[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] OrderedComa [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] flamedude Killing the Chief in a dramatic act of sacrifice might sound like a great idea but it will almost certainly come off as corny, cliched and predictable. It is expected that he die fighting and saving humanity single-handedly, I would much prefer and admire 343i if they didn't go down the road well-travelled and actually allow the Chief to survive the pinnacle of the new trilogy. Think of it this way. The Chief was abducted as a child, indoctrinated into the ways of war, mutilated, sent into war, ordered to kill, ordered to endure pain and suffer and forsake his own freedom and happiness AND THEN he dies...... Yeah right. What sort of message is that for a hero? Be abducted, be trained into a killer, fight, fight some more, fight even more, die. It's not only predictable for him to die but it also seems ultimately a vicious, cold and unjust end to such an important and virtuous character. Then again from a purely business perspective it's unlikely that Microsoft would kill their main video game character that has such a fanbase and loyal following.[/quote] Oh my god yes, this, just this. You summed all of my opinions near exactly, Flamedude, and did a far damn better job of it than I ever could :D So yeah, pretty much exactly what he said ^_^[/quote] Honestly, a death scene I would love is they JUST get back from final battle, Chief is in a room (with cortana or not), and whoever was in there with him leaves, saying they'll come back later. He dies, alone, but finally at complete peace with himself and his life. When the person comes back, Chief is dead but he looks peaceful. I mean, this solves A: The "He can't retire!" because he doesn't. He dies at peace, alone. B: "He should die alone" see above. C: The "Him dying in final battle is cliche/expected." [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] sendger What if the chief was making a jump from orbit to a planet surface in some epic massive all out battle but in the process breaks his body on impact, going back to the Johnson quote "one of these days your gonna land on something as stubborn as you are..." Whilst broken but not dead the player has to command chief through a short but drawn out battle at which segments of armor are falling apart (e.g you can see his bare hands holding an AR) Until, Broken, bleeding, dying, showing the true power of the spartan, he reaches his objective to end the fight and all that is seen of the closing shot is the reflection of a massive explosion in his eye, engulfing him..........Fin Enter Claire de lune and shots of the cast and crew of halo 6 watching the fountains in las vegas.[/quote] Honestly.... while I suppose it fits... your version of Chief dying is just... horrifically cliche, if I think of the terms right. I just feel there is WAY too much "Hero dies, but saves day in the process!" lately. And hell, the whole "Armor is broken and shattered, bleeding, heavily wounded, Chief drags himself to the objective and completes it before dying." reminds me of ME3 ending. While I agree it would be hard for chief to retire, I don't see it as utterly impossible. However, I agree he needs to finally pass it on to a new main character. There are ways of doing this besides death. Horrific injury that forces him into cryo because they can't treat it, a permanently disabling injury that robs him of the ability to properly serve as a Spartan, etc... I've said it in another conversation about this very topic, He can die, retire, get wounded, whatever. But the ending has to be done WELL. Would you all be happy if he gets an ME3 ending basically? Gets mortally wounded, finishes objective and dies, saving the universe from whatever it was that was threatening?(okay, maybe bad example but it's one fresh on my mind, everybody in the strike force got killed, but Shepard managed to crawl and finish the objective despite super-heavy wounds) Actually, flamedude kinda has it right. Killing the chief at the end is expected. Him surviving would be a more shocking ending, or being at peace. Dying in the final battle is pretty cliche, especially when everybody is going about how "He HAS TO, HE CAN'T RETIRE AT ALL." I mean, another Spartan retired. We know the ones who got disfigured by augments don't die fighting. Hell, the one who sent Chief a letter about her treatments (halo 2 era)? She seemed pretty at peace. [Edited on 08.22.2012 3:50 PM PDT]