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  • Anti-Climax Boss:
    • Clyde, the main antagonist of season 6 (at first), is taken down by the duo in practically two seconds.
    • Eugene and his clan in season 7 end up being pushovers once Arbiter and Chief get the jump on them. Tyler and Colin are both fragged due to circumstances outside of the game, and Eugene kills himself out of spite.
  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: Different in the fact that they're already dead, but Cortana's last interactions with Chief as a ghost are essentially telling him that Tyler and Colin got what they deserved, Eugene's suicide was neither his fault nor Arbiter's and that he's changed enough for her to finally rest in peace, complete with a final request for him to be as much as a friend as he can to Arbiter in their final moments. Made even worse with Chief admitting that he does want to be friends with Cortana and realizing that he loves her...only for her to disappear before she can hear it.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: In the season 8 finale, did Cortana tell the truth when she told Chief she didn't remember her conversations with him as a seeming ghost/hallucination, or was she lying for Chief's sake.
  • Broken Base: Between fans of the show who like that the show got darker and turned into more of a dramatic type of series and fans who prefer the lighter and comedic earlier episodes.
    • "Ignition", the season 7 finale, further divided the base because of how the toys die, and other factors.
    • Season 8 has mended the divide, as Jon getting his life in order has led to the series keeping a perfect mix of drama and comedy, pleasing both sides of the fanbase.
  • Common Knowledge: After "TOSERS" (Third episode of Season 6), many people commented saying that one of the TOSER members was voiced by or sounded like Gustavo Sorola. However, this isn't actually true according to Word of God.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Greg the spider has quite a few fans, to the point where they hope he returns for the next season. A completely different reception to what happened when Todd, Travis and Cortana were introduced. On the comments of pretty much all the new videos, there is at least a few people who really want Greg to come back after disappearing in "Cheaters".
  • Fanon Discontinuity: There's a fair amount of fans who like to wish that the show ended with Season 6, with Arbiter and Master Chief getting a happy ending, instead of moving on to the Darker and Edgier 7th season with them committing suicide.
  • Fridge Horror: Way back in Master Chief sucks at Halo 2, Chief attempts suicide over finding out that the Halo 3 Beta is over. We are supposed to find this funny, because it seemingly shows that he's taking things too seriously and obsessing way too much over a game. But when you think about it, he's a living action figure. When he says "my life is empty without Halo"? He means that completely sincerely. There really is nothing else in his life.
  • Fridge Logic: The reward for Scott's capture allowed them to stay in Canada.
  • He Really Can Act: Khail Anonymous received universal acclaim for his portrayal of Adam in Season 6.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • The original theme for the series was the intro for the Family Guy "Road To" episodes, and over time, the Arbiter became Digitalph33r's megaphone for delivering Author Filibusters the same way Brian did for Seth Macfarlane.
    • In Pilot, the Arbiter is introduced by delivering one such Author Filibuster regarding the Heroic Map Pack (which was 800 Microsoft Points, or ten dollars, at the time of the episode's release) not being worth it and how it would have been better off as a freebie. The map pack did become free on March 2008.
    • Hypernews I has Chief complain that there is no DLC to buy on the main menu for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Come Breath Of The Wild, and Chief's complaint has finally been addressed.
  • I Am Not Shazam: There are lots of examples of Chief referring to characters by the title of their games. In Beta he's disappointed because you can only play as 'Halo' (Spartans) now. In Hypermail, there's this exchange:
    Chief: bitch plz / im teh halo mastar / u get down on ur fucking knees when u talk 2 meh about halo / go on / GET DOWN
    Arbiter: Says the guy who thinks you still play as Master Chief in Reach.
    Chief: who teh hell else w00d it b dipshit? metroid? hes from taht stuped gay cube gaem / w/e its called i dunno
    Arbiter: Metroid.
    Chief: No thats teh robot
    Arbiter: What the fuck are you talking about?
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Machinima's (the company) reputation had gotten so downhill that Arby 'n' The Chief eventually ended up being the only reason anybody was even subscribed to their channel anymore. One can only imagine how Biblical the subscriber exodus must've been once Jon officially announced the end of his partnership with Machinima to focus on his own Youtube channel.
  • Parody Displacement:
  • Love to Hate: Adam is an unapologetic spoiled brat, but for fans that just makes him enjoyable to root against.
  • Misaimed Fandom: An episode revolved around Chief criticizing the Arbiter for wanting to play a Play Station 3 game. Many fans thought it was supposed to be a Take That! at the PS3 when it was supposed to be a Take That! at the elitist 360 fanboys.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Adam in season 6 refuses to stop playing Halo to see his dying grandmother in the room next to his. The other members of Chaos Theosis are visibly appalled.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Some of the more entertaining one-shot characters count as this, such as the overly serious and dramatic gamer trio from "Newcomers".
  • The Scrappy: Cortana seems to get the most hate due to the fact she did nothing notable other than bitch about Chief being an idiot/sexist and bottom to Todd.
    • Todd and Travis are generally hated by fans as well. The former for being a a boring, generic nice guy and the latter for being a childish Jerkass who, unlike Chief, comes off as more annoying than funny. The backlash resulted in them both being Put on a Bus and later randomly killed off alongside Cortana, but unlike her neither of them ever came back afterwards.
  • Scrub: Arbiter believes that only cheap players use Martydom in Call of Duty, as well as pick Rocket Fight in Halo 3.
  • Squick: The crude Fluttershy sex doll that Master Chief built by himself in "Horsin' Around".
  • Take That, Scrappy!: The fates of Cortana, Todd and Travis, who are abducted by the butt-raping alien Xanthar.
  • Tear Jerker: Has its own page.
  • Ugly Cute: Greg. Sure, he's a spider, but just look at him and the way he communicates. Cue the collective "Awwwww".
  • The Woobie:
    • Greg. In his first appearance, he gets told by Arbiter that him and his species are repulsive, when he just wanted to hang out. Though thankfully Arbiter decides to befriend him afterwards. Chief constantly treats him like crap, which eventually ends up with Chief trying to kill Greg with a knife after Arbiter got Greg to lock him away so that he wouldn't crash the wedding, despite the fact that Greg felt horrible about it. He becomes self aware of his appearance when Arbiter decides not to play Scrabble with him one time, and then he hears what Arbiter said to Claire about how much Greg scares him. So he decides to leave.
    • Mrs. Mcintyre. Her husband left her some time before Season 6. She also has to put up with Adam, her son, who ends up killing her in Season 8.
    • From season 5 and onwards, Arbiter himself becomes a pretty big woobie. His realisation that being a living toy means he will spend his entire life confined within a small apartment with only Chief to keep him company and that his life doesn't have any meaning or purpose slowly drives him into a depression. Especially since season 7 shows Chief and Arbiter deteriorating and breaking apart, having to tape and glue themselves back together really drives this home, to the point that Arbiter eventually agrees to finally partake in Eugene and his dangerous fragban software.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Everyone assumed the subplot between Adam and his mother would lead to her eventually putting her foot down and slapping the little shit to kingdom come, but instead she calls in a correctional officer to whisk Adam away to juvenille hall for entirely unspecified charges while she gets off scot free for allowing her small child to turn into a psychopath under her watch.

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