Template:Anti-Hero Infobox The Arbiter (or simply "Arbiter") is the main protagonist next to Master Chief in the Arby 'n' the Chief series. Jon Graham stated in one of his director commentary episodes that he modeled the Arbiter after himself. He represents Jon's opinion of gaming products. He is a Halo 2 series action figure of Thel 'Vadam manufactured by Joyride Studios.
Personality
Unlike Chief, he is very intelligent and appreciates a wide variety of other games. Arbiter has been described as a "natural mediator", always working to solve problems whenever they arise (an attribute that has been showcased more and more frequently as the series has continued). This frequently results in him having to point out how nonsensical other peoples' opinions are, however, which he is infamous for doing in a frank, uncensored, and sometimes actively insulting manner that has been known to offend many people, particularly when he is annoyed. In the first three seasons, he is usually depicted as rational and relatively calm, though Master Chief is able to drive him to frustration and even outright anger on a regular basis. It is also notable that in the earlier seasons, he doesn't speak as much about Chief's attitude (albeit he still doesn't like him) whereas in later seasons he appears to talk to Chief more about how he's fed up with him (possibly because they've lived together for longer). He also shows a great deal of emotion as shown in Endgame when Claire dumps him. He has sometimes shown his great strength and on at least 2 occasions he has severely injured Chief, one time breaking Chief's arm off after he fools Arbiter that Cortana was back by using the Microsoft Mary synthetic voice.
At the end of the hunt for Adam, Arbiter respectfully wishes Adam good luck after he was taken away to juvenile detention in the real world and perma-banned in game. This shows he is capable of compassion for friend and foe alike, regardless what has happened. However, this could be sarcasm, as in the episode afterwards, Arbiter relished in forcibly crossing off Adam's picture as a target.
After all of the emotionally-charged events of The Reunion, the Arbiter starts crying in the bathtub. Chief finds him and starts to comfort him in a rare display of compassion and understanding, saying "everythings gonna be k."
Arbiter is arachnophobic, meaning he is afraid of spiders, as introduced in the season 4 finale, "The Spider."
Arbiter is also shown to have a very caring personality, constantly standing up for what is right. This is shown by his hunt for Chaos Theosis, his reliability in times of danger, and his standing up for Chief when Craig made him cry.
In "Black", Arbiter says that he is agnostic.
In Black, Arbiter finally caves in due to how his life was getting worse by the second due to Cortana dying and Greg leaving from guilt and takes up smoking (even irrational things like cereal), and does everything that Chief would do and joins him in the acts. In Wake, he agrees to the hacks and mercilessly massacres everyone he comes across on the network, including Jeffrey and a group of players that insulted him for his voice.
However, eventually, Arbiter realizes his mistake in his role in the killing spree with Eugene and his clan and stops after seeing Eugene threatening and killing Brody and Kyle, and bieng apalled by what he had done, resolves to make amends by severing all ties with Eugene's clan, and ban them with Chief.