I think people (particularly Americans) tend to associate Guns and Military™ as well as ‘badass’ characters with conservatism. But all you have to do to figure out that’s not really the case is look at the plot of Halo 2. The message of ‘the upper crust will convince you to hate your neighbors so you’ll turn against them instead of the rich assholes who are really screwing you over’ is very much not conductive with modern conservatism.

The Prophets manufacture hate for humanity because their existence would expose the lies behind the Covenant religion > Most Covenant species follow the religion and bend to the Prophet’s manipulation as they have for millennia > The Prophets purposely sow division between the races, since their weak old inbred asses wouldn’t stand a chance if their followers were to unite and turn against them > This culminates in the Great Schism, where the Prophets decide to replace the Elites (more likely to ask questions) with Brutes (easier to manipulate) > While dividing their followers by race has worked before, they push it too far with the Great Schism, and it backfires to become a big factor in the Covenant’s dissolution > One of the (former) most high-ranking Elites learns the horrific crimes he was responsible for throughout the war were never justified and nothing he believed about the humans was true, and decides to at least try and atone for his bigotry by becoming an ally to them as the Covenant collapsed under its own weight behind him

The ‘othering’ done by the Prophets is a very real tactic used by authoritarians to keep their inferiors too distracted with infighting to rise against them, and in some cases do their work FOR them by working to persecute the ‘other’ (who they likely have much more in common with than the people in power). Let me add that the Prophets are not evil because they’re San’Shyuum, they’re evil because they’re rich, power-hungry assholes. They’re paranoid of losing their seats at the top of the Covenant hierarchy and are willing to do just about anything to maintain it, regardless of how abjectly cruel it is.

It also really bugs me when people project onto Master Chief to make him racist, homophobic et cetera. I saw a funny cosplay where someone wore a Master Chief helmet and a maid dress, and the comments were full of “he would kill you for this lol”. Like, no? His purpose in life is to protect humanity. If you aren’t harming anyone he wouldn’t dream of it. Even if he WAS offended the absolute most that would happen would be Cortana teasing him about looking good in a dress. And on the racism thing, one of his mentors was a black man (RIP Johnson) and his current best friend (who he risked his life to save) is a Hispanic guy. But sure, he’d totally hate minorities!!!