Spoiler Alert

After the Halo is fired and the Flood wiped out hopefully forever, Master Chief finds himself adrift in space, lucky to be alive. His only companion, Cortana, informs him it could be years before they're found. Unwavering, he climbs into the cryogenic sleep pod and tells her to "wake me when you need me."

It's certainly a relief to gamers to discover that the Chief did indeed survive the cataclysmic events at the Ark. But in one grim and disturbing statement, the Chief reminds us of the true nature of game characters and the futility of ever lasting peace.

Master Chief does not say "if you need me" but rather "when." He, the purest warrior to ever exist (a SPARTAN), knows full well the inevitability of armed conflict. He quite literally knows nothing else. Not how to till the earth, not to grow, not even to nurture relationships.

Bungie includes several fantastic and subtle moments showing this throughout the game. None more so than soon after the death of Miranda Keyes. As Sergeant Johnson carries her lifeless body back into the Pelican, Master Chief just stands there. His body shifts a bit. He looks, for the first time in the entire game, unsure. Like he doesn't even know how to grieve. And why would he? Why would they teach him how to do that? What purpose would that serve the ultimate warrior? It is not a tactical situation that has given him pause but emotion.

Upon crash landing on Earth, the marine rescue squad is trying in vain to see if he's still alive. His armor is locked up. They can't penetrate it to see if he's still alive. Apt metaphor. His armor has replaced his skin and it serves to remove any trace of human frailty. True, it protects him from the ravages of combat. Without it, his body would be destroyed by Covenant artillery. But in its rigidity, it also allows him to show no outward emotion. Bear witness to Sergeant Johnson's death scene wherein we hear sorrowful music played over a lingering closeup of the back of his helmet. Is he crying in that suit? We'll never know.

His relationship with Cortana seems to reveal a faint spark of human emotion still left in him. However, looking back at the moment where they're finally reunited, Cortana initially seems overjoyed at Chief's brave and gallant effort to rescue her. Her display of emotion greatly diminishes when she realizes that the Chief needs the Activation Index to light the Halo. Did he come to save her or merely to "finish the fight?" Later she says that she'll miss him, that it was an honor serving with him. He blankly prepares for his long sleep until the next game.

All of this of course makes him the perfect game character. There is no doubt in his mind. He fears nothing. A simplistic story requires an avatar who is unflinching in his desire to reach the end of his goal. This is most likely why so many were disappointed playing as the Arbiter, a character with a true arc and doubt in a misguided religion, in the second installment of the series. The Arbiter hunts down the Heretic Leader who is, as players of the first game know, quite right about the true nature of the Halos. The Arbiter must continue on with his assassination mission despite the player's foreknowledge. Master Chief, on the other hand, never makes such mistakes.

Returning to the title of my post, throughout Halo 3, I greatly enjoyed the combat. It empowered me, more so than almost all other games. Ripping turrets out of the ground, meleeing Covenant vehicles to death, leading other soldiers into combat. It's almost impossible not to feel emboldened by the visceral action. But then the ending made me consider what the life of a career soldier or even a jihadist must be like; how it would feel to have a life fully consumed by violence. And then I felt nothing but sympathy for Bungie's hero. I can now only hope for further adventures with John-117 so I can someday see him become more than a gun.