Master Chief is canonically asexual, but it is not good asexual representation.
The end of Halo 4 was, in fact, a vore scene. In more ways than one.
Halo fans are routinely the most incorrect about the lore. This is because Halo is first and foremost a book series.
Doomguy was sent to Mars for punching his CO who ordered him to fire on civilians. Halo Spartans were created to kill humans who rebelled against the Government. Make of this what you will.
Halo games should strive to be different from the previous Halo games, even if it upsets fans, especially now that The Master Chief collection is available for PC.
Yes, that one chapter in New Blood was trans allegory, even if the author didn't intend it, and even if Buck is canonically cis. Otherwise, it's one of the worst post-Bungie Halo books.
Except for the part where Buck talks about how excited he is to try out his new, elongated skeleton.
Bungie ruined Halo in June 2000, before the first book or game released, when they made it an Xbox/PC timed exclusive.
The Reclaimer Saga transhumanistic storyline and emphasis of Spartans as the next step of humanity treads scarily close to a eugenics storylines, especially with the importance of the Librarian's geas (or genesong) and Halsey famously including 'luck' as a genetic marker she looked for in new Spartans. This, coupled with the disproportionately white Spartan II generation, leaves 343i with a lot to answer for.
To extend on the previous point, there were 300 Spartan candidates (genetically selected for), of which 75 completed training, and about half (~38) survived augmentation at age 14. There are a few open slots in the canon for these 38 which survived. 343i seems to be aware of this issue (at least internally), and are incorporating more female characters and characters of color into the canonical depictions of the Spartan II class (prime example: Fall of Reach animated series). But due to the significance of Spartan IIs and the few "open slots", each new Spartan II introduced is a significant lore investment. Unfortunately, this means many of such depiction of Spartan IIs are throwaway characters, doomed to death or nonrelevance at the age of 14, which kind of undercuts the point.
But, on the transhumanistic storyline: The Spartan program evolves to be 1. More inclusive, 2. Less trauamatic and dangerous, 3. More extensive, and 4. Less expensive. There were more Spartan IIIs than Spartan IIs, and more Spartan IVs than Spartan IIIs. Given the transhumanistic focus, the role of humanity as Reclaimers, and the Forerunner lore involving augmentation at all levels of society, and the focus on the number 7, we can make a conclusion: The endgoal of the Halo series is that all of humanity transcends to a new race, the Spartan race. I believe this will be the seventh generation of Spartans, i.e. Spartan VIIs. But this will be deep, extended-extended universe lore.
Brian David Gilbert was a FOOL not to read the Halo comic series, because many depictions of the Spartans include t-posing.
Furthermore, Brian David Gilbert was a FOOL not to mention that Spartans can canonically eat a raw tree and be fully fed for days.
Finally, as someone who read all the Halo books in anticipation of Halo 4s release, and is catching up with the rest of them for Halo Infinite, I hope Brian David Gilbert will be friends with me too.

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twovests OP wrote on August 25, 2020 at 7:21 PM

Note: I really do mean the eugenics thing to be a bit concerning, I'm not being edgy for some poorly-thought-out humor. The tones aren't as overt as you might think -- and certainly not very well discussed -- but they are certainly there? In the Halo 4 intro, Halsey says "Your mistake is seeing Spartans as military hardware. My Spartans are humanity's next step. Our destiny as a species. Do not underestimate them."

Halo 4's release was built up with many, many books laying out the lore, expanding upon The Assembly revealed in Reach's datapads, The Librarian revealed in Halo 3's terminals, and the entire Forerunner society. Genetic augmentation was a way of life for the Forerunners and their caste-base society, and Halo 4 reveals that the Librarian intentionally encoded fucking magic into human's DNA, a kind of Machiavellian genetic Rube Goldberg Machine such that they would eventually develop AI, find the Halo rings, and Reclaim the Mantle of Responsibility.

Furthermore, that Genesong allows Master Chief to survive "The Composer", i.e. a magic death ray. The transhumanistic storyline definitely involves some genetic modification.

I personally like to think of these ancient genetic meddlings as commented code that needs to be uncommented, and so far removed from eugenics that I don't have to feel :\\ about it when playing Halo 4. A simple genetic hotfix against the composer, and a deus-ex hot, loaded, and ready to fire for whatever other fresh hells are to be seen in the rest of the series. And I also like to imagine that the majority of the transhumanistic storyline will focus on technological improvements, and that we will eventually see the Assembly and the Janus key again.

But my understanding is that the plot and tone shifted greatly with Halo 5 -- a game I have yet to play -- and that it is expected to shift even further with Halo Infinite.

twovests OP wrote on August 25, 2020 at 7:34 PM (edited on August 25, 2020 at 7:39 PM)

and Christ don't get me started on New Blood

Sgt. Edward Buck is Nathan Fillon meme man who was well-beloved in ODST, showed up in Reach, and became a Spartan for Halo 5. He is also gratingly, begrudgingly masculine, and I doubt they're going to ever cut into or critically analyze his red-blooded MASCULINE MALE persona.

But the way he describes the Spartan augmentations?

How he describes how emotional he gets after the augmentation?

How he says it's like a second puberty?

How he understands why the old Spartan augmentations were done at the onset of puberty?

The part where he says, "If you ever fall for a woman, make sure she's got balls?"

That last line was said a line from ODST, a rather shitty, misogynistic joke about his off-again on-again ONI girlfriend Veronica Dare, repeated in the chapter of the novel that summarizes the events of ODST (yeah, the book wasn't so good.) I doubt the author was actually going for something trans-positive here, but I'll be damned if I won't reclaim this quote from grimy gamer hands and make some Spartans canonically trans.

Like, all I'm saying is that if any book series were to have a magic press-the-red-button-and-change-your-gender button, it'd be the Halo series. Plus, now that Spartan IVs are consenting adults and not kidnapped children, it'd make sense and fit in-universe for a Spartan to be like, "Uhh doc? Can we add a few bullet points to the augmentation list?"

There's also an argument that the original Spartans IIs could be agender, but again, very bad representation. If gender is a personal identity, and the Spartan II program is a traumatic romp through the valleys of ego death, is it even meaningful to have a gender? Spartan IIs generally don't have any interaction or integration into the rest of human culture or society, and I doubt they even have any concept of normal human life.

Like, some characterization: The Master Chief is ruthlessly pragmatic, and his only soft skills have been depicted as those necessary to advance towards a goal. He would make a great ONI agent, because he would very willingly trade ten human deaths to prevent eleven human lives. He would have no issues solving any variant of the trolly problem. Like, has the man ever watched a TV show? Listened to a song?