Are Halo, Destiny & Marathon Connected? - The Bungie-verse Theory

[@HiddenXperia]

NEW LORE BANGER JUST DROPPED ENJOY FRIENDOS! IF YOU SEE ME AT HALO WORLDS TODAY/TOMORROW COME SAY HI!

[@kevinhabing]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! compare the runes at the time stamp 16:50 with the runes in halo sandtrap !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@TheFakeBriskeh]

343 is not retelling marathons lore lmfaoo

[@evdoggster]

VEEERRRRY COOOOOL

[@neoluna1172]

On a cannon level, even setting aside bungie not owning halo anymore, im not convinced halo fits into the cannon connections. That being said, the meta theory I totaly buy, and its not just some run of the mill fan theory, its a love letter from old school bungie and is legit one of the most wholesome things I have ever seen a dev do.

[@WaveOfDestiny]

This video is almost perfect. You did almost exactly what i was about to do. It's not a coincidence i changed my name to wave of destiny. The Bungieverse is not only absolutely real, but it's one of the best narratives and philosophies in fiction ever to me. The feeling that hit me when i realized that i was fighting the same Darkness in Destiny that i was fighting and was scared by as a child when they were named the Flood, the same enemy that my father fought in Marathon, impersonating the same hero that is able to write his own fate, to change his own destiny, was literally impossible to describe, a sense being exactly where you are supposed to be, growing up with Bungie and being in a new chapter of your own life, fighting what previously made you scared as an adult. It speaks to my soul and my entire life so much that i actually cried during the end of this video. Bungie, their games and philosophy, are such a big part of my soul that part of the reason i am who i am now as a person is because of them. I can literally psychoanalyze myself and find out that many parts of me, what i like, what i desire, how i play, how i act, are connected to elements of their work, it almost feels like they are my third parent. Idk if you know about them, but the connections you mentioned between these games are only the tip of the iceberg honestly. The Bungieverse permeates almost every aspect of the games in a fundamental way, even the main plots of the games feel like simply rivers that flow into the drains that are drawn by the verse. In fact this very thing is the entire plot of Destiny right now, as the Witness aims to combine the light and dark to see and control these rivers, these timelines, and stop the guardians from guiding them into what he calls chaos. The Witness wants to be the new Destiny, a being able to alter timelines and their flow so that they follow a rigid and predictable direction known as the final shape, pretty much destroying life in the process. Even Halo 3 follows this narrative almost completely, Halo 3 literally starts with Cortana saying that Chief is the chosen one, because he is lucky. Halo 3's protagonist is not chief, as a person, but it's literally Destiny. Tons of other connections all around the place like the Flood and the Darkness wanting the same thing, having the same propieties, the same powers (down to the flood having ontological powers that can alter the laws of phisics and turning the universe against its enemies, having an hive mind, the ability to take, the ability to remember what previous graveminds experience throught time and space, the ability to see in the unseen, the finality of death and eternity) and they even literally have the same quotes: the flood: "do not fear, i am peace, i am salvation" the darkness: "we are not enemies, we are not friends, we are salvation". Not to mention the flood infection forms always have 3 red tendrils they probably use to see, just like the hive worms in destiny always have 3 eyes. How about connecting the Traveller to the Halo rings? Both are round, both are technology, both personify the concept of the cycle of death and rebirth, both focus on making whoever uses their power forget who they are (the halos wiped the species and replanted their seeds, erasing every memory of what your species did in the past, the traveller requires you to die and resurrects you without any memory, which is a direct contrast of the Darkness and the flood, which aim at eternal life and eternal death, and grants you the power to remember things even past the laws of physics). Not to mention the fact that Marathon lore almost perfectly describes the concept of dark and the Winnower as the lore of Destiny does, including the element of the garden of creation. How about we add the fact that there are characters in Destiny who break the 4th wall and known they are withing a game and that the Guardian is contolled by something outside their existance like a puppet with strings? How about the activity dares of eternity in Destiny, which came out in Bungie's 30th anniversary, canonically giving to the guardian guns and armor that come from different universes, which are literally guns and armor from Halo, Marathon and Mith? With the character saying that "they belong to their original owner"? If i point out any other connection i might hit the character limit for youtube comments.

[@michaelbarker6732]

I just realized the reason Master Chief is “lucky” might just be because he has the privilege of being controlled by the player. In game, he can die over and over and only the successful attempt is needed to progress, but in the lore that means he was just always successful in extremely unlikely circumstances.

[@basicmudkip5985]

Or maybe he has forerunner technology stuffed into his gut

[@henrychapman3727]

I think about that while I’m playing, every time he dies is just another possible chief that didn’t make it. Only the story in which he succeeds is the one that moves forward

[@drew4163]

its all a diffrent univers when he fails

[@albertwesker3299]

Mf got Return by Death from Re:Zero just because we control him.

[@Lazypackmule]

Well, yeah Though given Halo's specific themes it's presented as more of a divine providence thing

[@ootdega]

The conclusion was...surprisingly wholesome. It's kinda funny that the conclusion was so comically obvious that it took us 30 years to get it. It's also such a Bungie thing to do. "Every protagonist is the same person, but that person could be anyone." A hilariously complicated way to express a hilariously simple idea, but an idea that can only exist in a video game. It's touching and a just a little silly at the same time.

[@NorthyNamey]

But that’s just a theory…A GAME THEORY!!!!

[@ootdega]

@@NorthyNamey As retribution for quoting Matpat in my presence, I will find where you live and force you to watch in helpless terror as I construct the most vile and horrifying Subway sandwich ever conceived Be afraid

[@toxicspartan2192]

Dude looking hella forward to you talking about the new flood lore.

[@HiddenXperia]

as am I :)

[@JayPlusForerunner]

​@@HiddenXperiaI saw the trailer and immediately knew the flood stuff would hook you

[@TexasDinoHunter]

Same bro

[@Maysy787]

Wait what are we on about, is it a new book or something?

[@benvoli0c977]

​@@Maysy787leaving a comment so I can know as well when it's said

[@Revan_Reborn]

even better for both theories. there's another MIDA weapon in Destiny, the MIDA Multi Tool. it's lore tab mentions that not only did it come from a "revolutionary government" but that it also came from an "alternate timeline" and it was designed by a "primitive AI". even further, the cached messages stored within the weapon tells that the brief reign of MIDA resulted in the death of 10% of Martian people.

[@tomtheconqerur]

Considering how incompetent most characters in Destiny are, I wouldn't be surprised if the "Primitive AI" outsmarted them.

[@sp4rtan148]

"I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain." Ugh...@@tomtheconqerur

[@JMKGalaxy2]

I miss old school bungie. They were legends in their own right and their games literally stand the test of time!

[@JMKGalaxy2]

@@AndyTolly123 yeah that's never ok. That is essentially the same thing that Ubisoft did and people roasted them for it.

[@ChickenJoe-tq6xd]

They went woke

[@grizzlybehr1902]

Totally think Bungie is still built of of that same back bone/structure. Destiny is going strong whether people agree or disagree. They still know how to make a game fun and have good stories/lore

[@Espartanica]

​@@grizzlybehr1902*Destiny has been vaulted whether you agree or disagree. There's a reason no one talks about Destiny enemies and characters nearly as much as anything from Halo

[@-foxwint-3140]

​@@Espartanicawait people talk about destiny

[@LordEmpyreal]

It hasn't stopped there. Destiny has gone on to imply that it, Halo, Marathon, and even Myth are all part of an interconnected multiverse. Especially with all the Xur/Nine stuff they did for their 30th Anniversary. Where we directly connected to other Bungie universes and gained weapons from them. We got the Marathon shotgun, the Halo Magnum, BR, and Focus Rifle, and the Myth sword.

[@candiedconnor]

The Forerunner catalyst storyline was amazing

[@moviemaker2011z]

those are just easter eggs, fun little gags that bungie likes to do where their games are referenced and enjoyed by many. that doesnt mean they are linked.

[@davemccombs]

It doesn't fucking matter what it implies, that is literally obviously not true Your 10th grade English teacher wants to remind you about the "death of the author" class you apparently skipped

[@newportbiden]

@@davemccombs cope

[@destroyerofbussy]

​@@davemccombsplap plap plap plap get pregnant plap plap goo goo gah gah

[@The_Ragequit_Cannon]

This kind of complexity is why I think it was a mistake to make Marathon into a pvepvp extraction shooter. You're just not going to get to take part in this lore if you're worrying about being cross mapped by an enemy sniper while you're trying to evacuate the zone

[@trashjash]

Or getting your wallet sucked dry by nuBungie's overenthusiasm towards microtransactions while they focus solely on character emotion lore rather than the deeper, more complex ideas and topics of the setting. I've become very well acquainted with Destiny and its lore, and watched the clear change in direction when they dropped the cosmic scale and mystery and zoomed in to the writers' favorite characters to project emotions into while ignoring the grander setting. Current day Bungie is on par with pre-Pierre Hientz 343i in many, many ways.

[@m0urn1ng5tar5]

THIS

[@Daxel134]

its 100% marathon only in name and jangling keys for nostalgia

[@corruptVz]

@@trashjash Super accurate bro. They better cut the bullshit with final shape so we can at least get one last decent release.

[@GmoneyDaGamer24]

@@trashjashyes brother, destiny 1 seemed to have so much lore potential and they just fumbled the bag crazy, destiny 2 story seems like kiddy bs how it focuses on certain characters way more than anything else and characters are important but its too much

[@Runewulf]

Very much the concept of the eternal champion that scifi/fantasy author Michael Moorcock came up with. He noticed that the characters he wrote were all very similar despite being in different universes and timelines. So he officially connected all of them in his stories using this concept. One of the earliest and best uses of the multiverse/eternal hero.

[@dalektrekkie]

I was about to bring up Elric. It's very obvious from Crow's story and references like the Dreaming City in Destiny 2 that Bungie is absolutely a fan of Moorcock. Crow was the closest thing to a main protagonist that Destiny had for a while and every time they focus on him it gives off major Elric vibes

[@3mpt7]

Is there any particular place I ought to start? Which story connects them? Tried reading Elric of Melribone.

[@nightingale7277]

I'll do you one better -- bungie openly confirms the existence of a multiverse containing their other games in destiny's cannon. For bungie's 30th anniversary, there was a special event in destiny surrounding the IX and their ability to tap into and move through the "paraverse." This allows the player to pull unique weapons out of other bungie games to use in destiny: namely the BR, magnum, and two halves of an energy sword.

[@durandol]

And the shotgun from Marathon

[@chaoschaoforever]

@@durandol As well as the sword from Myth.

[@cloudyskygaming0]

In addition, theres a master chief reference in Destiny: The Taken King, while not an official connection, it is a heavily implied link.

[@thisplatformsucks]

Which... isn't how this stuff works. That just means Bungie's Halo is canonical within Bungie's universe, but you don't get to say that someone else's creative works exist parallel to your own. Otherwise I'd just say that The Lord of The Rings and Dune are both canonically parts of my own sci-fi-fantasy universe, essentially claiming credit for them.

[@chaoschaoforever]

@@thisplatformsucks True. But since Halo is a BUNGIE creation, it's there way of saying it's within their connected universe without getting sued by Microsoft or 343i for it. But considering most people from 343i are massive Bungie Era Halo fans (at least as of now they are since the old leadership refused to hire Bungie Era Halo fans) they probably wouldn't sue. Microsoft tho would.

[@CadentClock39]

Small lore correction I'm pretty sure: Oryx didn't make Crota to call to the darkness, Crota came later. He just created an ogre to serve as an empty shell for the darkness to enter and speak with Oryx. Theory still works the lore nerd in me just had to clarify. (If I'm somehow wrong, I apologize.)

[@yoshigaming9321]

I wouldn’t blame you destiny lore is one hell of a rabbit hole

[@iponce2]

​@@yoshigaming9321especially hive lore

[@bvowels]

@CadentClock39 In your profile picture, Sonic’s arms are tan, but his arms should be blue. Change it immediately or I will contact my uncle who works at SEGA.

[@quiksilvr90]

You're correct. It was a newborn ogre that Oryx offers as a vessel for the darkness. Although that might've been the witness

[@dalektrekkie]

Nah, you're right. It was Golgoroth who was the vessel that Oryx made and shows up as a boss in the King's Fall raid. I don't think they've ever explained how Oryx sired Crota. He's just been said that Crota was Oryx's son.

[@kyrursa]

Hidden experia: "Whats stopping there 7 or 8 or 9 or 1000 or 100,000?" Me: "Bungie dont go any number higher than 7 its their sacred numerical journey."

[@jackalbeam2532]

The next could be 117 or 343.

[@Alektricc]

As a Destiny and Halo fan, this video really made me feel a sense of nostalgia I haven't felt in a long time. Thank you for making this

[@that1blindkid146]

I feel like it would be cool if they made The Weapons name Joyeuse to bring that whole thing full circle. They never explicitly say what name they gave her at the end.

[@SamuriLemonX18]

Or Joy for short. Rolls of the tongue better

[@Popoki777]

Joyeuse was an AI that was central to Rasputin's story before destiny's original story got scrapped. The other AI that was scrapped was Charlemagne which eventually came back into the story.

[@colbyboucher6391]

Yep, I've been saying this as well... although at the same time, I feel like that's _Bungie's_ thing rather than Halo's thing because of the Marathon connection and 343 using the name would be sort of presumptuous.

[@brucesshipyards744]

I really hope they do. 343 isn't Bungie, but 343 carries on that bit of Bungie's legacy - its only right to continue the plan, if in their own way.

[@Settings208]

as cool as it'd be, i think there's a high chance that the weapon named herself cortana

[@orionfrost]

For what ever reason, The developer of Marathon: Durandal was changed by Microsoft from Bungie who originally made it to a different studio.

[@HiddenXperia]

I think you're on about Double Aught who were founded by Greg Kirkpatrick and some of the OG Marathon devs who helped on it

[@itsPonkulz]

I think you should look into connections between Pathways into Darkness and Destiny more. To me they are the most obvious ones.

[@wafflechief206]

The marathon timeline is kind off like Zelda's 3 timelines. The hero soul is also very similar to Zelda too where all the links are the same soul just reincarnated.

[@haloking4253]

I gotta say this was a wonderful video to watch. Thank you for making this. Especially using music from Halo and Destiny throughout the video. I loved the message shared in this.

[@marshestmellow9524]

Martin O’Donnell is the song of halo

[@RyanB571]

Bungie truly truly cared about its Fans, its Players. Without us there would be no Marathon, Halo, Destiny. Bungie will always have a place in my heart forever and its a shame that others missed the golden age of Bungie, of Gaming, of telling a story that made the player feel special

[@pancakewarriors7233]

Yeah the old bungie did the new one is slacking

[@jaybird0312]

@@pancakewarriors7233 the new one got greedy

[@TheSaintDario]

With the Halo universe's love for the number 7. How fitting would it be that indeed Halo is part of the Marathon universe, and be the 7th timeline.

[@WaveOfDestiny]

Bungie loves 7 in general. It's not just an Halo thing it's literally everywhere in their games. You can look under a gun in Destiny in the inspection menu to find 7 lol

[@IDoABitOfTrollin]

Man that wrap up ending was just perfect! You convinced me

[@thearbiter3351]

I'm loving that you're posting OG lore videos again, human

[@murpheyholloran1067]

Destiny also has direct, transuniversal ties to Marathon and Halo through the Bungie 30th Anniversary event a couple years ago. Starting in the event, The Nine can partially access and interact with the Halo and Marathon universes (and maybe a few others) through something they call the Paraverse. This brought over things like the Magnum, BR, a bunch of Marathon armor and some weapons etc into Destiny.

[@texasgundam7746]

I love your usage of the MGS OST, it kinda fits really well with Halo

[@luisotero7096]

Hey hidden have you considered making a lore video about the covenants minor prophets during the human covenant war. Such has the prophets of stewardship or charity, I think it would interesting to see how much of a role they played in the lore

[@Anabolicanglo]

Ooh I second this

[@MorgothZEone]

This just makes me wanna see a vid where Xperia and Byf talk about Halo and Destiny lore.

[@flawlesscowboy1173]

This fits so well into the fact that in Destiny 2 the 30th anniversary update, Bungie added a new activity in the Eternity that was literally a paraversal adventure through Bungie history. It added weapons from Halo, Marathon, and Myth, armor from those titles, and even in-game lore about each franchise. SPOILERS BELOW: For the Magnum (Exotic Sidearm "Forerunner") it literally makes you find Chief's cryo pod from Halo 1 crash landed in the eternity, pick up the broken pieces of the Magnum, and fix it up to become the Forerunner. They mention how whoever wielded the weapon had massive hands (Chief is jokingly called a Titan, basically the Spartans of the Destiny universe), and the weapon even has Halo references built into it. The catalyst allows you to throw a bouncy Frag grenade that even lets you grenade jump in the game. If this intrigued you even a little bit, I recommend downloading Destiny 2 and checking out Dares of Eternity and the Treasure Hold because all of it is completely free.

[@ShadowDreamer100]

The only thing that apparently stopped Bungie from using actual Halo named weapons was that talks with Microsoft broke down over the weapons' usage.

[@udontknowme00]

@@ShadowDreamer100 yeah i dont doubt that if Bungie and Microsoft's talks of acquisition hadn't fallen through, the 30th anniversary stuff would 100% just be explicitly named after their Halo counterparts.

[@austink4712]

Another in-game fact that could support this is from halo 4. During the conversation between chief and the librarian, he is told that the entire creation of the spartan program was a genetic instict implanted by the forerunners. John is because the forerunners made him be. It was a plan that took many generations to complete and could be seen as a soul hopping from vessel to vessel until it came to its final destination, a forerunner imprinted Master Chief

[@matthewanderson9754]

You just made me actually feel good about being a giant nerd and playing all of those games other than marathon.... thanks for this cool take and breakdown of bungie doing awesome work.

[@dalektrekkie]

Bungie literally canonized the "bungie-verse" as the Paraverse in Dares of Eternity in Destiny 2. That's why all the weapons you can get from that activity are references to their other games. Hell, the Forerunner exotic sidearm you get it just a visually modified CE magnum and the brief quest to get it has you exploring a small cave that has a Halo-esque cryo pod in it

[@LeQuartermaster]

Was awesome seeing you up there on stage talking with the halo book authors! Aspiring writer myself and you asked great questions

[@PepsiManX360]

Technically Bungie cannot legally claim Halo to be part of the Marathon lore as they haven’t owned the Halo IP since 2001. Same as 343 cannot claim Marathon to be part of the Halo lore. However Microsoft can actually force Bungie to change the Marathon logo on their new game since it’s part of Halo’s logo and used in their IP.

[@Sir_Slimbread]

I'd just assume each Bungie game takes place within one of the Universes/Timelines you visit in Marathon Infinity. None of them being in the same Universe/Timeline, but all sharing the fact that a version of the events of Marathon & Marathon 2 occurred, or will occur, and that the "Player" has been to all of them(hence how Chief could be a future iteration of the Character from Marathon).

[@WaveOfDestiny]

I think that this ties into Destiny lore better. The gardener and winnower play games in the garden. They fight each other, and they create waves and those waves create stuff. This was partially mentioned in a Marathon lore piece too. They have rules that can change every time. The gardener believes in the light (the Jlaro, the halo rings, the traveller) and the winnower believes the darkness always wins (the w'rkanter, the Flood, the Darkness). Each new game they play, is another franchise for us. Each time the game ends when the universe takes a final shape. So each franchise is in a separate multiverse, but it's connected by the Bungieverse with the same themes, with the similar characters, similar events, similar rules. Just a theory.

[@TheLastArbiter]

12:23 this part I think he just meant stylistically they are the same, not literally that John-117 is the Marathon marine. It’s just the same archetype or they adapted the same idea of the character for Halo

[@M3g4UBERn00b]

I think that some things are compatible, but there would also be way more things that directly contradict parts too

[@Zach-rx9xb]

Got me feeling all warm and fuzzy at the end. Been looking forward to this video for months. Your channel gave me so much more appreciation to the games I grew up with.

[@icarusgaming6269]

There are two other connections between Halo's universe and other continuities that are much more tangible. The first is Nicole-458's appearance in Dead or Alive 4. When the UNSC Calypso's crew experimented with a Forerunner artifact they brought on board, it sent out a Slipspace pulse that disrupted local infrastructure and communications in the Sol system. It caused the spyware component of the Calypso's onboard AI to be relocated onto a random civilian's chatter, and it caused the Calypso itself to crash into the Moon. The following information comes from DOA4 and is deemed non-canon: Before crashing, the Calypso tumbled through the Slipspace wake created by the artifact and came back into realspace near the Nassau Station MAC platform, catching the platform in the wake and creating a semi-stable bubble that transported it and its entire crew into the 21st century DOA/Ninja Gaiden timeline. Now, Nassau Station was known to participate in the Battle of Earth a few weeks after Durga appeared in Chatternet, so in order for this to make any sense either Durga had to relocated *before* the wake occurred or the Calypso had to be in Slipspace for entire duration of the invasion. Given that ships are sometimes known to arrive before they depart, I'd say the former is more likely. This establishes the ability for Slipspace anomalies, in very rare circumstances, to cause *extreme* time paradoxes and connect Halo to other universes The second connection comes from the same event, and this is where it gets weird. The anomaly also connected Halo to *our* universe. While Durga was just a fragment, the rest of the AI Melissa was transported into the real internet of 2004 and took up residence in a beekeeper's personal blog, igniting the ARG component of ilovebees. The ensuing story took place in real life and interacted with real Halo fans. Now, there are two ways to interpret this. The first is that Melissa was transported from the Halo universe into ours, ending up in our 2004 because that was the current year when the story was written. She didn't time travel per se, because she didn't end up in *Halo's* 2004. The second, and my personal favorite, is that there is no distinction between Halo's timeline and our own, she traveled through time but stayed in the same universe, and ended up in the real world because the real world is Halo's past and Halo is the real future. Yes, I am actually proposing that *Halo is real,* and if you don't believe me yet, this isn't even the first time that it's crossed paths with our time When the Cortana letters were first sent out in 1999, they all came from the email address "cortana@bungie(dot)com," making it clear they were being written by a Bungie employee. But there was one that was much more ominous, hidden in the code of the 1.3 update for Myth: The Fallen Lords like a trojan horse. In its opening, Cortana speaks about how easy it was to infiltrate Bungie's network and evade another "entity" chasing her around and insulting her mother, which may be a Bungie employee? These letters are very aggressive and out of character, so only the elements reused in Halo 3 are said to be canonical. In Halo 3 it becomes clear exactly what this is: A fragment of Cortana corrupted by the Gravemind and shed aboard High Charity. The lines she says at the same time as the Gravemind are identical. It's not currently known how the fragment ended up in our time, but literally the first thing we ever saw of Halo was a crossover with the real world. Halo has always been real I haven't quite gotten my head around the Halo 3 ARG yet, but it seems Adjutant Reflex met a similar fate as Melissa and the Cortana fragment, stranded out of time in the old Bungie forums. Destiny players, feel free to chime in. I know your game's lore has a very similar concept

[@WaveOfDestiny]

Destiny has characters that know they are in a game and that the Guardian is a puppet with strings controlled by an entity outside of their existance. I think that pieces of lore were given IRL to community members by these characters and maybe others too. I find it intereresting how this narrative almost perfectly fits the Undertale/Deltarune timelines too, even if it doesn't have direct references, the similarities are astonishing, as if the creator is a Bungie fan. Destiny, the player, changing timelines, darkness and light, ancient horrors of dark that consume worlds, games within games within games, puppets with strings, entities that want to become gods by escaping the universe. Bruh i'm headcannoning them togheter

[@Ghostvirus]

Ilovebees the arg for Halo 2 also contains a reference to the Gherrit White terminal in Marathon 1. Also in Halo 3: Ghost of Onyx its reported that the Covenant were investigating an object in the yucatan penisula which might be a reference to the plot of pathways into darkness and strangely parallels dead space.

[@icarusgaming6269]

@@WaveOfDestiny My favorite parallel is DDLC. Anything and everything relating to this theme is a massive spoiler, but it also deals with peering beyond the fourth wall. The original version is free if you haven't played it

[@Beandobbin]

"A Guardian with exceptional light is sealed within this pod. I tried to resurrect him before I found you, but he said the last war was enough for a thousand lifetimes" I haven't watched the video yet, but the intro has me thinking this Destiny: The Taken King quote is relevant

[@Beandobbin]

Yupppp. The dreaming God could definitely be an alias for The Final Shape

[@QuarrelsomeLocalOaf]

Also a parallel with the Ur-Didact's cryptum in Greg Bear's Forerunner trilogy

[@rorykeefe8954]

That subscription plot splits into two timelines based on each individual’s decision. OH GOD! REAL LIFE IS WITHIN THE MARATHON UNIVERSE ISN’T IT?!? DOES THAT MEAN THE FLOOD IS GONNA REACH EARTH?!?

[@ryatt9365]

I’m so jealous of the timeline where Bungie stayed mostly the same after leaving Halo and went on to connect these worlds more solidly. Basically if all the modern corporate gaming bullshit never touched Destiny, causing the deterioration of the series and forcing most of the original creatives to give up on their vision of these shared universes, all before their first entry was even out the door. Allowing them to eventually return to Halo and possibly even Marathon after their run with Destiny is over, either to further expand all 3 worlds or just to put a nice bow on it all. All of these universes are so amazing on their own, but a world where they were all officially connected over time would’ve put them all on a whole different level from most other works of fiction.

[@FTGHaloFreek]

Destiny 2 30th anniversary event is based in a junction of sorts where you can get rewards from other bungie games

[@ZyrusSmith]

4:04 Did you just call Master Chief a cyborg?

[@sebbytheshogun3859]

I dunno if this means anything, but when there was the mention of seven timelines, that might be the core of all the Halo number seven references. Though, that's just a thought. I just had the number seven lodged in my mind because it's very prominent to Halo and it could have significance to something else in the Bungieverse.

[@WaveOfDestiny]

Bungie loves 7 in general. It's literally everywhere in their games, not just Halo.

[@GhostLink92]

The best part of the Halo community way back when Halo 3 was in development, was the theory crafting. The terminal ARG they did with Adjutant Reflex was some of the coolest shit I'd seen for a game. Bungie loved their work, and they handled it with a respect we'll just never see again. The engagement with their fans was unparalleled at the time, and even today IMO. I didn't know just how off the rails Marathon got until I saw Mandalore Gaming's series on it. It's crazy.

[@colbyboucher6391]

So, what's kinda funny is... Frank O' Connor did that ARG. It was basically his first public-facing roll and the first hints of where he wanted to push the universe. (He went on to do the H3 terminals.)

[@Optican_Medic]

I was laughing 23 minutes and 50 seconds from that aluminium hat

[@RosheenQuynh]

So you didn't hear any of the video...?

[@Optican_Medic]

@@RosheenQuynh i did

[@RosheenQuynh]

@@Optican_Medic Then your comment confuses me

[@Optican_Medic]

@@RosheenQuynh it was funny that xperia wore that hat

[@RosheenQuynh]

@optican_klastorna_kalcia I mean, it was but laughing for the _entire_ length of the video? Bruh

[@Zawfee]

Thank you for pointing out all these connections! I was slowly coming up with a lot of these myself but i dont create content. There's so much that blatantly ties all these games together. All the different alien races in each game having them fighting against each other while a larger dark force looms in the background. Ahh its all so good! This is soooo satisfying. Dont forgot to tie in Oni! The name alone...

[@WaveOfDestiny]

This video is almost perfect. You did almost exactly what i was about to do. It's not a coincidence i changed my name to wave of destiny. The Bungieverse is not only absolutely real, but it's one of the best narratives and philosophies in fiction ever to me. The feeling that hit me when i realized that i was fighting the same Darkness in Destiny that i was fighting and was scared by as a child when they were named the Flood, the same enemy that my father fought in Marathon, impersonating the same hero that is able to write his own fate, to change his own destiny, was literally impossible to describe, a sense being exactly where you are supposed to be, growing up with Bungie and being in a new chapter of your own life, fighting what previously made you scared as an adult. It speaks to my soul and my entire life so much that i actually cried during the end of this video. Bungie, their games and philosophy, are such a big part of my soul that part of the reason i am who i am now as a person is because of them. I can literally psychoanalyze myself and find out that many parts of me, what i like, what i desire, how i play, how i act, are connected to elements of their work, it almost feels like they are my third parent. Idk if you know about them, but the connections you mentioned between these games are only the tip of the iceberg honestly. The Bungieverse permeates almost every aspect of the games in a fundamental way, even the main plots of the games feel like simply rivers that flow into the drains that are drawn by the verse. In fact this very thing is the entire plot of Destiny right now, as the Witness aims to combine the light and dark to see and control these rivers, these timelines, and stop the guardians from guiding them into what he calls chaos. The Witness wants to be the new Destiny, a being able to alter timelines and their flow so that they follow a rigid and predictable direction known as the final shape, pretty much destroying life in the process. Even Halo 3 follows this narrative almost completely, Halo 3 literally starts with Cortana saying that Chief is the chosen one, because he is lucky. Halo 3's protagonist is not chief, as a person, but it's literally Destiny. Tons of other connections all around the place like the Flood and the Darkness wanting the same thing, having the same propieties, the same powers (down to the flood having ontological powers that can alter the laws of phisics and turning the universe against its enemies, having an hive mind, the ability to take, the ability to remember what previous graveminds experience throught time and space, the ability to see in the unseen, the finality of death and eternity) and they even literally have the same quotes: the flood: "do not fear, i am peace, i am salvation" the darkness: "we are not enemies, we are not friends, we are salvation". Not to mention the flood infection forms always have 3 red tendrils they probably use to see, just like the hive worms in destiny always have 3 eyes. How about connecting the Traveller to the Halo rings? Both are round, both are technology, both personify the concept of the cycle of death and rebirth, both focus on making whoever uses their power forget who they are (the halos wiped the species and replanted their seeds, erasing every memory of what your species did in the past, the traveller requires you to die and resurrects you without any memory, which is a direct contrast of the Darkness and the flood, which aim at eternal life and eternal death, and grants you the power to remember things even past the laws of physics). Not to mention the fact that Marathon lore almost perfectly describes the concept of dark and the Winnower as the lore of Destiny does, including the element of the garden of creation. How about we add the fact that there are characters in Destiny who break the 4th wall and known they are withing a game and that the Guardian is contolled by something outside their existance like a puppet with strings? How about the activity dares of eternity in Destiny, which came out in Bungie's 30th anniversary, canonically giving to the guardian guns and armor that come from different universes, which are literally guns and armor from Halo, Marathon and Mith? With the character saying that "they belong to their original owner"? If i point out any other connection i might hit the character limit for youtube comments.

[@sierrakyst]

i theorized this exact theory like 7 years ago. im really glad you took the time to organize and find evidence to back the claim!

[@IDoABitOfTrollin]

I'm calling it, John will live much longer than normal because of his sped up evolution.

[@danielefabbro822]

Installation 00 have already stated that a Spartan 2 have a "service life" of 250 years roughly. That doesn't cover the entirety of Spartan 2 life. So we can think that a Spartan 2 or an Homo Augeos can at least live for 400-450 maybe even 500 years that for a Homo Sapiens would be like 95-100 years? Roughly. That's absurd. If you also think that they can "rest" in hypersleep for lots of years... well, MC could possibly become immortal.

[@ayoungtricknamedjim5498]

This kid is gonna blow a gasket when he figures out what "The Hero's Journey" is...

[@tapewormrage]

*cough, cough Dares of Eternity *cough, cough

[@isostrike1667]

Just wanna throw a quick mention to the Bungie paraverse introduced in the 30th anniv. update to D2, it essentially confirms that all bungie created franchises coexist and can be canonically intertwined at times.

[@belshah]

I think they definitely centre you as the hero, it gets pretty meta when they talk about Cortana taking over the Chief's body like we do when we're controlling him

[@MasterOrona]

Awesome vid. I’d like to add during an Event in destiny (sorry it’s been a while) the cosmic horse event with Xur etc. there was a tube, or a pod that the ghost said something like “here lies an ancient warrior he has earned his rest, I’d rather not wake him” something along those lines. It made me think of Chief in cryo immediately but it could be any bungieverse hero.

[@Dryym]

This is one of those things that I can't really deny, But also that I am also not as much of a fan of. For whatever reason, While I am fine with crossovers in other situations, I don't particularly like the idea of Halo existing as anything other than its own separate thing. At least, Not unless you're doing alternate universe stuff.

[@LedZedd]

You're gonna be real dissapointed when you see the Marathon symbol is literally a part of the Halo CE logo and was on the box.

[@Dryym]

@@LedZedd Again. I can't really deny the intent there. I just don't care for it on a personal level. I prefer to think of stuff like the Marathon references and 7 references as just easter eggs rather than some fundamental canonical metacommentary thing.

[@LedZedd]

@@Dryym Cope

[@collincortright8640]

This video gives me faith in both Bungie's "Fall of Destiny" and in 343's handling of Halo. Perhaps we have lost sight and they still have it.

[@unknown_wolfxd]

Love your channel bro love your videos fr.

[@maskedspartan7397]

Bungie: let's just copy our old work and change up the names. Community: :O

[@casualG138]

As expected, HiddenXperia comes out from hiding🗿

[@Optican_Medic]

He was talking with noble 6 in his cave🍷🗿

[@HiddenXperia]

VisibleXperia has returned

[@Optican_Medic]

@@HiddenXperia How was it with 6? Did you order some moa burgers?

[@TJM990]

I remember a Destiny Lore guy going into the Eternal Hero stuff, pretty wild. Destiny straight up called it the Paraverse.

[@mayomaster1134]

Halo theory more like deez nutz

[@greg4052]

Dry. Very dry.

[@DovaDude]

Feel shame.

[@drone306]

You know what else runs halo and marathon like butter on? My fucking toaster oven.

[@Blitzkrieg23]

Thanos vs Master Chief

[@Zeraia420]

i knew this was going to turn into "you're the hero" between all games, but the way you slid that. WOW what a great video. I'm close to crying dude just wow

[@MrGarzo]

I've played Destiny since the Beta of Destiny 1 came out. There have been SO MANY things that you discover in Destiny that are heavily tied to Halo, Marathon, and beyond! Its actually fucking insane how their "Long term story telling" has gone

[@ducksnr]

“The eternal hero isn’t some universe hopping spiritual entity….it’s us” CHILLS! And the music my god dude that was good

[@XaelVT]

I loved the destiny part towards the end. It was said in lore in destiny that our guardian (the playable character) Is the greatest guardian to ever exist. This very much fits into the hero soul theory. In lore there is a hidden agent that says this about our guardian (VIP-2014), "I am not an expert on psychology, but there is definitely something wrong with VIP-2014, and there are two possibilities I can suggest; VIP-2014 is either the single greatest guardian to have ever lived, who has some higher understanding of the Light and the universe that we are unable to comprehend, and this granted them great power and knowledge at the cost of their sanity." Its a nice and crazy lore tidbit that not many have seen but worth sharing. Love the video and the content man! Keep it up!

[@Thunderstar7]

I linked the cortana letters to Destiny 2. My own crackpot theory I will not elaborate on.

[@themanfromjupiter910]

This type of theory speculation literally fueled my childhood soul. I literally lived off of this type of theory crafting back then and always looked for clues in games

[@juergensnudat323]

You had me tearing up from 21:50 on. I was thinking about all the bungie games i had played and how big of a impact they had on my childhood. Thank you for that

[@FireFlyMaxx]

I loved the video. It's all connected. Destiny 2 has Stockholmed me for almost a decade. Yes there's a tie between All of their works in one spot. Bungie 30th anniversary for Destiny 2 has the Halo CE side arm, called "Forerunner" and was found in a cryo tube where a Spartan traveled across timelines, armor and other weapons from ALL of Bungies franchies.

[@ryotodoryu8919]

What i love about this is you can clearly see that as the story has developed they just made new games based around the newer story but all containing the core story the original plot line and because of this unusual type of story evoloution fans have formed a theory conecting it all back into one great story. What an amazing comunity halo has.

[@storm1OG]

This isn't a critique on the video, or the theory presented. I'd like to pose my theory that, when you quoted Alex Seropian, it's left to a broader interpretation. I won't be drawing it to connections in lore, however. His quote: "What Marathon players didn't know is that the character they were playing was the very first incarnation of Master Chief... I don't think you ever find that out, but it's the same character. God, we've never said that before, but it's completely obvious. Cortana isn't in Marathon, but there are three A.I.s in there that came from the same stylistic story line." I take into consideration that Bungie, as a fledgling company at the time of making Marathon, was trying to make memorable games on a budget. What Alex could be saying is the game they would realize they TRULY wanted to make was in fact, Halo once they got the ball rolling, so to speak. The BEGINNINGS of it were experienced in Marathon. When he said, "... I don't think you ever find that out, but it's the same character." I interpreted that within this context as, 'I'm not sure the players will realize this, but the IDEA of Master Chief started in Marathon. He's essentially that same character but fleshed out more.' Continuing on, it's better to read the quote as whole to help contextualize it more as he then seems to make a realization: "... God, we've never said that before," and then "... but it's completely obvious." Here he's had a sort of epiphany on what he said before as the realization hits him that, 'Wow without Marathon we wouldn't've made Halo. We really made our "better" Marathon.' He concludes with another correlation including Cortana as well: "Cortana isn't in Marathon, but there are three A.I.s in there that came from the same stylistic story line." Given the context clues, its self-explanatory. "... that came from the same stylistic story line." One could infer that, as a whole, the quote is the Co-Founder/Co-Creator saying they were inspired by Marathon to make Halo. Given the information you presented as well here, from the first draft of Halo to the 'Bungie-verse', I interpret it as a company repeating a good idea that captures a wide audience and original fanbase of their products. They like our stories with [Insert Impressionable Trait] main character with x/y/z guns and [Insert Impressionable Traits] A.I. companion character fighting extraterrestrial existential threats. The formula is repeatable, the money is nigh infinite because so. Add what's popular nowadays (BRs, micro-tranX, cosmetics, battle passes, DLCs, Pre-Orders, etc.) and you've got Destiny 2, Halo Infinite, and more than likely the soon to be Marathon game.

[@ElbowThief]

Kind of a silly but lovely way to connect these stories. Every protagonist is the same person, but that person can be you or me. Never let that philosophy go, Bungie.

[@Vashtehstampde]

Multiple stories with LINKS to one another where you embody the reincarnation of a silent main protagonist that is the hero of their respective story? I didn't realize this was a Legend of Zelda lore channel now

[@SGT.Sroom-ji1pb]

As Mick Gordon once said, (whilst reffering the heavy mettle choir he got for Doom Eternal, as well as the rest of the Doom community,) "They had just as much part of the process as any of us. They're the ones that have kept Doom going for 25 years."

[@starsilverinfinity]

So The link between between all the Bungie games are. . .us? Damn, thats. . .deep

[@SleepyKurisu]

This is insane to watch, crazy how obsessed people were with video games before they really made a name for themselves Nowadays it's somewhat common knowledge that games take inspiration from each other and troupes are multiplied everywhere, talking about this back in the early 2000s must've been really fun

[@colbyboucher6391]

If you want to see a relic of that, look up the "Marathon story page" and Marathon's fan website more generally. It's an awesome archive of Marathon's story, deep dives into little conspiracy theories about it, speedrunning boards, Bungie's early communication with major community members about Halo...

[@MassDamage1337]

So if destiny and halo are in the same timeline… is the traveler the mantle of responsibility?

[@VIDireWolfIV]

it's definitely just references for fun, but this theory is so fun to think about and it somehow works.

[@WaveOfDestiny]

It's not references and fun, it's canonical, Bungie confirmed Marathon and Halo's protagonists are reincarnations of each other.

[@1256813790]

What an ending, almost cried. Great video.

[@pr3historic647]

What song is that at 19:40? I know it but can't place it

[@BrandonBreezeyVirgo]

I’m glad one of the greatest Halo KZbinrs still exists. Ultimate Halo, Reflex’sHalo, Jkprising, etc have all been since declared MIA.

[@LucaPalomo-zy2jh]

22:38 This bit really gets me, love your videos Mr. Experia

[@silentphotographer117]

I will point out that Master chief is actually sleeping in a pod in Destiny , and is actually not the player character. This was confirmed in gameplay in destiny 1.

[@stinbray1120]

so im like ten seconds into your explanation and does that mean that master chief is the reincarnation of link and cortana is zelda (not to mention the other possible connection to doom)

[@flawlesscowboy1173]

God, hearing HiddenXperia talk about Destiny lore is so badass and makes me wish he made Destiny lore videos. It is definitely my second favorite franchise/universe next to Halo's. I enjoy watching Byf and Meylin for Destiny lore but Luc just has a certain energy that intrigues my ears into paying full attention to what he is saying. Maybe one day he will get super into Destiny or at least enough to make a full lore video on it.

[@dalektrekkie]

The problem with trying to dive into Destiny lore is that it's a very deep rabbit hole to go into and there's been so many retcons that unless you spend an inordinate amount of time catching up to the recent stuff before you even put out the first video you're bound to get some things wrong if you try and start from the beggining.

[@flawlesscowboy1173]

@@dalektrekkie facts

[@sheahi]

The Hero soul is kind of a silly idea when you think that a fair number of them are there at the same time. The way I see this is they are different universes similar to the Marathon split universe. Destiny is Marathon if X happened instead and the end of Halo 3 could be the beginning of Marathon 1 if Y were to happen but asside from all that they're mostly just references.

[@KertaDrake]

I always felt like Halo might actually be a VERY distant sequel with the Halo universe being the one Durandal sought to escape to at the end of Marathon's universe. For a more wild guess as to the connection, there is a bit of an implication that the player character survived somehow and gained a lot of potential power, which could explain the human-centric nature of the Halo universe if there was something trying to guide the universe into becoming something more familiar to itself... perhaps even becoming linked the Precursors in a way, as a lot of the stuff they were capable of seemed to be the sort of thing you would only learn if something with fundamental knowledge of the universe gave away that information.

[@1337GameDev]

That intro really got me... I was beginning to think about a theory where halo 4 and onwards didn't happen.....

[@lazychief69]

Halo is def an alternate universe to marathon, it’s like seeing the same characters but they are completely different

[@tallonmetroids271]

Oddly enough, I now finally understand what RvB was referencing with Church going back in time, like, 10,000 times...

[@wyattengel6725]

Now that's a sales pitch and a half, "You're the inheritor of the subscribe button." ^^ Good on you man, love it

[@rtasvadum1810]

This is why I love Bungie and their OG lore. There's so much that they layered onto all their stuff. Not sure if you saw it but in Destiny there's a lot of Halo references as well. For their 50th anniversary exotic quest the player had to put together a 7th column icon by standing at a special location in the map and looking in a specific direction. Around the same map the player could pick up skulls to get lore quotes. My favorite was "Durendal was laughing" For those curious, the location is the arena you can access in Xur's treasure horde. Quest line is for the Forerunner exotic sidearm.

[@craigthebrute118]

Dont forget that in elsewhere, chief's cryo pod can be found with his magnum that he had at the end of halo 3. As if in destiny one of the timelines collided and This version of chief branched off from The rest of the halo games while he was in cryo sleep after halp 3

[@darthjayder9914]

I like the philosophical statement of us being the hero, but I don't feel that it makes this theory actually validated unless the soul is a certain thing that literally exists. what I would like to see is a more in-depth timeline of events that connects all of the events together if they do, because I like the idea of all of these games existing in the Bungie mega-verse, and following a sort of meta-meta timeline of events. because it certainly looks like all of the games could very well exist in the same meta-reality, your theory is just missing context to tie it together and make it solid, and I think reviewing a timeline would help give it that context and make it solid, like bone, if you will, instead of staying like it is now, like smoke. great concept, its just missing the floor to stand on.

[@CrashOzzy1223]

2:07 with one small detail there can be a near infinite number of timelines, universes, multiverses, and omniverses just changing that small thing.

[@GusJenkinsElite]

Completing games as a kid, seeing the "Thank you" message after the credits was always gratifying. However, the feeling after seeing Bungie's message is world's above, I could really feel it coming from them.

[@Psudostooge]

It all leads back to the key, the linchpin, the very crux of bungee Gnop

[@keaganwheeler-mccann8565]

What is Gnop, human?

[@Psudostooge]

@@keaganwheeler-mccann8565gnop is the greatest mystery of our day, an enigma wrapped in layers of metaphors and metaphysics shrouded in darkness that when read backwards spells pong

[@drakenforge4276]

​@@keaganwheeler-mccann8565 just a funny little ball flying in space. A pong clone for MAC if you will. Is it the comet? The Traveler? The W'rkncacnter? Or are they all the same entity, floating in timeless space influencing the very fabric of the worlds they affect?

[@intuitionedits2.032]

"The eternal hero isn't some soul hopping entity. It's us." I didn't even think of it that way.