Unresolved Story Arcs (Spoilers)

Community Halo Universe
1

I suppose I’ll start by saying that I actually enjoyed the campaign, and although I would’ve preferred it if Cortana had stayed dead, I can see the potential in the story, even if it is just another AI Rebellion…

After playing Halo 5 it feels as though 343i have been building up all of these story arcs and plot points just to say: “Ehhh… We don’t wanna do those anymore.”
I know they’re planning on having Halo around for another 10 years or so but some of these stories have to be tied up at some point soon, right? I was really hoping that at least some of these would be touched upon during Halo 5’s campaign but we still haven’t seen anything from them.

Here’s everything that’s unresolved so far:

-The Librarian’s ‘gift’ to John through his geas.

-The Ur-didact
(What happened to him being John’s nemesis? Or was that supposed to be resolved in Escalation after it was decided that Cortana better fit the bill?)

-The Librarians Plan
(Was talked about in Halo 5, briefly)

-Chakas (343 Guilty Spark) hijacking the UNSC Rubicon, going in search of the Librarian

-The impending return of the Flood

-The surviving Forerunners and their possible final destination after their self-imposed exile.

-The sudden departure of the Brutes and Drones from the games.

-The Brutes war against… well… everybody.

-The UNSC’s fight for the Janus Key
(If this has been resolved, I’m unaware of it. However it was never brought up in Halo 5.)

-Grey Team

If there’s anything else I’m missing, I’ll happily add it to the list.

2

I couldn’t agree more ! I was hopping to have all of these questions answered ! Maybe we will know more in the next games (or books, or series) …

3

I agree, there are so many unanswered questions and different plot lines that they could have went with. It almost seems as if the story changed mid way through development which is not uncommon but I really would like to hear from 343i on why they went with the Cortana route. Obviously they have and know the bigger plan in mind so we could just be getting ahead of ourselves.
Overall I enjoyed the story of Halo 5, but definitely thrown off by where they went with it.

4

I’d guess the Brutes can’t maintain any ships. Only the Covenant saved them from infighting.

5

There are lots of unsolved storylines that could be important going forward.

6

> 2533274908138382;1:
> I suppose I’ll start by saying that I actually enjoyed the campaign, and although I would’ve preferred it if Cortana had sayer dead, I can see the potential in the story, even if it is just another AI Rebellion…
>
> After playing Halo 5 it feels as though 343i have been building up all of these story arcs and just said: “Ehhh… We don’t wanna do those anymore.”
> I know they’re planning on having Halo around for another 10 years or so but some of these stories have to be tied up at some point soon, right? I was really hoping that at least some of these would be touched upon during Halo 5’s campaign but we still haven’t seen anything from them.
>
> Here’s everything that’s unresolved so far:
>
> -The Librarian’s ‘gift’ to John through his geas.
> This story is still progressing
> -The Ur-didact
> (What happened to him being John’s nemesis? Or was that supposed to be resolved in Escalation after it was decided that Cortana better fit the bill?)
> The Didact was composed before Halo 5, so that is resolved.
> -The Librarians Plan
> (Was talked about in Halo 5, briefly)
> Still ongoing
> -Chakas (343 Guilty Spark) hijacking the UNSC Rubicon, going in search of the Librarian
> Still ongoing
> -The impending return of the Flood
> Not confirmed, so it isn’t a story arc.
> -The sudden departure of the Brutes and Drones from the games.
> Isnt a story arc
> -The UNSC’s fight for the Janus Key
> (If this has been resolved, I’m unaware of it. However it was never brought up in Halo 5.)
> Ongoing in Escalations
> -Grey Team
> Resolved
> If there’s anything else I’m missing, I’ll happily add it to the list.

Clearly you have not been paying attention.

7

Escalation addresses that the Brutes have turned in on themselves and their society has been collapsing into tribal wars for resources. The Drones are also very rarely present in combat roles.

8

> 2533274829152751;6:
> > 2533274908138382;1:
> > -Grey Team
> > Resolved
>
>
> Clearly you have not been paying attention.

Grey Team has been resolved? Really? Because I doubt I would’ve missed that.

9

Gray Team wasn’t resolved. They were last scene entering a Covenant facility on an old human world. We have no idea what happened after that.

Query Answer: Human naval and [frumentarii] records list [exploratores] Jai-006, Adriana-111, and Mike-120 as [inaccessible] since [2551]. Mission records infer travel to [Covenant] facility within interdicted [old] Human sphere. Navigational update information not available at this time.

10

> 2533274908138382;8:
> > 2533274829152751;6:
> > > 2533274908138382;1:
> > > -Grey Team
> > > Resolved
> >
> >
> > Clearly you have not been paying attention.
>
>
> Grey Team has been resolved? Really? Because I doubt I would’ve missed that.

Grey Team has been an established Black ops team, even by Spartan-II standards so that they are unlikely to be seen in the games, very unlikely, considering how we know they are in a mission and out of contact (which is what they do for years) their storylines have been resolved (for now).

11

The Spirit of Fire is still unresolved, but maybe that doesn’t count because a sequel is coming.

12

This might be the completely wrong place to ask these questions but they do relate to the story arcs.

In the forerunner series, Precursor structures were quite prominent and found on most worlds within the Milky Way. Yet have not been encountered in the recent sequence of events?

The Domain… Wasn’t that destroyed in the firing of the Halos leading to the reason for the Didact’s hatred of humans (The cryptum being designed to allow meditation and to contact the domain but the domain being destroy, the Didact spent a millennia by himself.) If it was, how has Cortana accessed it? If not, then how was it reactivated after it was shut off for everyone, including forerunners?

Where is the Poncho Chief?

13

> 2533274935864672;12:
> This might be the completely wrong place to ask these questions but they do relate to the story arcs.
>
> In the forerunner series, Precursor structures were quite prominent and found on most worlds within the Milky Way. Yet have not been encountered in the recent sequence of events?
>
> The Domain… Wasn’t that destroyed in the firing of the Halos leading to the reason for the Didact’s hatred of humans (The cryptum being designed to allow meditation and to contact the domain but the domain being destroy, the Didact spent a millennia by himself.) If it was, how has Cortana accessed it? If not, then how was it reactivated after it was shut off for everyone, including forerunners?
>
> Where is the Poncho Chief?

The structures were destroyed by the Halos when they were fired.

Dunno about how the Domain is back and where the hell is Master Poncho…

14

> 2533274829152751;6:
> > 2533274908138382;1:
> > I suppose I’ll start by saying that I actually enjoyed the campaign, and although I would’ve preferred it if Cortana had sayer dead, I can see the potential in the story, even if it is just another AI Rebellion…
> >
> > After playing Halo 5 it feels as though 343i have been building up all of these story arcs and just said: “Ehhh… We don’t wanna do those anymore.”
> > I know they’re planning on having Halo around for another 10 years or so but some of these stories have to be tied up at some point soon, right? I was really hoping that at least some of these would be touched upon during Halo 5’s campaign but we still haven’t seen anything from them.
> >
> > Here’s everything that’s unresolved so far:
> >
> > -The Librarian’s ‘gift’ to John through his geas.
> > This story is still progressing
> > -The Ur-didact
> > (What happened to him being John’s nemesis? Or was that supposed to be resolved in Escalation after it was decided that Cortana better fit the bill?)
> > The Didact was composed before Halo 5, so that is resolved.
> > -The Librarians Plan
> > (Was talked about in Halo 5, briefly)
> > Still ongoing
> > -Chakas (343 Guilty Spark) hijacking the UNSC Rubicon, going in search of the Librarian
> > Still ongoing
> > -The impending return of the Flood
> > Not confirmed, so it isn’t a story arc.
> > -The sudden departure of the Brutes and Drones from the games.
> > Isnt a story arc
> > -The UNSC’s fight for the Janus Key
> > (If this has been resolved, I’m unaware of it. However it was never brought up in Halo 5.)
> > Ongoing in Escalations
> > -Grey Team
> > Resolved
> > If there’s anything else I’m missing, I’ll happily add it to the list.
>
>
> Clearly you have not been paying attention.

If you have the answers to these questions I invite you to grace us with them. Please. I really want to know.

I, too, want to know what happened to Poncho Chief.
Also ‘Guardians’ weren’t War Sphinxes right?

15

Precursor architecture was created through manipulation of Neural Physics. Something even the Forerunners never figured out how to do. As such, their creations were alive enough for the Halo rings to destroy them. The Domain is also partially a Precursor entity to some extend and it was damaged or destroyed by the firing of the Halos. The Gravemind tells Librarian that it will be destroyed, but the Forerunners were losing access to the Domain during the Forerunner-Flood War, so it’s possible that the Domain simply decided that it didn’t want anything to do with the Forerunners.

With the Ur-Didact being composed, he’s a digital essence, which is bad news. He could have just as easily assumed control of Cortana’s broken mental state following her collapse into Rampancy during Halo 4. Remember that she was fragmented in his ship’s systems and in his armor. So she could exist in several places. It’s not inconceivable that the fragment of her in his armor was mixed with his essence when he was composed.

The Librarian’s plan went to hell as soon as the Ur-Didact was cut off from the Domain. Even with him being mostly out of the picture, there’s no chance of mankind assuming the Mantle of Responsibility given that “Cortana” and her fellow AI are in control of basically everthing the Forerunners ever built. Especially given that they’ve got access to the Domain.

Cortana’s certainly been compromised by the logic plague. The Domain is a Precursor consciousness, and she spent time inside the Gravemind. Nowhere near as much time as Mendicant Bias, but enough to accelerate her decay into Rampancy. Especially given that human AI are nowhere near as advanced as Contender class Ancillae were.

I’d love to see the Flood come back, but I really doubt they’ll make an appearance. Odds are that the references to the Flood coming back in the Forerunner books are about the original Halo trilogy. Of course I could be wrong.

As for the Brutes and Drones? Without a unifying element like the Covenant, the Brutes mostly fell to infighting after their war with the Elites went south. Not too sure about the Drones though. Originally they were going to be in Halo 4, but were scrapped for different enemies. Story-wise my guess is that because they viewed the Prophets as queens, without Prophets leading the Covenant they’ve got no reason to back it. Odds are they’re just doing their own thing.

There’s also the Iso-Didact and the other Forerunners that survived the firing of the Halo rings. There’s a chance they could get pulled into the story. All we know is that they left on a great journey in search of redemption. They’ve got inter-galactic capabilities so we don’t know what happened to them or where they are. For all we know, they could respond to the activation of the Guardians and return. Until more of the fiction is published, we won’t know anything. Frankie O’Connor said he loves Guilty Spark so there’s a chance he’ll pop up sooner or later.

16

> 2533274815294005;15:
> With the Ur-Didact being composed, he’s a digital essence, which is bad news. He could have just as easily assumed control of Cortana’s broken mental state following her collapse into Rampancy during Halo 4. Remember that she was fragmented in his ship’s systems and in his armor. So she could exist in several places. It’s not inconceivable that the fragment of her in his armor was mixed with his essence when he was composed.

Given how she repeat his lines in Halo 5, it could be true.

“Our strength is a luminous sun towards which all intelligence blossoms. And the impervious shelter beneath which it has prospered.”

  • Ur-Didact. Halo 4 Epilogue

“Our strength is a luminous sun towards which all intelligence blossoms. And the impervious shelter beneath which it has prospered.”

  • Cortana. Halo 5: Guardians - Guardians

“The reclamation… has already begun.”

  • Ur-Didact. Halo 4 - Epilogue

“John… the reclamation is about to begin”

  • Cortana. Halo 5: Guardians - Blue Team

> 2533274815294005;15:
> The Librarian’s plan went to hell as soon as the Ur-Didact was cut off from the Domain. Even with him being mostly out of the picture, there’s no chance of mankind assuming the Mantle of Responsibility given that “Cortana” and her fellow AI are in control of basically everthing the Forerunners ever built. Especially given that they’ve got access to the Domain.

Dr. Halsey still has access to the Absolute Record though as far as i believe. Still, the Halo: Escalation arc is not finished yet so i don’t know for sure. Also Cortana probably got her access to the Domain cut when Exuberant regain control of Genesis

> 2533274815294005;15:
> I’d love to see the Flood come back, but I really doubt they’ll make an appearance. Odds are that the references to the Flood coming back in the Forerunner books are about the original Halo trilogy. Of course I could be wrong.

Since “Cortana” has a Halo now, it could be possible that the Flood will return since Halo rings contains Flood Containment Facilities.

> 2533274815294005;15:
> As for the Brutes and Drones? Without a unifying element like the Covenant, the Brutes mostly fell to infighting after their war with the Elites went south. Not too sure about the Drones though. Originally they were going to be in Halo 4, but were scrapped for different enemies. Story-wise my guess is that because they viewed the Prophets as queens, without Prophets leading the Covenant they’ve got no reason to back it. Odds are they’re just doing their own thing.

We still got Lydus from Escalation. He held a delegation for peace with the Arbiter and Lord Hood but are interrupted before a decision could come up, However given that “Cortana” is spreading Guardians all over the galaxy, basically in control of almost all smart AIs, and the fact that she mentioned Jiralhanae during her speeches, it is safe to assumed that they are returning. Not sure about drones though.

> 2533274815294005;15:
> There’s also the Iso-Didact and the other Forerunners that survived the firing of the Halo rings. There’s a chance they could get pulled into the story. All we know is that they left on a great journey in search of redemption. They’ve got inter-galactic capabilities so we don’t know what happened to them or where they are. For all we know, they could respond to the activation of the Guardians and return. Until more of the fiction is published, we won’t know anything. Frankie O’Connor said he loves Guilty Spark so there’s a chance he’ll pop up sooner or later.

I doubt Forerunners would lived over 100.000 years unless they gone stasis inside Cryptums or even breed on another galaxy. The surviving Forerunners though, promised to never meddling with affairs of the galaxy again, though with what happened to the galaxy now, the could changes their minds. And last time we’ve heard of Guilty Spark, he hijacked the UNSC Rubicon and sets to find the Lifeshaper and possibly the IsoDidact and co. and possibly convinced them to return to the galaxy. I’ll be -Yoink!- though if they returned.

17

And also the San 'Shyuum. I would like to know if their homeworld really was destroyed by the sun going supernova or if the Prophets were the only remaining specimens.
I think them returning, this time as alleys against a greater enemy, would fit pretty well the current story ark. Maybe towards the end of Halo 6.

18

> 2533274823881135;17:
> And also the San 'Shyuum. I would like to know if their homeworld really was destroyed by the sun going supernova or if the Prophets were the only remaining specimens.
> I think them returning, this time as alleys against a greater enemy, would fit pretty well the current story ark. Maybe towards the end of Halo 6.

I presume that there are still San Shyuum around. Doesn’t Cortana address them in the final mission?

19

> 2533274812698627;13:
> > 2533274935864672;12:
> > This might be the completely wrong place to ask these questions but they do relate to the story arcs.
> >
> > In the forerunner series, Precursor structures were quite prominent and found on most worlds within the Milky Way. Yet have not been encountered in the recent sequence of events?
> >
> > The Domain… Wasn’t that destroyed in the firing of the Halos leading to the reason for the Didact’s hatred of humans (The cryptum being designed to allow meditation and to contact the domain but the domain being destroy, the Didact spent a millennia by himself.) If it was, how has Cortana accessed it? If not, then how was it reactivated after it was shut off for everyone, including forerunners?
> >
> > Where is the Poncho Chief?
>
>
> The structures were destroyed by the Halos when they were fired.
>
> Dunno about how the Domain is back and where the hell is Master Poncho…

Trailers, especially teaser trailers are usually supposed to be metaphorical in a sense.

The ‘Poncho’ was telling us he’s in hiding (Gone rogue… on the run from the UNSC)
Cortana’s chip and his cracked visor was showing us his mental state
The Guardian was showing us the emergence of a new threat

> 2533274810176832;18:
> > 2533274823881135;17:
> > And also the San 'Shyuum. I would like to know if their homeworld really was destroyed by the sun going supernova or if the Prophets were the only remaining specimens.
> > I think them returning, this time as alleys against a greater enemy, would fit pretty well the current story ark. Maybe towards the end of Halo 6.
>
>
> I presume that there are still San Shyuum around. Doesn’t Cortana address them in the final mission?

She does! I can’t remember if she addresses the Yanme’e though.

> 2533274829152751;10:
> Grey Team has been an established Black ops team, even by Spartan-II standards so that they are unlikely to be seen in the games, very unlikely, considering how we know they are in a mission and out of contact (which is what they do for years) their storylines have been resolved (for now).

I don’t think you know what the word ‘resolved’ means. They’ve been MIA since 2551, about 7 years at this point.