4 was much more overt in the Chief as a character but it was an expansion rather than a shift. IIRC though part of all of this that I don't think you mentioned is that one major source of the "empty vessel" Chief perception comes from Bungie claiming him to be as such; as you said the games don't actually quite come across that way though. Then there's the further aspect of the novels having explored him more as a character from basically the get go. Thus aside from whether he is or isn't, a major part of the conversation revolves around whether he was or wasn't SUPPOSED to be and therefore a question of intentions rather than results.

The slient protagonist/empty vessel characters have always dealt with being misunderstood by players because they seem to take these characters out of the context of their games. It is like a reflection of the disconnect between story and gameplay many players have. Pretty much every "empty vessel" is some sort of character because these characters rely on the world and non-playable characters to reflect off of. That's why I almost always disregard the "YOU are meant to be the main character". No, I am not LITERALLY the character, but I am roleplaying as the character. The gameplay facilitates what I would do in my current mental state if I was in the character's shoes, but that doesn't turn literal me into the main character. The player is essentially an actor. Master Chief is reliant on his setting, the plot, but also the characters. Even in Halo CE, once Cortana is gone, he has next to no dialog until Cortana comes back, and in Halo 3 Chief is similar, rather cold (though still charming) to the others until Cortana comes back. And that remains consistent. Chief isn't 100% reliant on Cortana to complete his character, but the notable change itself is demeanor is a large part of his character. Looking at similar protagonists they are a reflection of the things around them, but with the basis of context and background in order to establish they are actual characters. Issac Clark in dead space had someone in the background to guide him at all times, when he isn't doing his job of fixing the ship and surviving, Nicole is always over his shoulder. If he was truly an "empty vessel" Nicole wouldn't be needed because I in real life am not married to Nicole. I can simulate similar feelings with my real experiences, but my girlfriend Tori isn't Nicole and I'm not Issac Clark the space-engineer. Many praise Gordon Freeman as the quintessential empty vessel, but oddly enough his characterization relies on the linearity of the games. His own name is an ironic joke. In Half-Life 1 he is free to kill scientists or do what he must to survive, but ultimately he is locked into his fate. That no matter what Gordon Freeman and the player tries to do, they will always come from MIT, they will start the resonance cascade, they will always fight the military, they will always be taken by G-Man. The lack of characterization and details oddly makes the character more tragic. Because no matter how many different interpretations of the character any person can have, his "empty vessel" status transforms him into a slave, to both the G-man and to the writers. Even Doom guy has characterization, putting the manual aside, he's on Phobos and has to survive. The player might only care about killing demons, but doom guy cares about getting home. Then once he does, his goal turns into vengeance when his pet rabbit (or family if you follow id's retcon) dies and now his goal aligns with the player's. This carries straight into the new era of Doom. The only character that I would argue has had almost no characterization would be Quake Guy/Ranger, but no one thinks about him that often as a character. If a video game protagonist is truly meant to be an "empty vessel" then there wouldn't be any character or story to begin with. Its the same reason why I roll my eyes at the "story doesn't matter to games" crowd. If story or context didn't matter we never would have moved past pong or Tetris. At the same time, I don't really like to call games with almost no gameplay, games. As much as I love the tell-tale games, they are essentially choose-your-own adventure movies. Video games require a balance of writing and gameplay, and they should be symbiotic, not two separate beings on the same hard-drive. The protagonist and the player need to be symbiotic too. The player engages the gameplay, the protagonist engages the story, with the other's purpose being secondary. The player's secondary purpose from gameplay, is story. The protagonist's secondary purpose from story is gameplay. If the protagonist and player aren't on the same page, then they won't connect. Most of the time the protagonist is doing their job (so long as the writer and programmer are competent) so the misunderstanding almost always lies on the player. And that's what's been happening to Master Chief. Many players aren't on the same page as Chief just like how in the show the writers aren't on the same page as Chief.

I disagree with a bit in this video. Halo CE was the very first game and they were still figuring stuff out, they made a lot of canon reasons for some of the changes in game such as chief getting new armor, marines looking completely different, cortana not being green, but the truth is it all changed because it wasnt finalized and they set their vision, that's why Master Chief in Halo 2 became a one liner because you were suppose to be him. I also heard it was because that was Microsoft's vision and not Bungie, and they got that creative freedom after CE It's sort of a hybrid of the two. Master Chief definitely wasn't an empty husk, he had character but he was just vague enough you could fill his shoes and live the power fantasy. In emotional scenes or scenes where one may talk they make him silent so when you look into his visor you project whatever emotion you're feeling as the emotion he's feeling, whatever thought you're having is the thought he's having, invoking your own feelings is a powerful tool. What 343i did was give him a very distinct personality and a line for every single piece of dialogue so you knew how he felt and what he would say, because he'd be sure to let you know. Then even when he was silent his previous dialogue let you knew how he feels which may not of reflected how you felt. He wasn't an empty husk like the rookie but he wasn't a very defined character either, it was a good compromise Bungie struck. It's a trick question to ask if he's an empty husk or a character. That's like asking if someones a hero or a villain when they're the anti-hero

He is badass, he is strong, he is a space soldier, but despite all of that, he is human. he is emotional, but doesn't have time to grieve when he is in wartimes and in action. People need to understand how Chief is.

Master Chief, at least in the context of the Bungie games, was, by Bungie's admission, an empty vessel. But that has only ever applied to the games. If we look past the games into the franchise's extended media, The Chief absolutely has a personality, stoic and subtle though it may be. Chief having more character within the games was a change brought about by 343i. While I prefer the Bungie games from a narrative perspective, I personally have no problem with The Chief having a personality. What I do have a problem with, however, is Chief having a personality at the expense of the story. That is to say that I think the Chief having a more definable character is certainly possible while maintaining a compelling story, but I don't think 343i has gotten there yet.

The only vessel character I can think of from the games I've played that aren't RPGs, where there is a distinct linear story, is Half Life's Gordon Freeman. Short of being male, and somehow technically a scientist, there is absolutely no characterisation. That to me is a vessel character.

I always figured that the term "husk" or empty vessel referred to a character that a player could comfortably inhabit--not necessarily a character with a lack of personality. By this, I mean that their character rarely butts up with how a player might tackle a situation or make a decision. I believe there is a synergistic relationship between Master Chief and the player. We use him to explore the world and gives us just enough room in his head to do it--and he speaks for the player--because we're never not on the same page.

One thing about Halo is the seamless transition from cutscenes to gameplay, just like the MGS series. I like to connect other games to Metal Gear for a lot of reasons, clearly Chief is a tragic character. A child soldier who was tested on and subjected to a lot of trauma. He is glorified, but nobody really wants to BE chief in an authentic sense, unless you happen to be very militaristic.

I could probably write a short essay on the Chief, but it’s so refreshing to see a halo fan discussing Chief’s humanity in a way that isn’t “chief was better in the bungie games, we need to burn 343 to the ground”

That's why when bungie and community say Master Chief is a "Souless vessel for the player to be Master chief" it doesn't work when time after time even in old halo they show Chief personality and a mind of their own. Halo CE: the grenade scene in the video, and the "We'll make it scene, before purposefully crashing" Halo 2: he reacts to when cortana "says you look nice" and how Johnson says thank you with him and look at each other, when the gravemind sends him to a cov ship he says "boo!" To a grunt to scare it. The line "to give the covenant back there bomb" sounds less one liner and more, you mess with my race, I'll blow up yours" while still being a one liner. He choose to leave cortana for the greater good, to us the outside viewer, its obviously sensible, but to chief he may lose his partner and is leaving a ai with heavy Info, to a info eating space parasite so most in that scenario actually would say "He'll no" in real life. Halo 3: the feeling of wanting to save cortana a human trait saving a comrade/partner but mission comes first and the look while Johnson dies in his arms. We aren't Chief, we play as The Chief, but we are not Chief. Noble 6 actually fits empty vessel, 1 background trait: Lone Wolf, and Spartan on Noble Team task to fight a war and win, and says just enough to not know who they are personality wise, but why? Because behind that helmet is our character this isn't A Spartan story, Reach Was OUR Spartan story.

Halo KZfaqrs try not to be contradictory in every single one of their videos challenge! (IMPOSSIBLE)

He has been a stoic "what's the objective" focused personality since early in The Fall of Reach...honestly Halo Infinites little "therapy" session is the closest he comes to being out of character, but still is kinda justifiable since he is self aware of himself being a symbol and sort of pillar soldiers lean on in battlefield situations and he likely knew just barking an order to "focus" or a simple speech wasn't gonna get the pilot going again right then.

I've never really bought the empty vessel idea with Chief. Halo 2 is the only game where I feel that's maybe true but that's cause Arbiter has a much more personal motivation in comparison. It's true with RPGs where you build your character from scratch and a game like Fallout 4 got some backlash when they added a voice and set story to the player character but chief, even though it was minimal, had some existing character dynamics with Cortana and Keyes. Also I know devs like Marty say the Arbiter having a backstory imposed on the "empty vessel" idea but I actually loved the personal motivation there and it made taking on the brutes when they turn on you all the more satisfying. Id even say in Halo 3 Cortana is the personal drive for Chief especially for players that came from CE and Halo 2 and were left on that cliffhanger. Half the reason Chief is so quiet in 3 is cause there's no Cortana to bounce off of, so I would say Halo 4 was a natural progression. That said obviously it had different creative team and a different writing style so I think I think it's legit for people to dislike that. It's very not subtle about the man vs machine themes

Said this on Twitter and I'll say it again, he's not an empty vessel by any means but his relationship with the player is still AS a vessel for Halo's power fantasy, even outside of gameplay. When the chief returned the covenants bomb, it was both a moment of "he did the cool thing because he is cool 😎" and "my character did the cool thing because in my fantasy I am cool 😎". Compare this to Reach, where all of the cool spartan shit that Noble-6 does is explicitly as an empty vessel (Nothing is black and white, he does have some implied history but otherwise you're free to go full RPG with your Spartan), where outside of gameplay it's "YOU" going out like a boss during the standard, non-secret cave ending. Master Chief also acts as a vessel for the player to feel very cool while still being their own character for the player to relate to and sympathize with.

“We protect humanity, whatever the cost”

For me, I never minded Chief being silent or talking a lot. For me, I’d rather feel like I’m playing as a real person than insert myself in that character. So I enjoyed him speaking more and being more expressive in Halo 4 because he felt real.

I think in terms of gameplay, sure he is an empty vessel for the player, but that's NOT ALL he is in the universe.

The Chief in the shameful disgraceful abomination of a TV show is NOT Chief. Just the idea of Chief being manipulated and reworked to fit a disastrous narrative. I hope the season 2 of the show gets only 1-star reviews.

How he was designed and what he is are 2 different things. I definitely fall into the "Developed from a Husk" school of thought lol

I agree on the video. That being said, I like how Master Chief is generally portrayed in the whole series (except the movie), I think it should be used more as an example.

I have the mother of all hottakes on the Chief's character: Chief has changed TWICE. The CE Chief had more of a character. He was more talkative and more expressive. He has significantly more frequent lines in CE than in 2 or 3. This extends to him having full length conversations at multiple points in the game. Chief speaks a voiced line in 7 out of 10 levels. Then in Halo 2 the Chief is turned into an empty shell apart from a handful of basically meme lines. He speaks in 4 out of 8 missions. Then in Halo 3 the Chief speaks in 5 of 9 levels. Then in Halo 4, 5, and Infinite, Chief speaks in every single level.

THANK YOU!

343 killed halo and killed my love for it.

I think there’s one thing you missed in this, the one thing that is different in all the bungie games from the 343 games is that Chief does not talk in gameplay in any bungie titles from as far as I can remember. This is probably where the confusion comes from some part. I believe Bungie had this idea that they will show Chiefs characterization on story cutscenes, but in gameplay that’s your time to fill his boots and in a sense, let him be your vessel. I think bungie always sort of had a disconnect between gameplay and cutscene, I could be wrong about all this but regardless of bungies intent I think his silence through gameplay compared to 343 titles has lent further confusion to this idea of him being a blank slate

AH, good points as usual! I agree with your claim that MC never really changed, but I disagree with your reasoning that it was because of Bungie’s writing. Set aside the kind of game that Bungie was writing (yes, they’re doing a FPS, no the cut scenes won’t be like MGS) and it seems a bit more appropriate that they show different aspects of the character. I don’t think Bungie switched the writing, I think the fans failed to recognize that the MC could be more than one thing.

I feel like the empty vessel argument can go for all first person shooter characters. Or really any gaming character in general & not even just FPS. And that would be true to a degree. To a small small degree. Cuz in a sense these characters are a vessel for us to essentially join in on the ride of the journey. And in some cases they are empty vessels, I would definitely agree not even necessarily as a Halo fan but just as a gamer, that game and characters aren't always necessarily empty vessels. Unless we're talking about created characters. But at the same time, what would they mean by empty vessel? Cuz when I think empty vessel I think the lack of character and dialogue. At most they may have a nickname that you're called by. I think a perfect example would be rook from far cry 5. There's not much to that character like there is Jason Brody or Ajay Ghale from the past far cry's. Maybe a simple background and a reason why they're in the set and they are in the first place. Rook is a rookie state federal officer. They're there because somebody has a warrant out for their arrest. Other than that there's not much of this character. They completely be any gender and look like whoever you want. And pretty much just create a character, well, character. Being the perfect example of an empty vessel character. You are pretty much that character within that world. We're at somebody like Jason or Ajay is not. Sure they're kind of a vessel. Sure you're going to be in their shoes for the time being. But they actually have a character to them. A background and personality. Although you may be in their shoes for the time being, you're really just along for the ride. Which is funny to say because technically you're in the driver's seat. But so is Jason and Ajay. Maybe not the best analogy but hopefully you get what I mean. And baby don't think too hard about that cuz just thinking about it right now while making this is making me question that analogy more and more. But again hopefully anybody reason this gets what I mean. If somebody has a better analogy than that, that would be great. But that's the best one I can come up with personally.

I understand he's a stoic guy with a sense of humor like when he said "Tell that to the Covenant" about the hardware, not some emotionless robot.

The Cheif has character but not much. In a Raycevick video, there was an idea brought up. What i took away was, Halo does not have good writing, but it has great presentation. The moments Halo has, are not the most interesting on paper but are felt in the moment. It presents its story beats with great visuals, an excellent score, and a fun game. The Cheif's character is undermined by the writing of Halo. RedLetterMedia has said something, in a plinkett review, that applies here. They had a challenge for people. Describe a character simply but without mentioning what they do in their media and what they look like (or what they wear). I dont think that there is a lot to say about the cheif. He has character but he does not have a well written character.

Master Chief has had personality of his own since Halo CE 😁 *Tosses frag in his hand with intent*

I remember Haruspis wrote about this.

To go over the specific topic of 'fans can't agree over [HALO LORE/CHARACTER]' I would strongly urge you to check C3 Sabertooth's video 'We WERE Forerunner' as it's very thorough on the subject of what went horrendously wrong.

Master cheecks is not the same character as master chief

Everyone has their own opinions, i felt like he did talk alot in CE, almost too much but his character reflected alot on how characters talked back then in many games. He was the vessel for information to express what you as the player woukd probably say if in that situation. Nothing too crazy nothing too complex but to the point. Things were simple. Light fuse, run away.

Maybe in a literal sense it was a poor description to use but the idea of it I think isn’t without merit. I entered the franchise through the Halo novels so I always had more characterization to apply to him than the games ever gave, but to me the Chief in the games never felt too important to the story and I really really really appreciated that. He didn’t feel special or extraordinary beyond his suit and augmented body making it feel like he could be anyone. His mannerisms and character interactions often felt like they were written as an extension of the player’s passive role in a linear video game story, allowing the other characters around him and events to shine which served to bring together the narrative to leave you with the feeling of tragedy you highlight in the video. To me that is where the idea really came from. It wasn’t that the Chief was a literal husk given nothing but a code name and a pronoun like the Ace Combat protagonists, but he wasn’t supposed to be what you kept your eyes on and he wasn’t some chosen one. That is where if felt like it changed in Halo 4. The Chief was noticeably the focus of the story and his surroundings took a massive backseat. He felt out of place at times which ostracized me from the rest of the story and he was made the ‘chosen one’ which reduced my personal connection to him, however, I also don’t think he was all that different as a person than he ever was and was an excellent rendition of the character he was given in the novels.

I dislike how 343 is trying to make Master Chief be at the center of the plot all the time. Halo was never about the Master Chief, it's about the world of Halo viewed through the eyes of the Master Chief.

THIS GOES TO THE FOOKIN BOOK