That last part is of course about the TIME TRAVEL! MC GOES BACK TO REACH? LEGENDARY PLANET = MY DOG'S FRISBEE!! etc. threads that run rampant here.
Before I start, let me just say I'm all up for future Halo games. Spinoffs, new branches of the franchise, different types of Halo games, all that stuff sounds great. But why do I still hear people hoping for more Master Chief games? A Halo 4? Really? Why would you introduce an alien threat that will destroy humanity and have it culminate in a super-climactic finale at the end of an epic trilogy, and then want to staple on another piece at the end about something completely different? That's stupid. Something like that works for Indiana Jones because they're all separate adventures. But what if you took the Lord of the Rings, and added a new movie where Bilbo goes on vacation and Frodo has a party with all the goblins but oh no! Bilbo's coming back sooner than expected and Frodo better get the house cleaned up! That's just ridiculous, and it's stupid. The purposes of those characters have been FULFILLED. GET OVER IT. Master Chief is no different. That's why I have to give Halo 4 a big THUMBS DOWN. To prove my point, we're going to examine him a little bit.
In his ORIGINAL appearance, Master Chief enters the beginning of Halo 1 by climbing out of a cryo chamber. He then proceeds to kick alien ass.
JUMP TO HALO 3
People went bananas trying to predict what would happen to Master Chief! Is he going to die? Is he going to retire and live peacefully? Will he and the Arbiter confess their love and run away together? QUESTIONS!
So Bungie must have thought about this for some time and came to the perfect conclusion.
He can't die, because he's not that type of tragic figure that sacrifices themselves for others. He doesn't have to. He just kicks enough ass that those kinds of sacrifices don't need to be made. He wouldn't just die because we're continually beaten over the head with the fact that above all other things, John's greatest trait is his LUCK. He is LUCKY, so death is not in his future. Even in a situation where he APPEARED to die, he would somehow make it through. Hmmmmmm...
He can't retire. What's the point? He's a soldier bred for war. There's no way a character like that can just go on living a civilian life. Why would he want to? He is, was, and will always be a soldier. He has no desire for such things and such a life would only be misery.
Arby love? Let's not go there.
So Bungie figured out the perfect solution, which made me slap my head when I saw it, realizing that I should have seen it coming far sooner. Master Chief kicked ass (obviously), saved the universe (not surprisingly) and then people thought he was dead (INTERESTING), but in reality was floating in space, surviving so that the little boys with MC boners wouldn't cry about their favourite character being dead. But what do you do with a character in such a unique predicament. You have him exit the same way he entered.
Master Chief makes his grand finale by climbing back into a cryo chamber for a hell of a nap. Why is this perfect?
1. It's POETRY. It brings the character FULL CIRCLE in a way killing or retiring him never could. We don't have to see his face, and he keeps his air of mystery. Master Chief remains one of the greatest videogame heroes ever, by being that guy you can always count on to show up to save the day, only to disappear again. But why should he not be in another sequel?
2. Because the Covenant and the Flood was his threat. He fights them almost all his life, and he commits his act of (seemingly) self-sacrifice to save our butts from the bad guys. Then he makes his full circle exit so that his character arc can END. He has no other purpose. To stuff him into another situation would DESTROY every bit of poetic justice Bungie has woven into his character. Why could you possibly want that?
3. It's not that he's left alive to add another game to the perfect trilogy, it's that he's still around to let us take part in the very core of the Halo 3 marketing campaign. Master Chief is dead as we know it, and we've had our memorial for him. But deep down we know he can't be dead. He's gotta still be out there.
We still BELIEVE.