Bungie Universe
This topic has moved here: Subject: The Importance of Helmets in Halo: Reach. (WALL OF TEXT)
  • Subject: The Importance of Helmets in Halo: Reach. (WALL OF TEXT)
Subject: The Importance of Helmets in Halo: Reach. (WALL OF TEXT)

DEEDLE LEEDLE LEEDLE DEEEEE

This.

  • 07.11.2012 8:55 AM PDT

gooby pls

If you punch Emile's body the shields go out and recharge. Does this mean his life-support is functioning?

  • 07.12.2012 7:48 PM PDT

great read, also if i can recall...didn't emile start to be nice to noble 6 through out the mission? i know that he said some encouraging stuff before the two split and he got on the gun?

  • 07.12.2012 8:33 PM PDT

Hey I am a big Bungie fan ever since I played Halo 2. I love the series, I love Bungie. I have made a few Bungie logos in my metal shop.

Very nice topic.

  • 07.16.2012 12:10 PM PDT

I'm Gourlay, I'm only here because I didn't know we had the option to leave.


Posted by: CavemanBCE
This idea of the Spartan's helmets being the only thing keeping a supersoldier from being a normal human is a prevalent motif in Halo: Reach. This is established early on in the game, in the first mission. When Jorge-052 first discovers the girl at the Visegrad Relay, he has his armor on and tries to do his job. He holds her still, speaks to her in English when she is clearly speaking Hungarian which Jorge also speaks, and his inability to relate to her nearly gets him killed. When she is lifted from her hiding place under the stairs, Jorge-052 ignores her pleas and struggle to get loose, while he attempts to calm her, business as usual. Then she says, "Még... Itt vannak", which translates as "There's more". When Jorge realizes this, he stiffens up, then shields the civilian with his body just in time for the sangheili Zealot to miss it's attack. After the skirmish is over and the Relay is cleared of hostiles, Jorge-052 takes his helmet off, showing his very human (and also father-like) face to the girl, attempting to comfort her. He speaks her language, even recognizes her dialogue, attempting to close the gap between them. The members of Noble Team, excluding Emile-A239, remove their helmets around each other and their superiors. This is to reinforce their bond with one another, that they don't just see each other as a set of armor, and they don't want to be seen as such.

When Jorge stays behind on the Long Night of Solace, he removes his helmet, removing the barrier between him and Noble Six (and the audience). He speaks his piece, and he's gone. Jorge, who is the most "human" member of Noble Team is the first to go. Carter-A259 removes his helmet during his final run on the Pelican. After he does so, when he knows he's going to die, he briefly banishes his attitude as the commanding officer of the team and says that Cortana made the right choice in choosing Noble Six as her momentary protector. He relinquishes his place as the primary member of Noble Team.

Catherine-B320, who shares some similar distance issues with Emile (although for different reasons), dies by a headshot. Why would Bungie choose such a brutal, sudden way to kill off one of their main characters? I've said before that one of the reasons why I liked Kat's death was because instead of falling into the cliche "going out with a bang" death that Bungie likes to employ so often, hers was more realistic of a war scenario. Here one minute, gone the next. That may be one part of it, but just before she dies, she finally opens up to Noble Six on the elevator. Before, she was untrustworthy or cold to Six, because he/she was a replacement for a fallen comrade, but also because Kat is wounded. Kat is insecure because of her robotic prosthetic, and she thinks the other Noble members consider her more as a liability than an asset, and there may be some truth to it. Carter protects her from the Zealot attack in Winter Contigency. Her Firefight voice examples show this, and she comes over as "sassy" in an attempt to be independent, as well as the unsual number of ground engagements she takes part in. For a cryptanalyst, she spends an awful lot of time with her boots in the mud. She may be trying to prove that she is valuable, in spite of her disability and despite her operation as the hacker of the team. After being helped off the floor by Noble Six, in brief moment of vulnerability, she opens to him. She puts her helmet back on, and is cut down by what is probably the same sangheili Zealot that attacked her before, straight through the helmet.

At the end of the game, after the UNSC Pillar of Autumn makes the jump to Halo, Noble Six dies fighting an onslaught of sangheili warriors. He removes his helmet, and brings as many of the aliens with him as he can, signifying that the character of Noble Six is the player, who kills countless enemies. He dies after an elite stabs him, apparently in the face, with an energy blade.

Although Emile dies before Six does, I decided to explain his death last because it is the most interesting to me. In my other thread, I explain my thoughts on Emile, that he embodies what he thinks a Spartan should be. The only emotion he lets himself convey is that of anger or wrath. He doesn't show his face to even his Spartan comrades, instead carving a skull on his helmet's visor. The carving is his face, he is his armor, he is a Spartan. When he is attacked by Zealots on the mass driver, he kills one and asks for more. Another Zealot comes behind him, and interestingly enough, the elite puts its hand over the Spartan's visor and skewers him. Emile's "Spartan face" is removed, and when it is removed, he is killed. Emile, who after living a life of anger and distance, is ready to die, but in typical Emile fashion, goes down fighting the enemy he hated. Emile, who wouldn't remove his helmet and show his human side, (though while "good", is the Spartan's weakness) has his Spartan identity briefly suspended, and that is when he is killed.

When the Spartans' remove their helmets, they were communicating to the people around them, supersoldiers and civilians, that they too are human. Although showing this human side means that they too have the capacity for compassion, it reveals all the weaknesses that are associated with it. It's as if the ONI myth that Spartans are unkillable is true, so long as they remain the faceless defenders of Earth and all her colonies. Maybe this goes to explain why John-117 is such an exceptional survivor, we never see his face.
That was a mouth full.

  • 07.16.2012 5:53 PM PDT

I DO have time to bleed...i just dont want to.

my eyes hurt now... :P

  • 07.21.2012 2:26 PM PDT

I like to try re-railing derailed threads.

Wow that was awesome. Its great that you thought all of this through, and shared it with the community.

  • 07.23.2012 5:15 PM PDT

Hello at gamenoodle you can play all the top flash online games for free with no sign up their are time management, puzzle, word, card and board games, chess, adventure, 3d games, action, and arcade games plus many many more really fun games to be played only at game noodle

Bubble o mania is just one of the really great games also cookies walk in the woods is a really fun adventure game that not only has great gameplay but also features brilliant graphics aswell.

i tried using some of these weapons to on the warehouse escape map but non of them really worked.....

  • 07.24.2012 1:00 PM PDT

Nice post, I completely agree.

  • 07.28.2012 1:59 AM PDT


Posted by: Madmaxepic
Honestly, I never want to see the Chief's face, it would ruin everything.


I agree very much with this, he started as the faceless, personally I think he should stay that way throughout...I'm not adverse to like seeing the back of his head or something at some point though...can't get much more specific than "brown hair", that's something that would affect anyone's vision of what he looks like or anything. He should stay facially unknown, that's one of the reasons I think he's so cool...that we can project ourselves or whoever or whatever we want onto his face. He's just as much a symbol as he is a character.

  • 07.28.2012 8:34 PM PDT

There is a flaw here though, that Chief does remove his helmet. After Halo CE he removed his helmet while in the pelican. I agree with your point though and I think it was an awesome read. But remember, Noble 6 also took HIS helmet off in the beginning of the game while being driven in the warthog. I would say that the similarity between Noble 6's removal of his helmet and MC's removal is close, but then again Master Chief has survived 2 more games since he took off his helmet.

[Edited on 07.30.2012 8:57 PM PDT]

  • 07.30.2012 8:56 PM PDT

"I may not be perfect, but always been true."


Posted by: Sithslayer50
There is a flaw here though, that Chief does remove his helmet. After Halo CE he removed his helmet while in the pelican. I agree with your point though and I think it was an awesome read. But remember, Noble 6 also took HIS helmet off in the beginning of the game while being driven in the warthog. I would say that the similarity between Noble 6's removal of his helmet and MC's removal is close, but then again Master Chief has survived 2 more games since he took off his helmet.


Irrelevant, Chief wasn't a victim of the Doomed By Canon trope.

  • 07.30.2012 10:50 PM PDT


Posted by: RKOSNAKE

Irrelevant, Chief wasn't a victim of the Doomed By Canon trope.


I'm not familiar. Does that simply mean that all Spartans introduced must be killed in order for the game to remain canon?

  • 07.31.2012 1:16 AM PDT

"I may not be perfect, but always been true."


Posted by: Sithslayer50

Posted by: RKOSNAKE

Irrelevant, Chief wasn't a victim of the Doomed By Canon trope.


I'm not familiar. Does that simply mean that all Spartans introduced must be killed in order for the game to remain canon?


No, it means that as a prequel, the characters were doomed to die due to them not being present in later works or because they were not mentioned.

  • 08.01.2012 8:14 PM PDT
  •  | 
  • Exalted Member

Special Operations, Heavy Weapons Specialist

Very nice.

  • 09.12.2012 2:43 AM PDT

Dear tomorrow, Find some sensibility, Respond to emotion.
Dear Politician, Define sagacity,
All chances of survival are beginning to diminish.
Comedy is no excuse for our own blasphemies.
Mass media, Mass pessimism, Mass Denial.
My television tells me to panic, but I don't think I'll listen.
The apathetic force us to persevere, with their backwards priorities.

Nice post OP. Especially your guess on why John is a survivor.

  • 09.13.2012 12:44 PM PDT

H3ITWP

That was excellent. Nice job and analysis.

  • 09.13.2012 1:52 PM PDT


Posted by: RKOSNAKE

Posted by: Sithslayer50

Posted by: RKOSNAKE

Irrelevant, Chief wasn't a victim of the Doomed By Canon trope.


I'm not familiar. Does that simply mean that all Spartans introduced must be killed in order for the game to remain canon?


No, it means that as a prequel, the characters were doomed to die due to them not being present in later works or because they were not mentioned.


That makes no sense. None of the ODST squad in Halo 3:ODST died, and that was a prequel as well. Your logic just got beat.

  • 09.13.2012 4:07 PM PDT

Haters are going to hate.
Praisers are going to praise.

The Bungie Forums are what keeps my mind sharp and my fingers active, between writing my own movie scripts, drawing, and studying industrial design. At the moment I'm working on miniatures for a short movie that I'll hopefully be able to film once I've saved up for a camera... That's me, with the mug, trying to have a conversation with Konoko.


Posted by: RKOSNAKE

Posted by: Sithslayer50

Posted by: RKOSNAKE

Irrelevant, Chief wasn't a victim of the Doomed By Canon trope.


I'm not familiar. Does that simply mean that all Spartans introduced must be killed in order for the game to remain canon?


No, it means that as a prequel, the characters were doomed to die due to them not being present in later works or because they were not mentioned.
And also cause it was the theme of the game.

  • 09.13.2012 4:33 PM PDT

"I may not be perfect, but always been true."


Posted by: crispychicken49

Posted by: RKOSNAKE

Posted by: Sithslayer50

Posted by: RKOSNAKE

Irrelevant, Chief wasn't a victim of the Doomed By Canon trope.


I'm not familiar. Does that simply mean that all Spartans introduced must be killed in order for the game to remain canon?


No, it means that as a prequel, the characters were doomed to die due to them not being present in later works or because they were not mentioned.


That makes no sense. None of the ODST squad in Halo 3:ODST died, and that was a prequel as well. Your logic just got beat.


Explain to me how ODST is a prequel.

  • 09.13.2012 5:42 PM PDT

very true

  • 09.13.2012 7:46 PM PDT
  • gamertag: [none]
  • user homepage:

"This bandicoot will be my general, he will lead my Cortex Commandos to world domination...

This time, I shall reign TRIUMPHANT!"

-Dr. Cortex

Well you've convinced me to not dislike Kat... which took serious work from other people I knew. Good read. I agree completely.

  • 09.14.2012 8:06 PM PDT

-KOS-

Great analysis. :)

  • 09.16.2012 8:32 AM PDT

Posted by: Primum Agmen
A tosser is the same as a wanker. To toss oneself off is to fondle the trouser weasel.


Current Gamertag:
JesusWasAHindu


Posted by: RKOSNAKE
Explain to me how ODST is a prequel.

It takes place before Halo 3.

  • 09.16.2012 9:34 AM PDT

Aviator // UHH-144 Falcon
Operator // M12-LRV Warthog

It's quite fascinating, really. First of all, excellent analysis.

On the flip side of things, however, consider how the masked solders are typically the bad guys. Look at the classic Stormtroopers from Star Wars, always wearing helmets, versus the open-faced variants that the rebels wore. This motif of a masked menace is epitomized by Darth Vader himself.

And in other fiction as well, such as - more recently - the Hydra soldiers from Captain America, who all also wore concealing helmets.

Typically, the good guys' faces are visible to the audience exactly for the reason that Caveman offered: so that we can relate to them and more easily identify them as the heroes.

It's really a testament to Bungie's storytelling and character development that they managed to draw us in so tightly with the ever-masked Master Chief and the rest of his nearly inhuman SPARTAN allies.

  • 10.01.2012 6:49 PM PDT