MAJOR SPOILERS ALERT!! THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO TURN BACK!!
The ending of Infinite’s campaign and it’s legendary ending has many fans speculating what’ll happen. After defeating the Harbinger, she sends a message to the Endless, apologizing it took her so long. The Weapon says that the signal being used is really old. In the legendary ending, Despondent Pyre says “Time is not a construct we can control.” to which Grand Edict responds, “And we cannot allow it to be theirs.”
Many fans are wondering what’s going on here, what this could mean. Some are theorizing that possibly the Endless have some mastery of time, to some degree able to time travel. What’d you think this means? Granted we just got introduced to the Endless and have almost nothing on them, but it’s fun to speculate.
I think the big reveal of the legendary cutscene is Offensive Bias entering the stage. I mean, pairing Atriox with an AI would be pretty neat. Contender class AI none sense.
They could be borrowing an idea from 40k. In that there is a species called the Hrud who have this bizzare trait where they exist in all times. So if you stand next to a Hrud you can age thousands of years because you’re drawn into their zone. It’s weird and I’d have to look up a better description.
I am not sure they’re precursors anymore. It comes across like they found the Endless after the War rather than being aware they are precursors.
Time travel could break the setting. Why wouldn’t the Chief go back and save Cortana?
My thoughts are that they have something to do with the precusors. We don’t have a lot of info on them. Maybe they could manipulate time. The only precursor we know of is the primordial. That’s why offensive bias was created, because the primordial took over mendicant bias. So the mention of offensive bias made sirens in my head go off about the precursors. I know a lot of them turned into the flood, but if the primordial survived for a time, maybe others did too and the forerunners kept it a secret. The precursors were the only ones who could stop the forerunners from what we know. And they’re the ones who originally gave the humans the mantle of responsibility. So that’d be even more of a reason for the forerunners to keep that info hidden.
I don’t think they are Precursors, but something new, like the Skimmers. But that’s not really saying much as we know so little about the Precursors and about the Endless. The only thing we really do know about the Endless is that they weren’t affected when the Halo rings fired.
I do not like, or see any logic in the theories regarding time travel.
The audio takes place prior to the imprisonment of the Endless, whereas Atriox finds their prison, and the date is only given when the audio plays.
As for time, one theory I saw was it was simply figurative. That, in having survived the Halo firing, whilst all other species are re-seeded, and will need to develop again, the Endless would have all the time they need to develop, and progress, in essence having time on their side.
I don’t know. They talk about it a lot. Slipspace jumps skipping days. Talking about mastery over time. Why would they put the time stamp there if it was just the date of the audio? We could infer that the audio is Forerunners. The only reason to say that is if Atriox really was shot back in time.
The time stamp isn’t there, without the audio.
The audio is pre-containment
Atriox is most certainly discovering this containment.
This mean, he is not in the past.
Audio gives exposition as to what he’s finding.
If he releases them in the past, all of Halo’s lore would change. 20 years worth. Unlikely.
Why not put the date with just the clip of Atriox? Because it doesn’t apply, as can be inferred from the content of what they’re discussing, and what we’re most likely seeing through Atriox.
It all seems like time travel is going to be a prevalent factor in the future of Halo Infinite. I had wondered this prior just based off the name. It seems to me that 343 might have gotten some inspiration from Bioshock Infinite. And the key story element of Bioshock infinite is time travel/different realities. They even did the audio log thing all Bioshock games have done.
IMO this might even be how they continue Cortona’s story. If Chief finds out that traveling back in time is possible, saving Cortana from rampancy would be the first thing he’d try to do.
It would be something even Aatriox would probably help him do, because it would mean his people would be saved.
Why are you not so keen on the time travel idea? I mean Halo is no stranger to time travel with it happening in several instances in the lore, as well as the idea of fast forwarding time in a select area, which is how the Forerunners killed the Primordial.
I mean I initially thought of the time travel theory you’ve likely heard by now when I first saw the cutscene, but now I’m torn and we’ll just have to see what happens next
If they do time travelling, I’d really like it to be CONTAINED to the Ring. That would make more sense than Chief going back in time to save Cortana and all these other shenanigans as that would change the course drastically from what we know. Hell, Chief may not even figure out how to time travel, it could be Atriox who was taught by the Harbinger, with whom she was possibly communicating too before she died
Maybe I’m reading between the lines too much, but I get the feeling when they refer to ‘time’, their talking about it in the same way as someone doing life in prison.
For someone serving a life sentence, you often hear the phrase ‘all they have is time’.
It doesn’t mean that the prisoner physically possesses time, or the ability to control it.
Also, we know the Forerunners like to talk in in odd ways (I forget the exact term), and we have a prime example from the Didact in Halo 4.
“Time was your ally, human. And now it has abandoned you.”
Time isn’t a being that can choose sides, nor able to abandon them.
So I wouldn’t put too much stock in the Endless being able to control time in the literal sense.
It’s not that I’m not keen on it, I’d be perfectly fine if something like this happened. I wasn’t satisfied at all with how Cortana’s story (seemingly) ended in Infinite. I’m actually hoping something like this happens.
I mean, they do put emphasis on Atriox getting to Cortana before Chief. If he got to her, cured her of rampancy with the Weapon and then she used a Guardian he could save the Infinity even in the four minutes Esharum gave him.
It’s a weird one. Time travel has to be dealt with carefully in any story. Marvel barely, I mean barely, got away with it and that’s really more multiverse than true time travel.
One thing I would add is that, I did raise my eyebrow at the Slipspace fractures armour. Is there a Halo Multiverse here?
I just don’t see how things wouldn’t go off the rails very quickly. Like in Destiny whenever they talk about the Vex my mind just melts.
I think atritox trying to restore his home world was partly the motivation to seek out the endless. It makes sense, however what also makes sense is the harbinger having no intention of doing that. I think if they go through with releasing them it would be like releasing the flood or Prometheans. it is a third party with their own goals and intentions.
It does seem like they’re planning to bring an element of time travel into it. There’s the fact that Chief and weapon were gone for three days at the end with no explanation why, how harbinger was contacting a really old signal, and the time stamp on the legendary ending saying 97,368 BC.
My personal theory is that the reason everyone, including the banished, think Atriox is dead is because he was transported back in time.
I’m really skeptical about it because time travel can get so messy but willing to see how it pans out.
The thing about the time stamp, is that it only appears in the legendary ending, which is when we get the voiceover conversation.
All other difficulties just have Atriox approaching the Cylexes silently, and the time stamp is missing.
Through deductive logic, it heavily suggests that its only the conversation that takes place in the past, and not Atriox’s discovery.
I agree though, introducing the ability travel back in time could muddy the waters a little too much for my taste.
Thing is though, the other times it’s been done in the lore have either been changed or dubious. The other instances being in First Strike and I Love Bees. The instance in First Strike has officially gone from time travel to time dilation, as clarified in Mythos. The other instance, I Love Bees, is dubious, as the canon status of the ARG is very unclear, and dubious at best.