An Alternate Viewpoint.

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Posting this mainly because Shark’s thread is moving to fast and it’s getting buried.

Seems to me that the general consensus is that ONI Spartan is a new character that’s going to be aligned with the Chief, well perhaps not fully since a few people seemed to believe that he’s there to bring Chief back from desertion, but at the end of the day that they are still on the same team and that we’ll be playing from each of their viewpoints.

More than one person has mentioned him as a replacement for Chief dying at the end of H5.

I’m thinking differently.

Someone else posted it a while back about ONI going rogue and the idea got stuck in my head since then and all the signs have pointed to it.

From the outset they’ve been a highly secretive organization. Then with the new novels, conducting what amounts to war crimes by testing and designing biological weapons for use against a faction that they have a standing peace treaty/cease fire with and by supplying a religious faction with weapons to keep another civil war brewing.

Now with a Spartan with an ONI logo instead of an UNSC one just gives me further proof that ONI is setting up the support structures to make itself an independent organization from the UNSC with the possibility of fighting the UNSC. Heck, them trying to take over the UNSC with a private army isn’t too far out of the ballpark here either.

Thus this ONI Spartan isn’t going to be Chief’s buddy. He’s going to be a co-antagonist there to black bag Chief for ONI’s purposes or outright assassinate him.

We’ll play from his point of view to see the the behind the scenes of ONI separating from the UNSC that we couldn’t see from Chief’s perspective. It’s a call back to the Arbiter levels from H2 showing the build up to the Covenant Civil War.

Also telling considering that H5 would be 343’s second Halo game.

Tinfoil hat

2

I like this theory, just throw in some conflict with the Covenant and you’d have a good plot going.

3

> I like this theory, just throw in some conflict with the Covenant and you’d have a good plot going.

It also would be a first for players to actually have to fight and kill human opponents. Something Chief hasn’t done for decades since the start of the Human-Covenant War.

There’s emotional impact to be pulled from this.

4

I both agree and disagree with you on certain points OP. I do agree that our awesome looking new Spartan friend could be an antagonistic protagonist in Halo 5. However, I disagree with ONI becoming some rogue faction.

Granted ONI is Halo’s “secret police” group. However, they’re completely in line with the UNSC and have intention to subvert or damage its power. Heck it’s an organization within the UNSC. I think the whole civil war thing is blowing everything really out of proportion. ONI wouldn’t destroy their government or declare independence. It wouldn’t suit any of their goals and would allow the Covenant remnants to gain an edge.

Rather, I see it as kind of similar to Star Trek’s Cardassian government. ONI is Halo’s Obsidian Order. They’re a secret police and very efficient and deadly just like ONI and they pretty much had the power to ignore the law to make sure everything was “safe” and in other words within control in Cardassian territory. The Obsidian Order eventually decided that another Star Trek faction, the Dominion, was too great a threat and ha to be eliminated. So they ignored their government’s directives and amassed an armada to annihilate them. This backfired and the whole order was slaughtered in a battle thanks to a spy.

I don’t think ONI will necessarily make an army and a fleet to go annihilate the Covenant and more specifically the Sangheili. However, I think they are trying to get into a bigger power share compared to other organizations. They probably want to control the UNSC so that humanity will never have a threat again even within itself.

Maybe it’ll backfire and they’ll be annhilated beyond recovery like the Obsidian Order. But raising an army and destroying or conquering humanity’s government? I’m not buying it. They can take over from the inside.

5

I love this idea, but let me throw in a third playable point of view character to really round the story out: the Arbiter. It’s wishful thinking, I know, but I loved the Covenant perspective and I feel there’s a lot he could contribute to the plot.

6

I don’t see it so much as ONI going rogue but as chief operating beyond their reach. My theory is that Chief is operating under orders from FleetCom (probably from Lasky or Hood) to secure and recover the Janus Key, going dark in the process. ONI notices this and declares Chief a rogue (remember Spartan II’s have “sociopathic tendencies” ) and sends this new ONI Spartan to go after him. Although initially the antagonist for the MC they pull together to fight a greater foe (The Flood awoken by Storm Coventant playing with the Janus key fragment and/or return of the Didact).

7

Anyone remember this… Halo 4 Prologue… it seems as though ONI has made a ‘NEW’ Master Chief…

8

> Anyone remember this… Halo 4 Prologue… it seems as though ONI has made a ‘NEW’ Master Chief…

One does not simply create a ‘New’ Master Chief

> I don’t see it so much as ONI going rogue but as chief operating beyond their reach. My theory is that Chief is operating under orders from FleetCom (probably from Lasky or Hood) to secure and recover the Janus Key, going dark in the process. ONI notices this and declares Chief a rogue (remember Spartan II’s have “sociopathic tendencies” ) and sends this new ONI Spartan to go after him. Although initially the antagonist for the MC they pull together to fight a greater foe (The Flood awoken by Storm Coventant playing with the Janus key fragment and/or return of the Didact).

To me, This seems very plausible. This new ONI Spartan could then discover that Chief never went Rogue and as a result, Fight along side the Chief.

Just like the Arbiter…

Scarily like the Arbiter…

9

New character is a Chief clone imo or a Spartan with his own AI(blue visor). I’m not sure if other Spartans had AI so correct me if I’m wrong, but that would make this Spartan unique among other Spartan 4s.

Watch the H4 intro scene. Basically Halsey realized the mystery guy wants to replace Chief. Then you see Chief given an AI(cortana). Maybe ONI understands AI companions improve effectiveness, especially on solo missions.

Also I believe the blue visor is a hint that this ONI Spartan’s AI is a version of Cortana which would be a great reason to hear her voice again. Because it would be ridiculous if they do a whole “I thought she was dead but not really” type of plot.

10

> New character is a Chief clone imo or a Spartan with his own AI(blue visor). I’m not sure if other Spartans had AI so correct me if I’m wrong, but that would make this Spartan unique among other Spartan 4s.
>
> Watch the H4 intro scene. Basically Halsey realized the mystery guy wants to replace Chief. Then you see Chief given an AI(cortana). Maybe ONI understands AI companions improve effectiveness, especially on solo missions.
>
> Also I believe the blue visor is a hint that this ONI Spartan’s AI is a version of Cortana which would be a great reason to hear her voice again. Because it would be ridiculous if they do a whole “I thought she was dead but not really” type of plot.

What does having a blue visor have to do with having an AI. By that logic all Spartan IV recruits have AI’s.

11

If this is evidence that ONI’s trying to create their own private army and fight the UNSC, then they’ve been planning this since before the Human-Covenant war. ONI grabbed Gray Team from the Spartan II program and made them their special operatives, this isn’t anything new and it definitely doesn’t mean that ONI wants to be an independent organization.

Why would ONI even consider doing that? It would leave them with less power and less opportunity, not to mention a war with the UNSC/Arbiter on their hands (which they would probably lose, considering the UNSC alone has tons more firepower than they do, and much more support).

12

> > New character is a Chief clone imo or a Spartan with his own AI(blue visor). I’m not sure if other Spartans had AI so correct me if I’m wrong, but that would make this Spartan unique among other Spartan 4s.
> >
> > Watch the H4 intro scene. Basically Halsey realized the mystery guy wants to replace Chief. Then you see Chief given an AI(cortana). Maybe ONI understands AI companions improve effectiveness, especially on solo missions.
> >
> > Also I believe the blue visor is a hint that this ONI Spartan’s AI is a version of Cortana which would be a great reason to hear her voice again. Because it would be ridiculous if they do a whole “I thought she was dead but not really” type of plot.
>
> What does having a blue visor have to do with having an AI. By that logic all Spartan IV recruits have AI’s.

Just my opinion homie. Its prominent and glowing as if its hinting at something IMO. Same way Chief’s cloak in the teaser trailer HINTS at him either having damaged armor or hiding his appearance.

13

> Just my opinion homie. Its prominent and glowing as if its hinting at something IMO. Same way Chief’s cloak in the teaser trailer HINTS at him either having damaged armor or hiding his appearance.

Fair enough, I though that the glow was an artistic effect caused by lighting. But your right, they may be using the glow to draw focus towards the visor, or the visor may be producing its own light.

14

I notice a lot of people are referencing the Halo 4 intro video, and I believe correctly.

However, I think I just realized something.

The shadowy guy pushes Halsey into admitting that despite her original intentions in creating the Spartan program, that in the end she was justified.

He, IMO, is trying to cover his own conscience. ONI has done something and wants reassurance that in the end, their actions were justified.

From there, I believe it is correct that they intend to replace the Master Chief. The Spartan IV’s were the first step and from there the ONI Spartan depicted in the Halo 5 Guardians teaser art was the next step. I don’t know if the person in the suit was originally a Spartan III, IV, or clone of John. I am going with the latter.

It seems the 343 is imitating the development process of the first three Halo games. This game is the equivalent to Halo 2 where we played as two different characters. I think the same thing will happen here. However, while I enjoyed the Arbiter as a character, I felt “weaker” when I played him than Chief, simply because I’m used to him being the badass main character. There are also different weapons between characters.

This time, however, although I imagine there will be different weapons for each character, they all stem from the same roots. So, switching between them won’t be alienating. This is also why I believe it’s John’s clone. Theoretically, John’s clone has the same luck as John does and the same Forerunner tampering in humanity’s DNA which brought about John himself. It may even be John’s original clone from back when Halsey abducted him as a child and may not have died like the other flash clones.

This cloned John, however, has no or different augmentations than the real John, giving him a less buff appearance, even excluding the lack of armor relative to the Chief’s.

15

I don’t see why ONI would ‘go rogue’. If 343 wanted this to happen, they’d show the UNSC clamping down on ONI power, instead we see ONI continuing more or less as it was as the secretive organization that seems to control most the UNSC and that most people have a sharp fear of.

16

I like what you added about the clone not dying, because when I watched the halo 4 prologue, the person questing Halsey did seem to have a master-chief like tone to his voice… I Love Theories haha

17

My only issue with them introducing a clone is that I know one of them is going to die.

It may not be the clone that dies this time. For all we know, John could die and his clone take over with a new Cortana, thereby solving the issue of Cortana’s death looking cheap if she were brought back. It’s not technically her, nor is Chief placed in a position where he views a new Cortana as the fake.

New Chief, new Cortana, same chemistry.

Although, by this point I may be thinking too far into this : P

18

> Clone Chief

Feels like a cop out to me, bad storytelling and would wish that 343 doesn’t go down this route.

Having Thorne or another character picking up MC’s role as the main player character is a much better approach since it would feel like a passing of the torch type moment, provided that the spiritual successor to carry the torch was likeable.

I’m still going with the co-antagonist/soon to be co-protagonist much like how the Arbiter acted in that role. I was kinda hoping that would be filled by the Iso-Didact if/when he comes back to help knock the Ur-Didact/Gravemind around.

It might be a Spartan pulled from the old SII ranks but the talk about the H4 intro, about replacing MC, got me thinking that ONI actually did a second generation of the SII program, for a private army independent of the rest of the UNSC and beholden only to them (thinking more about it now, I agree that going rogue isn’t something they would want to do,) and that ONI-Spartan is this second gen’s Master Chief.

It’s also would be for some delicious hypocrisy, especially if it comes to light, for jailing Halsey for the SII program when ONI turns around and does it again.

19

I definitely think this mysterious ONI operative has something to do with the Prologue of H4, given Halsey’s interrogator asking questions about what she felt made the Spartans (especially John) effective. This scene had little to no impact on H4’s plot, but perhaps it wasn’t intended to. More likely, it was to allude to the events in Guardians.

On a side note, given the somewhat Forerunner look to the figure’s armor (perhaps reverse-engineered like what was done with the Infinity), I couldn’t help but be reminded of the pre-release H4 animation of a human with Didact-like powers (phasing a possibly “proto-Palmer” through a wall and tossing him aside like a rag doll). Perhaps this character was initially intended to appear in H4’s story in an early script.