mephy

chris spilled a beer on him while they were on a little date

PANEL 1: Chief asks Thel for a favor / assistance

PANEL 2: in a completely starstruck, hopelessly devoted expression, Thel responds with "Anything" with the word being written stylized to further accentuate the starstruck, hopelessly devoted tone

Arbiter is a very illustrious position that only becomes controversial when they grant a dishonored "heretic" like Thel the title and role, and even then it's because HE isn't worthy of it. It's more a political move and a loophole - the Prophets know Thel is the king shit and can do better, so they spare him execution (which everyone else wants of him) by putting him in a position and role where the Covenant can't lynch him, but where he will inevitably die (either in combat against whatever enemy they set him against or when the elites have served their purpose and can be discarded). Dishonoured, he can't be useful, but through this wild loophole, he can be still be made use of!

Hell, the fact that they have corpses at all, and have them in a Mosoleum implies the utmost respect, a duty surpassing that of even their own keeps. If they were meant to all atone for something in death, the Covenant wouldn't bother getting back the bodies.

Hell! It might not even be a death sentence at all. Pretty sure the guy in charge of "taming" the hunters didn't just pick fights with the already-recruited worms until he got punched too hard. He probably retired, then when he passed, his deeds as the Arbiter superseded all other accomplishments and he got to be interred in their collective tomb.

The Prophets assuring Thel he will die might very well have been a "You shouldn't be alive, so even if you win this one, we are going to throw you at new foes in increasingly unfair odds until you DO die", irrespective of the life expectancy of other Arbiters. Others at least got the chance to retire, but he won't.

(Which is ironic because by giving a disgraced war hero such a title, they give his claims about the Rings and Forerunners legitimacy when the Schism happens, and once the sense of honour put forward by the Prophets is dismantled, all that's left is an honourable war hero with the title of their greatest legend leading the elites to vengeance against their treacherous foe! As he is now THE Arbiter of the post-schism elites, he really can't retire.)

(The Arbiter was drawn from memory sorry if he looks bad </3)

Master Chief and Goth Baddies

theres this ad for an ai chatbot platform that inexplicably has master chief and a goth girl and i had to redraw it to not be feckless grifterslop