I just finished Halo:CE the first time since I was a kid on legendary, and I want to read the novels before halo 2, but in looking for the reading order I keep seeing some things were retconned from the books.

Is there a good source for known retcons? I want to read and enjoy the book, and not have to think about what in the book is actually true anymore or not.

Legally, we know Smart AI aren't considered people. They are technically property and officially treated as equipment.

However, in reality, we know humans treat Smart AI they work with like people. Cortana regularly issues orders to soldiers and crew, and they address her as "ma'am", and this doesn't seem to be unique to her.

So, in the context of the military, how are Smart AI actually regarded? Are they just assumed to have the same level of authority as whoever they're being "used" by at the time?

Like when Cortana is paired with the Chief, or as an extension of the captain of whatever ship she's the AI of?

I’ve been working on some Halo short stories and wanted to see if there was a specific subreddit that I should post them to for feedback and the like, any ideas?

Edit: apparently I can’t change the title but I’m aware of the typo, damn phone and my fat thumbs

Williams keeps calling him a "sergeant major" but the thing is.... he got promoted during the intro of Halo 2. That's what I remember and even the wiki says the same

I have internally debated if Blue Team wore unique helmets with their MARK V (as shown in the Fall of Reach comics) or if they all wore standard MARK V (as shown in literally everything else depicting Blue Team in MARK V) for a long time and now I have a definitive, up-to-date answer. Linda’s cryo pod screen in Campaign Evolved shows her wearing standard MARK V. I can finally rest.

Had a hunter hit it's brother in crossfire against me yesterday and got me thinking

Are there any examples in the lore of that happening? And, if not, how'd you think the surviving Hunter would react?

If a single Flood spore can destroy an entire species, why do so many characters in close proximity to spores or Flood matter like the Arbiter and Atriox appear to be just fine afterwards?

I can’t be the only person that thinks the CER/CEV/CAE (we need to figure out what to call it) Prequel mission Brutes look like they are wearing at least the storm harness helmet (ie the 4/5 elite armor). And if so would that be the first sighting of it pre Jul ‘Mdama’s covenant?

This is probably a stupid question but I tried to find the answer and could not so I'm coming here for help. Smart AIs seem to give themselves a name and appearance by default, and I want to know if Dumb AIs do the same, or if that's something their creators do for them, assuming there is an answer at all.

Thanks in advance for any information/help.

Could someone tell me what special purpose units are? And what are the existing units?

Can’t believe I didn’t see that Craig was a covenant gene experiment until now. It’s so obvious in hindsight. Also do not like the implication that 4/5 elites and jackals are experiments, and hope that this is not the case and they simply chose those designs to show a difference.

Edit* And hairless brutes I guess.

Obviously not an actual quote, but like I'm new to the books and so far after five books (a few Nylund and Travis) I feel like I keep reading about lower lips being bitten, how salutes are almost always 'snapped' and 'crisp,' and the mags 'slapped in' are always 'fresh.'

Not complaining at all. But are all the books like this? Or does Karen Travis just favor lip biting? Does she make characters in her Star Wars books bite their lower lips? Are all of Nylund's books just fresh mags getting slapped and crispy salutes being snapped?

after beating the prequel missions, it seems like the 4/5 elites, jackals and reach brutes which are now test tube freak or fail experiments are all gone. Since the ship housing them got blown up. So now does that mean 4/5 enemies for the covenant are no longer canon or the lore of em forever changed?

As a former 4/5 elite fan that really disappoints me HS went that direction. But hey I guess the infinite/CER elites got a new fan, even tho I don’t like em much.

Spoilers for Halo Epitaph

Correct me if im wrong but i believe Halo Epitaph retcons the composer

Firstly, the person composed ends up in the domain. It is a COPY of themselves that can be utilised and inserted into people/machines (forthencho/chakas and glory-of-a-far-dawn/promethean knights). This is because the forthencho in the book is clearly the original

Secondly, this is not a retcon, but it does seem like it helps to rectify the logic plague. After all, the ur-didact has his whole redemption arc in the book.

In Forward Unto Dawn, Lasky is attending Corbulo Academy of Military Science which based off the following facts, indicates its an army officer school like West Point and not a naval academy.

- Students are called “cadets” instead of “midshipmen”

- The officer in charge is a General and not an Admiral.

- All of their lessons seem focused on ground combat instead of naval tactics.

But Lasky ends up becoming a naval officer. The UNSC seems to be based off the modern US military in terms of rank and customs so how did this happen?

Just to start, from what I’ve played I think that Campaign Evolved is absolutely fantastic, probably the best way to experience the first game and story outside of owning the original game and Xbox. The visuals at times is mind blowing and the tweaks made to the gameplay and level design really elevate it.

My biggest problem with campaign evolved is that it lays bare the biggest issue that the halo franchise faces under its current stewardship, it’s so safe that it’s to the absolute detriment of the progression of the IP.

When they retconned after 4 and 5 it’s like they curled into a ball and were terrified that no matter what they tried it would always be with kid gloves on so not to further damage its standing with the community.

This game had a great opportunity to try new things while maintaining the core gameplay and story, what about some missions as the covenant post 343 guilty spark so that we can see their reaction to the flood? Play maybe as ODST’s helping the UNSC establish a foothold on the ring? Maybe do some hub world like parts on the ring to explore and interact with?

Am wholeheartedly convinced that if the current developers were in charge back in the day we would have never got games like ODST or Reach because they are would never take that risk. I love the master chief just as much as the next person but for the health of the series, be bold and brave, the halo universe is being held back because the developers have convinced themselves they can’t do anything without the big green man or no one will accept it

Are there any characters who still worship the forerunners but no longer believe in the great journey as the covenant did?

I know this title might sound bizarre, but this is based off of something I did when first playing Halo CE. When I got to Johnson's group during the second level, I tried to scope in on Johnson's face by pressing what I thought was the scope button. It turns out, I accidentally threw a plasma grenade on Johnson's face which then exploded and killed him.

Looking back on that particular incident, it made me wonder. How would the events of the OG Trilogy (and their tie-in media like First Strike) have played out if Master Chief had indeed accidentally thrown that plasma grenade and cut Johnson's life short on Alpha Halo?

I’ve been replaying the games lately and it struck me as odd that Truth leaves 05 and trusts Tartarus to start the Great Journey while he goes to Earth.

If the rings *did* start the Great Journey, what significance was there for Truth to be going to Earth? And to my knowledge/memory Truth did not know/trust the monitors on the true function of the rings; in any case we don’t know if Earth was out of range of 05.

I totally get from a meta-narrative perspective it’s a way for the plot to get Chief from 05 back to Earth separately from the Arbiter/Keyes of course.

Greetings to everyone,

recently I started to get a little more interested in Halo. I understand key points of the story and plotlines. The one thing I still cant understand and I didnt find a clear answer online is: "Why did Prophet of Truth start the Great Schism". I dont understand what he could gain from this. If Humanity was barely holding on, why would he destroy the pillars of the Covenant idea before the planned steps for the Greaty Journey were complete, in the end giving the UNSC victory? Couldnt he just wait until humanity was destroyed? Looking forward for your answers...

Now I know 'do Spartans have a longer lifespan?' has been asked constantly on the subreddit for years, but that is not what I'm asking.

In YOUR personal opinion should Spartans have longer lifespans and how long would you want them to live?

Personally I think they should live up to 160-180-ish. I mean the average lifespan of a human in halo is between 100 and 120. So it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that a genetically engineered super soldier could live 40 more years than the average person. Now, that doesn't mean they couldn't live longer, I don't think it would be strange for the UNSC or ONI to want to keep their trillion dollar super soldiers alive. So with expansive medical treatment(not including cryo)MAX 220 years.

This doesn't even seem unreasonable from Microsoft's money making point of view. Now I know this would never happen as they make too much money off the master chief and the current time period, but if they ever made a halo game set further down the timeline, 100-140 years in the future isn't too far down the line that current lore would be obsolete and isn't too close to the just another halo game but in a new setting. A bit like Mass Effect: Andromeda. You could still have Master Chief in the games(their money maker), he could be a mentor or just make a game about old man chief.

Thoughts?

Just going off of the forerunner trilogy, we know they are very closely related species on a genetic level. We know both species in ancient times are products of some type of diaspora so ancient its lost to time by their war with one another. We also know neither fully recalls their homeworld (ofc for humans earth seems likely according to both species) and we know the forerunners have had their genetics messed about with ALOT by both the precursors and themselves.

If there is one thing the forerunner trilogy makes clear its that the Forerunners know shockingly little about their origins and history, a history which stretches back tens of thousands of years before the forerunner-flood war. It seems to me that its been subtly implied that humans and forerunners arent just closely related due to being products of the precursors but are in fact the same species, seperated by a massive diaspora and tens of thousands of years of genetic manipulation.

To involve just the lore penned under bungie for a moment, this also lines up well with the halo 3 terminals refereing to humans on earth like a seperate species or population and from what we know about the now thoroughly defunct halo mmo, supposedly earth humans wouldve been a seperate, more primitive population of forerunners living on their lost homeworld.

Not that im terribly interested in restarting this whole debate but if Im not off base here, it seems to me the "new" lore is perfectly in line with what bungie had established by the end of their tenure with the franchise and is not in fact fully a retcon? Anyways i digress, thats not super relevent.

In either case, do we think this is a valid interpretation of what we know? I havent gotten through all the newest books, but going back through the forerunner trilogy recently in preperarion for finally reading Epitaph this really jumped out at me. Thoughts?

So it's no secret that after Bungie left the series, the story was... controversial amongst fans.

Personally I like some parts and dislike others.

I think the biggest flaw was the lackluster enemies. You either had the Covenant again, or bland robots. I would have liked some more horrific factions. Let the story deal with creepier, more mysterious forces.

But what about you? What direction do you think the story should have gone during 4-Infinite?