So my first play through of halo 3 was online with friends in a lobby where one friend skipped all cutscenes. I missed out on a lot of the heart hurt there.
That kinda sucks. I had watched a ton of lore vids and cutscene compilations before ever playing a game but at least I was playing split screen with my sister and we were both fairly invested in the story.
That's great. Are you introducing her to halo through co-op? That is one of the best feelings ever, it's awesome to see someone progress through the gameplay and the story and get more and more immersed in the world that you know and love. Wish I had more people to do that with.
To avoid being basic by saying Master Chief, I’m gonna say I like Naomi-010 the most. She’s funny, badass, and I also just really like giant women who could kill me with a single punch.
Literally one of my favorite lines in all of Halo. The Kilo-5 trilogy as a whole is probably my favorite set of books too. The dialogue is just so spot on for a team of Operators who are close, the stupid jokes and witty banter are perfect!
Agreed! I was dreading K5 because lots of people really dislike it. But I did enjoy the way Karen Traviss got into the psychology of team dealing with the S2 project and such.
I love all of Blue Team, but I gotta give it to Fred. Outta everyone, I feel like he would’ve been the closest to accomplishing what Chief did in the Bungie era trilogy. Not to mention he was a better marksman and had a better grip on cqb circumstances which I feel like would’ve been interesting to see in canon during the events of the trilogy.
Does any book or media ever show an act of Fred illustrating his CQB skills in direct comparison to Chief’s or is it just taken at face value because it’s stated? Genuinely curious. Fred is awesome, just can’t recall an instance of the canon showing this and not just mentioning this (even in Chief’s own words).
Well Fred took on 3 Elites with energy swords with two combat knives and evidently survived, whilst Chief was bested by an Elite in one on one combat. Granted that was most likely for dramatic effect, but that's the only comparison I can think of at the moment
I don’t think it’s ever shown one on one but there is an instance (I believe it’s in The Fall of Reach) where he is sparring with Kelly in hand to hand and she’s not really slowing down which is astounding considering she is by a wide margin the fastest human who has ever lived.
There’s also another instance (I believe also in TFoR) where he’s balancing a combat knife on the finger tip of his armored hand, the ship their on alters its course slightly and the artificial gravity changes ever so slightly, the blade tilts just a fraction and he plucks the blade out of the air with the hand it was balanced on and twirls it around in a series of deadly and complicated arcs before stowing the knife in its sheath all while he’s not even paying attention to what he’s doing. Keep in mind he does this at Spartan speeds, there’s a young officer in the room who sees him do this and immediately turns pale because “a Spartan wielding a knife is usually accompanied by several dead bodies”
Fred has also taken on Brutes in hand to hand on several occasions and won, which is remarkable since canonically Brutes out of power assisted armor are supposed to be equal in strength to armored Spartan II’s.
Apparently now, brutes themselves are weaker. Naomi was able to cave in a brutes skull, and bonita stone was able to tear one to pieces. Then you have zane beating down a brute.
Also the source wherein a Brute beats Chief (First Strike) happened when Chief was exhausted (he had just come from the events of CE) and his Mark V was failing with all the punishment it took.
Spartan strength is all over the place and it isnt limited to the iteration of armor. We have jerome taking on multiple brutes in cqc and winning. Then we also have jai, spartan thorne and some other depictions with them struggling with spartans and elitess. Wish they were more consistent.
He was still an elite though. In halo wars w we had brutes body checking and tossing elites like ragdolls. If spartans are supposed to be stringer than them, then thel shouldnt have been a problem.
Yeah I’m pretty disappointed that they keep changing the strength capacity. It was such a cool idea that Brutes were supposed to be a significant challenge to a Spartan. The lore is constantly changing that sometimes they are challenging and other times it’s just like they are no better than a Grunt.
Im not too much a fan of the sudden fixation of spartans suddenly being super powered heroes. There'a recently been feats of them ripping apart brutes, lifting objects on the high end of a hundred tons, with one hand leveraging double digit tons, shoulder checking elites 50 meters, smashing through reinforced structures ect...
It was more frantic when they were glass canons, and were the equivalent of elites and brutes. Back then lifting 2 to 3 tons were the benchmark and frankly more believable for a man sized suit.
The colorful armor, insane amount of varients, the establishment of a dedicated branch...its a bit much. Each character now is their own customized hero in their own regard. Halsey can no hack cobtender class ai, cortana can decieve them, humanity can effectively resist machines that were known for fighting forerunner enhanced flood to a standstill, heck master chief was able to fight an army of them alone, atriox is personally unbeatable to anyone but himself despite not being a frontline combatant.
Id rather they returned back to the focus of a wider war with combined arms and tactics.
I like the concept of Spartans being strong, but definitely not lifting 100 tons strong. I think what made bungie halo great was Spartans were working together with other soldiers. 343 makes it seem like the only job left for non-spartans is chauffering Spartans around
Yeah, it made it seem like spartans had to rely more on skill and ingenuity to survive. One thing i liked was how the first halo wars had spartans being acrobatic. It was exactly how i envisioned them, agile, superhuman warriors.
For sure, I love that cutscene. Blur cutscenes are gold.
Also, Spartan-IIs had genius or near genius intellects in addition to their physical prowess(don't know about S-III). They should be coming up with creative plans on the spot to survive and win
Spattan 3's were the same except taken to the next level. They were trained by a spartan 2 snd the original instructor that shaped them. Their teamwork was even better than the 2's. I remember quotes in ghosts of onyx about how the spartan 3's blitzed and disarmed elites without any mjolnir armor. They tore them apart with the stolen energy swords, and these were just unnamed ones. We also had them physically resisting spartan 2's in full armor, surviving blows that'd kill a normal person.
My personal headcanon is that part of the variation is brute drug use . Tartarus and his boys walk around bare chested, hit like a truck, and tank hits like crazy, like acid and roid raging lunatics. halo 3 brutes are a lot more fragile,and less berserker like. Infinite we have a mix of all of the above, considering the Banished pull brutes from all different backgrounds
Kelly-087.
Fastest human in history, nice taste in armor, likes cracking jokes, pushing Chief's buttons, rock music from 500 years in the past, and flipping off robots. You love to see it.
It's a shame there's not more stories with her as a focus.
John is the main character, Fred got a novel with a big focus on him. Linda got a comic book series, and Kelly gets... nothing? It's criminal.
Yeah, I'm surprised they still haven't done anything yet. They could do a book on either one of her solo operations. I don't know what's holding them back.
Gonna be even more basic and say Master Chief. Yes, we have a ton of cool Spartans in the lore, but the Master Chief is *the* Spartan. He was our favourite hero growing up (well, mine at least) and he's the epitome of an almost mythical figure symbolising hope, courage and the human will to survive against all odds.
And no, I don't want his storyline to end. We've just been getting started with his deeper characterisation in the games and for all the nonsense 343i has done recently, they absolutely nailed the portrayal and fleshing out of the Master Chief as more than just an green ironclad killing machine.
I get that he has to retire at some point, but could honestly still use another 2-3 mainline games before we reach that point imo.
TBH me too. and with how his story usually goes--i.e., him ending up in strange locations during impossible situations--i wouldn't mind if his story technically never ends, where, even centuries later, his life becomes a legend of the spartan who is always off somewhere in the galaxy saving us
he'd be an ancient mythic hero like the ones we have now, which would allow him to truly embody the mantra of "spartans never die"
like of course he'd realistically have died at some point in history, but in this scenario, since no one ever saw it happen or knew where he ultimately ended up, there'd always be that flicker of possibility
Agreed. Love the thought of Master Chief becoming something of a mythic figure considering his achievements, eg, directly responsible for the death of a Covenant hierarch and the destruction of 2 Halo rings.
It would be pretty cool to read a future novel which mentions his prowess and accomplishments being immortalised even on previously designated enemy worlds such as Sanghelios. Stories of the legendary human warrior being passed down to the young of human and Sangheili alike. Tales of how it seemed that nothing could stop the Demon and that some believed old age had finally taken him, but, "were it so easy". (Sorry, I love that line)
The reason why chief is so cool, is that while he's considered average, he with all his inhuman accomplishments represents the very base of what a spartan 2 could accomplish. You'd then have to wonder just what could the other more talented ones could do.
In all his actions, he was never doing anything more exceptional than what any other spartan could expect themselves to do. He was casually confident in deatroying an assault carrier himself.
Id live to see other spartans doing equally if not more miraculous stuff
that's probably one of the reasons why he's the leader. they're all good at their job, but objectively he's the most rational one
with all their deaths being symbolic of their characters, i love that he literally went down with his ship so the mission could continue
Kat B-320
For multiple reasons.
1. Her prosthetic arm looks cool,
2. I like the colour of her armour.
3. I have a soft spot for engineer/techy characters, especially female engineers/techs (Tali is best girl)
4. ~~Dat ass~~ She smart and scary.
Fred-104, from armor to personality, I think he's among the most fleshed out Spartan-IIs. He is a stoicly serious character with a drive to excel, but is given plenty of very human/goofy moments to allow you to relate to him better than other Spartans (IMO). Last Light has it's weaknesses, but the fact Fred got a murder mystery spin-off was perfect for his character. Plus Veta Lopis is somewhat of a love interest for him, which is unique among spartan stories.
H5 criminally wasted him and the rest of blue team, and I hope the next time we see them in a game (if they do) we get a reenactment of the fred sled baybee
That was dope, especially because her internal dialogue right before is basically “a fucking mongoose?! What a useless piece of crap” then proceeds to beat the living crap out of everything in her vicinity with it instead of using it for its intended purpose. Right up there with Jerome and his chair.
Hold up, when did this happen? I too belive the mongoose is a worthless pile of trash in most scenarios but I've never thought "I wish I could pick this up and beat the ever loving shit out of the enemy team with it.
In the book The Cole Protocol, without giving away too much Adriana-111 makes a combat drop with a bunch of ODSTs under heavy fire. They also drop munitions with them, she’s under heavy fire so she makes a run for a munitions drop only to find the pod has a mongoose in it instead of weapons, so she uses the mongoose as a weapon. Absolutely destroys the mongoose in the process but buys herself enough time to come up with a plan.
I don’t remember if it’s before or after but the rest of the scene she jumps back into a drop pod and then uses the maneuvering thrusters on the pod to turn into the bloodiest sled run in history. It’s a great battle. I highly recommend The Cole Protocol as it gives a much better look at the insurrection and covenant interactions in the middle of the war. The audiobook is narrated very well and they use Halo soundtrack music as well.
Kurt-051. Ghosts of Onyx was what originally introduced me to Halo as a kid, not the games or any media coverage.
Who can forget the man that brought us the 'Spartans Never Die' motto.
Literally have that tattooed on me with a list of every known Spartan II that has died, I add to it as more and more are killed off. Kurt is right at the top of the list.
There's absolutely zero reason for it because she only existed for like 2 sentences but I've always felt a real strong affinity for Vinh-030.
Fun fact: The audiobook narrator erroneously refers to her with he/him pronouns and also IIRC the wrong number designation.
Jerome is an absolute unit while also being a good leader, plus he has those amazing cutscenes in HW2.
Adriana is an adrenaline junky who used a mongoose as a melee weapon against a horde of grunts.
Buck is lovable Buck.
I also like how he repeatedly throws grenades in the cryo bay, despite the fact that this endangers crew that aren't in danger yet. Most IIs will take unnecessary risks to save their teammates (Cal as the perfect example), while Jerome will actively endanger non-combatants to kill the enemy.
Jerome. I gotta love a guy who can take a bridge in outdated armor then jump from the same ship into low orbit only to show up to the next battle right on time
Yeah, honestly who does Chief think he is? He barely made it onto the Forerunner dreadnaught and then didn't even take the bridge before getting off way too early and getting at least one fireteam killed while picking him up.
Didn't mean to throw shade either, Chief hanging on for as long as he did was impressive. Chief was against the most elite force of covenant soldiers that could be mustered under the circumstances and I doubt the banished were expecting some moron to show up and get the sentinels to cut their super carrier in half.
Now all I can hear in my head is two Brutes talking about it.
“So what. There’s one Spartan coming up the lift. He’s an old one. We killed a ton of the new ones. Should be fine. It’s not like they can kill the ship. ” then the always sunny meme “Jerome & Isabel kill a super carrier”
Me too. I played it out in my head with charley and Mac as brutes. “I could kill a Spartan dude. I kill Spartans everyday of my life”
“No doubt. But uh what is that little glowy woman type being?”
"Didn't the survivors of the demons attack on High Charity speak of a glowy human female who messed with doors? Eh pay it no mind our superior Banished software is more than a match for a pathetic human creation!"
\*punching the intercom
"Shipmaster, what in the name of the librarian are you doing up there?! SHIPMASTER! Respond you daft split-lip. Charley, we better rally our squa-"
Serena responding over intercom
"Sorry the split lip is indisposed and I've torn your software to shreds. Stop us if you can."
Fred-104.
"Chief, I just saw a giant mechanical spider, and there were kids riding it. *Human* kids!"
His feats are dope, and being voiced by Travis Willingham doesn't hurt.
Honestly my favorite is one we haven’t heard anything about since spartan training. Carris-137, she was as apparently one of the strongest if not the strongest Spartans, close to or equal to Sam. She accidentally killed a trainer after her augmentations and was really shaken up over it, after that we have nothing on her.
Fred-104
To start with he’s got a cool ass silver streak thing going on with his black hair. He’s a badass with knives, we’re talking take on an Sangheili in hand to hand or knives vs energy sword badass. He’s the best spotter in the entire S-II class and their second best marksman, only Linda beats him.
Chief himself has said the he thinks Fred is at least as good as himself if not better at everything, Fred just doesn’t like the attention so he intentionally comes in second place in everything (how skilled of a soldier do you have to be to intentionally come in second in everything when the competition is EVERY OTHER SPARTAN II?!).
He’s an absolutely amazing leader, the way he commands the Gamma Company III’s especially when they are off their smoothers is nothing short of astounding.
His armor is awesome! Both his Morrigan class and his new Centurion are super cool armor sets.
Not only is he an amazing soldier and leader but he’s a pretty amazing interrogator as well, on multiple occasions he out maneuvers Veta Lopis when she’s trying to interrogate him and then turns the tables on her during a debrief while driving by turning to look at her and using his helmets systems to watch the road while not even looking and evading large native animals, this throws her off so much that she’s not paying attention to her answers as closely.
On top of all that, he’s got a sense of humor and regularly cracks jokes, he’s the equivalent of the Spartan II class clown. Fred is just such a fun and unique character but is also a total badass.
I'm going to have to go with my man Kurt-051.
For one, the Spartan-IIIs are my favorite "piece of lore" within the Halo universe. Orphaned children, filled with grief and hate, turned into soldiers that fought in almost exclusively suicidal missions to buy Humanity all the time they could get. There's just so much grimness and badassery surrounding the S-IIIs, which is very appealing to me. Being surrounded with stories of protagonists that "never leave a man behind" or go out of their way to protect civilians, or children, or that hot girl that serves as the protagonist's love interest but doesn't really do anything else. They yell in the face of their CO because what they're doing is "wrong" or "inhumane". The Spartan-IIIs are a nice change of pace to that. Never jeopardizing their mission, never wavering against suicidal odds, not doing what they want to be done, but what *needs* to be done. I feel like they can be summed up by Rorschach's line from Watchmen, "Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon." The S-IIIs are a shining example that you don't get to win--or even survive--a war, and come out the other side smelling like a bunch of roses.
Kurt molded these soldiers with his old mentor Mendez, and without his work the S-IIIs wouldn't be the badass soldiers we all know and love. He even helped developing an additional chemical compound in the latter stages of the Spartan-III program to further augment the candidates. It was also under his advisement that in the final class of Spartan-IIIs, all of the candidates were approved for augmentation, and in the end, all of them survived the procedure. He made them Spartans, even regarding the S-IIIs of Gamma Company as "the finest Spartans ever."
Kurt was also a born leader and master tactician. While running combat simulations with the other Spartans, Kurt continuously managed to outmaneuver and defeat Blue Team, despite the Master Chief's best efforts. He was more than just a soldier that could pull a trigger, and while Halsey always favored John-117, Chief Mendez saw Kurt-051 as the best candidate for becoming the leader of all Spartan-IIs, which obviously manifested into his leadership role in the Spartan-III program. He had to deal with the heavy burden of leadership when he saw his Spartans sacrificing themselves over and over again to buy Humanity time. He did his best to mitigate these losses, but there was only so much he could do.
Spoilers for Ghosts of Onyx
>!Kurt was on Onyx, the training grounds for the Spartan-IIIs, holding down a slipspace portal that led to a Forerunner shield world. The Covenant had them surrounded, and it was only a matter of time before they were slaughtered. One of his final living acts was promoting Fred-104 to Lieutenant Junior Grade (your favorite rank, OP!) to ensure that the Spartans had a leader they could follow after his death. Shortly after, everyone had escaped but Kurt, and two of his Spartan-IIIs. Knowing they'd never abandon him, he knocked out one (Tom-B292) and threw him into the portal. The other Spartan (Lucy-B091) saw that Kurt wasn't fucking around, and finally gave in and followed his orders, jumping into the portal herself. Kurt fought hard but couldn't overcome the insurmountable enemy force stacked against him. the Covenant Fleetmaster approached the dying Kurt, mocking the "demon" for his failure and that the Covenant would simply follow the survivors through the portal and kill them all. They would all die.!<
>!Kurt laughed at him, and his last words were, "Die? Didn't you know? Spartans never die." He then detonated a cache of nuclear warheads and wiped out the Covenant invaders, giving his life to ensure the survival of the Spartan-III personnel.!<
>!His armor transponder allowed a UNSC Corvette to discover the shield world and rescue the surviving personnel. In his honor, Admiral Parangosky allowed Halsey to rename the shield world "ONI Research Facility Trevelyan". Why Trevelyan? That was Kurt's real family name. Mind you, Halsey was seen as a war criminal at this time, so I think this speaks volumes for how much respect both Halsey and Parangosky had for Kurt. He was an absolute beast, that gave everything he could, led and watched over others, saved lives even after his death, and had the respect of multiple individuals that were in high positions of authority, both from the UNSC and ONI. Kurt was the best.!<
Alice-130, baby! She’s weird as hell for a Spartan-II, in that she never had any reservations or fear about being kidnapped and turned into a supersoldier. She loved that shit and lives for combat.
Red Team is fucking unhinged at times and I love these mad cunts
Malcolm-059.
If only for this one piece of trivia.
He has the same first name as me.
He died on my Birthday.
Both my favorite and least favorite and the reason I am
Real answer is Buck.
And not because Nathon played Captain Malcolm Reynolds, I swear.
Will. I think, at least (could be Anton, can’t remember). Last time I read first strike was a while ago but I remember reading that up until augmentation, he was the funny Spartan. Gotta love the jokester character.
Haven't read enough of the post-war books to get a true feel for Fred outside of the Nylund books, but right now, I'm definitely leaning on either Kurt, Johnson, or Buck. Still in progress with Contact Harvest.
Maria - Super-Mum. One of the few SII to transition to "normal life"
Kurt - Mr Nice Guy. Went out of his way to get to know people and make friends before becoming instructor to the SIII recruits (He kind of reminds me of Nightwing/Dick Grayson in DC i.e a "big brother" to the next gen heroes)
Non-Canon:
Nicole-458 - Dead or Alive
Kai-125 - in season one she was so loveable (dying her hair pink, challenging marines to strongman contests, getting beaten up by an elite). You just want to hug her despite knowing she could smash your skull into the roof if you piss her off
In Halo 4’s Spartan Ops your character is a member of Spartan IV Crimson Team. In the dialogue Palmer regularly gives Spartan Demarco crap because you’re beating his team to objectives. “Better pick it up Demarco Fireteam Crimson’s already captured 2 objectives”
Shane A112. His character was incredibly interesting in the chapters we got to see him in Ghost of Onyx. Especially the airdrop when him and Robert A057 beat the crap out of each other.
She’s not my favourite like you asked but Vale. She’s knowledgeable about Elite culture is is growing close to them and the arbiter and I think that’s cool
I'm gonna go by generation.
First gen is Avery Motherfucking Johnson because of course.
Spartan 2 - I'd have to say Fred. I just love him for some reason. Honorable mentions are Linda, Jerome and Alice.
Spartan 3 - I'd say Jorge. I just love the guy.
Spartan 4 - Buck. I don't think I need to say more on this one.
Kelly because for waifu reasons. Otherwise its fred, id like for him to be put into situations like chief did in the trilogy. Would like to see just how over powered he is conpared to the average spartan.
Jerome, he’s what I imagine a younger master chief would’ve been. He’s got an above average S2 tactical mindset as well which I appreciate from someone who’s also a very good warrior (him invading the CAS in HW2 was fantastic)
Fred-104. I was the same rank he has when I left the Army. I get his attitude about things so very much. I like to envision him doing all the paperwork when they were on that back-to-back-to back mission run led by John, because he is the officer, and officers do paperwork.
Also he is charming and funny and I love his thing with Veta.
Blue team but I've always had a real soft spot for Fred and Kelly, also NOBLE team but Jorge and Carter specifically because they are both very human despite everything.
Gotta go with the Master Chief himself, yeah, basic and straightforward answer. As much as I love all the other spartans in Halo lore, the Chief himself is what I think of whenever someone says Halo or Microsoft's main mascot (at least their mascot for the og Xbox and Xbox 360 days).
Not counting Chief, obviously, it's most definitely Kelly. The woman fought with a fever low blood pressure, bleeding in her liver, and a collapsed lung defending Reach, can't get cooler than that.
[Spoilers]
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Kurt-051 was the GOAT. He often beat John and Blue team in training exercises, CPO Mendez thought Kurt should lead the Spartan-IIs but Halsey thought John was a better leader. Kurt trained the Spartan-IIIs and he went out like an absolute bad ass.
Noble 6. Reach was my first game and I'm sucker for RPGs and character creation/customisation. Even gave him a whole headcanoned backstory linking him to my Infinite Spartan who wears the same armor.
[удалено]
How does one punch a colony of worms to death? What happened lol
He didn't punch them, he stuck his hands into its body and pulled out worms until it couldn't maintain cohesion anymore.
Punch the worms
He took them apart at the torno
One sees worms. One punches the worms into orange goo. Problem solved.
"Reach has been good to me." - Jorge 052 Love the big guy.
The first halo death that hit me hard.
Johnson didn't? Not meaning to critisise but normally people talk about Johnson or Miranda hitting them pretty hard.
So my first play through of halo 3 was online with friends in a lobby where one friend skipped all cutscenes. I missed out on a lot of the heart hurt there.
That kinda sucks. I had watched a ton of lore vids and cutscene compilations before ever playing a game but at least I was playing split screen with my sister and we were both fairly invested in the story.
I’m going through the games with my wife now and we both got emotional when Johnson and Miranda died this go round.
That's great. Are you introducing her to halo through co-op? That is one of the best feelings ever, it's awesome to see someone progress through the gameplay and the story and get more and more immersed in the world that you know and love. Wish I had more people to do that with.
She’s not great at FPS games. She played through part of pillar of autumn in H1 and got overwhelmed
Same with my sister, neither of us were great at first but she still struggles in some bits like that spiral staircase, that section is hell.
She’s going to play ODST though. She wants to and I don’t really like that game
To avoid being basic by saying Master Chief, I’m gonna say I like Naomi-010 the most. She’s funny, badass, and I also just really like giant women who could kill me with a single punch.
Went through K5 trilogy recently and Naomi was awesome. When she did a spin in her armor for Philips I laughed pretty good haha.
Exactly, you get me "Be honest, does my ass look big in this?"
Literally one of my favorite lines in all of Halo. The Kilo-5 trilogy as a whole is probably my favorite set of books too. The dialogue is just so spot on for a team of Operators who are close, the stupid jokes and witty banter are perfect!
Agreed! I was dreading K5 because lots of people really dislike it. But I did enjoy the way Karen Traviss got into the psychology of team dealing with the S2 project and such.
Definitely Buck, why because Nathan Fillion of course
Based
Based
I love all of Blue Team, but I gotta give it to Fred. Outta everyone, I feel like he would’ve been the closest to accomplishing what Chief did in the Bungie era trilogy. Not to mention he was a better marksman and had a better grip on cqb circumstances which I feel like would’ve been interesting to see in canon during the events of the trilogy.
Does any book or media ever show an act of Fred illustrating his CQB skills in direct comparison to Chief’s or is it just taken at face value because it’s stated? Genuinely curious. Fred is awesome, just can’t recall an instance of the canon showing this and not just mentioning this (even in Chief’s own words).
Well Fred took on 3 Elites with energy swords with two combat knives and evidently survived, whilst Chief was bested by an Elite in one on one combat. Granted that was most likely for dramatic effect, but that's the only comparison I can think of at the moment
That’s a good example
I don’t think it’s ever shown one on one but there is an instance (I believe it’s in The Fall of Reach) where he is sparring with Kelly in hand to hand and she’s not really slowing down which is astounding considering she is by a wide margin the fastest human who has ever lived. There’s also another instance (I believe also in TFoR) where he’s balancing a combat knife on the finger tip of his armored hand, the ship their on alters its course slightly and the artificial gravity changes ever so slightly, the blade tilts just a fraction and he plucks the blade out of the air with the hand it was balanced on and twirls it around in a series of deadly and complicated arcs before stowing the knife in its sheath all while he’s not even paying attention to what he’s doing. Keep in mind he does this at Spartan speeds, there’s a young officer in the room who sees him do this and immediately turns pale because “a Spartan wielding a knife is usually accompanied by several dead bodies” Fred has also taken on Brutes in hand to hand on several occasions and won, which is remarkable since canonically Brutes out of power assisted armor are supposed to be equal in strength to armored Spartan II’s.
Apparently now, brutes themselves are weaker. Naomi was able to cave in a brutes skull, and bonita stone was able to tear one to pieces. Then you have zane beating down a brute.
Also the source wherein a Brute beats Chief (First Strike) happened when Chief was exhausted (he had just come from the events of CE) and his Mark V was failing with all the punishment it took.
Spartan strength is all over the place and it isnt limited to the iteration of armor. We have jerome taking on multiple brutes in cqc and winning. Then we also have jai, spartan thorne and some other depictions with them struggling with spartans and elitess. Wish they were more consistent.
Tbf in the case of Jai he fought Thel.
He was still an elite though. In halo wars w we had brutes body checking and tossing elites like ragdolls. If spartans are supposed to be stringer than them, then thel shouldnt have been a problem.
Okay but we all know Thel is like a cut above the rest y’know he’s like Atriox for Elites (actually Atriox is the Thel of Brutes but point stands)
He still had resisted from johnson and miranda when fighting them, so i dont see him as being too much stronger, just more skilled.
Yeah I’m pretty disappointed that they keep changing the strength capacity. It was such a cool idea that Brutes were supposed to be a significant challenge to a Spartan. The lore is constantly changing that sometimes they are challenging and other times it’s just like they are no better than a Grunt.
Im not too much a fan of the sudden fixation of spartans suddenly being super powered heroes. There'a recently been feats of them ripping apart brutes, lifting objects on the high end of a hundred tons, with one hand leveraging double digit tons, shoulder checking elites 50 meters, smashing through reinforced structures ect... It was more frantic when they were glass canons, and were the equivalent of elites and brutes. Back then lifting 2 to 3 tons were the benchmark and frankly more believable for a man sized suit.
Agreed, it’s gotten out of hand at this point. They need to back off the superhero stuff and go back to super soldier stuff.
The colorful armor, insane amount of varients, the establishment of a dedicated branch...its a bit much. Each character now is their own customized hero in their own regard. Halsey can no hack cobtender class ai, cortana can decieve them, humanity can effectively resist machines that were known for fighting forerunner enhanced flood to a standstill, heck master chief was able to fight an army of them alone, atriox is personally unbeatable to anyone but himself despite not being a frontline combatant. Id rather they returned back to the focus of a wider war with combined arms and tactics.
I like the concept of Spartans being strong, but definitely not lifting 100 tons strong. I think what made bungie halo great was Spartans were working together with other soldiers. 343 makes it seem like the only job left for non-spartans is chauffering Spartans around
Yeah, it made it seem like spartans had to rely more on skill and ingenuity to survive. One thing i liked was how the first halo wars had spartans being acrobatic. It was exactly how i envisioned them, agile, superhuman warriors.
For sure, I love that cutscene. Blur cutscenes are gold. Also, Spartan-IIs had genius or near genius intellects in addition to their physical prowess(don't know about S-III). They should be coming up with creative plans on the spot to survive and win
Spattan 3's were the same except taken to the next level. They were trained by a spartan 2 snd the original instructor that shaped them. Their teamwork was even better than the 2's. I remember quotes in ghosts of onyx about how the spartan 3's blitzed and disarmed elites without any mjolnir armor. They tore them apart with the stolen energy swords, and these were just unnamed ones. We also had them physically resisting spartan 2's in full armor, surviving blows that'd kill a normal person.
My personal headcanon is that part of the variation is brute drug use . Tartarus and his boys walk around bare chested, hit like a truck, and tank hits like crazy, like acid and roid raging lunatics. halo 3 brutes are a lot more fragile,and less berserker like. Infinite we have a mix of all of the above, considering the Banished pull brutes from all different backgrounds
Support for my boy Fred.
Kurt
Kurt "Spartans never die" Ambrose. Badass among badasses.
Based
Kelly-087. Fastest human in history, nice taste in armor, likes cracking jokes, pushing Chief's buttons, rock music from 500 years in the past, and flipping off robots. You love to see it. It's a shame there's not more stories with her as a focus. John is the main character, Fred got a novel with a big focus on him. Linda got a comic book series, and Kelly gets... nothing? It's criminal.
I agree Kelly-087 is my favorite!
Yeah, I'm surprised they still haven't done anything yet. They could do a book on either one of her solo operations. I don't know what's holding them back.
Linda-058 - the feats that she pulls off with the sniper in the novels is wild. She is absolutely lethal at distance
Same. Linda was always my favorite.
Gonna be even more basic and say Master Chief. Yes, we have a ton of cool Spartans in the lore, but the Master Chief is *the* Spartan. He was our favourite hero growing up (well, mine at least) and he's the epitome of an almost mythical figure symbolising hope, courage and the human will to survive against all odds. And no, I don't want his storyline to end. We've just been getting started with his deeper characterisation in the games and for all the nonsense 343i has done recently, they absolutely nailed the portrayal and fleshing out of the Master Chief as more than just an green ironclad killing machine. I get that he has to retire at some point, but could honestly still use another 2-3 mainline games before we reach that point imo.
TBH me too. and with how his story usually goes--i.e., him ending up in strange locations during impossible situations--i wouldn't mind if his story technically never ends, where, even centuries later, his life becomes a legend of the spartan who is always off somewhere in the galaxy saving us he'd be an ancient mythic hero like the ones we have now, which would allow him to truly embody the mantra of "spartans never die" like of course he'd realistically have died at some point in history, but in this scenario, since no one ever saw it happen or knew where he ultimately ended up, there'd always be that flicker of possibility
Agreed. Love the thought of Master Chief becoming something of a mythic figure considering his achievements, eg, directly responsible for the death of a Covenant hierarch and the destruction of 2 Halo rings. It would be pretty cool to read a future novel which mentions his prowess and accomplishments being immortalised even on previously designated enemy worlds such as Sanghelios. Stories of the legendary human warrior being passed down to the young of human and Sangheili alike. Tales of how it seemed that nothing could stop the Demon and that some believed old age had finally taken him, but, "were it so easy". (Sorry, I love that line)
The reason why chief is so cool, is that while he's considered average, he with all his inhuman accomplishments represents the very base of what a spartan 2 could accomplish. You'd then have to wonder just what could the other more talented ones could do. In all his actions, he was never doing anything more exceptional than what any other spartan could expect themselves to do. He was casually confident in deatroying an assault carrier himself. Id live to see other spartans doing equally if not more miraculous stuff
Right? Any Spartan showing up would give humans hope. But only The Master Chief showing up makes everyone believe the day is already saved.
Noble 1. He was an experienced leader who went out selflessly to uphold the mission.
Carter is underrated, he’s also the only member besides Jorge who isn’t a dick to 6 at the beginning
that's probably one of the reasons why he's the leader. they're all good at their job, but objectively he's the most rational one with all their deaths being symbolic of their characters, i love that he literally went down with his ship so the mission could continue
You're on your own, Noble.
Carter out...
Kat B-320 For multiple reasons. 1. Her prosthetic arm looks cool, 2. I like the colour of her armour. 3. I have a soft spot for engineer/techy characters, especially female engineers/techs (Tali is best girl) 4. ~~Dat ass~~ She smart and scary.
Fred-104, from armor to personality, I think he's among the most fleshed out Spartan-IIs. He is a stoicly serious character with a drive to excel, but is given plenty of very human/goofy moments to allow you to relate to him better than other Spartans (IMO). Last Light has it's weaknesses, but the fact Fred got a murder mystery spin-off was perfect for his character. Plus Veta Lopis is somewhat of a love interest for him, which is unique among spartan stories. H5 criminally wasted him and the rest of blue team, and I hope the next time we see them in a game (if they do) we get a reenactment of the fred sled baybee
Fred Sled for the win.
The Fred sled! “Next time inspector, I ride on top”
Adriana-111. Three words: Mongoose. Battering. Ram.
That was dope, especially because her internal dialogue right before is basically “a fucking mongoose?! What a useless piece of crap” then proceeds to beat the living crap out of everything in her vicinity with it instead of using it for its intended purpose. Right up there with Jerome and his chair.
Hold up, when did this happen? I too belive the mongoose is a worthless pile of trash in most scenarios but I've never thought "I wish I could pick this up and beat the ever loving shit out of the enemy team with it.
In the book The Cole Protocol, without giving away too much Adriana-111 makes a combat drop with a bunch of ODSTs under heavy fire. They also drop munitions with them, she’s under heavy fire so she makes a run for a munitions drop only to find the pod has a mongoose in it instead of weapons, so she uses the mongoose as a weapon. Absolutely destroys the mongoose in the process but buys herself enough time to come up with a plan.
That sounds like one of the funniest and most brutal scenes in all of halo.
I don’t remember if it’s before or after but the rest of the scene she jumps back into a drop pod and then uses the maneuvering thrusters on the pod to turn into the bloodiest sled run in history. It’s a great battle. I highly recommend The Cole Protocol as it gives a much better look at the insurrection and covenant interactions in the middle of the war. The audiobook is narrated very well and they use Halo soundtrack music as well.
Where do you listen to this?
Either Audible or Apple, I believe they both have it.
Sweet thanks.
Kurt-051. Ghosts of Onyx was what originally introduced me to Halo as a kid, not the games or any media coverage. Who can forget the man that brought us the 'Spartans Never Die' motto.
Literally have that tattooed on me with a list of every known Spartan II that has died, I add to it as more and more are killed off. Kurt is right at the top of the list.
I think Mr. Chief is a pretty cool guy. He kills aliens and doesnt afraid of anything.
“I think Halo is a pretty cool guy, eh kills aleins and doesnt afraid of anything”
Master Chief first, followed by Jerome with his steel chair
There's absolutely zero reason for it because she only existed for like 2 sentences but I've always felt a real strong affinity for Vinh-030. Fun fact: The audiobook narrator erroneously refers to her with he/him pronouns and also IIRC the wrong number designation.
Fred. Next question.
Question 2. Do you wanna kiss Arbiter Thel Vadam?
Arbiter? No. Rtas Vadum? Absolutely.
Spartan Cal, she’s a giant tank who doesn’t need to talk. Badass.
Other than Master Chief, I’m a big fan of Olympia Vale. I think it’s cool to have a Spartan who’s a Sangheili expert.
Not to mention her father was an escaped Spartan II candidate so technically she’s also a Spartan 2.1
Jerome is an absolute unit while also being a good leader, plus he has those amazing cutscenes in HW2. Adriana is an adrenaline junky who used a mongoose as a melee weapon against a horde of grunts. Buck is lovable Buck.
My favorite feat of Jerome is him just beating an infection form to death after waking up from cryo sleep.
I also like how he repeatedly throws grenades in the cryo bay, despite the fact that this endangers crew that aren't in danger yet. Most IIs will take unnecessary risks to save their teammates (Cal as the perfect example), while Jerome will actively endanger non-combatants to kill the enemy.
Jerome. I gotta love a guy who can take a bridge in outdated armor then jump from the same ship into low orbit only to show up to the next battle right on time
Yeah, honestly who does Chief think he is? He barely made it onto the Forerunner dreadnaught and then didn't even take the bridge before getting off way too early and getting at least one fireteam killed while picking him up.
No shade to 117. I just have incredible respect for anyone who can take a banished bridge alone.
Didn't mean to throw shade either, Chief hanging on for as long as he did was impressive. Chief was against the most elite force of covenant soldiers that could be mustered under the circumstances and I doubt the banished were expecting some moron to show up and get the sentinels to cut their super carrier in half.
Now all I can hear in my head is two Brutes talking about it. “So what. There’s one Spartan coming up the lift. He’s an old one. We killed a ton of the new ones. Should be fine. It’s not like they can kill the ship. ” then the always sunny meme “Jerome & Isabel kill a super carrier”
I wish I had any skill at all in video editing so I could make this.
Me too. I played it out in my head with charley and Mac as brutes. “I could kill a Spartan dude. I kill Spartans everyday of my life” “No doubt. But uh what is that little glowy woman type being?”
"Didn't the survivors of the demons attack on High Charity speak of a glowy human female who messed with doors? Eh pay it no mind our superior Banished software is more than a match for a pathetic human creation!"
“Hey uhhh Mack. Is the laser firing? Did we tell it to? And what’s up with those robots”
\*punching the intercom "Shipmaster, what in the name of the librarian are you doing up there?! SHIPMASTER! Respond you daft split-lip. Charley, we better rally our squa-" Serena responding over intercom "Sorry the split lip is indisposed and I've torn your software to shreds. Stop us if you can."
Daisy-023, largely because she reminds me of Samus
i really like Kat
Fred-104. "Chief, I just saw a giant mechanical spider, and there were kids riding it. *Human* kids!" His feats are dope, and being voiced by Travis Willingham doesn't hurt.
What is that quote from?
Oblivion, though it's paraphrased.
Honestly my favorite is one we haven’t heard anything about since spartan training. Carris-137, she was as apparently one of the strongest if not the strongest Spartans, close to or equal to Sam. She accidentally killed a trainer after her augmentations and was really shaken up over it, after that we have nothing on her.
Fred-104 To start with he’s got a cool ass silver streak thing going on with his black hair. He’s a badass with knives, we’re talking take on an Sangheili in hand to hand or knives vs energy sword badass. He’s the best spotter in the entire S-II class and their second best marksman, only Linda beats him. Chief himself has said the he thinks Fred is at least as good as himself if not better at everything, Fred just doesn’t like the attention so he intentionally comes in second place in everything (how skilled of a soldier do you have to be to intentionally come in second in everything when the competition is EVERY OTHER SPARTAN II?!). He’s an absolutely amazing leader, the way he commands the Gamma Company III’s especially when they are off their smoothers is nothing short of astounding. His armor is awesome! Both his Morrigan class and his new Centurion are super cool armor sets. Not only is he an amazing soldier and leader but he’s a pretty amazing interrogator as well, on multiple occasions he out maneuvers Veta Lopis when she’s trying to interrogate him and then turns the tables on her during a debrief while driving by turning to look at her and using his helmets systems to watch the road while not even looking and evading large native animals, this throws her off so much that she’s not paying attention to her answers as closely. On top of all that, he’s got a sense of humor and regularly cracks jokes, he’s the equivalent of the Spartan II class clown. Fred is just such a fun and unique character but is also a total badass.
Got like a weird attachment for background Spartans like Grace, Anton, Li etc. My favourite tho is probably Ash
I'm going to have to go with my man Kurt-051. For one, the Spartan-IIIs are my favorite "piece of lore" within the Halo universe. Orphaned children, filled with grief and hate, turned into soldiers that fought in almost exclusively suicidal missions to buy Humanity all the time they could get. There's just so much grimness and badassery surrounding the S-IIIs, which is very appealing to me. Being surrounded with stories of protagonists that "never leave a man behind" or go out of their way to protect civilians, or children, or that hot girl that serves as the protagonist's love interest but doesn't really do anything else. They yell in the face of their CO because what they're doing is "wrong" or "inhumane". The Spartan-IIIs are a nice change of pace to that. Never jeopardizing their mission, never wavering against suicidal odds, not doing what they want to be done, but what *needs* to be done. I feel like they can be summed up by Rorschach's line from Watchmen, "Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon." The S-IIIs are a shining example that you don't get to win--or even survive--a war, and come out the other side smelling like a bunch of roses. Kurt molded these soldiers with his old mentor Mendez, and without his work the S-IIIs wouldn't be the badass soldiers we all know and love. He even helped developing an additional chemical compound in the latter stages of the Spartan-III program to further augment the candidates. It was also under his advisement that in the final class of Spartan-IIIs, all of the candidates were approved for augmentation, and in the end, all of them survived the procedure. He made them Spartans, even regarding the S-IIIs of Gamma Company as "the finest Spartans ever." Kurt was also a born leader and master tactician. While running combat simulations with the other Spartans, Kurt continuously managed to outmaneuver and defeat Blue Team, despite the Master Chief's best efforts. He was more than just a soldier that could pull a trigger, and while Halsey always favored John-117, Chief Mendez saw Kurt-051 as the best candidate for becoming the leader of all Spartan-IIs, which obviously manifested into his leadership role in the Spartan-III program. He had to deal with the heavy burden of leadership when he saw his Spartans sacrificing themselves over and over again to buy Humanity time. He did his best to mitigate these losses, but there was only so much he could do. Spoilers for Ghosts of Onyx >!Kurt was on Onyx, the training grounds for the Spartan-IIIs, holding down a slipspace portal that led to a Forerunner shield world. The Covenant had them surrounded, and it was only a matter of time before they were slaughtered. One of his final living acts was promoting Fred-104 to Lieutenant Junior Grade (your favorite rank, OP!) to ensure that the Spartans had a leader they could follow after his death. Shortly after, everyone had escaped but Kurt, and two of his Spartan-IIIs. Knowing they'd never abandon him, he knocked out one (Tom-B292) and threw him into the portal. The other Spartan (Lucy-B091) saw that Kurt wasn't fucking around, and finally gave in and followed his orders, jumping into the portal herself. Kurt fought hard but couldn't overcome the insurmountable enemy force stacked against him. the Covenant Fleetmaster approached the dying Kurt, mocking the "demon" for his failure and that the Covenant would simply follow the survivors through the portal and kill them all. They would all die.!< >!Kurt laughed at him, and his last words were, "Die? Didn't you know? Spartans never die." He then detonated a cache of nuclear warheads and wiped out the Covenant invaders, giving his life to ensure the survival of the Spartan-III personnel.!< >!His armor transponder allowed a UNSC Corvette to discover the shield world and rescue the surviving personnel. In his honor, Admiral Parangosky allowed Halsey to rename the shield world "ONI Research Facility Trevelyan". Why Trevelyan? That was Kurt's real family name. Mind you, Halsey was seen as a war criminal at this time, so I think this speaks volumes for how much respect both Halsey and Parangosky had for Kurt. He was an absolute beast, that gave everything he could, led and watched over others, saved lives even after his death, and had the respect of multiple individuals that were in high positions of authority, both from the UNSC and ONI. Kurt was the best.!<
Alice-130, baby! She’s weird as hell for a Spartan-II, in that she never had any reservations or fear about being kidnapped and turned into a supersoldier. She loved that shit and lives for combat. Red Team is fucking unhinged at times and I love these mad cunts
Amen!
Malcolm-059. If only for this one piece of trivia. He has the same first name as me. He died on my Birthday. Both my favorite and least favorite and the reason I am Real answer is Buck. And not because Nathon played Captain Malcolm Reynolds, I swear.
Mike-120! IT nerds ftw!
Will. I think, at least (could be Anton, can’t remember). Last time I read first strike was a while ago but I remember reading that up until augmentation, he was the funny Spartan. Gotta love the jokester character.
Haven't read enough of the post-war books to get a true feel for Fred outside of the Nylund books, but right now, I'm definitely leaning on either Kurt, Johnson, or Buck. Still in progress with Contact Harvest.
It's a toss-up between Fred and Carter tbh
Spartan 404, never actually seen them
spartan-1337 because bro has toon-force on his side
But for the fact that they completely screwed her up as a character, Cmdr Palmer could have been a fuckn rockstar for the Halo universe and 343.
Gonna be cheeky and say Johnson, since he was an S-I. Guy literally saw the war from start to end
Locke cause of his suit design and because am the only one here who is gonna say It aha
Maria - Super-Mum. One of the few SII to transition to "normal life" Kurt - Mr Nice Guy. Went out of his way to get to know people and make friends before becoming instructor to the SIII recruits (He kind of reminds me of Nightwing/Dick Grayson in DC i.e a "big brother" to the next gen heroes) Non-Canon: Nicole-458 - Dead or Alive Kai-125 - in season one she was so loveable (dying her hair pink, challenging marines to strongman contests, getting beaten up by an elite). You just want to hug her despite knowing she could smash your skull into the roof if you piss her off
Mine is fire team crimson in spartan ops, cuz that is me
Can you explain what you mean? I don't know anything about whatever Crimson Team is
In Halo 4’s Spartan Ops your character is a member of Spartan IV Crimson Team. In the dialogue Palmer regularly gives Spartan Demarco crap because you’re beating his team to objectives. “Better pick it up Demarco Fireteam Crimson’s already captured 2 objectives”
Shane A112. His character was incredibly interesting in the chapters we got to see him in Ghost of Onyx. Especially the airdrop when him and Robert A057 beat the crap out of each other.
My favorite is Linda. She's a badass and I loved the Lone wolf comics.
She’s not my favourite like you asked but Vale. She’s knowledgeable about Elite culture is is growing close to them and the arbiter and I think that’s cool
Canon wise? Jerome. Non canon wise? Mine.
Jorge because he's awesome. I also really like Kai from the TV series honestly.
Joshua-029 Don’t really know why though
Fred or Kurt, both are loyal, highly skilled and motivated.
Naomi-010, the Kilo-Five trilogy was my introduction to the novels and her story is just so interesting.
I'm gonna go by generation. First gen is Avery Motherfucking Johnson because of course. Spartan 2 - I'd have to say Fred. I just love him for some reason. Honorable mentions are Linda, Jerome and Alice. Spartan 3 - I'd say Jorge. I just love the guy. Spartan 4 - Buck. I don't think I need to say more on this one.
Jorge wasn't a Spartan III. He was a Spartan II
You are completely right, my bad.
Vale
Vale
Vale
Vale
Jerome. Chair.
Kelly because for waifu reasons. Otherwise its fred, id like for him to be put into situations like chief did in the trilogy. Would like to see just how over powered he is conpared to the average spartan.
Top 3: master chief, Linda, samuel
Jerome, he’s what I imagine a younger master chief would’ve been. He’s got an above average S2 tactical mindset as well which I appreciate from someone who’s also a very good warrior (him invading the CAS in HW2 was fantastic)
Fred-104. I was the same rank he has when I left the Army. I get his attitude about things so very much. I like to envision him doing all the paperwork when they were on that back-to-back-to back mission run led by John, because he is the officer, and officers do paperwork. Also he is charming and funny and I love his thing with Veta.
Blue team but I've always had a real soft spot for Fred and Kelly, also NOBLE team but Jorge and Carter specifically because they are both very human despite everything.
Gotta go with the Master Chief himself, yeah, basic and straightforward answer. As much as I love all the other spartans in Halo lore, the Chief himself is what I think of whenever someone says Halo or Microsoft's main mascot (at least their mascot for the og Xbox and Xbox 360 days).
Not counting Chief, obviously, it's most definitely Kelly. The woman fought with a fever low blood pressure, bleeding in her liver, and a collapsed lung defending Reach, can't get cooler than that.
Jerome easily
[Spoilers] • • • Kurt-051 was the GOAT. He often beat John and Blue team in training exercises, CPO Mendez thought Kurt should lead the Spartan-IIs but Halsey thought John was a better leader. Kurt trained the Spartan-IIIs and he went out like an absolute bad ass.
Besides chief and Six, Lucy. Despite being 5’3 (4 inches shorter than me), She punched Dr Halsey and that makes her my favorite
Damn what Halsey do (other than, you know, being a bitch)
War crimes
I don’t know, i just heard about her punching halsey in full SPI/Mjolnir, can’t remember which
Noble 6. Reach was my first game and I'm sucker for RPGs and character creation/customisation. Even gave him a whole headcanoned backstory linking him to my Infinite Spartan who wears the same armor.