This idea of the Spartan's helmets being the only thing keeping a supersoldier from being a normal human is a prevalent motif in Halo: Reach. This is established early on in the game, in the first mission. When Jorge-052 first discovers the girl at the Visegrad Relay, he has his armor on and tries to do his job. He holds her still, speaks to her in English when she is clearly speaking Hungarian which Jorge also speaks, and his inability to relate to her nearly gets him killed. When she is lifted from her hiding place under the stairs, Jorge-052 ignores her pleas and struggle to get loose, while he attempts to calm her, business as usual. Then she says, "Még... Itt vannak", which translates as "There's more". When Jorge realizes this, he stiffens up, then shields the civilian with his body just in time for the sangheili Zealot to miss it's attack. After the skirmish is over and the Relay is cleared of hostiles, Jorge-052 takes his helmet off, showing his very human (and also father-like) face to the girl, attempting to comfort her. He speaks her language, even recognizes her dialogue, attempting to close the gap between them. The members of Noble Team, excluding Emile-A239, remove their helmets around each other and their superiors. This is to reinforce their bond with one another, that they don't just see each other as a set of armor, and they don't want to be seen as such. When Jorge stays behind on the Long Night of Solace, he removes his helmet, removing the barrier between him and Noble Six (and the audience). He speaks his piece, and he's gone. Jorge, who is the most "human" member of Noble Team is the first to go. Carter-A259 removes his helmet during his final run on the Pelican. After he does so, when he knows he's going to die, he briefly banishes his attitude as the commanding officer of the team and says that Cortana made the right choice in choosing Noble Six as her momentary protector. He relinquishes his place as the primary member of Noble Team. Catherine-B320, who shares some similar distance issues with Emile (although for different reasons), dies by a headshot. Why would Bungie choose such a brutal, sudden way to kill off one of their main characters? I've said before that one of the reasons why I liked Kat's death was because instead of falling into the cliche "going out with a bang" death that Bungie likes to employ so often, hers was more realistic of a war scenario. Here one minute, gone the next. That may be one part of it, but just before she dies, she finally opens up to Noble Six on the elevator. Before, she was untrustworthy or cold to Six, because he/she was a replacement for a fallen comrade, but also because Kat is wounded. Kat is insecure because of her robotic prosthetic, and she thinks the other Noble members consider her more as a liability than an asset, and there may be some truth to it. Carter protects her from the Zealot attack in Winter Contigency. Her Firefight voice examples show this, and she comes over as "sassy" in an attempt to be independent, as well as the unsual number of ground engagements she takes part in. For a cryptanalyst, she spends an awful lot of time with her boots in the mud. She may be trying to prove that she is valuable, in spite of her disability and despite her operation as the hacker of the team. After being helped off the floor by Noble Six, in brief moment of vulnerability, she opens to him. She puts her helmet back on, and is cut down by what is probably the same sangheili Zealot that attacked her before, straight through the helmet. At the end of the game, after the UNSC Pillar of Autumn makes the jump to Halo, Noble Six dies fighting an onslaught of sangheili warriors. He removes his helmet, and brings as many of the aliens with him as he can, signifying that the character of Noble Six is the player, who kills countless enemies. He dies after an elite stabs him, apparently in the face, with an energy blade. Although Emile dies before Six does, I decided to explain his death last because it is the most interesting to me. In my other thread, I explain my thoughts on Emile, that he embodies what he thinks a Spartan should be. The only emotion he lets himself convey is that of anger or wrath. He doesn't show his face to even his Spartan comrades, instead carving a skull on his helmet's visor. The carving is his face, he is his armor, he is a Spartan. When he is attacked by Zealots on the mass driver, he kills one and asks for more. Another Zealot comes behind him, and interestingly enough, the elite puts its hand over the Spartan's visor and skewers him. Emile's "Spartan face" is removed, and when it is removed, he is killed. Emile, who after living a life of anger and distance, is ready to die, but in typical Emile fashion, goes down fighting the enemy he hated. Emile, who wouldn't remove his helmet and show his human side, (though while "good", is the Spartan's weakness) has his Spartan identity briefly suspended, and that is when he is killed. When the Spartans' remove their helmets, they were communicating to the people around them, supersoldiers and civilians, that they too are human. Although showing this human side means that they too have the capacity for compassion, it reveals all the weaknesses that are associated with it. It's as if the ONI myth that Spartans are unkillable is true, so long as they remain the faceless defenders of Earth and all her colonies. Maybe this goes to explain why John-117 is such an exceptional survivor, we never see his face. [Edited on 09.15.2011 12:12 PM PDT]