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Halo 4 Story Spoilers and Speculations

F

Fuchsdh

Member
DoctorWho said:
Man, as much as I want this I know it's going to be out-of-date every few years.
Click to expand...

I got the revised edition and it's pretty good, but as a big canon fan I knew most of it already--it's just nice to have something easier to refer to than page numbers from another book. Most of the big differences are expressly clearing up minor details of contention that could have been seen as multiple interpretations.

EDIT top page? Random GIF!
9TNBX.gif
 
D

Demoncarnotaur

Member
I finished Thursday War this morning. It wasn't a bad book by any means, but it felt really tame and it really didn't go anywhere. There weren't any major retcons or characters acting out of character, so thats a plus. Still...it was interesting, but I would have liked more. I really would have liked to see a chapter from the Arbiters or Halseys perspective. Traviss probably doesn't like or something though.

Slightly Live said:
So, how about the first description of Didact in Halo 4?



From here.
Click to expand...

Whoa. Ok when I read the article more recently the description was different, less detailed:

"Reaching the final stage of the level also introduced the game’s antagonist: a huge, grotesque Forerunner beast, who is also the commander of the Prometheans. His introduction is fairly startling, as he has the verbose and hyperbolic crazy-man chatter that is synonymous with all good super villains and he’s a huge monstrous figure… In short, he’s the perfect Halo antagonist. Better than that floating octopus, anyway."
Click to expand...
I really don't like the description you posted...it seems Kenneth Scott is determined to make everything look like the monster.

Also, the edited article confirms GTTV/Spike fucked up by revealing the Didact.. How does that even happen?
 
F

Flipyap

Member
Demoncarnotaur said:
Whoa. Ok when I read the article more recently the description was different, less detailed:


I really don't like the description you posted...it seems Kenneth Scott is determined to make everything look like the monster.
Click to expand...
You have to remember that Greg Bear was basing his descriptions of things established in the game on artwork provided by 343. At this point, any discrepancy between our perception of the book's descriptions and what will end up in the game is purely the fault of our brains... and maybe a bit of corporate/creative secrecy's, which probably held some things back from being revealed.

This could also be a clue to the specific Didact's identity - the brevet mutation did turn Bornstellar into an awkward, misshapen thing between rates.

And, hell, it might be for the best, I think I've seen enough "handsome" humanoid giants infiltrating things I like for one lifetime.

QMIwX.jpg
 
D

Demoncarnotaur

Member
Yeah, I know..Just I hope they literally haven't turned him into a savage looking monster. Hulking body mass and claws really doesn't live up to what I know of the forerunners, even after mutations. I guess its a wait and see thing, but after all the monstery looking covenant and flood redesigns Im not sure what to think.
 
F

Flipyap

Member
Demoncarnotaur said:
Yeah, I know..Just I hope they literally haven't turned him into a savage looking monster. Hulking body mass and claws really doesn't live up to what I know of the forerunners, even after mutations. I guess its a wait and see thing, but after all the monstery looking covenant and flood redesigns Im not sure what to think.
Click to expand...
Doesn't it? Prometheans are supposed to be 4 meters tall with limbs like tree trunks. They're also supposed to have six fingers - that gives them plenty room for huge claws.
We know very little about their appearance - some skin colors, hairy napes, big chins and the lack of a nose. I guess we're supposed to find the Librarian attractive (Giggles The Elite 2.0?), but the loosely described males could look like anything, from a Brute to a hairy Salarian. Even more so since the concept of mutation allows for many wildly different designs within one species.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Flipyap said:
Doesn't it? Prometheans are supposed to be 4 meters tall with limbs like tree trunks. They're also supposed to have six fingers - that gives them plenty room for huge claws.
We know very little about their appearance - some skin colors, hairy napes, big chins and the lack of a nose. I guess we're supposed to find the Librarian attractive (Giggles The Elite 2.0?), but the loosely described males could look like anything, from a Brute to a hairy Salarian. Even more so since the concept of mutation allows for many wildly different designs within one species.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I'd rather not have them look like either a human conception of a monster or the Prometheus/StarCraft Protoss/whathaveyou "hairless, less defined facial features human face" thing too.

The description in Cryptum made me think the lower rates sort of looked like Brutes that took an etiquette and hygiene course and swapped out some thorn beast for some soy.
 
D

Demoncarnotaur

Member
Brutes are Forerunners, of course! :lol


One issue I did have with Thursday War is what the hell happened to Elites respecting humans? It seems they all think of us as a parasite similar to the Flood now, while past books have painted a very different picture. I just hate how black and white it is, same with the humans willing to commit genocide on the Elites.
 
D

Deadly

Member
Demoncarnotaur said:
Brutes are Forerunners, of course! :lol


One issue I did have with Thursday War is what the hell happened to Elites respecting humans? It seems they all think of us as a parasite similar to the Flood now, while past books have painted a very different picture. I just hate how black and white it is, same with the humans willing to commit genocide on the Elites.
Click to expand...
I don't remember much about the books since it's been so long since I've read them but just in Halo 3 they still hated eachother. That Elite that said he'd glass the whole planet if he could and there's Admiral Hood saying he wouldn't forgive them.
 
S

Slightly Live

Dirty tag dodger
Guys remember one thing, we're getting biased perspectives here, particularly from characters with extreme viewpoints.

The extreme religious anti-human elites hate humans? Shocking.
The frontline former ODST and ONI folks hate Elites? Shocking.

Don't forget Hood spent a long time fighting the Covenant. He's lost alot of friend, possibly family and many people that served under or with him. The effects of wars can last generations so you can't expect everyone to be BFF's shortly after hostilities officially end. Hood is still trying to maintain a peaceful alliance between the Elites with the Arbiter and humanity. ONI is still fucking about doing the dirty work it think it needs to do.

There are plenty of Elites who'd happily see humanity wiped out and same goes with humans about the Elites.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Demoncarnotaur said:
Brutes are Forerunners, of course! :lol


One issue I did have with Thursday War is what the hell happened to Elites respecting humans? It seems they all think of us as a parasite similar to the Flood now, while past books have painted a very different picture. I just hate how black and white it is, same with the humans willing to commit genocide on the Elites.
Click to expand...

Slightly Live said:
Guys remember one thing, we're getting biased perspectives here, particularly from characters with extreme viewpoints.

The extreme religious anti-human elites hate humans? Shocking.
The frontline former ODST and ONI folks hate Elites? Shocking.

Don't forget Hood spent a long time fighting the Covenant. He's lost alot of friend, possibly family and many people that served under or with him. The effects of wars can last generations so you can't expect everyone to be BFF's shortly after hostilities officially end. Hood is still trying to maintain a peaceful alliance between the Elites with the Arbiter and humanity. ONI is still fucking about doing the dirty work it think it needs to do.

There are plenty of Elites who'd happily see humanity wiped out and same goes with humans about the Elites.
Click to expand...

Well, I think the 'taur is onto something. Elites have been portrayed very inconsistently in that regard. Nylund's Elites (in FS, and TFoR) were pretty damn... one-dimensional, frankly. (Remember that they'd rather fight unarmed and die rather than pick up a human weapon?) Dietz's Elites considered humans mostly vermin, but admitted their tactical skill, and the Elites themselves were a bit more pragmatic. Halo 2 shifted their portrayal further to one of "you guys are all right in my book, right?" even as they were snuffing them out--their tenacity was respected, and were at least viewed as worthier adversaries. Halo 3 still showed the animosity that existed, however, and emphasized it more than Halo 2, really.

I think you can see the Glasslands Elites are more a metaphor for a failing culture. The Elites have unwittingly become more "human" in their acceptance of deceit rather than honor, and I think some of the backlash against humanity comes from a subconscious recognition of that, as well as the fact that when everything's going to hell you tend to blame your historic enemies (hello, Jews and Gypsies in 30s Germany!)
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Finally finished The Thursday War. I thought Glasslands was good, but Thursday War was much better, especially because they actually fleshed out Kilo-5; after reading Glasslands I barely knew their names and they seemed pretty interchangeable, but this fleshed out most of the characters much better. Black Box continues to be the most interesting expanded universe character IMO. I think there were a few too many plotlines for us to get enough of a perspective on all of them, however. It could have been two separate books.
 
N

NobleGundam

Banned
My perspective of Arby & The Chief's "Counter-Part Antagonists" are evident to be: Jul M'dama & Didact. Hopefully, imo, we get to fight (maybe kill) Jul in Halo 4 or 5.
halo2.png
 
F

Flipyap

Member
NobleGundam said:
My perspective of Arby & The Chief's "Counter-Part Antagonists" are evident to be: Jul M'dama & Didact. Hopefully, imo, we get to fight (maybe kill) Jul in Halo 4 or 5.
halo2.png
Click to expand...
If we ever see Jul in a game, five bucks says it's the Didact who gets to murder the hell out of him - for fun, or just a bit of quiet. Those fanatics must get tiresome.
Honestly, I can't imagine ever getting to personally kill any of Halo's "cutscene bosses", which is why I think the focus on a singular bad guy with a singular headshottable face is going to be problematic.

Zeal said:
The elites totally sound like they are speaking a gibberish form of Japanese now.
Click to expand...
Yes, they do, but it's the constant use of our "Requiem" that really bothers me (the part where it sounds like he says "no" isn't much better). It sounds extremely artificial, Kingon-esque and it makes me scared that they might be trying to turn Latin into an ancient space language.
Ugh.
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
I just want to know if the Prometheans are actually Forerunners. They keep tiptoeing around that in videos.

No I don't. Yes, you do. No, I want to be suprised. No, you don't. Yes, I DO DAMMIT. You will be back.
 
A

ArchedThunder

Banned
TheOddOne said:
I just want to know if the Prometheans are actually Forerunners. They keep tiptoeing around that in videos.

No I don't. Yes, you do. No, I want to be suprised. No, you don't. Yes, I DO DAMMIT. You will be back.
Click to expand...

I'm just gonna look at things, not gonna read too many plot spoilers. I just want to see what the Didact looks like and what every mission looks like. Maybe you should do the same.
 
F

Flipyap

Member
TheOddOne said:
I just want to know if the Prometheans are actually Forerunners. They keep tiptoeing around that in videos.

No I don't. Yes, you do. No, I want to be suprised. No, you don't. Yes, I DO DAMMIT. You will be back.
Click to expand...
"We didn't want them to look like robots, because they're not robots"
"We didn't want them to look like monsters, because they're not monsters"

SO WE MADE THEM LOOK LIKE ROBOTS WITH MONSTER FACES AND FLAMING DEMON SKULLS! WOO!
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
Flipyap said:
"We didn't want them to look like robots, because they're not robots"
"We didn't want them to look like monsters, because they're not monsters"

SO WE MADE THEM LOOK LIKE ROBOTS WITH MONSTER FACES AND FLAMING DEMON SKULLS! WOO!
Click to expand...
We found a compelling reason why Red Spartans fight Blue Spartans.
 
Darkmakaimura

Darkmakaimura

Member
TheOddOne said:
I just want to know if the Prometheans are actually Forerunners. They keep tiptoeing around that in videos.

No I don't. Yes, you do. No, I want to be suprised. No, you don't. Yes, I DO DAMMIT. You will be back.
Click to expand...
They are Forerunners or Forerunner creations. I thought that pretty much has been said. What else could they be unless they're introducing an entirely new race?
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
ArchedThunder said:
What he means is that we don't know if they are Forerunner or just Forerunner made.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

Side debate: Who feels we are getting to much of the backstory revealed? Like, I liked the idea of mystery, like finding the terminals in Halo 3. Vague text, but enough context to make us speculate. I just hope it isn't lost with the new series.
 
F

Flipyap

Member
TheOddOne said:
Side debate: Who feels we are getting to much of the backstory revealed? Like, I liked the idea of mystery, like finding the terminals in Halo 3. Vague text, but enough context to make us speculate. I just hope it isn't lost with the new series.
Click to expand...
I probably would, if a pickled Forerunner wasn't going to show his space monster face in the game. Once he does, there won't be much point in trying to preserve any mystery surrounding the Space Nazis.
The Precursors will likely take over that part of the fiction, and once they're revealed, it will be the Forebears. Once we deal with those, it will be the Antecedents, then the mysterious Progenitors and...

It's space ancestors all the way down.
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
Flipyap said:
I probably would, if a pickled Forerunner wasn't going to show his space monster face in the game. Once he does, there won't be much point in trying to preserve any mystery surrounding the Space Nazis.
The Precursors will likely take over that part of the fiction, and once they're revealed, it will be the Forebears. Once we deal with those, it will be the Antecedents, then the mysterious Progenitors and...

It's space ancestors all the way down.
Click to expand...
Would not suprise me :lol
 
Darkmakaimura

Darkmakaimura

Member
TheOddOne said:
Exactly.

Side debate: Who feels we are getting to much of the backstory revealed? Like, I liked the idea of mystery, like finding the terminals in Halo 3. Vague text, but enough context to make us speculate. I just hope it isn't lost with the new series.
Click to expand...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55zOTemj03k&list=UU7NCg0venpKJg3kuJojKlbQ&index=5&feature=plcp

02:56

"We didn't want them to look like robots because they're not robots."

Cyborgs or Forerunners in armor.... confirmed?
 
Darkmakaimura

Darkmakaimura

Member
DopeyFish said:
Or forerunners turned into AI who inhabit the machines
Click to expand...
Yeah, was thinking that it could be their consciousness within the armor, which is pretty close to being in the "cyborg" category. Wasn't there some Forerunner machine called the Composer or something that could take people's consciousness and put them in machines anyhow?
 
S

sp3000

Member
Flipyap said:
I probably would, if a pickled Forerunner wasn't going to show his space monster face in the game. Once he does, there won't be much point in trying to preserve any mystery surrounding the Space Nazis.
The Precursors will likely take over that part of the fiction, and once they're revealed, it will be the Forebears. Once we deal with those, it will be the Antecedents, then the mysterious Progenitors and...

It's space ancestors all the way down.
Click to expand...

The space ancestry thing is getting a bit old
 
Z

Zeal

Banned
I wonder if the Prometheans are reanimated Forerunner who have fallen in battle...

(I know 343 uses the plural ForerunnerS now, but that is wrong and I will always go by the original plural of Forerunner. It ain't JEDIS.)
 
D

Demoncarnotaur

Member
So...once the game leaks... will all the spoilers be posted here untagged? I want to avoid the big stuff once it starts coming, but wouldn't mind as much as long as its tagged in ways the at make sense such as:

Character death --->
spoiler goes here

Ancient Evil --->
spoiler goes here

That said, this is the spoiler thread, so if they are all fair game Ill just bail out when the time comes.

Flipyap said:
"We didn't want them to look like robots, because they're not robots"
"We didn't want them to look like monsters, because they're not monsters"

SO WE MADE THEM LOOK LIKE ROBOTS WITH MONSTER FACES AND FLAMING DEMON SKULLS! WOO!
Click to expand...

Yeah that bugs the hell out of me also. :lol
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
Flipyap said:
"We didn't want them to look like robots, because they're not robots"
"We didn't want them to look like monsters, because they're not monsters"

SO WE MADE THEM LOOK LIKE ROBOTS WITH MONSTER FACES AND FLAMING DEMON SKULLS! WOO!
Click to expand...
Haha, seriously. If Prometheans return in Halo 5, I hope they get some major design adjustments. 343 can explain the changes with lol nanobots (or hard light or whatever). Anything they want as long as they fix the ugly.

I mean, they're not terrible but they hardly look like the products of hyper-advanced technowizards. The most fitting (and damning) comparison that I've seen points to the resemblance between Promethean Knights and Metroid Prime's space pirates.
 
S

Slightly Live

Dirty tag dodger
Demoncarnotaur said:
So...once the game leaks... will all the spoilers be posted here untagged? I want to avoid the big stuff once it starts coming, but wouldn't mind as much as long as its tagged in ways the at make sense such as:

Character death --->
spoiler goes here

Ancient Evil --->
spoiler goes here

That said, this is the spoiler thread, so if they are all fair game Ill just bail out when the time comes.
Click to expand...

Pre-release leaks will be spoiler tagged until November 6th. It's not really nice when the game leaks early but inevitably it does and it's best to keep the spoilers in here where it's safe, but since it's before the actual release of the game, we should do the courteous thing and spoiler tag it and try best to label it.

When the game officially launches though, the gloves are off.
 
F

Flipyap

Member
Zeal said:
I wonder if the Prometheans are reanimated Forerunner who have fallen in battle...

(I know 343 uses the plural ForerunnerS now, but that is wrong and I will always go by the original plural of Forerunner. It ain't JEDIS.)
Click to expand...
If you're talking about the things that appear to be inside the Knights, they certainly weren't (or rather, shouldn't be) of the Forerunner warrior caste.
I still hope they're ancient humans (or, at the very least, Forerunners of some higher, not yet described higher rate), otherwise you might as well throw Greg Bear's novels away, or at least cross out all of his vague descriptions because of how unreliable they all are.

As for the other Prom units... I can't even begin to imagine any advanced culture that would choose to turn their dead into robot puppies, or robot butterflies with hula hoops who live inside another fallen comrade's butt.
 
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