I come to the realization every now and then that I've learned so much from video game characters; characters from Halo in particular. The Master Chief has taught me that no matter how much heroes sacrifice, no matter how much they suffer, no matter how much glory they are given or how legendary their actions might be; being a hero will break you. In the name of the very few things you may ever love, you will give life and limb and in the end, the things you love will be torn away from you and all you can do is suck it up and keep moving with the foolish hope that one day you might have something to call yours again. From Halo Reach I've learned that no matter how hard you fight, even if you've been given the strength of a thousand men and given a team of equal or greater strength, you still might never win. The cut scene at the beginning of New Alexandria is a prime example of this. Even after losing a team mate and destroying a colossal covenant ship and losing countless other lives from the Savannah, you witness that even after you've given so much, it still wasn't enough. When Buck appears and the last thing he says to Noble Six before departing, the last thing he says is, "I'll see you in Hell." Many saw this to be an act of badassery which I would agree to, but for me it spoke volumes of the toll that such a war would put on a human being; that you would prefer to go to Hell than continue existing in such a horrible reality where monsters turn planets into dust and what ever resistance is put forth, it will only be torn to pieces. The sacrifices of countless human service members in the name of stopping the covenant's genocidal campaign against humanity. Every victory they fought for would come at immense cost and every loss would be absolute. Halo taught me that sometimes it doesn't matter how much you sacrifice, you will still lose and that if you truly want to win against your demons, you must become one yourself. It's quite bleak, I know, but that's just a little bit of what I've learned and given the solemnity of the piece, I shared what I felt was relative.