Ok, this is gonna up a whole can of worms here, but let me throw it out there. Its gonna take a while because im in one of my long winded moods, and I aint got nothing else to do all night.
The question we have here is, just what is canon. Now you say he sees in slow motion, can lift 50 tons, ect ect. Now, im assuming they explain this stuff in detail in the novel, I beleive you've said it before. Master Chief is a video game character, he is based in video games. His video game he does not show this prowess. Now your going to say "But thats just game mechanics, he really is more powerful" However, I beg to differ.
You can say something is "just game mechanics and not true" often when dealing with other characters in the game world. When your playing a Superman game, and superman can be harmed by enemies attacks, THAT is a game mechanic. We can clearly see by the source material Supes doesnt really get hurt to the point of being KOed by anything short of a Krytonite enema, and even that is up in the air depending on which incarnation of superman it is. Also, in Xmen legends, the Xmen start out weak, and many Xmen's powers are limited, this is also a game mechanic, but we can see its not truely the case because the source material shows them not being limited in such ways.
Some video game characters have similar dilemmas of their abilities shown in game mismatching game mechanics. Example Dante, who reportedly has amazing abilities, can die to normal enemies. These cases can also be considerd void due to game mechanics, because, although they die to normal enemies, in other scenes they are shown to posses great power. And this is their source material, the definate judgment of their abilites.
Street Fighter is a bit of a grey area, and this is because of the nature of the games. The different endings constantly contradict each other, and if you want to paint a picture of the storyline, you have to paint carefully. Sometimes, endings can exist together, sometimes the completely contradict each other. Mostly, the "main" goodguy storyline is considered the "real" storyline, and many other endings can be absorbed into continuity. However, in 90% of the cases, the character endings represent something within the characters "power" range. Like Akuma karate chopping a nuclear sub and what have you.
Now this brings us to the delicate case at hand. MC's source material, is the game Halo. This is this flagship, his source, the one and only, the main thing. He does not showcase these abilites. He may be strong, since he can flip a jeep and kill anyone with a blow to the back of the head, but he doesnt see things in slow motion or things of that nature. If the creators envisioned their super soldier with the ability to see in slow motion, when they sat around their table and said "What do we want our hero to do" they would have said "See in slow motion" then they would have had a bullet time thing or something to that affect. Now, this is when we come to the preverbial line in the sand. Where an outside source has stated he has these powers, yet the main source of the character, is lacking. Its not like the case of Dante, because these abilities were not shown in the actual game, the source material, as they were with DMC in cut scenes. MC never showed instant reflexes in any cutscene or mentioned it. This is a case of a novelization of a game. In this case, we must harken back to other cases of a novelization of a game. Doom, if everything in Doom where true, your real enemy would be aliens and you would have a spunky side kick. However, I dont need to tell you that isnt considered the case. Resident Evil, the source game is obviously contradicted the events in those books, and of course, everyone buys what the GAME is selling, over the books. The same thing with movies, when talking about Resident Evil game plot, nobody really sites what happened in the movies. Its not the source, its not how it really is, its not cannon. So, going buy the track record, books arnt canon compared to games, as far as characters and events whose source material is games.
Now, let me play the devils advocate to my own self. Lets consider that everything in the books is true. This causes more headaches than before. The only basis we can compare these two characters on, is in each of their video game, where each take out armies of aliens in bad-ass ways. Granted, Duke had alot more one liners and his aliens often times where bigger, but Im not belittling feats here. Lets just say that both of these character's feats are equal, they both took on an army by themselves, and came out on top. Now, 1 guy, has super reflexes and accuracy and resistance and all this stuff. Logically, you would say that the other character has equal abilities. They both perform on an equal level, so logically they must be equal in abilities. If two people tie in a race, and you know 1 guy runs 50 miles an hour, then the other must do that too. If two guys lift the same amount, 1 guy can bench 800 pounds, then you assume the other can do that as well.
What it boils down to is wether you want to beleive Master Chief can do those feats, or if you think MC doing those feats is PIS. It is a dilemma very similar to the Wolverine problem on the Comic vs bourds. Wolverine has some instances where he does things that by definition of his abilities, he shouldnt be able to, like fight the Hulk. Well, one group of people use that instance as their main arguement, saying "Look, Wolvie cut the hulk" while the other say "That is PIS, it clearly shouldnt happen, and isnt a basis of an argument" And then both sides argue for about 20 pages in a thread. Neither one can really prove their point, since technically, both are correct. Wolvie does in fact cut the hulk regularly, while simutaniously it shouldnt happen. Now in this agument, you can say "MC does this" and I can say "I think thats PIS he doesnt do it in the game," But Id like to circumvent the 20 page argument and just say, lets agree to disagree on this. Or at the least, discuss it civily, because since Im sure its gonna come up in the future in other threads, and it would be nice to decide something here, wether yay or nay on the book stuff.
I got a little sarcastic with ya on some other threads, thats my bad. I do that alot, Ive a very sarcastic person, and I really shouldnt do it unless Wolverine is involved. You called my comics crappy, and that hurt my feelings, so we're even there. This isnt personal, we're talkin bout fictional characters we really have no vested interest in. This isnt personal, so lets not pretend it is.
You know, after all that talk, I forget that MC does have that energy shield, and if Duke is fighting on MC's level arsenal wise, MC's energy shield is a much more decisive edge. I think, with the same arsenal, MC would win, since Duke wouldnt have access to any items to equalize the shield edge. Funny if I thought of that 20 mins ago I could have spend my time looking at porn or something.
Longest........ post.......... ever
Listen cobbler... I didn't change the fight. I explained why I asked that question...
I already agreed that dukes godly 1000 rockets would win... I'm not enough of a fanboy to argue against that. I know it... What I was against is people saying Duke is better then MC, and wins for reasons other then his weapons....
MC and the books time....
Books were given to us to try and explain alot of what the story line missed out on... as the writer tried to plug the gaps he has to give reasons...
Some basic questions you could ask that the game don't solve...
1) why did the piller of autumn find halo...
2) why isn't every soldier in MC armor...
3) why is there only one MC....
4) why is the war even happening....
The list is endless... the games story line does very little other then get you hooked into " THOSE BLOODY COVENANT!!!! I'M GONNER KILL YOU ALL!" mood...
MC in the game... can't show the lvl of power that the books give him as it would make the game too complex... How would they cope with MC's super relexes... How would they show MC's slow look on the world? (with bullet time???? its possible, but at the same time... the game developers wanted it to be a multiplayer game... you run into all sorts of problems then.)... How do they give you MC's years of tactical training?? or any of the other advantages of talked about....
What it comes down to is this... Its a game, they want you to have fun. The games harder and easier for them in its current state... alot of games have there main chars more powerful outside of the game...
Street fighter
DBZ
Any marvel/DC game
Just cause duke beats aliens and MC beats aliens doesn't mean there equal... Duke can't pull of half of the feats MC has... most of which come down to his suit.... and theres his advantage...
MC wins against duke untill he fires 1000 rockets... A cheap win, but a win none the less
No duke can freeze, shoot rockets, use his energy weapon etc.
What you are doing, is taking away dukes partial immortality, but leaving MC his suit, AND his weapons.
That isn't fair, put duke at his best and MC at his best and MC loses.
Put duke and MC OUT of armor, and give them the same weapons and its a tie.
Plain and simple.
"Lets keep MC's armor, but take away dukes' weapons are just bull, plain and simple."
Originally posted by Hit_and_Miss
Listen cobbler... I didn't change the fight. I explained why I asked that question...
Originally posted by CobbleR
Just because you explained why you asked a dumb question which would result in MC winning doesn't alter the fact that you tried to change the situation so you could get the satisfaction of hearing that MC can beat Duke. So shut up you anal fairy. Duke wins MC loses, don't try to change the situation.
This post gets my seal of approval.
oh!..... anal fairy.... wow.. though of that all by yourself?
I'm suddenly seeing the light... all your posts make sense now... you have the intellect of a 5 year old.... I'm glad my tax bucks go to helping people like you have some standard of life. God knows you need it! Its such a shame that you will never know the advantages of having a brain.
Contrary to popular belief I don't actually get satisfaction from hearing people say... "Wow your the best!"...... "I was wrong".
Thats what losers look for. People to give them validation cause they can't believe in themselves.
C-master
"What you are doing, is taking away dukes partial immortality, but leaving MC his suit, AND his weapons"
I know that with his immortality he would win... Theres no challenge for duke to win there... Duke could kill just about any shooter char with immortality.... hell he could beat MC with a spoon if he was immortal. What I wanted to know was which char would win with your conditions, and duke not having his weapon advantage.
Onikirimaru
Why bother apologising for getting sarcy and then going on to give your approval to someone calling me an "Anal Fairy"
Makes no sense... If you want to attack me... Just do it yourself. Don't give back handed approval to insults if your not man enough to do it yourself.
Calling someone dumb but using fancy words to do it is just as lame as Onikirimaru giving his seal of approval to me. If you're going to call some one a dumb ass just come right out and say " hey you're a dumb ass". Secondly calling me dumb is something a 5 year old would do, so now you're a hypocrite, of equal intelligance as a 5 year old, and an anal fairy.
yes and calling someone an anal fairy instead of just gay isn't as bad.....
Listen kid... I know your at a point in your life where you could go to college and get your sorry ass educated... my advice... give it up, no matter how long you spend in school you will never advance further then fry boy, maybe you could get onto the grills one day.....