One word: 343i Elites were a match for Spartan IIs, the strongest of all Spartans. And yet somehow these Spartan IVs who are glorified ODSTs are suddenly a match for an Elite? Nothing justifies/explains that, nothing.

The Elites in those videos are just actors that 343i hired. Real Elites would put up a better fight.

Spartan-IV's are the most useful allies you have in any Halo campaign.

I wouldn't call spartans overpowered, I mean you really seem to underestimate just how strong power armor is. For instance, with the strength of mjolnir Thorn should have completely crushed Gek's skull when he punched him in the face without a helmet, and picking him up like that wouldn't have been a problem. The thing is that for an elite Gek was really slow moving, Elites are supposed to be highly trained in martial arts, able to move and dodge far better than even a spartan can. Plus, while Mjolnir is much stronger than how it was depicted, it shouldn't be that durable. Gek just stomping on the chest plate alone should have hurt Thorn a lot.

If we're talking Halo lore here, Sangheili are typically either on par with or in very few cases stronger than spartans. Spartans usually have an edge because of their combat training and sheer durability. Brutes are another matter, they are actually stronger than spartans when it come to hand to hand, you just might need the [i]luck[/i] of a certain spartan if you wish to win that duel.

Having enemies living up to what they're cracked up to be, would result in a lot of protagonists dying.

How can they do it? Simple, 343i is filled with retards. In the days of Bungie, Elites were more then a match for S-II's. Hell one almost got John on the space doc over Reach. 343i Spartans are all like "lolol;oolololol I'MA NOOB AND I KILL EVERYTHING!!!111!!! LOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOOLOLOL"

Just #Curious. Why do you #Hashtag a lot of #Words? It can be quite #Annoying.

OP's English skills are too underpowered :(

A poorly known fact about the Elites is that without their armour they are weaker and slower. It behaves much like Mjolnir's force amplification circuitry in that it gives them more strength and better reflexes. Whilst they wear it they are quite capable of matching a S-II in Mjolnir in close quarters combat, however an armour-less Elite facing a S-II in Mjolnir would be outmatched. Gek has minimal armour and there is nothing on his arms, and he is facing something which is probably near enough the strength, speed, resilience and dexterity of a Spartan-II. I'd say that it is perfectly reasonable for him to be on the defensive. (We don't know anything about S-IVs other than their crappy attitude so it's a bit premature to be implying that they shouldn't stand a chance against Elites based on the fact that S-II's are roughly equal to Elites.) Additionally, to be honest, Elites may be able to match a Spartan's raw strength, but it was never stated or implied that they met their speed, their durability or their creativity. Quite the opposite, actually, if you think about how many times they tried to hit Spartans and missed, or were outright disarmed (In many cases by not only S-IIs but also by 12 year old S-IIIs). So being somewhat less than S-IIs leaves them very much open to the idea that they are better matched with the S-IVs. I think that both of them were too sluggish though. Elites, even without the aid of armour systems, are probably still superior to normal Humans in terms of reflexes and reaction times; S-IVs obviously are as well, yet both of them looked fairly normal in how fast they were moving, reacting and behaving. Though I don't see anything wrong with Thorne being able to beat on Gek and maintain the offensive for as long as he did. As for Spartans/Humans always winning as an issue on its own, unless the Elites take measures to improve themselves either through better armour, augments or cybernetics then they are going to remain in Humanity's and the Spartan's, shadows forever as the Spartans and Humanity in general become more powerful, or even one and the same if Ancient Humanity is anything to judge by. Should that happen? Well I agree with you that it's a bit ... self-flattering, but the way the story is going it can't really be any other way just now. Just now it's the Didact and the Prometheans that are Humanity's/the Spartan's challenge; the Elites have fallen behind. Though maybe they will catch up again, but by that point I don't imagine that they will have any need to prove anything to Humanity in terms of antagonism. So the entire discussion becomes a moot point really. In other words, either through the end of the war or Humanity's own progression, the Elites won't be able to fill the role of being Humanity's greatest threat any more.

It is predictable. It's boring. It's annoying. All that backstory and buildup previously to 343i taking over has been lost. Spartans are now massively more powerful than Elites, lets just forget that Elites are warriors their entire lives and S-IVs a fraction. Once upon a time an Elite was a direct match for a S-II and quite often more than a match. Now they're just mild inconveniences like the battle droids from Star Wars. Watch the Jedis slice through them with no drama, watch the Spartans smash their way through Elites with no drama.

This is nothing new. The downfall of Elites started in the Kilo-5 trilogy which was tied into Halo 4's backstory big time. They went from being a tough, military based society to, well, derps. But this has been around a lot longer than the trilogy. Even when you read the novels that came before, the general feeling I seem to get at least, is that the Covenant are just dumb aliens with fancy tech. This was less so than in the trilogy, BIG TIME, but the feeling was still there. I mean come on guys, this is one of the races that was back up the fastest after the Halo's were fired, they had their own spacecraft and went to war with the Prophets and fought to a standstill until the prophets brought out their ace in the hole. Granted, I can see the Elites being a little rusty in other areas after only focusing their sights on military for so long with the Covenant, but they aren't stupid, that's for sure. Especially not the way the Kilo-5 trilogy portrays them. And granted, as Spartan IVs are basically just ODSTs with some upgrades, I do call BS on the fight. But again you can slide things around a bit when Halsey stated that some of the IVs had more potential than others when they were augmented, sliding them up a bit closer to Spartan II status. But, if you think about it, Thorne was losing the fight when the rest of his team popped up. Had they not plot holed into the picture, you can bet Thorne would have been screwed.