Can the Master Chief from Halo be called a hero?

The Game Room
1

Recently, my brother bought an XBOX-360 and got Halo 3 and Halo ODST. I honestly wasn’t very excited, my enthusiasm for Halo died around the time Halo 2 came out. Back then I played the first game, and read the first book, so excuse me if I’m missing things here…

A question came up in my mind, and I’m wondering what other people’s opinion on it is. Can the Master Chief be called a hero? Personally I don’t think he can. He fights very well and makes a difference, but it’s all based on his performance. Apparently he just fighting because he’s supposed to and nothing else. I can see how any old space marine could be a hero, but I think the Master Chief is disqualified by his motivations.

If the Master Chief is supposed to be a hero, wouldn’t that mean there is a case for a war droid or something to also be a hero? I see a war droid that fights well and makes a difference in battle to be similar, is it a hero too?
EDIT: I just realized, this should probably have been posted in “Game Room”, sorry about that.

2

I don’t get it. What specifically do you think disqualifies him? What do you mean by “Master Chief is disqualified by his motivations”?

3

Oh. Not Master Chef, Master Chief. :wink:

Yeah, it should go to the Game Room – let me take care of that for you.

4

Man, lots of talk over Halo these days in the Game Room, that’s for sure.

Okay, I give up. Why all the love for Halo?
5

I mean that the Master Chief doesn’t seem to fight for a cause, he fights because that’s what he’s been “made” for by those who kidnapped and trained him from childhood. There isn’t really a goal in his mind as far as I could tell, it’s all just “because they told me to”. As far as I can tell, he’s not fighting for the reasons you’d normally except a soldier to give. “I’m protecting my friends and family”, “I’m fighting for the glory of the motherland”, “Fighting will get me money and I can go retire after”, etc. It seemed to me that his motivation is obedience for the sake of obedience. It’s not altruistic, selfish, or nationalistic, it’s just there. It’s like programming. I don’t see how that’s so far removed from a robot.

6

Heroism is in the eyes of the beholder. Some would not consider him a hero for the reasons you state; others would, however, as he risks life and limb for the people of Earth and carries out his duties very effectively and impressively.

7

Well there was the game just released.

Anyway I’m not seeing what the problem is. Unless you’re following some ludicrously narrow definition of “hero” where they have to follow the Campellian hero’s journey in which case I have to say stop being a pedantic nerd and look at a few of the broader definition.

8

I don’t think we can go that far. Yes, he’s been trained, and molded. But he clearly does have a personality, he has his own likes and dislikes, he has a sense of humour and so on. He likes his compatriots; he goes out of his way several times to help or rescue them. In Halo 2 and 3, he co-operates with the Flood at points; when he first meets the Arbiter in 2, it’s him persuading the Arbiter that they should work together. If you can call his main goal an implant, a forcibly created drive, then clearly at the least he has the ability himself to define, interpret, and if necessary alter that goal, as well has having his own other points of interest on which he will act. And really, that doesn’t seem all that different from everyone else.

9

As it happens, I was just caught up in reading some of the Halo lore on the wiki site devoted to it, which uses as sources the games, novels, graphic novels, and even the initial alternate-reality games like ILoveBees.

To many folks (my coworkers included), playing Halo for the story is a bit like reading Playboy for the articles - which is sad, because Bungie have a long, long history of making games with very intricate plots, usually with fan input and careful editing to make them relatively airtight compared to the settings of most games. Bungie’s fascination with numerology is also pretty notable.

The definition of ‘hero’ can be argued for centuries, but since the OP references ‘Master Chief from Halo’ and not just ‘from the Halo games,’ I think it’s fair to look at his entire story as it appears in all canon entries (warning spoilers whatever).

Honestly, it’s almost unrealistic how perfect they make the Master Chief out to be in the story - he’s served for decades, he’s earned nearly every medal possible, and he hates leaving anyone behind–even violating orders to protect his squadmates. Of course, he’s also been augmented with super strength and reflexes, and wields one of the most powerful suits of armor designed by the human military.

This, coupled with the fact that he never takes his helmet off, make him a pretty unique avatar among FPS games - sure, there’s never been a game where you’re actually supposed to be the scared grunt in a rank-and-file who always follows along and never actually leads a charge, but Halo is one of the only games to give a long character history (backed up by its own fictional science) as to why you, the player, are a near-invincible badass when you’re controlling Spartan 117.

So I’d say he’s definitely a hero, almost to a ridiculous extent - watch some of the Halo 3 commercials from a couple of years ago to see the lengths the canon around the Human-Covenant war was expounded upon for some examples. The marketing campaign’s theme was “Believe,” and the overall message boiled down to, ‘Believe that a lone super-soldier can turn the battle around, fend off the zealous Covenant and the infectious Flood, and prevent the destruction of all sentient life.’

Pretty over-the-top, but definitely well into the ‘hero’ category, when you count some of the tough decisions made in the later games and books.