One -
Escharum isn’t the main villain. He is the Act I Deuteroantagonist.
Act I villains are supposed to be not as important as the main antagonists that come later on. Otherwise the highlight of the story would be Act I and people would then be complaining that “the writing went downhill after this guy was beaten. Why couldn’t he be the main bad-guy?”
Two -
You aren’t supposed to answer every question in Act I of any story, becasue then Act II and III have to be filled with filler content and drag on for time.
Three -
Their motives are known.
However you have to not only play the games but also read the books and comics.
You do know that Halo Rings can be focused to fire locally and not wipe the entire galaxy right? That is how the Forerunners tested them out through localized firing.
And even if he had only one ring, firing one can be done to prevent the others from being fired. So one of the reasons he went on the Ark could be researching the method to do so.
Zeta Halo’s pulse can be focused on a single planet? Was that mentioned in the game and I missed it, or is that part of the extended universe lore? Maybe all Halo’s can do small pulses and I’m forgetting…
EU - pretty suer he’s pulling this from the Forerunner Trilogy. The original Halo rings were very different from the current array, and could target their firings much more surgically.
The Banished have been in the game for five years. It’s not act 1. They wanted a Halo ring in Halo Wars 2. Where it should have been directly addressed back then.
I am not asking for every question to be answered. I am asking why they’re shooting at me. Torturing prisoners. Massacring the Infinity crew after they saved the Galaxy. This is basic story telling.
Putting core motives in third party material is not good writing. There’s no reason not to put that in the game. Also, they haven’t explained anything relevant in the books. You have a good idea of why they hate the Covenant and the rest is just them fighting for the sake of it. But why do they want to point a Halo at Earth and destroy humanity/UNSC? Never explained. Shadows of Reach it’s just yeah we’re on Reach doing evil stuff.
Not been depicted in game and they don’t mention this in Halo Wars 2 or Infinite. Indeed in HW2 they say their concern is him having a gun pointed at the head of the Universe.
Plus, you don’t need Halo to kill planets. A conventional fleet or clutch of nuclear weapons can do that job perfectly fine. Cortana didn’t need a Halo to destroy Doisac. So he does want this weapon to destroy whole swathes of the Galaxy. Which is what Cortana says she afraid he’s going to do; for reasons never made apparent. Again, why? He doesn’t gain anything out of doing that. It’s a monstrous thing to do and I think you do need to provide a villain with motivations to do something like that. But yeah, wanting Halo for a tactical pulse makes no sense.
They hate us because covenant used them to fight us.
Much as they hated covenant that kinda enslaved them it was us that was killing them.
So there is this deep seed of hatred against human race mainly because of covenant even after they found out of lie didn’t change there feelings against us.
He want use ring to wipe man kind but he wants endless tech to be protected against the ring.
Extended Lore.
95% of 343’s narrative details are in the books and comics.
God you’re dense.
Halo Wars 2 was its own story that introduced the Banished and Atriox.
Halo Infinite’s story is only in ACT I, as we have yet to receive the content updates to include Part II and Part III of the story of Halo Infinite.
Saved the Galaxy?
Cortana deleted herself after the UNSC Infinity was destroyed and Atriox met with her in person.
The remaining Humans are a threat to their operations on the Halo Ring.
You’re telling me that two factions that have clear hostilities towards one another would simply wave and keep their distance from one another after one suffered a crushing defeat?
NO
The Banished want full control of the The Ring and the UNSC are a known enemy. If they are wandering the ring, they can sabotage operations and possibly even call for reinforcements and transmit the location of the Halo Ring to the UNSC (it was moved shortly after the destruction of the UNSC Infinity and is now in a new location)
No duh.
That is why 343 has a terrible narrative model. Are they telling the full story? Yeah, but gamers want to play GAMES and not read 26 novels to get full context.
Bungie put optional lore and story beats in the books to provide some small context. What is this Reach that Keys and Cortana spoke of in Halo CE? Read Eric Nylund’s book and you learn not only what Reach is, but also the origins of the Spartan-IIs.
But without the book, you can still fully understand the narrative of Halo CE by itself.
Books
A comic called The Rise of Atriox
Audio logs
You gotta DIG for it. Which is why 90% of players are clueless because they don’t want to put in the effort.
They can be fought off, deflected, or take a lot of time and resources and manpower.
A Halo Ring is “I push a button and you are all deleted from existence, now a pile of mush without nervous tissue. A quick and decisive end that allows me to then take the planet I want and harvest it’s resources without opposition.”
His motivations are not fully known. If they were, then the story would be over too quickly because the characters know exactly what he is after and can form a plan to put a direct stop to that. Vague motivations means your characters have to learn his motive first and THEN strike back.
It is called STORY WRITING.
You don’t want it all explained in an instant, you want to explore and learn as you go along.
Halo was found to be a religiously significant item in the Covenant ideology. So we had a narrative understanding as to why the Covenant valued it. Then when we learn that it is a superweapon and they have no idea that what activating truly does, it changes the dynamic of the story. The enemy would activate the Halo if not stopped, and wipe all life by accident. So of course you had to stop them.
You learned the religious significance factor in Mission 3 and you learned the super-weapon fact in Mission 7 and then you learn in Mission 8 it will not target the Flood, but EVERYTHING else.
The story develops as you learn more about the universe at hand.
One mission you learn it is a superweapon to stop the flood, and the next you learn that it will also kill everything else as well. One second you are helping 343 Guilty Spark get ready to pull the trigger, and the next you learn that the trigger isn’t tied to something as focused as a gun, but rather as widely devastating as an uber-nuke.
There are multiple villain archetypes. Not every bad guy has parenting issues dude. Sometimes people can just be monsters that do what they want in spite of collateral damage. Take a look at Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader.
Princess Leia refused to provide information about the specifics of a rebel base. And as a consequence of her refusal, even though she gave the information; they BLEW UP HER PLANET AND ALL THE INNOCENT PEOPLE ON IT.
This act is done to showcase that the enemy you are facing shouldn’t be just considered an enemy. They should be considered monsters. And it also makes the reader/viewer/player more motivated on putting a stop to them.
You are complaining about a villain doing villain things.
Well after five-nine years this had better be some masterful reveal of why they hate humanity so much.
Cortana and Chief have been saving the Galaxy together. Everything from Halo CE to Halo 4. Chief couldn’t have done that without her. It’s a pretty major story beat that Halo Infinite reinforces. Yes, that counts in her favour even if she doesn’t have the Logic Plague. Atriox and his Brutes don’t have anything in their favour and have no excuses for their actions.
Because the Banished dialogue, torture and sadism is not typical of a military campaign between normal states. It’s not just business. They are waging a total war. They are trying to annihilate humanity because they hate humanity. If your villain hates you that much and is doing that level of evil; usually you should provide an explanation for that.
They’re not a known enemy. The Banished are just randomly at war with the UNSC for no reason. It’s a completely unprovoked attack and they go right up to total war levels. Butchering prisoners. Eating them. Soldiers continuously gloating about how much they hate humans and are going blow up Earth. Only one party is at fault here.
Yeah, you’re not getting this. It shouldn’t take 20 novels to explain any of this. Killzone does this in a few minutes of the intro cutscene. We’re talking core motivations. The Covenant attack humanity because they’re religious fanatics. Done. The Fallen from Destiny want the Traveller back. Done. You should be able to boil a faction down to that level. You can’t do that with the Banished and for the record you can’t do it with the Endless either.
Okay then, in the masterpiece that is the Rise of Atriox comics what are his reasons for hating humanity and wanting to pursue a genocidal war against them? Why does he believe the UNSC as a state needs to be destroyed? Because the two issues I read were mostly about him moaning about how silly the Covenant were and how if we cut the bull we could get things done. Not exactly relevant to the whole killing humans thing.
Not true. The Covenant glassed scores of worlds. It’s not a lengthy process at all and if Atriox is this ultimate badass whose army is the greatest in the Galaxy per Escharum; he shouldn’t lack for conventional weapons. I mean nukes would take literally a few minutes. It’s probably a lot faster if you didn’t insist on ritually scarring or glassing the planet. So he can’t need it for a tactical pulse to destroy a planet. Also you mentioned earlier that the UNSC can’t deal with the Banished because the Created destroyed their ships. So, they don’t have enough ships to beat the Bansihed but do have enough to prevent an orbital bombardment? Yeah that’s a little convenient.
You can still have a mystery and not withhold base motivations. For example in Star Wars the High Republic you know what the main drive behind the Nihil is. But, their leader Marxian Rho has a secret agenda which is connected to his hatred of the Jedi. So you’re given enough to work with and tie everything thematically together. The Nihil are agents of Chaos to challenge the hope represented by the Jedi and Republic; but there’s still this mystery. You don’t get that with the Banished. It’s just a group of hostile Xenos you encounter.
Tarkin isn’t just evil for its own sake. He represents that Imperialist statesman and fascist notion of using fear and power to control. It’s a mirror to the freedom and individualistic rebels who are punching up and trying to free everyone. Darth Vader is power corrupted by anger and rage. Contrasted with virtue and self control of the Jedi which Luke seeks to master. Those are simple and solid archetypes that help drive the narrative. Atriox is not that. His whole deal is “I want power” and some vague notion of a brotherhood of strength and breaking his chains. Right. Okay. You do you mate. He’s a cardboard cut out of a character. Again, who’s been in the story for five years.
Well if he is just Ghazghull and some random Xenos who needs to die. Fine I guess. But, 343 are the ones making the Bansihed do grand speeches on how much they hate humans and grand standing. I imagine they will do something similar with Atriox. 343 clearly don’t just want him to be seen as a generic Brute Chieftain. It’s very clear they want to set him up as Thanos of the story and have said that he’s that really clever guy. So they’re the ones saying he’s not a simple villain or your average Brute.
Did the prophets know? I always suspected that Truth knew, and intended to put High Charity out of range before firing the array thus making his Covenant the defacto supreme empire of the galaxy.
I’m just now starting to read the books, so if the answer is in them than I haven’t gotten that far.
They discovered Humanity and about the same time realized that there was a mistranslation. The AI they consulted for guidance, their “Oracle”, confirmed that Humanity were the Reclaimers and then they realized the truth.
So to not get their heads chopped off and start a multi-frontal schism, they overthrew the previous hierarchs with blackmail; became the current ones of Truth, Mercy, and Regret; and then declared Holy War.
Not every motive needs to be complicated dude.
Sometimes revenge is just revenge.
Ok.
So I take you have this mindset of “answer every question we ever have right here and now”.
I bet if you wrote a book series, each novel would have 100 pages because you decide to answer EVERY single question you present on the page after the question is asked. That leads to the most boring story narrative ever.
A story is supposed to answer questions within a story arc WHILE developing new ones for the next story arc. We had answers in Halo Infinite, and now we have more questions. That is how you keep someone interested in a narrative - by tugging on Human Curiosity.
But is would seem you lack this curiosity as you want everything to be explained as soon as you encounter it. Honestly, if I ran a computer store and you came in my doors; I would imagine the next 48 hours of my shift would be to answer EACH AND EVERY question you have about computers from the differences of models, to why they use microchips, to the origins of the invention of comupters, and to explain the ins-and-outs of a motherboard.
The Banished aren’t a normal state.
They are a collection of rogues who defied the Covenant and hired mercenaries on the regular. Their organization isn’t that of a state, it is that of a roving army. A band of raiders seek to sustain themselves and screw all the rest.
I have already explained the reason why they seek to annihilate Humanity. In like 6 different replies. Are you really this dense that you make tungsten look like hydrogen?
Ah gee… if only there was a term that befits a group of outlaws that have loose morals and perform acts of disturbing levels of violence?
OH YEAH
“Raiders” and “Pirates”.
The Banished have been described as both.
Trust me when I say this, I do NOT like the method that 343 tells their stories.
Videogame novels are not supposed to be vital in understanding the main plot, they are supposed to extend universe lore and answer loose questions that fly around here and there, not be vital at understanding and bridging the gap between main entries.
Harry Potter book 1 and 2 lead into one another, they don’t require me to read 6 mini-comics to understand what happens next.
Do I like how 343 does this?
NO
But do they still answer the questions we have
YES
The Rise of Atriox told of how he came to decision to rebel against The Covenant. Like the description of Isabelle in Halo Wars 2, his brothers were being thrown at the enemy and slaughtered all to gain just a little tiny victory and with nary any reward to come of it. The book details his initial rise to power. His hatred for humanity is a recent outlook of things.
That is actually a little realistic.
Cortana didn’t just target one faction. She targeted everyone. All armies and fleets suffered heavy casualties. Laconia station was destroyed with 76 Spartans on board.
With Cortana gone, the armies can move again and are more focused on gathering resources and defending from potential attacks rather than making attacks.
Not to mention, a Halo Ring is something that he can hold to the head of the galaxy and make demands of. The challenge with that of course would be to disable the other Halos or in the very least keep them out of his rival’s hands.
We already know the base motivations of The Banished.
Atriox is thought to be dead and is a martyr to them, so they will fulfill his last wish and hold dominion of Zeta Halo while Escharum was continuing his work.
And you play as Master Chief, his enemy. Why would you reveal your plans to your enemy?
Tarkin is evil.
Plain and simple.
Just on the suspected notion that Alderaan held a rebel faction, no matter how small; he destroyed the planet.
“Sir there are 8.3 Billion civilians that will be casualties.”
“Does it look like I care? There is probably a rebel base there. I said blow up the planet.”
Which Thanos?
Comics or MCU?
TWO VERY DIFFERENT CHARACTERS.
You haven’t explained why the Banished hate humanity. You’ve posed a few theories on why you think that’s the case, which have been mentioned by others and I am fully aware of them. Hell I said hating humanity because of the Created might be a big deal for the Bansihed years before Halo Infinite. Atriox might be wanting a good old time machine to pull a Terminator and kill Cortana. But that’s a guess and theory. It’s not the same as a canon explanation that’s come from 343.
No, I just want to know the basics of why I am being shot at and why they think genocide is good.
Plus the faction you describe is a mess. Why would some small time raiders who aren’t a state, have this grand plan to take over the Galaxy with a Halo or have weird goings on with the Endless? It’s a poor fit and a mess. Plus there’s no real narrative hook here. They are just barbarians who want power and need to stopped. That’s boring and very threadbare. Either the Banished are this grand threat or they are the small grounded faction; you can’t have it both ways. Either the Bansihed are immoral savages who don’t care about anything past themselves, or they are ideological fanatics who are fighting oppression and want revenge for their homeworld. Just going off bits of dialogue they’re all over the place and contradictory. An avowedly atheist organisations whose leaders talk about the Gods and call you demon.
Like, for me, I assumed that this would be like Doomguy. The point is you getting revenge on the Banished. That being the main driving force. Instead they not only make the Chief stoic, not showing any real engagement with the Banished; but he’s even shown sympathising with them. It’s a valid choice. They want him to be Captain America. But it makes a lot of the Bansihed conflict feel tepid. For a game that asks you to set a fire in your heart it has a funny way of doing that.
Fallen - Hate humanity because they took the traveller
Covenant - Hate humanity because they offend the Gods
Banished - Hate humanity because they’re pirates……
I tried playing Halo Wars but I’m not keen on RTS games. I tried reading the books but military sci fi isn’t my cup of tea in that medium.
However I do like shooting aliens and 4v4 arena shooters. I much preferred the Bungie games cause the story in those games from Reach to ODST made sense.
If I have to do things that I have no interest in, it becomes a chore.
Luckily there’s YouTube where you can get filled in with all the info you need to kind of go…… ah right okay. Or read on here!
It’s just unfortunate 343 decided that if you want to know about what’s going on in the game you have to be a die hard, live, breath and intoxicate yourself on the fumes. Rather than just drink the petrol.
Maybe that’s why the majority think (of the people I know) think the campaign is boring.
But carry on… threads like this help the unwilling!
sounds like a ripe opportunity for a Predators-esque scenario, bringing other races to the ring to purposefully fight them, the biggest bluff in the universe with no intention to fire the ring, just use it as a means to control the galaxy.
Cortana seemed pretty sure he wasn’t bluffing. Why would he bluff? I don’t think he has any humanitarian concerns and has no moral compass.
I don’t fully get what makes Atriox tick. They set up that he’s all about Freedom. But then he’s going about massacring innocent people and starting an unprovoked war; because he wants unlimited power. Now, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. If he’s a hypocrite why wouldn’t a character point this out to him?
Like, this gets brought up a lot that humans would flock to the Banished because they’re all about Freedom and everybody hates the UNSC and Created. Him invading and threatening to burn and butcher humanity is kind of likely to have opposite effect. I mean in Shadows of Reach they thought summoning a Guardian was preferable to having Banished on their home… So maybe Atriox is so deluded he thinks humans would join his army and is incapable of understanding that him being a scumbag means people want to kill him.
Since he’s going to be a villain going forward, just a little contrast to him and Chief. Chief takes responsibility for what Cortana did because he knows that they’re a team and what he does had an impact on the outcome. So he took responsibility for Doisac being destroyed. Atriox on the other hand is a coward. He can’t understand that being a butcher, a warlord and wanting to conquer innocent people might mean somebody with a bigger stick decides to kill you. His reaction is to blame humanity for his problems and his stupidity in goading Cortana. Chief could easily have said Cortana was not his problem anymore and blamed her. Atriox blamed everybody but himself.
So oddly, Chief and the Weapon actually care more about the destruction of Doisac than Atriox or Escharum. I have heard Escharums audio log where he talks about climbing the tree and the flood waters rising. But I just think they see it as something taken from them in this selfish and possessive way as opposed to any appreciation for the lives lost. Whereas Chief and the Weapon can empathise even with a species that is so wretched the UNSC would be well in their right to nuke them into oblivion.
A casual story runner will focus only on the main stuff and ignore side stuff, because they are not that interested or invested in the extra stories that the series can provide.
For example, you have Star Wars fans that just watch the movies and then you have the Star Wars fans that watch the movies and read into all the comics and books in order to learn more about the franchise and the stories held within the universe created by George Lucas.
343’s story methods ensure that the more casual story-delvers are left high-and-dry wondering what even is going on since a lot of key information is left out of the games.
Sounds a lot like my home country of the United States for the majority of its lifespan.
waters rising. But I just think they see it as something taken from them in this selfish and possessive way as opposed to any appreciation for the lives lost. Whereas Chief and the Weapon can empathise even with a species that is so wretched the UNSC would be well in their right to nuke them into oblivion.