Arby 'n' the Chief

Arby 'n' the Chief is a live action internet video series created by Jon Graham, also known as Jon CJG (who was in turn known as DigitalPh33r when the series began production), about the lives of figurine versions of Master Chief and the Arbiter. It is mainly based around the two playing Halo 3 (and in season five Halo: Reach) and doing things related to Halo, but also will occasionally focus on the duo playing other games such as Call of Duty 4 and Devil May Cry 4, whilst spending the remainder of their time pulling off various shenanigans.

Background
Arby 'n' the Chief is about two Halo 2-era Action Figures of the Master Chief and the Arbiter who live in their owner, Jon Graham's, house. When Jon is at home, the figures stay put and do not move, as one would expect of a typical figurine. Whenever Jon leaves, they start moving around, playing games, and pulling off shenanigans, similar to the Disney/Pixar movie Toy Story. The only three people who have seen them move are the delivery man in episode 1, and both Agent Smirnoff and Scott in Endgame. Arbiter has convinced Scott that they are hallucinations from his massive substance abuse.

Usually, the duo plays Halo 3 on Xbox Live (until season 4 when they started playing Halo: Reach,) although Arbiter also enjoys playing other games such as Grand Theft Auto IV, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii. Chief is typically seen expressing scorn and dissent whenever someone chooses to play any game that is not Halo related, and as such, Chief stays away from such games. However, he does venture out of his box to try those games, though his performance is rotten, and what time he does devote to the playing of different games always results in an increase in Chief's hatred of that game. Later on in the series, however, Chief becomes more tolerant of non-Halo games, such as Resident Evil 5, despite jumping on the bandwagon and joining a protest against the game itself because of its alleged racism.

Characters
Master Chief: To put it bluntly, Master Chief is a foul-mouthed, immature and illiterate sexist who loves to trash talk other people, including his own "friends" on Xbox Live. He is most commonly seen talking in "1337 Speak" (Leet Speak), which consists of shortened words, usually with numbers in them, with a seemingly dyslexic nature. He also conveys his emotions with text emoticons, such as "sad face", which appears on the subtitles as  : (. Other than the Halo games and later Grand Theft Auto 4 and Resident Evil 5, he despises any other game, especially Call of Duty 4, to which he created his own title (Cock of Doody 4: Modern Gayfuckstupid). The Halo series seems to be the only games Chief plays out of self-interest, with the exception of playing Devil May Cry 4 once (which he quickly grew to hate: he appeared to play poorly). Out of the few games that the Chief plays, he is rarely "good" at any of them, on occasion getting a headshot while playing Halo. Therefore, Chief spends most of his time trash-talking the other players, even though he hasn't the skill to back his words; this often gets Chief in trouble. He usually blames his poor performance to either errors made by Bungie in the game or to hackers. On occasion, Chief can "step up his game" and rise to the task at hand to help out his only true friend, the Arbiter. Though not an extremely skilled, he does receive intensive training with Arbiter to step up his game before he crashes the season 5 wedding. He hates all non-Microsoft or non-Bungie products, including the Wii and Mozilla Firefox, to name just a few. He seems to have feelings for Cortana, and openly expresses them to Arbiter, although he starts to despise her after Episode 10 ("Conflict") when she starts dating Todd.

Master Chief's stunning lack of intelligence leads him to entertain himself with scandalous and often times ridiculous events, to include multiple attempts at cheating people in unintelligent ways. For example, after playing Call of Duty 4 for several seconds, he tries to exchange the game disc for a chocolate chip cookie with a hole in it after he snaps the disc in half and flushes it down the toilet out of rage. He also states he is drunk when he only drank a bottle of water and crudely spelled out the word "beer" on the label ("BeR," spelled with a backwards E). His only real friend is the Arbiter, to whom he has shown a more decent side of himself on rare occasions. The Chief can also be extremely sensitive, such as when he is reduced to tears by Craig and his MLG friends. In addition, he has moral standards (that apparently do not apply to himself, only others); he is disgusted when Scott steals Jon's wallet (from Chief) to use his credit card to order two hundred hookers on the phone, (albeit he later claims that Scott 'stoles it from meh'.) He is also disgusted by Trent's affair after he was exposed before his wedding with Claire. Master Chief is voiced by Microsoft Sam.

Master Chief retains his uncaring and juvenile nature the start of season 6. After being banned from Xbox for 4 months, Chief becomes more destructive and chaotic due to his withdrawl from Halo and no restraint being shown by Arbiter, from drawing on the walls to burning holes in Jon's carpet. However, he does not approve of Arbiter's new behavior, which gives him a sense of concern for him. Chief retains his usual cruel and unsophisticated demeanor in the Hypermail segments.

Arbiter: Arbiter is a friendly and intelligent character who, apart from the Chief's friends on Xbox Live, is Master Chief's one and only friend. When it comes to playing Halo 3 or any other game, the Arbiter is exceptionally skilled, as opposed to the Chief, who is terrible. He plays Call of Duty 4 as much, if not more than, Halo 3 until Halo 3's Legendary Map Pack is released. Jon Graham stated in one of his director commentary episodes that he modeled the Arbiter after himself. It was hinted in some way at the end of the episode "Girls" that the Arbiter is attracted to Cortana (though not as much as Chief); unlike Chief, though, he politely backs off after Todd and Cortana show interest in each other. Although he says he does not like beer or anything that makes him unhealthy, he gives in to the pressure that Chief puts on him to drink in the episode "Party," resulting in a very painful hangover and partial memory loss the next morning. Soon after, in Arby 'n' the Chief: The Movie, he asks Travis for some alcohol while being forced to watch Chief's incredibly lengthy and poorly made machinima. He later turns away from beer, only to be tempted back again and again by Chief's aggravations.

Whereas Chief actively seeks conflict, Arbiter has been described by others 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). Usually, he is the "smart one" and Chief rarely understands Arbiter's advanced vocabulary. 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. He is shown in Arby 'n' the Chief: Endgame, however, to have a definite capability for sadness as well; he is genuinely despondent when he realizes that his body is falling apart and when his online girlfriend, Claire, dumps him, as well as when Trent's wedding with Claire and his insult towards the arbiter for being a toy and not being truly loved. He was shown having a fear of spiders when Greg can to visit, but his phobia of them has approved mostly since Greg became his friend. he is voiced by Microsoft Mike. He represents Jon Graham's opinion of gaming products.

At the start of season 6, Arbiter goes under a radical personality transformation. After being banned from Xbox for 4 months, Arbiter becomes an alcoholic who ridicules himself for his existence as a toy from Trent's insults. It is hinted that because of his attitude change that he may have driven away Greg and Claire. However, in the Hypermail segments, Arbiter retains his usual kind and tolerable demeanor.

Cortana: Cortana was first introduced at the very end of the episode "Girls". Cortana is a Todd McFarlane Halo 3 Cortana figure. Like the Arbiter and Todd, she is depicted as being quite intelligent. She is Todd's girlfriend and the love interest of Master Chief, as well as the unfortunate victim at the bludgeoned-end of his sexist remarks (for example, being ordered to go make sandwiches for him on multiple occasions). It was hinted early on that she might have been a possible love interest of the Arbiter as well, though he never pursued it. She is kind to the Arbiter and of course Todd, but, because of Chief's sexist attitude and his attempts to break-up her existing relationship, she resents him, and has labeled Chief as a homophobe. She says she was a gamer once, but has never actually been seen playing the Xbox. It is revealed in Season 3, Episode 13 that Cortana, Todd, and Travis had been kidnapped by an alien that looks "suspiciously like Jon's chin," who shoots Cortana into an alien sun, thus killing her. There is a brief use of a voice similar to Cortana's at the end of season 5. However, it turns out that Master Chief pranked Arbiter by saying he is gay.

Summary: All Cortana ever seemed to do throughout her short time in the series was whine about the Chief. She is voiced by Microsoft Mary.

Todd: Todd is smart, kind, and somewhat cowardly. He is a Todd McFarlane Halo 3 Master Chief figure. Todd is Cortana's boyfriend and, along with Travis, was introduced in the middle of the episode "Newcomers." His Xbox Live Gamertag is "Colbert Fan," referring to Stephen Colbert; this admiration for Colbert is a trait he shares with both Arbiter and Cortana. Not much can be said about him, as he hardly ever had any parts in the series and mysteriously disappeared not long after his first appearance at the end of the episode "Conflict (Part 2 of 2)" along with Travis. It is revealed in Season 3, Episode 13 that Todd, along with Travis and Cortana, were kidnapped by an alien that looks "suspiciously like Jon's chin"; after allowing them to play one last game of Halo 3 Matchmaking, the alien concocted an interesting, yet creative, way of removing them from the storyline. He is voiced by Jon Graham

Travis: Just as Todd is similar to the Arbiter, but is a Master Chief action figure, Travis is much like the Chief, even though he is an alien. They are both unintelligent and enjoy doing simple and stupid things such as looking at "lolcats" pictures online. Travis is a Brute Chieftain figurine who was introduced in the middle of the episode "Newcomers", along with Todd. He is obsessed with various adult pleasures. For example, as soon as Cortana and the Arbiter met him, he asked if they had any beer, and shortly after asked if the Chief had any porn on the computer while he was looking at Lolcats.com. He also finds the storyline of Grand Theft Auto IV boring, playing the game only to do things like pick up prostitutes. His Xbox LIVE Gamertag is Gynecoologist, the reason being "because vaginas are cool." In Arby 'n' the Chief: The Movie, he revealed that his personal version of Hell would consist solely of being forced to play the Halo 3 Campaign level Cortana on Legendary over and over again for the rest of eternity. He mysteriously disappeared at the end of "Conflict (Part 2 of 2)", along with Todd. In Season 3, Episode 13, it is revealed that Travis, along with Todd and Cortana, were kidnapped by an alien that looks "suspiciously like Jon's chin"; after allowing them to play one last game of Halo 3 Matchmaking, the alien concocted an interesting, yet creative, way of removing them from the storyline. He is also voiced by Jon Graham.

Scott: Scott is an online hacker introduced in "Endgame", the series' final season. He has dealt cocaine for sixteen years between Canada and Russia, leading to his pursuit by one Agent Smirnoff of Russia, whose government has sentenced him to "thirty-seven consecutive death sentences." Due to his inability to pay rent for an apartment of his own, Jon gives Scott a room in his apartment in exchange for half the rent payments. He is even more vile than the Chief, spending most of the day in his room, engaged in personal activities and smoking. "At the same time, usually.", according to Arbiter. He has also used Jon's credit card to order up to three hundred two hundred hookers at once over the phone.

Scott is almost always extremely high, to the extent that Chief and Arbiter do not even have to hide from him, as he considers them hallucinations which appear after "his fourth cocaine sandwich." In Episode 5 of the Endgame miniseries, Scott is shown hacking Halo 3 and afterward is revealed to be the hacker who is untraceable, even by Bungie. After being confronted by Chief and Arbiter, he is shot to death by Agent Smirnoff, and in the last moments of his comically lengthy death sequence, he grabs a bag of his cocaine and snorts it shortly before choking on his own blood. He is played and voiced by Jon Graham.

Agent Smirnoff: Agent Smirnoff is a Communist Russian Special Agent who is in search of Scott, the hacking crackhead. While arresting Scott in the woods he is incapacitated when Scott throws cocaine in his face, temporarily blinding him. Master Chief and Arbiter call him after learning that Scott is the hacker he is looking for. In the last episode of the series, Agent Smirnoff shoots Scott approximately twenty times, two of which are through the head. He is particularly fond of Triscuits. He is played and voiced by Daniel Lazslo.

Claire: Claire is Arbiter's online love interest, introduced in Endgame. Arbiter meets her in a Halo 3 match, after they simultaneously state their disdain at several other players who are acting foolishly, but elects not to tell her his real name in fear that she will reject him as a perceived Halo 3 fanatic. Instead he tells her his name is Jon, and they instant message on MSN. Their relationship abruptly ends when the Arbiter lets slip that his name is not actually Jon, and that Jon is his owner's name. Due to limited screentime, Claire does not have a very definite personality. She enjoys watching the waves on Last Resort, saying that they are very soothing. Arbiter, however, only agreed with her to "go with the flow," and said that the date they had watching the waves sucked.

In Endgame: Part Five, Scott tries to shoot her with his Spartan Laser. However, in Endgame: Part Six, she finds the Arbiter on Valhalla and forgives him, saying that how he saved Xbox Live was brave. Upon learning of their plight with rent, she generously offers the spare room in her apartment in California to them. When they arrive in the beginning of Arby 'n' the Chief in LA, she has apparently started a relationship with Jon. She is voiced by Jon Graham. It is unknown who plays her character in Arby 'n' Chief: In LA.

Claire returns in Season 5 as the love interest to the Arbiter. It is revealed that she is the one getting married to Trent Donovich after the two had a short relationship in college, yet she still maintains a good friendship with the Arbiter. She is oblivious to Trent's affair until Arbiter explains it to her in the Season finale 'Collapse.' As Arbiter and Chief leave after the wedding is stopped, she approaches Arbiter and thanks him for saving her from getting married, promising to get in touch with him in the future. In season 5, Claire is played by Elizabeth Carr-ernst, a female friend of Jon.

Sonic: Sonic the Hedgehog is briefly introduced in Breaking and Entering. He loves Sonic games, even defending Sonic on the 360. He is always on a high from a Sharpie, which he sniffs at regular intervals. He is the only one who knows where Halo 3 is in Mario's house, and gets locked in a cupboard by Mario, because he mistakenly hinted to Chief that Halo 3 is in the house.

Toad: Toad is introduced in Ensemble. He is a far cry from his video game persona in that he loves drugs and regularly uses coarse language. He captures the Arbiter and locks him in a cupboard, but refuses to comply with Mario's orders to kill Arbiter and Sonic. He helped kick Chief out, but later helps him save Arbiter and Sonic from Mario's clutches. He is voiced by Jon Graham.

Luigi: Luigi is very timid, often submitting to Mario. He objects to kicking out Chief, but is unsuccessful. Later, he helps Chief rescue Arbiter and Sonic after he refused to kill them. He lives in constant fear of Mario, and is reluctant about Chief's counterstrike, worrying that "Mario will kill us."

Mario: Mario is homicidal and deranged, and apparently believes that he is the face of gaming, due to the success of his multiple titles. He attempts to kill Arbiter and Sonic, for different reasons. He hates Arbiter and Chief because they are from Halo, and though this is not stated, his hatred of anything Halo could stem from paranoia and fear of anything undermining his status. He also hates everyone else, especially Luigi. He locks Sonic in a cupboard for accidentally telling Chief where his copy of Halo 3 was hidden. Mario has been driven insane due to other gaming characters, specifically Chief, as he continues to fret about the possibility that Chief will result in the toppling of Mario from the "gaming titans" status.

Whoever disagrees with Mario is either kicked out of his house, or locked in "the cupboard." He tries to kill the Arbiter and Sonic by microwaving them, but is defeated when Master Chief, Luigi, and Toad break in, only to provoke Mario into closing the door and turning on the microwave, sealing the Arbiter and Sonic's fates. Mario and Chief then engage in a fight, leaving Toad and Luigi to get the Arbiter and Sonic out of the microwave. Chief climbs onto Mario's head and stays there attempting to lock Mario in a chokehold. However, Mario stumbles over the edge of the counter and the duo fall to their alleged death on the hard floor. Mario is later put into cold storage in his own freezer. It is unknown whether his supposed death was genuine or not. However, Mario is seen exiting the freezer after the credits of the last episode, bent on exacting vengeance on all who betrayed him.

Greg: Greg is a spider who first appeared in the Season 4 finale 'The Spider,' where he accidentally terrorized Arbiter and Chief in an attempt to makes friends with them. Throughout Season 5, Greg acts as a tritagonist to the show, usually siding with Arbiter due to Chief finding him repulsive. In the episode 'Cheaters' Greg decides to leave after nearly being stabbed by Chief for being locked in the bathroom so he could not interrupt Trent's Stag Night, as well as overhearing what Arbiter says about him to Claire in the episode 'Stag Night.' In the Season 5 finale, Greg returns in a Brown Spartan outfit on Halo: Reach to save Claire and The Arbiter from Trent's staff from banning them on the spot. He also find and returns Arbiter's Helmet to him (which Arbiter lost in Endgame.)

Not much is know about him except he can't talk; he can only write his thoughts. He does get very sensitive when the Arbiter kills Skulltulas in Legend of Zelda games. His favorite video game is Separation Anxiety, partially due to the spider elements in the game. He usually likes to play Scrabble with the Arbiter, which the Arbiter calls a fun and intellectual game. In spite of Greg's friendly and humble nature, his physical appearance is still somewhat repulsive to both Chief and Arbiter, although the Arbiter tries his best to suppress this, (This is evident in the episode 'Stag Night' Arbiter tells Claire that while he and Greg are friends, he still cannot get over his appearance and thus feels guilty about this.) Greg also seems self-conscious of his appearance, made especially clear when Arbiter reluctantly passes up a Scrabble game with him in order to give Chief more Halo training in the episode 'Double Trouble,' leaving him to play the game alone. Arbiter considers Greg to be a true friend aside from his relationship with Claire.

Trent Donovich: Trent Donovich is a Video Game Mogul and the main antagonist of Season 5. Trent owns a gaming development company, as well as two hired MLG Players named "Cody" and "Cameron" whom are the top competitors in the country, and a partnership with a network executive of Bungie named "Brian." In the episode 'Low on Hearts,' it is revealed that he is getting married to Claire on Halo: Reach. To keep the Arbiter off his case, Trent offers a friendship deal with him when he and Chief are making their show "Hypernews." At first Arbiter falls for his ruse until he and Chief discover him having an affair with another gamer. Upon being exposed, he blocks the duo from the wedding's server and from contacting Claire to inform her. Eventually, he is exposed to Claire and the two breakup, leaving him to battle with the Arbiter on the site of the wedding. While he has lost the battle and his wedding is ruined, Trent has Brian place a console ban on Jon's Xbox 360.

Trent appears philosophical by his beliefs and statement that "The World is a Big Sinking Ship," but deep down he is an asshole, as evident by his actions of firing the story developers of his company, setting up a "Spartan-Only" policy for his wedding, disregarding Arbiter's existence as a toy, as well as threatening to ban Claire for the Arbiter and Master Chief's actions at his wedding, even though she had nothing to do with it.

Master Chief Sucks at Halo
In this prequel to the later series, Jon's Halo 2 Master Chief action figure comes to life, and begins playing the Halo 3 Beta. He plays extremely poorly, partially because of his unfamiliarity with the new features of Halo 3, but mainly because of his total lack of video gaming talent (at one point, he picks up a spike grenade and throws it at a nearby wall, killing himself and blaming Bungie for making a "gay wep0n"; in another scene, he accuses another player of hacking due to the player's use of a bubble shield).

In the second episode, we find him asking the Arbiter (apparently a different Arbiter action figure than the one who would later be featured in Arby 'n' the Chief; like the Chief, this Arbiter is unintelligent and uses Leet Speak) to play Halo 3 Beta with him on MSN. However, the Beta has been concluded, prompting the Chief to try and drown himself in the toilet. When the suicide attempt fails (because he is wearing a helmet), he decides to play Halo 2 on Xbox Live. He quickly gets booted for offensive behavior, which includes betraying teammates for power weapons such as the Energy Sword. Afterward, he decides to check out Bungie.net for updates on Halo 3, and discovers that the game's release date has been announced for Tuesday, September 25, 2007.

In the final episode, we find him under the Halo 3 Legendary Edition Helmet. He comments on how a man on the internet lied to him by telling him that "wearing this helmet does not make you pleh better". He proceeds to play Halo 3, and after a bad display of gameplay, he takes a Sniper Rifle and gets a lucky headshot while jumping. He thinks he has become the best Halo 3 player in the history of the world, and decides to make a Halo 3 montage. After seven weeks, and with assistance from the Arbiter, he finally completes his "masterpiece," which consists of a misspelled title; the film clip was filmed unskillfully, with the shooting technique of merely pointing a digital camera at the TV screen. To top it all off, the film comes with an annoyingly loud soundtrack ("Crawling" by Linkin Park).

Endgame
Endgame is the originally intended finale for Arby 'n' the Chief before the debut of the sequel series Arby 'n' the Chief: In LA. It is split into six parts.

Season 4
Jon has recently revealed via his blog that he will be producing a fourth season of Arby 'n' the Chief. This is not a continuation of Arby ‘n’ the Chief in LA, but of the original series, taking place after the events of “King” but before those of Endgame; unlike Arby 'n' the Chief in LA, Jon is creating these episodes entirely on his own, with no outside involvement from Machinima.com. Jon has described the new season as having, “No melodrama, no crazy plots, no new characters, just classic Arby 'n' the Chief, back-and-forth banter and wacky around-the-house antics.” The first two episodes, which were premiered at CanWest 2010, center around the Halo: Reach Beta, while the rest of the episodes will be based around other popular Xbox 360 games or other plots that do not relate to video games. A trailer is available on YouTube, the first episode was out on June 26, 2010 and the last one came out on December 10, 2010

Season 5
Season five picks up roughly where season four left off. It brings back Greg the spider as a regular character since he was well recieved by fans. The new season differs from season four in that all the episodes are now connected story wise and will be leading up to a big climax at the end of the season Jon Graham revealed on his blog.

Season 6
Season six picks up where season five left off. Four months have passed since since Arbiter and Chief were banned and are now coping with their withdrawal, with negative side-effects. A new plot device in the series includes the establishment of "Chaos Theosis," the group of hackers from season 5 whom are now rebelling against a new strict Online Terms of Usage that was set up from Arbiter and Chief's actions at Trent's wedding.

Hypermail
A new segment to season six is a show known as "Hypermail," (formerly known as "Hypernews" from season five.) A fanmail show that will rotate weekly between season 6 and it until the season's end. The segment is non-canon and displays the characters in their usual attitude, as well as addresses more real-life and/or pop culture events from the perspective of The Arbiter iand Master Chief, thereby breaking the 4th wall in the series.

Arby 'n' the Chief in L.A.
On November 2, 2009 it was announced that a sequel to the series is in production. The sequel's title is "Arby n the Chief in L.A." Jon Graham stated on his blog that he is not working on the project, and that Machinima.com has taken complete control of the series. However, Machinima.com is still going to go to Jon for him to provide tips and information to help with series continuity.

Because of bad fan reception for the first two episodes, on November 24, 2009, much to his dismay, Jon Graham stated on his blog that he was asked by Machinima to fly to L.A. and help them with the third episode to "give the new crew a running start." However, he was detained by US Homeland Security as a Canadian citizen and was denied entrance to the United States; the new arrangement is for Jon to simply write the scripts and manage the voices, while a film crew in LA does all the actual production. Jon stated on his blog that he still doesn't consider the series his anymore.

It is unknown whether the series will continue, due to it's unpopularity compared to the series made by Jon Graham.

Background
On May 25, 2008, Arby 'n' the Chief: The Movie premiered at the machinima event CanWest ‘08 (which the movie was created for) and was published on YouTube the same day. The movie seems to take place in between the plot line of Episodes 10 and 11, and features all of the main characters of the series up to that point (thus, not only are the Master Chief and the Arbiter present, but so are Cortana, Todd, and Travis). The movie also marks the first time that any character has ventured out of Jon's apartment.

Production
Jon Graham is famous for being a solo machinima producer, but for the Movie, his friend Daniel Lazslo, aka D Laz, assisted him in the production of the film, most notably with visual effects.

Filming
The Movie was the first Master Chief Sucks at Halo/Arby 'n' the Chief production to go outside of Jon Graham's apartment. Filming took place in three different cities: Vancouver (Jon Graham's old residence), Chilliwack (another Canadian City), and Los Angeles (where Jon Graham visited to work at the Machinima.com headquarters for several days).

Plot Summary
In the beginning of the movie, the Master Chief forces the Arbiter, Cortana, Todd, and Travis to play along with a horrible game of "pretend" with Chief (one of Todd's lines is nothing but a crude drawing of a penis). As the others leave, the Arbiter approaches the Chief and consoles him by telling him it was very "Imaginative". While watching machinima videos online, the Chief begins to insult Jon Graham (also known as DigitalPh33r at the time), saying that his videos are shitty and repetitive. The Arbiter tells him to make a machinima of his own, but on one condition: If the machinima is bad, the Chief has to be nice for a day. The Chief retorts by saying that if the machinima is good, then the Arbiter, Todd, Travis, and Cortana have to "shut up" for a day. Several weeks later, with the help of the Chief's online friends, his machinima is complete. It is very badly done, is over three hours long, and contains bad voice acting, over-the-top character actions, and a terrible plot. Everyone hates it, though the Arbiter and Todd attempt to sugar-coat their criticism. Angry, the Chief says that he has uploaded it to the internet and that the result of the bet should depend on the online reaction (which is Chief standing at the computer for a day and continually hitting F5 in order to refresh the page over and over, resulting in more views).

The Chief's video attracts the attention of the eccentric machinima director Skyler Loveheart, the head of "Douchebag Studios." Loveheart mistakenly thinks that the movie was made as a parody of bad machinima, and believes that the video is a work of genius. He contacts the Chief and tells him that Douchebag Studios could use the Chief's talents, and that they want him to come down to Los Angeles to create a serious machinima under their new contract. The Chief happily accepts and tells the Arbiter and Todd that he "doesn't have to live with [those] douchebags anymore." To everyone's delight except the Arbiter’s, the Chief leaves and heads to LA.

In Los Angeles, the Chief is greeted by Loveheart. The Chief asks to use Loveheart's phone, which he uses to call the Arbiter. He begins to brag to and insult the Arbiter, who angrily throws the phone out the window. The Chief then makes an online video (which parodies Uwe Boll’s infamous Youtube video containing much of the same content), in which he boasts about his machinima talents and challenges anyone who disagrees to a boxing match; according to him, beating his critics in a boxing match will somehow prove that he is right and they are wrong. The video annoys the Arbiter, who "can't think of anyone with an ego that massive." Travis tells the Arbiter to let it go, and that they should be celebrating. The Arbiter half-heartedly agrees.

Nearly two months later, the Chief's attempt at a "serious" machinima is complete, titled "TEH EPIK BATEL." Loveheart, seeing the video and how bad it is, realizes that the Chief isn't cleverly satirizing bad machinima, but is simply bad himself. Loveheart furiously tells the Chief that he had invested a lot of money in him, and, pulling a pistol from his pocket, attempts to shoot him. Luckily, Loveheart's hyperactivity causes him to aim erratically, and so every shot misses, even hitting himself in the knee with one of the shots. The Chief steals Loveheart's car and escapes, heading back home. Loveheart shoots himself in the head, causing a ludicrous amount of blood to spurt out.

Back at Jon's apartment, Travis and the Arbiter are playing Halo 3. Losing, the Arbiter forfeits, saying that he's not in the mood. The Chief arrives, and is greeted coldly by the Arbiter, whom the Chief mostly ignores. He goes on to enthusiastically greet Todd, Travis, and Cortana, who don't reply. The Arbiter tells him that he has quite a lot of nerve coming back after the way he behaved, and that he should go. The Chief, upset, cuts power to the apartment and leaves. He walks into the road and attempts to commit suicide by throwing himself in front of a car. The Arbiter, who followed, begs the Chief to get up, saying that he needs him in his life and that he even loves him. After a few more moments in which the Chief does not respond, he turns away. Suddenly, the Chief gets up, saying, "TAHTS SRSLY TEH GAYIST SHIT IV EVAR HERD." He recalls when he tried to commit suicide in Master Chief Sucks At Halo 2, and comes to the conclusion that he can't die. He asks for a hug, which the Arbiter gives, not realizing the Chief has stuck another insulting sign on his back (“IM GAY”), just as he did in Episode 6.

Later, Todd, Travis, and Cortana are having a discussion on the Master Chief's destiny (namely, whether he'd go to Heaven or Hell; the unanimous conclusion is that he is going to Hell). Just then, a large Master Chief helmet appears around the corner of the hallway, saying that it is the “real” Master Chief and declaring that “I AM HEER TO EAT UR FACE. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM.” This badly frightens everyone, especially Todd, who screams feminately at the top of his lungs and runs away when he sees it. However it turns out to be a prank by the Chief, who recites his classic line, “llolollolllolloolollololloololol,” as the movie ends.

Trivia

 * Master chief and the Arbiter are both Canadian.
 * The Arbiter and Master Chief figures are from Halo 2, but Cortana, Todd, and Travis are all Halo 3 Action Figures.
 * Though distributed by http://www.Machinima.com, the series is technically not a machinima, with the majority of each episode filmed live-action and video games simply being a plot device.
 * In the second episode of the series, the Arbiter wrote Bungie a letter asking to give the Chief Recon armor, which was granted by the beginning of Episode 3. Bungie, of course, actually did give Jon Graham the Recon armor; many viewers of the video thought that Jon was given the armor because of the email that the Arbiter wrote, leading many of them to write their own emails to Bungie asking for the armor themselves. Jon, however, has revealed that he did not actually send the email that he wrote for Episode 2, and that Bungie gave him the Recon purely because they admired his videos.
 * In Episode 19 "Panic" of Season 3, the Chief is heard saying a reference to both Halo 3 and 300. Right after he attacks the corrupt red Spartan for almost shooting Arbiter, he begins to say nonsense until the end where he says, "FOR SPARTA."
 * Even though Master Chief's shooting accuracy is horrible, he tends to give headshots when he's not planning to give one.
 * The time on Jon's clock is always 3:43. This a reference to 343 Guilty Spark, which was confirmed by Jon Graham in one of the episode commentaries.
 * Though Cortana was kidnapped by an alien, she only disappeared from the series a few episodes after Todd and Travis were kidnapped. This indicates that they were kidnapped separately; however, given that the alien had no desire for Cortana, her disappearance is strange. It is possible that Todd asked the alien for some company besides Travis and figured that it would not bring any harm to her (or made the alien promise not to do so), not realizing that the alien would later fire Cortana into a nearby sun. Surprisingly, at the very end of Season 5 finale, when cortana is supposed to be dead, her voice (Microsoft Mary) is heard, with the same colour in subtitles, saying "Arbiter,,," and waking him, with no response, cause the episode ends. This however could just be a coincidence. In the first episode of season six reveals that in fact the voice came from the Chief, who was using Microsoft Mary's voice from a computer.
 * In the episode "Wedding", when Master Chief Says "Ima chargin ma lazor! SHOOP DA WOOP!", he is referencing an internet meme started by Dom Fera on Youtube with his animated shorts titled "The Laser Collection." This is quoted a number of times throughout the series.
 * The controllers that the characters use in the series are never actually turned on. Jon has stated that this is because the Xbox 360 controllers have a ten-minute automatic shutoff timer and he never feels like turning them back on.
 * At the end of Season 3, Episode 1 “Cold,” when the Arbiter says, “Something very strange is going on…” the pillowcase moves by itself. Many fans who noticed this theorized that some sort of ghost or other apparition was somehow responsible for the disappearances of Todd and Travis and Cold Storage’s deletion. In the commentary for “King,” Jon revealed that the pillowcase moved simply because a gust of wind from his fan hit it; he never even noticed that the pillowcase fluttered until people began pointing it out.
 * In Episode 9 "Newcomers" when the Arbiter says he has the flag and is coming through the middle, he actually doesn't have the flag.
 * Episode 8 of "Arby and the Chief in LA" is named "Two Betrayals". This is a reference to the Halo: Combat Evolved level Two Betrayals, which is quoted from in Episode 11.
 * Adding to the mysterious disappearance of Todd and Travis. In a Director's Commentary on the Season 5 episode "Cheaters," Jon admitted at he did not like how Todd and Travis (and possibly Cortana) were too One-Dimensional and uninteresting as characters (Todd being too nice, Travis being too loud.)

Internal

 * DigitalPh33r
 * Machinima

External

 * Arby 'n' the Chief Wiki - An entire wiki dedicated to Arby 'n' the Chief.
 * Machinima.com's page on Arby 'n' the Chief.
 * Youtube's Machinima Channel.