Just a fair warning: There WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS TOPIC.
So, my roommates and I recently completed the Halo 4 campaign, and I have to say, I am a bit confused about a couple of things. My friends usually look to m for answers on everything also, and I’m stumped on some of the recent questions they ask me. I’ve done research, I haven’t read all the books, and even MORE questions arise. So anyway, hopefully you folks out there who are experts on Halo lore can help me out. Here’s what I would like to know:
Why is Captain Del Rio so hostile toward Master Chief, especially after everything the SPartan has done for humanity? I realize that there are those who are/were highly opposed to the Spartan-II Program… was he one of those people? A proper explanation was never given, but maybe I am just missing something…
So, the Promethean Knights that you fight throughout the campaign are actually ancient humans that were digitized by the Didact when he tested the Composer against them? If so, does that mean that all humans besides Master Chief who were aboard Ivanoff Station are now Promethean Knights?
A bit more focus on the Didact: Was the Didact sealed within the planet Requiem because he used the Composer without it being sanctioned by the Ecumene Council? Did he put himself there or was he exiled there?
If the Didact was so opposed to the Halo Array, why did he end up activating them? How did he escape this activation without getting killed by them?
Why did the Ecumene Council oppose the use of Shield Worlds as the Didact proposed? It seems to me like Shield Worlds make much more sense than mass suicide by the Halo Array. And why did Forerunners not preserve themselves as they did with every other species to ensure that they could survive and repopulate the galaxy?
6)If the Librarian could give Master Chief some sort of Medical Treatment or unlock something within his genome to protect him fro the effects of the composer, why could she not do the same with the rest of the human population? Also, how can she even do it in the first place, seeing as how in Halo 4 you only come into contact with an imprint of the Librarian’s personality and memories rather than her herself.
How in the HELL does Master Chief survive that nuke in the end? The bomb went off point blank, and somehow, Cortana saved him. How could she have possibly saved him?
Many people seem to believe that the Didact is still alive (as do I), but how would you explain his survival? How could he have possibly survived?
That’s it… for now. Answer to the best of your ability, I really appreciate it! These have been on my mind forever!
I hate being confused about Halo, so thanks in advance!
Del Rio is simply… Rio. You may actually be onto something there, that he isn’t a fan of the Spartan II Program. Maybe he’s just pissed off at having the Infinity crash while chasing the Master Chief.
2)I do believe it takes time for the Didact to create actual Knights from the harvested. Perhaps they became Knights, perhaps the Didact didn’t have the time. Those harvested on Earth, were probably destroyed with the Composer.
3 & 4)The Didact was sealed away by the Liberian, when he actively began to hinder her plans.
Do not forget there are two Didacts. The Ur-Didact (the old one who waged war on ancient Humanity), and the Bornstellar Didact.
The one we faced in Halo 4 was most likely the Ur-Didact, seeing how the Silentium description states Born was accompanying the Liberian as she indexed species. It was probably Born who activated the Halo Array, while the Ur-Didact was sealed inside his Cryptim.
Shield Worlds has possibilities to fail, as if one infected got inside, the whole Shield World would possibly fall. Plus, as we’ve seen, the Flood would simply hibernate and siege the Shield Worlds as they conquered the rest of the galaxy.
The Halos didn’t just guarantee cleansing every Flood, a victory, it also guaranteed that the Mantle could be passed onto Humanity, with all the corruption of the Forerunner Empire washed away.
Remember the Liberian is at least an intelligent planner. One human immune to the Composer? All was needed at the time.
As the Terminals show however, the Liberian isn’t above trying to wipe out the Humans herself. Immunizing all of Humanity would make back tracking on her plans later on extremely difficult, it the situation required that.
Most likely an emergency relocation teleport, just like the Promethean Knights themselves. Dropping into a Slip Space dimension for a second, just long enough to avoid the nuke, then dropping out again.
The Didact is immune to the Composer, and of course, highly advanced Forerunner armor is immune to really big falls.
He most likely teleported away before the Master Chief could crawl over to the nuke.
We have no idea really. Some of the higher-ups were against the SPARTAN-II project (Which 'Chief is a part of), labeling them “Wind-up toy soldiers”, “Freaks”, and the like. But I suppose the argument can be made that Del Rio has been “desensitized” a bit from Spartans due to him having a several dozen of Spartan-IV’s aboard the Infinity at all times. My take was that Del Rio is basically just a jerk for the sake of it.
Assuming the actual data had a mechanical body to inhabit already, it’s entirely possible that that is indeed the case.
3)He was exiled there due to his intentions to use the Composer on every remaining human on Earth, not just a few. Also for interfering with the Librarians plans.
4)Lack of options I suppose, Forerunners lost the war with the Flood, exhausting every option available to them besides the Halo arrays. Reqeuim(spelling?) was probably shielded from the effects of the Halo arrays, or at the very least the Didacts cryptum was (glowing spherical thing)
5)Can’t fully answer myself, haven’t read the Forerunner trilogy, I think they ran out of time.
6)'Chief was the only person there at the time, but it’s entirely possible that she could have done it to everyone given the equipment and time. Not sure exactly how she altered him, but Forerunner tech has always been beyond stupidly advanced, even more-so than most theoretical science at this point.
7)Cortana teleports the chief away from the blast and encompasses him in a cube of hard-light, basically an energy shield on steroids. It might seem a bit “out there”, but Cortana can make millions/billions/trillions of calculations in a second, so it’s not completely farfetched based on previous events in the universe and Cortanas capabilities. Rampant or not.
From a story standpoint, it’s rather stupid to kill off the Didact this early, he’s most likely the main villain of the entire trilogy. Also, 'Chief used a Pulse Grenade, which are weak as ^&*( compared to other grenades, and the Didacts combat armor is many times more advanced than the MJOLNIR armor that Spartans wear. It’s not even remotely farfetched to think that he can’t survive a slipspace transition or find some way of transportation back to Reqium or another Forerunner installation.
In answer to your Del Rio question, it is hinted at in The Thursday War that he is basically a -Yoink- and nobody on the Infinity really respects him as Captain.
That is also hinted at when John finds Lasky, and in the cut scene before the Reclaimer mission.
Thanks for the answers guys! If anyone has anything else to input, it’d be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I’m curious about something else…
How did the Ur-Didact transfer his memories and consciousness to Bornstellar if he was sealed away by the Librarian? And if Bornstellar Didact had the memories and concsciousness of Ur-Didact, why did Bornstellar not oppose humanity as harshly as Ur did?
The timeline for the whole Didact swap around thing goes like this:
1st Event: Ur-Didact sent into exile on Earth after his defeat, hidden by the Liberian.
2nd: Bornstellar arrives on Earth, and with his companions, who Geas has them awaken the Ur-Didact from his sleep.
3rd: Ur-Didact and Bornstellar travel the galaxy. Just before his capture and assumed execution by the Master Builder; Fabar, the Ur-Didact gives Bornstellar his memories.
4th: The Master Builder states that he executed the Didact to Bornstellar. Eventually, the Didact’s memories arise in Bornstellar, and he becomes the Didact.
5th: The Ur-Didact actually returns, having been abandoned to be consumed by Flood, rather that actually killed.
6th: Currently only theories, though the smart guess is on the events depicted in Halo 4’s Terminals occurring. The Ur-Didact retakes command, and is eventually sealed back in the Cryptim on Requiem by the Liberian.
7th: Bornstellar continues as the Didact, and activates the Halo Array.
1)Del Rio is pretty much just a “Filler” Captain. If you read the Thursday War, it explains how Del Rio is really just a stand in placed in charge by Admiral Hood. Admiral Parangosky and Hood has to agree on some one, and Hood nominated him… Lasky is Parangosky’s choice and is placed second in command, knowing that eventually she would replace Rio with him. They thought of Rio as an ok captain, but NOT the captain for the Infinity. After leaving the MC Im sure Parangosky put the screws to Hood to releave him of duty. Del Rio, as it is described in Thursday Wars, is NOT a respected Captain when it comes to his crew and commanders, and he knows this. I think this is why he has a stick up his -Yoink-, he wants and needs the control, and isn’t getting it.
Not entireley. They dont explain if that space riff (the big red swirling vortex the Didact falls into) led to anywhere where the information could be formed into knights. Unless this is the case, I doubt it, they just didnt have enough time to create the physical beaings from the data.
3)He was placed there after commiting the atrocity of using the Composer against the Humans, and using it on himself. They, and the Librarian, saw it as being out of control and against the Mantle. This shouldnt be confused with the first time he was pllaced in a Cryptum, and put on Earth. That was a different time and situation BEFORE him using the Composer.
Thsi is the focus of interest for those of us who read the Forerunner books. Silentium will explain this, but there are 2 Didacts. The Ur-Didact, and the Bornstellar Didact. The Ur-Didact was opposed to firing the Halo array, but the feelings of Bornstellar Didact are not known to us as of yet. He is said to be with the Librarian collecting her catalogs. If this is the case, he may believe that the Halos are the way to stop the flood. The Cryptum, Shield Worlds, and Arks protect those within from the effects of the array.
Pretty much it was a power struggle between the Master Builder and the Didact. the Master Builder believed that the Shield worlds wouldnt work because they could get infected as well. You have to remember that the Didact is NOT the majority of thought within the Forerunner society. It seems that the librarian is more close to the thought of the majority, and felt that eventually the Forerunners would pass the responsibility of the Mantle onto another species, mainly humanity.
6)She accelerates his geas, and genome within her facility. She can only do so for him because the technology needed is there. She is not god and cant be everywhere. There was no possible way to do this to all of humanity at the same time. However, this is something that IS placed into ALL of humanity, we have just not reached the point of evolution yet where those traits would come to fruition. When she re-seeded Humanity she placed within us the ability to become our former selves (Ancient Humans) Basically she unlocked what the Didact had suppressed. With that she also included an ability to resist the Composer so that the Didact could never again enslave Humanity.
I think a lot of people are confused about this… Its called REMOTE DETONATION. Honestly, the device he MC held I think was the detonator, not the full nuclear device itself. He pulls it from the front of the entire bomb, and leaves the bomb with the Longsword. He hits the detonator and BOOM. Im fairly certain since she was in the hardlight system and was able to manipulate it, she surrounded the MC with a hardlight “box” to protect him from the blast. He WAS standing on the hard light bridge when the Nuke went off.
A grenade is HARDLY enough to kill the Didact, maybe stun him, but the grenade was placed ON his combat skin… not in it. He Fell. 2. Im thinking that the swirling vortex below him was a form of slip space that he was using to transport data from those he composed. It seemed more like a “two way” communication type device rather than just a laser that blew stuff up.
HI, good questions you obviously seem to be really interested in the cannon so I would really recommend the books they really enhance the gameplay and your involvement in the story.
Most of your questions don’t have known answers so I can give you my best guess answers based on all of the books/vids and games that I can remember.
Del Rio is appointed to the ship as Captain by Lord Hood (From Halo 3) who is Commander in Charge of the Fleet (All mainstream Navy) The infinity itself is half owned by Fleet and half owned by ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence). ONI were responsible for the Spartan program. It’s not vitally important but it’s known that Del Rio is not respected by the ONI Commander Margaret Parangosky, and that she thinks he is not the type of guy who can earn a crews respect. It may be that he is overly aggressive for this reason, demanding resect through fear rather then through strong leadership. (Lansky is under ONI’s wing and well respected by Parangosky).
Another reason he could be such a -Yoink- bag towards the chief is due to the way he was trained. After Halo 3 in the books we are told that the history and truth behind the Spartan is going to be released, and if it hasn’t by Halo 4 it’s not beyond belief that Del Rio being such a high priority captain would know the history of how the Spartans came to be. (Abducted at 6, replaced with clones, which would die destroying families, and not to beat the covenant but to stop a civil war. Quite extreme). So it’s possible that Del Rio is just disgusted by the whole thing the way the chief has been turned into a killing machine. I personally think this reason fits in better with the whole universe and sub plots that are portrayed in the book. This is mirrored by the interview with Dr Halsey at the beginning of the game, where she is being interviewed about her part in the Spartan 2 program even though ONI know absolutely everything as they have her Journal which she left on Reach.
Some Knights were humans some were Forerunners, Promethean’s are forerunner warriors not necessarily cyborg’s like in the game but Promethean Knights are. However we’re lead to believe that the Promethean Knights we fight are actually from human intelligence. So without being pedantic the answer to this question really is yes. Not all humans were turned into Knights. 343 Guilty Spark (The Monitor from the Halo games 1-3 is actually a human that has been composed and was a friend of the Diadact/Borne Stellar. Read the forerunner books by Greg Bear if you want to understand this connection more. So the essences may return as any robotic manifestation really. However as the composer was destroyed they may have been as well, we just don’t know for sure but 343 could use it however they wanted. Theoretically the essences could have been put into the DOMAIN, (Forerunners world wide web) and therefore downloaded and used at a later date. (This is me guessing from my understanding of the Halo universe).
So the Diadact was put into a Cryptum (A never ending sleep like being in cryo sleep but still semi conscious) by the Forerunner council after the Human war because he opposed the Halo rings so much. In the first Forerunner book he is released by a young forerunner called Bourne Stellar, the process is quite slow and needs the DNA of a forerunner to activate it. From this I imagine that the Jail/stasis we find him locked in during halo 4 isn’t a Cryptum but something else. We don’t know why he gets put into the Requiem world yet hopefully this will be explained in the final forerunner book which is still to be released. However the Librarian was the master mind behind his release from the Cruptum but then she puts him in the Requiem prison so I fairly sure this wasn’t voluntarily conducted but he did agree to the original exile to the cryptum before the forerunner books begin.
The Diadact didn’t activate the Halo’s as far as we know, he was in Requiem before they were fired. There are other Shield worlds like Onyx/Trevelyan where forerunners were supposed to escape to but this didn’t happen. It’s possible that a rouge AI that was corrupted by a flood Grave Mind fired the Halo’s prematurely catching the Forerunners off guard. Again this is detailed more in the Forerunner trilogy but also is mentioned in the Terminals from Halo 3.
We don’t know for sure. However without the halos I think the flood would evolve to the point where they understood Slipspace (here the shield worlds were kept) and eventually just come and get the hidden forerunners. I think we may also find there are More forerunners and possibly even a precursor or two (The creators of all life apparently, even more ancient then forerunners).
6.I think she could have but not every human was in touch with her residual memory like the chief was and I think she had planned for Humans to evolve to where she put the chief more naturally. This is just how I justify it however.
Yeah slip space bubble, so putting the chief in a different dimension for a few seconds they do that a lot in the Karen Travis novels and I imagine Nuclear explosions are quite a primitive weapon to forerunners. Imagine how amazed a 9th Century archer would be Kevlar.
8.I think he’s still alive he has three books and a game devoted to him quite a big character to kill off so quickly.
Again I’d read the books if you can Hope this helps
As I understand it, yes, that’s what the knights are. Not sure what became of the humans on the station.
Cryptums are for self-imposed exile. I think it was something related to his aggression towards humanity.
Not sure
Not sure
It’s probably too hard to do it to everyone at once. And she wants to let humanity evolve naturally. Remember when she asked Chief for permission to do it.
Cortana made a hardlight shield, I think.
We don’t know exactly what he fell into, I heard someone suggest a slipspace portal. Whatever it was (or his armor) may have protected him from the nuke.
