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> > Yeah, the jump between Guardians and 4 was a little much–especially for anyone who isn’t familiar with the expanded universe.
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> > I’d wager that the team is more than aware of the poor reception over the story being too indulgent in its transmedia works. I expect them to be preparing a narrative that works for those who’ve been following along the whole time as well as those who are new or are returning players who haven’t been paying as close attention to all the revelations of the entire expanded fiction.
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> > When you consider the momentum behind MCC right now as well, I’d even expect that they’re going to make a stronger narrative connection to 4 than they will to 5–perhaps even bring the Didact back as the main villain or at least structure the conflict as closer to what was laid out there. With MCC being fresh in the limelight and ending on 4 (with no word or mention on the future of 5 coming to PC–though it will likely be available via the streaming option coming to Game Pass in the fall), it would be a little risky to write a story that doesn’t take into context that a lot of people may play through the collection to get ready for Infinite–and not being a numbered game (even though it’s technically 6), it can exist without any sense of a missing installment if it literally does take more of its cues from everything in Reach through 4.
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> > If I were them, I’d write out the Created as much as possible–leave it as some anomaly that takes a super distant backseat to whatever conflict arises over the Banished and Atriox. Halo has always been a series that’s borrowed from many other science fiction traditions, but what happened in Guardians was wayyyyyyy to reminiscent of stuff like Terminator or even The Matrix. Write it out some way like they wrote out the Didact. Have it be that since the end of Halo 5, Cortana and her created seemed to go underground and with a rising new threat from the Banished, the Created just aren’t as much of a concern anymore; this way we can continue with the sense of silence and loss that Chief has at the end of *4–*something I really think was soured not just by bringing Cortana back, but by literally bringing her back in the very next game. I’d be happy to see these rebellious AIs be the antagonists or subjects of peripheral books and comics that can exist independently of the game.
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> Banished weren’t too impressive in Halo War 2, while the Forerunner Prometheans as well as the created were quite imposing and seeing that guardian arrive to Earth at the end of Halo 5 sent chills down my spine. I would imagine the Banished under Atriox on the Ark are the primary force and they’re stuck there so I’m not sure how secondary forces can be a rising threat in the Orion arm of the galaxy. The Guardians by the way already came from underground, can’t see them just going back to sleep lol.
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> Theres also the legendary endings for Halo 5 and Halo Wars 2 showing a Guardian and the same Halo ring. That’s something that cannot be dropped like it didn’t happen, not to mention the vehicles and weapons and enemies from the Builder and Warrior servant classes from a gameplay perspective.
Halo Wars 2, in general, has a somewhat muted, though perfectly serviceable plot, including the role of the Banished. So I hear you on that–but I see that lack of impressiveness more as a blank state for them to be built into an antagonist that has greater parity with Halo’s traditional conflicts.
There could be a handful of ways the Banished might represent a significant threat even if they’re just on one ring–and perhaps the easiest has to do with the Flood, similar to the first conflict in Combat Evolved where the Covenant being on the ring and fighting with humanity led to the release of the parasite.
Given that it’s a fictional universe, anything’s possible in terms of what may or may not get written out. The Didact went from being a pretty intensely framed antagonist in Halo 4 to becoming virtually nonexistent in 5 after being written off in a comic series–yes, Cortana’s speech in 5 does reference lines from the Didact, but he’s barely even a shadow in the plot of *Guardians.*For whatever the reason may be, those who are in charge of directing Halo’s overall story across the games, books, and comics, decided to spin the Didact out of view–they can easily do the same with the Guardians and the Created, and honestly, I think it would make for a better story if they did–or, at least, writing them out would allow for more interesting and more dynamic stories that are otherwise more consistent with what Halo is typically known for. Halo 4 definitely deviated (only in some ways, I’d argue) from what traditional conflict structure of Halo, and had it stuck to it in future installments, perhaps something interesting may have come out of it, but it was decided to wind that conflict down for the sake of telling a different story in Halo 5. I see no reason they couldn’t do the same for Infinite.