Who will be the primary antagonist(s)?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Question & poll speaks for itself; who do you think will be the main bad guy(s)? I ask this because there isn’t really an obvious antagonist(s) leading into the game.

’Jul Mdama/Storm Covenant would be the obvious choice, but he wasn’t even in the Halo 4 campaign (if my memory proves me right), only Spartan Ops + the Kilo 5 trilogy (and a mentioning in the comics, I believe). And it’s not very original, is it? Just a covenant elite. I don’t know, I guess I feel something is missing.
But in saying that, he does have Dr. Halsey with him now, perhaps adding a bit of spice to his character. Speaking of Dr Halsey, I can’t imagine she would be the primary antagonist. Her fight is against ONI, not the Chief.

The Didact/Forerunners: more-than-likely, but who on earth knows if he’s still alive? I’ve heard so many different arguments, so I’m just going to assume he will return. He has a back-story, and he has a motive, and the Forerunners will come back in some capacity. All that’s lacking is whether he is alive or not.

ONI and Serin Osman: Motive against Dr Halsey, and an evil aura about her. Not to mention ONI are driven by hunger for knowledge and secrets, whatever the cost.

The Flood/ Gravemind? The flood will be in the game, surely. Whoever has read the comics will agree with this. And a Halo 5 promotional cover-art has what looks like flood pods flying over the top of a city (likely Sanghelios). And the Gravemind? Is he still alive?

343 Guilty Spark: Long shot, but he isn’t dead.

Sarah Palmer even? Something about her…

New Colonial Alliance: Probably a favorite, actually. They’re gaining moment in the comics, and will have the Insurrectionists on their side.

Let me know who you think (& why), and if I’ve forgotten anyone. Cheers

2

I’m rooting for Jul 'Mdama.

3

As I sated before, I like the original trilogy because there wasn’t a “main” antagonist at all. Sure, The Prophet of Truth served as the main antagonist, but we didn’t have close encounter with him in the entire trilogy (except Halo 3). Halo 4 just changed that. I don’t like that kind of stories where the antagonists are always a step ahead of our protagonist and suddenly in the ending, the protagonist always wins with stupid excuses. Halo 4 was like that.

We had the Didact. A character that was never explained. He hates humans… but what? Why does he want to compose us? I prefer stories like Halo CE, where you discover things slowly throughout the campaign. You find a Halo ring, you discover it’s an ancient structure made by an alien race known as the Forerunners, you know the Covenant is the enemy, you find the Flood, you try to stop it… you know what I mean? There’s no even an antagonist. Reach is another example of this. Hope Guardians return to this type of story.

I don’t want an antagonist, I’d rather like a strong reason to stop the enemy forces. Not only a “I hate the humans” excuse.

4

All of them at once with Chief in the middle shouting “I’ll take you all on!!”

5

Honestly, probably all of them. This is going to be the chief’s greatest challenge yet.

6

> As I sated before, I like the original trilogy because there wasn’t a “main” antagonist at all. Sure, The Prophet of Truth served as the main antagonist, but we didn’t have close encounter with him in the entire trilogy (except Halo 3). Halo 4 just changed that. I don’t like that kind of stories where the antagonists are always a step ahead of our protagonist and suddenly in the ending, the protagonist always wins with stupid excuses. Halo 4 was like that.
>
> We had the Didact. A character that was never explained. He hates humans… but what? Why does he want to compose us? I prefer stories like Halo CE, where you discover things slowly throughout the campaign. You find a Halo ring, you discover it’s an ancient structure made by an alien race known as the Forerunners, you know the Covenant is the enemy, you find the Flood, you try to stop it… you know what I mean? There’s no even an antagonist. Reach is another example of this. Hope Guardians return to this type of story.
>
> I don’t want an antagonist, I’d rather like a strong reason to stop the enemy forces. Not only a “I hate the humans <mark>because they killed all of my children, killed millions of Forerunners, brought the Flood to Forerunner territory, caused my wife to shoot me and lock me in a Cryptum to sit in my own insanity for 100,000 years, and now are taking all of our accomplishments for their own after our sacrifice</mark>” excuse.

7

> I’m rooting for Jul 'Mdama.

Just as long he’s a secondary antagonist.

8

I’ll say its either Jul or Avu Med.

9

> > As I sated before, I like the original trilogy because there wasn’t a “main” antagonist at all. Sure, The Prophet of Truth served as the main antagonist, but we didn’t have close encounter with him in the entire trilogy (except Halo 3). Halo 4 just changed that. I don’t like that kind of stories where the antagonists are always a step ahead of our protagonist and suddenly in the ending, the protagonist always wins with stupid excuses. Halo 4 was like that.
> >
> > We had the Didact. A character that was never explained. He hates humans… but what? Why does he want to compose us? I prefer stories like Halo CE, where you discover things slowly throughout the campaign. You find a Halo ring, you discover it’s an ancient structure made by an alien race known as the Forerunners, you know the Covenant is the enemy, you find the Flood, you try to stop it… you know what I mean? There’s no even an antagonist. Reach is another example of this. Hope Guardians return to this type of story.
> >
> > I don’t want an antagonist, I’d rather like a strong reason to stop the enemy forces. Not only a “I hate the humans <mark>because they killed all of my children, killed millions of Forerunners, brought the Flood to Forerunner territory, caused my wife to shoot me and lock me in a Cryptum to sit in my own insanity for 100,000 years, and now are taking all of our accomplishments for their own after our sacrifice</mark>” excuse.

Took me a moment to see what you did there. Clever…

10

> > I’m rooting for Jul 'Mdama.
>
> Just as long he’s a secondary antagonist.

Any particular reason why Jul should be a secondary antagonist? It’s fine if you want him to be, but you never said who the primary antagonist should be…the whole point of this thread? I suggest that Jul be the primary antagonist since he has the most going for him right now. He is a major figure in the post-war galaxy with his big faction of Covenant remnant soldiers and ships. He is highly influential among his flock and that is likely to grow now that he is the Didact’s Hand AND now that he likely has a cache of Promethean Knights under his command. Not only that, but he has Dr. Halsey as a prisoner, thus providing a link between him and Chief. The motivations, ie him knowing ONI’s hands in what is going on between his people and humanity and how that relationship cost the life of his wife, could also provide a genuine problem for the UNSC and Arbiter’s diplomatic relations if that is revealed.

With the Didact incommunicado for the time being, Jul seems to have more going for him as far as being a primary antagonist. I certainly think it would be smarter to use him than make up a one-off big bad that needs a whole new backstory and motives when Jul already has all that and more.

11

But the Didact never truly died, with his armor he can’t be composed when he fell also the new issue of halo comics has him and the chief on the cover fighting (chief getting punched, leading to why he has a cracked visor in the halo 5 guardians teaser trailer). That is why I think he will be the primary antagonist but he might not be the only one due to also canon saying that some forerunners never died they just left the milky way galaxy and went somewhere else in the universe. Also the humans are meant to reclaim the job of the forerunners as the protectors of the galaxy but the didact doesn’t want that as long as she’s still alive.

12

But the Didact never truly died, with his armor he can’t be composed when he fell also the new issue of halo comics has him and the chief on the cover fighting (chief getting punched, leading to why he has a cracked visor in the halo 5 guardians teaser trailer). That is why I think he will be the primary antagonist but he might not be the only one due to also canon saying that some forerunners never died they just left the milky way galaxy and went somewhere else in the universe. Also the humans are meant to reclaim the job of the forerunners as the protectors of the galaxy but the didact doesn’t want that as long as she’s still alive.

13

In Halo 5, I’d really like to instead of having a single primary antagonist, have a wide variety of opposing factions that each want to claw at each other’s throats, with the player caught in the middle.

Jul, Avu, [Insert Jiralhanae warlord here], ONI (maybe), NCA, more…

Multiple bad guys.

However, the true conflict isn’t to defeat the teeming hordes of villains, but to prevent us from being firmly distracted against the true enemy…

The Flood.

In Halo 5, we’d essentially be fighting a war to end all wars. And part of that, of course, is to awaken the only being known to have intimate knowledge of the Flood:

Mendicant Bias.

14

> But the Didact never truly died, with his armor he can’t be composed when he fell also the new issue of halo comics has him and the chief on the cover fighting (chief getting punched, leading to why he has a cracked visor in the halo 5 guardians teaser trailer). That is why I think he will be the primary antagonist but he might not be the only one due to also canon saying that some forerunners never died they just left the milky way galaxy and went somewhere else in the universe. Also the humans are meant to reclaim the job of the forerunners as the protectors of the galaxy but the didact doesn’t want that as long as she’s still alive.

We don’t know the context of the Halo: Escalation cover with the Didact fighting Chief, especially since some of the covers hardly depicted the events that occurred in the comics. Other Forerunners are likely out there, but they aren’t allied with the Didact. All we know of the Didact is that his fate is unknown.

15

> As I sated before, I like the original trilogy because there wasn’t a “main” antagonist at all. Sure, The Prophet of Truth served as the main antagonist, but we didn’t have close encounter with him in the entire trilogy (except Halo 3). Halo 4 just changed that. I don’t like that kind of stories where the antagonists are always a step ahead of our protagonist and suddenly in the ending, the protagonist always wins with stupid excuses. Halo 4 was like that.
>
> We had the Didact. A character that was never explained. He hates humans… but what? Why does he want to compose us? I prefer stories like Halo CE, where you discover things slowly throughout the campaign. You find a Halo ring, you discover it’s an ancient structure made by an alien race known as the Forerunners, you know the Covenant is the enemy, you find the Flood, you try to stop it… you know what I mean? There’s no even an antagonist. Reach is another example of this. Hope Guardians return to this type of story.
>
> I don’t want an antagonist, I’d rather like a strong reason to stop the enemy forces. Not only a “I hate the humans” excuse.

It was never explained why he hates humans? It was explained in books and terminals. The Ur-Didact is who we were facing and it is literally explained multiple times in both books and terminals as to why he hates humans.

The reason was the Human-Forerunner wars. Not to mention the fact that Humans were the ones who killed his children. and destroyed many Forerunner planets as well (although Humans had a good reason for most of them too and even when the war began they still had reasons to do so). That is not even ignoring the fact that Humans killed many of his warriors. He has reasons for hating Humans that were explained.

16

In my opinion, the Primary Antagonist… is the Mantle Of Responsibility…

The ideological lifestyle and concept is the drive behind the conflict in the Milky Way Galaxy… the Prometheans and Didact is trying to redeem themselves… the Covenant Remnants, Jul 'Mdama and Thel 'Vadam are trying to find their new purpose in the galaxy… UNSC and Master Chief are attempting to gain a stronger presence… the Flood and Primordial is attempting to test Humanity… the Forerunner Legacy is disbanded and unified…

All of which is connected to the Mantle is some way…

17

Jul, Didact and perhaps Flood.

18

Im rooting for the Flood.

19

I’ve began rooting for a surviving fragment of Cortana.

20

I don’t want Jul as a primary. As I’ve said previously, I don’t like when characters are fleshed out in outside of game canon. And what I’ve seen so far from Jul (in Spartan Ops) is pretty one-dimensional. He’s just another misguided religious Zealot, and I’ve had my fill of misguided selfish zealots as the antagonist. Sure, could he be included on a side mission that relates to the overall scheme? Why not. But if the entire game I’m fighting against this fool of an Elite who originated at the same time the 343 scriptwriters were writing in all the Spartan’s lines to include calling scientists “eggheads”?

Please, no. There’s a bad taste in my mouth to start, and once I taste something bad I don’t want much more of it, no matter how much salt or ketchup I can dump on it.

And I voted for the Flood, because I think they’ll be the “main” antagonist. They kind of just are in the entire Halo series. Sure, the Covenant and Truth were the baddies in the original trilogy, but the Flood will always overarch as the enemies that counteract basic survival.