This will no doubt be one of my most controversial opinions to date regarding an aspect of the Halo universe. Not that the Warden Eternal is a badly executed character on multiple levels. Hell no, the fact he is more likely to be called Sir Friendzone by a large part of the community shows you the level of respect this character has. Hyperbole aside as well, I feel the notion of saying that the Warden is objectively bad will ruffle some feathers because of how much we have latched on to the idea of subjectivity. I’m perfectly fine with differing opinions and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all of that jazz. But if any one tells me that the Warden Eternal isn’t bad, then I take it the same way that people tell me the Twilight books are good literature or that Sonic 06 is a good videogame: you’re lying.
Okay, no need to be that extreme, but I do feel that the Warden exemplifies many of the problems that Halo 5 is said to have on a miniature scale ranging from narrative, design, and gameplay. I don’t intend this to be another “Halo 5 sucks!” post since we already have plenty of these. But with Halo 6 still being a long way off and information scant, it still seems like the window for feedback that can help the series moving forward is still open. Let’s be honest, if the Warden Eternal is to exist as a continuous presence then he will need significant improvement. As such, I wish to focus on three areas of concern that I have alluded to above: narrative, design, and gameplay. I may have some miscellaneous musings towards the end, but the bulk will be focused on the three areas.
- NarrativeSo this will likely be the area I actually have credibility on since I’m not exactly an expert on gameplay or visual design, but I’ll make my case when we come to it. For now, let’s explore how the Warden Eternal presents several problems for the narrative, both in Halo 5 and the larger Halo universe. There are those who speculate that perhaps he had some relationship to the Warden from Halo: Cryptum, an ancient monitor who presided over the trial of the Master Builder at the Forerunner capital of Maethrillian. Besides the name, however, we never see the Warden again and it is never mentioned as being given millions of bodies scattered across the galaxy and tasked with protecting the Domain.
Even this title raises several questions considering the Domain was thought destroyed until a small group of Forerunners led by the Iso-Didact went back to Maethrillian to attempt to repair the Domain. There they encountered a Precursor artificial intelligence named Abaddon who attempted to hold these surviving Forerunners responsible for the Domain’s seeming destruction. It was stopped when one of the Forerunners, Growth-through-Trial-and-Change, was able to start the restoration process for the Domain which utilized her mind as a “mind map” for the rebooting Domain. I know that sounds convoluted, but just know that the Domain was “revived” at the end of the day. Again, some speculate that the Warden may be Abaddon or perhaps even Growth, but the Warden at least pre-dates Growth judging by the presence of his bodies across the galaxy with the Guardians. As for Abaddon, its existence was a closely guarded secret and no indication that it was implanted in Forerunner machines is indicated. Personally, I think the repentant High Councilor Splendid Dust, the very reason the surviving Forerunners would learn of Abaddon and the chance at fixing the Domain, being composed and becoming the Warden Eternal makes more sense than his ultimate fate as 000 Tragic Solitude on the Ark. Sorry, I know this is just stuff only hardcore fans of the expanded universe care about, but my point is that there is nary a sight or hint of the Warden Eternal in the expanded universe. This is problematic when you look back at the plot threads laid out by 343 in the expanded universe before Halo 5 and see how intricate they can be. The Warden Eternal just seemingly shows up with the implication that he’s been around for a while yet it’s a facade.
Now, maybe an argument can be made that he’s a new character, so he should be judged by how he is portrayed in Halo 5. Fair enough, but Halo 5 gives us little to work with. He shows up on Meridian, talks smack to Osiris, “dies”, reappears later to talk smack to Blue Team, comes back to fight several more times, says he thinks Cortana is the real inheritor of the Mantle, and then gets mopey before fading from the game after his final confrontation with Blue Team. The whole part about him serving Cortana becomes an even bigger mess when you then read Dominion Splinter from the Tales from Slipspace comic anthology and see that he doesn’t agree with Cortana, but that she effectively forces him into compliance. So we have a disparity between stories that eliminates one of the concrete things we know about him, his allegiance to Cortana. I know there are spots in Halo 5 where it looks like the Warden Eternal is resistant to Cortana’s commands, but how much of this is genuine and how much of this might be an act? That’s a popular head-canon with some people, this idea that the Warden and Cortana were faking third disagreements to make Cortana looks like she was on Blue Team’s side to win their trust. Linda seems to suggest as much, but for now it’s just a head-canon. But his unclear motivations are just a sign of his bad narrative issues. Perhaps this is hinting at a major double-cross, but a double-cross ala 343 Guilty Spark would just be rehashing old plot points. If anybody should betray Cortana, it should be Governor Sloan since I would imagine he’d be pretty sore at seeing the people of Meridian killed by Cortana’s Guardian, but I doubt it will happen.
If the Warden Eternal should be anyone, it should be the Ur-Didact. I’ll touch on this a bit later in the design section, but I can envision a scenario where you can have both the Didact and Cortana as antagonists. Towards Halo 4’s end, Cortana has the Didact restrained on the lightbridge overlooking the slipspace portal in the Didact’s ship. You see one of Cortana’s fragments hit his head with a splash that could be interpreted to be said fragment entering the Didact’s armor. Cue “The Next 72 Hours” story from Halo: Escalation and have the Didact be “composed” and able to retain his consciousness in the bodies of what we’d know as the Warden Eternal (maybe a forgotten plan the Forerunners wanted to use to fight the Flood but never got around to making an ancilla for). The Didact could inhabit them, but perhaps find his access to the Domain or some other facility is restricted unless a human touch is registered. At this point he may notice he retains a fragment of Cortana he can puppet to his whims and uses it to lure the Master Chief and Blue Team to Genesis to allow him further access to whatever is on Genesis and to halt a dangerous foe from stopping his plans. This is just a rough sketch of an idea, so it’s not too developed, but the point is that the Ur-Didact could very well have been the Warden Eternal if circumstances permitted. As it stands, the Warden Eternal just has nothing going for him from a narrative angle. He lacks any standing in the expanded universe to give him a backstory and what little of him we need just subjugates him to generic henchman. He is the Starscream of Halo, just without any of Starscream’s actual charm and development.