Forum:Halo: Nightfall (General)

So the Halo panel at Comic-Con is going on right now. This guy is announcing all the Nightfall news on Twitter. According to the Twitter user, people in the series will die off and it will focus on Locke and a elite squad on an abandoned outer colony and a fragment of Installation 04. There is also a new Pelican type, similar to the Tart-Cart. Locke is apparently going to be a playable character in Guardians as well. The series looks promising, but it is unfortunate that it will have about the same budget as Forward Unto Dawn. Still, I have high hopes.

What does everyone else expect from Nightfall? - NightHammer (talk) 15:33, 24 July 2014 (EDT)
 * Trailer is up at XBox.com. An element that infects people from Alpha Halo...are we going to be seeing the Flood in live action? -- SFH (talk) 16:04, 24 July 2014 (EDT)
 * It's very likely, but it apparently only infects humans. Still... - NightHammer (talk) 16:15, 24 July 2014 (EDT)
 * Selectivity has always been one of the Flood's most important traits...
 * I saw the trailer, and I like it! It certainly has a nice good BSG vibe, and the characters seem well-defined and the story a good way to frame a lead-in feature. Considering both Nightfall and Escalation seem to be leading their characters to Halos, I wonder if that will be where Halo 5 opens, with the Chief saving Locke at the beginning, then shifting to Locke coming for him?
 * And excited to hear about a new "Condor" dropship - just after Loftus has redone his charts! He must be thrilled :P --  Qura 'Morhek   The Autocrat     of Morheka   18:42, 24 July 2014 (EDT)

Lefty with DMR!
Anyone else notice the guy in the background, "underneath" Locke's DMR, holding a DMR left-handed. Bet he's about to get some hot brass in his face! 82.27.24.49 18:46, 29 August 2014 (EDT)
 * He probably would, though the DMRs inherited the BR55's trait of not having an ejection port at all, even though that of course makes no sense. Alex T Snow (talk) 00:43, 30 August 2014 (EDT)


 * The DMR could have dual ejection ports. Second Lieutenant   Keith Johnson  [[Image:7thHelljumpers.jpg|20px]] com link 00:55, 30 August 2014 (EDT)

Plot Speculation
We don't know much about the plot of Halo: Nightfall, except it involves some UNSC soldiers being sent to Halo's fragment for a mission. Then something bad happens and everyone is now fighting for their lives. I have an idea though. One of the more recent appearances of Installation 04 was in Halo Anniversary. Remember, in one of the Terminals, an unidentified alien vessel crashed into Sector 1215. Let's say it was Sector 1215 that was broken off. UNSC comes along, finds the sarcophagus in ruins, and whatever is inside puts everyone at risk. This might be a stretch, because that may mean that Patenaude has been planning the series since 2011, or 343i just managed to find an unfinished arc. Alternatively, Sector 1215 is gone and we will never find out what the sarcophagus was for (but gosh, what a wasted opportunity!). What do you think? —  SPARTAN 331  06:47, 11 October 2014 (EDT)


 * I think the plot has something to do with the re-release of the flood and it's integration into a bio-weapon (somehow?). But the idea you proposed would be great. Maybe we can finally get an origin story as to what species that vessel came from and what/who was inside. It would be a great to introduce a brand new threat to the series. Though I kind-of doubt 343i will introduce anything new past what they already have - Jul' Mdama, Ur-Didact, Drake, etc... Who knows.-- Killamin7  [Comm |Files ] 10:08, 11 October 2014 (EDT)


 * I really hope your right, Spartan 331. 343i would be showing the originality that I have longed for, while really making the Halo universe its own, by adding something substantial, and not in a comic book type way, either. --Weeping Angel (talk) 22:01, 11 October 2014 (EDT)

Shapeshifter
Any idea what it is? It's freaky. Lekgolo? Erickyboo (talk) 02:58, 21 October 2014 (EDT)


 * It's not the Flood. unless they took a loooot of creative license. It does kind of look like the Lekgolog, but we've never heard of them acting like that. Also "it's an element", so probably not. I'm betting it's something new. --Weeping Angel (talk) 09:33, 21 October 2014 (EDT)
 * You're assuming the creature in the video was connected to the element. Going by this, it would seem to be a number of creatures joined together to make a humanoid shape to fool people from far away. The only creature we know to have those abilities at the moment are the Lekgolo.--Soul reaper (talk) 10:02, 21 October 2014 (EDT)


 * Yeah, I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss either of those possibilities, flood or Leckgolo. It just seems out of character for both. Let me suggest one other weird idea. What if its Forerunner? I know that's almost impossible, but I would really like to see something more made out of the Forerunners. Hundreds of eons of technological advancement, and they feel like modern (2500s, anyway) humans, pretty much. This could be a cool defense system. It's composed of smaller parts that can assemble and reassemble at will, much like Onyx Sentinals, only with biotech. --Weeping Angel (talk) 11:59, 21 October 2014 (EDT)


 * I was just thinking that it could be a hardlight hologram, or something of the kind. Your proposal sounds much more sci-fi, and probably more interesting than what we'll get! :P --  Qura 'Morhek   The Autocrat     of Morheka   18:12, 21 October 2014 (EDT)


 * I like the Forerunner bio/nanotech proposal. Something like that isn't beyond them, after all, given the known nature of the Huragok. Still, it would raise the question of why we never saw them before. Maybe an emergency operational mode or malfunction of some sort (not impossible given the state of the ring)? As for the Lekgolo idea, if the individual eels were that nimble and fast on their own you'd think the Covenant would've just deployed them in giant swarms that roll over everything in the battlefield like a tidal wave. Though this wouldn't be the first time they came up with new abilities without considering their bigger implications (I'm looking at you, Karen Traviss & Brian Reed and your instant interstellar teleportation). And Frankie seems to be fond of Lekgolo so they can't entirely be ruled out either. Finally, the Flood is not out of the question. We know they're highly adaptable and mutable so this being a variation of say, the infection form or pure form concepts wouldn't be unthinkable. If the shapeshifting figure is related to the bioweapon (which it likely is), the "element" part would rule out Lekgolo and leave Forerunner smatter and Flood (specifically, the base genetic material). Or something truly new, maybe related to the HCEA terminals' alien vessel. --Jugus (Talk  | Contribs ) 00:32, 22 October 2014 (EDT)


 * I think the alien vessel from the terminals is most likely, there's no realistic chance of dealing with that if not now, and there's not really any other room for "new" beings on a chunk of a destroyed Halo. I think the "element"/bioweapon/thing isn't the being itself, but something it has, or created. Also, a mysterious crashed ship of unknown origin, in a setting like this? Very Ridley Scott... Alex T Snow (talk) 02:34, 24 October 2014 (EDT)


 * Nightfall in general would be rightfully called a blatant Ridley Scott ripoff... if Ridley Scott wasn't actually involved. --Jugus (Talk  | Contribs ) 02:38, 24 October 2014 (EDT)

Okay so... Spoilerz I guess ? The online manual of Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been released, and it says you can unlock a skull in Halo 2 Anniversary after watching all 5 episodes of Halo: Nightfall. Check its description here. Mystery solved? Imrane-117 (talk) 14:23, 2 November 2014 (EST)

So it turns out it's Lekgolo after all. I had my suspicions as did everyone else, but I was expecting something more profound and sinister (something Forerunner/Flood/Precursor/mystery alien vessel-related and hopefully connected to the new element too). Nope, it's just a bunch of Lekgolo and they're chilling on a dead Halo because why not. It feels off that the existential threat isn't really connected to the anti-human element and these two things are both present by coincidence. On one hand I like how they made use of more "alien" forms of Lekgolo colony (I've always been intrigued by them) but I'm not really a fan of the sudden addition of new capabilities that were never demonstrated before—the things are basically flying. As I said before, if the Lekgolo were this insanely powerful and fast why didn't the Covenant just unleash gigantic swarms of them on their enemies? Part of it is probably an issue of modeling in-game assets, but still. If this were an established capability you'd expect to see Lekgolo holdouts becoming a major nuisance on a lot of human worlds. --Jugus (Talk  | Contribs ) 10:48, 20 November 2014 (EST)


 * I do agree it's a bit anti-climactic and (in)convenient there just happen to be a bunch of them in that particular spot, but what I got out of the drone second story was that they weren't Covenant Lekgolo, but rather ones stored deep inside the ring by the Forerunners. Maybe I'm just hoping, but I think there's something more at work with them than simple former Covenant Lekgolo; if that's all they are, while still cool to see, it would fall a bit flat. I do find it interesting that a Hunter was the "boss battle" in FuD as well, and they were also shown in their natural form in that H2:A terminal. Quite a bit of them around. Alex T Snow (talk) 16:43, 20 November 2014 (EST)

Randall the Spartan
Halo: Nightfall Trailer

I had a lingering suspicion about the name but...

-"I'm just one man." -"One man that was a Spartan."

Cue Randall Aiken showing off his Spartan scars. A history with, and disdain for, ONI. Randall-037 anyone? --Jugus (Talk  | Contribs ) 14:01, 22 October 2014 (EDT)
 * Holy God, that's a good find. -- SFH (talk) 14:03, 22 October 2014 (EDT)
 * The only part that doesn't quite match up is that Aiken's stature doesn't appear to stand out too much—though to be fair I don't think we have any good shots of him with other people. It's also possible they made him look taller in the series proper with camera trickery. --Jugus (Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 14:13, 22 October 2014 (EDT)
 * I agree the stature seems totally off. if you look at him wielding an MA5, he looks ridiculous. Also, why would ONI let go of such a valuable piece of equipment as a Spartan, a II no less? --Weeping Angel (talk) 15:18, 22 October 2014 (EDT)
 * Well, there isn't a lot of Spartans with this name. Either he's the Randall we know or a surviving Spartan-III with the same name (I doubt he'd be a Spartan-I since they are not really lauded a heroes in the post-war era, from I've understood). That would be really interesting, since 343i usually like to kill off good old characters who aren't really exploited. Imrane-117 (talk) 16:00, 22 October 2014 (EDT)
 * I think he is too young to be a Spartan-I and too old to be a Spartan-III. Aiken's actor is 45 years old so, if the character is around that age, that would put him nearly the same age as the Spartan-IIs. It would be weird for them to create another Spartan character with the same name as Randall. Although I agree he is a bit small to be a Spartan-II, I think I'd rather him be the same character as Randall-037 instead of a new Spartan. - NightHammer (talk) 16:11, 22 October 2014 (EDT)
 * He could technically be an Orion as Johnson looks insanely young for his age, especially in H2A. But I agree he's probably Randall-037. It'd be a nice way to reintroduce (and likely wrap up) an established character instead of new Spartans always popping out of thin air. And Randall's the perfect candidate too, being the only S-II MIA and all. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 01:15, 23 October 2014 (EDT)

I love being right. What I don't get is how do you "reverse" enhancements like a material surgically grafted into your bones, or a dramatic overhaul of your entire nervous system or muscle fibers, without slipping into comic book nonsense. Did they give him the anti-Spartan serum or something? Then he writhed for some time in intense pain on the operating table (the "excruciating process") and his powers were gone? Maybe ONI also tested their new secret weapon, the shrink ray, on him given the size difference. That or nanomachines did it. Or maybe he never lost his augmentations and is revealed to have been an ONI double agent all along. In any case a proper explanation would be nice. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 06:51, 12 November 2014 (EST)


 * Having not seen Nightfall yet (don't have an Xbox One) do we know that the augmentations were removed? He doesn't have the powered armour anymore, so he would be noticably less capable than someone like the Master Chief, but still capable of extreme feats of strength and reaction time. Does it outright say he's had that stuff removed, or just that he hasn't been using it? If it was removed, I would raise an eyebrow in consternation, but it's not unprecedented. Ralph 3 103 seemed to have had his augmentations removed. --  Qura 'Morhek   The Autocrat     of Morheka   04:43, 16 November 2014 (EST)
 * His waypoint article confirms his augmentations were removed. How though is a good question. Sith-venator Wavingstrider Fett helmet.jpg ( Commlink ) 04:45, 16 November 2014 (EST)
 * Ah. Well, that clears that up. The human body is constantly replacing cells, so it might be they're justifying it as a case of the body simply returing to its original, unaugmented state over time. Ten years is (I think) long enough to replace every cell in an adult human body, so that might be the explanation. I would still think it's eyebrow-raise worthy, but it sounds like the kind of explanation we would get. Of course, by extension it would mean that Spartans need more than just technical maintenance for their armour - they'd need medical maintenance as well, which would be appropriate for cyborgs I suppose. --  Qura 'Morhek   The Autocrat     of Morheka   05:20, 16 November 2014 (EST)
 * "(Aiken) eventually negotiated a deal where ONI reversed many of his augmentations (in what would be an excruciating process) in return for his release from service to the UNSC." Sounds like there was more going on than the body's natural processes. Also, I don't have an Xbone either. Didn't stop me from seeing Nightfall though. ;) --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 10:51, 16 November 2014 (EST)


 * I would expect that only most of the augmentations were removed/reversed; I doubt he's a fully regular human, just enough of one that ONI doesn't consider him valuable anymore. Alex T Snow (talk) 23:05, 16 November 2014 (EST)

Premiere
Thoughts? Comments? Etc. I felt it was a good start and can't wait to see what follows. Col.  Snipes  4  50  00:24, 11 November 2014 (EST)
 * I quite like it, and don't have anything worth complaining about. Well, aside from the three Second Stories being permanently stuck in what sounded like Italian for no apparent reason. Alex T Snow (talk) 04:36, 11 November 2014 (EST)


 * Well it's certainly better than the pre-release reviews made it out to be. Locke is shaping up to be quite likable, as long as they write him consistently and don't try to force him into a generic maverick badass mold like what happened with Palmer. I had a few pet peeves, like how "the Covenant" breaking the peace treaty is somehow a big deal; the UNSC never negotiated a treaty with the Covenant and ONI should be well aware there are different splinter factions (that would be fairly obvious after what happened in Spartan Assault and even more so if this is set after Halo 4). And it's not like yelling at Jul 'Mdama or any other warlord about breaking a treaty is going to help anything. This seems like a small thing, but given that getting evidence for "the Covenant" breaking the treaty is the main point for the mission to the Halo shard (as opposed to just nuking it) it's a pretty big deal. Strange no one in 343i's franchise team picked up on it. Also, if the bioweapon doesn't turn out to be more than that, something with an agency behind it, I'll probably be disappointed—how convenient is it that a spontaneously generated element like this just happened to be toxic to humans only? --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 06:51, 12 November 2014 (EST)


 * Talking about "The Covenant" breaking the treaty was a bit odd, and yeah, unlike in Halo 4 where Chief would have no idea what was going on, ONI of all groups knows exactly what's up. It was pretty clearly there for more "casual" viewers, but I think they brought it up a few too many times. Alex T Snow (talk) 16:58, 12 November 2014 (EST)


 * It's particularly egregious when 4/5 of the entire plot is a result of supposed violations of the treaty. Come to think of it, what is it that the ONI need proof for anyway? If they need proof that there's Sangheili breaking the treaty (as they claim), they have a bunch of surveillance footage and a huge corpse right there in the mall. Why is it necessary to prove that smugglers—human or otherwise—are also setting foot on Alpha Halo to sell the stuff to the zealots? Landing on the Halo is insignificant next to a terrorist attack that injured and killed numerous people. And keeping in mind who we're talking about, since when has ONI needed proof anyway? They're not cops on an investigation. This is the organization that has people assassinated for looking at them the wrong way, kidnaps children and plans xenocide on their spare time. To me the proof thing felt like an excuse to force the crew to actually land on the primary setting instead of just nuking it. This could be salvaged by making it an excuse in-universe in an Aliens-esque twist about covert orders to investigate the ring for some reason. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 11:58, 18 November 2014 (EST)


 * ONI may have their own agenda, but you got to remember they still have to follow protocol. One Elite zealot, who are nowadays a religious militant with any given sect of the Covenant ideology, isn't enough to go off from. In the first episode of Spartan Ops, its mentioned that Majestic stopped an Elite from detonating a Havok nuke in the middle of a human population center on Earth. I'm sure the city had cameras and plenty of witnesses. Hell, they could debrief the Spartans who detained the Elite. The only difference between these two events? One obviously found something far more lethal and enigmatic. This would demand an investigation, especially if its from the fragment of a Halo ring that Master Chief destroyed. If this new found Covenant is a threat, then they need full support from the UEG in order to effectively suppress this thing. That means boots on the ground and ships in orbit. UNSC resources that ONI agents or a fleet of prowler ships don't have. Think of it as an excuse, a perfect excuse, they've been waiting for. -Archer

As an aside I liked Horrigan's comment about how the Sedrans are "two centuries behind us" and "still believe in Valhalla". At first I thought that was a hyperbole or joke or he was just clueless about the local religions, but it could also be that the Norse religion was in vogue in the 2300's. It'd be a little silly and unexpected but stranger things have happened. Sometimes it's easy to forget how much cultures can change in five hundred years, particularly when you have hundreds of different offshoots developing on their own on different worlds. I like these sorts of bits of future history that remind us this is not just today's world in space (something I had a problem with in the Kilo-Five Trilogy). --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 03:27, 13 November 2014 (EST)


 * Well, there are Norse paganists around today. Just as their Greek and Celtic paganists, not to mention the Wiccans who constructed an entire religion from basically snippets of folklore. I don't know how seriously people take something like Asatru theology-wise, compared to being a cultural-revival thing, but people will believe in strange things. It makes as much sense as some others, I guess! --  Qura 'Morhek   The Autocrat     of Morheka   14:03, 18 November 2014 (EST)

So, I managed to find some time to watch it and... I don't really like the first episode. There's a treaty? An Elite Zealot, a species known for its honour code, resorting to detonating a dirty bomb (which is a very cowardly move, moreso for an Elite Zealot!)? Wait, the "element" infects only humans yet not every human is infected? And I am still having trouble accepting the reversal of the surgical augmentations of Randall. It's like reversing Wolverine's adamantium skeleton and claws. *shrugs* — subtank   11:15, 20 November 2014 (EST)


 * It's said that the element "randomly" targets human DNA so not everyone is infected. But I'm having trouble buying the whole element thing in the first place—how convenient is it that a new randomly generated element (if it truly was random) just happens to target humans only and terrorists somehow learned of this... even though the element only exists in this insanely inhospitable and remote location. Given that setup how did anyone catch wind of the element and its effects, much less refine it into a sophisticated bioweapon that can emit it as radiation? As for the Zealot I was more bothered by the fact no one seemed to mind the giant armored alien casually strolling around in the mall. It's rather believable that not every Elite is all that honor-obsessed, though these "dishonorable" and brutish terrorist types have been overrepresented in 343's post-war media until recently—I'm hoping that characterization gets some variety with the apparent resumed focus on the Covenant. The "reversal" of Randall's augmentations is just the sort of comic book nonsense that's sadly been on the rise in Halo peripheral media as of late. I can't really see how you'd feasibly undo any of the S-II augmentations. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 11:34, 20 November 2014 (EST)

Yonhet
This new species kind of irks me. It's obvious that it was created for the sake of cutting down on the CGI budget. I really don't like the idea of a humanoid alien species in Halo other than the Forerunners. These guys seem like something you would see in Star Wars, Star Trek, or Mass Effect. Halo's aliens have always been completely non-humanoid. There's also the fact that it kinda spits in the face of the significance of why humans and Forerunners look similar. Now there's a third species in the picture?-- Fluffy Emo Penguin ( ice quack! ) 14:29, 12 November 2014 (EST)
 * Yep, that's pretty much exactly how I feel about them too. Alex T Snow (talk) 16:55, 12 November 2014 (EST)
 * Yeah... Though I'm not against the idea of introducing new fringe species, the Yonhet were really lazily designed. Even with makeup and prosthetics they could've worked harder to make him look more alien. Add bulk in some places and some extra appendages, and alter the hands. Maybe they'll be explained as having been genetically engineered by the Forerunners (or ancient humans) for some reason, or they'll just get reworked into something less like a cheap Star Trek alien if we see them in a game where the CGI budget isn't an issue. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 03:27, 13 November 2014 (EST)
 * Yeah, I hoped they might expand on a connection with Forerunners or ancient humans. Maybe a Forerunner splinter species that got marooned on this moon and forgotten? Idk. It seems like they'll be a non-combatant species in the games, if they'll even be in the games. It seems to me that they might stay in Halo: Nightfall and that's it. 343 could possibly be including a plethora of minor Covenant Fringe species at various points in the franchise for whatever purpose, and the Yonhet just represent something that was created uniquely for Nightfall and will soon be overshadowed by the coming wave of many other diverse alien species yet to be revealed.--[[Image:PENGUIN4.gif|15px]] Fluffy Emo Penguin ( ice quack! ) 11:41, 13 November 2014 (EST)

The Sharquoi might end up being part of this "Covenant fringe"... "I" hadn't seen it coming, but now I'm thinking that the whole fringe idea may not be that bad. It could have been there all the time, actually. Imrane-117 (talk) 11:48, 25 November 2014 (EST)

Slipspace
I wish that one day someone working on a piece of Halo visual media would have the integrity to make slipspace the inky void it should be. Enough sci-fi FTL is already represented as some variation of glowy tunnel, so a total darkness would be something new and challenging—you couldn't really even have exterior shots of the ship as it's my understanding that the concept of visibility doesn't even exist in slipspace—even if it does all we'd see are the ship's lights and no visible movement. Just the ship lit by its own sparse lighting in apparent stillness surrounded by an overwhelming darkness; this would actually provide some very unnerving and effective imagery. Or you could have shots looking out of windows at the inky expanse outside, or if you really need to show that tunnel effect you could have the camera zoomed in on a viewscreen which then zooms out to reveal the image is merely an artificial visualization of what goes on in the nonvisible realms that surround the ship. The possibilities are endless, yet every visual depiction of slipspace ends up using an old tired tunnel effect. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 10:48, 20 November 2014 (EST)

Predictions
So, any guesses as to who'll make it and who won't? As for myself, I think this is shaping up to be an "everyone dies" story. Well, everyone but Locke. This scars him mentally somewhat and makes him more ruthless, someone whose motivations and allegiances are genuinely questionable when he appears in Halo 5 (up until now he's mostly been a rather nice guy). Randall will go out with a heroic sacrifice worthy of a Spartan while Macer will say something character-developing and potentially foreshadowing before dying in Locke's arms. The deaths of everyone else, including the ONI team members, are pretty much a given (I bet Ramos will be the first one to go). In the end Locke escapes Alpha Shard in a callback to the ending of Combat Evolved (or "The Maw Lite"). The last we see of him is a slightly ominous epilogue where he receives his S-IV augmentations, looking all surly and menacing (or just steps into the surgical theater/cue credits). --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 10:48, 20 November 2014 (EST)


 * The credits reveal that 'A' Camera was assigned to shoot Spartan footage; 'B' Cam shot the Lekgolo scene(s). I image we'll see Locke as a Spartan in the last episode. Maybe we'll even see Randall in a flashback to Vodin or something of the sort. I totally agree with your death/ending predictions. -- Our vengeance is at hand. Gravemind.svg ( Talk to me. ) 11:31, 20 November 2014 (EST)


 * It's also possible that "Spartan" is a codename for the main cast—the production crew may or may not have confused the armored and helmeted ONI and Sedrans with Spartans, or they simply used the name because it's catchy. Or the names are simply their peculiar way of identifying the main and second units. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 12:03, 20 November 2014 (EST)


 * I generally agree with that, though I've come to think that Macer will actually make it out too. The line about the Tug being "cramped for a two-seater" to me was a dead giveaway that only two will make it, but also that specifically two will. Macer seems fairly set up to be Locke's future partner of some sort, since we seem to always have a male/female pairing like that; specifically she would fill the role of Locke's Cortana extremely well. Her personality and attitude seem more developed and less achetype-like, and she's also smart and flies ships (the Tug says hi). Locke saying she should be ONI or a Spartan felt like foreshadowing, as did her response to it, which was mainly in body language. It's also worth noting that while Locke is the least ONI-like ONI member, Macer is the least Sedran-like Sedran. It would feel a bit wrong to kill off all the Sedrans. It would also be really nice to break the Miranda/Chyler/Cortana pattern, especially when one of those was the other live action series. They could definitely kill her off too, but right now I'm leaning toward not, though I am still rather worried. Alex T Snow (talk) 16:57, 20 November 2014 (EST)


 * "It's also possible that "Spartan" is a codename for the main cast ..." I had considered that and I'm afraid it may be so. Maybe Locke and Co. were Spartans in early drafts of the story and the change just never clicked with the behind-the-scenes crew.


 * Could Macer survive? Quite possibly. I'd like Randall to make it out but I highly doubt that'll happen. I hope some greater agency behind the attack is revealed in later episodes, making the former Spartan's death more meaningful. Right now it seems as though the element was created by chance; the attack was carried out for the usual xenophobic reasons; and the smugglers and Lekgolo are simply present by happenstance. -- Our vengeance is at hand. Gravemind.svg ( Talk to me. ) 06:37, 21 November 2014 (EST)


 * I'm definitely hoping there's something to tie up all these disparate plot threads. It's a hard for me to buy that an element with effects that specific would be generated by pure coincidence, let alone that anyone would actually end up finding out about its properties when it's only found in a location like this. I was hoping the threat on the Halo fragment would end up being an aspect of the element or something mutated by it to connect the two (for some reason I immediately think of the black goo from Prometheus), but it remains to be seen how they'll fit the Lekgolo in the grander scheme of things in the later episodes, if they do it at all. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if it was revealed later on that someone (Osman?) engineered the ground mission to Alpha Shard for the sake of studying some deeper threat present there. With a "crew expendable" caveat of course. As an aside I found it a little strange that Escalation ' s Exposure arc isn't apparently the prequel to Nightfall as I'd assumed—it seemed like it was being pushed out just the right moment to coincide with the webseries' release, not to mention the subject matter of a bioweapon, which has been rather unusual in the Haloverse so far. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 08:09, 21 November 2014 (EST)

From Episode 3 it really does seem like Macer is going to survive; the question of who's going to pilot the tug automatically rules out a large portion of the crew, unless some of them have hidden talents as a spacecraft pilot. That, or the filmmakers troll us and it's going to be Arris. Would be an awkward flight out. Or Macer gets the tug off the fragment and it's only once they're safely away that it's revealed she's badly hit and dies soon after, a la Wash in Serenity. Regarding survival, something that occurred to me was that they could've at least brought up the idea of taking shelter in the tunnels under the Halo's surface as the ring is riddled with the things. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 04:49, 26 November 2014 (EST)


 * Well, it looks like "The Maw Lite" happened—the monks were all that was missing. And Randall's heroic sacrifice (the UNSC should really look into the way they build their WMDs). Given her injury, I was nearly certain Macer would die on the way out but sure enough, she's breathing, even though we hear nothing of what happens with her afterwards. Ramos didn't go out first, which was surprising, as was the way he broke down so easily (I expected him to be one of the more level-headed members of the team, certainly more so than Estrin). Funny how the Sedrans take the whole mission way more professionally than ONI, who you'd expect to have all sorts of psych evaluations to prevent this sorts of bad apples from getting in their ranks (but then this is ONI so being selfish, ruthless and/or cowardly might actually be considered a plus). And we got nothing on Locke becoming a Spartan, nor any visible character development. For all the talk about how this series was supposed to show Locke becoming the character he is in Halo 5, I just didn't see that. Sure enough, Randall gave him some "profound" advice and foreshadowing, but nothing suggested this was anything other than another day in the office for him, albeit a bad one. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 00:26, 12 December 2014 (EST)

Where are the answers?
So, what the hell were they thinking when they created this story? First of all, I haven't watched the second stories, so my bad if they reveal anything I'm talking about. But the show fits really poorly within the Halo universe, in terms of addition to the lore. Save for the exploitation of a nearly forgotten character —Randall— and the introduction of the Yohnet. I thought the show was really interesting, no question about it, with all these things about who will survive and so on. But when I think about it, it's still just a story about characters running around in the middle of nowhere. It's not clear what the bioweapon was exactly, how its element was found by the humans (I suppose they just stumbled upon it in the depth of this Halo ring, yeah?), what Lekgolo were doing on the ring (My assumption is that they were Hunters who survived the destruction of Alpha Halo, due to their organism adapting more easily to the devastated surface). If it's the case, then why no Flood too? I bet this surface is inhabitable enough for them. Could they be related to the bioweapon? Despite the devastated surface, I also expected some kind of reference to the environments of Halo 1, whether campaign levels or multiplayer maps—even some desolated random Forerunner structures could have been interesting. Do you imagine if the place where they found water was actually modelled after Battle Creek for example, with the same design and so on, though it would be severely damaged? Also a huge disappointment: nothing on the sarcophagus from the CEA terminals... I wonder if there's still anyway to exploit this thing now that we won't see Installation 04 anymore. Of course, if you have any info on the second stories and their possible answers to my lingering questions, it would make me very glad. But I still have mixed feeling about this Nightfall. It's agreeable to watch. But they could have made it fit better in the universe, even without losing the casual audience they're trying to target. Even at the end, I was still expecting Randall to say that he was finishing John's incomplete job, or something like that. Slightly taunting John about how he can still be a Spartan after all, just like him, but that Locke isn't really bad either (foreshadowing Halo 5). Imrane-117 (talk) 22:14, 10 December 2014 (EST)
 * The Second Stories definitely help in some cases, and I found them all quite interesting. My complaints are pretty few, I definitely liked the ending, though I do agree with whoever made that edit that commented it felt like there was a scene missing at the end. Randall is definitely near the top of my favourite characters list, partly because he embodies so well what a true Spartan should be, as opposed to the S-IVs. I wish they had a higher CGI budget for the worms, but that's one of my only complaints with the story itself. What really bothered me was outside the story, the spoiler-filled teaser pictures (can we change Horrigan's main picture?), and don't even get me started on the "next time previews plot summaries", or the completely unnecessary "last time on" bits. Steamed video has again proven to be a terrible idea, with it dropping the quality to 240p or worse at random and sometimes important times, and the Halo Channel's navigation system isn't great either. But Nightfall itself? It I quite liked. Alex T Snow (talk) 23:35, 10 December 2014 (EST)


 * Were they so desperate to showcase their gimmicky second story feature that they purposefully omitted critical exposition from the main plot and relegated it into ancillary video clips? Not too happy with that. What do the second stories have to say about the element, the Lekgolo, and the convenient series of coincidences that were needed to make the plot work? That aside, I didn't hate Nightfall, but it was certainly a step down from Forward Unto Dawn. FUD gets flak for starting out slow, but I actually liked the way it took its time to establish the setting and the characters, which made me care when they start dropping in the later episodes. Nightfall rockets from one location to the next and the overall atmosphere feels foreign to the Halo universe. The whole business with the treaty, the new "element" toxic to humans (what a wonderful coincidence!), the superfast Lekgolo worms, the removal of Randall's augmentations... Even all that increased budget didn't really get to shine because they apparently got too excited with the CGI and slapped it everywhere, where Forward Unto Dawn used it sparingly and in the dark to hide its flaws. They shouldn't really attempt a film this CGI-centric without a blockbuster budget. And that ending felt very rushed; as I said in the above topic, I was expecting them to show Locke becoming a Spartan, not just... hanging out on Sedra. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 00:26, 12 December 2014 (EST)


 * The plot-relevant part about the Lekgolo was that they implied they weren't Covenant, but ones kept there far longer by the Forerunners, buried in the ring's many facilities. That's what I got out of the recon drone one anyway. None of the Second Stories are required per se, not to the degree that someone would have to have read multiple novel series to understand Halo 4, but they certainly help, like the little trailers and character bios for FuD do; two focus almost entirely on Wisner, first interrogating Axl, second having a "polite" discussion with Horrigan and Estrin right before the mission. Alex T Snow (talk) 06:44, 13 December 2014 (EST)

A Missed Opportunity
I suppose that the writers of Nightfall could have gone with the whole "ONI as puppet master" angle in the story to be consistent with the Kilo-Five narrative and that Halo Escalation arc about the bioweapon. I mean the pieces were already there: The Nightfall narrative could've been shown as a glimpse into how ONI could orchestrate a series of situations that play out in their favor. You can call it ONI "tying up loose ends" be that with repressing outer colony unrest, disrupting smuggling operations, or even making sure a former Spartan-II does not end up causing more trouble for UNSC after a chemical weapon attack that killed his daughter. Some of this of very cliche just like the canon Nightfall story and I haven't given much thought to how some of the story lines would have played out in a mini-series (more Second Story videos maybe?), but it probably would've given Locke's character a good reason to mistrust ONI especially if he just ran the mission as ordered.S.g.ali (talk) 15:01, 23 June 2015 (EDT)
 * a chemical weapon attack taking place in an outer colony world where a former Spartan-II just happens to be in a military position;
 * the source of weapon being traced to a place where humans mined the materials and smuggling it to whoever willing to buy;
 * the human smugglers themselves coming from an outer colony world that basically has third-world type situations;
 * Locke knew about Aiken's past indicating that ONI is always keeping tabs and ONI never forgets; and
 * the Second Stories indicate the capabilities of ONI's surveillance and their ability to contain information.