alix965, I am pleased that you have been mature in handling our own points of views etc. Most forums this is greatly lacking since people can't take criticsm. Plus it is neat to hear other peoples logic conclusions even if they differ, versus "NObel six is cheif, I knoz it" crap.
The most compelling thing, and most mystery surrounding it; is when Dr. Halsey went to the school to see him and then..flipped a coin. TO me, something about that event stands out. In my own opinion I think it was the fact that she knew he was the ultimate leader and best out of all the other candidates, but at the same time realized what would happen to him once she made up her mind and because(for whatever reason) John meant something to her and she couldn't decide...she left it to luck/fate/destiny to decide.
Thank you Ben-b023. I have to be honest though, I did read some
opinions that were stated as
fact, that got slightly underm my skin. But from what I understand that's the cost od writing in an open forum. This it the third forum that I have ever bothered to register to, the first being a "Chaos" forum and the second being the official Star Wars Galaxies) and for the most part the members of the 405th have not dissapointed me with their level of imagination, theoretical thought exploration and no matter how far-out the topic -like this one- the proper amount of maturity and diginity has been shown to the topic at hand.
*except that business with the sexy spartan thing, I think the 405th got rooked into giving that stupid chan site a bazillion hits*
Again thanks for the credit.
As far as Halsey's method of selection, Sangheili811 is correct. The coin toss 'Method' that Halsey utilized was a semi-scientific way for S3 to narrow down the lucky conscripts.
HOWEVER!
She watched as
"..John tensed, bent his knees, and then his eyes seemed to lose focus on her and the coin."
Later Eric Nylund writes,
"She tossed it making sure there was plenty of spin. John's eyes watched it in that strange distant gaze, and tracked it as it went up then back down toward the ground. His hand snapped out and snatched the coin out of the air. He held up his closed hand and shouted EAGLE!"
2 sentences later,
"The quarter lay in his palm. the eagle shining in the orange sun"
I just had my wife dictate that out of the book verbatim because the author's prose has a great deal of meaning. This was no ordinary 6 year old and Halsey
knew it. I am convinced that John's legendary "luck" is a result of superior natural talent. Perhaps all the luck he demonstarted throughout his career was the result of hime subconsciously assessing a situation with such detail and understanding that when as got out of got out of SO MANY sticky situations, the observer would be tempted to exclaim..'There's no way he
meant to do that'
If you consider 117's contemporaries, this is no mean feat. As Garland wrote there was never an instance in the novels or games where SPARTAN-117 behaved as if his survival is at stake. No matter what the odds were, he always had an air of confidence. Except at the end of H3 when he almost got blown into outer space.
After crawling to safety, and stitting behind a conduit, his shoulders slump and he looks like a man very lucky to be alive. I don't imagine MC as someone who would display any amount of bravado, but it was more like he KNEW, somehow, that there was so much to do for humankind that he was destined to
not DIE.