Heartwarming / Halo Infinite

• The Pelican pilot recognizing Master Chief and recognizing him as a savior. It's one of the few times in the video game series we'd seen direct interaction between Chief and a regular person. It gets subverted as Echo-216's Survivor Guilt begins to sour his outlook, but he never sees Chief as anything but a hero — the problem is that Echo-216 feels he's not.
• Master Chief still seems to hold out hope that Cortana can be saved, when he plugs in an AI chip and hopes she's installed.
• When the Master Chief is traversing his way^note in zero-gravity through the wreckage of a destroyed UNSC ship; what makes this touching is how he treats the bodies of dead UNSC soldiers with respect, gently moving them aside, and even seeming hesitant to take the rifle off one of them.
• Cortana's replacement is a Naïve Newcomer, and thus John has taken the place of Cortana as The Obi Wan.
• When Echo-216 has a Despair Event Horizon, calling himself "worthless", the Chief doesn't raise his voice. He doesn't tell Echo-216 he has no choice. He doesn't try to coerce him. He simply tells him his deepest regret — not protecting Cortana — and simply tells him he is needed, with The Weapon chiming in that she needs him too. Chief is a Super-Soldier One-Man Army, but he tells Echo-216 Chief's still human and makes mistakes like everyone else.
• The scene where the Chief finds Spartan Griffin is both this and a Tear Jerker. While Griffin does die, it's worth noting that the way Master Chief handles his body and talks to him is probably the gentlest he's ever been with someone. The silence that follows when Griffin dies really shows how much the Chief values his fellow Spartans, even if they're not of Class II.
  • Before this, when Chief comes across Spartan Stone’s corpse, he puts a solemn hand on her shoulder and seems to pay his respects for a few moments.
• A minor villainous case, but some of the possible Enemy Chatter has the usually classist and condescending Elites *encouraging* their Grunt underlings, telling them to believe and that they are destined for glory.
• Chief’s dynamic with Echo-216 is very heartwarming when the poor pilot isn’t losing his mind in fear. Echo is constantly concerned about his safety, while Chief is respectful (if stern) and even sounds close to amused by the man’s concern for him. This is probably the closest thing he’s had to a non-Spartan friend since Sergeant Johnson.
  • When Echo-216 gives him a hug, Chief nearly reciprocates, but stops himself due to how awkward it is, even though it is clear that the pilot was just so relieved to see Chief alive again, given what had just happened.
• An Elite may yell at Chief, "I'm ready! Are you?", which is what Emile yelled after being stabbed by a high-ranking Elite and returning the favor as he died. The Elites remember his last words, and probably view him as a Worthy Opponent who knew what the Sangheili were all about.
• Escharum's speech about being an Old Soldier, and while he may be a ruthless bastard, he's dying and wants to fight Master Chief in a Last Dance, either having a glorious victory over a Worthy Opponent or going out in a blaze of glory.
  Escharum: Without challenge, I grew... weary. Lost. Alone. But... here you now stand. This is my last fight, a true test of legends, OUR story that will outlive us both. SET A FIRE IN YOUR HEART, SPARTAN! BARE YOUR FANGS! FIGHT HARD! Die well...
• Chief holding a dying Escharum and thereby showing respect to him despite being an enemy, telling the Pilot that he was also a soldier like him.
  Echo-216: I don't understand. You showed him respect. He was a monster!
  Master Chief: Yes. But at the end he was just a soldier. Hoping he'd done the right thing. Questioning his choices.
• When standing idle, one of the marines might comment that they were just about to give up hope... until they saw Chief. Our big guy in green is a Hope Bringer for all of humanity. You can just feel the relief of every human he comes across.
  • The same was true of Spartan Griffin and his team, so Chief's arrival after his seeming death and the Total Party Wipe of the other Spartans came at a critical time.
• The game ends on a very happy note with Chief, the Weapon, and Echo-216 flying off to retake the Ring with the formerly dour pilot now grinning ear to ear with hope. We also learn Echo-216's real name and the Weapon wants to pick one for herself. While Chief may have lost Cortana for good this time, he has two new Fire-Forged Friends.
  • The Weapon shyly asks Chief if he'll approve of her name choice. He warmly replies that she is the only one who can choose her name.
  • Master Chief also tells Esparza, "Good work, soldier", which carries extra-weight considering Esparza is a non-combatant pressed into service — and Master Chief thinks of himself as just a soldier, so he views Esparza as an equal.
  • During the mid-credits, Echo-216 gets another friendly UNSC contact, and smiles as he breathes, "Chief... you're not gonna believe this...", indicating that an important ally has been found. Hope Spot indeed.
• Though it’s in the midst of Chief’s paranoia-fueled attempt to delete the Weapon, the final passcode of the deletion sequence is heartwarming for those who know the lore. The passcode, Samuel, is the name of Chief’s childhood best friend, the physically strongest Spartan-II and the first one to fall in battle back at the beginning of the Human-Covenant War. Even all those years later, Chief remembers his fallen brother and keeps him in his thoughts.
• Cortana's last message to the Chief mentions the Weapon, who she remarks as having "so much potential". Most notably, the tone in which she says it makes it sound like she's a mother warmly praising her child.
• A villainous example is the Harbinger; it's heavily implied that she genuinely cares for her people, the Endless, as she does everything in her power to free them, and when she passes the role to Atriox, she tells him to apologize to the Endless on her behalf for her taking so long to free them.