Halo: Is Master Chief Gay, Bisex, or Hetero? None Actually!

One of the most notable things in the Halo franchise are the Spartans, and one of the most famous Spartans of all is Master Chief. While we explore pretty much every aspect of John 117’s character, we rarely ever talk about his love life or lack thereof. Despite being depicted as emotionless machines, Spartans do have feelings, however, most fans wonder whether those feelings are of sexual nature since we have little evidence as far as canon is concerned that they are. Due to this, we decided to explore Master Chief’s sexuality in a bit more detail.

Romance is not exactly on Master Chief’s schedule so he is generally accepted to be asexual

If you’re trying to recall moments in which Master Chief acts like a normal human being with sexual desires you are going to have a hard time. Halo was never designed to be a storytelling game or anything similar for that matter so touching and emotional interactions between characters are rare.

Master Chief, being the most important character in the franchise also never quite displayed any sexual urges or desires, as his sex life and romantic life really aren’t the focus or the point of the games. Halo is a first-person shooter first and foremost and everything that doesn’t revolve around action and warfare would be redundant and out of place in the game.

I mean don’t get me wrong, there are moments where Master Chief’s humanity shines through, mostly in his interactions with Cortana, but he is generally regarded as asexual over the course of the franchise due to his near-complete lack of interest in same-sex or opposite-sex relationships.

The Spartan program quite possibly kills the libido of trainees

We know that Spartans are generally trained and conditioned from an early age and are subjected to extensive body modifications that result in a perfectly obedient, strong, nearly immortal, and loyal soldier. But in order to achieve that, Spartans need to be deconstructed on several levels and it’s generally accepted that the Spartan program kind of suppresses romantic emotions and sexual desires on several fronts.

First, Spartans undergo several hormonal changes the most significant being the catalytic thyroid implant that is supposed to boost the growth of their skeleton and muscles via growth hormone. These kinds of hormonal manipulations leave consequences far more reaching than just physical changes, they can affect psyche and libido as well. One of the most common symptoms of any kind of hormonal disbalance when it comes to Thyroid disorders is a lack or decrease of libido disrupting sexual life in otherwise healthy individuals.

The second argument for Master Chief being asexual is from other physical arguments and the fact that he was highly conditioned to be cold, calculating, and loyal. Spartans give themselves to UNSC at a young age, and they aren’t exactly considered to be normal humans who are allowed to have human attachments, wants and needs. They are above that. Spartans need to the highly concentrated and efficient in what they do. Having a romantic attachment would ruin that objectiveness and force them to make mistakes.

What about Cortana?

Cortana and John 117 are often shipped together despite him being a cold Spartan and Cortana well, being AI, and even though it’s an impossibility for them to have a physical relationship I would argue that their bond is even stronger than that. John 117 cared about Cortana and she cared about him. They both transcended emotion-wise what should be a biological impossibility. However, since Master Chief never expressed the desire to be with Cortana physically, this still doesn’t rule him out as being an asexual man. Plenty of asexual individuals feel love and romantic connections, it’s just that there is a lack of sexual attraction for the most part, and even that isn’t a general rule.

In any case, Master Chief’s relationship with Cortana shouldn’t be used as an argument for Master Chief having sexual orientation.

In the live-action TV show, Master Chief is depicted as a straight man

This leads us to the live-action TV show that you, if you are a fan of games, either love or hate, there’s no in-between. In the show, Master Chief is depicted as being a heterosexual man and even engages in sexual relationship with “The Blessed One,” aka Makee. His sex scene was highly controversial with many fans pointing out that this was so “out of character” for Master Chief – a yet another proof that he is mostly rendered as being asexual.

Before Master Chief realized the truth about his origins and what the Spartan program actually did to him, he was asexual in the show as well. It was only after he got the inhibitor chip out of his spine that he started having desires, needs, and emotions. So, the inhibitor chip for the most part renders Spartans, including Master Chief asexual.

We know that Master Chief still has some feelings toward Makee despite what transpired in the final episode of season 1, but there’s also one more romantic interest on the horizon for John 117. We’re talking about Marine Lopez, who was introduced in Episode 1 of Season 2. It definitely looks like Master Chief is attached to her in more ways than one.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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