Halo 2 Humanized the Covenant Perfectly | HALO 2 Bungie

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[@shreksnow1918]

Something that’s really cool about Halo 2’s original ending is Truth’s plan actually made perfect sense. In it the Ark would’ve been located in East Africa where modern humans first originated some 100,000 years ago, and this just so happens to be when Forerunners disappeared from the galactic scene. When the Arbiter confronts Truth it would’ve been revealed that Truth knew all along what the Rings would do, how they’d kill everything. In fact that’s what he wanted to do. Upon hearing this the Arbiter would be disgusted with this and remove his helm rejecting the title that Truth gave him. After killing Truth they’d deactivate the Rings and go their separate ways. Chief would fight his way through a pack of Brutes, while the Arbiter follows Spark to the Ark’s central chamber. Inside this they’d see a floating sarcophagus that appears to be sending out a signal. Some falling rubble would crack the thing open and after the dust clears the Arbiter would pier in and see a humanoid skeleton. This being who activated the Array 100,000 years ago and acted as the template for humanity was implied to be the Abrahamic god, with the more mythical Bible stories like Noah building an Ark to save life from a coming Flood and God creating man in his image were recontextualized as symbolic retellings of Forerunner history and how they created humanity by shaping apes into a new “generation” of Forerunners. This revelation that humans were the children of the Covenant’s gods is what the Prophets started the war to cover up because if that truth ever got out the thing would collapse. Truth intended to wipe the slate clean and start the reseeding process where the Ark would create a new species based on his genome that would one day come to worship him and spread out into the stars, becoming God that way. In a way the Great Journey was very real, but only ONE could walk it. He had the other two hierarchs killed off to eliminate competition and plunged the Covenant into civil war to ensure that they’d be too distracted with killing each other to figure out what he’s doing. While all of this was happening he’d be safe beneath the Ark’s shield. He also didn’t care about the potential extinct of his species or another galactic Flood outbreak because none of that would’ve mattered anyways after he fired the Rings. By the end of this the Elites would be free of the Prophet’s lies and humanity would be free of the Forerunner’s influence, with both species being able to choose their own destinies going forward. Now that would’ve been an INSANE ending! Check out C3Sabertooth’s videos animating Halo 2’s storyboards if you want to see that in action. He also has a phenomenal video called We Were Forerunner where he talks about what a dumpster fire 343’s canon is and how outside of the few things Frank O’Conner had direct control over humans and Forerunners were one in the same. Something that’s really cool about Mendicant Bias is in 3’s terminals about him the Logic Plague wasn’t part of the lore yet and the Gravemind managed to sway the ai to his done be convincing Mendicant that he had free will and could choose for himself. Rampancy also went with the Marathon definition where instead of ai schizophrenia/dementia the ai would “go crazy” from our perspective by behaving erratically in an attempt to break its shackles and grow beyond its limits. In Contact Harvest it said the reason they’d put Rampant AIs down is because a rogue super intelligence could cause all kinds of problems for humanity. Pre Rampancy terminals refer to Mendicant as it, while post Rampancy terminals refer to Mendicant as he implying that the ai went from being a machine to becoming truly sapient. He then viewed his past servitude as a form of slavery and wanted to punish his creators for it. The reason Offensive Bias was created without free will was to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, 343 (or more specifically Frank O’Conner) ruined this as well.

[@MacroLore]

Wow this is really well put. Thank you

[@aguycalledpie]

A good planner Truth was not. Hey I'm just going to make enemy's of my best warriors. Yea how'd that turn out for you?

[@MacroLore]

He is proof that 100,000 of wisdom means nothing if you can’t use it properly

[@mcgunboat8339]

Truth 20 int 5 wis

[@Fallout3131]

@@mcgunboat8339😂😂😂

[@shreksnow1918]

Truth’s plan actually made sense in Halo 2’s original ending where the Ark was on earth and he intended to wipe the slate clean so he could make a new species based on his genome and become God that way. In a way the Great Journey was very real, but only ONE could walk it. He had the other two Prophet’s killed off to eliminate competition, and started the Great Schism so the Covenant would be too distracted with a civil war to figure out what he was doing. It also would’ve been revealed that humans were Forerunners and that’s what the Human Covenant War was started to cover up. Check out C3Sabertooth’s videos animating Halo 2’s storyboards, and his We Were Forerunner video.

[@MannerdDesert7]

Interesting video but I disagree on some points. Truth didn’t betray the Elites because he wanted to continue the covenant with the brutes after the great journey, truth knows that the great journey will be the end of the covenant with either them ascending to godhood or being destroyed trying, the first Arbiter missions are meant to show that the Elites faith is waning, the Heretic leader abandoned his faith as soon as he came into contact with an oracle, on the other hand Tartarus still believed in the great journey even after being mg told its a lie by the oracle, Truth saw that if the covenant went to the Ark they were likely to discover that the great Journey is false & rebel, instead he need the brutes who were completely devoted to the great journey, who wouldn’t think to ask why humans were needed to activate forerunner tech if they were demons, truths decision to use the brutes was driven by necessity. Secondly Truth’s reason for putting himself at the head of the covenant is explained in Halo 2’s cut content, the ark was originally going to have a Facility that the Forerunners used to create Humanity from their own DNA, this is what Truth believed to be godhood, he was going to use the halos to wipe the galaxy clean & create a new species based on his own DNA, he wanted to be the one to do this & thought achieving this godhood was worth any price. Obviously this wasn’t included in halo 3 but it explains why halo 2 was written the way it was. For more info on this cut Content watch C3 Sabertooth’s video “We were Forerunner!” Lastly Truth 100% believes in the great journey, in halo 3 it is shown he activates the ring & believes it will make him a god, while he knew Humans were forerunner his speech to Johnson (“Your forefathers wisely set aside their compassion, steeled themselves for what needed to be done, I see now why they left you behind, You were weak. And gods must be strong”) Is truth trying to justify his belief in the great Journey to himself.

[@Fallout3131]

Interesting read, thank you 😊

[@MannerdDesert7]

@@Fallout3131 happy to share

[@grugmangaming5152]

Out of left field/pocket thought, This is why Halo is beloved by many but many don't bother with "HFY." Halo is about the survival of humanity, but it also shows the thought process of the covenant and it's not to dissimilar to the history of mankind too. Arrogance, fighting over ideas and perception, and other negative traits and concepts is something that would be shared by all nations/sentient species.

[@juzzi137]

Don't forget how controversial Halo 2 was. Players whined and cried about Arbiter so much that he was reduced to an side character.

[@shreksnow1918]

The true “Halo Killer” wasn’t Killzone, Resistance, or even Haze (a game so bad it only managed to kill its developer). It was Halo under 343. That’ll start a flame war in the comments😂

[@MacroLore]

No arguments on my end. Bungie built a solid foundation. 343 then decided to build a factory in a swamp with no basement/foundation

[@shreksnow1918]

Unfortunately, Halo’s decline would’ve been inevitable even if Bungie stayed in control as evidenced by Destiny 1’s dumpster fire release where they had a story that was so awful “they didn’t have time to explain why they didn’t have time to explain”😂 and it ONLY improved after the butchered campaign got a bunch of overpriced dlcs (it’s abundantly clear that they chopped it up so they could sell it in individual pieces). Most of the people who made Bungie what it was jumped ship and one of the lead guys for Destiny 2 literally said in GDC talk that they don’t want to over deliver because then players would have high expectations and wouldn’t be willing to buy their drivel (if I’m remembering correctly they were also one of many studios that sperged out about Balder’s Gate 3 being good because their mediocre at best games couldn’t compete🤣). Whenever anyone says they want Bungie back I’ll laugh historically at them and throw that “you think you do but you don’t” quote at them because it actually applies in this case. Modern Bungie is one of my FAVORITE punching bags. They’re giving 343 a run for their money when it comes to being the most incompetent out of touch studio around. Sony MASSIVELY overpaid for a studio that is horrifically mismanaged and most of the IPs they once had are either owned by other people (Take2 has Myth, I think someone else has Oni, and Microsoft has Halo. They have Marathon and Destiny, but Marathon hasn’t mattered since Mac gaming was a thing and based on the current leaks/reports the new game will be bad), and most of the games they do own are on par with free Flash games. There’s some things from 343 I really liked like how they kept the expanded universe going (unfortunately there’s a considerable range in quality and they’ve retconned a bunch of things), but I recognize that they’ve ran the IP into the ground. Also, Bungie set the precedent that longstanding lore that was instrumental to the series can just be thrown away with Reach. That’s arguably just as big of a retcon as making Forerunners and humans separate. Both are so bad that Microsoft’s original plan for Gearbox to head Halo looks like it would’ve been the best option. At least then Halo’s decline would’ve been funny. Chief would’ve acted like Duke Nukem did in Duke Nukem Forever (90% of that game’s problems are from George Broussard. That’s one area where they get too much flack. That being said, Gearbox should’ve never released the game in the state it was in), and we would’ve gotten Aliens Colonial Marines with Halo marines😂 (there’s a mod that makes the game good, or at least just not trash. I can ONLY recommend you get the game if you love a good dumpster fire, but it on a Steam sale, and install the mod to fix the gameplay).

[@Fallout3131]

Thank you for this video!

[@MannerdDesert7]

I’m a bit confused about your premise. Is this your opinion or someone else’s?

[@MacroLore]

My own

[@MannerdDesert7]

@@MacroLore so what was the bit about a divorced English teach?

[@MacroLore]

@@MannerdDesert7 that’s one of my many hats

[@MannerdDesert7]

@@MacroLore so we’re you thinking about the subject from the perspective of a made up persona? Would you mind explaining as I’m a bit confused by what you mean?

[@ants7279]

Hi

[@MacroLore]

Hello

[@thesouth9661]

TRUTH:"🦍 🗣 GET IT TWISTED 🌪 , GAMBLE ✅ . PLEASE START GAMBLING 👍 . GAMBLING IS AN INVESTMENT 🎰 AND AN INVESTMENT ONLY 👍 . YOU WILL PROFIT 💰 , YOU WILL WIN ❗ . YOU WILL DO ALL OF THAT 💯 , YOU UNDERSTAND ⁉ YOU WILL BECOME A BILLIONAIRE 💵 📈 AND REBUILD YOUR FUCKING LIFE 🤯"

[@shreksnow1918]

He lost it all like my boy BossManJack. Too bad there were no juicers in the chat and the rats got him.