Arby 'n' the Chief/Characters
Main Protagonists
Master Chief
- Anti-Hero: and a Byronic one - type IV or V, as usual with these.
- Ax Crazy: He threatens Greg with a knife, while yelling something about how the knife demands a blood sacrifice. Yeah, that seems pretty frigging crazy.
- He did the same thing to Todd.
- Big Damn Heroes: Does this in "Night of the Evading Dead" in Season 4.
- He pulls one off again 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.
- 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
- Catch Phrase: 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?"
- 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.
- Cluster F-Bomb: used to be much more frequent.
- Completely Missing the Point of Arbiter's speeches.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: RARELY, Chief is capable of pulling random CMOAs with no warning.
- The Ditz
- Epic Fail: This happens often.
- He even calls his attempt to drown himself in the toliet an Epic Fail, despite it happening in the original Master Cheef sucks series.
- Dan Browned: this dialogue:
Chief: halo 3 wuz laging liek shit adn it maed meh vreh :( so i quit
Arbiter: Interesting... [looks at computer screen] Do you think that has anything to do with you downloading over 700 gigs of pornography on here?
Chief: no. tahts teh computir. this r teh xbox. its sepret. DUMASS
Arbiter: Jon's hard drive isn't even that big.
Chief: dun wury. i hav........... 2 FLOPY DISKZ
Arbiter: I think you'll need a few more than that.
Chief: LOLOLLLOLLOL. u obvsly no nothign abot computirs
- Dirty Cop now that he is a TOSER
Chief: FREEZE / TOSERS / GET DOWN ON THE FUKCING GROUND
- Faux Affably Evil
- For the Evulz
- Insane Troll Logic: uses this frequently.
- Jerkass
- Kick the Dog: Occasionally has moments like this, such as his attempted murder of Greg.
- The Lancer: Plays this role to Arbiter in more recent seasons.
- Leet Lingo/Rouge Angles of Satin: All the time.
- Pet the Dog: For all his horrible acts (and his entire 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.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud/Unsound Effect:
- MAI ROFLKNIEF GOEZ SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC
- And his faces.
- Serious Business: Halo 3, as shown in the original trilogy, episode 4 and episode 18.
- Small Name, Big Ego
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Microsoft Sam.
- Took a Level in Badass: After training with Arbiter, his Halo skills seemed to have radically improved.
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?
- Weapon of Choice: An assault rifle and the Spartan laser, though recently he has traded in the laser for a rocket launcher.
- You Keep Using That Word: a few instances can be found earlier, but Season 5 introduced this as a regular character trait. Examples include "metallic"[1], "pedestrians"[2] and several butchered proverbs/phrases.
- Your Mom: a frequent target of his jokes.
The Arbiter
- Anti-Hero: he combines aspects of types I, II and III.
- Author Avatar: As acknowledged by Jon in an interview.
- 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.
- Catch Phrase: "Sigh". Though it does not catch that very frequently.
- Deadpan Snarker
- 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
- Fair Cop Now that he is a TOSER
- Heroic Blue Screen of Death: Has one at the start of Season 6.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: in varying proportions as time passes. Demonstrated in "Recon" (S1E2) and "Evil" (S3E12).
- Knight in Sour Armor
- 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 Minor armor, in other more serious situations he switches to Spec Ops.
- 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.
- 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.
- Spell My Name with a "The": He usually introduces himself as "the Arbiter".
- Straight Man
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Microsoft Mike.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: He was able to attend university, as mentioned in 'Pirates'.
- Weapon of Choice: A DMR and a magnum.
Greg
- Big Damn Heroes
- Giant Spider
- Nice Guy: Don't let his appearance fool you, he just wants to hang out and play scrabble.
- Put on a Bus
- The Speechless
- Stealth Hi Bye
Claire
- 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.
- Killed Off for Real: Is fragged in S6 E9 by Adam
- Nice Girl: Rarely has anything scornful to say about someone, and when she does it's usually pretty accurate.
- Only Sane Woman: 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.
Other characters
Supporting Characters
Season 2
Cortana
Originally one of the main characters of the Series.
- Bus Crash
- Demoted to Extra: In Season 3.
- Disney Death: Turns out she survived getting fired into the alien sun.
- Gamer Chick
- Killed Off for Real
- Back from the Dead: In "The Reunion".
- Love Interest: For both Chief and Todd.
- Put on a Bus
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Microsoft Mary.
- The Chick
- 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.
Todd
- Bus Crash
- Killed Off for Real
- Nice Guy
- Put on a Bus: Along with Travis.
Travis
- Bus Crash
- Jerkass
- Killed Off for Real
- Put on a Bus
- 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 Season 5.
- Cluster F-Bomb
Season 3
Josh Butterballs
The face of Stupid Obvious Information Magazine.
- Ascended Extra: The only of the Season 3 characters to appear in two unrelated episodes, and to appear again in another season.
- Fail O'Suckyname
- Did Not Do the Research: Quite a bit.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Stupid Obvious Information Magazine.
- 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.
Agent Boris Smirnoff
A Russian agent who is after Scott.
Season 4
Cody
A kid on Chief's friends list who was hosting custom games on infection during "Night of the Evading Dead".
Season5
Timothy
An Xbox Live player that Chief meets early in the season 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.
Season 6
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.
- Big Good: Until they are disbanded.
- Fail O'Suckyname
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Averted. After "TOSERS" (Third episode of Season 6), many people commented saying that one of the TOSER members was voiced by or sounded like Gus. However, this isn't actually true according to Word of God.
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
- Dropped a Bridge on Him
- Killed Off for Real: By one of the hackers, shortly after the Big Damn Heroes moment above.
Leonard
The moderator of basic division.
Stephen "Silent Strike"
A member of TOSERS who was Arbiter and Chief's first supervisor. He turns out to be a Chaos Theosis affiliate.
Mrs. McIntyre
Adam's mother.
Antagonists
Season 3
Craig
A friend of Chief's who is an MLG. He secretly hates Chief because he isn't an MLG. He ends up having a match with Chief, which Chief wins.
- A Date with Rosie Palms
- 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.
- Jerkass
- What Measure Is a Non Super
Zanthar
An Alien that kidnaps Todd, Travis and Cortana and kills them all.
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.
- Funny Afro
- Immune to Drugs
- Jerkass
- Killed Off for Real
Season 4
Master Chief's Clan
- Badass Crew: Parodied.
- Five-Bad Band: Parodied again.
- Big Bad: Master Chief
- The Dragon: Todd
- Evil Genius: Kyle
- The Brute: Tucker
Todd
- Jet Pack: His preferred armour ability.
Kyle
- Invisibility Cloak: His ability of choice.
Tucker
- Whoring: His strategy for Halo: Reach.
Brent
A player who harasses people online in Halo: Reach during "Night of the Evading Dead".
Season 5
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.
- Affably Evil
- Bad Boss
- Big Bad: Of Season 5.
- And again in Season 6.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive
- Jerkass
- Leitmotif: here.
- 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.
- Nietzsche Wannabe
- The Man Behind the Man: He was behind Chaos Theosis in Season 6.
Cameron and Cody
Two MLG players who are security guards for Trent's wedding. They reappear in Season 6 wanting to join TOSERS.
- The Dragon: To Trent.
- Enemy Mine
- 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.
- Jerkass
- Killed Off for Real: Not killed, exactly, but both of them were fragged by Chaos Theosis.
- 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
- Those Two Guys
- Those Two Bad Guys
Britney Donnovich and Victoria Donnovich
Trent's sisters.
Brian
- Evil Genius: 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 fiance.
Season 6
Chaos Theosis
- Badass Crew: A rare villainous example.
- Death by Irony: All of them.
- Five-Bad Band:
- Fail O'Suckyname: Their usernames.
- Hollywood Hacking
- Leitmotif: And holy crap, is it awesome.
- Oddly Small Organization: There's only four of them.
- 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 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 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.
- The Dragon: To Trent.
- Dragon-in-Chief
- Disc One Final Boss
- Evil Counterpart: He is considered this for Arbiter.
- Faux Affably Evil
- The Heavy
- He-Man Woman Hater: Insults Kylie for her gender and general inadequacy after she was fragged by Chief.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Having literally just finished with the above, he is immediately fragged by Chief and Arbiter.
- Villainous Breakdown: Possibly. 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
- 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, and he looks down on players with a Stay in the Kitchen attitude.
- It seemed more like he was just asking Kylie if people with that mindset got to her, he doesn't exactly have a politically correct mindset, especially as the episode Cradle to Grave reveals that his gamer tag is "back2thekitchen88"
- 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.
- 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
Kylie
- Abusive Parents: Her motive for joining Chaos Theosis was so that she would have enough money to live on her own because of her abusive father.
- Dark Action Girl
- The Dark Chick
- The Dragon: Plays this role to Clyde.
- Evil Counterpart: Some have said that she is this to Claire.
- Faux Affably Evil
- Femme Fatale
- Gamer Chick: She considers herself one.
- Manipulative Bitch: She manipulates Chief into trying to kill Arbiter.
Adam
- The Brute
- Cluster F-Bomb
- Comedic Sociopath
- Evil Counterpart: To Chief. Arbiter even calls him "the human version of Chief".
- Karmic Death: Though it isn't death exactly, but his defeat and fragging might not have happened if he hadn't treated his mum and his friends like crap.
- Kids Are Cruel
- Knight of Cerebus: He is by far the most evil antagonist in the series so far.
- Laser-Guided Karma
- Psycho for Hire
- Psychopathic Manchild
- Reality Ensues: Well, it's a complicated example. 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?.
- The Sociopath
- Villainous Breakdown: In episode 10, Cradle to Grave.
- This deserves a bit of expansion: 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 permeant 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...Ah, Karma.
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!
- Your Mom: He uses this a lot. Not as much as Chief though.
Justin "SniperDeathAngel00"
- Evil Genius: He developed the hacks used in Season 5, the Fragban hacks and the Permanent Denial of Service hack.
- Insistent Terminology: It's P-DOS, not pedo.
"I'm not a pedophile."
- Ironic Name: He is actually terrible with the sniper rifle.
- Karmic Death
- Back to Arby 'n' the Chief