I hope that YOU know that you and HiddenXperia have been providing great content for years and are both wonderful content creators for the Halo community. Keep up the great work!
I think the endless may have been a relatively peaceful race because when fighting the harbinger at the end of the game she mentions something like “this is not what I am, they made me this way”
well their whole race was imprisoned to preserve the forerunner religous dogma so they would be rightfully angry. 343 games has races committing atrocities in the "name" of the mantle even though if they truly followed the mantle they would not follow through with such actions.
Before the forerunners found then they were just chilling, never attacked or anything. But the forerunners didn’t like that they could survive a halo ring, and locked them up.
they’ve been good at story telling and the books show it, halo 5 was going to have a whole different story, unfortunately they didn’t get their chance. Halo Infinite is where they actually were able to do a story in a game
The Forerunner trilogy and the build up of the Didact was top tier. Jul’s buildup was pretty good too. Just seems like they don’t know what to do with them once they get there.
You also forgot how when the weapon says "something is helping her" it is heavily reminiscent of the time when Cortana felt the opposing presence of Mendicant Bias in High Charity, in Halo 2.
@@ZealStarMedia As you said, during the game, my theory was that Cortana was not actually dead, or at minimum some part of her was in the ring, helping us/the Weapon. But with the legendary ending, it is heavily implied then that it was in fact Offensive Bias in the ring helping us. Considering he was tasked with containing the Endless or whatever, that makes sense.
Nobody has said this but I feel like the 3 dots reflected from MC visor isn’t an endless like he thinks, but to me looks way more like a mendicant bias with red lights, possibly offensive bias in person.
@@handblitz4408 That is exactly what I thought as well. I mean, we know what the endless looks like because of the harbinger and she does not have 3 glowing eyes. However, guess who has 3 glowing eyes? Mendicant and Offensive Bias.
@@GSXone I feel like the endless is referring to the Precursors before they became the Flood, and the Forerunners and their monitors are trying to protect humanity from them. If I'm not mistaken, Zeta Halo is where the Primordial was buried or imprisoned.
Fun fact: The voice actor for the Grand Edict is the same guy who voiced Emperor Valkorion from Star Wars The Old Republic, so a voice actor as prominent as that will most definitely show up again in story DLC Edit: I did not know he was Escharum as well, he did a bloody good job since he was unrecognisable
Ah yes, the video I've been waiting for! I gotta say the Harbinger saying "I shall talk, and you shall listen" has me thinking she's part Precursor or has something to do with the Flood. I mean, why else would she say that? As soon as they said Atriox was dead, I was like "There's no way they killed him off screen."
Yeah killing Atriox offscreen either meant he wasn't really dead or that we'd get an ODST/Reach style game/expansion that let you play as someone other then John during the 6 month period he was out. At least that was my kneejerk reaction when I heard he was "dead"
Even though the grave minds line appeared, I want to say it was just homage to the original games. We have so many cases of that throughout this campaign.
The Harbinger's mouth actually looks a lot like the original Halo 2 Gravemind's mouth. And yes, Halo Infinite's campaign is season based, the story will expand with each update, I've very little doubt that the Flood will be released, probably around the halfway point; here's hoping we get some holographic interrogation scenes between Mendicant Bias and the Primordial.
Anyone notice the parallels between Cortana / The Weapon and Mendicant / Offensive Bias? Both the originals betrayed their makers and brought them to near extinction, both had clones of equal (or near equal) capabilities designed specifically to counter them created as a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of war, and both regretted their betrayals after their defeat.
Right, imagine if Cortana was actually infected with the logic plague back in halo 2/3. Then she could've been with the flood on zeta, possibly even a gravemind. Then we could use the weapon to successfully outmatch Cortana and the flood, just like offensive and mendicant. This is just off the dome, but imagine what 343 could've cooked up instead of this very small-scaled story that really only focused on emotions rather than big stakes in the galaxy
@@Master__Chief117 I agree. I really don't understand how cortana becomes good again. I thought she was a rogue fragment, not the same as the one who said goodbye in h4. The game was setting her up to be bad, and then somehow Atriox turns her good? idk
@@charliezen9121 I like to believe that 343 was originally gonna make something that aligns with the context you're talkin ab. But with development issues and scrapping the game. They had to go w this safe story. Yea but fr, cortana just turns good after she realizes she's stuck in a terminal? Lmao
Epic foreshadowing from 343. The forerunners ultimate AI, mendicat bias being replaced by offensive bias due to corruption by the primordial. Then thousands of years later humanities AI cortana is replaced with the weapon after corruption from the Gravemind. Both created to destroy the one they were modeled after.
Not really... Cortana went rampant because that's just how all human-developed AI age, it's just reaching the "expiration date." nothing to do with gravemind
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that holding the activation index, the torture at the hands of the gravemind, and floating in space for years with nothing to process sped up Cortana's rampancy. She had too much data and was given far too much time to review it over and over that she thought herself to death far faster than other AI. Look at Sloan for example he was 9-10 years old IIRC and was still capable of functioning at a pretty high level despite being deep into rampancy.
@@bnadit1949 It didn't help, but all smart A.I. only lasted 7 years, and she was in service for longer. But she was supposed to be somewhat special since she was made from a live flash cloned brain from Halsey. Other Smart A.I.s were made from people that had recently died.
@@jigawatt1.215 I think we have to look at the expiration of a smart AI like that of a gallon of milk. Sometimes it will expire before the date (rarely), but most of the time it will expire a day or two past it. The 7 years is a guarantee of no rampancy, but after that all bets are off and it could occur at any time. Also you make a good point, the way Cortana was made might have given her a longer lifespan to start with than other AI.
My theory: We know ‘The Flood’ was created when some precursors “became dust which could regenerate into their past forms. Over time this dust became so corrupted that it could only cause horrific disease and mutation.” Where ‘The Endless’ are that dust was instead preserved and did not become corrupted. The endless are both precursor and are related to the flood. So in my opinion they can control the flood and probably can’t be infected seeing as they are the same entity (And may share a similar collective mind). But they are not allied with the flood because The Endless wish to control the mantle. So I’m interested to see that interaction. Both The Flood and The Endless can’t be killed by the firing of the halo arrays. Sus🧐 And only after the firing of the rings, the endless’s race was discovered yes. Meaning, perhaps, they were quite recently formed. And so had not yet cataloged by the forerunners. And I may be reaching here but only after meeting with the Endless the Forerunners conveniently labeled them to be a threat. Why? The only other threats to the Forerunner were the precursors, and the flood.
The Precursor's weren't hiveminded like the flood are. I believe that came when the Primordial gave himself to the flood, his intelligence served as the first gravemind. I personally think the Endless are a species that maybe the Precursors seeded before they left the galaxy. A species lying in wait to retaliate against the Forerunners for destroying the precursors. They may even be immune to flood infection, if they're immune to the Halo Array. I don't think they can control the flood though. I think their danger comes from the fact that they're more powerful than the Forerunners could ever hope to be--their fear was that they would lose their power, after all.
Precursors were independent and I think its unlikely they would just control the flood either. I'm not even fully subscribed that its precursors maybe it's an offshoot of precursors or an entirely new species.
Honestly them being a hive mind makes sense. We still don’t know what skimmers are but they don’t seem to intelligent. Maybe they are like ants and the harbinger is their queen or gravemind
I too thought it might be Cortana. I thought, what if Cortana isn't actually dead, and the fragments that she left behind were just copies of parts of her memories etc - because dont forget, Cortana is able to make copies of herself. It could be deliberate by Cortana, she creates a copy of herself, lets it be destroyed, plants the fragments to make it look like her death was real, but the real Cortana is still alive somewhere behind the scenes, helping MC. Perhaps the real Cortana and Offensive Bias join together or something... but i've no idea.
@@gr3ywolf144 im pretty sure she was helping him during the last mission. But i think she’s dead dead otherwise it ruined her sacrifice and atonement. Plus she literally killed hundreds of millions of people lol so i think she’s gone gone and the “weapon” who didn’t say what she wanted to be called but im pretty sure she’s gonna be called cortana, and thatd make it confusing having two.
You know, after the whole debacle over who will inherit the mantle, a group precursors could've seeded a new species into the mix. Having seen how the forerunners dealt with their kin, could've predicted the emergence of the flood and how the forerunners would deal with them. Thus making the endless immune to the rings, similar to how chief was made uncomposable in 4. Wibbly wobbly genetics and such.
When she says “You are not the future” to Chief it really made me think she is Precursor and is seeking The Mantle for her kind. The Xalanyn could be the true name for the Precursors as the lore isn’t as fleshed out as other species.
You also gotta think if she's the endless too them why was she so easy to stop? The endless are suppose to be worse than the flood and she isn't worse.
But the Precursors had chosen humanity as the inheritors of the mantle. The Forerunners tried to prevent that by clinging to it and wiping out the Precursors, after that they "punished" humanity but lost the war to the flood. That's why they used the halos and went out with a bang, but the librarian returned the mantle back to humanity after the reset. So in a way the Precursors will prevailed anyway, that's why i don't believe the endless are the Precursors , because then they wouldn't be enemies to humanity. And everything points to the endless being the villains of the next game. They may be corrupted in some way like the flood though.
@@rushpatriot2866 The endless as a whole are supposed to be worse than the flood. I am not saying she is endless either because that was made rather unclear, but she is either closely related to them (maybe a servant of some kind, or possibly a non-combatant version of the endless) but I think really the main thing that is “worse than the flood” was their control over time. Something the forerunners had not yet achieved. It seems that the endless had used their power rather passively as they were completely backstabbed by the forerunners and locked down in Zeta Halo. It’s fairly possible due to the sorry state the flood had put the forerunners in that they panicked and locked them away because just the mere possibility of the flood being able to contaminate a being who has the knowledge to control time would devastating in itself. Can’t wait for DLC to figure out more🙏🏼
Can I just say, that I really love how Despondent Pyre sounds. I think her VA did an excellent job. Hope she can get rebuilt somehow. Would love to hear her return and possibly assist the Chief moving forward.
The part that solidified chief’s assistance for me is when they are trying to enter the spire and they are looking for a plan B, and the beam tower from background to then focused, fires in perfect timing of their conversation. I got SO giddy when that happened, I knew chief was getting some “Halo 3 LUCK”.
I could see the endless as precursors, especially with their connection to the origins of the flood. Something that came to mind was, Halo rings don’t directly kill the flood; they destroy their food (i.e. sentient life). Knowing the endless cannot be harmed directly by the firing of Halo rings, leads me to suggest you are onto something.
All I wanna know now is how often they'll release more Campaigns, I'd love at least a very very rough guideline for how often/ when Campaigns will come out
@@MrKevin-wu8re I don’t need to be a five star chef to say McDonald’s food taste bad. Mp has actual issues that I know will eventually get worked out but saying something is without flaw because you can’t make it is stupid.
I really hope you're right and the first DLC does take place in the desert sector of Zeta Halo because I can't wait to see 343's artists explore desert environments again. Halo 5's campaign might not have been all that great but, from the visual standpoint, it's environments were fantastic, specially the shore-side canyon deserts in Sanghelios.
Interesting lore tidbit: "The Precursors were not tied to any particular physical form, assuming any shape as they saw fit; they would allow themselves to die away and be evolved anew over and over again, taking on numerous incarnations both physical and immaterial. They lived through different stages of technological and cultural development countless times, being at times hyper-advanced and spacefaring and at others living primitively and remaining confined to their worlds." Who's to say that they don't have a way of genetically altering themselves or other species. They could've remade their own species to be immune to the rings.
This indeed. It'd be interested to try to explain seeing as it feels like Neural Physics is how the Precursors manipulated things and it was neurons, in a sense, that the Halo's targeted. Who is to say, however, that Neural Physics was just one way the Precursors manifested their manipulations and simply changed "techniques," so to speak.
@@jason2077 they just allowed the forerunner do their thing without imposing any resistance, they were in awe of the brutality their creation was capable of, just to be clear this point out that they are so confident of their prevalence in the universe that they basically didn't care , the flood was a judgement to their creations, and if I don't misremember the powder that would become the flood came from outside the Galaxy.
I agree. The flood also isn’t really “destroyed” by the ring, but starved… also, the harbingers mouth flaps look exactly like the graveminds (prior anniversary graphics)
@@thatcarguydom266 but that would imply that wherever the remaining food source was destroyed and they were not, so I’d assume it didn’t destroy them all. I don’t know, probably some loop holes in the plot
When the Didact said “Time was your ally, human, but now it has abandoned you”. I like to think he meant the Precursors, because they’re beings that transcends space-time. As well as the fact that precursor made it out for Humanity to take the Mantle. Until, they had change of plans when they became the flood. They were their allies until they weren’t.
To be honest, i just took what he said at face value, that is, time was your ally, but now, beacuse the Didact had returned, and with him, the forerunners, it had abandoned us.
Im leaning towards the precursors controlling time in a biological way. That’s how they effectively “dodge” the halo rings by just skipping ahead in time to after the blast passes almost reflexively like a natural response to danger. If so, they would be unkillable and maybe undefeated in battle (think the aliens in Edge of Tomorrow) so yeah a worse threat to forerunner supremacy than the flood
@@RavusRiven I think like how Chief was evolved to the point where he was immune to the composer, the endless are immune to Halo. The power of time I think is more literal meaning while the galaxy starts back at square one the endless would have even more time to evolve.
The precursors didn't change plans lore stated the surviving precursors calling the flood and primordial abominations and corruptions of everything they stood for
as what he means by time in the book the flood evolved from a type of human dog like a chihuahua then started to infect humans after time the flood allied with the humans and started to attack forerunners like the didact who was a warrior a war lord and when attacked they would dissolve. time here was the essence of the flood teaming with humans.
It's a shame we are never going to get the DLC we were all basically promised when infinite was released. So much for being a platform with years of support!
I'm so glad you mentioned the ship in the CEA custcene! I recently went back and watched your video about the mysterious Meddler species, and so much lines up with them potentially being the Endless. The fact that they were space-faring so soon after the rings were fired, the fact that they were able to infiltrate Flood containment for some unknown reason, etc
Can’t wait for the DLCs. I just hope we get to go to more diverse places like and underwater forerunner complex or navigating through space on an EVA booster frame.
I hope the DLCs are decent sized and worth it. I mean they’ll do a good job but every DLC out this year have been like $40 for 15 minutes of a side story. I really hope it’s deep and timely
I’ve put over 26 hours into the campaign and have looked for clues everywhere. My analysis is the same as yours. You have no idea how happy I was to see that I’m not the only one picking up on all of this. Thanks for the content man.
I'm kinda interested in how the Banished managed to find the Harbinger's cylix. It didn't seem to be sealed away with the rest of the "Endless". Is the Harbinger important or unimportant enough to be left alone? Were they studying it just like how they studied the flood?
maybe something to do with the engineers studying and experimenting on the endless. maybe harbinger was the sample being studied. all experimental samples get special lables, maybe thats why she was seperate? She did say "they made me this way".
Ik you posted this a year ago, but I have to say they probaly found it with Cortana's help. The Legendary ending shows Cortana working with Atriox down in the cylix containment room(s). She keeps repeating something about knowing how you're going to die, insinuating she knows more about the timeline than somebody experiencing time in a linear fashion would know, which would explain her working with The Banished, possibly to maintain consistency within a timeline of events that she recognizes are required in order to reach the best possible outcome. Kind of like Dr. Strange seeing all possible timelines, and helping to push reality in the direction required in order to reach the desired outcome.
@@aBadWizard Well, having seen it, Cortana is not in the ending. Maybe just before it, though? Just prior her - expiration? And even the Rubicon Protocol novel implies the Harbinger was found close to Outpost Tremonius...
@@aBadWizard Cortana had access to the Domain, and I think it held clues from the Precursors on how the timeline of Halo goes. I think its why Despondant Pyres refers to 'rings within rings' and everything being a form of infinite loop. I think the Precursors have set in motion a cyclic pattern of galactic evolution that results in the same events occurring in similar fashion over time. The Precursors were known to evolve and change constantly, in all manner of states of evolution simultaneously as a species. I think The Precursors are the height of their existence, The Flood their falling, and The Endless their evolutionary state of uprising. This is my theory overall at least. Halo's lore definitely is pushing towards Precursors having set everything in motion even to this point.
Agree or disagree: The only POSSIBLE way the Endless can live up to being a bigger threat than the Flood is if their time manipulation can bring back the Precursors, and that's their goal. If you think about it they'd be a perfect race for the Precursors to make, immune to the Halo array and then alone in an empty galaxy and working on time manipulation.
Yeah I don’t like the whole notion of something being more dangerous than the flood. I mean, the flood literally came within a few moments of killing off all life in the galaxy, and then universe. If this threat isn’t precursor related (which the flood technically are) I’ll be pretty upset. Hoping this isn’t Dragon Ball Z where some new ultimate villain is just conjured up out of nowhere for the sake of making games.
@@randomrandomnesss2188 That's exactly what I'm worried about, that they just pulled another ancient alien threat out of nowhere to have something new to shoot at for 10 years. The only possible way they can be a bigger threat over the Flood which WON and forced the Forerunners to genocide the galaxy is if they are a derivative of or a client race that can bring back the Precursors.
Sorta hoping that the Endless are just precursors like the Primordial. As long as they're not even older creatures since I don't know how much more "But there was an even MORE forgotten about threat" I can take.
Idk about them being more of threat mainly bc it the flood come on but the possibility that they're like a species the precursor made to be more like them in way like they're one their more favorite species that was peaceful until the forerunners locked them away and now they're back and looking to reanimated the rest their species and bring back the precursors, ascend to becoming them or just seeking revenge and then taking over. Idk there lot cool possibilities.
@@Bms010 If you consider this though: from the mind of a human, the flood is worse. from the mind of a forerunner, losing power is worse From the forerunner perspective, the flood breaking out again is hardly a sweat, just relight the halo and reseed, BUT if there are beings which can assume the mantle of responsibility (or always had it) and are also immune to the effects of the halo, they'd easily rather have the Flood break out again, than the endless. Consider also the implications that the endless are the truth to shatter the lies of the forerunners: What are the lies of the forerunners? Simplified, they are two things: 1. Forerunners had the mantle of responsibility 2. Humans are the reclaimers to that heritage (remember, humans in halo are descendants of modified humans crafted by the forerunners) Thus, the concern of Cortana, that the endless are indeed the greater threat, is justified, because they are the only beings that have the power to and intent goal of, destroying any vestiges of the forerunners, humanity. The lie is that humanity are the reclaimers, that is spun by the forerunners, thus if the endless succeed, humanity must be destroyed or bear the punishment that the precursors (flood) had in mind for the forerunners. It also makes sense why the grave mind introduces himself saying "I? I am a monument to all of your sins" Not only is this a direct statement against humanity, but also against the covenant. One are the inheritors of a lie thrust upon them from their creation, and the other deluding themselves to be real inheritors to that lie. Thus, the Flood, the Endless, are the correction of the sins of the forerunners, everything that humanity is and was. The master chief/humanity is the weapon, the plan, the ultimate hope of the forerunners of escaping the judgement, sentencing, and execution of their sins. And thusly, from the perspective of the precursors/flood/endless, they must be utterly crushed, and possibly all life in the galaxy (seeded by forerunners, thusly all built on a foundation of lies). They want to punish, then start again, that was always the plan, even with the Flood. Basically, this entire time, we have been led to believe that humanity once actually held the mantle, that they lost it, and are now reclaimers of the heritage the forerunners left behind, that the gravemind and his flood are evil and only intended to bring death and destruction to the universe, guess what? All forerunner lies. In the Halo universe, from an objective view, humanity ARE the bad guys, the Gravemind was always right, if thats not the ultimate mindfuck and perfect conclusion to the series, I do not know what is. I hope this is the case, and this would be putting the chief up against some pretty absurd odds, so if this is the case, its probable it will not end well or happily for him, which would probably be the best way to conclude it.
In one of the cutscenes, The Harbinger also says to Escharum that something on the ring was helping MC and The Weapon. Also in that one trailer shot I think it might be Offensive Bias reflecting on Chief's visor. Mainly because it looks like the same outline that Medicant Bias had.
@@ciaranreid5132 mendicant had a sort of yellow glow, I'm almost certain it was Offensive Bias (would also make sense because the colours of red/orange are associated with anger, rage, offence, combat, etc)
@@WestCoastShredders That's what I thought during the game, but after this video I think it is Offensive Bias. I think Cortana is really dead and The Weapon has named herself Cortana now, since she is an exact copy. Funny, another 'exact copy' of an AI. One that turned on its creator and the copy made to stop it, then the original in its final moments coming back to the side of its creator.
This campaign was some of the most fun I’ve had in ANY campaign in a long time. 343 totally nailed the look, atmosphere, and freedom of Halo as well as took it in a new awesome open world direction. It isn’t easy to take a beloved franchise such as Halo and totally nail a new format and somehow make it feel even more epic. Playing this game on a Series X in 4k is a religious experience. It’s so gorgeous. I can’t wait for coop and the continued content to come. I hope they include split screen. Split screen is a staple of halo.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the music? Infinite’s soundtrack is really good in general, but the music in this cutscene specifically is amazing. It’s up there with even Halo 3’s tracks
several times we can see offensive bias helping the team, some ancient code scanning the weapon, the boss fight help , the portal at the end, portal opening up when carrying the power seed when she says "we are stuck here" .... all these line up perfectly
I just finished the campaign and I'm so hyped about Infinte's future. Having only read 10 Halo books so far I thought I was going to miss something, but I'm glad most people are noticing the lore connections while playing the campaign. I'm also 99% sure The Endless is a Primordial. The forerunner book saga is not the best ever but it's the deepest lore-wise and couldn't go on unnoticed. HALO IS BACK BOIS!
Is it tho? Lol. Who the hell knows if we’ll ever get a new campaign in the future. I hope we do, and I hope they focus on something other than chief’s emotions. But 343 has to fix their fuck-up of a game first
26:55 i believe that someone helping the Weapon and opening the portal at the end is Cortana. She planned a way to help Chief against the Banished and the Endless in the few milliseconds immediately preceding her blowing up the Auditorium and a chunk of the ring. She did a lot of things similarly to how we've seen the Librarian set up possibilities for the future throughout the lore.
Agreed. I feel more that this is Cortana helping. She showed up at the end saying I hope it worked out. I planned it and only had a few milliseconds. To me that makes her the one doing all this...I do however thing Offensive Bias could show up but that particular ending I think was Cortana or at the very least...her plans, echos etc. activating.
Probably something to do with time and slip space. If you move faster than light, time slows for you but the distance you need to travel stays the same. You're just moving incredibly fast compared to the universe around you. If something glitches or some unforeseen problems arise, in theory you can technically end up years past from when you set out traveling but due to the way light works in space. Where you set out from would technically still be in the time you set out. That's my theory anyways.
What's interesting about the rings at the end of the campaign is that there is 7 of them. One of them is missing a segment like Zeta Halo, and one of them is completely torn to bits, like Installation 04, while the rest all remain intact. The rings are said to have been created before the forerunners, and yet they so clearly represent the exact circumstances of right this moment. Perhaps we're dealing with not only a site that depicts where the Endless were contained, but a prophecy that states when they'll be released. This credits the idea that the statement surrounding time in the legendary ending may be very literal.
Extreme flaw in your logic. The Forerunners MADE the rings, they do not pre-date the Forerunners. The Forerunners specifically made them to fight the flood, and they were constructed at the behest of Master Builder Faber.
@@idlecurator5365 same man, so excited to see where they take it, really enjoyed infinity's story, let's hope in the future with the supposed new game they're developing
"that presence helping the Weapon has to Offensive Bias, I can't see it being anybody or anything else" You were so focused on the Offensive Bias theory that you missed *all* of the foreshadowing Cortana did. The Silent Auditorium was literally called the seat of her power. It's intentionally implied it's her handiwork. Narratively it makes perfect sense for a form of hers to live on to help the pair out, considering what she says in the final message. I really do not see how Offensive Bias comes into play here at all, especially during the heaviest Cortana segment of the game. The mysterious portals to help Chief transport the power seeds were also opening *while* Cortana's echoes were getting stronger. Cramming in the deep lore AI while Cortana is crying her heart out to you would be bizarre to say the least. Obviously he will play a role later on, but I'm unconvinced he had a hand in that particular part of the game.
This is exactly what I thought. It felt like the narrative was driven hard that Cortana's echo was responsible for supressing the connection, helping the weapon, and opening the portal. She even left a pre-recorded message that specifically made fun of what she assumed the weapon would say. She likely left behind programming on triggers to help when needed.
A question. If the conversation by the Grand Edict happened 76 years after the Halos fired, weren't all the Forerunners dead? But here is one talking and he mentions the engineers will be busy. So did all the Forerunners not die then?
@@fourlamb1 Just of the top of my head, any Forerunners that were on the Ark when the rings were fired survived because the Ark is outside the galaxy and so is outside the range of the Halos. Apparently if any of them were in slipspace at the time they would have survived as well. Parts of Halo: Silentium and Halo: Fractures follow Forerunner characters post-firing.
I'm really interested what "preserving their truth" actually is when it comes to the endless. I always thought the forruners biggest secrets always were that they murdered all of the precursors and that humanity was the chosen of the precursors for the mantle and not them. Even as the flood, the precursors showed that they want humanity to suceed.
@@iisgray The harbinger states that " humanity isn't the future, we are" and yet the precursors wanted humanity to suceed them and take the mantle upon themselves. Even in the flood form they tried to prevent the fall of humanity and even retreating to not force ancient humanity fo fight a two front war with the forruners
@@Brother_Rony and yet, humans *do* still get infected by the flood. What changed? Nothing. Humans being meant to take on the mantle was just another lie the Forerunners made up to make their actions more justified. Why would the precursors give the mantle to anyone? Accept other races as equal, maybe, but give up their position and just... Die? Disappear? Why would they say "we're giving it to humans"? Under any context it doesn't make sense and has always bothered me. Bothered me that anyone would name a successor when you don't need a successor, and bothered me that the flood were nicer towards humanity.... until they weren't. And if we were their successors, why didn't the human forerunner war start earlier? We should have been avenging them. But we weren't, we seemingly ignored it, seemingly didn't even know a war happened. We just colonized space and fed weird dust to our pets without thinking twice about it. It makes far more sense that the precursors were never going to give up their position, but that the Forerunners expected them to anyway, because as a society they're power hungry dicks. When they realized they were never going to ascend while the precursors lived, they did a quick genocide. And as unjustifiable as that genocide was, it still made more sense to say the motive was because precursors chose a short lived war fueled group of races as their successors when the enlightened forerunners we're the obvious choice than it would be to admit the Forerunners weren't even enlightened enough to make a call like that. They just wanted power for themselves and took it.
@@iisgray It is like being a parent and watching your children and hoping they'll do better. We know that humanity was supposed to inherit the mantle both from ancient humanity and it was stated by surviving precursors themselves. The forruners (as the egoistical douchebags with a superiority complex that they are) executed genocide upon the precursors to hide the fact that the precursors changed their mind and decided that humanity and not the forruners should inherit the mantle (it was originally supposed to be the forruners). As far as we know they never seen themselves as gods, didn't even understand the concept of violence and seen that the universe was a evolving thing and that one day it would evolve out of them too. The flood just ate humans because it was the only source (as humans caused the flood to spread amongs its systems) and was probably aimed to be a test of sorts
@@iisgray Also since the forruners were the "chosen ones" significantly longer then humans were they evolved technically much faster and even hid the fact that they killed the precursors. During the weighing days of the forruner empire, most of them didn't even know that they killed them. They were taught that they chose the forruners and then simply vanished. Some humans believed at the same time that humans were supposed to get the mantle and that was viewed as highly heretical.
@@lessiansaralonde620Buck and Dare got married, Tanaka witnessed it, as of now Locke is presumed dead after his helmet is molded to Hyperius’ armor. Vale is with the Arbiter.
I wonder if it's possible that the Xalanyn / Endless (assuming they're one in the same) aren't actually immune to Halo, but are able to "jump" in time to after it's fired Given the Harbinger appears to have some ability to manipulate time, along* with the fact that Chief and the Weapon were apparently gone for 3 days before Echo 216 found them again Not time travel, but manipulation of time (coming back into "and we cannot allow it to be theirs") We've seen time manipulation before with the reverse stasis chamber that the Primordial was locked in (possibly tying back to them being (offshoots of?) precursors So many options of what could happen soon Also, with Cortana seemingly gone. What's going on with the Created? Because if the Created are (mostly) dealt with, could the portal to the Ark from Earth not reopen now? Just a thought *typo
@@SLAD3 I wouldn't call that missing. Slipspace just takes time to navigate through, it's not supposed to be instant. Pretty sure it took In Amber Clad around 2 weeks to get to Delta Halo from Earth
I really hope the Flood aren't brushed to one side in Infinite as not being all that big a threat, i hope the horror and power of them is a huge threat in the game in the future
@@icefarrow7959 They may be in containment facilities but those are still on the ring and there has been multiple Flood break outs from those types of facilities on other rings, definitely think we'll be fighting them again at some point on Zeta if not then the Ark
It's worth noting that the primordial was put in a timelock. Literally, while imprisoned, he experienced millennia while people outside the lock experienced minutes. The war against precursors, and later the war against the flood wasn't just a traditional war of shooting and fighting. It was a LOTR style war of trying to get the right people in the right places at the right times. The mantle of responsibility is a responsibility of preserving life, ALL life. The Forerunners failed at upholding the mantle when they genocides the precursors. They failed again when they genocided humanity. They failed a third time when they lit the rings. In a universe where the Forerunners are fucking everything up that badly, it stands to reason that the precursors would resort to the flood as a way of preserving life. That hasn't worked. But ultimately, I suspect we're still pawns in a game of chess between forerunner and precursor. Putting people in the right locations at the right time
But the Flood were out and about doing their thing before Humanity and the Forerunners ever met. The Forerunners weren't even aware of either species until humanity enacted Exterminatus on a Forerunner planet that had been infected by the Flood. Or, are you suggesting that the Precursors used knowledge of the future and released the Flood as part of a grand chess match, playing the extra long game knowing events would lead them to now?
I personally feel like the 3 red eyes, and, possibly the doll found, represent offensive bias, not the endless. If you look at mendicant's structure, his front end lines up with those red eyes. the doll could be a construct used by bias, because if you look at the diadact doll in game from Halo 4, and compare it to the doll found on zeta halo, they have very similar facial and body structures. Could also just be a teaser for some other future character being included, but it seems super similar to the didact's armor, and even the face has a more robotic and angular look to it. If the endless aren't precursor's, or their offspring, they could be a species that evolved to operate outside of the neural physics, which is why they are immune to the halo rings, or even potentially the beings that ACTUALLY designed the rings. The dialogue at the end though kinda hints towards not only them surviving the rings blast, but also potentially being able to be infected by the flood still. Hard to tell though, because bungie and 343 both throw a lot of false trails out in the games and additional media, that later get explained by what's really going on lol. Like the end fight agains the harbinger, FEELS like cortana might be helping through her echos, but... that also echos mendicant helping the chief and cortana out before. All I hope, is they listen to feedback, and continue to release story content without FLOODing the franchise out
I had my own inkling of belief that the Endless were Precursor in nature, but seeing all of the evidence laid out is, whew, really really interesting. It clicks even harder. Very hyped to see all of the theories coming out! All these vids lately have been a blast, your work ethic is insane! Please take care of yourself though!!
But the Precursors had chosen humanity as the inheritors of the mantle. The Forerunners tried to prevent that by clinging to it and wiping out the Precursors, after that they "punished" humanity but lost the war to the flood. That's why they used the halos and went out with a bang, but the librarian returned the mantle back to humanity after the reset. So in a way the Precursors will prevailed anyway, that's why i don't believe the endless are the Precursors , because then they wouldn't be enemies to humanity. And everything points to the endless being the villains of the next game. They may be corrupted in some way like the flood though.
@@HiddenXperia reckon you can do a theory video on where we ought to find Lasky, Locke and Palmer? I reckon they have a base in the desert as per the 2018 trailer with the radio, and they will play a part in stopping the Endless. 🤯
@@TheMalakasss In the game Harbinger tells the Chief they aren't enemies, or at least that she isn't his enemy. Sure maybe she's just saying that because she's a villain but she also talks to that captured trooper and tells him "the Forerunners mistreated your species, too" or something to that effect, as if trying to win him over. So what you're saying about Precursors "wouldn't be enemies to humanity," rings true, but it doesn't disprove the Harbinger being some sort of Precursor. Her motives in-game always point to revenge against the Forerunners, not humanity. Maybe she doesn't see herself/Precursors as humanity's enemy yet. She only fights Chief when he engages her for the most part.
@@TheMalakasss Pretty sure Precursor just refers to advanced beings before the Forerunners. There are **those** precursors that everyone knows about, but there's a reason that people say that they believe the Endless are **a** Precursor species.
You can literally FEEL the genuine excitement in his voice. I cant think of another fandom lore channel that’s this engaging. Every video is electric. Keep up the good work 🤘🏼
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that the endless could possibly be precursor or have a connection to the precursors. Awesome video thanks for the info.
My biggest question from halo as a whole what came before the precursors and could the beings before the precursors be the endless and the precursors help the forerunners seal them away before the forerunners eradicated the precursors
Honestly the three eyed reflection in chiefs visor makes me think of mendicant bias’ construct but red so it stands to reason we may be seeing our first glimpse of offensive bias in the visor. Just one possibility. Chiefs body language is also not hostile as it might be if he was facing an endless
Yeah, when Xperia got to that point, the moment I saw those three Splinter Cell-looking glowy eyes, my thoughts _immediately_ drifted to powerful Forerunner ancillas seen throughout the lore. I was _sure_ he was gonna say that it was Offensive Bias, it would fit in perfectly with the theory he was crafting.
The start of Infinite gave us several questions. The end answered most of them, but gave us a few more. These new questions, however, are of possibly an even larger scale than the ones answered. Holy crap how I would love for the Meddlers to tie into main campaign lore. As well as Offensive Bias? 343 is doing some crazy stuff here
Aren’t the Endless called “Xalanyn.” Or vice versa. They were just some random species that were totally unaffected by the firing of Halo. This got the Forerunners thinking - and it made them pretty curious. So what did they do? They probed and imprisoned an entire species. Doesn’t sound too far to what they would normally do to eliminate a “potential threat.” The Harbinger doesn’t even know fully as to why her people were locked away… well, she has an idea. It’s probably from the fact that they’re not easily controlled. I mean, how hard is it to capture a several million jet-pack squids… apparently difficult if the Forerunners had to charge two monitors and a metrach-level AI to watch over a bunch of sarcophagi.
I'm so glad you mentioned the mystery ship in halo ce, I always assumed that was a precursor ship and 343 guilty spark just contained it and buried that incident from memory. Like how they wanted to bury the story of the endless..
What do you think the forerunners were “here to help” with? Personally I think even if the endless survived, their homeworld’s ecology didn’t and they’re amidst an unprecedented famine with a destroyed biosphere
Oh for sure i imagine it must have been traumatic for them to watch billions of creatures simply drop dead out of nowhere (i could see there being zero solute having been dropped on their planet due to them flying under the radar till after the array was fired)
I just had a thought. What if the precursors developed their own reclaimer species? Yes, humans were originally intended by the precursors to obtain the mantle. But perhaps in light of what the forerunners did to them, the humans became corrupted by that meddling. It's possible that the endless were designed specifically to avenge the precursors and force the reclamation in the precursor's own image?
I really like this theory, makes more sense than the precursors themselves coming back because we've seen precursors, and they don't exactly fit in those little containment units lol
I wrote something similar, but to sum it up, the precursors had foresight that the forerunners just wanted to maintain power and so giving them control over the mantle would be a bad move, and humanity was too closely rated to forerunners and to be safe the precursors just made a new version of themselves, far less advanced but still inherit much of their understanding and control over neural physics. After the forerunners thought they wiped the precursors out, they claimed the mantle for themselves, than all the flood stuff happened, and in a last ditch attempt to maintain their power, they handed the mantle and their legacy to humanity, their closest relatives. Than they discovered the Xalanyn and that they were the intended reclaimers, so the remaining forerunners seeked to detain them in order for humanity to reclaim their legacy and the mantle, since they so feared losing their power. Check the latest comments and you should find mine there :)
@@maxj9204 It may be true though the precursors are shapeshifters so they dont really have one physical form . Also maybe those containers contain their essence not their physical bodies .
In the trailer scene you showed at 29:40 do you think that those lights could actually be offensive bias? Since mendicant is portrayed as having 3 lights in that configuration. Also offensive bias's symbol is red so seeing the lights be red could also be something.
Mendicant bias is always pictured with blue/yellow/white lights with two on top and one on the bottom to form a triangle. Offensive’s logo is red and his configuration is the opposite of mendicant’s. That reflection definitely belongs to offensive bias.
@@aidenmeakin8747 right like I can’t believe how well thought out this video was. And then he concludes that the reflection is an endless??? Come on man even I got that one!
Another thing too is that in the engine demo WAAAY back when we also got to see a barren environment that we never saw (except for in the ending). So I'd like to think if we do get DLC, it'll be about exploring this desert-like environment searching for Offensive Bias and learning more about The Endless (possibly fighting them too given what Atriox was doing in the finale)
I do hope 343 treads carefully with “more dangerous than the Flood” thing. If it is like how you have theorized then it should be okay, but if it’s a case of the Endless just being more dangerous in a war related manner then that would be a slap in the face.
Yeah, gotta be careful with power creep, considering just how large and powerful the flood were built up to be, a galaxy-wide threat, while we haven't heard of The Endless before now (though I guess that's the point, trying to imprison and 'hide' them away, convenient).
The Endless aren't more powerful than the Flood. But, they can't be destroyed by the one thing intended to destroy literally all sentient life in the galaxy. They are a bigger threat to the Forerunners than anything else, but Cortana's words do confuse this idea. Maybe she's just been misled by the words of the Forerunners? She is pretty gullible post-rampancy.
It is because flood and Endless are both came from same species:- The precursors. And yes flood also want go control the mantle. The whole point of flood is preserve life but not let anyone have a free will of it's own. Diversity is not a concern when central point of flood is to preserve life. Endless evolved in it's own way and they believe they should have control of the mantle The whole Halo universe is always centered around mantle of responsibility. Those who hold mantle hold ultimate control of the universe. Although Precursor technically died their successor species the flood and endless believe that because they are created by precursor (well technically all are and flood are literally created by primodial which he asume control and become forst gravemind) believe they are the ones who should have control of mantle.
I largely agree, tho one could look at it in mind with that the monitor said about the forerunner's real fears being about losing their power and legacy. If the endless were immune to the rings, they could maybe outlast the forerunners and then it wouldnt be up to the forerunners what the future thought of them. Kinda like how this grand edict was saying, they cant be allowed to control time (by outliving them maybe). So perhaps the idea that the endless are more dangerous than the flood is a reflection more of the forerunners' vanity and pride than the actual strength of the endless themselves
One thing everyone should always keep in mind when in reference to the Harbinger, the Endless, the Primordial, The Flood, and the Precursors themselves is that the Precursors would often spend millions of years living, dying, and reincarnating into new mortal forms and frames, so they could return as a element to the story in potentially anyway 343 could want, be it a return of the Flood and the Gravemind in a last triumphant bound of spite, the Precursors themselves as they were when the Forerunners "annihilated" them, or whatever new race The Harbinger and the Endless comes from, they can ALL very easily tie back to the Precursors as they are neither restricted by mortality or time for that matter, their link with Neural Physics allowed them to bend the fabric of reality itself, something the Forerunners were so terrified and so sure was within the reach of the Gravemind if it reached a particular critical mass that they developed the Halo array in the first place. The Harbinger even mentioned how humanity was originally viewed as a promising "candidate" for something, perhaps in reference to when the Precursors were deciding between Ancient Humanity and the Forerunners as to who would inherit THEIR "Mantle of Responsibility", not the Forerunners perverted and propagandized lie of it which only served as a statement of Forerunner imperial peace and supremacy.
Interesting that the location Chief got warped to at the end had 7 rings. To me they resembled the state of the Halo Array. One slightly broken, Zeta Halo, one in total pieces, Alpha Halo, the one at the end of CE. Not sure it means anything but seemed interesting.
This halo zeta halo is bigger than the others from previous games it isn't the same set, this halo came from the greater ark. Btw Bungie and now 343 love the number 7 anyway so it might not mean anything. Just like how the legendary ending takes place 77 yrs after the firing of the Halo array.
Hot take on the flood theory: Building off what you said about precursors believing the universe is alive, I heard that events that take place within it are "sweetnesses" to the universe and enrich its experience. So it's entirely possible that the precursors seed life in a galaxy, allow it to naturally evolve over time, only to transform into another version of themselves, the flood, to kill off and harvest what they have created, that large scale suffering just further feeding the universe. This sort of makes more sense when we talk about the primordial being half precursor and half gravemind - it was transforming. It has always puzzled me how the forerunners would have been able to so easily wipe out the precursors, who were eons more advanced. But now I believe that the precursors simply allowed it to happen, because to them it was just another cycle coming to a close, knowing that they would return as the flood to finish what the forerunners had started. Majority of the stuff above is taken from Installation00 Now begins my theory: It was revealed that the forerunners feared losing their power, so with this foresight the precursors decided that the forerunners are not worthy of the mantle, and since humanity was too closely related to the forerunners, neither were they. Upon understanding this, the forerunners revolted and committed genocide against their creators, but not before the precursors created (or transformed into) the Xalanyn, a species far less advanced than themselves, but still inherit many of the precursors abilities and understandings of neural physics etc. to be the new reclaimers. Now, the forerunners believing they had eliminated the precursors, they claimed the mantle for themselves, and than all the flood stuff happened and the forerunners were left with no choice but to fire the halo array, and in a last-ditch attempt to maintain their power, they handed down the mantle and their legacy to their closest relatives: humanity. The later discovery of the Xalanyn or "endless" and that they were the intended inheritors of the mantle posed a threat to the forerunners control and power greater than that of the flood, and they knew that if humanity were to keep the mantle, the endless had to be detained. Really hoping you read this, HX, I wanna hear your thoughts!
Installation00 has a video that explains this very same theory regarding "sweetness" and what the Precursor told humanity that made them lose their minds and commit suicide.
@@zucciniii1878 it would also tie into them being named the endless... The precursors never end: they seed, they evolve, they "harvest", then they start again. Over and over again... Which would be another reason for the forerunners fearing losing control... Why the forerunners launched their crusade against their gods...
It's worth noting that John's "luck" attribute is clearly one of his strongest suits when you think about the fact that he's the only being in the lore who has been aided by: Mendicant Bias - once most powerful Forerunner AI Offensive Bias - made to defeat Mendicant Cortana - once humanity's most powerful AI The Weapon - made to defeat Cortana
@@lucasa4955 mendicant pulled some strings in the shadows of halo 2 and/or 3 (I’m not 100% sure as I haven’t finished the halo 3 campaign yet) but I’m sure he has videos on it all!
Also related to Epitaph, the “Guardian” hologram from Epitaph is also in this game. I saw it in one of the final missions, I believe in the Silent Auditorium. I’ll have to look around and find it again.
I remember seeing that too… not to mention that when flying around the islands you can see what seems to be the wings of a crashed Cortana Guardian off in the distance
I think you're right about the endless being an evolution of the precursors. Not every single molecule of precursor dust corrupted in the same way, if they are sentient it's not statistically possible. During re-assimilation some of the dust may have formed a far more capable entity: the endless. Hence the parallels with the flood, they come from the same place essentially.
So much of this lines up with my own theorizing since finishing the game. I cannot wait for more and the Forerunner Trilogy of novels is the gift that keeps on giving with modern Halo lore
27:37 I just noticed the rings he’s standing in represent the Halo installations. The fourth ring has a chunk missing from it, which you can see the ACTUAL missing chunk in the sunset in the background. One of the rings is fragmented heavily, representing installation 04
In halo 3, in the room leading to the prophet the holographic halos also had a broken ring so I think that’s an even more fascinating thing than the smaller rings in infinite
Quick thought: what if, when Pyre says "they think we're here to help" they think so because the Halos damaged their tech? Assuming it's precursor stuff it could be that their planet was ravaged by the rings and could also be a way to explain the crashed ship on 04
A lot of people really overthink the crashed ship on Alpha Halo. We don't know for certain of course, but to me it felt like a narrative cue for Guilty Spark loneliness and slow rampancy: he was super excited of finally meeting someone. Having new data to analyze and wonder about the state of the universe post-Halo firing, but then... nothing. The ship was implied as having randomly drifted after the Halo's fired (which killed the crew), hinting at the empty state of the universe (from GS point of view) and reinforcing the monitor's continued isolation.
I immediately thought that the endless were precursor. Looking at the harbingers armor it looks closely to what forerunner technology looks like. If they are precursor then forerunner technology could easily be based off of theirs hence why the harbinger was easily able to use technology on the ring. I love that they are getting into the deep lore of the game. I also noticed when AI pop-ups on the visor were happening there was a notification that a S.P.D.R. was working on fixing the weapons ai systems. Along with the ILoveBees stickers. Maybe those weird stories that included the S.P.D.R could hint towards what's going on that happened during the ARG.
OH SHOOT YOU HAVE A POINT - About the ARG specifically. The ARG had to do with time travel, and in this campaign, we see the *first* instance of time travel in a Halo campaign! Even if it's only a 3 day jump, the fact that we've now seen time travel means 343 could easily tie the ARG into the campaign at some point. 👀
@@crimsonraiderxv3422 3 day jump rang more as a long teleport, similar to when Gordon and alyx were lost for a week after the explosion at nova prospekt... Might just be a connection I drew because I was replaying hl2 right before infinite dropped
@@3dpyromaniac560 Yeh don't know what going on till we either get a campaign dlc or the next game comes out. Just thought there might be a connection somehow. Weird to just emphasize ILoveBees for some reason.
Another thing to note is that the Cylix insignia for the Harbinger and the Endless at the end are different, as you see the Harbinger's symbol on their armour and the opened Cylix at the start of the game and they dont match, so they likely might not be the same species/both Precursors but may have been allies in the past before both being sentenced at the Silent Auditorium and locked away. Perhaps having stood in defence of the Precursors when the Forerunners came for them, and were judged in the same fashion for being on the wrong side. Will no doubt be interesting to find out and can't wait for the DLC either way and read up on more theories
THANK YOU! I felt like everyone is ignoring this super obvious thing. Every single video I find just assumes Harbinger is Endless, and not once touches on the fact the symbols are different on the cylixes. You’re the first person I’ve seen bring it up.
The amount of theory possibilities in halo versr is unbelievable. One of the best stories i have ever saw. This comes from a guy who just started playing halo, started from infinite via game pass :D
I believe that we were supposed to meet Ofensive Bias during the campaign but due to time constraints it had to be cut, I mean look at the reflexion on Master Chief's helmet at 29:44 and compare it to the drawings of Mendicant Bias, it's almost a perfect match, also during that scene Chief seems calm indicating that he's certain that he's with a friendly
Did you notice that where Chief gets teleported to there's 7 rings, of which the 4th one has a hole and the 7th is more broken Wasn't the 4th ring the one from CE?
Yes, CE took place on Installation 04. That ring was completely destroyed, same of its replacement in H3, then it’s second replacement is complete and sent to its original location. Zeta Halo isn’t nearly as destroyed as the 7th ring in that location though.
@@Davidofthelost when the pillar of autumn blew up, only like a part of it blew off... And... Who knows since it's made hundreds of thousands of years ago, before installation 04 was destroyed, it could be a prophecy... Speaking of prophecies, it could have been made by a precursors...
Based around the hidden content of the Cougar vehicle showing up. I think maybe at some point the Spirit of Fire might show up to help the Master Chief and Unsc Survivors in take the ring from the Banished.
YES! we need to know where they've ended up and as far as i'm aware a new Halo Wars isn't in production so it makes sense for the Spirit of Fire to end up there after following the ring Anders was on, hell even what happend with that guardian. We know Anders went to get help from the UNSC but Atriox and most if not all of his forces are now on Zeta so do the UNSC still need help, are they killed off screen? So many questions!
Considering they're not working on a halo wars 3 currently, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they pick up from the end of 2's story in an infinite DLC.
Well, the UNSC on the ring is almost entirely crushed, so the Spirit Of Fire arriving to give support sounds great, as well as to finally cross the human characters from Wars to the main series.
The flood assimilating the endless would be horrifying. And I hope it happens: I’ve always wanted to have the future of halo being like a parallel to the forerunner-flood war, where opposing forces in the galaxy (unsc and banished in this case) end up waging war against the flood
I feel like only a master story writer could pull that off. So many moving peices qnd factions would be near impossible to keep track of especially when looking through one or two characters eyes
@@sonicsawblade what I mean is that when you said "the flood assimilating the endless" hiddenxperia makes it seem like the endless could be precursors so I think it's kind like the same creature. Just a theory
Really hoping the endless are an offshoot/evolution/related to the precursors as it'd be pretty lame if 343 just conjured a new 'EVEN MORE DANGEROUS' enemy out of thin air. If they at all relate to your theory(s) this should be super awesome!
You referring to them as an offshoot just made me realize that The Endless could be a sort of parallel to how the Precursors (possibly? Don't remember if this is in-lore speculation) forked the Forerunners from Humanity.
I really do hope the endless are some kind of Precursor, I feel like that's the only thing that should compete with the flood in Halo lore. I'm not big on the idea that after several games where it's established the Flood are the biggest threat in the galaxy, there's actually been some other threat that was somehow even worse, yet never mentioned, so I feel it'd be better for them to bring back something comparable.
Man I would love the endless to be the precursors. I think bringing a new big bad out of nowhere would ruin the story. Offensive helping chief and the weapon escape could mean we might see them in the dlc too
I was skeptical of The Endless; I wanted to know if this wasn't just a brand-new invention out of nowhere. Having some ties to things we already know makes me feel much more hopeful.
Tbh 343 mucked up Halos story with Halo 4 and on. Then we have Cortana going rouge, then dies. Chief given a wish purchased copy of her. This new alien species being more dangerous than the flood also goes against “The Primordial” warning. 343 are killing Halo and it’s sad that Microsoft let it happen.
Since Master Chief's story seems to be about stopping the Endless from now on, I get a strong feeling that we could see other minor stories being explored by our multiplayer spartan. Maybe we could even have a duo storyline where Chief is dealing with the Endless while Crimson team (our multiplayer spartans) has other issues on Zeta Halo like a minor flood outbreak or even just dealing with more of the Banished leadership.
@@Chef740 or maybe the flood come back and then we have a short campaign where at the end the endless just come out of nowhere and start shitting on the flood and is the reveal of the endless, showing how dominating they are. That would set the stage maybe. This is why I’m not a story writer lol
One of the reasons the Forerunners turned on the precursor is because they'd decided to test humanity for the mantle after judging the Forerunners unworthy. Again, lashing out when their power is threatened. I also noticed the reclaimer symbol on her head, I also think she looks quite alot like the Primordial concept art.
@@ShadowofGod616 I thought that the precursors almost refused to fight back as they took the mantle so seriously. If that's the case I can't imagine them wanting to wipe out the forerunner. I could be entitled wrong though
@@Piinguful the mantle is different according to the species. Under the forerunners it’s all about safety and protect everyone even if they resist. Under the precursors the mantle is more like live and let live they don’t interfere and think all parts of life including suffering is essential
@@Piinguful they only didn’t fight back because they don’t really die the way other creatures do and it may sound crazy but they also wanted the experience as they wanted to experience everything even death
Something I was reminded of is when we were racing to get to the House of Reckoning, when we get those underground forerunner facility, after we get the power seeds the teleportors just turns on leading you to the where they’re needed, the Weapon stated she didn’t do that and she wasn’t plugged in. Also around this time or before it, the Scan ability ( the one to find stuff and collectable) automatically activates at points, I don’t remember pressing that(Controller User btw). Just something to note.
what a thorough breakdown man! i absolutely loved it. I came here the moment i finished the campaign, and your theories were so freaking thorough that they almost sound like certainties! loved it! keep it up!
Friendly reminder that when Charum Hakor was used as a test site for the Halo the Primordial was freed, not killed. There is a good case to be made for Precursors to be more durable than their constructs and thus immune to the Halo effect.
Nah, the Flood are Precursors, and the ring was able to kill them as well precursor constructs. It points more to the Primordial being a flood, like the didact implied, but, a flood made up of Endless who are immune to the ring, thus making himself immune as well.
@@rbo7 I though the Halo array was never supposed to kill the flood but just their food though? That would also explain why high charity is stili infected in Halo wars 2.
@Smattonellus 83 Nope. Why do you think the tide of the battle turned to Offensive Bias' favor once the rings fired? All the flood crafts that mendicant had were eliminated. We also see the actual rings destroying flood forms in Halo legends, and in halo anniversary, terminal 8, it shows the ring killing all the flood. Guilty Spark also says it destroyed all of the flood. I assume you mean the Ark and not high charity, the reason for that is the flood existing in containment areas where the rings energy doesn't reach.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Man it feels GOOOOOOD to be making Halo theories again!!!
“Damn right it does”
I’ve been waiting for this
Yup
Well, none of your previous theories happened in the story, which made me feel the story kinds of lackluster
@@ItsJeepb now move out! Double time!
I hope you know how much I admire you doing all of these 30 minute videos back to back to back almost daily.
That's an incredible work ethic.
I hope that YOU know that you and HiddenXperia have been providing great content for years and are both wonderful content creators for the Halo community. Keep up the great work!
Hey you're cute. Built different
Ay I got into a ranked game with you earlier today and I just hit onyx
@@poisonl30n61 congrats man, been grinding a lot of ranked lately 😊
Appreciate that dude, and right back at ya, the amount of work and research you put into finding those tricks is utterly insane
Offensive Bias: sends Chief to Endless' burial site
Chief: aight I'mma head out and save marines
Offensive Biass: bruh
Finna go get some more spartan cores even though everything is maxed out 😩
😂😂
I think the endless may have been a relatively peaceful race because when fighting the harbinger at the end of the game she mentions something like “this is not what I am, they made me this way”
She was just quoting Tupac "I ain't a killer, but don't push me, revenge is the sweetest joy next to-" you know the rest.
well their whole race was imprisoned to preserve the forerunner religous dogma so they would be rightfully angry. 343 games has races committing atrocities in the "name" of the mantle even though if they truly followed the mantle they would not follow through with such actions.
Before the forerunners found then they were just chilling, never attacked or anything. But the forerunners didn’t like that they could survive a halo ring, and locked them up.
Yes I heard that line 30x over playing through on legendary. That bitch had me on my ass for 3 hours until finally getting through it 🤣
Can we just talk a moment to appreciate how big of a leap 343 has taken in their story telling.
they’ve been good at story telling and the books show it, halo 5 was going to have a whole different story, unfortunately they didn’t get their chance. Halo Infinite is where they actually were able to do a story in a game
Yeah because they got rid of that limp fish Brian Reed 😂 worst writer ever
The Forerunner trilogy and the build up of the Didact was top tier. Jul’s buildup was pretty good too. Just seems like they don’t know what to do with them once they get there.
@@TheDrewbe3 For how big a character the Didact was I think he should of lived in 4 and been the villain in 5
@@thegoat2985 agreed 100%. There’s this small part of me who still hopes he has an impact on the story somehow, either directly or indirectly
You also forgot how when the weapon says "something is helping her" it is heavily reminiscent of the time when Cortana felt the opposing presence of Mendicant Bias in High Charity, in Halo 2.
Maybe offensive bias is helping? (I assumed it was what was left of Cortana actually.)
@@ZealStarMedia As you said, during the game, my theory was that Cortana was not actually dead, or at minimum some part of her was in the ring, helping us/the Weapon.
But with the legendary ending, it is heavily implied then that it was in fact Offensive Bias in the ring helping us. Considering he was tasked with containing the Endless or whatever, that makes sense.
Nobody has said this but I feel like the 3 dots reflected from MC visor isn’t an endless like he thinks, but to me looks way more like a mendicant bias with red lights, possibly offensive bias in person.
@@handblitz4408 That is exactly what I thought as well. I mean, we know what the endless looks like because of the harbinger and she does not have 3 glowing eyes. However, guess who has 3 glowing eyes? Mendicant and Offensive Bias.
@@GSXone I feel like the endless is referring to the Precursors before they became the Flood, and the Forerunners and their monitors are trying to protect humanity from them. If I'm not mistaken, Zeta Halo is where the Primordial was buried or imprisoned.
Fun fact: The voice actor for the Grand Edict is the same guy who voiced Emperor Valkorion from Star Wars The Old Republic, so a voice actor as prominent as that will most definitely show up again in story DLC
Edit: I did not know he was Escharum as well, he did a bloody good job since he was unrecognisable
Huh that's a really cool catch! I will say he sounded super familiar but I haven't played SWTOR so I wouldn't recognise him from there
@@HiddenXperia Microsoft trademarked Halo: THE ENDLESS which is 100% dlc
@@jetstreamsam7853 Yup
@@HiddenXperia Darin De Paul, the guy who voices Grand Edict, also voices Samuel Hayden. That’s probably why he sounds so familiar.
@@HiddenXperia oh fuck, the sith emperor is multiversal
The Legendary ending sent chills down my spine, the music, the voice acting was so awesome.
That last line "Offensive bias has been deployed" gave me chills. My jaw was on the floor. Can't wait to see where this goes.
@Benjamin Hausmann but there’s no dialogue whatsoever on easy, normal or heroic
Ah yes, the video I've been waiting for! I gotta say the Harbinger saying "I shall talk, and you shall listen" has me thinking she's part Precursor or has something to do with the Flood. I mean, why else would she say that? As soon as they said Atriox was dead, I was like "There's no way they killed him off screen."
I think their related to the dust the precursors became, maybe bonding to or becoming a species.
Yeah killing Atriox offscreen either meant he wasn't really dead or that we'd get an ODST/Reach style game/expansion that let you play as someone other then John during the 6 month period he was out. At least that was my kneejerk reaction when I heard he was "dead"
@@aharkey1077 Maybe that's the mission they sent Blue team to
Even though the grave minds line appeared, I want to say it was just homage to the original games. We have so many cases of that throughout this campaign.
@@aharkey1077 he's not dead
The Harbinger's mouth actually looks a lot like the original Halo 2 Gravemind's mouth. And yes, Halo Infinite's campaign is season based, the story will expand with each update, I've very little doubt that the Flood will be released, probably around the halfway point; here's hoping we get some holographic interrogation scenes between Mendicant Bias and the Primordial.
Lmao never happening.
GL
so we’re getting a new story every 3 months…..no way.
Where is this guys proof :/
@@orangy8549 More like every year or so...
Well, if the flood are coming back it's time to load some shotguns
Anyone notice the parallels between Cortana / The Weapon and Mendicant / Offensive Bias?
Both the originals betrayed their makers and brought them to near extinction, both had clones of equal (or near equal) capabilities designed specifically to counter them created as a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of war, and both regretted their betrayals after their defeat.
If I remember correctly HiddenXperia mentions this in his older weapon explained video
Right, imagine if Cortana was actually infected with the logic plague back in halo 2/3. Then she could've been with the flood on zeta, possibly even a gravemind. Then we could use the weapon to successfully outmatch Cortana and the flood, just like offensive and mendicant. This is just off the dome, but imagine what 343 could've cooked up instead of this very small-scaled story that really only focused on emotions rather than big stakes in the galaxy
Yeah, in Halo 3 Mendicant Bias was helping Chief and Cortana and now Offensive Bias is helping Chief and The Weapon.
@@Master__Chief117 I agree. I really don't understand how cortana becomes good again. I thought she was a rogue fragment, not the same as the one who said goodbye in h4. The game was setting her up to be bad, and then somehow Atriox turns her good? idk
@@charliezen9121 I like to believe that 343 was originally gonna make something that aligns with the context you're talkin ab. But with development issues and scrapping the game. They had to go w this safe story. Yea but fr, cortana just turns good after she realizes she's stuck in a terminal? Lmao
Epic foreshadowing from 343.
The forerunners ultimate AI, mendicat bias being replaced by offensive bias due to corruption by the primordial. Then thousands of years later humanities AI cortana is replaced with the weapon after corruption from the Gravemind.
Both created to destroy the one they were modeled after.
holy shit
Not really... Cortana went rampant because that's just how all human-developed AI age, it's just reaching the "expiration date." nothing to do with gravemind
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that holding the activation index, the torture at the hands of the gravemind, and floating in space for years with nothing to process sped up Cortana's rampancy.
She had too much data and was given far too much time to review it over and over that she thought herself to death far faster than other AI. Look at Sloan for example he was 9-10 years old IIRC and was still capable of functioning at a pretty high level despite being deep into rampancy.
@@bnadit1949 It didn't help, but all smart A.I. only lasted 7 years, and she was in service for longer. But she was supposed to be somewhat special since she was made from a live flash cloned brain from Halsey. Other Smart A.I.s were made from people that had recently died.
@@jigawatt1.215 I think we have to look at the expiration of a smart AI like that of a gallon of milk.
Sometimes it will expire before the date (rarely), but most of the time it will expire a day or two past it. The 7 years is a guarantee of no rampancy, but after that all bets are off and it could occur at any time.
Also you make a good point, the way Cortana was made might have given her a longer lifespan to start with than other AI.
My theory:
We know ‘The Flood’ was created when some precursors “became dust which could regenerate into their past forms. Over time this dust became so corrupted that it could only cause horrific disease and mutation.”
Where ‘The Endless’ are that dust was instead preserved and did not become corrupted. The endless are both precursor and are related to the flood.
So in my opinion they can control the flood and probably can’t be infected seeing as they are the same entity (And may share a similar collective mind).
But they are not allied with the flood because The Endless wish to control the mantle. So I’m interested to see that interaction.
Both The Flood and The Endless can’t be killed by the firing of the halo arrays. Sus🧐
And only after the firing of the rings, the endless’s race was discovered yes. Meaning, perhaps, they were quite recently formed. And so had not yet cataloged by the forerunners.
And I may be reaching here but only after meeting with the Endless the Forerunners conveniently labeled them to be a threat. Why? The only other threats to the Forerunner were the precursors, and the flood.
The Precursor's weren't hiveminded like the flood are. I believe that came when the Primordial gave himself to the flood, his intelligence served as the first gravemind.
I personally think the Endless are a species that maybe the Precursors seeded before they left the galaxy. A species lying in wait to retaliate against the Forerunners for destroying the precursors. They may even be immune to flood infection, if they're immune to the Halo Array. I don't think they can control the flood though. I think their danger comes from the fact that they're more powerful than the Forerunners could ever hope to be--their fear was that they would lose their power, after all.
Precursors were independent and I think its unlikely they would just control the flood either. I'm not even fully subscribed that its precursors maybe it's an offshoot of precursors or an entirely new species.
Honestly them being a hive mind makes sense. We still don’t know what skimmers are but they don’t seem to intelligent. Maybe they are like ants and the harbinger is their queen or gravemind
But the precursors were pro-humanity and the Endless woman in the game says humans should not have the mantle.
I mean the Harbinger** she's obv not an Endless.
To be honest I thought the one helping The Weapon at the end was some final subroutine left behind by Cortana, but I really like your theory.
not too mention Cortana said she WILL make amends. I think her consciousness, while fragmented, is still pulling strings.
Exactly, not to mention the similar role 'the weapon' has if you compare her to 'offensive bias'. Even her name implies it
I too thought it might be Cortana. I thought, what if Cortana isn't actually dead, and the fragments that she left behind were just copies of parts of her memories etc - because dont forget, Cortana is able to make copies of herself. It could be deliberate by Cortana, she creates a copy of herself, lets it be destroyed, plants the fragments to make it look like her death was real, but the real Cortana is still alive somewhere behind the scenes, helping MC. Perhaps the real Cortana and Offensive Bias join together or something... but i've no idea.
Big agree. Feels much more likely and satisfying
@@gr3ywolf144 im pretty sure she was helping him during the last mission. But i think she’s dead dead otherwise it ruined her sacrifice and atonement. Plus she literally killed hundreds of millions of people lol so i think she’s gone gone and the “weapon” who didn’t say what she wanted to be called but im pretty sure she’s gonna be called cortana, and thatd make it confusing having two.
You know, after the whole debacle over who will inherit the mantle, a group precursors could've seeded a new species into the mix. Having seen how the forerunners dealt with their kin, could've predicted the emergence of the flood and how the forerunners would deal with them. Thus making the endless immune to the rings, similar to how chief was made uncomposable in 4. Wibbly wobbly genetics and such.
Something akin to Starcraft 2's Hybrid perhaps?
Wibbly wobbly geneticsy...weneticsy?
No campaign DLC ever came. Big disappointment.
I came back to watch this video and thought the same
If the endless aren't some devolved form of precursors imma be pissed
Yep. For me too.
Cap
Massive disappointment. Especially when you consider all the possibilities they could have had with the map they designed…..
When she says “You are not the future” to Chief it really made me think she is Precursor and is seeking The Mantle for her kind. The Xalanyn could be the true name for the Precursors as the lore isn’t as fleshed out as other species.
Seeing how the cylixs didn't have the same symbol as her cylix I doubt that's true.
You also gotta think if she's the endless too them why was she so easy to stop? The endless are suppose to be worse than the flood and she isn't worse.
But the Precursors had chosen humanity as the inheritors of the mantle. The Forerunners tried to prevent that by clinging to it and wiping out the Precursors, after that they "punished" humanity but lost the war to the flood. That's why they used the halos and went out with a bang, but the librarian returned the mantle back to humanity after the reset. So in a way the Precursors will prevailed anyway, that's why i don't believe the endless are the Precursors , because then they wouldn't be enemies to humanity. And everything points to the endless being the villains of the next game. They may be corrupted in some way like the flood though.
@@TheMalakasss I thought that first, but the precursors that came back as the flood were corrupted in origin, so they could be corrupted precursor
@@rushpatriot2866 The endless as a whole are supposed to be worse than the flood. I am not saying she is endless either because that was made rather unclear, but she is either closely related to them (maybe a servant of some kind, or possibly a non-combatant version of the endless) but I think really the main thing that is “worse than the flood” was their control over time. Something the forerunners had not yet achieved. It seems that the endless had used their power rather passively as they were completely backstabbed by the forerunners and locked down in Zeta Halo. It’s fairly possible due to the sorry state the flood had put the forerunners in that they panicked and locked them away because just the mere possibility of the flood being able to contaminate a being who has the knowledge to control time would devastating in itself. Can’t wait for DLC to figure out more🙏🏼
Can I just say, that I really love how Despondent Pyre sounds. I think her VA did an excellent job.
Hope she can get rebuilt somehow. Would love to hear her return and possibly assist the Chief moving forward.
Saaaaaame, I really hope that isn't the end of her
Their screams echoing through the forerunner halls are really haunting
@@spencehead87 this will seem odd but I got the same vibes as when E.V.E. from WALL-E when she screamed.
You know who I'd like to assist chief
343 guilty spark
Ya doesn't the weapon have her core or whatever the harbinger took
The part that solidified chief’s assistance for me is when they are trying to enter the spire and they are looking for a plan B, and the beam tower from background to then focused, fires in perfect timing of their conversation. I got SO giddy when that happened, I knew chief was getting some “Halo 3 LUCK”.
I could see the endless as precursors, especially with their connection to the origins of the flood. Something that came to mind was, Halo rings don’t directly kill the flood; they destroy their food (i.e. sentient life). Knowing the endless cannot be harmed directly by the firing of Halo rings, leads me to suggest you are onto something.
imo my idea is the Endless were created by something else
The fact that this campaign is just the foundation of some truly epic stories is just so exciting to me. I cannot wait for all this stuff!
Ikr it’s fuckin awesome makes me so happy
All I wanna know now is how often they'll release more Campaigns, I'd love at least a very very rough guideline for how often/ when Campaigns will come out
Yeah, just wait 10 years. Lol.
I really feel that this time 343 really poured love into their work. Both multiplayer and campaign have been remarkable experiences
Campaign maybe, but not much love in the multiplayer.
MP needs work but the core is still great, I see what you're saying. Just proves if you give devs time to make it worth your while, they will.
@@deadshota736 teenager, let me see you see you develop and make something half as good as Halo Infinite
@@MrKevin-wu8re I don’t need to be a five star chef to say McDonald’s food taste bad. Mp has actual issues that I know will eventually get worked out but saying something is without flaw because you can’t make it is stupid.
@@17Baggs More of a Burger King guy?
Yeees!! Been waiting for you to explain these things to me! And I'm already hungry for more Halo stories!
I really hope you're right and the first DLC does take place in the desert sector of Zeta Halo because I can't wait to see 343's artists explore desert environments again. Halo 5's campaign might not have been all that great but, from the visual standpoint, it's environments were fantastic, specially the shore-side canyon deserts in Sanghelios.
Interesting lore tidbit:
"The Precursors were not tied to any particular physical form, assuming any shape as they saw fit; they would allow themselves to die away and be evolved anew over and over again, taking on numerous incarnations both physical and immaterial. They lived through different stages of technological and cultural development countless times, being at times hyper-advanced and spacefaring and at others living primitively and remaining confined to their worlds."
Who's to say that they don't have a way of genetically altering themselves or other species. They could've remade their own species to be immune to the rings.
This indeed. It'd be interested to try to explain seeing as it feels like Neural Physics is how the Precursors manipulated things and it was neurons, in a sense, that the Halo's targeted. Who is to say, however, that Neural Physics was just one way the Precursors manifested their manipulations and simply changed "techniques," so to speak.
@@effortlessfury so how did these precursors die? How are they not masters of the universe?
@@jason2077 there is a theory they let themselves die so they could become the flood and infect the galaxy
@@jason2077 they just allowed the forerunner do their thing without imposing any resistance, they were in awe of the brutality their creation was capable of, just to be clear this point out that they are so confident of their prevalence in the universe that they basically didn't care , the flood was a judgement to their creations, and if I don't misremember the powder that would become the flood came from outside the Galaxy.
@@ChangerofWays-Tzeentch Except the Flood that we know is the direct result of corruption not the intended result of what the Precursors had planned.
I agree. The flood also isn’t really “destroyed” by the ring, but starved… also, the harbingers mouth flaps look exactly like the graveminds (prior anniversary graphics)
Well, what flood is in range of the rings is destroyed. Everything else was, as you said, starved. At least to my understanding.
@@thatcarguydom266 but that would imply that wherever the remaining food source was destroyed and they were not, so I’d assume it didn’t destroy them all. I don’t know, probably some loop holes in the plot
@Beyond Hop3 then how would the smaller infected still be alive inside some halos like halo 1 implied
@@WeirdWolfGaming forerunners were experimenting with the flood after the war
@@friskydingooo7992 right, I know that, but on every ring? I thought testing was mainly done on zeta
When the Didact said “Time was your ally, human, but now it has abandoned you”. I like to think he meant the Precursors, because they’re beings that transcends space-time. As well as the fact that precursor made it out for Humanity to take the Mantle. Until, they had change of plans when they became the flood. They were their allies until they weren’t.
To be honest, i just took what he said at face value, that is, time was your ally, but now, beacuse the Didact had returned, and with him, the forerunners, it had abandoned us.
Im leaning towards the precursors controlling time in a biological way. That’s how they effectively “dodge” the halo rings by just skipping ahead in time to after the blast passes almost reflexively like a natural response to danger. If so, they would be unkillable and maybe undefeated in battle (think the aliens in Edge of Tomorrow) so yeah a worse threat to forerunner supremacy than the flood
@@RavusRiven I think like how Chief was evolved to the point where he was immune to the composer, the endless are immune to Halo. The power of time I think is more literal meaning while the galaxy starts back at square one the endless would have even more time to evolve.
The precursors didn't change plans lore stated the surviving precursors calling the flood and primordial abominations and corruptions of everything they stood for
as what he means by time in the book the flood evolved from a type of human dog like a chihuahua then started to infect humans after time the flood allied with the humans and started to attack forerunners like the didact who was a warrior a war lord and when attacked they would dissolve. time here was the essence of the flood teaming with humans.
It's a shame we are never going to get the DLC we were all basically promised when infinite was released. So much for being a platform with years of support!
I'm so glad you mentioned the ship in the CEA custcene! I recently went back and watched your video about the mysterious Meddler species, and so much lines up with them potentially being the Endless. The fact that they were space-faring so soon after the rings were fired, the fact that they were able to infiltrate Flood containment for some unknown reason, etc
Can’t wait for the DLCs. I just hope we get to go to more diverse places like and underwater forerunner complex or navigating through space on an EVA booster frame.
Oh man I would LOVE an underwater level, Halo 2 teased us so hard with that and I wanted mooooooooore
I hope the DLCs are decent sized and worth it.
I mean they’ll do a good job but every DLC out this year have been like $40 for 15 minutes of a side story. I really hope it’s deep and timely
@Office of Naval Intelligence,where is the REDACTED or the black ink in the comment ?
I’ve put over 26 hours into the campaign and have looked for clues everywhere. My analysis is the same as yours. You have no idea how happy I was to see that I’m not the only one picking up on all of this. Thanks for the content man.
I'm kinda interested in how the Banished managed to find the Harbinger's cylix. It didn't seem to be sealed away with the rest of the "Endless". Is the Harbinger important or unimportant enough to be left alone? Were they studying it just like how they studied the flood?
And her cylix symbol (the drawing, dunno what to call it) it was different from the ones shown at the end.
maybe something to do with the engineers studying and experimenting on the endless. maybe harbinger was the sample being studied. all experimental samples get special lables, maybe thats why she was seperate? She did say "they made me this way".
Ik you posted this a year ago, but I have to say they probaly found it with Cortana's help.
The Legendary ending shows Cortana working with Atriox down in the cylix containment room(s).
She keeps repeating something about knowing how you're going to die, insinuating she knows more about the timeline than somebody experiencing time in a linear fashion would know, which would explain her working with The Banished, possibly to maintain consistency within a timeline of events that she recognizes are required in order to reach the best possible outcome. Kind of like Dr. Strange seeing all possible timelines, and helping to push reality in the direction required in order to reach the desired outcome.
@@aBadWizard Well, having seen it, Cortana is not in the ending. Maybe just before it, though?
Just prior her - expiration?
And even the Rubicon Protocol novel implies the Harbinger was found close to Outpost Tremonius...
@@aBadWizard Cortana had access to the Domain, and I think it held clues from the Precursors on how the timeline of Halo goes. I think its why Despondant Pyres refers to 'rings within rings' and everything being a form of infinite loop. I think the Precursors have set in motion a cyclic pattern of galactic evolution that results in the same events occurring in similar fashion over time. The Precursors were known to evolve and change constantly, in all manner of states of evolution simultaneously as a species. I think The Precursors are the height of their existence, The Flood their falling, and The Endless their evolutionary state of uprising. This is my theory overall at least. Halo's lore definitely is pushing towards Precursors having set everything in motion even to this point.
Agree or disagree: The only POSSIBLE way the Endless can live up to being a bigger threat than the Flood is if their time manipulation can bring back the Precursors, and that's their goal. If you think about it they'd be a perfect race for the Precursors to make, immune to the Halo array and then alone in an empty galaxy and working on time manipulation.
Yeah I don’t like the whole notion of something being more dangerous than the flood. I mean, the flood literally came within a few moments of killing off all life in the galaxy, and then universe. If this threat isn’t precursor related (which the flood technically are) I’ll be pretty upset. Hoping this isn’t Dragon Ball Z where some new ultimate villain is just conjured up out of nowhere for the sake of making games.
@@randomrandomnesss2188 That's exactly what I'm worried about, that they just pulled another ancient alien threat out of nowhere to have something new to shoot at for 10 years. The only possible way they can be a bigger threat over the Flood which WON and forced the Forerunners to genocide the galaxy is if they are a derivative of or a client race that can bring back the Precursors.
Sorta hoping that the Endless are just precursors like the Primordial. As long as they're not even older creatures since I don't know how much more "But there was an even MORE forgotten about threat" I can take.
Idk about them being more of threat mainly bc it the flood come on but the possibility that they're like a species the precursor made to be more like them in way like they're one their more favorite species that was peaceful until the forerunners locked them away and now they're back and looking to reanimated the rest their species and bring back the precursors, ascend to becoming them or just seeking revenge and then taking over. Idk there lot cool possibilities.
@@Bms010 If you consider this though: from the mind of a human, the flood is worse. from the mind of a forerunner, losing power is worse
From the forerunner perspective, the flood breaking out again is hardly a sweat, just relight the halo and reseed, BUT if there are beings which can assume the mantle of responsibility (or always had it) and are also immune to the effects of the halo, they'd easily rather have the Flood break out again, than the endless.
Consider also the implications that the endless are the truth to shatter the lies of the forerunners: What are the lies of the forerunners? Simplified, they are two things:
1. Forerunners had the mantle of responsibility
2. Humans are the reclaimers to that heritage (remember, humans in halo are descendants of modified humans crafted by the forerunners)
Thus, the concern of Cortana, that the endless are indeed the greater threat, is justified, because they are the only beings that have the power to and intent goal of, destroying any vestiges of the forerunners, humanity.
The lie is that humanity are the reclaimers, that is spun by the forerunners, thus if the endless succeed, humanity must be destroyed or bear the punishment that the precursors (flood) had in mind for the forerunners.
It also makes sense why the grave mind introduces himself saying
"I? I am a monument to all of your sins"
Not only is this a direct statement against humanity, but also against the covenant. One are the inheritors of a lie thrust upon them from their creation, and the other deluding themselves to be real inheritors to that lie.
Thus, the Flood, the Endless, are the correction of the sins of the forerunners, everything that humanity is and was.
The master chief/humanity is the weapon, the plan, the ultimate hope of the forerunners of escaping the judgement, sentencing, and execution of their sins. And thusly, from the perspective of the precursors/flood/endless, they must be utterly crushed, and possibly all life in the galaxy (seeded by forerunners, thusly all built on a foundation of lies). They want to punish, then start again, that was always the plan, even with the Flood.
Basically, this entire time, we have been led to believe that humanity once actually held the mantle, that they lost it, and are now reclaimers of the heritage the forerunners left behind, that the gravemind and his flood are evil and only intended to bring death and destruction to the universe, guess what? All forerunner lies.
In the Halo universe, from an objective view, humanity ARE the bad guys, the Gravemind was always right, if thats not the ultimate mindfuck and perfect conclusion to the series, I do not know what is.
I hope this is the case, and this would be putting the chief up against some pretty absurd odds, so if this is the case, its probable it will not end well or happily for him, which would probably be the best way to conclude it.
In one of the cutscenes, The Harbinger also says to Escharum that something on the ring was helping MC and The Weapon. Also in that one trailer shot I think it might be Offensive Bias reflecting on Chief's visor. Mainly because it looks like the same outline that Medicant Bias had.
Yeah it was totally mendicant or offensive Bias as Offensive was an exact copy.
Which trailer?
the thing helping them is absolutely Cortana
@@ciaranreid5132 mendicant had a sort of yellow glow, I'm almost certain it was Offensive Bias (would also make sense because the colours of red/orange are associated with anger, rage, offence, combat, etc)
@@WestCoastShredders That's what I thought during the game, but after this video I think it is Offensive Bias. I think Cortana is really dead and The Weapon has named herself Cortana now, since she is an exact copy. Funny, another 'exact copy' of an AI. One that turned on its creator and the copy made to stop it, then the original in its final moments coming back to the side of its creator.
This campaign was some of the most fun I’ve had in ANY campaign in a long time. 343 totally nailed the look, atmosphere, and freedom of Halo as well as took it in a new awesome open world direction. It isn’t easy to take a beloved franchise such as Halo and totally nail a new format and somehow make it feel even more epic. Playing this game on a Series X in 4k is a religious experience. It’s so gorgeous. I can’t wait for coop and the continued content to come. I hope they include split screen. Split screen is a staple of halo.
Splitscreen canceled lolololololol
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the music? Infinite’s soundtrack is really good in general, but the music in this cutscene specifically is amazing. It’s up there with even Halo 3’s tracks
Do you know which track it is in the legendary ending? I love it.
@@TherapyGel Gareth coker - silent auditorium
It’s even in Spotify lol
@@Mawae602 I found it through other means but you were incorrect. It's Endless by Gareth Coker. Thanks for the help anyways!
@@Mawae602 actually, its the deafuly Endless theme titled "Endless"
"When you first played the halo infinite campaign, were you blinded by its majesty?"
"Yes"
"Paralyzed? Dumbstruck?"
"Yes"
Y E S !
Y E S !
Y E S !
O H. M Y. G O D.
Other parallel: Weapon saying something is helping her (OB) is similar to Cortana in Halo 2 saying something is resisting (MB in the Dreadnought)
Yes! I actually forgot to mention that in the video, very similar
several times we can see offensive bias helping the team, some ancient code scanning the weapon, the boss fight help , the portal at the end, portal opening up when carrying the power seed when she says "we are stuck here" ....
all these line up perfectly
I just finished the campaign and I'm so hyped about Infinte's future. Having only read 10 Halo books so far I thought I was going to miss something, but I'm glad most people are noticing the lore connections while playing the campaign. I'm also 99% sure The Endless is a Primordial. The forerunner book saga is not the best ever but it's the deepest lore-wise and couldn't go on unnoticed.
HALO IS BACK BOIS!
Agreed. I thought The Endless was just a reference to the Precursors, but you said it.
Comments that didn't agr wel
Is it tho? Lol. Who the hell knows if we’ll ever get a new campaign in the future. I hope we do, and I hope they focus on something other than chief’s emotions. But 343 has to fix their fuck-up of a game first
"only 10 books"
Narrator: It was not, in fact, back
26:55 i believe that someone helping the Weapon and opening the portal at the end is Cortana. She planned a way to help Chief against the Banished and the Endless in the few milliseconds immediately preceding her blowing up the Auditorium and a chunk of the ring.
She did a lot of things similarly to how we've seen the Librarian set up possibilities for the future throughout the lore.
Agreed. I feel more that this is Cortana helping. She showed up at the end saying I hope it worked out. I planned it and only had a few milliseconds. To me that makes her the one doing all this...I do however thing Offensive Bias could show up but that particular ending I think was Cortana or at the very least...her plans, echos etc. activating.
also why didn't they explain the harbinger teleportation abilities
I’m confused at how objects on Zeta Halo can be older than the Forerunners. They built the Halo, so how can it be older than them?
Yes this. Can anyone answer?
My thoughts exactly
They could have incorporated older technologies into it when they built it, things they found much like we're finding the rings.
It's likely that they placed the artifacts on the ring. They did it before in Halo 2 on Delta Halo with those old stone structures.
Probably something to do with time and slip space. If you move faster than light, time slows for you but the distance you need to travel stays the same. You're just moving incredibly fast compared to the universe around you.
If something glitches or some unforeseen problems arise, in theory you can technically end up years past from when you set out traveling but due to the way light works in space. Where you set out from would technically still be in the time you set out.
That's my theory anyways.
What's interesting about the rings at the end of the campaign is that there is 7 of them. One of them is missing a segment like Zeta Halo, and one of them is completely torn to bits, like Installation 04, while the rest all remain intact. The rings are said to have been created before the forerunners, and yet they so clearly represent the exact circumstances of right this moment. Perhaps we're dealing with not only a site that depicts where the Endless were contained, but a prophecy that states when they'll be released. This credits the idea that the statement surrounding time in the legendary ending may be very literal.
Bro, nice attention to detail...
Perhaps 343 has finally understood the community and what they want...
Gimme that lore, all that juicy lore...
Extreme flaw in your logic. The Forerunners MADE the rings, they do not pre-date the Forerunners. The Forerunners specifically made them to fight the flood, and they were constructed at the behest of Master Builder Faber.
@@williameldridge9382 OP means the artifact rings found throughout Zeta Halo, not the Halo's themselves.
@@Adam-xn2hg im confused cause if the endless were imprisoned or whatever how did they have time to build all these artifacts and whatnot
Man, going back to this after no story dlc hits hard
Feel like I went back in time like Atriox 😂
When he said ‘assuming we get campaign dlc’ my heart sank. RIP my boy
@@idlecurator5365 same man, so excited to see where they take it, really enjoyed infinity's story, let's hope in the future with the supposed new game they're developing
"that presence helping the Weapon has to Offensive Bias, I can't see it being anybody or anything else"
You were so focused on the Offensive Bias theory that you missed *all* of the foreshadowing Cortana did. The Silent Auditorium was literally called the seat of her power. It's intentionally implied it's her handiwork. Narratively it makes perfect sense for a form of hers to live on to help the pair out, considering what she says in the final message.
I really do not see how Offensive Bias comes into play here at all, especially during the heaviest Cortana segment of the game. The mysterious portals to help Chief transport the power seeds were also opening *while* Cortana's echoes were getting stronger. Cramming in the deep lore AI while Cortana is crying her heart out to you would be bizarre to say the least. Obviously he will play a role later on, but I'm unconvinced he had a hand in that particular part of the game.
This is exactly what I thought. It felt like the narrative was driven hard that Cortana's echo was responsible for supressing the connection, helping the weapon, and opening the portal. She even left a pre-recorded message that specifically made fun of what she assumed the weapon would say. She likely left behind programming on triggers to help when needed.
Exactly what I thought, don’t know how he ignored Cortana completely
A question.
If the conversation by the Grand Edict happened 76 years after the Halos fired, weren't all the Forerunners dead? But here is one talking and he mentions the engineers will be busy. So did all the Forerunners not die then?
@@fourlamb1 Just of the top of my head, any Forerunners that were on the Ark when the rings were fired survived because the Ark is outside the galaxy and so is outside the range of the Halos. Apparently if any of them were in slipspace at the time they would have survived as well. Parts of Halo: Silentium and Halo: Fractures follow Forerunner characters post-firing.
@@LukeRobertsArt
I see, thanks for the info matey.
Amazing video as always, but I also have a random question: do we know where the Arbiter is? Or our old friend Rtas? I really miss our Elite allies
I imagine Arbiter is doing political things on his home planet
Arby just doing arby stuff, you don't question it. Though he's probably just handling some tiresome political stuff on sangheilios.
I think he’s back home smoking bongs in the tent with Dr. Halsey
Last I heard he was greening out and couldn’t handle the green
The Arbiter is doing calibrations 👀😂
Arby's probably being trialed for being too radical since he hired the first female shipmaster.(Halo 5) lol
I'm really interested what "preserving their truth" actually is when it comes to the endless. I always thought the forruners biggest secrets always were that they murdered all of the precursors and that humanity was the chosen of the precursors for the mantle and not them. Even as the flood, the precursors showed that they want humanity to suceed.
I don't see a contradiction here. If the endless and precursors are the same thing....
@@iisgray The harbinger states that " humanity isn't the future, we are" and yet the precursors wanted humanity to suceed them and take the mantle upon themselves. Even in the flood form they tried to prevent the fall of humanity and even retreating to not force ancient humanity fo fight a two front war with the forruners
@@Brother_Rony and yet, humans *do* still get infected by the flood. What changed?
Nothing. Humans being meant to take on the mantle was just another lie the Forerunners made up to make their actions more justified.
Why would the precursors give the mantle to anyone? Accept other races as equal, maybe, but give up their position and just... Die? Disappear? Why would they say "we're giving it to humans"? Under any context it doesn't make sense and has always bothered me. Bothered me that anyone would name a successor when you don't need a successor, and bothered me that the flood were nicer towards humanity.... until they weren't.
And if we were their successors, why didn't the human forerunner war start earlier? We should have been avenging them. But we weren't, we seemingly ignored it, seemingly didn't even know a war happened. We just colonized space and fed weird dust to our pets without thinking twice about it.
It makes far more sense that the precursors were never going to give up their position, but that the Forerunners expected them to anyway, because as a society they're power hungry dicks. When they realized they were never going to ascend while the precursors lived, they did a quick genocide. And as unjustifiable as that genocide was, it still made more sense to say the motive was because precursors chose a short lived war fueled group of races as their successors when the enlightened forerunners we're the obvious choice than it would be to admit the Forerunners weren't even enlightened enough to make a call like that. They just wanted power for themselves and took it.
@@iisgray It is like being a parent and watching your children and hoping they'll do better. We know that humanity was supposed to inherit the mantle both from ancient humanity and it was stated by surviving precursors themselves. The forruners (as the egoistical douchebags with a superiority complex that they are) executed genocide upon the precursors to hide the fact that the precursors changed their mind and decided that humanity and not the forruners should inherit the mantle (it was originally supposed to be the forruners). As far as we know they never seen themselves as gods, didn't even understand the concept of violence and seen that the universe was a evolving thing and that one day it would evolve out of them too. The flood just ate humans because it was the only source (as humans caused the flood to spread amongs its systems) and was probably aimed to be a test of sorts
@@iisgray Also since the forruners were the "chosen ones" significantly longer then humans were they evolved technically much faster and even hid the fact that they killed the precursors. During the weighing days of the forruner empire, most of them didn't even know that they killed them. They were taught that they chose the forruners and then simply vanished. Some humans believed at the same time that humans were supposed to get the mantle and that was viewed as highly heretical.
I really hope we also get DLC for the fight for the Infinity and fight for the ring. Preferably showing the fate of Osiris and the other Spartans
I'd be more interested in the Spirit of Fire than Osiris.
@@SGTRandleOneOne I just want to know what happened to Buck and his crew
@@lessiansaralonde620Buck and Dare got married, Tanaka witnessed it, as of now Locke is presumed dead after his helmet is molded to Hyperius’ armor. Vale is with the Arbiter.
I wonder if it's possible that the Xalanyn / Endless (assuming they're one in the same) aren't actually immune to Halo, but are able to "jump" in time to after it's fired
Given the Harbinger appears to have some ability to manipulate time, along* with the fact that Chief and the Weapon were apparently gone for 3 days before Echo 216 found them again
Not time travel, but manipulation of time (coming back into "and we cannot allow it to be theirs")
We've seen time manipulation before with the reverse stasis chamber that the Primordial was locked in (possibly tying back to them being (offshoots of?) precursors
So many options of what could happen soon
Also, with Cortana seemingly gone. What's going on with the Created? Because if the Created are (mostly) dealt with, could the portal to the Ark from Earth not reopen now?
Just a thought
*typo
Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t the Pillar of Autumn missing for a week after going into slipspace escaping reach
They are indeed the same.
@@SLAD3 I wouldn't call that missing. Slipspace just takes time to navigate through, it's not supposed to be instant. Pretty sure it took In Amber Clad around 2 weeks to get to Delta Halo from Earth
Today's canon fodder mentioned something of "Created cells". The may ve still active, just fragmented.
@@josuemonroygarcia9125 oh joy. Time to kill some robots!
I really hope the Flood aren't brushed to one side in Infinite as not being all that big a threat, i hope the horror and power of them is a huge threat in the game in the future
Infected endless cant be killed with halos, just imagine
The flood were never killed by halos the halos killed all life so the flood starved to death
And yeah if they make the flood sound irrelevant just to hype up this “endless” I’m gonna need a new controller
The Flood aren't even on the ring, except in containment and research facilities. Very much doubt they'll appear in the game.
@@icefarrow7959 They may be in containment facilities but those are still on the ring and there has been multiple Flood break outs from those types of facilities on other rings, definitely think we'll be fighting them again at some point on Zeta if not then the Ark
It's worth noting that the primordial was put in a timelock. Literally, while imprisoned, he experienced millennia while people outside the lock experienced minutes.
The war against precursors, and later the war against the flood wasn't just a traditional war of shooting and fighting. It was a LOTR style war of trying to get the right people in the right places at the right times.
The mantle of responsibility is a responsibility of preserving life, ALL life. The Forerunners failed at upholding the mantle when they genocides the precursors. They failed again when they genocided humanity. They failed a third time when they lit the rings.
In a universe where the Forerunners are fucking everything up that badly, it stands to reason that the precursors would resort to the flood as a way of preserving life.
That hasn't worked. But ultimately, I suspect we're still pawns in a game of chess between forerunner and precursor. Putting people in the right locations at the right time
holy shit this theory really expands the whole view!
Well said
But the Flood were out and about doing their thing before Humanity and the Forerunners ever met. The Forerunners weren't even aware of either species until humanity enacted Exterminatus on a Forerunner planet that had been infected by the Flood. Or, are you suggesting that the Precursors used knowledge of the future and released the Flood as part of a grand chess match, playing the extra long game knowing events would lead them to now?
@@shazmodeus2795 I'm not saying they knew the future in the paranormal/magic sense, but in the 4D chess sense. But yes, that's exactly what I'm saying
@@shazmodeus2795 wrong the flood was not around before forunners
I personally feel like the 3 red eyes, and, possibly the doll found, represent offensive bias, not the endless. If you look at mendicant's structure, his front end lines up with those red eyes. the doll could be a construct used by bias, because if you look at the diadact doll in game from Halo 4, and compare it to the doll found on zeta halo, they have very similar facial and body structures. Could also just be a teaser for some other future character being included, but it seems super similar to the didact's armor, and even the face has a more robotic and angular look to it.
If the endless aren't precursor's, or their offspring, they could be a species that evolved to operate outside of the neural physics, which is why they are immune to the halo rings, or even potentially the beings that ACTUALLY designed the rings. The dialogue at the end though kinda hints towards not only them surviving the rings blast, but also potentially being able to be infected by the flood still.
Hard to tell though, because bungie and 343 both throw a lot of false trails out in the games and additional media, that later get explained by what's really going on lol. Like the end fight agains the harbinger, FEELS like cortana might be helping through her echos, but... that also echos mendicant helping the chief and cortana out before. All I hope, is they listen to feedback, and continue to release story content without FLOODing the franchise out
I had my own inkling of belief that the Endless were Precursor in nature, but seeing all of the evidence laid out is, whew, really really interesting. It clicks even harder.
Very hyped to see all of the theories coming out! All these vids lately have been a blast, your work ethic is insane! Please take care of yourself though!!
Thank you bro
But the Precursors had chosen humanity as the inheritors of the mantle. The Forerunners tried to prevent that by clinging to it and wiping out the Precursors, after that they "punished" humanity but lost the war to the flood. That's why they used the halos and went out with a bang, but the librarian returned the mantle back to humanity after the reset. So in a way the Precursors will prevailed anyway, that's why i don't believe the endless are the Precursors , because then they wouldn't be enemies to humanity. And everything points to the endless being the villains of the next game. They may be corrupted in some way like the flood though.
@@HiddenXperia reckon you can do a theory video on where we ought to find Lasky, Locke and Palmer? I reckon they have a base in the desert as per the 2018 trailer with the radio, and they will play a part in stopping the Endless. 🤯
@@TheMalakasss In the game Harbinger tells the Chief they aren't enemies, or at least that she isn't his enemy. Sure maybe she's just saying that because she's a villain but she also talks to that captured trooper and tells him "the Forerunners mistreated your species, too" or something to that effect, as if trying to win him over. So what you're saying about Precursors "wouldn't be enemies to humanity," rings true, but it doesn't disprove the Harbinger being some sort of Precursor. Her motives in-game always point to revenge against the Forerunners, not humanity. Maybe she doesn't see herself/Precursors as humanity's enemy yet. She only fights Chief when he engages her for the most part.
@@TheMalakasss Pretty sure Precursor just refers to advanced beings before the Forerunners. There are **those** precursors that everyone knows about, but there's a reason that people say that they believe the Endless are **a** Precursor species.
Bit off topic but can we just appreciate how damn good the endless’ theme is?
Absolutely, I love it so much
@@HiddenXperia It honestly sounds like its straight out of a climactic fight from an old Bungie Halo game!
You can literally FEEL the genuine excitement in his voice. I cant think of another fandom lore channel that’s this engaging. Every video is electric. Keep up the good work 🤘🏼
Ayyy appreciate that dude
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that the endless could possibly be precursor or have a connection to the precursors. Awesome video thanks for the info.
My biggest question from halo as a whole what came before the precursors and could the beings before the precursors be the endless and the precursors help
the forerunners seal them away before the forerunners eradicated the precursors
Honestly the three eyed reflection in chiefs visor makes me think of mendicant bias’ construct but red so it stands to reason we may be seeing our first glimpse of offensive bias in the visor. Just one possibility. Chiefs body language is also not hostile as it might be if he was facing an endless
It seems more like he's listening to something rather than being wary of it.
I thought the same
Yeah, when Xperia got to that point, the moment I saw those three Splinter Cell-looking glowy eyes, my thoughts _immediately_ drifted to powerful Forerunner ancillas seen throughout the lore. I was _sure_ he was gonna say that it was Offensive Bias, it would fit in perfectly with the theory he was crafting.
The start of Infinite gave us several questions. The end answered most of them, but gave us a few more. These new questions, however, are of possibly an even larger scale than the ones answered.
Holy crap how I would love for the Meddlers to tie into main campaign lore. As well as Offensive Bias? 343 is doing some crazy stuff here
Who are the Meddlers
Aren’t the Endless called “Xalanyn.” Or vice versa. They were just some random species that were totally unaffected by the firing of Halo. This got the Forerunners thinking - and it made them pretty curious. So what did they do? They probed and imprisoned an entire species. Doesn’t sound too far to what they would normally do to eliminate a “potential threat.” The Harbinger doesn’t even know fully as to why her people were locked away… well, she has an idea. It’s probably from the fact that they’re not easily controlled. I mean, how hard is it to capture a several million jet-pack squids… apparently difficult if the Forerunners had to charge two monitors and a metrach-level AI to watch over a bunch of sarcophagi.
Yup
Here's a theory, what if the endless are like the meddlers from hcea terminals.
@@Ori--pw5vw Those were the Covenant
@@AlbertusSalvatierra it’s not. The meddlers arrived on Alpha Halo & Delta Halo shortly after the firing of the rings. The Covenant didn’t exist yet.
What's scary is that the Endless could potentially force a human to activate the ring and kill every species except for themselves.
I'm so glad you mentioned the mystery ship in halo ce, I always assumed that was a precursor ship and 343 guilty spark just contained it and buried that incident from memory. Like how they wanted to bury the story of the endless..
What do you think the forerunners were “here to help” with? Personally I think even if the endless survived, their homeworld’s ecology didn’t and they’re amidst an unprecedented famine with a destroyed biosphere
I didn't even think about the impact to the rest of their homeworld that makes so much sense!
Oh for sure i imagine it must have been traumatic for them to watch billions of creatures simply drop dead out of nowhere (i could see there being zero solute having been dropped on their planet due to them flying under the radar till after the array was fired)
Forerunners really showed up and pulled a pikachu :o
My favorite legendary ending in the series, actually mindblowing, all the mystery. I'm in
I never thought Halo 3's would be topped but here we are
@@HiddenXperia The moment I heard Offensive Bias mentioned my eyes were glued to the screen. I need more, darn it lol.
@@HiddenXperia bro I had to change my pants when I heard that last line in the ending. Geez I'm so hyped
That is truly a terrifying thought, the flood infecting the Endless…
The Endless Flood 👀🤯
Watching this and realizing it was posted more than 2yrs ago lol guess we’re not getting campaign DLC
I just had a thought. What if the precursors developed their own reclaimer species? Yes, humans were originally intended by the precursors to obtain the mantle. But perhaps in light of what the forerunners did to them, the humans became corrupted by that meddling. It's possible that the endless were designed specifically to avenge the precursors and force the reclamation in the precursor's own image?
But that would assume the precursors didn't already deem humanity worthy
I really like this theory, makes more sense than the precursors themselves coming back because we've seen precursors, and they don't exactly fit in those little containment units lol
Issue is the relics and likely the endless to are to old.
I wrote something similar, but to sum it up, the precursors had foresight that the forerunners just wanted to maintain power and so giving them control over the mantle would be a bad move, and humanity was too closely rated to forerunners and to be safe the precursors just made a new version of themselves, far less advanced but still inherit much of their understanding and control over neural physics. After the forerunners thought they wiped the precursors out, they claimed the mantle for themselves, than all the flood stuff happened, and in a last ditch attempt to maintain their power, they handed the mantle and their legacy to humanity, their closest relatives. Than they discovered the Xalanyn and that they were the intended reclaimers, so the remaining forerunners seeked to detain them in order for humanity to reclaim their legacy and the mantle, since they so feared losing their power.
Check the latest comments and you should find mine there :)
@@maxj9204 It may be true though the precursors are shapeshifters so they dont really have one physical form . Also maybe those containers contain their essence not their physical bodies .
In the trailer scene you showed at 29:40 do you think that those lights could actually be offensive bias? Since mendicant is portrayed as having 3 lights in that configuration. Also offensive bias's symbol is red so seeing the lights be red could also be something.
I thought the same
yeah i don’t know why he thought it was an endless, i got chills when i saw the three lights
Mendicant bias is always pictured with blue/yellow/white lights with two on top and one on the bottom to form a triangle. Offensive’s logo is red and his configuration is the opposite of mendicant’s. That reflection definitely belongs to offensive bias.
I thought the same shit my guy
@@aidenmeakin8747 right like I can’t believe how well thought out this video was. And then he concludes that the reflection is an endless??? Come on man even I got that one!
Another thing too is that in the engine demo WAAAY back when we also got to see a barren environment that we never saw (except for in the ending).
So I'd like to think if we do get DLC, it'll be about exploring this desert-like environment searching for Offensive Bias and learning more about The Endless (possibly fighting them too given what Atriox was doing in the finale)
And here we are just over 3 years from Halo infinite release and no story content. But rumor has it they are working on Halo 7 finally.
I do hope 343 treads carefully with “more dangerous than the Flood” thing. If it is like how you have theorized then it should be okay, but if it’s a case of the Endless just being more dangerous in a war related manner then that would be a slap in the face.
Yeah, gotta be careful with power creep, considering just how large and powerful the flood were built up to be, a galaxy-wide threat, while we haven't heard of The Endless before now (though I guess that's the point, trying to imprison and 'hide' them away, convenient).
The Endless aren't more powerful than the Flood. But, they can't be destroyed by the one thing intended to destroy literally all sentient life in the galaxy. They are a bigger threat to the Forerunners than anything else, but Cortana's words do confuse this idea. Maybe she's just been misled by the words of the Forerunners? She is pretty gullible post-rampancy.
It is because flood and Endless are both came from same species:- The precursors. And yes flood also want go control the mantle. The whole point of flood is preserve life but not let anyone have a free will of it's own. Diversity is not a concern when central point of flood is to preserve life. Endless evolved in it's own way and they believe they should have control of the mantle
The whole Halo universe is always centered around mantle of responsibility. Those who hold mantle hold ultimate control of the universe. Although Precursor technically died their successor species the flood and endless believe that because they are created by precursor (well technically all are and flood are literally created by primodial which he asume control and become forst gravemind) believe they are the ones who should have control of mantle.
Plus, it's generic and boring
I largely agree, tho one could look at it in mind with that the monitor said about the forerunner's real fears being about losing their power and legacy. If the endless were immune to the rings, they could maybe outlast the forerunners and then it wouldnt be up to the forerunners what the future thought of them. Kinda like how this grand edict was saying, they cant be allowed to control time (by outliving them maybe).
So perhaps the idea that the endless are more dangerous than the flood is a reflection more of the forerunners' vanity and pride than the actual strength of the endless themselves
I want offensive bias to return since his story is one of the best in halo lore
@The Gent so what?
@@nuclearmuffinman imagine finding reading a book hard lmao.pathetic
@@nuclearmuffinman Audio books.
Free on UA-cam....
@The Gent PFFFFT
Most good stories are in the books/Spin-offs.
@@nuclearmuffinman u identify as an attack helicopter!
Than you verrrrrrryyyy muchhh!!
One thing everyone should always keep in mind when in reference to the Harbinger, the Endless, the Primordial, The Flood, and the Precursors themselves is that the Precursors would often spend millions of years living, dying, and reincarnating into new mortal forms and frames, so they could return as a element to the story in potentially anyway 343 could want, be it a return of the Flood and the Gravemind in a last triumphant bound of spite, the Precursors themselves as they were when the Forerunners "annihilated" them, or whatever new race The Harbinger and the Endless comes from, they can ALL very easily tie back to the Precursors as they are neither restricted by mortality or time for that matter, their link with Neural Physics allowed them to bend the fabric of reality itself, something the Forerunners were so terrified and so sure was within the reach of the Gravemind if it reached a particular critical mass that they developed the Halo array in the first place. The Harbinger even mentioned how humanity was originally viewed as a promising "candidate" for something, perhaps in reference to when the Precursors were deciding between Ancient Humanity and the Forerunners as to who would inherit THEIR "Mantle of Responsibility", not the Forerunners perverted and propagandized lie of it which only served as a statement of Forerunner imperial peace and supremacy.
Hearing him say "DLC 1" hurts so much two years later 😭
real shi
type shi
@@ibrokemyownheart4953 shi
Interesting that the location Chief got warped to at the end had 7 rings. To me they resembled the state of the Halo Array. One slightly broken, Zeta Halo, one in total pieces, Alpha Halo, the one at the end of CE. Not sure it means anything but seemed interesting.
There are also 7 Forerunner artifacts.
Just like piranha bytes games theres 5 artifacts everywhere, and risen
This halo zeta halo is bigger than the others from previous games it isn't the same set, this halo came from the greater ark. Btw Bungie and now 343 love the number 7 anyway so it might not mean anything. Just like how the legendary ending takes place 77 yrs after the firing of the Halo array.
Holy shit.. that’s blatant symbolism..
@@rushpatriot2866 Zeta halo is as big as any other halo after sustaining damage and being rebuilt
Hot take on the flood theory: Building off what you said about precursors believing the universe is alive, I heard that events that take place within it are "sweetnesses" to the universe and enrich its experience.
So it's entirely possible that the precursors seed life in a galaxy, allow it to naturally evolve over time, only to transform into another version of themselves, the flood, to kill off and harvest what they have created, that large scale suffering just further feeding the universe. This sort of makes more sense when we talk about the primordial being half precursor and half gravemind - it was transforming.
It has always puzzled me how the forerunners would have been able to so easily wipe out the precursors, who were eons more advanced. But now I believe that the precursors simply allowed it to happen, because to them it was just another cycle coming to a close, knowing that they would return as the flood to finish what the forerunners had started.
Majority of the stuff above is taken from Installation00
Now begins my theory:
It was revealed that the forerunners feared losing their power, so with this foresight the precursors decided that the forerunners are not worthy of the mantle, and since humanity was too closely related to the forerunners, neither were they. Upon understanding this, the forerunners revolted and committed genocide against their creators, but not before the precursors created (or transformed into) the Xalanyn, a species far less advanced than themselves, but still inherit many of the precursors abilities and understandings of neural physics etc. to be the new reclaimers.
Now, the forerunners believing they had eliminated the precursors, they claimed the mantle for themselves, and than all the flood stuff happened and the forerunners were left with no choice but to fire the halo array, and in a last-ditch attempt to maintain their power, they handed down the mantle and their legacy to their closest relatives: humanity.
The later discovery of the Xalanyn or "endless" and that they were the intended inheritors of the mantle posed a threat to the forerunners control and power greater than that of the flood, and they knew that if humanity were to keep the mantle, the endless had to be detained.
Really hoping you read this, HX, I wanna hear your thoughts!
This is really solid.
Installation00 has a video that explains this very same theory regarding "sweetness" and what the Precursor told humanity that made them lose their minds and commit suicide.
@@BryanbFLYin ahh yes that's probably where I hear about it. Thanks.
@@zucciniii1878 it would also tie into them being named the endless...
The precursors never end: they seed, they evolve, they "harvest", then they start again.
Over and over again... Which would be another reason for the forerunners fearing losing control... Why the forerunners launched their crusade against their gods...
@@3dpyromaniac560 precisely
It's worth noting that John's "luck" attribute is clearly one of his strongest suits when you think about the fact that he's the only being in the lore who has been aided by:
Mendicant Bias - once most powerful Forerunner AI
Offensive Bias - made to defeat Mendicant
Cortana - once humanity's most powerful AI
The Weapon - made to defeat Cortana
Even Gravemind aided him once
@@Number_5 Who is technically the most intelligent being in the galaxy.. so that must count for something :P
Wait. He’s been helped by both bias’ ??? When? I don’t remember that
@@lucasa4955 mendicant pulled some strings in the shadows of halo 2 and/or 3 (I’m not 100% sure as I haven’t finished the halo 3 campaign yet) but I’m sure he has videos on it all!
Makes me wonder how far Nobel 6 would have gone if he was also lucky & had a super adnace AI watching his back.
Man what a quality video and theory. Good shit dude! The hype is on for what’s to come!!
Also related to Epitaph, the “Guardian” hologram from Epitaph is also in this game. I saw it in one of the final missions, I believe in the Silent Auditorium. I’ll have to look around and find it again.
I remember seeing that too… not to mention that when flying around the islands you can see what seems to be the wings of a crashed Cortana Guardian off in the distance
I think you're right about the endless being an evolution of the precursors. Not every single molecule of precursor dust corrupted in the same way, if they are sentient it's not statistically possible. During re-assimilation some of the dust may have formed a far more capable entity: the endless. Hence the parallels with the flood, they come from the same place essentially.
So much of this lines up with my own theorizing since finishing the game. I cannot wait for more and the Forerunner Trilogy of novels is the gift that keeps on giving with modern Halo lore
Yes. Where in modern lore neither Fuchs halo fans
Legendary ending does actually feel like something that will be recited in legends as it should.
27:37 I just noticed the rings he’s standing in represent the Halo installations. The fourth ring has a chunk missing from it, which you can see the ACTUAL missing chunk in the sunset in the background. One of the rings is fragmented heavily, representing installation 04
... but zeta halo's installation 07
Ok, they don’t line up numerically. Though, you can see the actual installation 04 in the very back. Well, the remains of it
@@oxygen6337 No, I'm saying that chief's on Installation 07. That damage is on installation 07.
In halo 3, in the room leading to the prophet the holographic halos also had a broken ring so I think that’s an even more fascinating thing than the smaller rings in infinite
Both 4 and 7 are damaged, like in real life, that makes everything more complicated, making a race omniscient :0
Quick thought: what if, when Pyre says "they think we're here to help" they think so because the Halos damaged their tech? Assuming it's precursor stuff it could be that their planet was ravaged by the rings and could also be a way to explain the crashed ship on 04
Good point!
A lot of people really overthink the crashed ship on Alpha Halo. We don't know for certain of course, but to me it felt like a narrative cue for Guilty Spark loneliness and slow rampancy: he was super excited of finally meeting someone. Having new data to analyze and wonder about the state of the universe post-Halo firing, but then... nothing. The ship was implied as having randomly drifted after the Halo's fired (which killed the crew), hinting at the empty state of the universe (from GS point of view) and reinforcing the monitor's continued isolation.
I finally finished infinite campaign and can now watch all your videos again. They were killing me sitting it queue!!
I immediately thought that the endless were precursor. Looking at the harbingers armor it looks closely to what forerunner technology looks like. If they are precursor then forerunner technology could easily be based off of theirs hence why the harbinger was easily able to use technology on the ring. I love that they are getting into the deep lore of the game. I also noticed when AI pop-ups on the visor were happening there was a notification that a S.P.D.R. was working on fixing the weapons ai systems. Along with the ILoveBees stickers. Maybe those weird stories that included the S.P.D.R could hint towards what's going on that happened during the ARG.
OH SHOOT YOU HAVE A POINT - About the ARG specifically. The ARG had to do with time travel, and in this campaign, we see the *first* instance of time travel in a Halo campaign! Even if it's only a 3 day jump, the fact that we've now seen time travel means 343 could easily tie the ARG into the campaign at some point. 👀
@@crimsonraiderxv3422 3 day jump rang more as a long teleport, similar to when Gordon and alyx were lost for a week after the explosion at nova prospekt...
Might just be a connection I drew because I was replaying hl2 right before infinite dropped
@@3dpyromaniac560 Yeh don't know what going on till we either get a campaign dlc or the next game comes out. Just thought there might be a connection somehow. Weird to just emphasize ILoveBees for some reason.
Another thing to note is that the Cylix insignia for the Harbinger and the Endless at the end are different, as you see the Harbinger's symbol on their armour and the opened Cylix at the start of the game and they dont match, so they likely might not be the same species/both Precursors but may have been allies in the past before both being sentenced at the Silent Auditorium and locked away. Perhaps having stood in defence of the Precursors when the Forerunners came for them, and were judged in the same fashion for being on the wrong side. Will no doubt be interesting to find out and can't wait for the DLC either way and read up on more theories
Hmm very interesting. Good observation
THANK YOU! I felt like everyone is ignoring this super obvious thing. Every single video I find just assumes Harbinger is Endless, and not once touches on the fact the symbols are different on the cylixes. You’re the first person I’ve seen bring it up.
Feels so good hearing theories once again
The amount of theory possibilities in halo versr is unbelievable. One of the best stories i have ever saw. This comes from a guy who just started playing halo, started from infinite via game pass :D
I believe that we were supposed to meet Ofensive Bias during the campaign but due to time constraints it had to be cut, I mean look at the reflexion on Master Chief's helmet at 29:44 and compare it to the drawings of Mendicant Bias, it's almost a perfect match, also during that scene Chief seems calm indicating that he's certain that he's with a friendly
The three light pattern looks almost identical to how Offensive Bias and Mendicant Bias were portrayed, with the three glowing lights
Did you notice that where Chief gets teleported to there's 7 rings, of which the 4th one has a hole and the 7th is more broken
Wasn't the 4th ring the one from CE?
Holy shit you might be onto something.
Yes I mentioned this to my friend! Surprised not many have caught it
Oh damn what an excellent spot! that's an excellent point so those rings can react to current events to the array or were made after 2552 possibly?
Yes, CE took place on Installation 04. That ring was completely destroyed, same of its replacement in H3, then it’s second replacement is complete and sent to its original location.
Zeta Halo isn’t nearly as destroyed as the 7th ring in that location though.
@@Davidofthelost when the pillar of autumn blew up, only like a part of it blew off...
And... Who knows since it's made hundreds of thousands of years ago, before installation 04 was destroyed, it could be a prophecy...
Speaking of prophecies, it could have been made by a precursors...
Based around the hidden content of the Cougar vehicle showing up. I think maybe at some point the Spirit of Fire might show up to help the Master Chief and Unsc Survivors in take the ring from the Banished.
YES! we need to know where they've ended up and as far as i'm aware a new Halo Wars isn't in production so it makes sense for the Spirit of Fire to end up there after following the ring Anders was on, hell even what happend with that guardian. We know Anders went to get help from the UNSC but Atriox and most if not all of his forces are now on Zeta so do the UNSC still need help, are they killed off screen? So many questions!
Considering they're not working on a halo wars 3 currently, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they pick up from the end of 2's story in an infinite DLC.
I really fucking hope so man
Well, the UNSC on the ring is almost entirely crushed, so the Spirit Of Fire arriving to give support sounds great, as well as to finally cross the human characters from Wars to the main series.
@@zalabit927 imagine how insane is would be to see Red Team with Chief 😍😍
The flood assimilating the endless would be horrifying. And I hope it happens: I’ve always wanted to have the future of halo being like a parallel to the forerunner-flood war, where opposing forces in the galaxy (unsc and banished in this case) end up waging war against the flood
I feel like only a master story writer could pull that off. So many moving peices qnd factions would be near impossible to keep track of especially when looking through one or two characters eyes
@@charlesmartiniii1405 well we do have Joseph Staten back.. he could pull it off
Wouldn't that just be a gravemind? 🤣
@@abby4400 I mean like whole planets are taken by the flood.. whole star systems
@@sonicsawblade what I mean is that when you said "the flood assimilating the endless" hiddenxperia makes it seem like the endless could be precursors so I think it's kind like the same creature. Just a theory
Really hoping the endless are an offshoot/evolution/related to the precursors as it'd be pretty lame if 343 just conjured a new 'EVEN MORE DANGEROUS' enemy out of thin air. If they at all relate to your theory(s) this should be super awesome!
You referring to them as an offshoot just made me realize that The Endless could be a sort of parallel to how the Precursors (possibly? Don't remember if this is in-lore speculation) forked the Forerunners from Humanity.
I really do hope the endless are some kind of Precursor, I feel like that's the only thing that should compete with the flood in Halo lore. I'm not big on the idea that after several games where it's established the Flood are the biggest threat in the galaxy, there's actually been some other threat that was somehow even worse, yet never mentioned, so I feel it'd be better for them to bring back something comparable.
Man I would love the endless to be the precursors. I think bringing a new big bad out of nowhere would ruin the story. Offensive helping chief and the weapon escape could mean we might see them in the dlc too
It'd be a huge fucking payoff if all the lore nerds predict the precursors return.
It'll be a 'i knew it!' moment
I agree. A new form of the precursor/flood mystery. Not just a new baddie.
I was skeptical of The Endless; I wanted to know if this wasn't just a brand-new invention out of nowhere. Having some ties to things we already know makes me feel much more hopeful.
Tbh 343 mucked up Halos story with Halo 4 and on. Then we have Cortana going rouge, then dies. Chief given a wish purchased copy of her. This new alien species being more dangerous than the flood also goes against “The Primordial” warning. 343 are killing Halo and it’s sad that Microsoft let it happen.
Since Master Chief's story seems to be about stopping the Endless from now on, I get a strong feeling that we could see other minor stories being explored by our multiplayer spartan. Maybe we could even have a duo storyline where Chief is dealing with the Endless while Crimson team (our multiplayer spartans) has other issues on Zeta Halo like a minor flood outbreak or even just dealing with more of the Banished leadership.
That would be pretty sweet. Good little DLC's to hold us over for Chiefs story
@@michaeloswalt2917 you know just a small world ending disaster nothing major lmao
@@Chef740 or maybe the flood come back and then we have a short campaign where at the end the endless just come out of nowhere and start shitting on the flood and is the reveal of the endless, showing how dominating they are. That would set the stage maybe. This is why I’m not a story writer lol
Fire team crimson?
@@Chef740 Eh, just send in some Spartans with shotguns and flamethrowers, no biggie.
One of the reasons the Forerunners turned on the precursor is because they'd decided to test humanity for the mantle after judging the Forerunners unworthy.
Again, lashing out when their power is threatened.
I also noticed the reclaimer symbol on her head, I also think she looks quite alot like the Primordial concept art.
Yeah but the forerunners were gonna do away with them. I think everyone has the right to fight for their survival
I meant Precursors
@@ShadowofGod616 I thought that the precursors almost refused to fight back as they took the mantle so seriously. If that's the case I can't imagine them wanting to wipe out the forerunner.
I could be entitled wrong though
@@Piinguful the mantle is different according to the species. Under the forerunners it’s all about safety and protect everyone even if they resist. Under the precursors the mantle is more like live and let live they don’t interfere and think all parts of life including suffering is essential
@@Piinguful they only didn’t fight back because they don’t really die the way other creatures do and it may sound crazy but they also wanted the experience as they wanted to experience everything even death
Something I was reminded of is when we were racing to get to the House of Reckoning, when we get those underground forerunner facility, after we get the power seeds the teleportors just turns on leading you to the where they’re needed, the Weapon stated she didn’t do that and she wasn’t plugged in.
Also around this time or before it, the Scan ability ( the one to find stuff and collectable) automatically activates at points, I don’t remember pressing that(Controller User btw). Just something to note.
Omg you're right I thought I accidentally pressed it 😂
I really thought I was pressing it by accident
what a thorough breakdown man! i absolutely loved it. I came here the moment i finished the campaign, and your theories were so freaking thorough that they almost sound like certainties! loved it! keep it up!
Friendly reminder that when Charum Hakor was used as a test site for the Halo the Primordial was freed, not killed. There is a good case to be made for Precursors to be more durable than their constructs and thus immune to the Halo effect.
That's true actually, it destroyed their artefacts but not necessarily they themselves
Nah, the Flood are Precursors, and the ring was able to kill them as well precursor constructs. It points more to the Primordial being a flood, like the didact implied, but, a flood made up of Endless who are immune to the ring, thus making himself immune as well.
@@rbo7 I though the Halo array was never supposed to kill the flood but just their food though? That would also explain why high charity is stili infected in Halo wars 2.
@Smattonellus 83 Nope. Why do you think the tide of the battle turned to Offensive Bias' favor once the rings fired? All the flood crafts that mendicant had were eliminated. We also see the actual rings destroying flood forms in Halo legends, and in halo anniversary, terminal 8, it shows the ring killing all the flood. Guilty Spark also says it destroyed all of the flood.
I assume you mean the Ark and not high charity, the reason for that is the flood existing in containment areas where the rings energy doesn't reach.