DarkC
-KMC THREAD KILLER-
Originally posted by braz
Well I just read a quote on halo.wikia by Vadum to Arbiter: "These are my brothers my Elites, their lives matter to me, yours does not." Is the graphic novel canon, and if so when does it take place? And it says on halo.wikia that Elites are ranked based on numbers of kills and since the Councilor is the highest rank, then they'd be pretty badass.http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Councilor#Combat
But I'll look up that other guy u mentioned.
Yes the graphic novel is canon, it's endorsed by Bungie studios.
That line doesn't necessarily mean hatred towards the Arbiter, nor the other way around. Vadumee was just telling Arbiter that while their goals were similar, neither answered to the other. He also implied that the fate of the Arbiter, as decreed by the prophets earlier, is not his concern.
Remember, the Arbiter used to be his commanding officer. He needed to assort his independence and own authority.
Halopedia is not canon as someone had to remind you; nowhere I've read in any piece of Bungie-endorsed Halo lore or fiction explicitly describes the Elite heirarchy as being such. It's most likely fan speculation; probably true to some extent, but not confirmed fact.
While the high ranked Elites are tougher and more smarter (for the most part) than their minor counterparts, kill-based ranking doesn't make sense a lot of the time, especially if you look at the way Councilors attempt to attack their enemies. Also, the higher ranks get better armor.
According to your speculation they're the highest rank, so they should be smarter than to simply charge in blindly and flailing a plasma sword, right? (It's mostly what they do in the last level of Halo 2) Granted they're badass, but they're somewhat stupid in actual combat, strategy wise. The system just has many faults in it. Zealous elites don't generally get a lot of kills...the smart ones do.