The Chief and Weapon’s reactions to what Cortana had done were visceral. They were horrified with what Cortana had done. Nothing was white-washed.
Hell, even the Pilot’s reaction when he first saw The Weapon showed how feared Cortana was.
At no stage through the game did Chief give the impression that he could or would try to save Cortana. He was resigned to deleting her. There were plenty of reflection / apologies about his part though.
At the end she apologised to him and reflected that her path diverged when they were no longer a team. I didn’t get the sense of any attempt (by her, the Chief, or 343) at redeeming her actions since then.
Escheram talks about an honorable death.
I’m not of the opinion that kidnapping someone to lure in your opponent, and then utilise shields that harm the kidnap victim when the shields take damage, is “honorable”.
Chief doing what he did is one thing, but Esh asking for what he did doesn’t work for me.
But here’s the thing.
The last we see of her in Halo 4 is an emotional “person” saying goodbye.
Next thing in Halo 5 is a power hungry dictator.
Halo Infinite we start with the Halo 5 Cortana and within two segments, we’re back to the Halo 4 one.
The shift is far too sudden and makes the Halo 5 part of Cortana feel like she wasn’t commited to it once Atriox came for her.
No we don’t, but atleast in Halo 5 we had some sort of explanation to the sudden shift in attitude.
The Domain and the previous rampancy.
Infinite’s shift in personality is too swift and without any sort of hints towards why.
They probably pushed the “honour in death” thing a little too far. But that was always the Covenant theme. The Elites with a Samurai like honour and the Brutes contrasted with a more barbaric sense.
I didn’t play Halo Wars 2 - is it consistent with what we would expect from Atriox and the Banished?
I feel the inconsistency is more with Halo 5 than Infinite.
But the path Cortana took is more or less where I expected it to go. She made it quite clear that those who opposed her would suffer.
As for Atriox. He stole Cortana from the Infinity. She was well and truly locked down and helpless by this stage. Probably even resolved to her fate. But activating a Halo so that the Banished could wipe out the Galaxy was a bridge too far.
I loved escharum. his characterization was extremely good, and his last moments were handled so well I think. chief says it perfectly, he was a soldier hoping he did the right thing.
cortana didnt really die off screen. we got to see it happen. maybe not the exact moment, but the seconds leading up to it in the final mission. she left the clues to the how and why of her death for us to find, and through doing so, we get to experience it in person through the eyes of chief. I couldnt think of a better way to do it.
as for what was accomplished, we dealt with the halos major banished commanders. we stopped the ring from being fired, we stopped if from even being repaired. we handled the harbinger for the time being anyway, and now weve got a whole new enemy to look forward to.
the legacy characters are also absent because they are not important to the games story. the story is about chief, the weapon, and the pilot. putting more characters in a story when they dont matter just muddles things. whatever happened to them, they have nothing to do with this story. we may learn in the future, but they arent here because they dont need to be.
esh was a mad dog and so was atriox, they only craved war why else would they attack the unsc instead of forming an alliance with them against the created. It makes no sense to fight two wars at once. especially after their home world was destroyed.
Killing Cortana (maybe not completely?) doesn’t even resolve the threat. Nearly every other AI chose to stand against the UNSC.
I made my own thread, but yeah, the Campaign goes nowhere, and it feels completely disjointed from the rest of the series. It ignored most of Halo 5 and Halo Wars 2, but then barely sets up anything for itself. Having completed it, it’s just a bunch of nothingness.
Brutes literally eat humans. The line was a ridiculous attempt to humanise a deplorable monster. The Banished and Covenant wanted to commit genocide on Humanity. The Insurrectionists just wanted political freedom. They aren’t comparable.
I think as of right now, my biggest question is; how did Atriox manage to get an upper hand on her? She literally had the power to blow up Doisac with the snap of her fingers and yet when confronted she just…accepts defeat? What’s the big idea? I mean, she openly challenged him. There’s something we’re missing.
I’m definitely confused on the timeline of Infinite because of some replies regarding Atriox’s death.
Since we saw Atriox stranded on the Ark along with the Spirit of Fire, how would he be in Infinite? The only conclusion I could come up with is after the first cutscene of Infinite, Atriox leaves Zeta to go to the Ark which would be the start of Halo Wars 2. The Banished in Infinite assume he’s dead because his ship was destroyed at the Ark.
With the ending cutscene, I can’t tell if he’s on the Ark or Zeta. It wouldn’t make sense if he’s on Zeta and the rest of the Banished are unaware of their leader still being alive.
I’m thinking we might get more information as new content gets released. 343 apparantly has a ten year plan for infinite, so I think it would be wise if they give closure to some of the main characters we have encountered in past games.
i am also confused with the story line.
i was hoping that there do it right and not what there have been doing with the older halo missing some parts in the story line.
same for some people that have play both halo 4 and halo 5 have miss a lot off story between then.
and now the same with halo 5 and halo infinite story line are missing lot off parts.
like: how was the first cutscene you see how has it start the fight on the infinite ship?
or what has happing with cortana between halo 5 ending and halo infinite.
i was hoping there start from the ending of halo 5 legendary cutscene this time in halo infinite.
and the most part and i have look it up on youtube by looking on the halo 5 legendary cutscene again.
the most part is what has happing on the ring and in the most part why is a piece missing since in the cutscene of halo 5 legendary you not see that there is a piece missing from the ring but in the campaing of halo infinite is a piece missing of the ring.
If I remember right, the latest books Shadows of Reach and Divine Wind talk about how Atriox leaves the Ark.
Spoilers for the books
In the summer of 2559 Atriox (on the Ark) figures out a way to send a message to Escharum and orders him to find and open a slipspace portal that is somewhere on Reach. By October they find it under what was Castle Base and activate it, which allows Atriox and some of his warriors to return to the Milky Way.
Then it’s the events of Infinite follow; I presume in the end scene he’s on Zeta Halo ready to awaken whatever is there.
