Halo 4 Analysis

[Archerboy106]

Hey Guys, I know its been a REAL long time since i've been online and even longer since i've actually been active. However, I just recently beat Halo 4 on legendary solo (which wasn't as hard as I was expecting) and I figured who know Halo better than TNO? So I found some discrepancies regarding certain parts of the game such as how chief blatantly disobeys his CO and receives no punishment, Lasky is WAY too supportive of MC, (I know they have background and MC has saved him before) and finally how he survive the nuke, although I did read an explanation of that and it basically said Cortana manipulates the hardlight, which makes sense. Also, why are these covenant different? WHy do they exist? And finally, why did the Librarian care about saving humanity? I found a nice write-up talking about a lot of different aspects of the game excluding gameplay and really focuses on character and narrative in the game. I'm currently reading through it. http://haruspis.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/halo-4-level-by-level-analysis-reclaimer/ Anyway, hope you all are good. My first year of college flew by and can't wait to be back home and hang out with Sniper. Miss you guys.

[Naked Crook]

Well Archer...there are a few things that annoy me with Halo 4. I really thought about much of the same issues as you have just brought up, and I think I have answers for you....so...let me sort through your post and see what I can answer. 1. MC and his disobeying of orders. This one drove me nuts. Honestly...I think I am the only person who liked Captain Del Rio. Del Rio struck me as a REAL military officer who cared less about the MC as some legendary hero, and saw him more as what he was - a soldier. Del Rio applied military protocol rigidly and unapologetically, like any military veteran would. There is a clear chain of command and there were very VERY strict rules in place about first contact with new and potentially hostile races. Del Rio was simply following protocol (which confuses me as to why he was relieved of duty). I think Del Rio's mistake was leaving MC behind on Requiem while he went to inform the UNSC. Perhaps that can be seen as an unlawful order and perhaps that is why he was relieved. I cannot be sure. Besides that, Del Rio was giving everyone lawful orders. He ordered MC to turn over Cortana. He ordered Lasky to detain MC. He ordered Palmer to arrest MC. He ordered Cortana to stop doing her BSOD. All of these people stood there like morons and had confused looks on their face, as if they were wondering why Del Rio was doing his job. Like...get that malfunctoning hologram out of my state of the art computer. You are going to ruin my big computer! Anyway, I am shocked that MC was not court martialed for derivation of duty and disobeying the orders of the senior most officer in a combat situation. Lasky should also have been court martialed as well. He was ordered to stop MC, and he helps him escape instead. Palmer should have ALSO been court martialed cause she didn;t arrest MC when Del Rio told her to. I am sure by 2558...Humanity is like a SUPER surveillance state with sophisticated cameras and monitoring equipment every 12 inches. There was more than enough evidence to try and convict ALL THREE of them and strip them both of rank (or at least have them demoted or punished). Captain Del Rio, at worst, made a tactical error in his decision making process by leaving MC behind. MC and Lasky did what is known as "Insubordination". In the military...Insubordination is a very serious crime. Depending on the severity, you can be put to death for Insubordination. Given the situation of MC saving Earth, defeating The Didact, and losing his USB hard-copy copy of Windows Vista, A court MAY have been sympathetic and lenient on MC, and perhaps would have demoted him and put him on serious probation. However...Lasky and Palmer should be scrubbing the latrines and Del Rio should be telling them that they "do not deserve to wear that uniform". 2. Cortana's shield. It was Hard light manipulation. It was never really explained beyond that. I will accept that at face value cause Forerunner tech is advanced. 3. The Storm Covenant The Covenant soldiers you are fighting are called The Storm Covenant - or - The Covenant Remnant. Basically, a dude named Jul Ma'dama decided (after the end of the Human-Covenant war) that Humanity was a threat to his species, and he basically turned his back on The Arbiter, took a bunch of like-minded Elites with him, and basically continued most of the teachings of The Covenant. While he did not worshiped Halos or Forerunners...he did see them as a means to wipe out Humans. You can see a picture of this handsome fellow below. Anyway...Jul allied with these Elites called "Servants of the Abiding Truth" sorta out of necessity. The "Servants of the Abiding Truth" wanted to kill The Arbiter. However, Jul soon found out that ONI was secretly helping the "Servants of the Abiding Truth" by providing them weapons and such. ONI was doing this to spark a civil war with the Elites which would give Humanity the upper hand on the galactic stage. (Thank God for ONI...they are such patriots). Jul was eventually captured by ONI, they interrogated him, and used him a bit to learn more about Forerunner tech. However, Jul eventually escaped to some planet with a bunch of Isolated Elites on it that had no idea the war was over (they still worshiped the Forerunners as Gods). Jul leveraged this and basically built a massive army. 4. The Fucking Librarian The Librarian was Diadct's wife. She was responsible for indexing all life and putting it on a shield world or on The Ark. She had a special fondess for Humanity because she felt bad that The Forerunners fucked them up and defeated them in some war that took place a long time ago - where Humans and the San 'Shyuum were allied in the fight against The Flood. With the loss of Humanity and the San 'Shyuum, The Forerunners were trampled by The Flood. The Librarian felt bad, I guess, and she favored Humanity...no love for the San 'Shyuum...cause they look different.

[Kairu]

Yeah, after the cutscene and you hitch a ride on the Diadact's ship back to Earth. Master Chief radios the Infinity and calls for Del Rio. Laskey explicitly stated that "FLEETCOM didn't take too kindly to his [Del Rio's] abandoning you on Requiem. I'm afraid I'll have to do." With that quote, I would expect that even Chief knew that Del Rio was only doing his job and expected Del Rio to still be there. I would say that something happened behind the scenes during the "Shutdown" and "Composer" missions that had Palmer and Laskey still in their uniforms.

[Naked Crook]

Yeah, that is what happened Kairu. Still...I find it sorta odd how the details of that were never covered. It was almost as if 343i couldn't think of a reason as to why Del Rio was in such error that he deserved to be relieved of command. Like...in some ways, he made his decision based on already established protocols. Sure, in hindsight, he was wrong to avoid fighting The Didact...but...he was doing things by the book. Look at this: Halo 4 Campaign: All Cutscenes - YouTube Halo 4 Campaign: All Cutscenes - YouTube If you skip to 24:18...Del Rio makes it clear... "This is a first contact Scneario, Masterchief. Priority - we have to free Infinity from Requiems Gravity Well and file a threat assessment back at FLEETCOM. This makes it very clear that there IS an ESTABLISHED protocol with how to deal with this stuff. Del Rio is really big on protocols and being by the books, based on how he recites articles and such. I seriosuly doubt he would make this up in order to allow the Didact to get away. The only reason he would talked about filing threat assessments is because FLEETCOM expects this from their front line military personnel. You have to remember...Del Rio is commanding the MOST powerful Human ship ever built. If he losses that ship...if it gets destroyed, with all the intel and technology and manpower it is has - he would set the UNSC back back big time. Like...the UNSC would lose their best people and best ship. I am pretty sure he also has his orders to...I dunno...MAKE SURE HE DOESN'T BLOW IT UP! In other words...Del Rio was fired for doing what FLEETCOM would have expected him to do. The only reason he was relieved of duty was because they didn't want an old guy in command. (If you play Spartan Ops...notice how Lasky becomes an asshole just like Del Rio was before hand?) Major Evan Lorne of the Stargate Command - Atlantis Expedition...I mean Commander Lasky only got command cause hes was a nice guy who disobeys orders cause the protagonist and his holographic love interest disobey orders as well.

[Naked Crook]

Also...another thing I disliked... If you skipped to 46:23 when the Infinity fires 2 MAC rounds at The Mantle's Approach...it puts a pretty sizable hole in that ship. Why did they only fire one volley? Why didn't Lasky say "Keep firing...fire everything we have...don't stop shooting. Shoot every gun we have. Call the rest of the UNSC so we can all shoot guns at this ship that doesn't have shields anymore." They could have shot The Mantle's approach RIGHT where the Composure was. That would have damaged or disabled the main gun for sure. Had Lasky ordered a "Fire at Will"...The Mantle's Approach would have been a derelict - burning in space - rip for the pickings.

[Archerboy106]

Yea I really didn't understand why the Librarian particularly took interest in humans... Also, it became very clear that there is a stigma of "Oh MC is a boss, he can do whatever he wants". At the end of the day, MC is just a soldier and should follow orders. Obviously he made the right call and saved humanity but... I just didn't like how quick Lasky was to suck MC off.

[Naked Crook]

I agree. The game was too much of a service to MC. It is why I have always enjoyed the underdogs of the Halo Franchise. ODSTs seem so much more interesting cause they are just dudes doing their jobs. Sure, MC is great...but he is not above the rule of law.

[Hells Sniper]

The thing behind humanity and the Librarian is that she saw them fit to take over the Mantle after the Forerunners. Because by the time she was taking interest in them, it was after they were reverted to the cavemen ages and the Flood-Forerunner War was taking place. She knew the Forerunners would and could never return, and she saw humanity as the next race to take over the Mantle of Responsibility. It also helped that humanity figured out a flood antidote prior to the Human-Forerunner War, the antidote was unfortunately lost and thus why the Forerunners basically lost the war. As for the Master Chief thing, I think what you have to keep in mind is that this Spartan saved humanity...twice. He was a soldier, yes, and that's completely touched upon in the end of the game, but he was a soldier who understood the enemy and was given valuable information on the Didact's next move, which Del Rio just dismissed in a "You're crazy" rant. Del Rio was relieved of his command because he didn't take the information that one of the most valuable soldiers humanity ever had into consideration. If he did, the attack on New Phoenix could have been prevented. Del Rio was a very by the books guy, but even FLEETCOM can understand the necessity to go off the books to do the necessary.

[Naked Crook]

In Del Rio's defense...I can sorta see his point. MC basically had a dream. How is Del Rio supposed to justify a course of action based on a dream? As the players, we know what we saw...but Del Rio has no way of verifying if what MC saw was real, or it was a hallucination induced by any number of factors. There was no scientific way to prove what MC said. Del Rio did not accept that testimony. In hind sight, Del Rio was wrong...but...in Del Rio's mind, and I am sure in the minds of everyone there, Del Rio had a better chance at being right. I still refuse to accept that this one mistake is what got Del Rio fired. There was no evidence suggesting that MC had that dram/hallucination. In fact, I am sure there was a mountain of medical evidence to suggest that MC more than likely hallucinated the entire thing, which would have strengthen Del Rio's hand in a tribunal setting. I am sure there was no shortage of brain damage, blood loss, and stress induced physiological changes which would have been more than enough to induce the things MC saw. This is a Spartan that mourns for a computer program being lost in action. There is defiantly some questionable mental activity going on. And yes, while MC played a vital role in the Human-Covenant war...he technically didn't end the war. It was the Arbiter who finished Truth off, it was the Arbiter who sparked the civil war which divide the Covenant, and it was The Arbiter, Miranda, and Johnson who stopped Delta Halo. MC was just a soldier in the grand scheme, if you think about it. His role was not the be all and end all of the conflict. MC's understanding of the Forerunners was also considerably limited. It can be argued that ONI and the UNSC knew just as much, if not more, than Cortana and MC did about how advanced The Forerunners were.

[Archerboy106]

Wasn't the Librarian a forerunner? What exactly is the mantle? And did the flood attack cavemen humans or just the forerunners?