Inconsistencies Within the Halo Series

Community Halo Universe
1

Hey fellow Waypointians, this is pretty much a rant about the worst of the Inconsistencies of forerunner architecture, armour and other things related to the Ecumene.

First off, I want to point out the most recent slap in the face to Greg Bear’s Trilogy, the Master Chief stabbing the Didact in the eye. Judging by a user from Spacebattles known as ‘Rama’, the metal used by the micro dyson sphere Requiem is around ten THOUSAND times the strength of structural steel; Though Chief was capable of stabbing the Didact (who survived a pulse grenade that vaporizes Spartans completely) in his eyepiece.

How could he even possibly manage to break such material that is hardly considered a weak spot with Forerunner Combat Skins, and how did he even sneak up on him? Forerunners have INSANELY sensitive motion trackers and reaction times FAR quicker than any Spartan.

"Soon, I was jittering and plunging my way through a great space battle, events moving far to quickly for me to make much sense of it. I had no idea when or where this was - I could not correlate these events with any historical record. Complicating the recovery was many hundreds of points of view, threading through and around the central events - chopping and intercutting - and a remarkably perception of objective reality. As a promethean, the Didact simply saw things differently.
Clearly, a thousand years ago, when entering battle, the Didact had plugged into the full sensory experience of thousands of his warriors… Something I could barely imagine and certainly not control.

The second Inconsistency that always bothered me was how Miranda Keyes in Halo 3 tore the around foot thick forerunner metal frame with a far weaker titanium pelican. I can understand this though, because this was made probably before any stats for Forerunner armour was around, or if not, was simply overlooked. Sorry, but I’m like ToaFreak with these things, I just can’t stand them.

Hopefully 343 notices these Inconsistencies and eludes them as much as possible in the future.

2

Who says Didact’s eye lenses are made of Forerunner metal?

Spartan/ODST visor isn’t made of titanium or steel either.

3

What? I never said that Spartan visors are titanium, and what I mean by the Didact’s eyepieces not being a weak spot, is that they are obviously far stronger than any UNSC materials if their metal is ten thousand times the strength of our steel. If it were I who wrote the comic, I would’ve made the Didact have is mask off like in the ending of Halo 4, so it covers the fact that he doesn’t have his super-sensitive motion tracker to notice him, and that the Chief could actually puncture his eye.

EDIT: IIRC, the Didact’s ‘lenses’ are made of hard-light, so there goes the idea of being a weak spot if that is so.

4

I have to say that it’s pretty illogical for the eyes to be a weak spot in the armor considering that translucent metal is thing when it come to Forerunners.

The eyes should be every bit as dense as the rest of the armor.

The only possible explanation I could think of on the fly is that the knife Chief used is something he picked up from ONI’s labs while packing his bags on the Longsword. But that’s some nano bot level contrived story telling so let’s put that in a box and throw it off a cliff.

5

> I have to say that it’s pretty illogical for the eyes to be a weak spot in the armor considering that translucent metal is thing when it come to Forerunners.
>
> The eyes should be every bit as dense as the rest of the armor.
>
> The only possible explanation I could think of on the fly is that the knife Chief used is something he picked up from ONI’s labs while packing his bags on the Longsword. But that’s some nano bot level contrived story telling so let’s put that in a box and throw it off a cliff.

Or maybe it’s just bad writing.

Sorry to break it to everyone, but it probably is just sloppy, inconsistent writing.

6

> > I have to say that it’s pretty illogical for the eyes to be a weak spot in the armor considering that translucent metal is thing when it come to Forerunners.
> >
> > The eyes should be every bit as dense as the rest of the armor.
> >
> > The only possible explanation I could think of on the fly is that the knife Chief used is something he picked up from ONI’s labs while packing his bags on the Longsword. But that’s some nano bot level contrived story telling so let’s put that in a box and throw it off a cliff.
>
> Or maybe it’s just bad writing.
>
> Sorry to break it to you, but it probably is just sloppy, inconsistent writing.

It’d be bad writing either way.

7

True…

8

> What? I never said that Spartan visors are titanium, and what I mean by the Didact’s eyepieces not being a weak spot, is that they are obviously far stronger than any UNSC materials if their metal is ten thousand times the strength of our steel. If it were I who wrote the comic, I would’ve made the Didact have is mask off like in the ending of Halo 4, so it covers the fact that he doesn’t have his super-sensitive motion tracker to notice him, and that the Chief could actually puncture his eye.
>
> EDIT: IIRC, the Didact’s ‘lenses’ are made of hard-light, so there goes the idea of being a weak spot if that is so.

Poor wording on my part about the Spartan visor. My point about that one is just that visor material=/=standard metal. It just served as an example.

9

> > What? I never said that Spartan visors are titanium, and what I mean by the Didact’s eyepieces not being a weak spot, is that they are obviously far stronger than any UNSC materials if their metal is ten thousand times the strength of our steel. If it were I who wrote the comic, I would’ve made the Didact have is mask off like in the ending of Halo 4, so it covers the fact that he doesn’t have his super-sensitive motion tracker to notice him, and that the Chief could actually puncture his eye.
> >
> > EDIT: IIRC, the Didact’s ‘lenses’ are made of hard-light, so there goes the idea of being a weak spot if that is so.
>
> Poor wording on my part about the Spartan visor. My point about that one is just that visor material=/=standard metal. It just served as an example.

Why would the Forerunners be restricted to using actual visors? The UNSC, which is eons behind the Forerunners in tech, has helmets with metal faceplates that rely on cameras and interior screens (See: GUNGNIR and a lot of the helmets in H4). So it would stand to reason that the Didact’s eye thingies are a strictly decorative thing and by no means the suit’s only sensory gear.

10

Another inconsistency is Chief’s knife going through the lich’s hull. Covenant battleship armour has always been said to be all but impervious to anything but a giant missile or a MAC.

11

In the Halo Universe, there aren’t a whole lot of stuff a knife CAN stab through. But you know, knives are cool, so that’s why you keep seeing knives go through the titanium body of the MJOLNIR and what not.

12

The Flood also breaks through forerunner metal all the time in halo 1. Hell, infection forms break doors specifically meant to contain them.

Also, how’d the guy on space battles determine the metal’s strength? There could be any number of fields or gravitational hijinks helping hold requiem together.

13

> the Didact (who survived two binary rifle shots that vaporizes Spartans with only his bodysuit on)

While it does appear to be a Binary Rifle in the Terminals, those are from the Domain, and as a result, aren’t entirely accurate.

Silentium, the completely factual source, states the Librarian uses an unknown stun weapon.

> How could he even possibly manage to break such material that is hardly considered a weak spot with Forerunner Combat Skins,

It honestly could be some kind of energy field/barrier. Forerunner energy shields only activate when it detects a fast moving projectile/energy, so they wouldn’t activate for a knife.

> and how did he even sneak up on him? Forerunners have INSANELY sensitive motion trackers and reaction times FAR quicker than any Spartan.
>
> "Soon, I was jittering and plunging my way through a great space battle, events moving far to quickly for me to make much sense of it. I had no idea when or where this was - I could not correlate these events with any historical record. Complicating the recovery was many hundreds of points of view, threading through and around the central events - chopping and intercutting - and a remarkably perception of objective reality. As a promethean, the Didact simply saw things differently.
> Clearly, a thousand years ago, when entering battle, the Didact had plugged into the full sensory experience of thousands of his warriors… Something I could barely imagine and certainly not control.

The quote listed is taken entirely out of context. He’s able to have that out of body multi-view experience of reality because he’s connected with all of his warrior’s minds. It’s like an insect forming a full image out of hundreds of different eyes.

Because he’s the only Forerunner active in the Milky Way, he doesn’t have that luxury.

Also, this point applies to everything, but don’t forget he took a point blank detonation of a Pulse Grenade. It’s entirely possible certain systems in his armor aren’t fully operational anymore.

> The second Inconsistency that always bothered me was how Miranda Keyes in Halo 3 tore the around foot thick forerunner metal frame with a far weaker titanium pelican. I can understand this though, because this was made probably before any stats for Forerunner armour was around, or if not, was simply overlooked. Sorry, but I’m like ToaFreak with these things, I just can’t stand them.

For that, I think it’s similar to how a fusion reactor detonation ripped apart a 10,000km construct of mass destruction.

Not just that, but the Citadel, if I’m not mistaken, does try and convey Forerunner beauty in it. Due to the fact there’s normally a giant barrier around the Foundry, I doubt the Forerunners thought it necessary to militarize every aspect of the Ark, after all, it is chiefly a life preserve and foundry, not a military base/installation like the Didact’s Shield Worlds.

14

They could have given Chief a knife made out of Forerunner alloys (lol.)

I just really wish that they never gave those stats, they clearly don’t fit consistently with the fiction. Explosives destroy Forerunner stuff… like all the time. I get that some of them are big, but others aren’t so huge and still manage to destroy Forerunner stuff. You can see that in Glasslands, the games, and there’s probably a bunch of that in the comics I haven’t read.

FWIW, the Didact doesn’t have the advantage of the sensory input of thousands of Promethean Warriors now, and is also quite mad and narrowly focused. If his eyepiece is weaker than the rest, then it makes sense that he could have gotten caught off guard, but keep in mind that he’s pretty obviously not even hurt and I guess his armor will just heal his eye up no problem.

15

Also, why aren’t sentinel enforcers and sentinels built out of this stuff.

Seriously, why are we argueing about a number derived by a guy on Space Battles? Depictions of it in everything show its not that strong.

16

> What? I never said that Spartan visors are titanium, and what I mean by the Didact’s eyepieces not being a weak spot, <mark>is that they are obviously far stronger than any UNSC materials if their metal</mark> is ten thousand times the strength of our steel. If it were I who wrote the comic, I would’ve made the Didact have is mask off like in the ending of Halo 4, so it covers the fact that he doesn’t have his super-sensitive motion tracker to notice him, and that the Chief could actually puncture his eye.
>
> EDIT: IIRC, the Didact’s ‘lenses’ are made of hard-light, so there goes the idea of being a weak spot if that is so.

Right. Their metal. The metal they use to build super-structures like the Ark and Halo Rings. No one said anything about their eye lenses. Chief stabbed handle deep into Covenant warship plate with the same knife, piercing the eye lens of combat armor, any combat armor, isn’t that big of a deal. It wouldn’t have worked anywhere else, but eye lenses aren’t metal.

> Also, why aren’t sentinel enforcers and sentinels built out of this stuff.
>
> Seriously, why are we argueing about a number derived by a guy on Space Battles? Depictions of it in everything show its not that strong.

The building material they use for space-based assets such as Ships and Halos are consistently that tough, however OP is applying these materials to infantry-scale objects.

Consider, OP, that Halo 4 would be impossible if all Forerunner materials were that tough as any fight with Prometheans would see you lose hard.

17

Can I just wonder aloud for a moment about why John-117 even went for the eye? Of all things? The Didact’s combat skin, in all honesty, looks like an “undersuit” at best, in my opinion. His arms and legs are pretty well-protected, but his neck, shoulders, and “ribs” are all exposed, and most of his stomach is exposed. I can’t figure out why the Master Chief didn’t go for an actual unarmored spot. It’s cooler to stab the eye in a fit of drama, but it’s more in-line with John’s character (and Spartans in general) to quickly identify and exploit weaknesses.

I am, of course, assuming that the Didact’s armor isn’t simply so fancy that it looks organic. I’m assuming that this is actually the Didact’s skin showing. And, of course, I’m basing this judgment on the awesome, amazing McFarlane Halo 4 Deluxe Didact toy that I’ve got sitting on my desk. Pick one up. They’re amazing. In general about the Didact: I’ve actually always thought that his armor looks more like an ornamented skin suit than a solid piece of gear. From those first glimpses at him in Halo 4, I thought that he wasn’t as protected as he could be.

18

> Can I just wonder aloud for a moment about why John-117 even went for the eye? Of all things? The Didact’s combat skin, in all honesty, looks like an “undersuit” at best, in my opinion. His arms and legs are pretty well-protected, but his neck, shoulders, and “ribs” are all exposed, and most of his stomach is exposed. I can’t figure out why the Master Chief didn’t go for an actual unarmored spot. It’s cooler to stab the eye in a fit of drama, but it’s more in-line with John’s character (and Spartans in general) to quickly identify and exploit weaknesses.
>
> I am, of course, assuming that the Didact’s armor isn’t simply so fancy that it looks organic. I’m assuming that this is actually the Didact’s skin showing. And, of course, I’m basing this judgment on the awesome, amazing McFarlane Halo 4 Deluxe Didact toy that I’ve got sitting on my desk. Pick one up. They’re amazing. In general about the Didact: I’ve actually always thought that his armor looks more like an ornamented skin suit than a solid piece of gear. From those first glimpses at him in Halo 4, I thought that he wasn’t as protected as he could be.

It is not the Didact’s skin, it is his armored undersuit. A Spartan’s undersuit is Titanium nanocomposite, pretty tough material in its own right, but a Forerunner’s would naturally be even tougher. There was no guarantee it’d work, so Chief did the only thing he knew might: stab the eye, typically the most vulnerable spot on the body and the most debilitating.

Of course Didact fought through it like it was nothing, but Chief did the best he could.

19

> > Can I just wonder aloud for a moment about why John-117 even went for the eye? Of all things? The Didact’s combat skin, in all honesty, looks like an “undersuit” at best, in my opinion. His arms and legs are pretty well-protected, but his neck, shoulders, and “ribs” are all exposed, and most of his stomach is exposed. I can’t figure out why the Master Chief didn’t go for an actual unarmored spot. It’s cooler to stab the eye in a fit of drama, but it’s more in-line with John’s character (and Spartans in general) to quickly identify and exploit weaknesses.
> >
> > I am, of course, assuming that the Didact’s armor isn’t simply so fancy that it looks organic. I’m assuming that this is actually the Didact’s skin showing. And, of course, I’m basing this judgment on the awesome, amazing McFarlane Halo 4 Deluxe Didact toy that I’ve got sitting on my desk. Pick one up. They’re amazing. In general about the Didact: I’ve actually always thought that his armor looks more like an ornamented skin suit than a solid piece of gear. From those first glimpses at him in Halo 4, I thought that he wasn’t as protected as he could be.
>
> It is not the Didact’s skin, it is his armored undersuit. A Spartan’s undersuit is Titanium nanocomposite, pretty tough material in its own right, but a Forerunner’s would naturally be even tougher. There was no guarantee it’d work, so Chief did the only thing he knew might: stab the eye, typically the most vulnerable spot on the body and the most debilitating.
>
> Of course Didact fought through it like it was nothing, but Chief did the best he could.

You are right. This image actually made things a lot more clear for me. You can see the seam between armor and skin more clearly. Most pictures of the Didact make that undersuit look a lot like skin. On most of the Forerunners we’ve seen so far, their armor is a lot more armor-looking, with undersuits that are not unlike the Spartans, where you can clearly tell it’s an undersuit. Even Ur-Didact’s previous armor was more clear. For some reason, his current armor just looks incredibly organic, more so than most Forerunner architecture or armor we’ve seen so far.

20

I’m sorry OP but in most science fiction stories consistency if often overlooked for story. Especially small ones. That’s where suspension of disbelief comes in.

Not saying you shouldn’t care, just stating a fact. Besides we were never given concrete stats on Forerunner alloys. I haven’t read the comic so I can’t judge how fast Chief hot onto the Didact.