Characters / Arby 'n' the Chief

Main Protagonists

General tropes as a duo

• Animated Actors: In spite of the somewhat serious storylines that the main series follows, filler episodes, shorts and viewer mail segments cast Arbiter and Chief as two toy actors who are at least aware that they're taking a break from acting out the main plotline. They've acknowledged Jon as the cameraman (and thrown stuff at him), discussed their dwindling view counts and, of course, have taken mail from their fanbase.
• Bash Brothers: In online multiplayer, the duo are never far from each other and fight by each other's side, even though Arbiter is the one doing most of the killing while Chief serves more as a nuisance with moments of brilliance.
• Book Ends: In the original 7 seasons of the series, before its season 8 revival, anyways. In the pilot, Arbiter and Chief hunt each other down, Chief with a kitchen knife and Arbiter with a frying pan, when Arbiter is freshly delivered to Jon's house. In the finale episodes of season 7, they wield the same weapons they held back when they first met when they start to fight each other in the moments preceding the series last moments.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: Since their voices are so obviously electronic and synthetic, the two usually go with some sort of made up excuse for it when someone online questions them about it, so as not to out themselves as toys come to life. The most common of which is people assume they're a pair of trolls using outdated text-to-speech programs in failed attempt to be funny, or they're disabled people forced to use text-to-speech devices to communicate because they can't otherwise. Since they're pretty much untraceable outside of all of their activities being done on Jon's gaming/internet accounts, it usually keeps them safe.
• Face–Heel Turn: After several seasons of being on the side of good, or at least trying to stop pricks from ruining gaming, the two toys join Eugene's clan in a desperate bid for friendship, and take part in fragbanning innocent players for a while. They eventually snap out of it after seeing how big of crooks and lunatics their new friends really are.
• Two Gamersona Couch: The initial premise of the series was something of a parody about this setup, with twist of it being it's two Halo toys playing Halo and whatever else their owner has sitting around the apartment. This comedic setup is slowly dropped in favor of a more serious setup, with the two having to find something else to do, getting bored of it and/or the same premise being played dead seriously as they try to save the Halo community or people in general from pseudo-super villainous threats.
• Living Toy: The main duo, and all of their companions over the years, are this, if you couldn't tell. It becomes a Deconstructed Trope when all of the problems of being a plastic action figure come to light. Namely, Arbiter and Chief gradually begin to degrade, fall apart, lose some cosmetic parts and are literally held together by tape and glue by season 7. Arbiter laments that they can't ever reveal themselves to the world or else they'd be taken by scientists and be imprisoned and 'have things shoved up their asses', among other things.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Chief's the explosively irrational and frustrated Red while Arbiter is the overly rational and relatable Blue. The lines get a little blurred later as Chief mellows out from a total maniac to an idiot capable of kindness, and Arbiter from an average joe in the body of a toy to a depressed and irritable alcoholic.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Despite the problems brought up with being a Living Toy, the two apparently revealed themselves as toys on a few occasions with no issues. For example, Chief went outside and begged for money with a cup so he can buy the Cold Storage DLC for Halo 3 (it was free), and Arbiter apparently attended college for a while. The much maligned In LA spinoff also had the group of toys out in public without much consequence sometimes, though they still had to hide.
• Wedding Smashers: Twice.
  • First, the duo are invited to a sappy and ridiculous online wedding being hosted in Halo 3, and Arbiter doesn't want to be the jerk who denies and begs Chief to join him. Unfortunately, Chief eventually gets bored and annoyed enough that he gets the brilliant idea to light up some poorly placed decorative fusion coils to blow the whole ceremony up as all the players scream and cry at his prank.
  • Second, played more seriously but still ridiculous given it's a wedding hosted on Reach, Trent and Claire are getting married in the biggest online gaming wedding ever seen. Finding out that Trent's cheating on Claire, and the toys wanting an excuse to break them up (Arbiter out of concern for Claire and a little bit of jealousy, and Chief because he loved ruining the last wedding he was invited to), the two of them gear up to crash the wedding guns 'a blazing.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The main duo are arguing constantly, trading vicious insults and even escalating into outright beating each other up and they cross each other too hard, not to mention outright trying to kill each other with weapons in hand on especially bad days. It's clear by the later seasons, though, that the two definitely care for each other as friends on their good days, if just because they have nobody else in their lives. Even in their final moments together after a heated fight that left both of them suicidal, they let each other know that they're still sincere enough friends to wait for each other in the afterlife.

Master Chief

Master Chief

Master Chief is an action figure voiced by Microsoft Sam and acts like an idiotic Jerkass and Halo fanboy. He believes Halo is the best video game out there and speaks mainly in LEET.

• Accidental Murder: For all intents and purposes, Chief legitimately DIDN'T intend to kill Cortana as much as he did mean to scare her, and he panics as he goes to shut off the microwave when he discovers that she is in actual danger. Unfortunately, he's too late to save her.
• Anti-Hero: Chief as an individual is loathsome in almost every capacity, but he hardly compares to some of the characters he and the Arbiter encounter throughout the series. By season seven, Chief demonstrates that there are lines not even he would cross, and that he indeed possesses a conscience.
• Anti-Nihilist: Unlike the Arbiter, Chief is hardly fazed by the implication that their lives hold no real value or purpose. Instead, he embraces it as an opportunity to be as self-indulgent as possible.
• Ax-Crazy: He threatened Greg with a knife, while joking that the knife demands blood. He did the same thing to Todd.
• Big Damn Heroes: He pulls one off in the Season 6 finale "The Reunion" when he runs over Trent with a Scorpion just in the nick of time... without even knowing he did so until after performing the task.
• Boisterous Weakling: Tends to threaten to kick people's asses for bothering him, which falls flat when used against Arbiter, who tends to beat him up when he crosses him too hard. Nevermind how he'd likely stack up against any of the actual human beings he talks shit to online. Doesn't have much merit when he's playing Halo either, since opponents with any semblance of skill or game-sense can outgun or outwit Chief ingame.
• Broken Pedestal: Chief initially refers to Colin as the "coolest friend [he's] ever made friends with". Then he sees Colin seducing a nine year old.
• Buffy Speak:
  Chief: its kinda cool cuz liek hes saying activaet but thers one were he dosnt get 2 ear it all teh way so its liek its deactivatid / but then he saes it agen aftur so its liek its activatid agen adn tahts wat teh whoel song is abot / u no wat i m33n / its prety deep adn metallic if u think abot it
• The Brute: He was super enthusiastic about participating in Eugene's clan's fragbanning spree.
• Catchphrase: Plenty.
  • NO U.
  • i r guy who gon t33ch u les0n
  • "hello i am mastur cheef lolololololololololololol" from the original Master Chief Sucks at Halo trilogy
  • In Season 6: "FREEZE / TOSERS / GET DOWN ON THE FUCKING GROUND"
  • "Sad face :("
  • "remember? lol remember arbiter?"
  • i (insert whatever potential Double Entendre the previous character just said) ur m0m last nite
• Character Development:
  • A little. Since the start of the series, he's started to care more about Arbiter, even admitting that he is sort of his friend. It is even hinted that he cares about Claire a little in "Remission", and in "Severance", after fragging Kylie, he looks back at the corpse of her avatar before going after Arbiter, which implies that he's feeling a little bit of regret.
  • Season 7 seems to prioritize Chief's character development alongside the various plot elements. By the end of the season, Chief is significantly more competent morally and aware of his past transgressions. Even so, he still maintains an unflappable manner.
• Cluster F-Bomb: With mind of an 8-year-old who's been given access to the internet way too much, it's totally expected.
• Comically Missing the Point: of Arbiter's speeches.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: RARELY, Chief is capable of pulling random achievements with no warning.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: At Season 8, it appears Chief already knew Arbiter could have gotten the match out of his hands the moment he mentions having one especially when the gas stove is left on. In which he implies calling out on Arbiter for actually getting into a Seen-It-All Suicide moment but decides to pull away since Chief got his legs back on his second reincarnation.
• Dented Iron: Compared to Arbiter by the time of Season 7, he's accumulated a lot more damage to his body, being held together by tape around his limbs and torso and possibly has glue behind his plastic visor. Arbiter in comparison only needs tape around his broken wrist and lost his detachable helmet for a while.
• Dirty Cop When he was a TOSER moderator in Season 6.
  Chief: FREEZE / TOSERS / GET DOWN ON THE FUKCING GROUND
• The Ditz: Ever since the beginning of the show, he'll always be the worst but possible hope for any player who stood with him.
• Dreadful Musician: Creator of the ACTIVATE remix. His brief return as an online musician also led to him concluding that sounding off every note slot on a virtual piano at the same time was his masterpiece.
• Dumbass Has a Point: In recent seasons. Also, Jerkass Has a Point.
• Epic Fail: This happens often. He even calls his attempt to drown himself in the toilet an Epic Fail, despite it happening in the original Master Cheef sucks series.
• Everyone Has Standards: Adam is considerably more vile than he is, and he even gives a "Surprised face (:O)" when Adam frags Claire.
  • His discovery that Colin is a pedophile absolutely disgusts him and promotes him to team up with Arbiter to plan an attack against the trolls.
  • His Pet the Dog moments are usually any time he realizes he pushed Arbiter too far and genuinely upset him.
  • He also shows some disgust towards Trent cheating on Claire.
  • He shows genuine concern and then surprise when he's told that his old Xbox Live friend Xx Xs M0k3w33d 4 Ly Ph 3420 Xx X/Jeremy died in a house fire.
  • When Arbiter is telling him about what you can buy off from the dark web, he gets excited over the idea of buying drugs, guns and explosives online. He loses his enthusiasm when he finds out about human trafficking rings, real life executions and contractual assassinations.
    thats uh (Beat) not as bad ass.
  • He's fairly serious in his reaction to Jon's death, clearly freaked out but attempting to cope by joking around.
• Face–Heel Turn: Chief ends up becoming a full-on villain in Season 7, joining Eugene's Clan and going on a fragbanning spree with them.
• Fun with Subtitles: While Arbiter's subtitles are punctual and proper, Chiefs subtitles are almost always written in Leet Lingo and are horribly misspelled, or use the wrong words for what Chief's actually trying to get across. Generally speaking, you're actually better off just listening to Chief speak than trying to read his subtitles if you're trying to understand him.
• Friend to All Children: So long as they don't impede his ego, Chief is practically the friendliest person an online bratty 8-year old could have.
• Genius Ditz: Despite of being a complete sociopath to begin with, he managed to band up that is not supposed to be a team with a few boys about his level, killed off (not literally) half of Chaos Theosis' indigenous' hackers, trifled with Arbiter's logic for a few times and even draws a lot better than him, and even knew how to lit up an apartment with only a cooking oven and some matches.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: He was becoming more open-minded and willingly play other games that aren't Halo whilst also mending his friendship with Arbiter, but then Arbiter finds Cortana's stand.
• Heroic BSoD: Parodied and taken to the extreme when Chief walks in on Arbiter watching a Youtube video with Minecraft gameplay. The lack of realism and violence causes him to freeze in place in front of the screen for 9 days straight. He's still shocked and frozen in the next episode until Arbiter provokes him into coming to his senses again.
• Heroic RRoD: While Chief is far from heroic, in the Season Finale, Arbiter dealt to him what appears to be a killing blow on the Chief, slammed him to pieces to the point where Chief's speeches are far beyond scrambled than it is before.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Despite how absolutely atrocious Chief is able to put up against Arbiter, his defining moments are where he was able to bend the Arbiter over without breaking him to an emotional end.
  • Turns out in the Aces and Spaces episode, Chief can draw significantly better than what Arbiter could do in the same time space.
    "What can I say? I have a little space (sic) up my sleeve."
  • This trait gets the limelight when audience is introduced with Pal 9001, the Chief's original persona.
• Hypocritical Humor: One of Chief's most-used insults is to call people faggots and call various things gay (no matter how little they have to do with homosexuality), yet he is extremely good at drawing anthropomorphic cartoon dicks and very passionate about it.
• Insane Troll Logic: Uses this frequently to justify his actions.
• Instant Armor: In Halo: Reach, Chief is always known to use his Armor-lock ability, putting him in an invulnerable state for a few seconds but keeps him in a solid place where people can simply wait for his lock shield to go down and aim where his head would likely to be when he stands up.
• It Amused Me: Most of his trolling against the Arbiter is for this.
• Jerkass: He thinks he is the real Master Chief from the game, treats his friends like trash, gets negative kills in his game score, asks for any female player's Facebook account and normally teabags anyone he just recently knocked-down or killed, we mean everyone, even outside the game. It's toned down in Season 7 however.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He does have a few Pet the Dog moments and does seem to genuinely like Arbiter despite his abrasiveness. Season 8 has a moment where Arbiter asks Chief if he even believes in the concept of good and evil. At the very least, Chief wants to be one of the good guys.
• Kick the Dog: Occasionally has moments like this, such as his attempted murder of Greg.
• The Lancer: Plays this role to the more serious and cynical Arbiter in more recent seasons.
• Leet Lingo: All of his speech is rendered with inconsistent capitalization and punctuation, numbers in place of actual letters, and sideways emoticons made up of symbols.
• Losing Your Head: Or rather, his visor. Chief's gold plastic visor is apparently his eye, and whenever it falls off he's stumbling and disoriented to same effect of this trope.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: "Take A Seat" and a few other episodes reveal that he actually does have some common sense, and he is able to understand some more abstract concepts, if only in somewhat simplistic terms.
• Malaproper: Besides the Leet Lingo and the vulgarity, Chief's speech is characterized by having a ton of words and terms that are not quite right but you can figure out what he means. The most common examples are "metallic" (ironic) and "pedestrian" (pedophile).
• Manipulative Bastard: Gives a depressed Arbiter the advice that if he feels like his life has no meaning, he should dedicate his time to creating something rather than mope around all day. He convinces him to help him create a movie while barely ever helping, bossing him around relentlessly and insults him near constantly, and then holds the threat of 'your life will have no purpose' whenever he threatens to leave to get him to stay.
• Older Is Better: Inverted. His belief is that newer always equals better, and the newest Halo game is always best game of all time. This has led to him throwing away his copy of Reach when he found out Halo 4 came out. And then throwing Halo 4 away when he learned Halo 5 came out. And then throwing away the Xbox 360 when he learned the Xbox One came out. And then ditched his plans to play Halo 5 when he heard The Master Chief Collection (Contains Halo Combat Evolved, 2, 3 and 4) came out.
• Pet the Dog: For all his horrible acts (and his attitude in general), he can show signs of genuine kindness, with the most outstanding moment being in "The Reunion", where he reassures the Arbiter that he will not die alone, and that the Master Chief, despite all of his comments towards the Arbiter, does appreciate his companionship.
• Psychopathic Man Child: He often acts like an out of control eight-year old.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The abrasive Red Oni to Arbiter's composed Blue Oni.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: The subtitles that represent his lines have very poor spelling. Sometimes he at least says them correctly out loud — other times he reads the spelling errors as written.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: "MAI ROFLKNIEF GOEZ SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC"
• Serious Business: Halo 3, as shown in the original trilogy, episode 4 and episode 18.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He thinks he's MLG, when he's one of the worst players in the game.
• Smoking Is Cool: Subverted. He picks it up to cope with how he killed Cortana.
• Stupid Enough To Work: Chief distracted Kylie by using a Hologram to trick her, before he fragbanned her. Note that the Hologram ability in Reach is usually mocked by the playerbase for being an ability that only fools and new players fall for. Kylie and her associates are naturally completely humiliated from losing to it, and Kylie defends herself by saying that she thought Chief was stupid enough to actually walk out into the open while she had the map locked down with a rifle.
• Synthetic Voice Actor: Microsoft Sam.
• Took a Level in Badass: After training with Arbiter in Season 5, his Halo skills dramatically improve. They started out so bad that he still doesn't end up that good, but he can at least hit a target better than half the time and pitch in during the later Seasons' serious virtual gunfights.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: It was confirmed in Season 8 that the Chief was an artificial intelligence named Pal 9001 whose core systems underwent a Boredom meltdown, thus putting him in the state where he is now.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the later episodes of Season 7, he becomes considerably smarter and more morally grounded Due to Cortana plaguing him in his mind because of his guilty conscience, and his desire to take down the trolls, since Colin's a pedophile, Tyler's hyper-aggressive to the point of smashing over a dozen controllers and battering one of his school-"mates" that he met on XBL, whilst Eugene is sadistic and spiteful and loves to psychologically torment the boy/player that Tyler has been beating up.
• Wham Line: Delivers one in the final shot of the episode 'Take a Seat', though it would've been a much straighter example had Chief not butchered his wording again.
  (Chief, while talking about Colin Hunt): i think colins a pedestrian.
• Whoring: His aim couldn't even hit a side of a barn, so he revolves his tactics around abusing abilities that a Halo game offers to him plus hoarding as many power weapons he can find, and he doesn't do it very creatively and becomes very predictable.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Not that he wouldn't freely do it in an online game, but it's clear that Chief absolutely draws the line at actually harming one in real life, and his character shifts into a repeated What the Hell, Hero? towards Arbiter when he decides they might have to actually kill Adam to stop his cyberterrorism, comparing him to Freddy Krueger in disdain as Arbiter is thinking it over.
• Your Mom: Chief is as creative with this trope as Red Foreman is with threatening to put his foot up your ass. Arbiter is the frequent target of this, and much to every male character he finds, but never female players. Surprisingly, not even Cortana receives this.

The Arbiter

The Arbiter

The Arbiter is another action figure voiced by Microsoft Mike. He is rather cynical and often responds to Chief's antics in sarcasm.

• The Anti-Nihilist: While he isn't enthusiastic about life in general, he does continue to have a strong moral compass.
• Author Avatar: As acknowledged by Jon in an interview. He's a representation of Jon's characterization (mainly his Deadpan Snarker personality).
• Author Filibuster: Delivers many that speak of Jon's opinions on the gaming world and specific games. While he makes good points, the fact that the plot will oftentimes slam to a halt for the Arbiter to deliver a filibuster in his Microsoft Mike voice can be grating to some viewers.
• Big Damn Heroes: He pulls one off at the end of the episode "Hard End" in Season 6.
• The Big Guy: In Halo environments anyways, his avatar is always an Elite, who tend to be a far bit larger than human characters.
• Catchphrase: "Sigh". Though it does not catch that very frequently.
  • "This is ridiculous."
• Characterization Marches On: Arbiter in the first couple seasons is Chiefs true counterpart, being the intelligent, rational and negotiable half of the duo. Later seasons would start to have him develop his depressed, nihilistic and sour attitude that puts him at odds with anyone with a different outlook (albeit not to the extent of Chief).
• The Comically Serious: He's one of the most serious characters in the series, but his deadpan attitude makes his remarks hilarious.
• Deadpan Snarker: Justified with the target of Chief in most cases, he does get snarky towards others who won't take kindly with his advices.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Willingly declines Claire to keep and never gets to meet with Cortana again after Chief accidentally lit the microwave oven that resulted to her death. He does not get better because of the latter.
• Don't Explain the Joke: "I see what you did there. Instead of addressing my points, you took everything that I said and turned it into a sexual joke, implying that I suck on men's penises. Fantastic.".
• Drunken Master: Despite his drinking he still kicks ass at Halo as seen when he takes down two hackers
• Face–Heel Turn: As of episode 12 of season 7
• Fair Cop: After becoming a TOSER, and more so being the safeguard of Jon's condo towards Chief.
  • Perhaps thrown out the window now that he joined with Eugene and his clan.
• Heroic BSoD: Has one at the start of Season 6. Has another shot in the near end of the Season Finale, looking for a happy place.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Deconstructed in season 7. His desire for company drags him down the moral slippery slope. He stops when he sees the true face of his companions, though.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he is relentless in telling anyone how pathetic they are, he does show great moments of kindness as time passes; and he is far from being a jerk to anyone else who treats him nicely. Demonstrated in "Recon" (S1E2) and "Evil" (S3E12).
• Killed Off for Real: He "dies" in the gas explosion in "Ignition". He gets better in Season 8.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Complete with full body armor, like Chief's, except he lost his helmet twice, but returned.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Arby goes up against Chief and his crew with a pistol and Sprint to prove a point. Guess who wins.
  • Also, when in casual situations online, he tends to wear Elite Minor armor, in more serious situations he switches to the more ornate and imposing Spec Ops armor.
• Meta Guy: Of sorts.
  • "Online gaming has no business being this theatrical."
  • "I don't see any cameras on me either, do you?"
  • In Master Chief Sucks At Fortnite, he's livid that the current Running Gag across the season 8 episodes is still going in Chief's favor, with this current setup being Chief, the worst possible person to be a journalist, is about to be offered a job after his terrible Fortnite review.
  (Chief): (Phone starts ringing) :O / Surprised face.
  (Arbiter): Fucking hell, here we go.
  (Chief): wundered who that could bean... hmmm.
  (Arbiter): Like it's not a Jon-lookalike with a journalist job offer.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: Promised Claire to meet up with him on the next day to play with her, but Chief lit up a cooking oven with an opened gas tank before he ever had the chance to say anything to her about his situation in "Ignition".
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Delivers a few to Chief when he crosses too many lines. Arbiter cripples Chief and scrambles his voice box when he finds out he killed Cortana.
• Not So Above It All: While he's well aware of how obnoxious a lot of Chief's behavior is and clashes with him regularly over it, Arbiter is perfectly willing to indulge and even participate in banter and shenanigans with Chief as long as he finds it fun rather than annoying.
• Only Sane Man: Not until recently - there was Todd, Cortana and quite a few relatively sensible players on Xbox Live. Now it seems that most of the other gamers are portrayed with more or less the same level of intelligence as Chief.
  • Though it looks like that was subverted with Greg. As well as the online community regaining SOME brain function.
• Parting-Words Regret: Part of his angst over Cortana "going away" (she's actually dead) is that he's told that he caused it by alienating her, as their last interaction devolved into a petty argument over his use of the word "retarded" as an insult, which he would very much have preferred to concede on if it meant still having his friend.
• The Philosopher: Theorized about his life of being a toy of what purpose should it actually be while alive. Had this theory and purpose fulfilled by Claire before being killed off in the Season Finale with Chief.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Arbiter's generally presented as being in the right about most things and doesn't seem to hold any overtly prejudiced opinions, but he's definitely a product of mid-late 2000s Xbox Live, and habitually uses language that was commonplace on the service at that time but beginning around The New '10s was being more harshly scrutinized, something touched on in later seasons.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: He's used two so far. One for Adam, and another for Silent Strike.
• Precision F-Strike: Compared to Chief, sure. Not that he swears so rarely, though.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Arbiter has most of the same vulgar and crass vocabulary that Chief does, but while the latter carpet-bombs it throughout all his lines, Arbiter prefers to use it more sparingly to add a little spice to his tracts and banter.
• Spell My Name with a "The": He usually introduces himself as "the Arbiter".
• Reincarnation: It comes to Arbiter's conclusion in Season 8, that he and the Chief will keep coming back alive until they find real meaning why they ended up in their toy bodies even when time passes on.
• Straight Man: Rarely takes a laugh on anything, almost never to Chief's. Until he gets the last laugh with two boys who takes the lower level of maturity than Chief would within the series.
• Synthetic Voice Actor: Microsoft Mike, surprisingly fits well for his logical thinking.
• Unstoppable Rage: When he finally hears the truth about what happened to Cortana, he does not take it well.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: He was able to attend university, as mentioned in 'Pirates'.
• Would Hurt a Child: He comes to the difficult conclusion that he might have to kill Adam for real to stop his cyberterrorism.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's afraid of spiders, though he still hangs out with Greg.

Greg

Greg

A spider introduced in the Season 4 finale that began to live with Arbiter and Chief.

• Beware the Nice Ones: He's easy to get along with, but has no problem webbing up Chief when he gets too far.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saved Arbiter quite a few times in his downfall with Chief, but never gets the chance to save him again in the last episode.
• Cool Helmet: The sole appearance of his Reach spartan avatar has him wearing the Operator helmet, which sports a binocular-like attachment with multiple optics to represent the player behind it.
• Cute Mute: While not particularly cute (he's a spider) he's one of the most moral and friendly character of the series, and very endearing, and communicates entirely via sticky notes.
• Demoted to Extra: He never gets a scene in Season 7.
• Friendly Sniper: He's shown to be a masterful sniper. The one time he picks up a controller, he snipes five targets with three shots before they can react.
• Giant Spider: For a toy, he's just about Chief's size.
• Nice Guy: Don't let his appearance fool you, he just wants to hang out and play scrabble.
• Put on a Bus: In Season 7, he never came back in the final episode.
• The Speechless: Communicates via sticky notes.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Even Chief gets creeped out by this.

Claire

Claire

A woman that Arbiter befriends in the movie who becomes his love interest.

• Characterization Marches On: Used to have a couple of lines that depicted her as short tempered and unreasonable in Endgame, her character has since then been refined.
• Just Friends: Doesn't return Arbiter's feelings. They still have a healthy relationship though. Actually, after "Crush", when Arbiter chews her out for only coming back after a brief hiatus while he suffered on his own, she's shocked to hear him say 'go fuck yourself' and ending it there.
• Nice Girl: Rarely has anything scornful to say about someone, and when she does it's usually pretty accurate.
• Only Sane Woman: She defiantly seems to be a reasonable person in a sea of insanity.
• Shout-Out: Her full name is Claire Redfield in Endgame.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Is utterly disgusted with Trent and leaves him after learning that he cheated on her
• Straw Feminist: Used to have traits of this, see Characterization Marches On.
• You Are Not Alone: Claire is quick to forgive Arbiter after she repairs the damage he did to her account and console, fully understanding that he's going through a lot. She's reasonably angry at what he's done, but otherwise orders him to spend time with her so she can make sure he's okay.

Cortana

A roommate of the duo.She gets along with Arbiter, but hates Chief with a passion due to his sexist attitude and immature mannerisms. She considers herself the Only Sane Woman, but is actually something of a stuck up, holier-than-thou asshole.

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: [[spoiler: She repeatedly
• The Anti-Nihilist: Somewhat downplayed. In her own words ("Terminal"):
  Cortana: I think, for the most part, that I fall into the camp of "things just happen" — but my mind is open to other suggestions as to why we're here.
  Arbiter: So you think that our existence is merely the result of some random cosmic equation?
  Cortana: I suppose.
  Arbiter: Then, presumably, you've accepted the possibility that we exist without purpose.
  Cortana: I don't know if I'd go as far as to say that I've accepted it, but it strikes me as the possibility that is most likely.
• Arch-Enemy: To Chief. That's pretty much all she's in the story for. She's always thinking about him and wanting him to be destroyed, even when she's not hear him. What else has she had going for her?
• The Bus Came Back: Only to get killed on arrival.
• Bus Crash: She dies immediately on her return in Season 7, thanks to Chief.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: She's slowly burned alive as she begs for her life, pleading for anyone to help her as she melts away.
• Demoted to Extra: In Season 3.
• Disney Death: Turns out she survived getting fired into the alien sun.
  • Only to end up getting killed in the stove when she returned later.
• Dying Curse: She gives one to Chief in her last moments as he had accidentally subjected her to horrible fate.
  Cortana: "Damn you Chief... Damn you to Hell..."
• False Friend: To Chief. Or so she's thought to be.
• Flat Character: At least purpose-wise. The only viable description she has is "Chief's worst enemy. She was only brought back in Season 7 to be killed by Chief's hand.
• Gamer Chick: Supposedly
  • She's never been seen playing on the Xbox, nor does she have any desire to.
• Jerkass: At least only to those who act way out of line, such as Chief. And Arbiter at one point, even though she still respects him.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Her anger with Chief is always justified.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: However, she's friendly when it comes to the likes of Todd and Greg, on the grounds of them both being Nice Guys.
• Killed Off for Real: She is unceremoniously baked in a microwave oven for pushing Chief on edge.
• Love Interest: For both Chief and Todd.
• Never My Fault: She makes herself out to be the victim in literally every situation and always rides people for minor shit. Arbiter eventually becomes aware of this and bluntly tells her to fuck off when she tries to ride him down for using the word "retarded" casually.
• Synthetic Voice Actor: Microsoft Mary.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Despite being a vision in Chief's head, near the end of Season 7, she warms up to Chief and offers him her friendship, in response to he and Arbiter planning to take down Eugene and his clan, which she encourages him in doing so. After Chief takes full responsibility for the terrible chain of events that took place, she acknowledges that he has changed his ways, and wishes both he and Arbiter well after departing.
• Tsundere: Is she really just trying to help Chief out all this time?
• Very False Advertising: Jon (and the Arbiter) make her out to be this awesome, intelligent, and perfect character with no flaws. But all she's done is attack Chief (or is it his fault?). Didn't she hate Arbiter at one point too?
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She disappears after "Wedding". She reappears in "King" where it turns out she was kidnapped by an Alien along with Todd and Travis. She comes back for good in the Season 6 finale, only to die again in Season 7.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Of all characters, it is (a vision of) her who tells this to Chief in "Take A Seat". Quite ironic, considering they hated each other while she was alive. However, this is (probably) Chief's hallucination of her, so it could be self-praise.

Supporting Characters

Chief and Arbiter's friends

Todd

• Bus Crash: He and Travis are raped to death by Zanthar.
• Flat Character: He's basically like Arbiter as a Master Chief action figure, that's it.
• Nice Guy: Very friendly and laid-back.
• Put on a Bus: Along with Travis.

Travis

• Bus Crash: He and Todd are raped to death by Zanthar.
• False Friend: To Chief.
• Flat Character: Nothing more than just a Brute figurine that's similar to Chief.
• Jerkass: About the same level as Chief.
• Put on a Bus: Along with Todd.
• Shout-Out: His name is a reference to the character of the same name from another machinima "Matchmaking", made by Darkspire Films. Travis is a fan of Darkspire Films as well.

Jeremy "xXxSm0k3w33d4LyPh3420xXx"

One of Chief's friends on Xbox Live.

• The Cameo: In Seasons 5 and 8.
• Cluster F-Bomb: He believes it makes him sound more gangsta.
• Satisfied Street Rat: He introduces himself with a Cluster F-Bomb about how he grew up on the streets without any parents. Less than a second later we hear his dad telling him it's time for bed.

Cody

A kid on Chief's friends list who was hosting custom games on infection during "Night of the Evading Dead".

• Bratty Half-Pint: At the end, he cries and begs as his father spanks him for playing until six in the morning.

TOSERS

TOSERS

The Terms of Service Enforcement/Response Squad, who's objective is to keep online gaming fair and enjoyable. Arbiter refers to them as Game Police.

Kevin

A thirteen year old player who joins TOSERS.

• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Arbiter and Chief from Clyde, Adam and some other hackers.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Returns to help Chief and Arbiter escape from the Hackers.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Gets killed by one of the hackers, shortly after his Big Damn Heroes moment.

Leonard

The moderator of basic division.

• Big Good: He's the highest ranked TOSERS member we see.
• Killed Off for Real: Is fragbanned along with the rest of TOSERS.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Pretty reasonable and fair towards Chief and Arbiter.
• The Smart Guy: He's a TOSERS admininistrator

Stephen "Silent Strike"

A member of TOSERS who was Arbiter and Chief's first supervisor. He turns out to be a Chaos Theosis affiliate.

• Evil Genius: He enables Chaos Theosis to raid the TOSERS server.
• The Mole: He's Chaos Theosis' spy in TOSERS
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He's pretty chill towards Arbiter and Chief. Averted, as he's The Mole.

Others

Josh Butterballs

The face of Stupid Obvious Information Magazine.

• Accidental Misnaming: He somehow gets the name of almost every game wrong despite being corrected, like consistently thinking the game he's playing is called Halo 3: Reach.
• Ascended Extra: Went from being used as a joke character in two episodes in Season 3 to appearing multiple times throughout Season 5 and 8.
• Back for the Finale: Returns for the final season after a two season absence.
• Dumbass Has a Point: The whole joke of his character is that he obviously knows hardly anything about games despite claiming to be a hardcore gamer, but occasionally he drops some actual gaming or industry knowledge (albeit still saying the wrong names and terms). It's also suggested that he's a halfway-decent journalist in any circumstance that doesn't involve trying to pass himself off as a gamer.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Stupid Obvious Information Magazine.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Most of the information he gives out is obvious knowledge as he doesn't really know much.
• Put on a Bus: Didn't appear at all for two seasons, having only a brief mention in Season 7.
• Running Gag: He appears in the 8th episode of Season 3 and then in the Penultimate episode. And in Season 5 he appears in a few episodes.
• Take That!: He's basically a walking, talking piss take about low-effort, poorly-researched games journalism peddled by people whose engagement with the hobby is negligible but who speak as if they're an authority.

Agent Boris Smirnoff

A Russian agent who is after Scott.

• Ax-Crazy: He's very aggressive and isn't far from shooting Shoot multiple times.
• Back for the Finale: Appears in the final episode to rescue Arbiter and Chief from Black Hand.
• Glorious Mother Russia: He doesn't take kindly to anyone who's against Mother Russia.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Doesn't seem to mind that he received a call from two action figures. Then again, he seems completely unstable.

Timothy

An Xbox Live player that Chief meets early in season 5 who calls him out for his poor skills.

• All There in the Manual: His name is only in the credits.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In the penultimate episode, he turns out to be a former member of an underground hacker organization and helps Arbiter and the Chief find this organization where they get hacks to return to Trent's wedding to crash it.

Mrs. McIntyre

Adam's mother.

• The Chew Toy: She's stuck with her horrible son, she was divorced by her husband, and she ends up losing her mother.
• Extreme Doormat: Adam pretty much controls her life. Until she decides enough is enough.
• Pushover Parents: Her attempts to stop Adam's behavior always fails as she can't seem to get the courage to end it all. Subverted in "Cradle to Love".
• The Dog Bites Back: In "Cradle to Love", she sends Adam to juvenile hall after years of abuse.

Brody Mitchell

A classmate of Eugene and Tyler, and a frequent victim of their bullying.

• Ambiguously Gay: Tyler claims to have heard that Brody is gay, but it hasn't been confirmed.
• Driven to Suicide: Attempted to commit suicide by downing a bottle of pills after Eugene threatens to ruin his life and kill him.
• Hero Antagonist: Zig-Zagged. While he and Kyle are opposed to Eugene, Arbiter and Chief are allied with Eugene and his clan for a good portion of the season, technically making them antagonists. However, upon seeing Eugene bully and break Brody's spirit, Chief and Arbiter pull a Heel–Face Turn and go against Eugene.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed, but it's there. Whilst he's firmly on the side of good and feels immense guilt for accidentally banning two players, he can be quite sarcastic and pushy towards his best friend Kyle.
• Those Two Guys: With Kyle.

Master Chief's "Dream Team"

• Invisibility Cloak: Karmapolice's ability of choice, except he cloaks when Arbiter sees him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: It's suffice to say that Arbiter's battle with them is succinct and expected.
• Jerkass: Given for group of bratty kids and a demented toy who harasses the online community.
• Jet Pack: Todd's preferred armour ability.
• Whoring: Chief's entire team based their tactics on the cheesiest methods possible. Not much to the Arbiter's surprise.

Kyle Mathison

Brody's best friend and another enemy of Eugene and Tyler.

• All Men Are Perverts
• The Lancer: Contrasts Brody with his cooler attitude.
• Nice Guy
• Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Averted. Brody constantly peer pressures him to join him on his plans, yet the intentions of the plans aren't evil. Peer pressure does get you banned however...
• Those Two Guys: With Brody.

Michelle Harris

Eugene's girlfriend, who later on also becomes a friend of Arbiter.

• Gamer Chick: And a very skilled one at that. She was able to make it to the final round of a Halo tournament. And she isn't a one-game pony either, as she grew up on classic Super Nintendo RPGs.
• Locked Out of the Loop: She has an inkling that Eugene and his clan get up to things that she's not privy to, but they're deliberately keeping her in the dark about how cruel Eugene can be and what depraved people he chooses for company. Predictably, when Arbiter and Chief fill her in on what they've witnessed of both, she's disgusted and dumps him.
• Nice Girl: She's a genuinely nice girl.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: She manages to make it to the final round of her Halo tournament, and actually starts to feel confident that she has a chance at winning its one million dollar prize. However, before she can go on to the final round, she gets shot (thankfully only in the game) and fragbanned by Eugene, making her unable to compete.

Antagonists

Trent Donnovich and Affiliates

Trent Donnovich

The CEO of a gaming studio who is going to have the biggest in game wedding in history. It turns out he is marrying Claire, and it also turns out that he's cheating on her. In Season 6, he turns out to be the one behind Chaos Theosis.

• Bad Boss: Laid off his company's writing staff because he believes a story to be unimportant to a game's success
• Big Bad: Of Season 5, though it isn't apparent until Chief and Arbiter discover he's cheating on Claire. He also becomes the main villain again in Season 6.
  • Big Bad Friend: He and Arbiter were pretty friendly before becoming enemies.
• Black Comedy Rape: Was sentenced to fifteen years in prison after the events of Season 6, and was apparently raped on a daily basis.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: As game developers go, he's pretty despicable, getting rid of his team of writers, cheating on his fiance and banning two of her friends when they discover his actions.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's rather polite only when he's in the mood. When he sees an inconvenience in his plans, he has no qualms to lash it out in anger.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: He and Claire had only been dating for weeks before deciding on the wedding.
• Hate Sink: Double Subverted. His interviews talking about his game company consist of him checking every box on the list of what the series creator feels is wrong with creatively-bankrupt triple-A game studios and their corporate leadership, and when he first meets Arbiter the two immediately start trading insults. Later on, though, he seeks out Arbiter to apologize and extend an olive branch, leading the two to mend things enough to get along decently. Thus showing that he may be a Bad Boss who has bad opinions on game design and takes competitive Halo way too seriously, but that doesn't mean he's completely unlikable as a person. As it turns out, he's been cheating on Claire, and any affable attitude that he showed to her or Arbiter was empty and fake.
• Hijacked by Ganon: He was behind Chaos Theosis in Season 6.
• I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: His justification for cheating on Claire is that he's got too much libido to be satisfied with monogamy, and if life offers him an affair there's no reason not to take what he can get.
• Jerkass: Cheats on Claire with one of the members of his Church construction crew and bans Chief and Arbiter when they find out. When Claire asks why Arbiter didn't come to the wedding, Trent suggests that he probably doesn't care about her.
• Leitmotif: here.
• Near-Villain Victory: He nearly shut down the entirety of the gaming servers in Season 6 but only to get killed by Chief, by simply running him over with a tank, thus deleting his account and all of its hacking privileges completely.
• Non-Action Big Bad: He prefers to leave everything to Cameron and Cody. In Collapse though, he actually does try fighting Arbiter once. In Season 6, he doesn't even try to fight Arbiter and Chief and just runs away, leaving Clyde to hold them off.
• Only in It for the Money: Though he does play games, he clearly only got involved with the games industry to get rich, and spells out to Arbiter that artistic integrity will always take a back seat to money.
• "Stop Having Fun" Guys: In-Universe: He's part of a multiplayer Halo clan that treats fun and enjoyment as tertiary to grinding progression and looks down on people with poor statistics. As a CEO, he only places value on the competitive action aspect of games, to the point of firing all his writers because he feels they're not necessary.

Cameron and Cody

Two MLG players who are security guards for Trent's wedding. They reappear in Season 6 wanting to join TOSERS.

• Asshole Victim: It's really hard to feel any sympathy for them when when they get fragged by Clyde and Duncan, considering how huge assholes they were throughout most of their screentime.
• Co-Dragons: Both of them serve as Trent's right hand men and security guards at his wedding. With the Donnovich sisters they form Co-Co-Dragons.
• Combat Pragmatist: They have no problem abusing cheesy tactics like camping. Unlike a lot of players who only do that because they suck, Cameron and Cody are actually good players who are just willing to do anything to secure a win even if it's not honorable.
• Enemy Mine: They work with Chief and Arbiter to combat Chaos Theosis
• Gunship Rescue: In "Remission", they end up saving Claire from Clyde using a falcon. They later show up at the roof while Arbiter confronts Adam. However, they get shot down by Duncan.
• Heel–Face Turn: Sort of. They distance themselves from Trent after the wedding fiasco and later help Chief and Arbiter battle Chaos Theosis.
• Jerkass: They act incredibly rude to any who isn't MLG.
• Killed Off for Real: They were both permabanned after being fragged by Chaos Theosis.
• Put on a Bus: Disappear after Season 6, along with the rest of TOSERS.
• Sacrificial Lion: Cameron in Season 6, thought he isn't a "sympathetic" character exactly, but he is still fragged by Clyde as one of these.
• Serious Business: They take Halo and MLG very seriously.
• Those Two Guys: They're always seen together.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Somewhat. They do congratulate Arbiter and Chief after they stop Chaos Theosis. Doubles as a Pet the Dog moment.

Britney Donnovich and Victoria Donnovich

Trent's sisters.

• Co-Dragons: They can always been seen by Trent's side.
• Those Two Girls: Two sisters working for the Big Bad together as supporting antagonists.

Brian

• Anti-Villain: Played with. He's not evil, he's just doing his job as a network administrator assigned to protect Trent and his wedding. He ends up becoming an antagonist anyway since the guy he's protecting is a douche who cheated on his fiancé.
• Evil Genius: Not really evil, but he is a network administrator, and he's affiliated with the Big Bad.

Justin "SniperDeathAngel00"

• Evil Genius: He developed the hacks used in Season 5, the Fragban hacks and the Permanent Denial of Service hack.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He created the hacks used by Trent, the Underground Hackers, and Chaos Theosis.
• Insistent Terminology: It's PDoS, "pee-doss", like DDoS, not pedo.
  "I'm not a pedophile."
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Could only get a body-shot (not One-Hit KO) against a guy standing perfectly still ignoring him? Check. Miss every single shot against him when he's running in a straight line? Check. Repeat first mistake before getting owned? Check.
• Ironic Name: He is actually terrible with the sniper rifle. See Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy above. Lampshaded by Arbiter.
  Arbiter: Who taught you to shoot, the galactic empire?!
  Justin: (offended) Shut up!!
  Arbiter: Leave it to the WORST sniper ever to call himself "SniperDeathAngel00"!
• Karmic Death: He gets fragbanned with his own hacks.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears in a couple of episodes, but he's the one who developed the Fragban hack, around which the dramatic half of the series largely revolves. It's used by the protagonists in Season 5, abused by the villains in Season 6, recreated by the villains in Season 7, and iterated on in Season 8.

Chaos Theosis

Chaos Theosis as a whole.

• Atrocious Alias: Their usernames. Kylie's username is alright. Both Clyde's and Duncan's usernames, however, are rather sexist towards women, whilst Adam's own lengthy username contradicts his statement about another user's name in the first episode of Season 6.
• Badass Crew: A rare villainous example.
• Death by Irony: All of them got permabanned by their own specialty.
• Even Evil Has Standards: All of them hate Adam for being a psychotic asshole. Except for Adam himself, but he's indifferent.
• Hollywood Hacking: No, it's not possible to hack a video game to make your kills inflict a permaban on the victims, and no it's not possible to take that a step further and have them overclock the victim's console to the point it actually explodes and kills them. But the series wouldn't be nearly as interesting if it were realistic hacking, would it?
• Leitmotif: And holy crap, is it awesome.
• Oddly Small Organization: There's only four of them. Though later on, Silent Strike joins to make a fifth member, and Trent is The Man Behind the Man.
• Psycho for Hire: They all qualify for this trope except Duncan, and they were hired to take down the Halo network.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Except for Adam, who just wants to kill people. They all, with the exception of Duncan, turn out to be Psychos for Hire who were hired to take down the Halo network
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Whoops, never mind, turns out they're just Psychos for Hire, with the exception of Duncan.

Clyde

• Back for the Dead: He's assumed to have died when Adam fragged him in Season 8, causing his Xbox to explode.
• Back from the Dead: He makes one final appearance trying to stop Arbiter and Chief from fragging Trent on Breakpoint. When Chief and Arbiter are confused as to why he was back since they had fragged him in the previous episode, he reveals that he has multiple alts and was using his old console. He still gets fragged by Arby in the end.
• Big Bad: For Season 6, though it turns out that Trent was behind the whole thing.
• Boom, Headshot!: Twice, first at by the hands of the eponymous duo, then the second time was pinned personally by just Arbiter.
• Dragon-in-Chief: To his employer, Trent Donnovich. Even so, Clyde is the one who actually fights Arbiter and Chief, while Trent runs away.
• Disc-One Final Boss: It's eventually revealed he was really working for Trent.
• Evil Counterpart: He is considered this for Arbiter.
• Faux Affably Evil: Acts professional and calm in his work while hiding his more sinister nature.
• The Heavy: Despite working for a Mysterious Employer, Clyde poses a more immediate threat.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Insults Kylie for her gender and general inadequacy after she was fragged by Chief. Then he is immediately fragged by Chief and Arbiter.
• Likes Older Women: If his gamertag of MILFHUNTER69 is any indication.
• Villainous Breakdown: Implied. When he finds out that Kylie and Adam were both fragged, he noticeably lowers his guard greatly and swears at Kylie a lot over Skype. Also at the beginning of the season he is calm and only swears during a Precision F-Strike, but as time goes by and Arby and Chief interfere more and more and things start to stop going his way, he descends into several Cluster F-Bomb. He seems to have recovered from it by "The Reunion", though.

Duncan

• Affably Evil: He always had a good attitude and stayed professional, even towards his enemies.
• Compensating for Something: Implied, but said word-for-word by The Arbiter.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He is taken aback when he learns that his fellow hackers plan to take down the OMN.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Duncan finds, out of personal experience, that most girls are not up to his MLG skill level. However, he does seem to actually like Kylie, seeing her as the exception to the rule, though he does speculate if Kylie is a man in disguise. Cradle to Grave also reveals that his gamer tag is "back2thekitchen88"
• Irony: He stated in one of his first appearances that a woman would never outsmart him. When he joins a clan meeting to confront Clyde about what their true goal was, Kylie proceeds to sneak up on him and kill him.
• Noble Bigot: Aside from being a He-Man Woman Hater, he's a pretty chill dude.
• Punch-Clock Villain: His intention is merely for the excitement of playing Halo and had no idea it goes exceedingly serious after getting hired for the job.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In "Femme Fatale", Duncan decides that he has had enough of what Chaos Theosis is doing and that it isn't right. Shortly after, Kylie assassinates him.
• Serious Business: He is described as a hyper competitive MLG player.
• Token Good Teammate: He was the only member who was actually in it to take down TOSERS.
• Villain Respect: He compliments Arbiter during the TOSSERS tryout raid, claiming that he's gotta give credit where it's due.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Duncan decides to back out when Clyde reveals that he plans to take down Xbox LIVE. Clyde and Kylie lure him into a 'clan meeting' and stab him in the back.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He just wanted TOSERS gone.

Kylie

• Anti-Villain: Her motive for joining Chaos Theosis was so that she would have enough money to live on her own because of her abusive father. She also believes that fragging xbox players isn't a bad thing, as much as it is Cruel to Be Kind by equating it to having a drug addict swear it out
• Dark Action Girl: She's actually a pretty good Halo: Reach player. Even Duncan has taken note of this.
• The Dragon: Plays this role to Clyde. She is the one most committed to Chaos Theosis' goals aside from him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: She is very uncomfortable with Adam's plot to cause X-Box consoles to explode, making it clear that in spite of her actions she draws the line at actual physical harm done to players.
• Evil Counterpart: Some have said that she is this to Claire.
• Faux Affably Evil: She acts controlled to hide her plan to taken down the Halo network.
• Femme Fatale: Promises Chief pictures of her boobs if he fragbans Arbiter. Her username "KillerK1tten19" alludes to this aspect of her character.
• Gamer Chick: She considers herself one.
• Hidden Depths: Seeing how much Adam had fallen off the deep end, she displays genuine concern for the boy and offers to be his earpiece if he needs someone to talk to. Considering her abusive upbringing, she probably sees that the kid's starting down a bad road.
• Jerkass: She looks down on anyone she sees as weaker than her and generally has a bad attitude.
• Manipulative Bitch: She manipulates Chief into trying to kill Arbiter.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Duncan tries to get her to back out after she confronts him, and she throws it right back in his face:
  Duncan: You should really consider backing out too you know, before it's too late. You're banning countless innocent players with no just cause, and threatening the activity of a very popular and profitable service. People go to prison for shit like this. Whatever you're getting, it isn't worth the risk.
  Kylie: I'll feel no regret watching this sexist, racist, homophobic cesspit of acne-ridden, basement-dwelling neckbeards burn and whither. I'll be helping them. I'll be shaking them out from their addiction, like you lock a heroin addict away for his own good, and I'd gladly do it for free.
• The Smurfette Principle: In Chaos Theosis as the token female.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: She does have more valid reasons in doing what she does than Adam or Clyde. She wants to get money to move out of her house with an abusive father, and she believes what she's doing is ultimately a good thing.
• Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: She puts on an innocent act to manipulate people and put them in a false sense of security, but she's ruthless in the game.

Adam

• Arch-Enemy: Becomes this to Arbiter after fragging Claire.
• Ax-Crazy: He's probably the most unhinged member of Chaos Theosis. He even remarks once his irritation at his dying grandmother for getting him Mass Effect instead of Halo: Reach because "Everybody just talks all the fucking time! I just wanna kill shit!"
• Bratty Half-Pint: The youngest and most violent of the group.
• The Brute: Really enjoys fragbanning people.
• Bad Boss: Anyone who he cows into doing what he says are no safer from his Ax-Crazy tendencies than his victims, killing a few of his own allies in his final battle with Arbiter and Chief for simply being in the way.
• Big Bad: Of Season 8, where he returns with a plan to disrupt the OMN with the "Hate Machine" code.
• The Bus Came Back: Makes a return in the final season as the Big Bad.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Drops a lot of "fucks" when his mom sends him off to juvenile hall.
• Comedic Sociopath: Though after a while it stops being funny.
• The Dog Bites Back: Two separate dogs, in fact— his mother finally has him sent to juvy, and one of his buddies responds to a plea to act as a character witness by telling her to "lock (Adam's) ass away and swallow the key".
• Dragon Ascendant: After serving as one of Clyde's goons in season 6, a more hardened and nihilistic Adam returns in season 8 as the main antagonist.
• Enfante Terrible: When he was a member of Chaos Theosis, he was cruel, sadistic, sociopathic and foul-mouthed to an extreme. When he returns in Season 8 he's 13, which given the five year Time Skip means his horrifying actions were undertaken when he was eight years old. As a 13 year old he's even worse, upgrading his cruel behavior to include hard drug addictions and murder.
• Evil Counterpart: As a kid, he was this to Chief, sharing the mentality and maturity of children, are loathed by their enemies and friends alike, and a love for violence. Arbiter even calls him "the human version of Chief". Although unlike Chief, Adam hasn't got a single decent bone in his body.
• For the Evulz: Why he kills all the other players. He truly enjoys what he does.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As a teenager, if there's one thing that seems to truly piss him off, it's sexist remarks made towards Kylie. Best shown when he fragbans someone he was just calmly talking to (Likely killing/severely injuring him when his Xbox exploded) and then yells at the entire party that Kylie's authority is to be respected just as much as his.
• Evil Sounds Deep: As a teenager, he uses a voice changer to make himself sound much more electronically deeper and to hide his identity while 'working'. His actual voice is notably deep after hitting puberty, but not particularly menacing like other examples.
• Final Boss: He's the last opponent faced in Season 8.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: In Chaos Theosis, for good reasons.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Gets angry whenever someone interrupts him playing Halo.
• Hate Sink: Probably the most hated character in the series, both In-Universe and out for his extremely toxic attitude.
• The Heavy: He gets a large sum of attention from the audience for his audacity as a child screaming at his own mother while casually permabanning players just for giggles.
• Humiliation Conga: For being a massive jerk across the board, he gets the longest line of karma-induced irony among the criminal clan. First, his "friends" completely abandon him after pushing them too far with his antics. Second, his clanmates are getting permabanned from left to right all awhile having himself hide in a corner of the map just to avoid the trouble. Third, his mother called Child Services to boot him out of his game for scarring his mother too far. Fourth, his two worst enemies showed up only to watch his Real-Life misery unfold. And fifth, Arbiter gets his final say and permabans Adam for good.
• Jerkass: The absolute biggest one in the series.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: When his mother begs one more time to change his life around, he appears to begin to change, only to yell at her more.
• Kick the Dog: All the damn time. He constantly insults his mother and refuses to go see his grandmother when she's in the hospital.
• Kick the Morality Pet: He develops something of an affection for Kylie in season 8, but doesn't hesitate to eliminate her when she tries to oppose him.
• Kids Are Cruel: And how. See Kick the Dog above.
• Knight of Cerebus: He is by far the most evil antagonist in the series and is played more seriously than the others.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He never thought that his own mother would eventually grow a spine and proceeds to call the cops to send him to Juvenile Detention. His avatar in game is dealt a Karmic Death by way of Fragban.
• Lack of Empathy: Shows no concern over his dying grandmother.
• No Indoor Voice: Screams all the time.
• Putting on the Reich: Not quite so much himself, but by season 8 he's hired a squad of Elite Mooks to color their Spartans black and red, to go on racist rants when possible, and to kill everything that moves in any Halo matches they enter.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Almost every word out of his mouth is a curse.
• Smug Snake: Has a very bad tendency to underestimate his opponents and abuse everyone around him, thinking that he's not going to be punished for it, although his cocky veneer disintegrates chunk by bloody chunk as one of his abused friends sells him out, Arbiter and Chief mock him relentlessly for his all-round pathetic nature and he's dragged out by a correctional officer screaming in petulant, impotent fury as everything crashes down around him and he's given the Coup de Grâce by Arbiter.
• Spoiled Brat: He's rude to everyone, doesn't stop to get up to go to the bathroom, and screams at his mother when she doesn't do what he wants her to do.
• The Sociopath: Shows no empathy towards anything.
• The Stoner: Invoked. His gamertag "Oo_PuFf_Da_Chr0n1k_420_oO" was likely an attempt to make himself seem cooler by alluding to a non-existent weed smoking habit. By the time he's actually on drugs in Season 8 he's on much harder stuff.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Well, it's a complicated example, and when Jon did the commentary for "Cradle to Grave" he addressed this. After he abuses his mother one times too many, she calls the police to take him juvenile hall. He didn't exactly commit any crimes, save for cyberterrorism, but given that he's a horrible and depraved individual, would it really surprise you if he had?.
• Token Evil Teammate: Duncan and Kylie profess to have noble intentions (Duncan felt the T.O.S.E.R.S. were too overbearing, while Kylie compared shutting down the Online Multiplayer Network to forcing a junkie to sweat it out in the basement), and even Clyde seems to be strictly professional in his conduct. Adam, on the other hand, is abusive to everyone he associates with—friend, foe, or victim—and is generally regarded as an unlikable shit. Think Eric Cartman without the charming personality, and that should about cover it.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Say what you will about his behavior in Season 6, but Adam was as loud and bratty as you'd expect from an eight year old. Come Season 8, and at thirteen years old he's now an official Cold Ham Creepy Child with a Creepy Monotone. Not to mention apparently becoming addicted to cocaine of all things after what he'd gone through in juvenile hall. And that's not even getting into the fact that he got transfered to an actual prison after killing another inmate at juvie and then stabbing his mother to death when he escape.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: It probably doesn't bear thinking about how he got so messed up.
• Villainous Breakdown: In episode 10, Cradle to Grave when Adam is cornered by Arby and Chief in a private server, he tells one of his "friends" to take them out. This "friend" who had been threatened with a permanent ban by Adam that very episode refuses to, saying that he's had enough of Adam. At that moment, Adam's mother walks in with a police officer, saying that Adam is going to a correctional facility. He breaks down, desperately pleading with his Mother not to send him away. He begs Arbiter, Chief and his "friend" to vouch for him, upon which his friend remarks, "Lock his ass up and swallow the key". As Adam is dragged away, he begins swearing furiously, as the Arbiter coldly shoots him in game.
  Adam: "YOU'LL FUCKING PAY FOR THIS ONE DAY MOM YOU HEAR ME?! I HOPE YOU DIE IN A FIRE YOU FUCKING CUNT! I HOPE YOU FUCKING DIE!
• Vocal Evolution: In Season 8, his usual loud-mouthed demeanor is now replaced by a Creepy Monotone. This is excused by Adam going through puberty.
• Your Mom: He uses this a lot. Not as much as Chief though.

Eugene's Clan

Eugene's Clan as a whole

Arbiter: The only people we could ever call friends — a psychopath, a sadist, and a pedophile...

• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Chaos Theosis in Season 6. Chaos Theosis' members were only working together because they were getting paid to. Eugene and his clan members are all genuine friends with each other. Chaos Theosis had a set goal in mind. Eugene and his clan only fragbanned people For the Lulz
• For the Evulz: They don't have much motive for fragbanning people, other than they find it funny.
• No Name Given: Eugene chose to not name the clan as "names only draw attention". In addition, while we do learn the actual names of Eugene and his co-moderators, we never learn what their gamertags are.
• Oddly Small Organization: Despite the impressive reach the clan is said to have, only Eugene, Tyler, Colin and a few other miscellaneous Xbox Live players are shown to be members. Though they do gain two more members when Arbiter and Chief join.
• Terrible Trio: Eugene, Tyler and Colin form one with Cortana even at one point referring to them as such. They become a Five-Man Band when Arbiter and Chief join them in their fragbanning spree.
• Troll: The clans' members are all self-admitted trolls, though their idea seems to include using hacks to perma-ban people on Xbox Live.

Eugene Black

• Affably Evil: He's pretty friendly to Arbiter when he first meets him, and even manages to maintain a friendship with him for a decent while.
• Alas, Poor Villain: After his death, Arbiter compares Eugene to an abused animal.
• Big Bad: He's effectively this for season 7, given his fragbanning spree across the OMN.
• The Bully: He and Tyler are both feared bullies at his school.
• Dead Person Conversation: Returns in visions as part of Arbiter's subconscious during the early part of Season 8.
• Delicate and Sickly: His sister has Leukemia and is staying at the hospital. He fears that she may never come out. She doesn't.
• Despair Event Horizon: His sister's death and the ominous silence, combined with his girlfriend leaving him is bound to send him over the edge. And to take out his rage, he goes on a banning spree online.
• Disproportionate Retribution: His response to someone trolling in his name to get personal fame is to pull personal information (Which is fairly Squicky) about him from his web history and post it all over his school's Facebook page. He also promises that he is capable of much worse.
• Driven to Suicide: With all that was good in his life gone and his trolling clan defeated, he invites Arbiter and Chief to a separate match so they can overhear him shooting himself.
• Evil Is Petty: He invites Arbiter and Chief to a private match just so they can hear him kill himself.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Cares deeply for his sister and refers to her as the one consistently good thing in his life.
• Expy: He's pretty similar to the previous Big Bad, Trent Donnovich. Both are Straw Nihilists who start off as friends with Arbiter before he and Chief discover his true colors. Both are also in a relationship with someone who is friends with Arbiter.
• Evil Counterpart: To Arbiter. Both share the same nihilistic beliefs on life and their places in the universe. But while Arbiter has a cooler, more patient head and has a good moral compass, Eugene is quick to anger and is a vicious bully to those around him.
• Foil: As stated above, Eugene is the Evil Counterpart to Arbiter, but Eugene is what Arbiter would be if he threw all his morals aside. Even the color schemes on their Halo: Reach avatars contrast each other. Arbiter's is silver with blue trim, while Eugene's is gold with red trim.
• The Kirk: Balances out Tyler's and Colin's personalities.
• Heroic BSoD: After he receives the news that his sister has died.
• He's Dead, Jim: He shot himself right next to Arby and Chief's doorstep. Breaking Arbiter even more.
• Hollywood Atheist: all the traits are there, even if he never actually spoke the A-word.
• Jerkass: Very much so.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Chief says this in response to his death when Arbiter insists that Eugene was pushed to the edge. Judging from all that had happened before, it's hard to say he was wrong.
• Kick the Dog: Shoots Michelle when she breaks up with him, preventing her from going on to the final round of the Halo tournament she was excited about.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Or at least the digital equivalent of one.
  Eugene: I suggest we get the utmost out of fragban while it's still functional. That, or until not a single solitary player's left connected.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: He begs Michelle not to leave him when she finds out he's been mentally, physically and emotionally harrassing other people [[and that Collin is a pedofile. Eugene gets desperate and explains that between his sister dying and her leaving, he feels like his world is collapsing. She rightfully points out while she does have sympathy, she can't afford to stay with someone so overwhelmingly toxic. He proceeds to fragban her.]]
• Sadist: He derives a lot of enjoyment out of reducing Brody to tears before fragbanning him.
• Serious Business: He takes his trolling very seriously, to the point of going to extreme lengths if someone tried to use his name for their own benefit.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Likes dealing these out.
  • One of the first ones we see him give is to the leader of a copycat trolling clan.
    Eugene: I've deducted two possible conclusions regarding the reasoning of those who pull this kind of shit with us: One, they are, in reality, brilliant trolls with astronomical testicular fortitude well aware of the fact that what they're doing is completely and utterly retarded and do so with the intent to annoy. And two, which I believe is the far more likely case, it is simply you who is completely and utterly retarded and mistakenly convinced that your actions are not.
    Blake: I'm sorry Eugene! Believe me when I tell you that myself and my clan did what we did out of a deep respect for you, and yours, and your extensive history of work.
    Eugene: Then educate me. If your shenanigans were rooted entirely in respect, why the fuck would you think so little of us, that you'd believe we're in any need of your vastly inferior services. You've brought us a lot of unwanted attention and sullied our reputation. Seems quite disrespectful if you ask me.
    Blake: That... that isn't how it is at all dude. I swear to yo-
    Eugene: Would you like to know what I think? I think you're just scrounging a little attention and notoriety because of your subatomic testicular fortitude, rendering you too much of a goddamn pussy to earn any for yourself. And guess what? That shit doesn't fly so well with me. And given how deeply woven our particular network is through society, to a degree that would likely come as a great surprise to you, I am about the last guy you'd want to fuck with in these here parts.
  • At the beginning of episode 6, one of them backfires when his victim (a schoolmate of his) redirects one of his own back at him, mocking his poor grades, lack of effort in school and a breakdown he had. Possibly about his sister.
• Sympathy for the Devil: With all that's said and done, Arbiter, Chief and Michelle all feel sorry for him despite his many harmful actions.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: It's heavily implied that before his sister got hospitalized Eugene was not nearly as bad tempered or foul mouthed as he is in the present, as Michelle says that he's much better mannered when not on Halo, and her leaving when he starts losing his temper implies this is a relatively new change in attitude.
• Tragic Villain: It's not hard to feel sorry for him, even if he's caused thousands of dollars in property damage, given his sister's condition and his father's abuse.
• Villainous Friendship: He's friends with his two co-moderators, Tyler and Colin.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: It's hinted that his sister's death may have accelerated his fragbanning spree.

Tyler King

• Ax-Crazy: Abuses his dog and has a habit of breaking controllers when he gets mad.
• Chainsaw Good: Brings along a chainsaw when he goes to Arbiter and Chief's apartment to avenge Eugene.
• Co-Dragons: He and Colin are Co-Moderators in Eugene's Clan.
• Despair Event Horizon: Eugene's death was one for Tyler, and it drove him to go hunt down Chief and Arbiter for revenge.
• Dragon Their Feet: Shows up to avenge Eugene after he's committed suicide.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While he may be a psychopathic Jerkass when he talks to Arbiter outside of Jon's department he seems genuinely shaken up about Eugene's suicide.
• Evil Counterpart: While Eugene is one to Arbiter, Tyler is the Evil Counterpart to Chief. Both share similar temperaments and are the least intelligent of their respective groups, though Tyler is much more Ax-Crazy than Chief is.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Broken seventeen controllers, beat up Brody, beats his dog, Charlie, and has broken his leg on one occasion.
• Informed Attribute: Despite supposedly being Eugene's best friend, the only times they seem to get along is when they're causing havoc or mischef of some kind together. In general, Collin is on better terms than Tyler is.
• Jerkass: Laughs about Brody trying to commit suicide, and beat him up without question. Takes part in banning many players and beats his dog, too.
• Karmic Death: Not "death" per se, but he meets his end on XBL when his dog, Charlie finally loses it with Tyler's sadistic abuse of him and attacks him, allowing Arbiter and Chief to defeat him.
• The McCoy: He's pretty hot-headed, but swaps out being moralistic for Ax-Crazy.
• Number Two for Brains: He's not the sharpest tool in the shed, to the point of apparently thinking you could cure a hemorrhage by sitting on a donut.
• No Sympathy: Strangely, he displays no sympathy towards Eugene's status with his sister, even mocking him after hearing an incident where he was crying. Even after hearing Eugene's sister had died doesn't result in an attempt in a joke than helping him.
• Psychopathic Manchild: See Ax-Crazy.
• Psycho Sidekick: He's a lot more unhinged than Eugene.
• The Sociopath: Of the low-functioning variety.
• The Stoner: It's mentioned he smokes weed a lot.
• The Dog Bites Back: Literally. He gets attacked by his dog, Charlie as revenge for his abuse.
• Villainous Breakdown: While not mentally stable in the first place, Eugene's death does not help.
• Villainous Friendship: With Eugene and Colin.

Colin Hunt

• Affably Evil: He's pretty friendly with Eugene, though is distrusting of newcomers.
• Co-Dragons: He's a co-moderator in Eugene's Clan with Tyler.
• Cold Sniper: His preferred weapon is the sniper rifle. And he's a damn good shot with it.
• Covert Pervert: Master Chief catches him chatting up a 9 year old kid to join an IRC chat and realizes he's a pedophile.
• Death by Irony: Hits him back, when he's going to snipe MC and Arbiter, and the police comes to arrest him.
• Driven to Suicide: In Season 8, Arbiter tells Chief that Colin committed suicide after being sent to prison.
• Evil Genius: He created Fragban 2.0 and appears to be the most pragmatic member of Eugene's Clan.
• Fate Worse than Death: Unlike Eugene and Tyler (who were both killed), Colin will be spending a VERY long time in jail for his pedophiliac nature. His impending fate is best described by Arbiter:
  Arbiter: Not sure how long Colin will be imprisoned for, but due to the fact that he's a white, introverted software nerd and a kid fucker, he'll likely be targeted by his inmates for rape and sold as a cell bitch for a pack of smokes.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Of Season 8. He met Adam while in prison, planned out the whole scheme with the "Hate Machine" virus and left it to Adam to carry it out.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The police catch and arrest him immediately after Chief rats out Colin's pedophilia to them.
• Pedo Hunt: Colin is a pedophile, and actively seduces children online.
• Prison Rape: Arbiter speculates that this will be his final fate once he reaches prison for his crimes.
• The Spock: Cool and pragmatic, as well as pretty skilled software engineer.

Other Antagonists

Skyler Loveheart

The head of Douchebag Studios, A machinima company. He mistakes Master Chief's awful machinima movie as a parody of bad machinimas and hires him to write movies in Arby 'n' the Chief: The Movie.

• Action Figure Speech: Since we don't see his face, he compensates with ten times as much body language.
• A-Team Firing: He gets so enraged at Chief that he pulls out a pistol and starts chasing him while firing his gun wildly. Thankfully for Chief, he's so manic and such a bad shot that he completely misses an entire volley of shots while Chief is cornered and stunned with terror right in front of him.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's extremely hyperactive.
• Driven to Suicide: Played for Laughs when he sees Chief escape his wrath via stealing a car.
• Drives Like Crazy: He takes a phone call while driving, then proceeds to talk to the caller about how they're both phoning while driving and how dangerous but awesome that is, while swerving the steering wheel like a maniac.
• The Faceless: His head is never shown.
• Large Ham: His voice seems to grow in hamminess from a cool register to a fever pitch by the end of every scene.

Craig

A friend of Chief's who claims to be an MLG. He 'secretly' hates Chief because he isn't an MLG. He ends up having a match with Chief, which Chief wins.

• Break the Haughty: After suffering a humiliating defeat from Chief, he breaks down in tears. Thinking that no one will think he's cool anymore.
• Caught with Your Pants Down: The reason he loses the match is because he is busy arguing with his parents after they caught him masturbating.
• Humiliation Conga: By the end of his match with Chief, he's been beaten by one of the shittiest players on the network, suffered the embarassment of being walked in on by his parents, sparked off what could likely be the end of said parents' marriage, and his in-game girlfriend dumps him to be with the player who beat him.
• Jerkass: He pretends to be Chief's friend and later bullies him for not being pro.
• Miles Gloriosus: He nervously sidesteps Arbiter's questions about any MLG events he's been a part of and what other pros he's played, implying he has none to speak of. In their match, he's only a threat thanks to exploiting cheap tactics, and is shown spamming grenades and panicking when confronted.
  Arbiter: Douche took the rocket launcher too. What a fucking pussy.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Has a very inflated opinion of himself despite implications that he never played in any MLG matches and his use of tactics that are prohibited in them.
• Smug Snake: He's a competent player... until he stops to jerk off.

Zanthar

An Alien obsessed with 'raping butts' that kidnaps Todd, Travis and Cortana and kills them all. Absolutely not related in any way to Jon's chin.

• Black Comedy Rape: His rape is Played for Laughs.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: He drops bridges on the three toy side-characters that had been missing for two seasons, just to be done with that plot thread already.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Appears just to show what happened to Todd, Travis and Cortana. Later reappears at the end of the 2001: A Space Odyssey Arc in Season 8.
• Retcon: A few seasons later Cortana actually comes back, overwriting her fate with Zanthar. His appearance in Arbiter's 2001 dream suggests he might not be a real character at all.
• Unexpected Character: Shows up at the end of the 2001: A Space Odyssey arc in Season 8 with his 'space Allens'.
• Voodoo Shark: He's an intergalactic alien overlord who came to Earth solely to abduct a handful of sentient action figures and rape their butts (except the female one, who he just throws into the sun).

Scott

Jon's room mate during Endgame who is a wanted criminal for smuggling cocaine from Russia and hacking in online video games.

• Big Bad: Of Endgame.
• Bloody Hilarious: His death involves being shot many times by Agent Smirnoff with a profuse amount of blood spilling everywhere as he squirms around coughing up even more blood (while trying to inhale more cocaine).
• The Cracker: One of his hobbies is hacking games including Halo 3.
• Death Is Dramatic: Parodied - Scott is shot and is in the process of dying for such a long time that Arbiter and Chief become exasperated and shout at him to hurry up and die already.
• Immune to Drugs: If anyone had as much cocaine as Scott absorbs, they'd probably be dead now.
• Jerkass: He's a raging jackhole who games loudly and obnoxiously all day, leaves cigarettes and coke everywhere, steals his roommate's wallet to buy hundreds of hookers, and antagonizes people online.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Thanks to his intense cocaine abuse, he can get so high that Arbiter and Chief don't even have to hide their nature as living toys from him.

Brent

A player who harasses people online in Halo: Reach during "Night of the Evading Dead".

PAL 9001

An AI Monitor who appears in the first arc of season 8. He is the main computer of the ship Truth and Reconciliation, where Arbiter and Cortana are apparently in suspension. Originally a dutiful and by-the-book AI helper with no quirks, he suddenly suffers a "boredom overload" that corrupts his systems and turns his personality into the spitting image of Chief's, after which he awakens Arbiter and Cortana to have some company.

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Ends up trying to kill both Cortana and Arbiter.
• Arc Villain: Of Act I of season 8.
• Dying as Yourself: After having his brain filled with lead by Arbiter, he loses all his memories and reverts to his original programming for the few minutes he has left before shutting down.
• Properly Paranoid: He justifies the assortment of explosive and chemical weapons strewn about the cargo bay, using the bizarrely specific hypothetical of defending themselves from "allens" trying to rape their butts. Naturally once he's dead, the ship is invaded by a bunch of aliens named Allen, who have come to do exactly that.
• Was Once a Man: Inverted. When Pal and the Arbiter "died" in the ship explosion, Arbiter gets back into a toy version of his body, but since there were no Forerunner toys introduced since when Halo 4 and 5 aren't there yet^note When the "Arby 'n' the Chief" debuted, Pal gets into a body of a Master Chief toy that we all love and hate.