Actually the whole 'complicated' thing ends up having North almost relaxing by the end. He gets it, in a strange way. That is something he can compare to his world.

"I can't say I've specifically met someone like you, but it sort of falls a bit in line with the races of the Covenant back home. Sure, they had individual species identities, but clearly their weight was in obedience to those in power. The 'Prophets' species. We think that the Covenant races all obeyed one, potentially religious, code. And if you disobey that, you're dead. And they really didn't like humanity."