Thank you to Payday 3 for Supporting the channel. Check out the new DLC in-game now gsght.com/c/bcjnlz #ad We all know that if Master Chief died Chips Dubbo would just fill his spot... right?
@@bumbaclot813 Because he was opportunistic, and it's probable his situation made him think he had to be as pragmatic, and ruthless, as possible. It's also probable he never thought Arbiter would listen anyway (and it's possible he didn't even care about whether Arbiter would). Which is a shame, because to us the viewers, it did seem like Arbiter was willing. The heretic leader being the type of person to actually go against the Covenant's teachings was a good thing, but clearly he had other personality traits that hindered the rebellion from truly getting off the ground.
Two paths for the epilogue: 1. Tartarus would have remembered what the Arbiter told him, and a confrontation would happen in the Ark's control room once it became obvious transcendence wasn't happening. He would demand clarification from the Forerunners themselves, and Guilty Spark, and/or another Forerunner AI would just repeat what Tartarus had already been told. Their religion was false, their war against the humans was based on nothing more than lies and a translation error, and by initiating the Great Journey they had in fact murdered an entire galaxy. Ships sent back to the Milky Way would confirm it. Tartarus would then exterminate the San'Shyuum and take control of what was left of the Covenant. I'd also assume Miranda Keyes survives this outcome, since it's likely she would have been the human used to activate the array. Perhaps the Spirit of Fire also survives somehow. I'm not sure what mechanism opened a portal to the Ark for them, maybe it could have happened early once the array was activated. 2. Guilty Spark tells them a partial truth; the Ark is out of range of all active installations. They wait a few days for his replacement Halo to be completed and fire it, which he still insists on due to the Flood presence on the Ark. The End.
I don't think Tartarus ever really cared about the great journey, I think he believed the Arbiter, and simply didn't care, all he really wants is power and to be in charge. Other than that I think it still would have went the same way your first scenario went.
@@trankia1224 If you read the books, you learn that Tartarus is a zealot. He truly does believe in the great journey. In fact, the brutes under his command were known for being extremely "faithful".
@@477sierra well, if that's the case, then the prophets could probably talk their way out of it. If the brutes are that dumb and have believed everything they've said up to this point, why wouldn't they believe them even further?
@@trankia1224 It's possible but keep in mind, the Arbiter did manage to plant a little seed of doubt. The reason Tartarus didn't believe it then is because you can't expect someone to give up a lifetime of beliefs in a few seconds. Still, you could see Tartarus hesitate a bit when the Arbiter told him the truth. The prophets might be able to stall but Tartarus would send ships back to the galaxy to confirm what happened. Basically, the prophets are living on borrowed time as soon as they fire the rings.
I feel like once all the halos were fired and Tartarus realized that the arbiter was right, he'd kill the prophets for what they've done and try to rebuild civilization, maybe not as efficient or as elegant as another species but with the intelligence and instinct they had they'd start by searching for any other existing life and having a majority of their forces on the arc rebuilding themselves My final thought is, would the firing of all the halos effect the halo 4 plotline and would it continue into a potential war between the brutes and the Prometheans? Because I don't think Tartarus would be dumb enough to trust another "intelligent mind" after trusting the prophets
Yes. The didact either continues to sleep or awakens to a dead universe. At that point, Tartarus either beats him in a slug fest or he slugs Tartarus off a mountain. Whoever wins becomes the “God” of the new galaxy.
I would love to see more of these what if videos! I have always wondered about different scenarios like this and I think you are the most qualified to consider all the changes.
Arbiter: "Tartarus, the Prophets have betrayed us..." Tartarus: "...our entire lives...everything we ever did...was for a lie...? *_I'LL KILL THAT BASTARD, TRUTH!"_*
There definitely would've been a massive civil war afterwards. Especially when each species finds our their own home planets and colonies are dead. They'd probably rip each other apart out of anger, fear and desperation
This is a great breakdown of events, but I can't help but notice something. The gravemind was on delta halo, if it wasn't on high charity by the time it fired, like mentioned in the video, the gravemind would have simply been killed.
What if Sargent Johnson saved Miranda Keyes in Halo 3, (basically he dies and she survives) Or what if Humanity finished the UNSC Infinity before Halo 2? Or what if Jacob Keyes, Sargent Johnson, and Miranda Keyes survived the Human Covenant war? Or what if the UNSC won the battle of Circinius IV?
On Lord Hood, I don't think he would have been in as nearly a vulnerable position as he is in Halo 2 due simply to the fact that there would be no award ceremony to attend, and thus no reason for him to be aboard said station. The bomb thing likely would have been deduced the moment the Malta went down either way, but without the Chief there to repel boarders, it would have had a better chance of going off. As for Tartarus, I believe he would come to realize his mistake once the ring failed to grant him the godhood he was promised, and might well plot to betray the Hierarchs as a result.
Love the video but I see a hole, what happens to all the life forms that were supposed to be killed by instillation 04? It’s blown to smithereens so I think everything in its radius would be more or less safe.
There’s 25,000 light years of the galaxy that wasn’t wiped out because the ring from the first game was destroyed so whatever life is left in the galaxy would still be there.
I have what could be a real intresting one, what if the covenant never attacked reach/ what if the spartans attempted thier original mission to find and capture a prophet to stop the war
I actually had a better question for this topic, what happens Master Chief officially died not in Combat Evolved, but maybe the future of the franchise? I really want to hear your thoughts Hidden, no need to rush.
Really great video! There are a couple issues that I might see with how this would play out though. Miranda wouldn't even know to contest the activation index because the information that Cortana had from alpha Halo would have been lost, plus they couldn't bring high charity to Earth because once the anodyne spirit departs I'm pretty sure it didn't have the power to even move itself let alone jump through slip spaces.
Something that occurred to me while watching; without Chief, or the original survivors, there's no medal ceremony on Cairo Station - so would Lord Hood or Miranda Keyes necessarily have been there in the first place?
Yep one other fact I think we haven’t spoken about. They wouldn’t have ever know the purpose of the Halo rings and wouldn’t have made such priority to stop them given the attack on earth going so hard on them.
Would anyone on the Ark even survive? Installation 08 (AKA 04B) was at the Ark at the end of Halo 3. Or maybe we’re saying that ring doesn’t fire because it wasn’t fully operational yet?
I think the flood could have still had a decent chance of infecting high charity. In killing all the elites, the covenant loses its best strategists and tacticians, in their fight against the smartest, most tactical foe in the galaxy
I don't think In Amber Clad would go to the Library as all the info about Halo, the index, ring infrastructure, and the flood, would be unknown to humanity since cortana and chief died. They'd be seeing it for the first time
Huh. Interesting concept. Honestly, a what if I'd suggest, is following Jorge post slipspace bomb. One of the Yoroi coatings that has his color scheme implies that he arrived in a shattering of glass, turning what could have been a tragic defeat into the greatest of victories. He lost his home, but saved another. That's something that I feel would make a great 'what if'
One thing that i might have missed. But who would be the reclaimer that truth would have to use to activate the halo's on the ark. Or would it be Miranda still?
The brutes lead by tartarus would have destroyed the prothets out of rage, and then died of old age since there were no females present in the fleet. Thus you could say that everyone dies, even though they are spared from the halo rings.
I think Tartarus would've began to question the prophets after the firing of Delta Halo. Most of the elites in space wiped from existence with their ships floating around? In my eyes, he would've begun to realize that the rings were weapons and not salvation.
What if after Halo 3 the Humans and Covenant/Elites switched places? The Arbiter easily reforms the Covenant (they still sign a peace treaty with humanity) and humanity/UNSC collapses and several factions fighting each other rule Human controlled space.
What if John Halo received a head from the arbiter during the events of Halo 3-4 and that's why Cortana goes rampant because she was jealous that the arbiter swallow the jimmy willy before her?
What if content is lacking in the community I feel like so this is awesome. Maybe do a what if Oni went through with the hail Mary operation to capture a prophet to force a ceasefire.
I think Tartarus would’ve brutalised Truth but kept him alive just so he could be especially cruel later. Either that or guilty spark would’ve trick shot truth before he kills of all the reclaimers seeing as he’d have no idea he had a replacement ring waiting as he wouldn’t have gone to the cartographer
Hang on. What about the Banished? They are mentioned as canonically screwing with the Covenant during the original trilogy. Wouldn't Atriox be able to cause a bit more of a ruckus if Chief and Thel aren't in the picture anymore? Perhaps he fills in for them by going after the Ark just to stick it to the Prophets?
I feel like the only reason the flood lost in this hypothetical is because of the first halos destruction. If the chief died before detonating the autumn (maybe he dies on the escape pod like everyone else right at the start) the flood would have a proto-gravemind, all the biomass on that halo AND the covenant cruisers it captured. A pretty solid start for galactic domination in my opinion, then again this is also just a hypothetical
What if the Chief didn't have his luck? This is such an abstract, loaded, and suggestive question, but I feel ripe for deep exploration. Taking the What if further, what if Noble 6 had Chief's luck, either because they had it instead, or because they both had the same amount of luck?
Chief was abducted and replaced by a flash clone which promptly died (deliberately right? To cover the trail and make sure no questions were asked). But I presume exact clones were possible. So now that he’s proven himself to be the best of the best by a wide margin (the Jordan of Spartans), what’s to stop them making a new Chief? Or even many of him? Not sure how you’d handle “transferring” memories and all the experience gained, but surely there’s a AI/chip for this by then?
The flood just needed to reach the ark to survive forever. The covenant's goal was never wiping them out, so they would have rushed to fire the rings and then stranded themselves on a flood-infested megastructure with no support network. The ark would become a flood hive, and they'd probably start a cyclical 'farming' cycle like the reapers from mass effect. You could rebuild and fire the halo array a dozen times, and the flood on the ark would still be around. They won. Side note: thats why i hate the 'awakening a nightmare' dlc for halo wars 2. They didnt solve anything, and every single brute should be infected through inhaling flood spores
Not necessarily Halo Lore, but what if Halo 2 had been completed instead of being rushed out the door? As for a Lore related video, what if Humanity had before the events of the Human Covenant war made an alliance with a separate population of either Hunter worms or Engineers? I don’t know much about the hunter worms other than they are used for several covenant vehicles (and the hunters) but I guess it’s possible one colony was accidentally established by the forerunners within what would become the inner colonies and Humanity just so happens to stumble upon them. Same with the Engineers, especially since they are Forerunner creations that monitor Forerunner installations anyways, so the face that Humanity had never seen a single one before the events of the Human Covenant war seems a bit strange. I guess the what if is how much would either one of these species joining alongside Humanity would change the events of the Human Covenant war.
the genuine possibility of humanity being absolutely fked because a single, angry green man and his NES waifu cartridge decided it was prime time to retire for good... is more comical than it might seem on the surface. like... there's other smart AIs and arguably very expendable squads of men who could be used to do all the stuff Chief and Johnson did, but the fact that they literally don't even know wtf is going on till the last minute is just pure comedy.
I think with the great journey being revealed to be false, the brutes would rebel against the prophets and their species and become the dominant Covenant faction for a while. They would eventually see reason by talking to a monitor, maybe Guilty Spark or another, and learn what the great journey really was. The brutes would then likely try to live on the Ark for a time while Forerunner machines try to repopulate the galaxy. The Brutes would probably try to set themselves up as the new alpha species and face resistance from the monitors who were designed to respond to humans.
what would happend if Humans decided to allow the covenant to kyt at delta Halo? Alfa Halo which was very close to Reach and therefore was supposed to cover what later became the human space was destroyed so even if they launched all Halo Rings humanity still would be safe from them
This is such a cool idea for a series! Another thing I’ve always wondered is what if Noble Team never died? Jorge never has to sacrifice himself to blow up the Long Night of Solace, Kat never gets JFK’d, etc. It may not be nearly as significant as Chief dying, but it could’ve had some impact on the battle of Reach
It could have a big impact. Kat, Jorge, and Carter could of made it to the Pillar of autumn. Assuming Jun leaves with Halsey, Emile gets stabbed protecting, and Nobel 6 left behind to safe everyone
Truth and the Brutes wouldn’t have turned on the Arbiter, and he would’ve helped activate Halo. There’s also a chance that the Flood outbreak on High Charity could’ve been contained.
I wish we got a Halo game similar to Marathon 3. Imagine Chief having to travel through various doomed timelines, perhaps one where the Flood wins. Chief is having to go through these different timelines to either find the canon timeline, or make sure the canon timeline happens.
@@HiddenXperia I Think Cortana's Still Alive But Would Need Another Spartan II To Carry Her Which Would Be A Really Cool Mission If Someone Had Found The Chief And He Would Remove Her Chip And Say: "Guard Her At All Cost" And Give Jerome The Chip And He'd Wear It With A Dogtag And So No One Can Capture Her Also She Would Change Her Appearance
Could easily ride off of the idea of Halo Fractures - they could combine them into one large game where you bounce between the more popular ones and a few timelines that are really close to the main one as Chief tries to fix things
@@angrybeaver26 Yeah I think it would be more meaningful if Chief had still made it aboard the Longsword but didn’t have enough time to escape and his luck simply ran out. That way it’s not his or Cortana’s incompetence that gets them killed, rather it’s just that the situation was already too bad for them to escape alive.
Love this “What If” video. I do think the Gravemind could have been tactical enough to potentially put up a decent fight to stop The Covenant but even then I think the odds arent in The Floods favor. As for the epilogue, once The Covenant realizes all their home worlds and other controlled space is completely gone… yeah it’s gonna be The Great Schism 2 but on steroids. No chance of reproducing and probably no understanding of how Forerunner repopulating mechanisms work so whoevers left on The Citadel is going to be the last bit of life until they all kill each other.
Isn't high charity meant to be a city, though? It could be possible enough females of the respective covenant species survive in the city to allow for the repopulation of the galaxy.
@@dantheman627 i guess it depends where High Charity is. I’d imagine that everything outside The Citadel/Arks surface would be obliterated by the rings. If it’s close enough to The Ark and survives than yes but it would still lead to a massive bloody conflict
tbf the covenant would have no chance against the flood; no active communication, lack of armour, mostly plasma weapons, etc. as shown through halo 2 - halo 3, a gravemind is capable of taking over an entire civilization (high charity) through sheer force
@@PennywiseTheFirstthough the flood would still lose to the Covenant. Gotta remember that in retrospect, the covenant’s end was largely attributed to a combined effort of the Humans, Covenant defectors, and the flood. Yes, the flood has far more muscle, however the “environment” already heavily detriments them, the “environment” being the forerunner infrastructure and the ability to activate the rings. With Chief and Cortana gone, humanity can’t fight the covenant. If they can’t fight the covenant, the Arbiter either doesn’t turn good or does but can’t do anything as he has no powerful allies. Because the Arbiter can’t do anything, the Covenant end up activating the Rings using human slaves before the flood could grow strong enough to stop them.
Post-Great Journey-Clarity After a few minutes of nothing really happening, everyone being alive and silent but a few odd mumbles between a few grunts, Tartarus has that devestating realization of knowing what he has just permitted to happen. In that instance. I believe he’d to into a feral state of despair, lashing out at the three Prophets, beating and tearing them limb from limb, before throwing their barely living bodies down to the other troops to finish off. After that. I imagine they’ll just go back to the Milky Way Galaxy, and despair at the truth of what the Great Journey was upon returning to Earth & previously Covenant controlled space. Finding fleets of ships, floating in space with their crews slumped over dead at their stations, and returning to their home worlds, seeing every single individuals of their species also dead. And also, every single animal, and all the plants. Lifeless husks is what awaits them upon their return to the Milky Way Galaxy. After that? I imagine the last few hundreds of thousands of Covenant would either begin the arduous process of re-populating the galaxy. Or drive their ships into the closest star to join the rest of their peoples.
Dope idea! Only problem is, they wouldn’t be protected from firing the rings (the forerunners weren’t protected, so I don’t believe anyone else would be unless perhaps I missed dialogue about the room where you fire the rings being protected) With that being said, no one and just nothing in general would be left, other than perhaps life outside the Milky Way
Imagine Tartarus leading a new covenant with what remains in the arc, the prophets are now dead so Tartarus comes back to the galaxy to see everything is ashes, just like the arbiter said. So he uses the forerunner luminary to locate any new forerunner relics in search of answers and ultimately comes to requiem and faces the Didact. I'm not sure what would happen from there, maybe a search to rebuild a new forerunner empire alongside the covenant?
@@Faintwolf The Arks exists outside of of the Milky Way galaxy, thus being out of range of all of the halo rings, this is explicitly said in the game. The only reason it ends up destroyed by the end of Halo 3 is because of the newly created Installation-04 that was prematurely fired to eradicate the Flood.
@@FaintwolfActually, life outside the Milky Way galaxy would also be vaporized by the Halo rings effects, and that the effects would also disable the stars’ stability, causing them to explode and vaporize every single planet on sight. Therefore, it’s game over for the universe.
The mental image of the Arbiter's "And so you must be silenced" scene but with a suddenly aware he was lied to and betrayed Tartarus holding the Fist of Rukt is a strong one.
It’s weird imagining Tartarus in Arbiter’s place as the redeemed “hero” since we’re so used to him being the bad guy but in all likelihood he would be the one handed the reins of a crippled empire with an entire dead galaxy to rebuild. But yeah, him slaughtering the Prophets who betrayed him with the Fist of Rukt would be awesome.
3:51 The survivors of Installation 04 wouldn't have even made it onto the ship. In First Strike, they had to use the pelican to distract Ascendant Justice after coming out of a slingshot orbit. Since Chief and Cortana died, the crew either got killed by getting blasted by the capital ships in the area or ran out of oxygen in the pelican hiding from them. 5:40 Everyone on Reach would be dead due to Whitcomb having set the NOVA Bombs to detonate after 10 days. When Chief and co got there, there were only 20 hours left before they went off.
This series is gonna be fire, please we need more, how about a "If Hunt the Truth actually happened" like the ad campaign that completely got dropped in 5
I don't imagine much. If Noble 6 is able to get on the PoA in this theoretical timeline,then i just imagine it would be a tag team of Chief and 6 going through the first 3 games.
That is a far greater question. The reason the prophets prevented it was due to how the humans were the reclaimers of the forerunners legacy. It would be... difficult, covenant species might start asking questions about the truth of their great journey. Hell, some might think that the humans would now destabilize the covenant from within,
I think Tartarus would have enacted his full rage against the prophets and the covenant on the Ark would be divided into factions waging war against each other until they literally wipe themselves out. The ark’s own protection would wipe out many of the covenant that damage the Ark.
@tehchief yeah. I imagine under the traditional mind of Tartarus none of the remaining covenant forces will be able to settle peacefully. It will be like the brute homeland, only when they decide to nuke themselves the Ark itself will fight back. Maybe some covenant would return to space, try to resettle old homes. The jackals for example I can imagine being opportunistic and abandoning the covenant, and becoming scavengers of old settlements and ships and hunting other races for food.
Just remembered, weren’t Fred and a few other humans trapped in a shield world during the events? They would have survived the firing, and be the last of humanity.
I always wondered what could've been different if Six actually made it aboard the Autumn at the end of Halo Reach. Maybe if Emile wasnt killed by that elite or if Carter escaped the pelican before it crashed into the scarab and stayed behind instead of six. Obviusly having the two hyperlethal spartans togheter would've changed at least a bit the outcome of the Battle of Alpha Halo and the following events
Hmm yes that would be interesting, one thing I’ve always wondered is why only chief was woken up instead of both him and Linda? The ship was under attack, so shouldn’t they have just let both of them out of cryo?
@@KHĀN321-c4u During the events of the book Fall of Reach, she and the Chief went on board one of the stations in orbit to destroy a navigational database on an ONI ship, and she was shot in the back opening a door for their crew to escape iirc
For the epilogue, the remaining covenant forces would implode on themselves. They would devolve back to their nature. Brutes would be brutish, the jackals would probably attempt to swindle their way out, and what not. It would probably turn into a massive civil war against all forces. Regardless, the Prophets would die. Then, because of all this, I predict that those forces, probably lacking any methods of reproduction, would die off in a few decades. Leaving the entire Halo Universe empty. well... maybe the hunters would survive. That wouldnt be a bad thing. Adorable lil guys
I think this is a great idea! And a way to get those creative juices flowing again. As a long time Halo Veteran, I do like seeing some kind of what if scenarios if things could have gone differently. Maybe write out a scenario where the Ark is still blown up, but the method to destroying it turned out very differently. Also we could expand this into the 343 games as well, how they could have continued the alternate timeline of sorts.
Thank you to Payday 3 for Supporting the channel. Check out the new DLC in-game now gsght.com/c/bcjnlz #ad
We all know that if Master Chief died Chips Dubbo would just fill his spot... right?
Could you do more maybe about Payday than advertise? maybe do some lore about the series is currently one of my favourite games
Do you have any tips for starting a Halo UA-cam channel?
Merry Christmas 🙂
Just like chief said in infinite: "There will be conciquences, there always are."
I LOVE what ifs and alternate history, fictional or real. So bring it on Luc 😁
What if the Arbiter and the heretic leader actually talked and spoke with Guilty Spark instead of the heretic leader just blasting.
Based. I've never heard a good explanation why he just stated blasting.
@@bumbaclot813 Would've been funny if it was a weapons malfunction
I think Instalation00 did a colander with someone on that possibility
@@XtreemAlan
It was reclaimer gaming
@@bumbaclot813 Because he was opportunistic, and it's probable his situation made him think he had to be as pragmatic, and ruthless, as possible. It's also probable he never thought Arbiter would listen anyway (and it's possible he didn't even care about whether Arbiter would). Which is a shame, because to us the viewers, it did seem like Arbiter was willing.
The heretic leader being the type of person to actually go against the Covenant's teachings was a good thing, but clearly he had other personality traits that hindered the rebellion from truly getting off the ground.
Two paths for the epilogue: 1. Tartarus would have remembered what the Arbiter told him, and a confrontation would happen in the Ark's control room once it became obvious transcendence wasn't happening. He would demand clarification from the Forerunners themselves, and Guilty Spark, and/or another Forerunner AI would just repeat what Tartarus had already been told. Their religion was false, their war against the humans was based on nothing more than lies and a translation error, and by initiating the Great Journey they had in fact murdered an entire galaxy.
Ships sent back to the Milky Way would confirm it. Tartarus would then exterminate the San'Shyuum and take control of what was left of the Covenant. I'd also assume Miranda Keyes survives this outcome, since it's likely she would have been the human used to activate the array. Perhaps the Spirit of Fire also survives somehow. I'm not sure what mechanism opened a portal to the Ark for them, maybe it could have happened early once the array was activated.
2. Guilty Spark tells them a partial truth; the Ark is out of range of all active installations. They wait a few days for his replacement Halo to be completed and fire it, which he still insists on due to the Flood presence on the Ark. The End.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that Tartarus and the Jiralhanae would kill the San'Shyuum and potentially discover Dosiac devoid of life.
I don't think Tartarus ever really cared about the great journey, I think he believed the Arbiter, and simply didn't care, all he really wants is power and to be in charge. Other than that I think it still would have went the same way your first scenario went.
@@trankia1224 If you read the books, you learn that Tartarus is a zealot. He truly does believe in the great journey. In fact, the brutes under his command were known for being extremely "faithful".
@@477sierra well, if that's the case, then the prophets could probably talk their way out of it. If the brutes are that dumb and have believed everything they've said up to this point, why wouldn't they believe them even further?
@@trankia1224 It's possible but keep in mind, the Arbiter did manage to plant a little seed of doubt. The reason Tartarus didn't believe it then is because you can't expect someone to give up a lifetime of beliefs in a few seconds. Still, you could see Tartarus hesitate a bit when the Arbiter told him the truth. The prophets might be able to stall but Tartarus would send ships back to the galaxy to confirm what happened. Basically, the prophets are living on borrowed time as soon as they fire the rings.
I feel like once all the halos were fired and Tartarus realized that the arbiter was right, he'd kill the prophets for what they've done and try to rebuild civilization, maybe not as efficient or as elegant as another species but with the intelligence and instinct they had they'd start by searching for any other existing life and having a majority of their forces on the arc rebuilding themselves
My final thought is, would the firing of all the halos effect the halo 4 plotline and would it continue into a potential war between the brutes and the Prometheans? Because I don't think Tartarus would be dumb enough to trust another "intelligent mind" after trusting the prophets
Wait I love this idea
Yes. The didact either continues to sleep or awakens to a dead universe. At that point, Tartarus either beats him in a slug fest or he slugs Tartarus off a mountain. Whoever wins becomes the “God” of the new galaxy.
@@tchoythao1730 would be a fight to see, that grav ham does damage even if the didact is op
“Post-Great Journey-clarity” is crazy 😭
I would love to see more of these what if videos! I have always wondered about different scenarios like this and I think you are the most qualified to consider all the changes.
Imagine a timeline similar to this where Tartarus realizes the propheys are false and turning and joining humanity. A man can dream.
Arbiter: "Tartarus, the Prophets have betrayed us..."
Tartarus: "...our entire lives...everything we ever did...was for a lie...? *_I'LL KILL THAT BASTARD, TRUTH!"_*
There definitely would've been a massive civil war afterwards. Especially when each species finds our their own home planets and colonies are dead. They'd probably rip each other apart out of anger, fear and desperation
This is a great breakdown of events, but I can't help but notice something. The gravemind was on delta halo, if it wasn't on high charity by the time it fired, like mentioned in the video, the gravemind would have simply been killed.
What if Sargent Johnson saved Miranda Keyes in Halo 3, (basically he dies and she survives)
Or what if Humanity finished the UNSC Infinity before Halo 2?
Or what if Jacob Keyes, Sargent Johnson, and Miranda Keyes survived the Human Covenant war?
Or what if the UNSC won the battle of Circinius IV?
On Lord Hood, I don't think he would have been in as nearly a vulnerable position as he is in Halo 2 due simply to the fact that there would be no award ceremony to attend, and thus no reason for him to be aboard said station. The bomb thing likely would have been deduced the moment the Malta went down either way, but without the Chief there to repel boarders, it would have had a better chance of going off.
As for Tartarus, I believe he would come to realize his mistake once the ring failed to grant him the godhood he was promised, and might well plot to betray the Hierarchs as a result.
Love the video but I see a hole, what happens to all the life forms that were supposed to be killed by instillation 04? It’s blown to smithereens so I think everything in its radius would be more or less safe.
One of the few safe zones of the galaxy, actually.
Without the ring, there is no activation. On the Ark, there is a status icon of Installation 04 showing it has been destroyed.
There’s 25,000 light years of the galaxy that wasn’t wiped out because the ring from the first game was destroyed so whatever life is left in the galaxy would still be there.
I have what could be a real intresting one, what if the covenant never attacked reach/ what if the spartans attempted thier original mission to find and capture a prophet to stop the war
I actually had a better question for this topic, what happens Master Chief officially died not in Combat Evolved, but maybe the future of the franchise? I really want to hear your thoughts Hidden, no need to rush.
don't let 343 see this
Really great video! There are a couple issues that I might see with how this would play out though. Miranda wouldn't even know to contest the activation index because the information that Cortana had from alpha Halo would have been lost, plus they couldn't bring high charity to Earth because once the anodyne spirit departs I'm pretty sure it didn't have the power to even move itself let alone jump through slip spaces.
“What if Master Chief got killed by a jackal sniper in New Mombasa in Halo 2”
10:15 keys also might have died on the starion as well since its the chie who helps clear the path so she can board in amber clad
Something that occurred to me while watching; without Chief, or the original survivors, there's no medal ceremony on Cairo Station - so would Lord Hood or Miranda Keyes necessarily have been there in the first place?
Brutes-“wait, what happens now”
Truth-“.........”
Brutes-“u lied to us”
Truth-“.......”
Brutes-“get his ass”
Yep one other fact I think we haven’t spoken about. They wouldn’t have ever know the purpose of the Halo rings and wouldn’t have made such priority to stop them given the attack on earth going so hard on them.
What if the flood infection form in that one halo book actually infected chief
It's a damn good thing that The Chief didn't go Missing in Action during Halo CE!
Would anyone on the Ark even survive? Installation 08 (AKA 04B) was at the Ark at the end of Halo 3. Or maybe we’re saying that ring doesn’t fire because it wasn’t fully operational yet?
Amazing work, wonder if the point of death was during the library or 2 betrayals, before the inminente destruction of Halo
What if Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto had succeeded the Library?
And
What if Noble 6 had gone with Keyes and the Autumn still got away?
CE Chief would survive the blast flying out of orbit flailing his arms till he lands somewhere :p
What if the Chief died on Installation O4?
Chipps Dubbo loses his cool over the death of his best mate and the Covenant gets screwed.
I think the flood could have still had a decent chance of infecting high charity. In killing all the elites, the covenant loses its best strategists and tacticians, in their fight against the smartest, most tactical foe in the galaxy
I don't think In Amber Clad would go to the Library as all the info about Halo, the index, ring infrastructure, and the flood, would be unknown to humanity since cortana and chief died. They'd be seeing it for the first time
On Installation 00, I think the brutes would have realized that it was a lie and just straight up destroyed the prophets.
Huh. Interesting concept. Honestly, a what if I'd suggest, is following Jorge post slipspace bomb. One of the Yoroi coatings that has his color scheme implies that he arrived in a shattering of glass, turning what could have been a tragic defeat into the greatest of victories. He lost his home, but saved another. That's something that I feel would make a great 'what if'
One thing that i might have missed. But who would be the reclaimer that truth would have to use to activate the halo's on the ark. Or would it be Miranda still?
Tartarus gets taken out during the start of the war( Contact Harvest), anything change much?
The brutes lead by tartarus would have destroyed the prothets out of rage, and then died of old age since there were no females present in the fleet. Thus you could say that everyone dies, even though they are spared from the halo rings.
I think Tartarus would've began to question the prophets after the firing of Delta Halo. Most of the elites in space wiped from existence with their ships floating around? In my eyes, he would've begun to realize that the rings were weapons and not salvation.
What if after Halo 3 the Humans and Covenant/Elites switched places? The Arbiter easily reforms the Covenant (they still sign a peace treaty with humanity) and humanity/UNSC collapses and several factions fighting each other rule Human controlled space.
How ironic. Master Chef dying from a bad skillet of Chicken Fried Rice.
What if John Halo received a head from the arbiter during the events of Halo 3-4 and that's why Cortana goes rampant because she was jealous that the arbiter swallow the jimmy willy before her?
What if content is lacking in the community I feel like so this is awesome. Maybe do a what if Oni went through with the hail Mary operation to capture a prophet to force a ceasefire.
I think Tartarus would’ve brutalised Truth but kept him alive just so he could be especially cruel later. Either that or guilty spark would’ve trick shot truth before he kills of all the reclaimers seeing as he’d have no idea he had a replacement ring waiting as he wouldn’t have gone to the cartographer
Ssssoooo, we ignoring the bit about Miranda probably falling to her death when trying to get the Index?
Hang on. What about the Banished? They are mentioned as canonically screwing with the Covenant during the original trilogy. Wouldn't Atriox be able to cause a bit more of a ruckus if Chief and Thel aren't in the picture anymore? Perhaps he fills in for them by going after the Ark just to stick it to the Prophets?
I feel like the only reason the flood lost in this hypothetical is because of the first halos destruction. If the chief died before detonating the autumn (maybe he dies on the escape pod like everyone else right at the start) the flood would have a proto-gravemind, all the biomass on that halo AND the covenant cruisers it captured. A pretty solid start for galactic domination in my opinion, then again this is also just a hypothetical
What if the UNSC knew about the covenant before harvest and thus had time to prepare for a war between them
This was amazing. Great work!
What if the Chief didn't have his luck? This is such an abstract, loaded, and suggestive question, but I feel ripe for deep exploration. Taking the What if further, what if Noble 6 had Chief's luck, either because they had it instead, or because they both had the same amount of luck?
Chief was abducted and replaced by a flash clone which promptly died (deliberately right? To cover the trail and make sure no questions were asked).
But I presume exact clones were possible.
So now that he’s proven himself to be the best of the best by a wide margin (the Jordan of Spartans), what’s to stop them making a new Chief? Or even many of him?
Not sure how you’d handle “transferring” memories and all the experience gained, but surely there’s a AI/chip for this by then?
Love this idea! More what ifs please!!!
love your video and that kind of content is so awsome :)
What if the covenant saw humans as the living descendants of their gods as opposed to a sickness
What if the chief was infected during the mission library when trying to recover the index
Subbed for the MCR shirt, among the great content, cheers 🎉
Tbh I think the arbiter could have kick Tartarus ass, probably one of the other nameless elites would have use the beam rifle to take the shield out.
there will still be scattered humans in forerunner shield worlds and they would of survived the rings
How quickly would humanity be screwed if Voi was not able to have the flood contained (and glassed) within it?
The flood just needed to reach the ark to survive forever. The covenant's goal was never wiping them out, so they would have rushed to fire the rings and then stranded themselves on a flood-infested megastructure with no support network. The ark would become a flood hive, and they'd probably start a cyclical 'farming' cycle like the reapers from mass effect. You could rebuild and fire the halo array a dozen times, and the flood on the ark would still be around. They won.
Side note: thats why i hate the 'awakening a nightmare' dlc for halo wars 2. They didnt solve anything, and every single brute should be infected through inhaling flood spores
What if Noble 6 survived Reach / left with Jun and Halsey on the Pillar of Autumn
What if Tartarus fell down the shaft in Halo2 to see the gravemind instead of Arbiter
* starts screaming incoherently *
I already knew the "what if" but it's cool to see that I was right
0:58 "Evading the gays of an advanced AI"
Interesting plot.
More what if videos please!
What if Cortana gone rampant in CE, like it was originally anticipated?
Not necessarily Halo Lore, but what if Halo 2 had been completed instead of being rushed out the door?
As for a Lore related video, what if Humanity had before the events of the Human Covenant war made an alliance with a separate population of either Hunter worms or Engineers? I don’t know much about the hunter worms other than they are used for several covenant vehicles (and the hunters) but I guess it’s possible one colony was accidentally established by the forerunners within what would become the inner colonies and Humanity just so happens to stumble upon them. Same with the Engineers, especially since they are Forerunner creations that monitor Forerunner installations anyways, so the face that Humanity had never seen a single one before the events of the Human Covenant war seems a bit strange. I guess the what if is how much would either one of these species joining alongside Humanity would change the events of the Human Covenant war.
My interpretation: Arbiter solos and claps all the prophets at once
the genuine possibility of humanity being absolutely fked because a single, angry green man and his NES waifu cartridge decided it was prime time to retire for good... is more comical than it might seem on the surface. like... there's other smart AIs and arguably very expendable squads of men who could be used to do all the stuff Chief and Johnson did, but the fact that they literally don't even know wtf is going on till the last minute is just pure comedy.
I think with the great journey being revealed to be false, the brutes would rebel against the prophets and their species and become the dominant Covenant faction for a while. They would eventually see reason by talking to a monitor, maybe Guilty Spark or another, and learn what the great journey really was. The brutes would then likely try to live on the Ark for a time while Forerunner machines try to repopulate the galaxy. The Brutes would probably try to set themselves up as the new alpha species and face resistance from the monitors who were designed to respond to humans.
What if Master Chief had the suit from Crysis?
what would happend if Humans decided to allow the covenant to kyt at delta Halo? Alfa Halo which was very close to Reach and therefore was supposed to cover what later became the human space was destroyed so even if they launched all Halo Rings humanity still would be safe from them
But what reclaimer would have fired all the rings from the arc?
Wait what about Is adrimal whitcombs' nova bomb?
You should do a part 2
What about Medicant. He should still be around.
What if the Halo CE Pistol was never nerfed in the timeline lol
What if High Charity never fell to the Flood
What if chief was killed by the flood in the library
Post great journey clarity LMAOOO
Tartarus, the prophets have betrayed us…
Is chief the only Spartan with an AI at that time?
I have more
What if Samuel never died
What if the flood wasn't released
What if Reach held out
What if Cortana lived or was in halo infinite or actually died at the end of halo 4
This is such a cool idea for a series! Another thing I’ve always wondered is what if Noble Team never died? Jorge never has to sacrifice himself to blow up the Long Night of Solace, Kat never gets JFK’d, etc.
It may not be nearly as significant as Chief dying, but it could’ve had some impact on the battle of Reach
Yeah but it wan't ONI who shot Kat so was she really JFK'd? 😂
@@CHIEF__ you’re so right 😭 best reply I’ve ever gotten on a comment goes to you
It could have a big impact. Kat, Jorge, and Carter could of made it to the Pillar of autumn. Assuming Jun leaves with Halsey, Emile gets stabbed protecting, and Nobel 6 left behind to safe everyone
It'd also have some impact on the battle of Alpha Halo.
Reach still falls to the Covenant. Nothing really changes with Noble Team still around.
What if the great schism never happened
Truth and the Brutes wouldn’t have turned on the Arbiter, and he would’ve helped activate Halo. There’s also a chance that the Flood outbreak on High Charity could’ve been contained.
Humanity would have probably failed to save Earth as well
Earth falls to the Covenant, Humanity goes extinct followed quickly by every other living thing in the galaxy as The Covenant would fire the rings.
We’d be ded
Humanity would've lost even harder
I wish we got a Halo game similar to Marathon 3. Imagine Chief having to travel through various doomed timelines, perhaps one where the Flood wins. Chief is having to go through these different timelines to either find the canon timeline, or make sure the canon timeline happens.
I think Halo has the perfect amount of goofy time gimmicks. Time travel gets pretty messy
Dude I would unironically love that, tbh tonnes of franchises would fit a Marathon Infinity-type story
@@HiddenXperia I Think Cortana's Still Alive But Would Need Another Spartan II To Carry Her Which Would
Be A Really Cool Mission If Someone Had Found The Chief And He Would Remove Her Chip And Say: "Guard Her At All Cost" And Give Jerome The Chip And He'd Wear It With A Dogtag And So No One Can Capture Her
Also She Would Change Her Appearance
Could easily ride off of the idea of Halo Fractures - they could combine them into one large game where you bounce between the more popular ones and a few timelines that are really close to the main one as Chief tries to fix things
@@HiddenXperia Keep up the Halo What-If content. Glad to see it! Maybe a "What if Operation Red Flag was approved"?
The most unrealistic part of this scenario is the idea that Chief would die from a fall.
i think it was more the pillar of autumn exploding rather than the fall
@@angrybeaver26 That fall would cost him precious time.
@@angrybeaver26 Yeah I think it would be more meaningful if Chief had still made it aboard the Longsword but didn’t have enough time to escape and his luck simply ran out. That way it’s not his or Cortana’s incompetence that gets them killed, rather it’s just that the situation was already too bad for them to escape alive.
Chief would be instantly vaporized by the Autumn’s nuclear reactor.
What if a puddle was at the bottom
Love this “What If” video. I do think the Gravemind could have been tactical enough to potentially put up a decent fight to stop The Covenant but even then I think the odds arent in The Floods favor. As for the epilogue, once The Covenant realizes all their home worlds and other controlled space is completely gone… yeah it’s gonna be The Great Schism 2 but on steroids. No chance of reproducing and probably no understanding of how Forerunner repopulating mechanisms work so whoevers left on The Citadel is going to be the last bit of life until they all kill each other.
Isn't high charity meant to be a city, though? It could be possible enough females of the respective covenant species survive in the city to allow for the repopulation of the galaxy.
@@dantheman627 i guess it depends where High Charity is. I’d imagine that everything outside The Citadel/Arks surface would be obliterated by the rings. If it’s close enough to The Ark and survives than yes but it would still lead to a massive bloody conflict
tbf the covenant would have no chance against the flood; no active communication, lack of armour, mostly plasma weapons, etc. as shown through halo 2 - halo 3, a gravemind is capable of taking over an entire civilization (high charity) through sheer force
@@PennywiseTheFirstthough the flood would still lose to the Covenant. Gotta remember that in retrospect, the covenant’s end was largely attributed to a combined effort of the Humans, Covenant defectors, and the flood. Yes, the flood has far more muscle, however the “environment” already heavily detriments them, the “environment” being the forerunner infrastructure and the ability to activate the rings.
With Chief and Cortana gone, humanity can’t fight the covenant. If they can’t fight the covenant, the Arbiter either doesn’t turn good or does but can’t do anything as he has no powerful allies. Because the Arbiter can’t do anything, the Covenant end up activating the Rings using human slaves before the flood could grow strong enough to stop them.
Post-Great Journey-Clarity
After a few minutes of nothing really happening, everyone being alive and silent but a few odd mumbles between a few grunts, Tartarus has that devestating realization of knowing what he has just permitted to happen. In that instance. I believe he’d to into a feral state of despair, lashing out at the three Prophets, beating and tearing them limb from limb, before throwing their barely living bodies down to the other troops to finish off.
After that. I imagine they’ll just go back to the Milky Way Galaxy, and despair at the truth of what the Great Journey was upon returning to Earth & previously Covenant controlled space. Finding fleets of ships, floating in space with their crews slumped over dead at their stations, and returning to their home worlds, seeing every single individuals of their species also dead. And also, every single animal, and all the plants. Lifeless husks is what awaits them upon their return to the Milky Way Galaxy.
After that? I imagine the last few hundreds of thousands of Covenant would either begin the arduous process of re-populating the galaxy. Or drive their ships into the closest star to join the rest of their peoples.
Dope idea! Only problem is, they wouldn’t be protected from firing the rings (the forerunners weren’t protected, so I don’t believe anyone else would be unless perhaps I missed dialogue about the room where you fire the rings being protected)
With that being said, no one and just nothing in general would be left, other than perhaps life outside the Milky Way
Imagine Tartarus leading a new covenant with what remains in the arc, the prophets are now dead so Tartarus comes back to the galaxy to see everything is ashes, just like the arbiter said. So he uses the forerunner luminary to locate any new forerunner relics in search of answers and ultimately comes to requiem and faces the Didact. I'm not sure what would happen from there, maybe a search to rebuild a new forerunner empire alongside the covenant?
@@Faintwolf The Arks exists outside of of the Milky Way galaxy, thus being out of range of all of the halo rings, this is explicitly said in the game. The only reason it ends up destroyed by the end of Halo 3 is because of the newly created Installation-04 that was prematurely fired to eradicate the Flood.
I would imagine the galaxy would be re seeded by the Cylixes found on the rings
@@FaintwolfActually, life outside the Milky Way galaxy would also be vaporized by the Halo rings effects, and that the effects would also disable the stars’ stability, causing them to explode and vaporize every single planet on sight. Therefore, it’s game over for the universe.
The mental image of the Arbiter's "And so you must be silenced" scene but with a suddenly aware he was lied to and betrayed Tartarus holding the Fist of Rukt is a strong one.
It’s weird imagining Tartarus in Arbiter’s place as the redeemed “hero” since we’re so used to him being the bad guy but in all likelihood he would be the one handed the reins of a crippled empire with an entire dead galaxy to rebuild. But yeah, him slaughtering the Prophets who betrayed him with the Fist of Rukt would be awesome.
"I am Truth, you heretical beast!"
"You are a _LIAR!"_
3:51
The survivors of Installation 04 wouldn't have even made it onto the ship. In First Strike, they had to use the pelican to distract Ascendant Justice after coming out of a slingshot orbit. Since Chief and Cortana died, the crew either got killed by getting blasted by the capital ships in the area or ran out of oxygen in the pelican hiding from them.
5:40
Everyone on Reach would be dead due to Whitcomb having set the NOVA Bombs to detonate after 10 days. When Chief and co got there, there were only 20 hours left before they went off.
100% they never even have the plan to take the ship. I'm pretty sure Cortana did some tricky things to get them aboard as well.
This series is gonna be fire, please we need more, how about a "If Hunt the Truth actually happened" like the ad campaign that completely got dropped in 5
What if Emile survived long enough to get Noble 6 on the Pillar of Autumn.
I don't imagine much. If Noble 6 is able to get on the PoA in this theoretical timeline,then i just imagine it would be a tag team of Chief and 6 going through the first 3 games.
so excited for the implications to the lore! This is the content that keeps halo dreams alive. meeting u at HCS was awesome.
edit: iconic
What if the Covenant tried to assimilate humans rather trying to wipe them out?
That is a far greater question. The reason the prophets prevented it was due to how the humans were the reclaimers of the forerunners legacy. It would be... difficult, covenant species might start asking questions about the truth of their great journey. Hell, some might think that the humans would now destabilize the covenant from within,
Now this is a timeline I'd like to see explored.
I think Tartarus would have enacted his full rage against the prophets and the covenant on the Ark would be divided into factions waging war against each other until they literally wipe themselves out. The ark’s own protection would wipe out many of the covenant that damage the Ark.
@tehchief yeah. I imagine under the traditional mind of Tartarus none of the remaining covenant forces will be able to settle peacefully. It will be like the brute homeland, only when they decide to nuke themselves the Ark itself will fight back. Maybe some covenant would return to space, try to resettle old homes. The jackals for example I can imagine being opportunistic and abandoning the covenant, and becoming scavengers of old settlements and ships and hunting other races for food.
@tehchief Or even Atriox deciding this is the chance to deal with what's left of the covenant and accept deserters
@@nepspartan-7597he would have been killed by the firing of the Halo array though.
Just remembered, weren’t Fred and a few other humans trapped in a shield world during the events? They would have survived the firing, and be the last of humanity.
I always wondered what could've been different if Six actually made it aboard the Autumn at the end of Halo Reach. Maybe if Emile wasnt killed by that elite or if Carter escaped the pelican before it crashed into the scarab and stayed behind instead of six. Obviusly having the two hyperlethal spartans togheter would've changed at least a bit the outcome of the Battle of Alpha Halo and the following events
TLDR? Some very silly things.
Hmm yes that would be interesting, one thing I’ve always wondered is why only chief was woken up instead of both him and Linda? The ship was under attack, so shouldn’t they have just let both of them out of cryo?
@@KHĀN321-c4uLinda was basically dead inside that cryo pod. She was revived by Halsey later on with flash clones organs.
@@dashawnbonnett5847 oh fr? Tf happened to her
@@KHĀN321-c4u During the events of the book Fall of Reach, she and the Chief went on board one of the stations in orbit to destroy a navigational database on an ONI ship, and she was shot in the back opening a door for their crew to escape iirc
I got one: What if the Spirit of Fire found the Forward Unto Dawn and they both landed on Requiem?
That would have made for a very interesting story for Halo 4.
For the epilogue, the remaining covenant forces would implode on themselves.
They would devolve back to their nature. Brutes would be brutish, the jackals would probably attempt to swindle their way out, and what not.
It would probably turn into a massive civil war against all forces.
Regardless, the Prophets would die.
Then, because of all this, I predict that those forces, probably lacking any methods of reproduction, would die off in a few decades.
Leaving the entire Halo Universe empty.
well... maybe the hunters would survive.
That wouldnt be a bad thing. Adorable lil guys
Would absolutely love to see more “What If” content
I think this is a great idea! And a way to get those creative juices flowing again. As a long time Halo Veteran, I do like seeing some kind of what if scenarios if things could have gone differently. Maybe write out a scenario where the Ark is still blown up, but the method to destroying it turned out very differently. Also we could expand this into the 343 games as well, how they could have continued the alternate timeline of sorts.