Heretic, Hero

Heretic, Hero is a piece of music which appeared in the Halo 2. It's track 6 on the Halo 2: Original Soundtrack Volume 1.

Overview

It features heavy, industrial tones, such as what sounds like pipes, mixed with light guitar riffs and Halo's trademark messianic singing. The main song of the piece is a remix of A Walk in the Woods, which was featured in Halo: Combat Evolved. The first part of the piece is a remix of The Gun Pointed at the Head of the Universe (the only recurrence of this theme outside of the first game), and also includes part of the melody of Enough Dead Heroes. The title may refer to the Arbiter, who is a hero to his people, despite being branded as a Heretic.

Also, it may refer to Sesa 'Refumee, another character that is seen in a bad light by his own people and is a Heretic in the eyes of the Covenant, but is a hero in that he fought against the Prophets. It could also be the Master Chief since to the humans he was a hero of the humans, but a heretic and demon in the eyes of the Covenant.

Appearances

Heretic, Hero is played during the tank sequence of Delta Halo and the Wraith sequence at the beginning of The Great Journey. It also plays during the Gondola's Ascent in Quarantine Zone.

A remix of this song appears in the first part of Delta Halo Suite, and is heard during the "Helljumper" cutscene at the beginning of the Delta Halo mission.

Trivia

• Heretic, Hero was remixed for Halo 3 as a portion of Released. It also bears some similarities to Impend, from the same title.
• Despite being a Halo 2 song, it is played on the main menu of the essentials disk of the Halo 3: Limited Edition.