Mendicant claimed that he had recovered from his logic plague in the 7th terminal.
https://www.halopedia.org/Terminal_(Halo_3)#Mendicant_Bias’_betrayal
Yeah. I know. And maybe he did. Entirely possible. But then it’s also possible that this super-genius AI is playing everyone…since he’s done that previously. It’s also possible he meant what he said and then later got hijacked by re-absorbing his personality shard from the Ark…logic plague all over again.
Mayhapsley… I think there will be an Offensive vs Medicant dynamic in the near future once more.
100%! The thematic echoes are all there. Cortana VS Weapon. Mendicant VS Offensive. I’m sure we’ll never be able to guess all the exact details correct but I think the themes are pretty clear.
It will be interesting to see what they do with Weapon. If Mendicant is helping Atriox, as seems pretty clear…and Weapon, with help from Offensive, is helping MC…well…they didn’t introduce Weapon on a whim. It would be somewhat interesting if Weapon somehow merged with Offensive, in order to fight Atriox/Mendicant.
No story is complete without a really compelling villain, and that’s something that Halo has kind of struggled with. 343 clearly noticed that their portrayal of Atriox was a big hit in halo wars 2. He’s a direct foil for Master Chief. They’re basically the same thing on different sides. Really hoping they play that up. A story is only as good as its villain.
Does it not make more sense if those were the shards of Cortana helping instead of Offensive Bias? She does say the setting things right “starts here” so we’re not done with that. A Contender Class AI is enormously powerful and should just have control of the ring and be able to kill all the Banished/Endless. I just can’t see why it would act from the shadows. The Harbinger also mentions something connected to the Installation helping the Chief but implies it’s something vulnerable. I don’t think a Contender Class AI fits unless it has reason for conceal its presence or has some limit on its power we are unaware of.
Given the red eyes we saw in the trailer I think Offensive is rampant and possibly even fallen like Mendicant. It would mirror the Weapons fear that she is doomed by her nature if the “good copy” eventually fell.
Atriox having Mendicants core makes sense. I do wonder how high up this thing goes. 
The only point against the Endless being Precursors is that they seem a little weak for them. Especially the Skimmers. BTW, the many hooked legs and bulbous head kind of looks like an infection form. So there is that too.
I am worried about Atriox’s handling so far, but we’ll see how they take it
I still feel that Didact had the potential to be a strong villain, just never got the chance post Halo 4.
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total_war1402
SPOILERS!!!
I kind of wish that were the case cuz I really liked Cortana, but Weapon specifically says that the signal that is helping her is very very old. It almost has to be Offensive Bias…particularly since in the legendary ending, we are told Offensive was activated on Zeta Halo
I thought it was the signal the Harbinger was trying to communicate with at the end? People usually bring that up as evidence she’s talking to Atriox in the past.
I don’t think she’s communicating with Atriox in the past. I think she’s communicating directly with Mendicant Bias, whose core is pretty explicitly in Atriox’s possession.
Atriox is getting played by a Contender Class Forerunner AI. After some more character development…I would not be surprised if he turns into another Arbiter. Manipulated…disgusted…eventually coming to begrudgingly help MC since he’s been lied to. Let him be the big-bad for a while…he already beat MC once. But if he ever figures out that after all his efforts…he still got manipulated…oh the fireworks.
I really don’t think Atriox should become like the Arbiter.
For one, I will have my vengeance. One Brute at a time and he’s on that list. He killed Cortana and all your friends on the Infinity. He also is the reason for the Chiefs greatest failure. That’s too personal for him to walk away from.
He’s done too much evil stuff. The Banished are an irredeemably malevolent faction. They’re shown sadistically torturing and massacring unarmed prisoners. They slaughter civilians and practice cannibalism. Open talk of genocide. He is the architect of all that, not a pawn like the Arbiter. He’s more like the Prophet of Truth.
If he’s following MB it’s just so he can get the power he seeks. That’s not a noble or just cause as the Arbiter falsely believed. So he shouldn’t be rewarded for realising that he was deceived; he should be punished as it’s the result of his own selfish lust for power.
If they made common cause the Banished would stop being enemies. But if we kill Atriox then he becomes a martyred God and they’ll keep fighting us in future games.
Honestly, he might be lying about this whole Freedom thing to get what he wants and not remotely care about his followers. So he just thinks he can control Mendicant Bias because he’s arrogant and out of hubris. Plus, MB might be exerting some kind of hold or influence over Atriox that means he’s kind of a puppet for the machine. We don’t know.
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Hmm, I think we got hints of that after the fight with Escharum, when Chief showed him respect/empathy.
("…he’s just a soldier, doing what he thought was right", or whatever…)
So “if” there was some sort of redemption for him, Chief would probably go with it…?
@ Mendicant Bias:
To me, it would feel a little like sloppy screenwriting when they start saying “The Logic Pleague is back” or something similar. It’s too close to a “Somehow Palpatine has returned” situation.
By that I mean that you work towards one direction and in the end say “Surprise!”. It’s more rebooting a story than building up to previous actions/progression.
Of course, Halo Infinite is meant to be a reboot and 343 kinda has a record of throwing story concepts when you look at Halo 4 and 5, which basically don’t matter anymore. So it’s 100% realistic they do a “Palpatine-Returned-Move”. But I really wish they don’t 
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I don’t think a guy who makes propaganda towers proclaiming how he’s going to tear down the oppressive humans can be reasoned with. He’s either a liar or he’s insane. He’s killed thousands and threatening to kill billions. With the Arbiter they played this down and had him have various honourable traits. That’s not the case with Atriox.
Let’s examine the ledger and I’ll give him a pass on beating the Chief and meaning Cortana had to die:
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He kills the humans who saved the Galaxy from Cortana and arguably avenged his planet. This proves he does not care about his own kind and has selfish and petty motivations. Only an evil man would do that. What does this say about the scum that follow him?
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His army butchers, eats and tortures everything it encounters. They show precisely zero remorse or moral awareness of this. For example does he need to butcher the unarmed scientists on the Ark? No, it’s a petty act of malice.
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The Banished aren’t a nation. They’re a body of warriors whose goal is self interest under the will of a tyrant. This is not good. They’re like the Nihil from the High Republic. They inherently believe that the strong should take from the weak and that’s the only morality that should restrain them. Atriox didn’t reject the Covenant because he thought they were evil, he rejected them because they held him back and he broke his chains. I mean, some of the language used in the Atriox towers is very, um, suspect shall we say. I don’t think we’re supposed to approve of this factions philosophy.
Like really, if you told me this guy put Flood on his own planet so he could play the “Saviour of the Brutes” it would not surprise me. I think he’s more interested in talk of Destiny and probably believes all Brutes that don’t obey him are weak minded fools.
Also, he’s kind of helping the Endless and that seems a very bad idea. Just saying.
I think he should not be allowed to walk away. Let Chief go back in time and save Doisac. But this Brute and his army die either way.
total_war1402
That’s Escharum though. Yes, the Brutes are…well, brutal. But Atriox is pretty clearly a tactical genius and also highly pragmatic. He has a history of allowing humans the join the Banished (primarily smugglers and members of the insurrection). He doesn’t just hate them. Many of his soldiers do, particularly Escharum.
I think it’s much less likely that Atriox will end up an actual ally the way the Arbiter did…but he’s not insane like the Prophet of Truth, and if Atriox ever figures out that he’s being used by Mendicant and/or the Endless, the same way that the Covenant used him…it’s gonna get really ugly.
This is a great theory, and uses a lot of good details to bring it to the surface.
But an unrelated question that keeps popping up to me is what happened to the Precursor samples that were specially planted by the Librarian on a repurposed shield world named Bastion, with the sole intention of bringing the Precursors back to the universe through natural evolution many, many years ago before the Halo Array was officially fired by the Forerunners. I think maybe the Xalanyn/Endless came from these samples. If they didn’t reform from these samples, then maybe Bastion was purely set up as a possible location for the newly reformed Precursors in future Halo lore.
Didn’t see this till just now RamboBambiBambo…the bit about Hidden Experia.
I was actually posting to the comments on his videos and a few other high profile YouTubers (Wizzo is another) with this theory.
I’m trying to flesh things out and tie in the rest of the lore to make a more complete picture 
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Appreciate it kkolossal.
The Bastion bit with Precursor samples…another great observation. I hadn’t actually even considered that…although I think it could still fit in well if they wanted. The Primordial had 43 years of uninterrupted access to the Domain/Organon/Abaddon. Given how it really functions…as a living repository…if the Librarian accessed it after formulating her plan for Precursor samples on Bastion…the Primordial and Mendicant could have learned of it. They had the Halo…with full slipspace capability…it’s plausible that during those 43 years of experimentation, they could have gone there and gained access to some of those samples and incorporated them. I’m not sure they’d need to…the Flood and the Primordial itself were Precursor…but they certainly could have.
343 could also go a completely different direction and explain the Endless in a different way…who knows. There are SO many possible threads in the lore that could be massaged to tie in to any plot.
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