Halo 3, The Covenant: Enourmous Plot Hole

Games Other Halo
1

Ok, this one has been bothering me for a long time.

In Halo 3, on the level “The Covenant”, right after you kill the two scarabs, you and the Arbiter enter Truths tower. A cutscene then plays where Miranda Keyes asks “are you close?” She then smashes her Pelican through the window, interrupting Truth’s plan to fire the rings with Johnson.

At this point, she disembarks and proceeds to face a huge Brute pack. At most, we see that she kills two Brutes. One with the Pelican, and one with her shotgun. Actually, its not even clear that she kills them, but I’m gonna be generous and say she did. She is then quickly killed by Truth with a spiker. Please watch the cutscene if you need a refresher.

So after this, the flood gives you the whole "dont shoot" speech. You then proceed to move through two areas, killing jetpack Brutes and fuel rod Grunts along the way. When you reach the 3rd area, you discover that every brute, magically, has been killed. Just to be clear, there are a lot more than two brute bodies, the maximum that Miranda could have killed. There are no flood bodies and no flood combat or infection forms in front of you, so its clear it wasn't the flood. The flood were fighting with you the whole time: they could not have gotten in front of Chief and Arbiter. Strangest of all, Truth is the only Covenant survivor, and he appears wounded. The only other possible solution is that Johnson, somehow, managed to annihilate an entire Brute pack, but seeing as he spends the entire Halo 3 campaign getting his -Yoink- handed to him, this doesn't make sense either. A second question is why, when Chief and Arbiter cross the light bridge to reach Truth, is Johnson just sitting there? Why didn't he just shoot Truth and deactivate the rings himself? Instead he risks the entire galaxy waiting for Chief and Arbiter to do the job for him?

I really hope I’m missing something obvious here, because this seems like a really big screw up on Bungie’s part. I think the Halo series has a surprisingly good story for a console FPS, but this part seems very, very off. Can someone help me here, or did Bungie perform an epic fail of their conclusion to the whole Covenant problem?

2

Story was never Bungie’s strong suit, anyway. Halo 1’s story was arguably Bungie’s best, with Halo 3: ODST coming in 2nd place.

3

It’s possible the sentinels killed them, and Johnson was too wounded too do anything.

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> 2533274903612999;3:
> It’s possible the sentinels killed them, and Johnson was too wounded too do anything.

I’m willing to accept Johnson being too wounded, but then where were the sentinels, and why did they leave Truth alive?

> 2533274806427910;2:
> Story was never Bungie’s strong suit, anyway. Halo 1’s story was arguably Bungie’s best, with Halo 3: ODST coming in 2nd place.

Halo 1 definetly had the best campaign but I thought they were all acceptable. This mission though just feels very sloppy.

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> 2533274879684063;4:
> > 2533274903612999;3:
> > It’s possible the sentinels killed them, and Johnson was too wounded too do anything.
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>
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> I’m willing to accept Johnson being too wounded, but then where were the sentinels, and why did they leave Truth alive?
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> > 2533274806427910;2:
> > Story was never Bungie’s strong suit, anyway. Halo 1’s story was arguably Bungie’s best, with Halo 3: ODST coming in 2nd place.
>
>
> Halo 1 definetly had the best campaign but I thought they were all acceptable. This mission though just feels very sloppy.

The sentinels come back out after you reach Truth, correct? You may be right though, it could just be an overlooked feature.

6

Hmm, that never really crossed my mind. Funny thing is, The Covenant has always been one of my favorite FPS levels period.

7

The Brute Chieftain was beating up Johnson in the cutscene. Also, when Johnson stands up and tells Miranda to shoot him, he appears to be struggling to stand. Though it makes almost no sense why all the Brutes are dead.

8

> 2533274903612999;5:
> > 2533274879684063;4:
> > > 2533274903612999;3:
> > > It’s possible the sentinels killed them, and Johnson was too wounded too do anything.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > I’m willing to accept Johnson being too wounded, but then where were the sentinels, and why did they leave Truth alive?
> >
> >
> > > 2533274806427910;2:
> > > Story was never Bungie’s strong suit, anyway. Halo 1’s story was arguably Bungie’s best, with Halo 3: ODST coming in 2nd place.
> >
> >
> >
> > Halo 1 definetly had the best campaign but I thought they were all acceptable. This mission though just feels very sloppy.
>
>
> The sentinels come back out after you reach Truth, correct? You may be right though, it could just be an overlooked feature.

Yes, but they only come out when you’re halfway back across the bridge. It makes no sense for them to leave for a while and then show back up.

I’m suspecting that Bungie originally planned for some kind of boss fight involving Truth but ran out of time and gave us this instead.

9

That’s a possible theory, would have loved a boss fight to be honest!

10

Did any of you actually play the level??? The brutes and grunts are dead because the flood killed them.

When Miranda crashes the pelican through the window and lands on the circular platform with the control panel, she kills only a couple brutes, correct. However when you get to that final area there are a bunch of dead brutes and grunts on the “bridge” area leading up to the circular platform, obviously Miranda didn’t kill those ones, so it must have been the flood or the sentinels.

Flood seem more likely though, for two reasons.

  1. Despite your assertion that there are no flood bodies in that final area - there actually are

This video clearly shows a “dead” human flood form with a shotgun at 44:30. Also in the next cut scene at 44:52 of that same video there is a “dead” brute flood form. So obviously the flood were able to get there before Chief and Arby and kills some brutes and grunts.

  1. Not that its needed at this point but also. In that final cut scene you can see Truth has been infected by the flood, 45:40 of the video.

So clearly it was the flood.

As for why Johnson is just sitting there and why doesn’t he grab a gun and kill Truth and stop the Ark from firing, I’ve no idea. He was injured, but obviously not to injured to carry Miranda’s dead body into the pelican. It’s not really a plot hole though, just bad writing.

Edit: After further thought I’m guessing they did it like that just so the ending of the mission would be exciting. Think about it, if Johnson had killed Truth and stopped the Ark then what would have happened when Chief and Arby show up? Nothing, nothing would have happened, except them all getting in the pelican and flying off, how boring. Instead we get to see Truth, in his final moments of madness, fail the great journal followed by Arby getting his revenge,

  • “I, am Truth, voice of the Covenant…”
  • “…and so, you must be silenced.”

Much more exciting.

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> 2533274891597366;10:
> Did any of you actually play the level???

Do us a favor, try not to be so abrasive to people if you want to get your point across.

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> 2533274806427910;11:
> Do us a favor, try not to be so abrasive to people if you want to get your point across

No.

Also it was a genuine question, given that no one before me seemed to realize that there were indeed “dead” flood forms in that final area, which completely disproves the OPs argument that there were none, and therefore all the dead brutes is a plot hole.

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> 2533274891597366;12:
> > 2533274806427910;11:
> > Do us a favor, try not to be so abrasive to people if you want to get your point across
>
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> No.
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> Also it was a genuine question, given that no one before me seemed to realize that there were indeed “dead” flood forms in that final area, which completely disproves the OPs argument that there were none, and therefore all the dead brutes is a plot hole.

I already realized the Flood forms were there. You are not the only here that acknowledges that. Call it whatever you like, it still could have been worded differently.

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> 2533274806427910;13:
> I already realized the Flood forms were there. You are not the only here that acknowledges that. Call it whatever you like, it still could have been worded differently.

So then why didn’t you point that out to the OP in your first reply? Instead of basically just agreeing with him by saying “Story was never Bungie’s strong suit, anyway.”.

For the record I was gonna word it very differently but decided to go with the version that wouldn’t hurt peoples feelings, obviously I still failed.

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> 2533274891597366;14:
> > 2533274806427910;13:
> > I already realized the Flood forms were there. You are not the only here that acknowledges that. Call it whatever you like, it still could have been worded differently.
>
>
>
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> So then why didn’t you point that out to the OP in your first reply? Instead of basically just agreeing with him by saying “Story was never Bungie’s strong suit, anyway.”.
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> For the record I was gonna word it very differently but decided to go with the version that wouldn’t hurt peoples feelings, obviously I still failed.

Why should I point it out to someone that did not pay any attention to that plot detail? All the OP had to do was go on YouTube and just take a thorough look on what happened at that cutscene. So me expressing my opinion on Bungie’s writing=I agree with the OP. Brilliant logic.

At least you admit your failure.

16

In the cutscene there is a single dead elite flood combat form seen. I imagine the flood had gotten there. I think truth was dead but being infected. The flood left the area when chief and Arbiter got there and left Johnson alone because the flood wanted the rings stopped. Remember the line “The flood scales the citadel’s far wall.” It meant that flood were attacking from the rear as well as along with chief. They likely came in the window after Miranda broke the window.

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> 2533274806427910;15:
> Why should I point it out to someone that did not pay any attention to that plot detail? All the OP had to do was go on YouTube and just take a thorough look on what happened at that cutscene. So me expressing my opinion on Bungie’s writing=I agree with the OP. Brilliant logic.
>
> At least you admit your failure.

Um OP’s entire point is that Bungie fail to write that particular part of the story coherently, and in doing so created an “ENOURMOUS PLOT HOLE”.

You then replied (without disagreeing in anyway, shape or form) “Story was never Bungie’s strong suit, anyway…”.

How exactly is anyone supposed to read that other than, “yes it doesn’t make sense, but Bungie were never very good at writing a story anyway, so its not that surprising”.

Once again its my bad. I guess I shouldn’t have assumed that when you replied to the thread you were responding to the specific topic at hand, rather you were apparently giving your opinion on the broader material as a whole, despite the fact that you knew the OP was incorrect about said topic, you just felt he was to stupid/unobservant to deserve a proper response, my bad.

18

> 2533274891597366;17:
> > 2533274806427910;15:
> > Why should I point it out to someone that did not pay any attention to that plot detail? All the OP had to do was go on YouTube and just take a thorough look on what happened at that cutscene. So me expressing my opinion on Bungie’s writing=I agree with the OP. Brilliant logic.
> >
> > At least you admit your failure.
>
>
>
> Um OP’s entire point is that Bungie fail to write that particular part of the story coherently, and in doing so created an “ENOURMOUS PLOT HOLE”.
>
> You then replied (without disagreeing in anyway, shape or form) “Story was never Bungie’s strong suit, anyway…”.
>
> How exactly is anyone supposed to read that other than, “yes it doesn’t make sense, but Bungie were never very good at writing a story anyway, so its not that surprising”.

I knew what his point meant. I just made that statement in my first post because it reminded of how bad Halo 3’s story was in general, so that is why I said, “Story was never Bungie’s strong suit, anyway.” My post was 6 days ago, I have not played The Covenant for quite awhile, so forgive me if I do not remember every single detail of that level (but seriously, that still does not mean I agreed with what he said).
Do you honestly expect people to not take offense to “Did any of you actually play the level”? Because no matter how you try defined that question as genuine, you are still giving people a negative impression on you. You could have said, “I don’t think you guys remember that cutscene well.”.

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> 2533274891597366;17:
> > 2533274806427910;15:
> > Why should I point it out to someone that did not pay any attention to that plot detail? All the OP had to do was go on YouTube and just take a thorough look on what happened at that cutscene. So me expressing my opinion on Bungie’s writing=I agree with the OP. Brilliant logic.
> >
> > At least you admit your failure.
>
>
>
>
> Once again its my bad. I guess I shouldn’t have assumed that when you replied to the thread you were responding to the specific topic at hand, rather you were apparently giving your opinion on the broader material as a whole, despite the fact that you knew the OP was incorrect about said topic, you just felt he was to stupid/unobservant to deserve a proper response, my bad.

It was not that I found him to be too stupid for a response. I just did not want to waste my time correcting him when he could have did it himself by this website called, YouTube. I just do not have the time for it.

20

I don’t think that’s a “massive” plothole. Pretty standard fare for a video game.