SPOILERS Discussion Thread. Keep it here [MAJOR SPOILERS]

[Convas]

I think that this trilogy is not going to go in the direction we think it's going to go. Master Chief has been "evolved" by the Librarian. Cortana and the Didact are "dead".

However, when reading the Forerunner books, you come to learn that the entire Halo story, including the backstory of the Forerunner, Ancient Humans, Precursors, it's all only ever truly been about The Flood.

The Flood is going to return, I believe this with every fiber of my being. And I believe that their return will be instigated by the Precursors who fled the galaxy when the Forerunner rose up in rebellion. The Flood was, if you've read the books, CREATED by the Precursors to use against the Forerunners, but it also affected Ancient Humanity, who referred to it as 'The Shaping Sickness'.

Now that the Forerunner are pretty much extinct, they'll return to get their beautiful revenge against those who the Forerunner passed the mantle onto.

Dun worry friends, we're not going to be fighting Ancient Humans turned Promethean Knights for the next two games, 343i can take this in quite a few directions and I honestly hope it's the Precursor's Revenge direction.

[The BiggD]

Originally Posted by Calib4n

"Can we go home tonight ? I'll take you there.."

That photo saddens me.

Originally Posted by Si Alpha

If she really is dead, I'm guessing she'll be a major topic in Halo 5 and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if 5 culminates in Chief finding a way to bring her back. That could be a truly standout moment in the franchise if done properly, if 343 handle it with more care and give it more time to build up than they did with her death in 4. Whatever happens, we haven't seen the last of Cortana. She was too important to the franchise and too crucial to the core gameplay and narrative to just be dropped like an acceptable loss.

Agreed. A part of me refuses to believe she is dead and Chief will HAVE to move on. But honestly, another part of me believes that all of us just don't want to come to terms with her death. Unfortunately, it may be the very end of her, and we're trying to justify her death by claiming she'll return, when in reality, she may not.

Originally Posted by xXmyxxmastaXx

Cortana told him to live and be a human, so him taking his armor off is him shedding the past.

The sad truth.

[vithzeral]

343 really, really needs to hire a proper writer. Apart from the various plot issues the dialog is just awful. A couple of Covenant shoot back at the Chief (after he fires first) and he immediately decides "these Covenant seem more fanatical than usual" .... errrrm , wtf? And the dialog between Chief and Cortana at the start of Chapter 2 ... a 10-year old would be embarrassed to have written that.

[DaChiefOfOwnage]

Originally Posted by Si Alpha

You clearly have nothing to contribute anyway so why are you even here?

I love the discussion in this forum - I love Halo and have been with it since the beginning. I barely have the time to jump into the discussion due to university commitments at the current moment but I enjoy reading what everyone has to say, and having another game universe that I'm also very passionate about spoiled for me is rather frustrating.

I have nothing against you, just thought it was silly you'd post a spoiler like that without fair warning. Now please, continue this glorious discussion.

[DamagedWill]

Originally Posted by DaChiefOfOwnage

I love the discussion in this forum - I love Halo and have been with it since the beginning. I barely have the time to jump into the discussion due to university commitments at the current moment but I enjoy reading what everyone has to say, and having another game universe that I'm also very passionate about spoiled for me is rather frustrating.

I have nothing against you, just thought it was silly you'd post a spoiler like that without fair warning. Now please, continue this glorious discussion.

I'm gonna have to agree with Chief on this one. However, despite knowing that detail Chief, it's not a "set in stone" story element but I would've been annoyed to know that can happen.

This is a pretty good discussion though. Halo 4 brought some pretty interesting questions to the table and I'm finally glad they brought a little depth to Master Chief. I've always wanted that line to blur, where he would begin to think of himself as a man and not some mindless, orders following machine. Hopefully they continue that.

[Si Alpha]

Originally Posted by vithzeral

343 really, really needs to hire a proper writer. Apart from the various plot issues the dialog is just awful. A couple of Covenant shoot back at the Chief (after he fires first) and he immediately decides "these Covenant seem more fanatical than usual" .... errrrm , wtf? And the dialog between Chief and Cortana at the start of Chapter 2 ... a 10-year old would be embarrassed to have written that.

I'd throw my hat into that ring if I had my degree already maybe Halo 6...

Originally Posted by DaChiefOfOwnage

I love the discussion in this forum - I love Halo and have been with it since the beginning. I barely have the time to jump into the discussion due to university commitments at the current moment but I enjoy reading what everyone has to say, and having another game universe that I'm also very passionate about spoiled for me is rather frustrating.

I have nothing against you, just thought it was silly you'd post a spoiler like that without fair warning. Now please, continue this glorious discussion.

Fair enough man, sorry for the spoiler. Thought that enough time had passed that it wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, let alone actual Mass Effect fans. But I didn't label it clearly enough and I apologise, didn't want to break up the point I was making with enormous, distracting spoiler alerts.

Didn't mean to be tetchy either, just seemed like of all the things I'd said, that was the one thing that someone would pick up on. Wrong again

Originally Posted by Convas

I think that this trilogy is not going to go in the direction we think it's going to go. Master Chief has been "evolved" by the Librarian. Cortana and the Didact are "dead".

However, when reading the Forerunner books, you come to learn that the entire Halo story, including the backstory of the Forerunner, Ancient Humans, Precursors, it's all only ever truly been about The Flood.

The Flood is going to return, I believe this with every fiber of my being. And I believe that their return will be instigated by the Precursors who fled the galaxy when the Forerunner rose up in rebellion. The Flood was, if you've read the books, CREATED by the Precursors to use against the Forerunners, but it also affected Ancient Humanity, who referred to it as 'The Shaping Sickness'.

Now that the Forerunner are pretty much extinct, they'll return to get their beautiful revenge against those who the Forerunner passed the mantle onto.

Dun worry friends, we're not going to be fighting Ancient Humans turned Promethean Knights for the next two games, 343i can take this in quite a few directions and I honestly hope it's the Precursor's Revenge direction.

This. All of it. The most logical, canonical and exciting direction that the story could take, although something tells me Halo 5 is gonna be a particularly well-made filler episode, sort of like Halo 2. If, however, 343 get off their collective asses and really take this story to the heights it deserves to go, I sincerely hope they make decent enemies out of the flood. They were fun in Halo CE, they became excrutiating by Halo 3.

[LickableLemons7]

I'vewatched the Halo 4 terminals on Waypoint, and due to the last one I have a better understanding of why the Didact seemed so pissed off when he was recovered from the Cryptum in campaign, but I agree with Si Alpha.

Halo 4 had a lot of potential for a very deep and cohesive story, but is 343i afraid to confuse new players to the franchise or something? When I played the first Mass Effect, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. So much information was being thrown around, and you had to apply names to different races, places, and objects so you would recieve more out of the story through dialogue. After repeated playthroughs through the beginning, I finally got the gist of the universe. The same thing could be applied to Halo 4. Don't fill us in with this wierd Composer crap. Why did this just pop out of nowhere? We needed more exploration on Requiem, and more backstory on the Didact could've been told via the Librarian from mission 5. Hell, she's his wife, and I don't think 343i iterated that in the campaign. You had to go to Waypoint and watch the terminals you uncovered (and that's just a stupid way to get more people to download Waypoint). Precursors weren't mentioned at all, this could've been a nice way to ease players in and prepare for Halo 5. I get that they "wanted to exlpore Chief's humanity" as they said so many times in the ViDocs and articles, but they don't need the ENTIRE campaign solely focused on him being a person. They clearly focused on other things too.

Hopefully we'll see some more discovery and understanding in Greg Bear's Halo: Silentium next March.

[R00Ki3 117]

cortanas death saddened me it was pretty epic; you see the evolution of chief he is regaining his human-ness in large part because of what cortana had taught em. job well done by 343 studios.

[Overkiller 8]

So I've heard Halo 5 is going to be a "darker" game than the rest. I feel like Cortana will be back, but not until the end of Halo 5 or the start of 6. Halo games seem to always send you on what are supposed to be the creepier missions without Cortana (i.e. most flood missions in the first 3 games). So i guess that fits if Halo 5 is to be darker.

Also, does anyone think the flood will be back?

[Lothra]

MC is not the main icon of the Halo franchise, it has been and always will be him and Cortana.

Basically..
1: She is not dead and she found away off the Didacts ship somehow.

2: Cortana explained it herself during the second mission, that is she didn't survive then Halsey would simply pair chief with another Cortana.

Either way opens up for 343 to bring her back, oh and lets not forget they have brought back characters before that have supposedly died twice. (Sgt Johnson)

[Dervius]

Originally Posted by ZingZitang

Also, something to take note of from the Librarians "Accelerated Evolution". . . Pay attention to the ending cinematic. Notice how John is 2 or 3 feet taller than Palmer? When they Palmer and John first met she said "I thought you'd be taller".

This doesn't seem right to me. Chief is so tall as a result of his suit and his extensive (and brutal) physical augmentations. From what I know of Spartan IIIs these new generation Spartans are not forged from children but are in fact service men and women drafted into the program and given certain performance enhancing improvements as well as their armour.In this way, Chief would certainly be taller than Palmer.

The comment about "I thought you'd be taller" is referring to the gargantuan shoes left by Chiefs legendary status as the soldier of soldiers, it's a common enough phrase in this regard. Perhaps reading a little too much into it my friend.

[Wrinklefighter]

Originally Posted by ZingZitang

Did You skip all the cutscenes or just ignore them? Prometheans are Ancient Humans who were Composed into Artificial intelligence(s) by the Composer.

THANK YOU. The guy he was replying to was extremely polite and there was no need to be a a dick in the response. Not too mention the response was wrong.

I feel like Halo's story has always left certain parts vague because it's going for mass appeal. They do a good job pulling it off in my opinion, because there are so many other places you can go to get an expansion on the story and the Halo universe as a whole.

And anyone who writes the Chief off as a faceless, boring, cliche can watch the ending of the game and suck it. The scene on the deck had some great voice work.

[Vectorman953]

I understand that it's part of a trilogy, but to a certain extent I believe that a game should really be able to stand on its own.
During the entire play through I kept thinking about how there wasn't really a main point to stopping the Didact until the deus ex machina... Errr composer popped up. What, is he going to force choke the human planets, one person at a time?
(Admittedly the "we wanted to go all digital, but the reversal back from data didnt really work so now you've got monsters" part was pretty good in my opinion, but I wish they had mentioned the composer earlier.)
It seemed like a surprise when the didact was glassing... Err composing a random part of earth. And like (Si Alpha?) said, not showing what the hell was happening on earth at the other end of that beam killed the sense of importance. Two missions and a dude went from in a planet to on halo 3 to dust busting the human race. Only to fall off a bridge with no epic last words ringing in a sequel we know is coming.

I'm really sad to see cortana go. I thought the part where she doesn't imprison the didact "because of Halsey" was a nice touch. Maybe in the next game chief will talk to himself (ha)

I'm not a fan of the production team saying "we're exploring his humanity, we're exploring his humanity" and that culminating in one line repeated twice (blah blah paraphrasing cortana asking which on is the machine) and chief taking off the armor. Fucking seriously guys? Even Laskey says "you talk about soldiers and humanity like they're two separate things"

And to whoever got confused about Laskey, it made sense. Believe me, I was trying to poke holes in the dialogue at that point. He introduced himself because it had been like 30fucking years and who knows if the chief would remember him. Him saying he went to the academy was further driving home the point that he had never seen/lived on earth. Maybe I'm biased, I think he's a pretty cool guy.

To end on a comment/question: I didn't see the post-credits monologue as a sign the didact was alive. I thought it was audio from the far past, with him explaining to the forerunner council that they have to exterminate the humans. I dunno man.

And to completely dismiss any possible credibility i could have had

Spoiler! (click here to reveal)

my girlfriend came up with the theory that cortana became more voluptuous in her rampancy so she would seem attractive to the chief. She even yelled "ah hah!" when cortana said "you don't know how long I've been waiting to do that" when she touched the chiefs breast plate.

[~F0RcEx]

Originally Posted by Wrinklefighter

THANK YOU. The guy he was replying to was extremely polite and there was no need to be a a dick in the response. Not too mention the response was wrong.

Thank you. Again, I thank you all. Reading this forum, replaying the story twice more and finally watching all Terminals has helped a ton on understanding 343i 's take on the universe. I understand the new direction they want to take, and it maybe it's a lot to take in at first ( being used to Bungie's story-telling ) but let's hope this "Trilogy" brings it all together at some point and we can look back it and say, "...not bad."

[lente64]

Fantastic Halo 4

[Wrinklefighter]

Originally Posted by ~F0RcEx

Thank you. Again, I thank you all. Reading this forum, replaying the story twice more and finally watching all Terminals has helped a ton on understanding 343i 's take on the universe. I understand the new direction they want to take, and it maybe it's a lot to take in at first ( being used to Bungie's story-telling ) but let's hope this "Trilogy" brings it all together at some point and we can look back it and say, "...not bad."

I would be happy if in 6 or so years we all got to say that. Let's hope that at that point in time people don't jump down one another's throats for asking clarifying questions.

I personally loved the campaign. That's not to say it's flawless and I would agree that stopping the Didact should have been given a little more importance, but overall it blew me away.

[Mr Yac]

my theory is Cortanna will be the "villian: in 5, the way she said "most of me is still down there" and the fact that Didact is down there as well (down of course being the smoldering blast site in space where a nuke went off) leads me to believe they'll merge in some way or another and the more angry aspect of her rampentness will emerge and there ya go, Halo 5 plot

[Odi]

I doubt she'll be the villian. Since she's an evolved AI based on a human, she will likely succeed where the promethians were a failure and become a "human."

[Sayam]

Two things and an idea,

I've read a shit ton on the final ending and cort being transferred in to the domain. Not a single person has mentioned that she is still talking to chef after the console is destroyed. She's speaks to chef saying something like plant the bomb, destroy him blah blah. Did she leave something of herself in the chef?

Second when the he asks why do you carry on fight (power phrasing) she say's I'm not doing it for them. Ok so she's doing it for chief in what sense to save mankind or to save him? she could of set the nuke off herself? also how did she create a hardlight bubble if there was no power to the ship?

Yes we all know she'll be back she was hardly in 3 AND yet still spoke to MC is it that hard to think that she and MC are more entwined with each other? She will be back so will be the flood and so will the halo's, man kind HAS the mantle now the flood will end with MC and cortana.

Maybe thats how it will end matrix style with cheif and cortana being taken over by the flood and destroying the hive from within.

[CraziedZombies]

wasn't sure were, to ask this, but at the end of H3 you see that the Arbiter is still alive, what happened to him did something happen to him in the books?