Monitor

The Monitors are highly advanced Artificial Intelligence constructs created by the Forerunners 100,000 years ago to service and maintain the Halo installations, and to ensure that the deadly Flood stayed imprisoned. Monitors are extremely intelligent, yet completely devoted to their original function. They are zealous about containing the Flood: monitors have been known to turn violently on their allies if the latter should attempt to violate their containment protocols. The only real example of this is when Guilty Spark turns on the Master Chief and attempts to kill him, and then does the same to Johnson and succeeds in killing him. This is evidence of Guilty Spark possibly having gone rampant. This is quite possible as he was stuck on Alpha Halo for thousands of years.

The Covenant refer to the Monitors as Oracles. Humans (notably Sergeant Major Avery Johnson) have called them Light Bulbs and Robots and the Master Chief calls him spark, see this page for a more complete list of Monitor monikers.

There is one known monitor per Halo Installation.

Appearance
The body of a Monitor consists of a roughly spherical shape, concave on three sides, with an illuminated photo receptor/eye with the Marathon logo on it located on the "front" of the orb. A monitor's silvery metal covering is reminiscent of other Forerunner constructs. All the monitors seen so far speak in a tinny, but level, male voice.

It is unknown if the colors of the monitors are individual for each monitor or if they change due to action or emotion.

When firing it's own Spartan Laser-esque weapon, 343 Guilty Spark's blue light will turn red and emit the laser, like the Prophet of Regret's laser, in Halo 2.

Features
Halo's Monitors seem to have a defensive resistance to small arms fire, though they will eventually succumb after taking extensive damage. In the novel, Halo: The Flood, John-117 fired half a magazine from an MA5B Assault Rifle at 343 Guilty Spark with no apparent effect. In Halo 3, Master Chief destroys 343 Guilty Spark using multiple shots from a Spartan Laser, demonstrating that Monitors can sustain damage from high power weaponry. Should a Monitor be damaged, he is capable of self-repair.

Each Monitor commands the Sentinels, Constructors, Sentinel Majors, and Enforcers of the Installation they are based on. The latter two are only activated if a catastrophic outbreak occurs, to hold back the Flood while the monitor locates a Reclaimer. Although such Constructs are programmed to assist the Monitors in combat-oriented tasks, the Monitors themselves are capable of producing a powerful beam from their "eye" that is powerful enough to stun or mortally injure a human. Though the Monitors seem to have endless knowledge of their own Installation, their Forerunner makers wisely limited their knowledge of all other constructs in the case of an absorption by the Flood.

Monitors have the ability to teleport themselves and others around their installations. It is unclear exactly how this teleportation works, but it seems that a Monitor on an Installation other than its own has no access to that installation's transportation grid. In the book, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, Dr. Halsey comments that Onyx's teleportation matrix is powered by a Slipspace generator of some sort. The Monitors may use similar technology when teleporting.

Monitors keep daily logs of all things that occur on their Installation. As with UNSC AI, the Monitors have been speculated to be in stages of Rampancy due to their isolation for literally hundreds of thousands of years.

Known Monitors



 * 343 Guilty Spark (Installation 04)


 * 2401 Penitent Tangent (Installation 05)

Each Monitor, of the ones shown so far, glows a unique color: 343 Guilty Spark is blue, while 2401 Penitent Tangent is red. It is unknown whether each was created with a different color, or if Penitent Tangent's red color is due to some malfunction (or due to his proximity to Gravemind). Important to this debate is the consideration that 343 Guilty Spark changes hue when he experiences Rampancy, going from his regular blue to a bright red color. However, Penitent Tangent seems perfectly aware of protocols such as conduct towards possible Reclaimers, something that 343 Guilty Spark forgot during his rampancy. It is also thought that the full designation of each Monitor comprises of the Installation Number of the installation the Monitor in question is assigned to, then 7 to the power of that one less than that number, then the adjective/noun name of the Monitor (ie 04-343 Guilty Spark). This would make 05-2401 Penitent Tangent the second Monitor of Installation 05, as 05-032 Mendicant Bias also has the designation 05-XYZ or 00-032


 * Installation 05's Monitor may be a reference to Marathon's A.I: Leela, who was captured by the "enemy" and taken apart. 343 could also be a direct descendant of the A.I: Durandal who shows signs of Rampancy much like Guilty Spark.

Similarities between Guilty Spark and Durandal:
 * Both are able to teleport the Main Character.
 * Both have a "sister/brother" Monitor that were captured.
 * Both ended up Rampant.


 * Another reference to Marathon is the planet that the back end of Forward Unto Dawn crashes on, was Tycho, who crash landed on a Planet/Moon. (Needs the Marathon: Durandal Terminal Information that shows Tycho's unfortunate fate.)

Possible Monitors
These are some monitors that may exist:
 * Adjutant Reflex


 * 032 Mendicant Bias

Trivia



 * When the numbers of each Monitor are examined, a pattern emerges: each seems to be seven raised to the power of the Installation number minus one; therefore this grid can be founded.


 * ''Note that the first three digits of the monitor of Installation 07 are 117, Master Chief's service number.

''


 * If Installation 00 had a monitor, it probably wouldn't follow the numbering scheme used for other monitors, as this would give the monitor the fraction 1/7 as its number


 * The 'eye' of 343 Guilty Spark resembles the Marathon symbol - only one of many references to this series that appear in the Halo series. It is also believed to be the Reclaimer symbol.


 * It is revealed in Halo 3 that the Monitors, or at least the most prominent Monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, have offensive capabilities very similar to that of a Sentinel, which can stun or immediately kill an opponent. 343 Guilty Spark primarily utilized this ability two times in the third installment of the series: once to destroy a Flood Combat Form that was about to attack Master Chief, and later to fight the Chief and the Arbiter, and to kill Sergeant Johnson. 343 Guilty Spark may also used the effective beam on The Covenant level. When you join the Arbiter after defeating the two Scarabs, the Monitor of Installation 04 may fire at any enemy that gets too close to the bridge. He will also use it when the player kills too many Marines and cause all allies to shoot at the player.


 * The player takes the form of Spark while editing in Forge in Halo 3.


 * Monitors turn red during rampancy, and it can be speculated that 2401 Penitent Tangent is rampant because he is being corrupted by the Gravemind. His beam weapon, however seems to either be broken, or he chooses not to use it.


 * The above statement seems factually unlikely considering that all of the Halo Installations are color-coded by region and locale, 343 Guilty Spark is a lucid blue and 2401 Penitent Tangent is a filmy red.


 * The voice effect can be achieved by Flanging, a technique often used for electric guitar.


 * If a Monitor is destroyed or captured, Sentinels will become immediately hostile to any life form on the ring. This was shown in the levels Sacred Icon in Halo 2 and Halo in Halo 3. However this could be because the last thing Guilty Spark did was categorize the Master Chief and Arbiter as threats, so he gave the Sentinels the order to attack everything on sight. As for Sacred Icon, Sentinels would always fire on Covenant forces, and no Human forces are perceptible in the level.


 * Monitors' eye color match the color of the Holo-Images on Installation 00. Installation 04's color is a Blue while Installation 05's color is Red.


 * The Monitors might be connected to each other due to Guilty Sparks Eye becoming the same color as Penitent Tangent, possibly from Data Transfer from another Monitor in case of being destroyed, much like the signal sent to The Ark and this all happened after 343 Guilty Spark accessed The Ark's Terminal.


 * Guilty Spark's name has similar similar to Penitent Tangent; both Penitent and Guilty have very similar meanings:
 * Guilt (Guilty) - remorse or self-reproach caused by feeling that one has done something wrong.
 * Penitent - Feeling or expressing remorse for one's misdeeds or sins.


 * An alternative to the theory that the Spartan Laser simply deals so much damage that it can destroy a Monitor is that a Monitor's shields do not protect against light, which means that light-based weaponry, such as the Spartan Laser, could easily damage a Monitor. If the shields blocked light, Monitors would have no way of seeing.