How Halo 5 Should Have Ended

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

How to Fix Halo 5’s campaign

  1. New Characters.
    Instead of Spartan Locke (which is a dumb name) give us a Spartan we can relate to. Look at his name, ‘Locke’ is a last name, all the other Spartans we’ve met we know by their first name. It feels more personal. 343 wanted Locke to come off as a tough character who is basically the “master chief” of the spartan 4’s. But did it ever feel like that? No. It felt like he was tough but nowhere near the chief’s level. To get around this:

A. Drop Osaris squad (more on this later)
B. Add a new AI character (more on this later)
C. Give us the ‘hunt the truth’ campaign that was advertised.

  1. Drop Osaris squad. I’m not sure why 343 went the squad route anyways. There isn’t split screen for Halo 5 so whywas the squad such a priority? I know we all like Buck so here’s my solution. Add a new main character, instead of trying to get you to imagine a totally brand new character imagine the character was Spartan Jerome. I know thats not possible but just imagine a character like Spartan Jerome. He’s tough, relatable, and has some badass moments. Let’s say this hypothetical character use to specialize in assassination missions. He use to work in a 2 man cell but his partner was killed by promethians when Chief resurrected the Didact. In fact, this could be the first mission of Halo 5. You and your partner are sent to assassinate the leader of the rebel elites. You fight through covenant and promethians (Much like in Halo 5). The mission ends with a boss battle (Not some cutscene where the elite leader dies so easily.) After the boss battle, in a cutscene, your partner is killed by a promethian sniper! This would give him a sort of personal grudge against The chief and drive the story. Let’s also say that the Master Chief is still with Blue Team on the same mission he was at the start of Halo 5 when he gets a message from Cortana. The message tells him to come alone somewhere in the galaxy. But he doesnt listen and still takes his team. This would make the missions feel different between ‘Jerome’ and Chief. Whereas Chief has his squad, and ‘Jerome’ has a two man cell. Which brings me to ‘Jerome’s’ new teammate, Buck. Buck is witty and has that kind of comic relief that would contrast well with our new Jerome character. Jerome is more on the serious side and wants revenge for his friend he lost.

  2. Add a new AI character.
    As we all know, Halo 5’s campaign ends with Cortana forming a new alliance of AI’s. So why don’t we see that many AI’s throughout the campaign? We barely see the Infinity’s AI, and we see the AI that is the mayor of that one planet, but nothing ever really develops with these AI’s. They all just join cortana and it feels a bit off. To get around this, I suggest adding a new AI character to the story, Isabel. Imagine if before she was sent to the Ark she was sent with Buck and Jerome for their mission. The three of them could have been tasked with bringing back the Chief and his squad. That would have been a way cooler set up than Osaris squad which, aside from buck, are basically a bunch of no bodies. This would have shown a key contrast between the chief’s mission and Jerome’s. It would almost feel like halo’s 1-4 while playing as ‘Jerome’ because you would have Isabel feeding you info, witty lines, and setting navpoints for you during your missions.

Which brings me to the chief’s missions

  1. More Chief missions.
    Besides split screen, the main complaint about the campaign was the fact that the chief only had 3 missions. Why? I mean, did 343 really think we would like Spartan Locke so much that we wouldn’t want to play as the chief? Why? The chief should have had more mission and the campaign should have been different in just a few keys ways:

A. Blue Team should have faced off against Warden Eternal first. Why is this guy called the Warden? It doesn’t seem like he has any prisoners. A way around this would be having the Chief’s squad be captured by him. Let’s say the Chief shows up to the planet (same one as before) and the Warden says he was going to take the Chief to Cortana but because he brought his squad he can’t. So they fight the Warden, they lose and the chief’s squad is taken prisoner. The Warden is about to take the Chief too when Jerome, Buck, and Isabel show up and stop him. The Warden is forced to flee with the squad, and the chief is taken by Jerome and them.This would have been a way better set up than what 343 did. But it gets better, instead of some weird fight scene like we got with Locke vs The Chief, let’s say the Chief does a badass escape instead. He basically pulls a taken and let them capture him so he could escape on the frigate and steal a ship. Let’s say he escapes but his ship is shot down by Isabel! She kind of got carried away and then she gets all depressed because she thinks she’s just killed the chief.

Meanwhile the chief doesn’t die, obviously, and he crashes back on the planet in the desert. His suit is heavily damaged and he throws on a poncho like we saw in the teaser (so he’s not seen by any air surveillance). He wanders around in the desert depressed because he’s basically lost everyone. We then play as the chief as he fights against some Promethians and -Yoink-. Eventually he finds “The Guardian ship” like we saw in the teaser and makes his way to Meridian. Keep in mind this is the first 4 missions of the game. I know it seems like a lot but that’s because there’s actually a story here with character development.

I don’t want to get into every little detail of what would happen next, but basically the squad decides to go after the rest of blue team. Isabel is still depressed but has an idea that there is a ship on the Elite’s homeworld that can take them to blue team. So the missions here on out are very similar to what we got in Halo 5 but the mood is different. The chief’s missions are all lone wolf missions where as Jerome’s squad is massive battle’s and revolve around Isabel. In the end, everyone meets up on Meridian and the chief confronts cortanta. He tells her to release Blue team but she refuses. She also tells the chief about her plans and asks him to join but he refuses. Like in Halo 5’s ending she is distraught about the chief’s choice and decides to take him prisoner.

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Isabel and them are on the planet at this point with the purple monitor (cant remember the name, eubarant something?), whom they reactivated for a mission (why would it still be active if cortana was in control?) they fight their way to cortana and deactivate her dome ship thing. The ship loses power and in a really cool cutscene falls to the surface and is destroyed. They make their way to the wreckage and then we have to fight the chief and blue team!
You basically have to get their shields down, get close to them, and when you melee them it goes into a special assassination like move where we place the armor lock on them.

We do this one by one until it’s just the chief left. Jerome’s helmet falls off during the fight, revealing his face. Once the chief is down we get a similar cutscene like we got in the trailers “Hunt The truth” with a short monologue from Jerome. He tells the chief about his friend who died because he resurrected the didact. He points his pistol at the chief, Isabel tells him not to shoot.Buck sides with her and tells him killing the chief won’t bring back his friend. He starts to lower his gun when Cortana arrives on the scene screaming “Nooo!” (Thinking he’s about to shoot the chief) she fires a blue laser from her hand that goes through Jerome’s chest. With blood in his mouth he falls to the ground and gasps for air. The chief rushes over to him.

Buck and the purple monitor fire at cortana but she simply teleports away. The chief holds Jerome in his arms and tells him he’s sorry he got his friend killed. Jerome nods, unable to speak, he closes his eyes. As his hand falls he hands the chief Isabel (inside a chip). Buck frees the rest of blue team and asks them if they’re done playing deserters. They nod. Together they head to a teleporter that takes them back to the elite homeworld. Once their the chief hands Isabel over to Buck and tells him he’ll never have another AI again. Buck says he understands. Everyone is then reunited with Halsey and The Arbiter. They all head back to Earth. Blue Team is told they will await trial aboard the Infinity. Isabel is relocated to the Ark for her mission. Buck is given some time off.

Then all of a sudden Cortana commences her attack on Earth and everywhere else in the galaxy.

Roll Credits.

Thoughts?

I think this would have had a much better emotionally impact than what we got. It would have introduced Isabel before Halo Wars 2 and really made us care for all the characters involved.

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<mark>This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not post inappropriate content.</mark>
*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

I think we all wanted the Hunt the Truth campaign that 343 promised was Halo 5’s campaign. I loved the lone wolf feel that it showed. If 5’s campaign was actually like this, to be honest we don’t even need Blue Team in the story. Chief could take out every little Spartan 4 on that team alone (sorry Buck), they don’t stand any chance. Which reminds me of that level when Locke and Chief fight, THAT WAS BS 343. HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN. Chief would of knocked locke out in seconds, and should be towering over him (Chief is almost 7 feet tall!). That scene didn’t even look good or intense. Sorry I get PTSD from seeing that cutscene the first time, gets me triggered.Maybe as a legendary ending during the credits we see Chief reunite with Blue Team about to meet and it ends.

I haven’t read your whole story but I skimmed through it. I agree the AI in the gameplay were totally useless. Blue team and Osiris served no purpose at all but filler. This means that revive mechanic would of been gone too! We do need boss battles back. 343’s idea of a hard level is throwing waves of knights and soldiers after us like Destiny. We don’t need that! 343 should play some Zelda and take some notes, wouldn’t hurt Bungie to do that too xD.

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>

Yeah that fight scene was weird. I’m telling you 343 wanted Locke to be the 'Master Chief" of the Spartan 4’s but it basically failed.

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OP, you should’ve been a developer for the game. What I read was amazing, and made me want more.

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> OP, you should’ve been a developer for the game. What I read was amazing, and made me want more.

Thanks man I really appreciate that.

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I’ve got to be the only one here who actually liked the story and what it set up. No offense, but I’d take what we got over something else most of the time, unless said thing really blows me away, which not a lot of things have. Your idea is good, OP, I just prefer what we got better.

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Aren’t most Spartans 7 feet tall? So what does his height have to do with that moment?

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> 2533274818651339;1:
> How to Fix Halo 5’s campaign
> 1. New Characters.
> Instead of Spartan Locke (which is a dumb name) give us a Spartan we can relate to. Look at his name, ‘Locke’ is a last name, all the other Spartans we’ve met we know by their first name. It feels more personal. 343 wanted Locke to come off as a tough character who is basically the “master chief” of the spartan 4’s. But did it ever feel like that? No. It felt like he was tough but nowhere near the chief’s level. To get around this:
>
> A. Drop Osaris squad (more on this later)
> B. Add a new AI character (more on this later)
> C. Give us the ‘hunt the truth’ campaign that was advertised.

Um… you do know that Spartans are generally identified by their last name in the Spartan-IV program, right? The only reason that -IIs and -IIIs tended to go by their first names was because they had no real last name… and, even then, IDing them by number is something that people do.

> 2533274818651339;1:
> 2. Drop Osaris squad. I’m not sure why 343 went the squad route anyways. There isn’t split screen for Halo 5 so whywas the squad such a priority? I know we all like Buck so here’s my solution. Add a new main character, instead of trying to get you to imagine a totally brand new character imagine the character was Spartan Jerome. I know thats not possible but just imagine a character like Spartan Jerome. He’s tough, relatable, and has some badass moments. Let’s say this hypothetical character use to specialize in assassination missions. He use to work in a 2 man cell but his partner was killed by promethians when Chief resurrected the Didact. In fact, this could be the first mission of Halo 5. You and your partner are sent to assassinate the leader of the rebel elites. You fight through covenant and promethians (Much like in Halo 5). The mission ends with a boss battle (Not some cutscene where the elite leader dies so easily.) After the boss battle, in a cutscene, your partner is killed by a promethian sniper! This would give him a sort of personal grudge against The chief and drive the story. Let’s also say that the Master Chief is still with Blue Team on the same mission he was at the start of Halo 5 when he gets a message from Cortana. The message tells him to come alone somewhere in the galaxy. But he doesnt listen and still takes his team. This would make the missions feel different between ‘Jerome’ and Chief. Whereas Chief has his squad, and ‘Jerome’ has a two man cell. Which brings me to ‘Jerome’s’ new teammate, Buck. Buck is witty and has that kind of comic relief that would contrast well with our new Jerome character. Jerome is more on the serious side and wants revenge for his friend he lost.

…Can’t help but feel that this character isn’t much better than Osiris. Come on. Revenge as a motive? It just feels rather cliche. And then pairing him with Buck to create a serious-and-comedic duo? Personally, I gotta say no thanks.

> 3. Add a new AI character.
> As we all know, Halo 5’s campaign ends with Cortana forming a new alliance of AI’s. So why don’t we see that many AI’s throughout the campaign? We barely see the Infinity’s AI, and we see the AI that is the mayor of that one planet, but nothing ever really develops with these AI’s. They all just join cortana and it feels a bit off. To get around this, I suggest adding a new AI character to the story, Isabel. Imagine if before she was sent to the Ark she was sent with Buck and Jerome for their mission. The three of them could have been tasked with bringing back the Chief and his squad. That would have been a way cooler set up than Osaris squad which, aside from buck, are basically a bunch of no bodies. This would have shown a key contrast between the chief’s mission and Jerome’s. It would almost feel like halo’s 1-4 while playing as ‘Jerome’ because you would have Isabel feeding you info, witty lines, and setting navpoints for you during your missions.

…Considering that Isabel wasn’t created until 2556, wasn’t out of training until 2558, and was pretty much immediately sent to Installation 00 for her assignment at the Henry Lamb Research Outpost… I’m gonna go with… no. I also highly doubt that the UNSC would assign a smart AI to a two-man team. Hell, the only reason that 117 and Cortana ended up as a team was because of emergency circumstances. Otherwise… yeah, it typically doesn’t happen.

> Which brings me to the chief’s missions
>
> 4. More Chief missions.
> Besides split screen, the main complaint about the campaign was the fact that the chief only had 3 missions. Why? I mean, did 343 really think we would like Spartan Locke so much that we wouldn’t want to play as the chief? Why? The chief should have had more mission and the campaign should have been different in just a few keys ways:
>
> A. Blue Team should have faced off against Warden Eternal first. Why is this guy called the Warden? It doesn’t seem like he has any prisoners. A way around this would be having the Chief’s squad be captured by him. Let’s say the Chief shows up to the planet (same one as before) and the Warden says he was going to take the Chief to Cortana but because he brought his squad he can’t. So they fight the Warden, they lose and the chief’s squad is taken prisoner. The Warden is about to take the Chief too when Jerome, Buck, and Isabel show up and stop him. The Warden is forced to flee with the squad, and the chief is taken by Jerome and them.This would have been a way better set up than what 343 did. But it gets better, instead of some weird fight scene like we got with Locke vs The Chief, let’s say the Chief does a badass escape instead. He basically pulls a taken and let them capture him so he could escape on the frigate and steal a ship. Let’s say he escapes but his ship is shot down by Isabel! She kind of got carried away and then she gets all depressed because she thinks she’s just killed the chief.

Alright, first things first- “warden” doesn’t necessarily refer to a prison warden. Basically, it’s just another word for overseer, supervisor, and so on.

So… how and why does this hypothetical ‘Jerome’-Buck-Isabel team find Blue Team?
And where does this frigate come from?
Why doesn’t the rest of Blue escape?
Why is Isabel shooting stuff randomly?

> Meanwhile the chief doesn’t die, obviously, and he crashes back on the planet in the desert. His suit is heavily damaged and he throws on a poncho like we saw in the teaser (so he’s not seen by any air surveillance). He wanders around in the desert depressed because he’s basically lost everyone. We then play as the chief as he fights against some Promethians and -Yoink-. Eventually he finds “The Guardian ship” like we saw in the teaser and makes his way to Meridian. Keep in mind this is the first 4 missions of the game. I know it seems like a lot but that’s because there’s actually a story here with character development.

Why would there only be aerial surveillance?
Why wouldn’t 117 try to contact any other UNSC forces?
What good would hiding under a poncho be if he just runs into Prometheans anyway?

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> I’ve got to be the only one here who actually liked the story and what it set up. No offense, but I’d take what we got over something else most of the time, unless said thing really blows me away, which not a lot of things have. Your idea is good, OP, I just prefer what we got better.

Why do you prefer what we got? It was so jumbled up and ridiculous imo

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> > 2535405116054664;7:
> > I’ve got to be the only one here who actually liked the story and what it set up. No offense, but I’d take what we got over something else most of the time, unless said thing really blows me away, which not a lot of things have. Your idea is good, OP, I just prefer what we got better.
>
> Why do you prefer what we got? It was so jumbled up and ridiculous imo

Tell you the truth, I have no idea. I just liked it. I was actually caught off guard by Cortana becoming the bad guy, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does and how the galaxy responds. Also, and granted it might be influenced a bit by what we got, but I have a hard time following potential “what should’ve happened” stories because more often than not, I fail to see them actually happening given the events of Halo 4, which is what counted. I can piece together Halo 4 and 5’s stories just fine, but that’s only me. I get why other people don’t like it, and that’s fine. I just do.

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Separate post because character limit (hey, first time I’ve had to do this!).

> I don’t want to get into every little detail of what would happen next, but basically the squad decides to go after the rest of blue team. Isabel is still depressed but has an idea that there is a ship on the Elite’s homeworld that can take them to blue team. So the missions here on out are very similar to what we got in Halo 5 but the mood is different. The chief’s missions are all lone wolf missions where as Jerome’s squad is massive battle’s and revolve around Isabel. In the end, everyone meets up on Meridian and the chief confronts cortanta. He tells her to release Blue team but she refuses. She also tells the chief about her plans and asks him to join but he refuses. Like in Halo 5’s ending she is distraught about the chief’s choice and decides to take him prisoner.

Where would Isabel, human AI, get the idea that Sanghelios has a ship that could bring them to Blue?
So… basically just the second half of Halo 5…?
…Wait, what even is Cortana’s plan? Is it the same stupid thing as the original? If yes… why didn’t you try to fix what is basically the root of all of the problems with Halo 5’s campaign?

> Isabel and them are on the planet at this point with the purple monitor (cant remember the name, eubarant something?), whom they reactivated for a mission (why would it still be active if cortana was in control?) they fight their way to cortana and deactivate her dome ship thing. The ship loses power and in a really cool cutscene falls to the surface and is destroyed. They make their way to the wreckage and then we have to fight the chief and blue team!
> You basically have to get their shields down, get close to them, and when you melee them it goes into a special assassination like move where we place the armor lock on them.

…Because maybe Cortana hasn’t figured out how to deactivate a Monitor? Anyway, that’s not important right now.
Why, exactly, are we fighting Blue Team? I thought Cortana took them prisoner, not put them under mind control. …Or are we still following the “Blue Team went AWOL” plotline from H5?

> We do this one by one until it’s just the chief left. Jerome’s helmet falls off during the fight, revealing his face. Once the chief is down we get a similar cutscene like we got in the trailers “Hunt The truth” with a short monologue from Jerome. He tells the chief about his friend who died because he resurrected the didact. He points his pistol at the chief, Isabel tells him not to shoot.Buck sides with her and tells him killing the chief won’t bring back his friend. He starts to lower his gun when Cortana arrives on the scene screaming “Nooo!” (Thinking he’s about to shoot the chief) she fires a blue laser from her hand that goes through Jerome’s chest. With blood in his mouth he falls to the ground and gasps for air. The chief rushes over to him.

This feels… very cliche. Also feels like an odd rehash of Johnson’s death in Halo 3. Quite frankly, if I were to have continued with the “Hunt the Truth” route, I’d prefer that they have stuck with Locke, simply because his back story makes more sense for it.

…Actually, come to think of it, how would Cortana be able to fire a laser from her hand? Pretty sure she isn’t physical… and I’m pretty sure that holograms can’t fire lasers either…

> Buck and the purple monitor fire at cortana but she simply teleports away. The chief holds Jerome in his arms and tells him he’s sorry he got his friend killed. Jerome nods, unable to speak, he closes his eyes. As his hand falls he hands the chief Isabel (inside a chip). Buck frees the rest of blue team and asks them if they’re done playing deserters. They nod. Together they head to a teleporter that takes them back to the elite homeworld. Once their the chief hands Isabel over to Buck and tells him he’ll never have another AI again. Buck says he understands. Everyone is then reunited with Halsey and The Arbiter. They all head back to Earth. Blue Team is told they will await trial aboard the Infinity. Isabel is relocated to the Ark for her mission. Buck is given some time off.
>
> Then all of a sudden Cortana commences her attack on Earth and everywhere else in the galaxy.
>
> Roll Credits.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> I think this would have had a much better emotionally impact than what we got. It would have introduced Isabel before Halo Wars 2 and really made us care for all the characters involved.

…Quite frankly, this didn’t really feel much better to me than what we actually got. The connections to Hunt the Truth felt weak or nonexistent. Characters just don’t feel compelling. What about the whole “man or machine” thing from Halo 4? I know this is more or less just a rough draft of your idea, but I just don’t feel like it does much. What character development is there? “Jerome” goes from “I h8 mastur ch33f” to “dead and not as angry”. Blue Team, Buck, the Warden, Cortana, and pretty much everyone else are just… there.

I dunno. Maybe it’s just me that almost prefers what we got to this. I just can’t help but feel that this is less an improvement and more just trading flaws of the original for different flaws.

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> 2535437652903765;9:
> > 2533274818651339;1:
> > How to Fix Halo 5’s campaign
> > 1. New Characters.
> > Instead of Spartan Locke (which is a dumb name) give us a Spartan we can relate to. Look at his name, ‘Locke’ is a last name, all the other Spartans we’ve met we know by their first name. It feels more personal. 343 wanted Locke to come off as a tough character who is basically the “master chief” of the spartan 4’s. But did it ever feel like that? No. It felt like he was tough but nowhere near the chief’s level. To get around this:
> >
> > A. Drop Osaris squad (more on this later)
> > B. Add a new AI character (more on this later)
> > C. Give us the ‘hunt the truth’ campaign that was advertised.
>
> Um… you do know that Spartans are generally identified by their last name in the Spartan-IV program, right? The only reason that -IIs and -IIIs tended to go by their first names was because they had no real last name… and, even then, IDing them by number is something that people do.
>
>
> > 2533274818651339;1:
> > 2. Drop Osaris squad. I’m not sure why 343 went the squad route anyways. There isn’t split screen for Halo 5 so whywas the squad such a priority? I know we all like Buck so here’s my solution. Add a new main character, instead of trying to get you to imagine a totally brand new character imagine the character was Spartan Jerome. I know thats not possible but just imagine a character like Spartan Jerome. He’s tough, relatable, and has some badass moments. Let’s say this hypothetical character use to specialize in assassination missions. He use to work in a 2 man cell but his partner was killed by promethians when Chief resurrected the Didact. In fact, this could be the first mission of Halo 5. You and your partner are sent to assassinate the leader of the rebel elites. You fight through covenant and promethians (Much like in Halo 5). The mission ends with a boss battle (Not some cutscene where the elite leader dies so easily.) After the boss battle, in a cutscene, your partner is killed by a promethian sniper! This would give him a sort of personal grudge against The chief and drive the story. Let’s also say that the Master Chief is still with Blue Team on the same mission he was at the start of Halo 5 when he gets a message from Cortana. The message tells him to come alone somewhere in the galaxy. But he doesnt listen and still takes his team. This would make the missions feel different between ‘Jerome’ and Chief. Whereas Chief has his squad, and ‘Jerome’ has a two man cell. Which brings me to ‘Jerome’s’ new teammate, Buck. Buck is witty and has that kind of comic relief that would contrast well with our new Jerome character. Jerome is more on the serious side and wants revenge for his friend he lost.
>
> …Can’t help but feel that this character isn’t much better than Osiris. Come on. Revenge as a motive? It just feels rather cliche. And then pairing him with Buck to create a serious-and-comedic duo? Personally, I gotta say no thanks.
>
>
> >
>
> …Considering that Isabel wasn’t created until 2556, wasn’t out of training until 2558, and was pretty much immediately sent to Installation 00 for her assignment at the Henry Lamb Research Outpost… I’m gonna go with… no. I also highly doubt that the UNSC would assign a smart AI to a two-man team. Hell, the only reason that 117 and Cortana ended up as a team was because of emergency circumstances. Otherwise… yeah, it typically doesn’t happen.
>
>
> >
>
> Alright, first things first- “warden” doesn’t necessarily refer to a prison warden. Basically, it’s just another word for overseer, supervisor, and so on.
>
> So… how and why does this hypothetical ‘Jerome’-Buck-Isabel team find Blue Team?
> And where does this frigate come from?
> Why doesn’t the rest of Blue escape?
> Why is Isabel shooting stuff randomly?
>
>
> >
>
> Why would there only be aerial surveillance?
> Why wouldn’t 117 try to contact any other UNSC forces?
> What good would hiding under a poncho be if he just runs into Prometheans anyway?

  1. Then why do all of the spartan’s in Halo Wars go by their first name? Alice, Douglas, Etc. Blue team also goes by first name aka spartan Kelly; and we all know the chief’s name is John. So I don’t see your point.

  2. What is Locke’s motive? “Soldier’s do what they’re told” kind of motive? That’s pretty cliche. I wasn’t saying this character specifically wants revenge anyways, he’s kind of on the fence; he knows part of himself blames the chief for getting his friend killed but he knows chief is the hero who saved humanity. You gotta understand that it’s hard to go into every little detail in a single post, give me some room.

  3. Obviously Isabel’s character backstory wouldn’t be the same if this was canon. Come on bro, that’s pretty obvious… As to your other points, Chief is the hero of humanity. It’s not crazy to think the UNSC would send two spartan with an AI and a ship to get him.

  4. Like I said in my post, I’m not gonna get into every little detail. Osiris found Blue Team by tracking their ship, Isabel could do the same. As for your Warden comments I find them laughable. Everyone associates a Warden with running a prison nowadays; this isn’t Game of Thrones. As for Blue Team, I said in my post The Warden took them. As for where the frigate came from, us some imagination; I"m not gonna explain every little detail. Obviously the frigate was sent to pick them up or it could have already been in orbit above the human colony; why does it really matter? Lol

Isabel shoots down the chief because she’s hooked up to the ship. Once the chief is flying away the captain, Buck, and “Jerome” could be fighting about what to do. Jerome could be arguing that they shoot the ship down; Buck and the captain could be arguing against it. In the heat of the moment (Similar to Cortana’s outburts in Halo 4) Isabel could shoot it down.

  1. The Chief has just been shot down by the UNSC. Those are the last people he wants to see right now Lol

I appreciate your feedback I really do; but your discrepancies are nitpicky for a post like this.

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Nice thoughts

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Very well thought out and interesting post to read. I agree a lot of work needs to be done in the Halo campaigns. 343 has yet to deliver a campaign that is anywhere close to what Bungie pulled off back in the day.

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> > 2533274830166194;10:
> > > 2535405116054664;7:
> > > I’ve got to be the only one here who actually liked the story and what it set up. No offense, but I’d take what we got over something else most of the time, unless said thing really blows me away, which not a lot of things have. Your idea is good, OP, I just prefer what we got better.
> >
> > Why do you prefer what we got? It was so jumbled up and ridiculous imo
>
> Tell you the truth, I have no idea. I just liked it. I was actually caught off guard by Cortana becoming the bad guy, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does and how the galaxy responds. Also, and granted it might be influenced a bit by what we got, but I have a hard time following potential “what should’ve happened” stories because more often than not, I fail to see them actually happening given the events of Halo 4, which is what counted. I can piece together Halo 4 and 5’s stories just fine, but that’s only me. I get why other people don’t like it, and that’s fine. I just do.

How can you piece together what happened to the didact? Or Halsey suddenly being on our side again,unless you read escalation or played spartan ops

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> > 2535437652903765;9:
> > > 2533274818651339;1:
> > >
>
> 1. Then why do all of the spartan’s in Halo Wars go by their first name? Alice, Douglas, Etc. Blue team also goes by first name aka spartan Kelly; and we all know the chief’s name is John. So I don’t see your point.

Because they’re Spartan-IIs. Their first name is their only name. Spartan-IVs don’t have this problem, hence the use of surnames. You don’t hear people saying “Spartan Edward”, “Spartan Gabriel”, or “Spartan Jameson”, do you? No. You get Spartan Buck, Spartan Thorne, and Spartan Locke, respectively.

> 2. What is Locke’s motive? “Soldier’s do what they’re told” kind of motive? That’s pretty cliche. I wasn’t saying this character specifically wants revenge anyways, he’s kind of on the fence; he knows part of himself blames the chief for getting his friend killed but he knows chief is the hero who saved humanity. You gotta understand that it’s hard to go into every little detail in a single post, give me some room.

I understand that this is meant to be a basic overview. However, I struggle to see how this character is much better than Locke. Revenge always feels rather silly to me when it comes to Spartans. They’re professionals. The best the UNSC has to offer. And they let petty little things such as grudges impede their judgement? Locke’s primary driver is boring and pretty cliche, but, as far as I can tell, it’s not something he wants to do.

> 3. Obviously Isabel’s character backstory wouldn’t be the same if this was canon. Come on bro, that’s pretty obvious… As to your other points, Chief is the hero of humanity. It’s not crazy to think the UNSC would send two spartan with an AI and a ship to get him.

Yeah, I know, I was being a little nitpicky about that. But. Chief is the hero of humanity, yes. But there has never been any precedent of the UNSC assigning a smart AI to a team of two Spartans. Sure, sending a fireteam of Spartans plus a ship, yeah. But two Spartans, a smart AI, and a ship? The UNSC is really underestimating Blue Team, if that’s the case.

> 4. Like I said in my post, I’m not gonna get into every little detail. Osiris found Blue Team by tracking their ship, Isabel could do the same. As for your Warden comments I find them laughable. Everyone associates a Warden with running a prison nowadays; this isn’t Game of Thrones. As for Blue Team, I said in my post The Warden took them. As for where the frigate came from, us some imagination; I"m not gonna explain every little detail. Obviously the frigate was sent to pick them up or it could have already been in orbit above the human colony; why does it really matter? Lol

Okay, I will concede that this smart AI could track a ship. My comments regarding the Warden’s name were merely to state that warden =/= prison. Yes, it’s commonly associated with prisons. But it does not exclusively refer to a prison guard.
Reread your original post. Frigate makes more sense now. Moving on.

> Isabel shoots down the chief because she’s hooked up to the ship. Once the chief is flying away the captain, Buck, and “Jerome” could be fighting about what to do. Jerome could be arguing that they shoot the ship down; Buck and the captain could be arguing against it. In the heat of the moment (Similar to Cortana’s outburts in Halo 4) Isabel could shoot it down.

…That doesn’t make sense. Isabel isn’t irrational. Inexperienced, yes. But irrational? That’s only a thing that happens because rampancy. A smart AI is not going to shoot down a ship because “idk someone help why is everyone angry and screaming”.

> I appreciate your feedback I really do; but your discrepancies are nitpicky for a post like this.

I’m being nitpicky because lots of it just feels out of place or just doesn’t make sense to me.

And I see you haven’t even touched on the other half of my issues with this…

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Names are the least of its problems. If you are having Spartan 4s then using their last name makes the most sense. The Spartan IIs no longer have their family so they no longer by their family names. The name “Locke” isn’t dumb in my opinion and famous people have gone by that name.

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> > > >
> >
> > 1. Then why do all of the spartan’s in Halo Wars go by their first name? Alice, Douglas, Etc. Blue team also goes by first name aka spartan Kelly; and we all know the chief’s name is John. So I don’t see your point.
>
> Because they’re Spartan-IIs. Their first name is their only name. Spartan-IVs don’t have this problem, hence the use of surnames. You don’t hear people saying “Spartan Edward”, “Spartan Gabriel”, or “Spartan Jameson”, do you? No. You get Spartan Buck, Spartan Thorne, and Spartan Locke, respectively.
>
>
> > 2. What is Locke’s motive? “Soldier’s do what they’re told” kind of motive? That’s pretty cliche. I wasn’t saying this character specifically wants revenge anyways, he’s kind of on the fence; he knows part of himself blames the chief for getting his friend killed but he knows chief is the hero who saved humanity. You gotta understand that it’s hard to go into every little detail in a single post, give me some room.
>
> I understand that this is meant to be a basic overview. However, I struggle to see how this character is much better than Locke. Revenge always feels rather silly to me when it comes to Spartans. They’re professionals. The best the UNSC has to offer. And they let petty little things such as grudges impede their judgement? Locke’s primary driver is boring and pretty cliche, but, as far as I can tell, it’s not something he wants to do.
>
>
> > 3. Obviously Isabel’s character backstory wouldn’t be the same if this was canon. Come on bro, that’s pretty obvious… As to your other points, Chief is the hero of humanity. It’s not crazy to think the UNSC would send two spartan with an AI and a ship to get him.
>
> Yeah, I know, I was being a little nitpicky about that. But. Chief is the hero of humanity, yes. But there has never been any precedent of the UNSC assigning a smart AI to a team of two Spartans. Sure, sending a fireteam of Spartans plus a ship, yeah. But two Spartans, a smart AI, and a ship? The UNSC is really underestimating Blue Team, if that’s the case.
>
>
> > 4. Like I said in my post, I’m not gonna get into every little detail. Osiris found Blue Team by tracking their ship, Isabel could do the same. As for your Warden comments I find them laughable. Everyone associates a Warden with running a prison nowadays; this isn’t Game of Thrones. As for Blue Team, I said in my post The Warden took them. As for where the frigate came from, us some imagination; I"m not gonna explain every little detail. Obviously the frigate was sent to pick them up or it could have already been in orbit above the human colony; why does it really matter? Lol
>
> Okay, I will concede that this smart AI could track a ship. My comments regarding the Warden’s name were merely to state that warden =/= prison. Yes, it’s commonly associated with prisons. But it does not exclusively refer to a prison guard.
> Reread your original post. Frigate makes more sense now. Moving on.
>
>
> > Isabel shoots down the chief because she’s hooked up to the ship. Once the chief is flying away the captain, Buck, and “Jerome” could be fighting about what to do. Jerome could be arguing that they shoot the ship down; Buck and the captain could be arguing against it. In the heat of the moment (Similar to Cortana’s outburts in Halo 4) Isabel could shoot it down.
>
> …That doesn’t make sense. Isabel isn’t irrational. Inexperienced, yes. But irrational? That’s only a thing that happens because rampancy. A smart AI is not going to shoot down a ship because “idk someone help why is everyone angry and screaming”.
>
>
> > I appreciate your feedback I really do; but your discrepancies are nitpicky for a post like this.
>
> I’m being nitpicky because lots of it just feels out of place or just doesn’t make sense to me.
>
> And I see you haven’t even touched on the other half of my issues with this…

  1. I understand that Spartan 4’s go by their last name, personally I just don’t like it. Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
  2. As I said, revenge is not his primary motivation; and as I said his conflictions would be a plot point of the story. On one hand his friend is dead because of the chief, on the other all f humanity is alive. Also are the spartan 4’s genetically augmented? I always thought they were just well trained soldiers in super suits. Like Buck. Plus they weren’t put into the program as children right? So that would mean Spartan 4’s are “more human” than spartan 2’s. They probably still have a -Yoink!- drive and other emotional drives aka feelings of revenge for a dead friend.
  3. What’s the point here? Just because something hasn’t happened before it should never happen? There’s never a precedent for Spartan 2’s going AWOL.
  4. I agree that Warden doesn’t specifically mean a prison Warden; but that it is a widely used notion. Because of this, I recommend making the warden a kind of prison warden character. I think it would be cool if he had a huge forerunner prison where he keeps prisoners from all over the galaxy.
  5. You’re right Isabel is inexperienced. I only equated it to Cortana’s outbursts to kind of set the scene in your mind. We could always say that Isabel was given strict orders and protocol to obey “Jerome”. She could be conflicted because she doesn’t want to shoot down the chief but Jerome argues that they should. Perhaps they use an EMP round or something, doesn’t have to be an archer missile (Although that seems more intense.)

Yes I hadn’t gotten to your other post because it was 2 AM when I responded to your first and I wanted to go to bed.

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> > > > I’ve got to be the only one here who actually liked the story and what it set up. No offense, but I’d take what we got over something else most of the time, unless said thing really blows me away, which not a lot of things have. Your idea is good, OP, I just prefer what we got better.
> > >
> > > Why do you prefer what we got? It was so jumbled up and ridiculous imo
> >
> > Tell you the truth, I have no idea. I just liked it. I was actually caught off guard by Cortana becoming the bad guy, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does and how the galaxy responds. Also, and granted it might be influenced a bit by what we got, but I have a hard time following potential “what should’ve happened” stories because more often than not, I fail to see them actually happening given the events of Halo 4, which is what counted. I can piece together Halo 4 and 5’s stories just fine, but that’s only me. I get why other people don’t like it, and that’s fine. I just do.
>
> How can you piece together what happened to the didact? Or Halsey suddenly being on our side again,unless you read escalation or played spartan ops

As a matter of fact, I did read Escalation and played Spartan ops, so that part was a bit easy. Even if I didn’t, those two things I could chalk up to assumptions I would’ve made while playing. In the Didact’s case, I probably might’ve assumed he actually died at the end of Halo 4. With Halsey, I would assume it’s one of those “bigger threat/common enemy” scenarios, so that would make enough sense for me to suddenly be cooperative again. Besides, in the game itself, Halsey states that she contacted the Infinity telling them to come pick her up and that something big was happening, hence why Osiris was there in the first place.