Bungie Universe
This topic has moved here: Subject: Define Hero
  • Subject: Define Hero
Subject: Define Hero

Reading one of the other topics I noticed that everyone seems to have very close ideas of what heroism is, of what a Hero should resemble. However, it is the small minute details that often make us flame one another.
So I ask: Bungie Universe let us come to a solid conclusion of what Heroism is, and what a Hero should look like? Be sure tom include examples within the Bungie Universe to support your ideas.

Dictionary.com Definition:
1.a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.

2.a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.

3.the principal male character in a story, play, film, etc.

4.Classical Mythology.
a.a being of godlike prowess and beneficence who often came to be honored as a divinity.
b.(in the Homeric period) a warrior-chieftain of special strength, courage, or ability.
c.(in later antiquity) an immortal being; demigod.

5.hero sandwich.



[Edited on 10.30.2011 4:18 PM PDT]

  • 10.30.2011 4:18 PM PDT
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  • Honorable Member

Love and thanks to all of the Bungie community and company members/affiliates for 10 years of great production and gaming<3 and all affiliates of Marathon 1 and 2 <3
Stop being try hards and love the game.. love bungie.. HALO 2, i miss you.

Selfless men and women who put other lives before theirs. To give their best effort no matter what their size or ability. A person that does good, specifically in protection of others because he knows it's the "right thing".

Look at this from the movie Captain America: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO6qu5fQLHo

[Edited on 10.30.2011 4:42 PM PDT]

  • 10.30.2011 4:32 PM PDT

@accordingto343

Your one stop shop for all of 343's fabulous errors and ridiculous notions in the Halo lore.

Chief is a hero, but the average men and women of the UNSC are heroic. Chief is encased in powered armor and can endure much more than the average person. With that in mind, without much that can really sure him, it kinda reduces his greatness.

I'll use Floodgate as an example. The Marines who were fighting the Flood in the beginning despite being at a sheer disadvantage are heroic, they defiantly went against such an evil. Chief did so too, but he's got his armor as a shield.

I don't know how to really say what I'm trying to say, sorry.

  • 10.30.2011 4:35 PM PDT

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Posted by: DecepticonCobra
Chief is a hero, but the average men and women of the UNSC are heroic. Chief is encased in powered armor and can endure much more than the average person. With that in mind, without much that can really sure him, it kinda reduces his greatness.

I'll use Floodgate as an example. The Marines who were fighting the Flood in the beginning despite being at a sheer disadvantage are heroic, they defiantly went against such an evil. Chief did so too, but he's got his armor as a shield.

I don't know how to really say what I'm trying to say, sorry.
By the mere definition, however, that near invulnerability is what makes him a hero. At that, "heroic" is defined as "having or displaying the character or attributes of a hero; extraordinarily bold, altruistic, determined, etc." Considering that we can see quite clearly in the games that he is all of the above, I see no reason otherwise but to deem him both a "hero" and "heroic".

  • 10.30.2011 4:43 PM PDT

@accordingto343

Your one stop shop for all of 343's fabulous errors and ridiculous notions in the Halo lore.

I don't know, I see Chief as maybe an embodiment of heroism, but the real heroes are the average men and women of the UNSC to me. They have so much more to lose than Chief and yet they keep going.

  • 10.30.2011 4:46 PM PDT
  •  | 
  • Honorable Member

Love and thanks to all of the Bungie community and company members/affiliates for 10 years of great production and gaming<3 and all affiliates of Marathon 1 and 2 <3
Stop being try hards and love the game.. love bungie.. HALO 2, i miss you.


Posted by: DecepticonCobra
I don't know, I see Chief as maybe an embodiment of heroism, but the real heroes are the average men and women of the UNSC to me. They have so much more to lose than Chief and yet they keep going.

Doesn't matter what you have or given, it's your actions that define you.

  • 10.30.2011 4:52 PM PDT

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Posted by: DecepticonCobra
I don't know, I see Chief as maybe an embodiment of heroism, but the real heroes are the average men and women of the UNSC to me. They have so much more to lose than Chief and yet they keep going.
That's completely understandable. In a way, the ordinary soldiers of the UNSC are very heroic; however, the Master Chief is still undoubtedly heroic.

Although, that is an interesting concept. I've never thought of the Chief as the personification of Heroism.

  • 10.30.2011 5:08 PM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

In my opinion, it is someone who risks or sacrifices his or her own well-being or reputation for the well-being or future well-being of others when those others are either at risk or will be at risk from any sort of harm.

I think the question about the Chief is whether he fights directly for Humanity or because he is just following orders and wants to follow them, and wants to "win". Captain Keyes did tell Chief that "Winning is not everything", which speaks to me that it has not really sunk in. It is debatable, but it is not down to him being invulnerable or any of those reasons that I have seen. It only took one bullet to nail Kat. Chief is certainly putting himself at risk; the question is whether he puts himself at risk for Humanity or for orders and sole victory. By the end of First Strike I think he learns, when he admits that any one man or woman could change the course of history when he witnesses Harverson and Whitcomb sacrifice themselves. Though whoever wrote Palace Hotel mucked it up a bit by dissociating Chief from "Humans".

Choosing the most Heroic would probably involve choosing the one who saved more by making the biggest sacrifice, eg Dying. Preston Cole seems a likely candidate, I think. Although, he may have survived and even abandoned the UNSC. If that is true then that instantly destroys his reputation in my opinion.

  • 10.30.2011 6:34 PM PDT


Posted by: anton1792
I think the question about the Chief is whether he fights directly for Humanity or because he is just following orders and wants to follow them, and wants to "win".


Nobody ordered him to destroy Halo. Twice.

  • 10.30.2011 6:51 PM PDT

Don't worry, you're still your mom's favorite Bnet member.

All the soldiers in the UNSC were heroic, but Chief was a true hero.

  • 10.30.2011 6:56 PM PDT

Generalizations.
Helping idiots hate other idiots since people have existed.

Someone who knows they will most likely fail, but try anyway for the good of someone else.

  • 10.30.2011 7:08 PM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

Posted by: Ruby of the Blue
Posted by: anton1792
I think the question about the Chief is whether he fights directly for Humanity or because he is just following orders and wants to follow them, and wants to "win".

Nobody ordered him to destroy Halo. Twice.

The second instance, yes, but that is after First Strike anyway like I said.

However in the first instance he was explicitly directed to do so by Cortana, and if there was a stronger authority on Alpha Halo, like an Admiral, who wanted to keep Halo as a weapon to use against the Covenant despite all of its dangers and the Flood infestation then Chief would still have went through the hard decision that he had to go through on the Ascendant Justice when he had the choice between Operation: Red Flag and Reach.

It took a considerable amount of persuasion to get Chief to go to Reach so that they could hand over a Covenant Supercarrier to Humanity, rather than deciding to simply obey the orders of dead admirals for which he was expected to undertake the suicidal mission of Red Flag. The likelihood of there being benefits to Humanity from handing over a 17 mile long Covenant ship far outweighed the likelihood of him trying to capture a Prophet alive all by himself and he knew that, but he still wanted to "obey orders without question" for the sake of "winning". He eventually decides to let go of all of that, but before this instance it is pretty obvious that it was due to orders and that his heart was not properly in it for Humanity as a whole.

  • 10.31.2011 11:27 AM PDT


Posted by: Ruby of the Blue

Posted by: anton1792
I think the question about the Chief is whether he fights directly for Humanity or because he is just following orders and wants to follow them, and wants to "win".


Nobody ordered him to destroy Halo. Twice.


Well technically speaking in order for someone to win the Medal of Honor they have to go above and beyond the call of duty/orders. So then Chief destroying the Halo's would be an equivalent.

  • 10.31.2011 12:20 PM PDT

Vengeance only leads to an ongoing cycle of hatred.

Master Chief along with all those fighting in the UNSC are heroes.

  • 10.31.2011 12:55 PM PDT


Posted by: DecepticonCobra
I don't know, I see Chief as maybe an embodiment of heroism, but the real heroes are the average men and women of the UNSC to me. They have so much more to lose than Chief and yet they keep going.


Exactly, to not say that every single one of the men and women serving the UNSC during the Human-Covenant are heroic (to some degree at least) is a bit daft. Almost every character we ever meet in the Halo series, with moderately few exceptions, are all heroes. Me personally though, I would define Chief and the other Spartans as the ultimate heroes, every single one of them is unafraid of facing down certain death and is willing to give their life at any moment if it would better humanity and their chance of survival.

More to the topic at hand though. I would define a hero both by their actions, and by their goals and intentions.

  • 11.01.2011 9:24 PM PDT
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Do not waste your tears, I was not born to watch the world grow dim. Life is not measured in years, but by the deeds of men.

Posted by: goldhawk
We should know better, because we are better.


Posted by: OrderedComa

Posted by: DecepticonCobra
I don't know, I see Chief as maybe an embodiment of heroism, but the real heroes are the average men and women of the UNSC to me. They have so much more to lose than Chief and yet they keep going.


Exactly, to not say that every single one of the men and women serving the UNSC during the Human-Covenant are heroic (to some degree at least) is a bit daft. Almost every character we ever meet in the Halo series, with moderately few exceptions, are all heroes. Me personally though, I would define Chief and the other Spartans as the ultimate heroes, every single one of them is unafraid of facing down certain death and is willing to give their life at any moment if it would better humanity and their chance of survival.

More to the topic at hand though. I would define a hero both by their actions, and by their goals and intentions.

I completely agree. Chief has armor, training, weapons, and skills far beyond theirs and faces down creatures who would break a normal man in half like a twig. Yet these normal men and woman still face the same threats and fight. I have no doubt that next to none of us would face a flood combat form even if we had the training the marines do. We would probably break and run, because death via flood is not fast or painless and certainly not permanent. In this way I think that the marines are more heroic then Chief.

I would also define a hero as one who has good moral values and upholds those values in pursuit of their goals.

  • 11.01.2011 9:40 PM PDT

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." - Greek Proverb

THIS GUY

  • 11.01.2011 11:53 PM PDT

"Dude, what are you doing right now?"
"Uhh... Heh, my mom."
"Dude... What?"


Posted by: The Quicken
THIS GUY


Too bad you lost.


EDIT&OT: Those that will risk their lives to save others are heroes.

Like Spiderman.

[Edited on 11.02.2011 12:49 AM PDT]

  • 11.02.2011 12:48 AM PDT

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I think halo waypoint made a few videos based on heroism, lemme see I can find them

Edit: here they are
FORTITUDE
COURAGE
SACRIFICE

[Edited on 11.02.2011 2:17 AM PDT]

  • 11.02.2011 2:15 AM PDT