Master Chief as a Classic Hero

Those of you who are not interested in the video game Halo or science fiction or even hero lore, please excuse my indulgence for a moment as I take some time to organize some thoughts that have been knocking around in my head lately. If you are the least bit interested in any of the above subjects, read on and feel free to join the conversation.

As I have stated before, the Halo video games are a guilty indulgence of mine. The Halo franchise has several games, all of which have been at least fairly popular. Books have also been written about the Halo universe, as well as the Master Chief, the main character of the series.re are Why do so many people like the Halo games? I am sure there are many reasons and that they vary quite a bit. I do think one reason is that the character Master Chief taps into something that runs deep in human nature, and so the story satisfies this human need at least to an extent.

Even the casual student of folklore will recognize that human heroes often are half god, adding to their magnificence and ability to accomplish the seemingly impossible. For example, Gilgamesh, Odysseus and even Jesus all were the product of a mortal mother and an immortal father. Master Chief carries on this tradition as a Spartan warrior of the future, the only humans the enemy aliens fear. The Spartans are a product of genetic engineering, meaning they are taller, stronger and overall more capable soldiers than regular humans. The Spartans are the product of a mortal mother, Mother Nature in that they are organic, and a "god-like" father in the form of Science. Even though we think we have progressed beyond the old archetypes, we have recreated them using our modern lenses, proving that we are indelibly connected to our ancestors of old.