One of my complaints about the Halo 5 Guardians campaign is that the story did not dive into the motivations and back story about Warden Eternal. From the limited time we spent with him it turns out that he is a very interesting character, just not one we got to know everything we wanted to about. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the campaign and the direction they are taking the story, we are left with this void about a character whose motivations could have really opened our eyes. The point of this forum thread is to present my speculations about the Warden Eternals motivations in Halo 5 and what might be explored about his character going forward. One of the most exciting things about Halo 5 is the various directions that the series can go in, all of the discussion and speculations about the motivations about not only Cortana but also the Warden Eternal. There are various lines that were said in the game that have clued us in to some of the character motivations. First when the Warden calls Cortana “My Reclaimer”, it is common knowledge that the a large sect of the Forerunners intended to pass the Mantle of Responsibility to humanity and they left their ancillas behind in order to assist humanity. It is possible that Warden after the countless centuries begun to grow bitter and enter rampancy, believing that the caretakers of the Forerunner legacy should be the ones to uphold the Mantle. With the introduction of Cortana into the Domain he saw his chance to begin the Reclamation, using Cortana to dismantle humanity thus allowing for the AI to take their place in the galaxy. The only thing he wasn’t able to account for is the emotional connection Cortana has for John. He tried his hardest to keep John and Cortana separate, but in the end after John and Cortana turned their backs on each other Warden’s Reclamation began.
Another theory I have about Warden involves my mention of Forerunner sects. In the Forerunner Trilogy it is learned that humanity was destined to assume the Mantle of Responsibility from the Precursors. The Forerunners seized the Mantle by force and destroyed the Precursors and the rest is history. Knowing that, it becomes very difficult to believe that after the firing of the Halo Array that the Forerunners would willingly pass on the foundation of the believe system to their enemies, humanity. It is possible that Warden is part of a sect of Forerunners that intended to keep the Mantle away from humanity, however this was thwarted by the Librarian and the Builders. The Builders constructed the Halo’s as well as various other pieces of Forerunner tech that were encountered by Humanity and the Librarian developed the Genesong in Humanity to operate the Forerunner tech. When Fireteam Osiris encounters 031 Exuberant Witness she tells Warden that his actions are “Not Protocol” and that she “Was designed by the builders”, what if Warden is doing exactly was he was designed to do by another sect of Forerunners, thwarting humanities claims to the Mantle. Using Cortana to both strike against humanity and operate the Forerunner tech, seeing as she is made from the mind of a human, would be the best way to carry out his mission.
Unfortunately this is all speculation, hopefully we will discover the motivations of not only Cortana but also Warden in Halo 6 as I believe the revelation of the motivation behind what is happening with these two characters will open our eyes to the events of Halo 5.
His motivation is to get out of the friendzone, obviously.
The end of mission 13, when Osiris defeats Two warden and Exuberant says “Warden isn’t a robot”. I was curious to see if more information is revealed, unfortunately not. I suspecting as you already mentioned that he is somewhat of advanced AI.
Your speculations are quite interesting. It makes me wonder if the Warden will return in next installment of main line Halo. I am curious to see more and what role he really played on Cortana.
It is disappointing that 343 didn’t focus on telling focused character-driven storytelling style, It felt like more polished version of Spartan Ops.
He’s a poor villain, there is no reason to understand or hate him. He’s just there…just…there. And to make it worse he shows up again and again and you even have to fight 3 of him. Even the Didact was a better villain…and he literally came out of nowhere in Halo 4.
The one thing that bothers me is one thing he tells John-117 in the campaign that really clashes with the canon. He tells Chief that Cortana is the Reclaimer, but in the first Halo when Chief met 343 Guilty Spark he called Chief the Reclaimer. The thing you have to remember is that Cortana was not with Chief when he met Guilty Spark so he wasn’t calling Cortana the Reclaimer. And even in later games he stills refers to Chief as the Reclaimer even with Cortana around. I know that 343 has to make their own story since the original writer left with Bungie to make Destiny (Funny where that got him), but I really hope that was just the Warden being corrupt or something similar because I would hate to see them start breaking the canon in the Halo universe. As if Bungie didn’t do enough damage with Halo Reach canon wise…
He might appear in the comic series of escalation.
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> The one thing that bothers me is one thing he tells John-117 in the campaign that really clashes with the canon. He tells Chief that Cortana is the Reclaimer, but in the first Halo when Chief met 343 Guilty Spark he called Chief the Reclaimer. The thing you have to remember is that Cortana was not with Chief when he met Guilty Spark so he wasn’t calling Cortana the Reclaimer. And even in later games he stills refers to Chief as the Reclaimer even with Cortana around. I know that 343 has to make their own story since the original writer left with Bungie to make Destiny (Funny where that got him), but I really hope that was just the Warden being corrupt or something similar because I would hate to see them start breaking the canon in the Halo universe. As if Bungie didn’t do enough damage with Halo Reach canon wise…
I felt the same way when I first heard Warden say that, those words would break the last 10 years of canon and there was nothing preceding it that would make it this big revelation. After taking a second to analyze not only those words but some of the previous words spoken by Warden it becomes clear that telling John, who was previously identified as the Reclaimer, would be designed to reduce him. When John first meets Warden, Warden looks and speaks upon them with contempt. Telling them that when Cortana called they came scampering, it is clear by the way Warden addresses humanity that he shares similar feelings to that of the Didact. Which lead me to one of my original theories that Warden was programed to subvert humanities claim to the Mantle, but then again Exuberant Witness was very fast to correct Locke by saying Warden is not a robot. By that could she mean that he is not an ancilla or he is not bound to any programming? I believe the “Reclaimer” status of Cortana will be elaborated on if not in Halo 6 then in other subsequent stories. But with Warden telling Blue Team that the Librarian intended for Human Created AI’s to adopt the Mantle it sounded as if this was the way he interpreted it. I believe that Warden has intentions that are deeper then what we have seen in just this one game and any revelations that follow regarding his character will answer almost all of our questions about the game because when you think about it, everything that happens in the game rest on the word of Warden. Even towards the end the actions of Cortana cannot be trusted on face value, it is as if she was acting as a puppet for the puppet master. She begins quoting the Didact from Halo 4 and sounds very cold in the process and the words “The Mantle of Responsibility shelters all but only the Created are its masters” are said by a stone eyed Cortana that looks as if she is simply stating what is in her programming. Also, I agree with you about the canon set by Halo: Reach, especially since I consider Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nyland to be canon since I read it first.
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> He’s a poor villain, there is no reason to understand or hate him. He’s just there…just…there. And to make it worse he shows up again and again and you even have to fight 3 of him. Even the Didact was a better villain…and he literally came out of nowhere in Halo 4.
The halo 3 terminals mentioned the Didact a lot.
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> The one thing that bothers me is one thing he tells John-117 in the campaign that really clashes with the canon. He tells Chief that Cortana is the Reclaimer, but in the first Halo when Chief met 343 Guilty Spark he called Chief the Reclaimer. The thing you have to remember is that Cortana was not with Chief when he met Guilty Spark so he wasn’t calling Cortana the Reclaimer. And even in later games he stills refers to Chief as the Reclaimer even with Cortana around. I know that 343 has to make their own story since the original writer left with Bungie to make Destiny (Funny where that got him), but I really hope that was just the Warden being corrupt or something similar because I would hate to see them start breaking the canon in the Halo universe. As if Bungie didn’t do enough damage with Halo Reach canon wise…
It seems like the term “Reclaimer” in Halo 1 was just referring to the poor sap who “reclaims” the index and activates Halo. I think they changed its meaning as they went.