John-117/Silver

This article contains information from the Silver Timeline universe, and is not a part of the established Halo canon. To see information about this article's counterpart in the canon Halo universe, see here

John-117
Helmet Without Helmet
Biographical information
Homeworld:	Eridanus II
Born:	c. 2511
Personal details
Species:	Human
Gender:	Male
Political and military information
Affiliation:	UNSC Navy Naval Special Warfare Command SPARTAN-II Program
Rank:	Master Chief Petty Officer
Service number:	S-117

"They took my image...and bent it to their purpose, so I took it back. This armor doesn't belong to them...it belongs to me...to the ones who are gone...and the ones who are still in the fight."

— John-117 reflecting on his journey to Installation 04.

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 is a Spartan-II supersoldier in the United Nations Space Command. He served as the leader of Silver Team under the Asymmetric Warfare Research Group.

Biography

Childhood

John-117: "When I was a kid…there was this woman. She flipped a coin. She dared me to call it, and I did. Heads… 11 times in a row."

Perez: "Lucky."

John-117: "Maybe…but I wasn't guessing…I knew."

— John tells Talia Perez about when Dr. Halsey found him as a child.

As a child, John lived on the Outer Colony of Eridanus II with his parents and a dog named Ellie. While exploring one day while on a family picnic, John encountered a Forerunner keystone in a cavern outside of the Reach for Life installation, and he repeatedly drew both it and another keystone that was on Madrigal. Eventually, John's father grew frustrated and forced John to bury his drawings of the artifacts. During this time, John met Doctor Catherine Halsey who used a game to test John's luck. When Halsey discovered his incredible luck due to John correctly calling a coin toss every time, she took him in to become a Spartan II candidate against his will, subjecting him to numerous tests and augmentations and suppressing his memory. John never saw his biological family again.

Spartan training and early career

As a teenage trainee, John and his classmate Soren-066, who was unable to continue due to a disfigurement from the augmentation process, planned to escape the training facility to The Rubble. However, John changed his mind at the last minute, but decided not to let anyone else know, allowing Soren to escape seemingly undetected.

John would later gain the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer and was made leader of Silver Team. On an early mission to Madrigal, John was sent to quell dissent from the Insurrectionists. He then received orders to kill one of their leaders, which he carried out without question. The leader's daughter, Kwan Ha, witnessed the Spartan supersoldier killing her mother, leading to resentment towards John and the UNSC afterwards.

Encountering the first Artifact, Kwan Ha, and the Covenant

Dr. Catherine Halsey: "Dr. Halsey. Status report."

John-117: "Returning from 23 Librae planet Madrigal… with a single survivor. Covenant disarmed, one escapee."

Halsey: "And your neural lace metrics, any anomalies?"

John: "I saw things...when I touched the object."

— The Master Chief debriefs Dr. Halsey on the Battle of Madrigal.

In 2552, John led Silver Team, comprising of Vannak-134, Riz-028, and Kai-125 on a subsequent mission to Madrigal. This time, it was to aid the Insurrectionists against a Covenant attack. Though Silver team eliminated the squadron of Covenant Elites, the Insurrectionist outpost, led by Kwan's father Jin Ha, was also wiped out in the battle, with Kwan being the sole survivor. Venturing further, John and Silver Team discovered a Forerunner Keystone in a nearby cave. John personally encountered the keystone and began seeing flashbacks to his suppressed childhood. While the rest of Silver Team departed back to Reach on a Covenant Phantom captured for the purposes of research by the UNSC, John took the artifact and the unconscious Kwan with him aboard his team's Condor, intending to follow his teammates. When Kwan woke up, Miranda Keyes spoke to her through a hologram and attempted to enlist the girl's help in promoting the Spartans across the galaxy, but Kwan refused.

Eventually, John joined Kwan and fed her, even attempting a joke, but he evaded her questions about his running diagnostics on his suit, the Forerunner artifact and his refusal to remove his helmet. Kwan revealed she had met him before when John had killed her mother and she gave him her side of the story, pointing out the inconsistencies in the UNSC's reasoning for the assassination. John received an order from UNSC command ordering him to assassinate Kwan whom they had determined to be a risk, but he instead cut his ship's camera feed and went rogue. In response, the oxygen to the ship was cut and the oxygen in John's suit was lowered so as to render him unconscious. Despite this, John managed to remain awake and override the air flow controls, restoring oxygen to the ship. Vice Admiral Margaret Parangosky ordered a full squadron of Marines and Pelicans to meet the approaching Condor and for Kwan to be shot on sight and John to be shot too if he tried to stop them.

When Kwan awakened, she believed that John had attempted to kill her despite his protests and grabbed his battle rifle. Telling her that the bullets wouldn't even penetrate the outer plating of his armor, John removed his helmet to talk to Kwan face to face and convinced Kwan of his sincerity, admitting that he didn't know why he was going rogue and helping her. Allowing Kwan to keep his rifle, John enlisted her help to disable the ship's AI autopilot with Kwan resorting to shooting out the controls when she couldn't get them disconnected. However, the UNSC hit the Condor with an electromagnetic pulse, sending it crashing the rest of the short way to the ground and briefly knocking Kwan out again. As the Marines prepared to breach the ship, John touched the alien artifact, causing it to light up with symbols and send out a pulse that knocked out power to the base and restored power to the Condor, much to John and Kwan's surprise. With power restored and the autopilot disabled, John and Kwan quickly strapped in and fled from Reach before the UNSC could fully recover.

Visiting an old friend on the run

John-117: "Hello, Soren."

Soren-066: "Look at you. Welcome to the Rubble. Let me show you what you missed out on."

John: "Soren, this is Kwan Ha. I'm looking for a place for her."

Soren: "You're the one that they just issued a bounty for."

— John introduces Soren to Kwan, who is in for a surprise.

John took Kwan to the Rubble to meet his old friend Soren who revealed that Vinsher Grath had placed a bounty upon Kwan's head, making her wanted by both the UNSC and her own people. Soren also revealed that Vinsher had started to execute her father's loyalists as he strove to establish a UNSC friendly government, much to Kwan's disgust. John and Kwan spent the night with Soren's family where Kwan watched drone footage of Vinsher's executions and bonded with Soren's wife and son. In particular, Soren mentioned to John that due to an emotional regulator that was part of the Spartans' augmentations to be ultra-focused in battle, John and the other Spartans were unable to experience emotion and senses such as taste as normal people, to which Soren revealed that removing it was like "opening your eyes for the first time after living in the dark".

The next day, Soren took John and Kwan to meet Reth, a human mystic who had been taken aboard a Covenant ship and lived to tell the tale. Reth took an interest in Kwan and seemingly recognized her name before John and Soren questioned him about the Forerunner artifact. Reth revealed that such artifacts were what the Covenant had based their whole religion upon and that John was a "Blessed One," although one that was different than the Blessed One that the Covenant had. Reth forced John to activate the artifact, sending out an energy pulse that caused everyone pain and made the symbols reappear. Reth revealed that the ring that the artifact showed was what the Covenant were after and that it was a weapon that could bring about the end of life as they knew it. Reth urged John to destroy the artifact and then to destroy himself.

John decided to return to the UNSC with the artifact instead and seek out their help in stopping the Covenant from finding what they were after. Much to Kwan's shock and dismay, John chose to leave her on the Rubble in the care of Soren for her own safety. Finally arriving back on Reach, John surrendered himself to UNSC custody, handing over his armor and the keystone as he was led away to a holding cell.

New AI and New Feelings

With John now in custody back on Reach, Halsey reassured him that a new upgrade to his systems would further enhance his battle effectiveness. John reluctantly agreed to the operation, in which a new Artificial Intelligence created from a live clone of Halsey was implanted into his brain. The AI, known as Cortana, was activated soon upon the operation. While the AI stated her directive to overtake John's body, Halsey limited Cortana's access of John for the time being. John soon woke up and met Cortana, though he was not impressed and was naturally suspicious, dismissing her overly enthusiastic attempts to assist him and introduce herself to Silver Team. However, Cortana did help John to remove his emotional regulator pellet as Halsey prodded the AI to help him in order to gain his trust.

One of the first experiments Halsey had John undergo after being imbued with Cortana was to touch the artifact again. Unlike the other Spartans on Silver team, John's touching of the artifact allowed him to continue seeing memories of his childhood. While he was entranced by the keystone, Halsey ordered Cortana to put John into stasis (unbeknownst to him) and try to make a connection with the keystone, but the AI was unsuccessful, releasing John and allowing him to finish his trance.

Without the pellet, John explored Reach City, appreciating a musical performance and seeing everyday life in the city for what it was. He was later cleared for combat once again. Seeing John remove his pellet, Kai also removed hers, also curious to experience the universe in a new way.

Homecoming to Eridanus II and finding the truth

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After John stated he was starting to recover his memories of what may be a larger keystone, he, Cortana, Halsey, and Dr. Saly ventured back to his homeworld of Eridanus II. On the ride there, Cortana commented about the visualization of slipspace, echoing John's earlier comments to Kwan, but this time, John, amazed by his new experience of the colorful visuals, echoed Kwan's own comments, quipping that Cortana was "ruining it". The party landed near John's former home in the now-abandoned Reach for Life complex.

After ordering Kai, who he sensed had taken out her pellet, not to re-enter combat, John sensed an urge to once again come in contact with the keystone, despite Cortana's warnings that it would continue to harm him psychologically and physically. This time, he saw the full truth: that Halsey had kidnapped him against his will to become a Spartan. Enraged, he attempted to physically assault Halsey before Cortana flooded their neural interface with signals, rendering him unconscious and allowing Halsey to escape.

Choosing between Kai and the Keystone

Dr. Halsey: "John, stay on mission!"

John-117: "I can't let her die."

— The Master Chief makes his choice in the middle of battle

When John came about, the Covenant had landed on Eridanus II, intent on seizing the keystone. John, Riz, and Vannak attempted to shuttle the keystone to a UNSC ship, with Kai authorized back into action to provide sniper support, but a large group of the UNSC forces came under attack. When Kai was inevitably endangered and was unable to cope with the battle due to her new emotions, John, against Halsey's and Admiral Parangosky's orders, left the Warthog carrying the keystone to come to Kai's assistance, hijacking a Covenant Banshee and crashing it into the squad threating her, Miranda and her father Captain Jacob Keyes, and several others. Though he saved them all and annihilated the Covenant squad, brutally beating the Elite attacking Kai to death in particular, the keystone fell out from the Warthog, allowing it to be retrieved by the Brute Atriox despite John's best efforts to recover it. Following this, the Covenant sent a drop pod containing the human Makee onto the surface of Eridanus II.

Challenging Halsey and meeting Makee

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While the Covenant recovered the keystone, the Master Chief had managed to save 150 UNSC personnel, to which Keyes personally thanked John and reassured him that they would recover the artifact at a later time. John, along with Riz and Vannak, stood by Kai as she was treated for her injuries. Upon returning to Reach, John locked Halsey in her onboard lab and began activating the ship's UV decontamination system, which, as he explained to a shocked Cortana, had a history of malfunctioning and did not have a functional failsafe, killing UNSC shipbuilder Roman Quinn, who had also designed the decontamination system, during one of the prior malfunctions. Cortana began to scold John, to which he revealed he was testing her limits and assumed she was his failsafe. Cortana began pleading with John to release the mortified Halsey, but he challenged the AI to take control of him and do it herself. When Cortana stated she was unable to control him, John released Halsey at the last moment.

The Master Chief was later summoned to interrogate Makee. Naturally distrusting the woman at first, John asked why he should trust her after Makee revealed the Covenant's world of Raas Kkhotskha, but was taken aback when she stated she was "just like him" and was also a "blessed one", giving him flashbacks to his encounter with Reth. Taking Makee seriously, John provided details of Raas Kkhotskha as described by Makee to Captain Keyes, who frantically began ordering UNSC navigators to find the planet. John later continued questioning Halsey on her actions, and told the truth about the Spartans' upbringing to a recovering Kai.

John continued to question Makee about her upbringing with the Covenant. The two eventually developed an attraction to one another, something that John had never experienced before.

Fighting his own team

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Raid on Raas Kkhotskha and Near-Death Experience

After Silver Team decided to trust each other again, John and Cortana helped deduce the location of the Covenant planet Raas Kkhotskha. Parangosky offered to send 10,000 Marines to recover the artifacts, but John, stating "you send 10,000 Marines, you lose 10,000 Marines", offered to have Silver Team take on the operation instead. Parangosky reluctantly accepted John's offer and reminded him to stay on mission in light of his recent slip ups. On their way to the planet, Cortana revealed to John Halsey's endgame, to have her completely take over his mind and body for good, needing John to "cease to exist" in order to take control. The AI further elaborated that having learned of the value of humanity, she was no longer willing to do so, seeing John fight for his own humanity, to which John smiled.

After hitting a gravitational force outside Raas Kkhotskha, Cortana gave John guidance on how to maneuver their ship safely, reaching the planet after some turbulence. John led Silver Team off the Pelican, air dropping into the Keystones' location, where Makee was about to activate them to reveal the location of the Halo Installation to the Prophets. Silver Team ambushed the Covenant at the location, though reinforcements were called. After being overwhelmed by Brutes, Makee, wanting to save John, touched the artifacts, sending a force field that incapacitated all combatants and sent her and John to another vision of the Halo. She pleaded with John to stay with her, but he refused, telling her to let go. The shared vision was stopped when Kai came about and shot Makee in the chest, seemingly killing her.

While trying to save both the keystones and Silver Team from the Covenant, John realized that they were outmatched and Cortana warned him that he could only save one or the other. John instead ordered Cortana to take control of his body so that she could do both in his stead, despite the AI no longer wanting to do so. When John continued to insist, Cortana warned him that she wasn't sure if she could bring him back, but John declared that he trusted her. Moments later, Atriox flung John into a temple wall with his gravity mace, seemingly killing him. Manifesting her avatar, Cortana reluctantly merged with John's body and used it to defeat the Covenant forces and save both Silver Team and the keystones.

John was returned to Reach, badly injured but still alive. As doctors tried to save his life, Cortana frantically called for him to wake up and ordered the doctors to sever the connection between the AI and the Spartan as he began to fade. As a tear fell from John's eye, the doctors permanently severed their connection and ultimately managed to save his life. As Cortana was placed into a data chip, she pleaded with Parangosky, who was witness to the operation, to help John, to which Parangosky replied "That depends…what are you willing to do for me?"

Glassing of Sanctuary and meeting Perez and Ackerson

Six months later, John was back to full health, and both Riz and Vannek followed John and Kai in removing their emotional regulator pellets. Silver Team was sent to a non-combat mission to the planet Sanctuary, with their assignment merely being to rescue civilians, much to their annoyance. While on the Planet, John and Riz encountered local shamans who refused to evacuate the planet. The leader of the shamans mocked the Spartans and asked John in particular to implore his religious or spiritual beliefs, before Covenant forces began wreaking havoc on the planet.

Venturing further into the fog, John encountered members of Bravo Team, a squadron of UNSC Marines. The marines explained that they lost all communication signals and that they suspect enemy forces before Elites emerge and slaughtered them except for a marine named Talia Perez. John fought off several Elites, though Perez is injured. The duo were surrounded by a vast number of Elites before they suddenly retreated prior to Covenant destroyers unloading plasma bombardment, glassing the planet. Silver Team barely escaped with a handful of survivors, including Perez, though the shamans refused to leave the planet and accepted their fates, walking into the now-melted surface of Sanctuary to their deaths.

Back on Reach, the recently promoted Admiral Keyes debriefed Silver Team, telling them several other worlds, including Madrigal, were glassed while they were on Sanctuary. When John began to question why the Covenant would be on the world before it was bombarded, a stranger, whom Keyes introduced as Colonel James Ackerson, butted in.

Following the debriefing, John kept trying to explain himself to Ackerson, who kept deflecting the topic and instead inquired about Dr. Halsey's experimentations on him and the other SPARTAN-II's, in particular the insertion of Cortana into his mind, to which he expressed concern and sympathy. John reiterated that he was feeling fine. He decided to walk the streets of Reach City, bumping into Admiral Parangosky in a secluded corner. However, she told the Master Chief that she was no longer with ONI, having taken the fall from Halsey's scandals, but would be willing to listen if Ackerson continued to distrust him. Before parting, Parangosky provided John a device to contact her when the need arises.

John then made his way to a virtual brothel, but used the facility to simulate Cortana, who he admittedly missed. He attempted to vent his frustrations to the AI pretending to be Cortana, but due to some differences in personality and appearance, he was unable to make effective use of his session.

Discovering the ONI coverup

John-117: "I believe the Covenant is here, on Reach... ONI knows; they're covering it up. Why would they do that?"

Margaret Parangosky: "The O.N.I. protects itself… make them your enemy, and it won't matter that you're Master Chief, you will cease to be useful."

— John tries to warn Parangosky, who instead suggests playing along with ONI's cover-up

Coming to odds with Ackerson and suspicious of a cover-up regarding Cobalt Team, John revealed to Kai something that he had not told Ackerson: that he had also seen Makee alive and well with the Covenant. Aside from that fact, he continued to insist of his findings to Ackerson, who revealed that he had already interviewed Corporal Perez, who "did not corroborate" John's story. Furious that the one other eye-witness had apparently betrayed him, the Spartan tracked Perez down to her family's apartment and demanded to speak with her. She attempted to turn him away, but her mother, thinking John was a "boy Talia had brought home", invited him to dinner, where John reluctantly interacted with their family. When Talia left dinner due to the awkward situation and her cousins making jokes at her expense, John found her outside on the rooftop, where she finally admitted to not telling Ackerson the full truth due to feeling guilty for being the sole survivor in her squad. John comforted her and gave her advice, then tracked down flight trajectories for all Spartan Teams, realizing Colbalt was sent on a classified mission to the Visegrád Relay.

Upon reaching the relay, Silver Team was apprehended by FLEETCOM and disciplined, with John's suspicions "disproven". They were to be suspended from combat missions and John was to be relieved of duty until taking a mandatory psychiatric evaluation, with Keyes relaying the message personally, telling him that he argued with ONI and Ackerson against giving him a court martial. Riz and Vannak left John alone, and Kai tried to reason with him to reconsider what he had seen, but when he continued to insist on what he had seen and attempted to invoke his rank, even she left him. On his way to his evaluation, John picked up his signal to Parangosky, then knocked out his ONI escorts before escaping. Upon meeting up with Parangosky at a ramen restaurant, he divulges to her his suspicions, but she warned him not to go against ONI and to play along with their charades. John furiously realized that Parangosky never left the agency, and when he stood up to leave, several men in the background also stood up, but Parangosky motioned them to let John walk away, but not before warning him she could no longer help him if he continued going against ONI. John then met up with Perez's mother, who explained that she had gone to a church to pray. Upon John seeing her there, Perez, seemingly the only person to believe his experiences on Sanctuary, revealed that she had translated a message from the Arbiter Var 'Gatanai, explaining the Covenant's intent to destroy Reach in the name of "Great Journey". Shortly after, explosions rocked the planet as the invasion of Reach began.

Fall of Reach

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Reunion with Halsey and Farewell to teammates

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Infiltrating ONI

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Finding the Halo

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Personality

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As a child, John was a curious, empathic, quick-witted, and intelligent boy. He saw things in a way that others didn't and was dutiful. He had a special connection to the keystones that impacted his childhood as they swarmed his mind. John was later kidnapped by the UNSC and Catherine Halsey and subjected to dozens of mental and physical alterations. They put a block in his mind to prevent him from remembering his childhood, thus making him a dutiful soldier. He questioned the antics but remained incredibly loyal to Halsey. This loyalty, bravery, resilience, and strength carried into his adulthood. His natural leadership skills helped him excel into becoming as Master Chief and leader of the Silver Team of Spartans.

After removing his emotional regulator, John began to appreciate the universe around him in ways not possible since childhood. He also began to distrust the narrative put forward by Halsey, the UNSC, and the ONI, especially after regaining his childhood memories from touching the keystones. Once he realized what Halsey had done to him, his trust in her was broken. However, having seen the good in humanity, John reasoned that it was something worth protecting and fighting for. No longer would he fight simply because he was told so, but he would do it to protect humanity no matter the cost, even letting Cortana take over his body in order to retrieve his teammates and the keystones at the risk of being unable to come back. He also became more emotionally intuitive without the pellet, albeit more excitable and anger-prone.

Nonetheless, John retained his sense of duty, determination, and self-discipline without his pellet. He also does not drink alcohol.

Production notes

John-117 in Halo: The Television Series was portrayed by Pablo Schreiber. Schreiber's casting was first announced in April 2019. Casper Knopf played John in his childhood, and Logan Shearer played a teenage John during his Spartan training.

Gallery

Browse more images in this article's gallery page.

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  Concept art of John's techsuit.

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  Promotional image of John-117.

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  John-117 in the show's season one intro.

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  John-117 wielding an MA5C assault rifle.

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  John-117 holding an AIE-486H machine gun.

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  John-117 wielding an M392 DMR.

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  John-117 without his helmet.

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  John-117 in 2530.

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  John-117 moving a forklift on the Rubble.

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  John-117 undergoing surgery so he can house Cortana.

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  John and Cortana on the bridge of the Endymion II.

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  John-117 crashing a Is'belox-pattern Banshee into a Kez'katu-pattern Phantom.

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  John-117 after beating a Sangheili to death.

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  John-117 attempting to block Atriox's gravity mace with a Kig-Yar point defense gauntlet.

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  Cortana takes control of John's body.

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  John-117 in Halo: The Television Series Season Two.

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  Promotional Season 2 image of John-117, released January 17, 2024.

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  John-117 in the show's season two intro.

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  John-117 witnessing Sanctuary getting glassed by the Covenant.

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  John-117 chained up by ONI personnel on Onyx.

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  John-117 talks to James Ackerson rather aggressively.

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  John-117 talks to Perez.

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  John-117 stabs a Sangheili with an energy sword.

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  John-117 on Halo.

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  John-117 dual wielding a M6G magnum and energy sword.

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  John-117 using a grappleshot against Var.

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  John-117 looks down on Var.

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  John-117 with a shattered visor.

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  John-117 with Knuckles the Echidna in a Paramount+ ad.

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  John-117 watching Arnold Shortman being thrown by Sir Patrick Stewart in the same ad.

List of appearances

• Halo: The Television Series Season One
  • Contact (First appearance)
  • Unbound
  • Emergence
  • Homecoming
  • Reckoning
  • Solace
  • Inheritance (Hallucination only)
  • Allegiance
  • Transcendence
• Halo: The Television Series Season Two
  • Sanctuary
  • Sword
  • Visegrád
  • Reach
  • Aleria
  • Onyx
  • Thermopylae
  • Halo