This is something that just hit me.
We already know the Arbiter has an attachment to MC. Hell he had an attachment to MC before he even knew his callsign. Chief turned his life around by first ruining it then setting him straight (actually that was more of Gravemind but MC and Cortana helped.) Thel made it very clear that despite his role with the Sangheili that his partnership with MC and humanity was very important to him. He was the only acting Sangheili commander at the battle of earth, he personally went to find MC when he jumped from Truth’s dreadnought, he vouched for him and humanity, he marched to vengeance with him, stormed a flood fortress to help MC escape and when asked to leave with Rtas he told him that the fight was something that he MC and Cortana had to finish because they we’re the ones who started it.
While many people question if Thel and MC we’re actually friends, they cannot doubt that the Arbiter wouldn’t shy away from helping him in his time of need especially after he was the only person who didn’t think MC was dead or even killable.
The plot doesn’t need any real changes to include them as the protagonist.
Have mission one be him out to end the war and save Halsey, the Meridian missions could be a form of apology for The Human-Covenant war (Vale could come too), we’d get our Thel vs Mc fight we’ve always wanted, Sangehilios could show Thel’s cousin trying to betray him on his path to The Guardian and the last Genesis part could just play out exactly the same way just with Thel. Thel being on Genesis would actually make more sense for Cortana to hold back The Warden since she could be conflicted on trying to kill the person she knows would die for MC since to her knowledge he did in Halo 3.
Really this doesn’t make any sense, Warden clearly had full access to his bodies during the blue team mission, what stopped him from just super ganking Locke? If it was Thel, Cortana would have another reason to hold him back hell she’d even have banter of her convincing herself of why he should die releasing more and more difficult opponents.
Thel being the protagonist wouldn’t force a new set of characters down our throats. It’d also feel natural since we already know he’d do this for MC. He’s a well established character so there wouldn’t be have the James Vega affect with Osiris and he kind of overshot MC before during Halo 2 so alot of the blow back for the game would be far less violent but that could be the hindsight talking.
I don’t see any jaw slamming issues with Thel taking the wheel again, even for one game. I could be missing a glaring problem but most in universe problems aren’t made because of interactions but because they’re created.
I.E. Sloan could of easily of been written to be sympathetic to the UNSC but wasn’t.
Thoughts?
Also it would’ve paved the way for playable elites back in Matchmaking
I think trying to completely save his homeworld from Covenant influence and tackle the responsibilities as a the de facto leader of the Sangheili on Sanghelios limits what he can just drop on a whim and help the Chief.
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> I think trying to completely save his homeworld from Covenant influence and tackle the responsibilities as a the de facto leader of the Sangheili on Sanghelios limits what he can just drop on a whim and help the Chief.
If Thel was so tied up with taking down Jul then why wasn’t he there to kill him? You’d think that’d be his main objective since Jul obviously kept everyone in check. If the Arbiter sees the value in Truth’s death he’d certainly waste not time kill Jul.
Seems like a flawed plot point to bring up.
The Arbiter isn’t the main character. Master Chief is. He may not have gotten as much time as most wanted but he was still the main character. And the Halo story especially the main series will always have Humans as the main characters. Future games may attempt a Covenant campaign, but the Halo story and Halo games do not like killing Humans, so it wouldn’t be during the Human-Covenant war.
Cortana holding back Warden would not have been any different with Thel, even if would gladly die alongside the Chief. Besides, four Spartans versus a single Sangheili? She may even have cared far less.
The Arbiter cares much more about his own planet than ending the war.Why would he care about Halsey? And I don’t know how much I can stress this,
The Arbiter would never, ever fight the Chief.
I think having Arbiter be a playable character in the future would be cool. However, just cutting Osiris out and adding the Arbiter in wouldn’t have made Halo 5’s campaign any better and from a flow standpoint wouldn’t make sense. People of Meridian may not trust UNSC Spartans, but I would bet money that they would reel from a Covenant presence. And Thel has no reason to fight MC, so we wouldn’t have the cool fight scene. I dunno.
I liked his role in H5. Leading the Sangheili to victory against the Storm Covenant was an awesome arc, and Sanghelios and Sunaion were probably my favorite locales in H5. This is all just my opinion obviously.
If he is in a future game, I would say it should be about him attempting to solidify peace for the Sangheili and any other race that wanted peace. However, I do think that he will be pulled into the War with the Created. In H6 I could see him running around with MC (if he doesn’t have Blue Team with him) to fight and stop Cortana.
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> > 2533274812652989;3:
> > I think trying to completely save his homeworld from Covenant influence and tackle the responsibilities as a the de facto leader of the Sangheili on Sanghelios limits what he can just drop on a whim and help the Chief.
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> If Thel was so tied up with taking down Jul then why wasn’t he there to kill him? You’d think that’d be his main objective since Jul obviously kept everyone in check. If the Arbiter sees the value in Truth’s death he’d certainly waste not time kill Jul.
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> Seems like a flawed plot point to bring up.
Because Jul was roaming the galaxy and Thel was on Sanghelios. Thel probably did have agents trying to kill 'Mdama, but Thel isn’t going to drop administering his Keep and the Swords of Sanghelios to personally go after Jul 'Mdama. Thel COULD go after Covenant groups on Sanghelios or command his troops through commanders like Rtas 'Vadum off-world, but Thel is a effectively a politician now as well, hence why he went to a peace conference between himself, Lydus (Brute Chieftain) and the UNSC.