For many of my readers, you'll know about the series of video games dating back to the original Xbox called "Halo." The series takes place in the future of the 2500's. Humanity is now a space-faring race, and AI has been developed to the point of sentience. 

Amid this future of expanding the race to other planets, however, humanity is discovered by a theocratic radical alien civilization known as "The Covenant." A war begins and humanity is outclassed technologically. For a while, humanity is on the losing end of the war, losing billions of lives and entire planets as The Covenant glass every human world they come across.

However, humanity creates a race of super soldiers known as "Spartan IIs," capable of amazing feats of strength, tactics, and daring. Their leader, simply known as "John-117" (or by his rank "Master Chief") becomes the focal point of the Halo series, and through him, you go through a series of events and experiences that turn the tide of the war. 

For many gamers, the Chief is one of the most iconic and beloved heroes ever written. For all intents and purposes, his character shouldn't work. He's oftentimes silent, isn't very quippy, is very serious and direct about everything, and lets his actions do most of the talking. It helps that he's the player-character and that most of the time you don't need to hear the Chief speak, but regardless there's something about John-117 that makes him very special as a character.

When it was announced that the Halo series was getting a television show, few were actually excited. In fact, as it was right in the middle of the woke remake age, many people expected the worst, and the worst is exactly what we got. Instead of the stoic, hardwired, no-nonsense soldier, we made a sad attempt at making the Chief more human by giving him a love interest, a sex scene, and extreme emotions. 

But one of the biggest gripes from the fans came from the fact that the Master Chief took his helmet off during the show and you see his face constantly. In the game, the Chief never removes his helmet. 

In an interview, Pablo Schreiber, the man who plays the Master Chief, said that this was necessary in order to capture the Chief's human side. 

“In order to examine the discrepancy between these two versions of the character [his Spartan and human sides], you can’t tell that story without taking the helmet off," said Schreiber. 

According to Bounding Into Comics, Schrieber noted that it was easier to like the Chief in the games, but it wouldn't translate well to film for a simple reason: 

“The game was made as a first person shooter, where you’re meant to believe that you’re the Master Chief,” he told Scott. “So the character was kept vague for that reason, and you infuse the character with your own personality and your own subtleties. This is a TV show being made for long term success. In order to do that, you have to bring the audience along with you.”

“And really, the only way of doing that is seeing the face, knowing how the character’s feeling about things,” the actor then asserted. “That’s how you empathize with them. That’s how you go along with them on the journey.”

He further elaborated, “So it was always a necessary thing, and it was a necessary thing to do early, to get the audience comfortable with going on this journey. Also because the character has been kept vague for so long.”

I understand Schrieber's point but I'm going to have to disagree with it wholeheartedly. 

There is another character somewhat similar to the Master Chief. A masked, imposing character with power beyond that of normal people. A powerful demi-god amongst even powerful demi-gods. Like the Chief, this character was feared around the galaxy, only he was feared by the good guys. 

His name was Darth Vader. 

In the original trilogy, you never see Anakin Skywalker's face until the very end. From the beginning of "A New Hope" to around the tail-end of "Return of the Jedi," he maintains the masked facade. Yet, while you never see his facial expressions, you know what emotions he's having through speech and body language. His body language was often minute, but because of this, when he did make gestures, he spoke volumes. Take this scene for instance of Vader's scene with Luke in "Return of the Jedi." Pay attention to the simple ways in which Vader moves. You can see frustration, creeping regret, and even an element of pride for Luke in the simplest gestures. 

It's not uncommon for completely masked characters to convey emotion without removing their masks to show their face, and that's because humanity is fully capable of understanding one another through body language alone. We all have one, and the understanding we have about certain body movements is so powerful that we pick up on it subconsciously. 

Back to Halo, during the games the Master Chief also had the same movement set as Vader when it came to expressing emotions. Subtle gestures most of the time, with overt gestures meaning that much more when they were made. 

But what also made Chief such a beloved character was that he didn't have to express emotion, because all the humanity actually came from his AI companion "Cortana," his ever-present partner in the battles the Chief undertook. In fact, the story is as much Cortana's as it was Chief's, and throughout the story, Cortana did most of the emotional heavy lifting despite being an AI. They balanced each other out in that way.

One of the best lines that describes their relationship comes from Cortana when she besieches the Chief "Before this is all over, promise me you'll find out which one of us is the machine." 

The Halo television series is a good example of how not to do the faceless protagonist. Firstly, you don't show his face. 

But mostly, you allow a character like the Chief to come to life through the people around him. A story of an unstoppable supersoldier would be kind of boring after a while. So the solution is simple; don't task these characters with the one thing they can't do, be overtly human. Let the characters around them do that, but don't take the unstoppable, faceless, series, stoic, and grade-A whoop-ass supersoldier out of the equation. 

He still needs to be him for the story to work. 

In any case, that's why I won't be watching Halo's 2nd season. It's because the Master Chief isn't in it, and I'm not interested in watching a show about a doppelganger posing as John-117.