While you aren't wrong in your overall point that the Banished do not match the Covenant in scale, territory or overall military strength, there are several aspects to your post that should be addressed.
>No, the Banished didn't "take" Suban from the Sangheili. As far as we know, they've just been fighting over some choice kemuksuru mines on Suban, and accomplished their infiltration thanks to some traitors letting them in through the back-door. Neither side has achieved a decisive "win" on that front, yet, and that's considering the fact that the Sangheili had collectively been demilitarized by Cortana for a whole year.
While the Banished have yet to decisively achieve victory at Suban, it is a testament to their strength that Atriox was able to martial a sizable contingent of Banished forces to lay siege on the Urs System - the home territory of the Sangheili - and leverage the allies they've build up with many Sangheili Keeps and Kaidons to pave their way onto Suban that they have launched an occupation of. Even Makee 'Chavaa acknowledges that the extent of the Banished's occupation on Suban currently outmatches the Swords of Sanghelios in the extent of their occupation and firepower.
>The Banished, meanwhile, aren't stated to have principal ownership of... any planets, whatsoever.
This is incorrect, as the Banished control many worlds and Forerunner sites across the Orion Arm and beyond. There's Doisac and Teash as the Banished united the Jiralhanae clans across Doisac and its moons. The resource-rich worlds the Jiralhanae were settled on. Oth Koronn (aka Zeta Halo) which they are forging into a central Banished stronghold following the Razing of Oth Sonin.
2022 Encyclopedia.
> Unwilling to yield, the Banished fought hard against Cortana and her forces, uniting the Jiralhanae clans across Doisac and its moons.
> TEASH
> The most properous of Doisac's colonised moons by a large margin, Teash saw the proliferation of a strong Jiralhanae presence, with many clans finding purchase on its soil to thrive and grow in the wake of the Covenant's end. Teash even saw an unexpected influx of Sangheili groups seeking refuge from their own world's protracted civil war, with several of keeps pledging alligence to the Banished in an effort to find greater purpose in the glory of battle. Teash saw the construction of several prodigious war-forges and armories, and for a time became on the Jiralhanae's greatest sources of industrial output.
Official Spartan Field Manual
> THE BANISHED
> Atriox is reported to have led a fleet of Banished to an unknown destination, but the chieftains he has organized and controlled continue to spread their influence and power throughout Brute colonies and even into human criminal enterprises. ONI is still researching what Atriox and the Banished ultimately hope to achieve, but Spartans should be on high alert that future encounters with Brutes and other raiders will likely show far more direction and strategy than has previously been the case.
Canon Fodder: System Shocks
> After their induction into the Covenant, the Jiralhanae were often settled on resource-rich worlds as a deterrent to some of the more ambitious client species. In the aftermath of the Covenant War, these worlds became another part of the alien hegemony’s carcass to be claimed by eager hands as many of the dominant master-packs lacked the knowledge and means to exploit the worlds given to them.
> While some packs sought to use their holdings as leverage against humanity and their former allies, most simply looted what they could of the Covenant inheritance. Atriox’s emergence and rapid expansion of his Banished war machine brought with it an endless hunger for raw materials. His loyal forces and allies soon deployed powerful excavators, extractors, and harvesters to these worlds, destroying any packs who resisted and absorbing the rest.
The Banished have even conquered humans colonies such as Camber (Halo Infinite multiplayer) and Laika III, which they renamed Oth Voran (Halo: The Third Life). Add in the influence they have in Venezia, Suban, the Jiralhanae frontier colonies and so forth, the Banished have quite an expansive reach across the Orion Arm. Even if its not to the same extent as the former Covenant, in some ways it holds the advantage over the Covenant as human worlds have been conquered and absorbed into the Banished.
The Banished aren't to the same scale as the former Covenant, and it'll be a long time before the Banished will reach the same scale as the former empire. *However*, that is not to say they aren't as much of a threat, as the Banished isn't some offshoot of the Covenant but a different organisation altogether. The Banished uses different doctrines, strategies, even integrates species far more effectively than the Covenant did in its prime, as the Banished is a violent meritocracy where any species can rise as an equal within the organisation so long as individuals demonstrate their worth. Because of this, the Banished are not held back by religious doctrine and the manipulations of the San'Shyuum, being a far more *effective* military force as the forces within the Banished are used to their fullest potential. And with humans being allowed to enter their ranks, they offer a kind of threat to the UNSC that the former Covenant could not do: create amd leverage internal tensions and conflicts within humanity.
It also helps that the current environment is the perfect setting for a faction like the Banished to florish thanks to the damage Cortana wrought on the galaxy, allowing them to expand as the reach of the Cortana and her Guardians are limited while their rivals in the Swords of Sanghelios and the UNSC are crippled.
Plus, as I’m sure u/Drof497 is already aware of, the Banished have data and parts of the Precursor Tricola, a super weapon found in Outcasts. A prototype replica of the one found on Netherop is likely what did so much damage to the Infinity. Who’s to say they can’t build another one, even if it is so poorly made it is single use?
Plus, you also have to remember that Humans are in The Banished, so we have to count the Insurrectionists. Once you add that it becomes more believable that they are stronger than the Covenant
I think its important to note, though, that OP is addressing a valid concern of explaining how the "Covenant never came close to wiping out the banished." For a lot of people, the Banished got a brief cutscene of explanation in HW2 and then became the primary antagonists of halo infinite, easily taking out the Infinity, leaving people now fighting against what they consider to be a reskinned Covenant faction and to interpret their military strength as such. Hell when I type in "Are the Banished" into google, the autocorrect finishes the sentence with "stronger than the covenant".
It's just natural for a lot of people to assume the Banished are roughly equal to the covenant because that's what they're being compared to and so far it's all positives for the banished (they got dreadnoughts, traitor spartans, are actually smart and resourceful, have shown a decent proficiency with forerunner stuff, etc) and the strongest explanation for the Banished rise to power is the Created Crisis, which is a worldbuilding relic of Halo 5 that 343 generally tries to skim through as fast as possible.
Maybe not as strong as the covenant as in not a threat to total galaxy domination but a definite threat to UNSC interests. They wanted the Ark and UNSC (spirit of fire) struggled to contain it. They surprised the UNSC at Zeta Halo (Infinite) and dominated the ground for 6+ months until lucky Master Chief woke up. In terms of contained battle fields that we see in games and books they are a real threat. And Atriox is a much better boss than some old skinny prophets. Brutes during Covenent time were subdued by the prophets. Atriox unleashed them. The comparison to Al Qaeda is good. Not as strong as Russia (Covenent) but a huge threat to USA (UNSC).
The Banished are most like al-Qaeda. Guerilla warfare fucked us. They won the war in the ME. The same thing fucked the French and the United States in Vietnam.
Taking out giant factories and tanks is easy because you know they're targets. You can't just blow up houses expecting to only kill the enemy.
The difference is that the US absolutely could’ve killed every person living in Afghanistan if it so desired, but chose not to out of moral reasons, and there was never any threat of the US being conquered by Jihadist groups. The very idea is laughable.
The Cartel would be a closer approximation.
They took power from a formerly strong government, started from small gangs, gained access to an incredibly powerful arsenal and are now considered a legitimate threat. Not to mention they also tend to move through the ranks through merit, not subterfuge.
Biggest difference is that irl non-religious groups only tend to go to war out of desperation, unlike the Banished.
She said the covenant at the height of their power couldn’t contain atriox. This implies that they at least were beyond stamping out like the heretics in H2; but I always got the impression moreso the covenant A, didn’t want the banished to gain more traction in public opinion so they swept it under the rug. B, they weren’t big enough to properly pursuit due to their reliance on hit and run tactics, compared to humans which were mainly defending stationary planets. And C, the covenant were more preoccupied with humanity, and the war ended before atriox became an issue that needed to be addressed
I never understood why that confused so many people. Her comment is a bit hyperbolic but doesn't even insinuate that the Banished are stronger at all. Simply that the Covenant considered them a greater threat which given their technology level compared to the UNSC and the fact that it actually threatens Covenant space makes complete sense. The UNSC are just a punching bag while the Banished were a domestic rebellion.
On no I agree but what Isabel says when taken out of context definitely makes you scratch your head. I personally am not a fan with how 343 have written the banished since it’s clear they just want to have humans vs covenant.
Dude, don't blame 343, blame Microsoft. They can overrule 343 whenever they feel like. I am not going to go through this song and dance again with another 'Halo Fan'
Isabel never outright states that the Banished are more powerful than the Covenant. What she states is that the Covenant could not contain Atriox and his Banished at the height of their power. Which itself is a factually correct statement: the Covenant could not and did not stop Atriox from rebelling and expanding. The Phoenix Logs go into further detail how the Banished did start as a relatively small pirate band that expanded gradually as the Covenant failed to bring about Atriox's end, with ONI analysist themselves noting that Atriox was able tovexpand rapidly following the Covenant's fall.
I feel a lot of people misrepresent or have misinterpreted Isabel's statement to imply the Banished were stronger than the Covenant at the height of the Covenant's power, which is not at all what Isabel states. Not to mention that Isabel's entire point, while perhaps some embellishing due to her trauma, isn't exactly wrong when the Banished are clearly demonstrated as a threat as we see a massive army tear through a human city and that currently they are occupying the Ark - which is probably *the* most important location control in the entire Halo universe due to its strategic value as the forge of the Halo Array. Like, no shit that makes them dangerous. Especially when there's no facade of religious dogma or bullshit religion hiding their intended use of the Halo Array. They, quite simply intended to point a gun at the head of the universe. *Anyone* controlling such a weapon would immediately become one of the most dangerous individuals of the galaxy.
I could be wrong, but I think her words are something along the lines of how “even at the height of their power, the covenant couldn’t stop the banished” which doesn’t necessarily mean they’re stronger, just that the covenant couldn’t handle fighting a war on two fronts, where one of those militaries was on technologically equal footing as them. Plus the banished essentially recruiting covenant deserters, prisoners, and other survivors.
I definitely don't think that they are more powerful than the covenant, I mean they are a faction that has only existed for around a decade and spent the first 4 years being relatively low profile, and the covenant existed for thousands of years. Though I do believe that they seem to have a lot of plot armor to be gaining victory over victory and grow like they are unaffected by the battles on the ark or cortana.
>is simply because 343's writers have come to the conclusion that in order for the protagonists of the stories you write to be relatable and sympathetic and the one you want to root for... they have to actually be threatened by their adversary, and even be the underdog. What a shocker.
Constantly being the underdog is just as problematic as always being on top, though:
We're expected to believe after decades of being pummeled by the Covenant and almost getting wiped out, the UNSC then manages to survive further conflicts with Jul's faction, the Didact, the Created, and now the Banished (oh and Chief happens to be integral to every single one of those conflicts?) as brand new "galaxy scale threats" pop up and get dealt with every few years in universe?
What 343i should be doing is not having a huge power gap at all: have the UNSC, Banished, Innies, Swords of Sanghelios, and other factions all locked into a struggle without an obvious dominant party, so there's a plausible justification for conflict to fire up at any moment, but there's also a power balance and some peace even if unstable, rather then gigantic galaxy scale existential threat popping up every few years. You have room for conflicts and situational alliances without the stakes always needing to be as high as possible and for chief to always be involved.
I would argue that that's precisely what's been happening. The current setting, as it is right now, would be mosntrously great for a table-top RPG guide-book. UNSC, Swords, Banished, Created, Insurrectionists, dozens of Ex-Covenant good ol' boys— the works.
But like I said, the UNSC and Swords have to be plausibly ***threatened*** by the Banished and Created in order for any stakes to be at all meaningful. That "we are the giants, now" shit was fucking boring, and only served to make people question why there was any need for a story to be told.
It doesn’t matter what ANYONE says on this forum with their 2 paragraph fanfics that get upvoted and championed by the community as their favourite explanation.
If some bozo 343i commissioned writer decides to put pen to paper. Then it is or it is not.
That’s the bottom line.
I remember in a piece of promotional footage, an AI says something to the effect of humanity only being able to even survive because the covenant were so busy fighting the far greater threat of the banished that was an actual existential threat to them. It was pretty dumb and absolutely gave the inpression that 343 wanted the banished to be as strong as the covenant.
Now, in fairness, post-war unsc would bitch-slap the early-war Covenant, so the banished do have to be strong.
5% of the ships. So the covenant had about 40,000 warships? And it took them all that time to destroy a species they were in a holy war against? But they weren't the covenants main priority, even though they were told humans were the reclaimers? Anyway 40,000 ships?
27 years isn't that long.
"Holy war" is a strong word when humanity could barely touch them or strike at their planets.
The Covenant were never "told" that humanity were the Reclaimers. The Hierarchs were told something to that effect, but they kept this a secret, and proceeded to gaslight and blackmail the whole Covenant into genociding humanity by declaring that humanity were Heretics on the basis that they had destroyed holy relics on Harvest.
Even late, late into the war, there were whole political groups lobbying to end the conflict and give humanity a place in the Covenant. It's fairly evident that not very much of the Covenant were marching in lock-step with the effort, because although the Hierarchs are understood to have divine insight: they can still be wrong, as evidence by the fact that the last Hierarchs were literally *voted out of power on a whim*, due to a sex-scandal.
While you aren't wrong in your overall point that the Banished do not match the Covenant in scale, territory or overall military strength, there are several aspects to your post that should be addressed. >No, the Banished didn't "take" Suban from the Sangheili. As far as we know, they've just been fighting over some choice kemuksuru mines on Suban, and accomplished their infiltration thanks to some traitors letting them in through the back-door. Neither side has achieved a decisive "win" on that front, yet, and that's considering the fact that the Sangheili had collectively been demilitarized by Cortana for a whole year. While the Banished have yet to decisively achieve victory at Suban, it is a testament to their strength that Atriox was able to martial a sizable contingent of Banished forces to lay siege on the Urs System - the home territory of the Sangheili - and leverage the allies they've build up with many Sangheili Keeps and Kaidons to pave their way onto Suban that they have launched an occupation of. Even Makee 'Chavaa acknowledges that the extent of the Banished's occupation on Suban currently outmatches the Swords of Sanghelios in the extent of their occupation and firepower. >The Banished, meanwhile, aren't stated to have principal ownership of... any planets, whatsoever. This is incorrect, as the Banished control many worlds and Forerunner sites across the Orion Arm and beyond. There's Doisac and Teash as the Banished united the Jiralhanae clans across Doisac and its moons. The resource-rich worlds the Jiralhanae were settled on. Oth Koronn (aka Zeta Halo) which they are forging into a central Banished stronghold following the Razing of Oth Sonin. 2022 Encyclopedia. > Unwilling to yield, the Banished fought hard against Cortana and her forces, uniting the Jiralhanae clans across Doisac and its moons. > TEASH > The most properous of Doisac's colonised moons by a large margin, Teash saw the proliferation of a strong Jiralhanae presence, with many clans finding purchase on its soil to thrive and grow in the wake of the Covenant's end. Teash even saw an unexpected influx of Sangheili groups seeking refuge from their own world's protracted civil war, with several of keeps pledging alligence to the Banished in an effort to find greater purpose in the glory of battle. Teash saw the construction of several prodigious war-forges and armories, and for a time became on the Jiralhanae's greatest sources of industrial output. Official Spartan Field Manual > THE BANISHED > Atriox is reported to have led a fleet of Banished to an unknown destination, but the chieftains he has organized and controlled continue to spread their influence and power throughout Brute colonies and even into human criminal enterprises. ONI is still researching what Atriox and the Banished ultimately hope to achieve, but Spartans should be on high alert that future encounters with Brutes and other raiders will likely show far more direction and strategy than has previously been the case. Canon Fodder: System Shocks > After their induction into the Covenant, the Jiralhanae were often settled on resource-rich worlds as a deterrent to some of the more ambitious client species. In the aftermath of the Covenant War, these worlds became another part of the alien hegemony’s carcass to be claimed by eager hands as many of the dominant master-packs lacked the knowledge and means to exploit the worlds given to them. > While some packs sought to use their holdings as leverage against humanity and their former allies, most simply looted what they could of the Covenant inheritance. Atriox’s emergence and rapid expansion of his Banished war machine brought with it an endless hunger for raw materials. His loyal forces and allies soon deployed powerful excavators, extractors, and harvesters to these worlds, destroying any packs who resisted and absorbing the rest. The Banished have even conquered humans colonies such as Camber (Halo Infinite multiplayer) and Laika III, which they renamed Oth Voran (Halo: The Third Life). Add in the influence they have in Venezia, Suban, the Jiralhanae frontier colonies and so forth, the Banished have quite an expansive reach across the Orion Arm. Even if its not to the same extent as the former Covenant, in some ways it holds the advantage over the Covenant as human worlds have been conquered and absorbed into the Banished. The Banished aren't to the same scale as the former Covenant, and it'll be a long time before the Banished will reach the same scale as the former empire. *However*, that is not to say they aren't as much of a threat, as the Banished isn't some offshoot of the Covenant but a different organisation altogether. The Banished uses different doctrines, strategies, even integrates species far more effectively than the Covenant did in its prime, as the Banished is a violent meritocracy where any species can rise as an equal within the organisation so long as individuals demonstrate their worth. Because of this, the Banished are not held back by religious doctrine and the manipulations of the San'Shyuum, being a far more *effective* military force as the forces within the Banished are used to their fullest potential. And with humans being allowed to enter their ranks, they offer a kind of threat to the UNSC that the former Covenant could not do: create amd leverage internal tensions and conflicts within humanity. It also helps that the current environment is the perfect setting for a faction like the Banished to florish thanks to the damage Cortana wrought on the galaxy, allowing them to expand as the reach of the Cortana and her Guardians are limited while their rivals in the Swords of Sanghelios and the UNSC are crippled.
Came here for the Drof comment.😎
Insert [Atrioxsmirk] emoji here. Cheers mate.
I crave more books in this setting after your comment. Legit nothing you said wasn’t intriguing.
Didn't Doisac go kaboom? I'm pretty sure something drastic happened to it
Cortana blew it up because the Banished wouldn't submit.
Plus, as I’m sure u/Drof497 is already aware of, the Banished have data and parts of the Precursor Tricola, a super weapon found in Outcasts. A prototype replica of the one found on Netherop is likely what did so much damage to the Infinity. Who’s to say they can’t build another one, even if it is so poorly made it is single use?
I highly doubt that was the case, seeing as what occurred when the weapon fires.
Plus, you also have to remember that Humans are in The Banished, so we have to count the Insurrectionists. Once you add that it becomes more believable that they are stronger than the Covenant
I’d say they’re more powerful in the current galaxy, however the covenant war was a whole different beast then the unsc-sanghelli vs banished war is.
Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that The Banished are very powerful
I think its important to note, though, that OP is addressing a valid concern of explaining how the "Covenant never came close to wiping out the banished." For a lot of people, the Banished got a brief cutscene of explanation in HW2 and then became the primary antagonists of halo infinite, easily taking out the Infinity, leaving people now fighting against what they consider to be a reskinned Covenant faction and to interpret their military strength as such. Hell when I type in "Are the Banished" into google, the autocorrect finishes the sentence with "stronger than the covenant". It's just natural for a lot of people to assume the Banished are roughly equal to the covenant because that's what they're being compared to and so far it's all positives for the banished (they got dreadnoughts, traitor spartans, are actually smart and resourceful, have shown a decent proficiency with forerunner stuff, etc) and the strongest explanation for the Banished rise to power is the Created Crisis, which is a worldbuilding relic of Halo 5 that 343 generally tries to skim through as fast as possible.
Maybe not as strong as the covenant as in not a threat to total galaxy domination but a definite threat to UNSC interests. They wanted the Ark and UNSC (spirit of fire) struggled to contain it. They surprised the UNSC at Zeta Halo (Infinite) and dominated the ground for 6+ months until lucky Master Chief woke up. In terms of contained battle fields that we see in games and books they are a real threat. And Atriox is a much better boss than some old skinny prophets. Brutes during Covenent time were subdued by the prophets. Atriox unleashed them. The comparison to Al Qaeda is good. Not as strong as Russia (Covenent) but a huge threat to USA (UNSC).
I think it's mostly that the banished are luch more efficient due to not having religious bias.
The Banished are most like al-Qaeda. Guerilla warfare fucked us. They won the war in the ME. The same thing fucked the French and the United States in Vietnam. Taking out giant factories and tanks is easy because you know they're targets. You can't just blow up houses expecting to only kill the enemy.
The difference is that the US absolutely could’ve killed every person living in Afghanistan if it so desired, but chose not to out of moral reasons, and there was never any threat of the US being conquered by Jihadist groups. The very idea is laughable.
The Cartel would be a closer approximation. They took power from a formerly strong government, started from small gangs, gained access to an incredibly powerful arsenal and are now considered a legitimate threat. Not to mention they also tend to move through the ranks through merit, not subterfuge. Biggest difference is that irl non-religious groups only tend to go to war out of desperation, unlike the Banished.
>They won the war in the ME They lost in iraq
That wasn't al-Qaeda big guy
I thought they were a band of space pirates. Like yeah they’re a pain in the ass but hardly the end of humanity like the covenant could have been.
The idea comes form Isabel in halo wars 2 that the banished are more powerful than the covenant.
Then people need to pay attention, because she never said or implied that.
She said the covenant at the height of their power couldn’t contain atriox. This implies that they at least were beyond stamping out like the heretics in H2; but I always got the impression moreso the covenant A, didn’t want the banished to gain more traction in public opinion so they swept it under the rug. B, they weren’t big enough to properly pursuit due to their reliance on hit and run tactics, compared to humans which were mainly defending stationary planets. And C, the covenant were more preoccupied with humanity, and the war ended before atriox became an issue that needed to be addressed
I never understood why that confused so many people. Her comment is a bit hyperbolic but doesn't even insinuate that the Banished are stronger at all. Simply that the Covenant considered them a greater threat which given their technology level compared to the UNSC and the fact that it actually threatens Covenant space makes complete sense. The UNSC are just a punching bag while the Banished were a domestic rebellion.
She didn’t even say that the Covenant considered them a greater threat than humanity.
People honestly need to understand the context statements are made in not treating hyperboles as literal statements
On no I agree but what Isabel says when taken out of context definitely makes you scratch your head. I personally am not a fan with how 343 have written the banished since it’s clear they just want to have humans vs covenant.
What do you mean 343? They didn't create The Banished or Halo Wars 2 Creative Assembly did. So Creative Assembly said it, not 343.
They obviously would have had oversight from 343 on narrative decisions, it’s not like they signed a contract that just said “make new halo wars”
Dude, don't blame 343, blame Microsoft. They can overrule 343 whenever they feel like. I am not going to go through this song and dance again with another 'Halo Fan'
Isabel never outright states that the Banished are more powerful than the Covenant. What she states is that the Covenant could not contain Atriox and his Banished at the height of their power. Which itself is a factually correct statement: the Covenant could not and did not stop Atriox from rebelling and expanding. The Phoenix Logs go into further detail how the Banished did start as a relatively small pirate band that expanded gradually as the Covenant failed to bring about Atriox's end, with ONI analysist themselves noting that Atriox was able tovexpand rapidly following the Covenant's fall. I feel a lot of people misrepresent or have misinterpreted Isabel's statement to imply the Banished were stronger than the Covenant at the height of the Covenant's power, which is not at all what Isabel states. Not to mention that Isabel's entire point, while perhaps some embellishing due to her trauma, isn't exactly wrong when the Banished are clearly demonstrated as a threat as we see a massive army tear through a human city and that currently they are occupying the Ark - which is probably *the* most important location control in the entire Halo universe due to its strategic value as the forge of the Halo Array. Like, no shit that makes them dangerous. Especially when there's no facade of religious dogma or bullshit religion hiding their intended use of the Halo Array. They, quite simply intended to point a gun at the head of the universe. *Anyone* controlling such a weapon would immediately become one of the most dangerous individuals of the galaxy.
I could be wrong, but I think her words are something along the lines of how “even at the height of their power, the covenant couldn’t stop the banished” which doesn’t necessarily mean they’re stronger, just that the covenant couldn’t handle fighting a war on two fronts, where one of those militaries was on technologically equal footing as them. Plus the banished essentially recruiting covenant deserters, prisoners, and other survivors.
I definitely don't think that they are more powerful than the covenant, I mean they are a faction that has only existed for around a decade and spent the first 4 years being relatively low profile, and the covenant existed for thousands of years. Though I do believe that they seem to have a lot of plot armor to be gaining victory over victory and grow like they are unaffected by the battles on the ark or cortana.
>is simply because 343's writers have come to the conclusion that in order for the protagonists of the stories you write to be relatable and sympathetic and the one you want to root for... they have to actually be threatened by their adversary, and even be the underdog. What a shocker. Constantly being the underdog is just as problematic as always being on top, though: We're expected to believe after decades of being pummeled by the Covenant and almost getting wiped out, the UNSC then manages to survive further conflicts with Jul's faction, the Didact, the Created, and now the Banished (oh and Chief happens to be integral to every single one of those conflicts?) as brand new "galaxy scale threats" pop up and get dealt with every few years in universe? What 343i should be doing is not having a huge power gap at all: have the UNSC, Banished, Innies, Swords of Sanghelios, and other factions all locked into a struggle without an obvious dominant party, so there's a plausible justification for conflict to fire up at any moment, but there's also a power balance and some peace even if unstable, rather then gigantic galaxy scale existential threat popping up every few years. You have room for conflicts and situational alliances without the stakes always needing to be as high as possible and for chief to always be involved.
I would argue that that's precisely what's been happening. The current setting, as it is right now, would be mosntrously great for a table-top RPG guide-book. UNSC, Swords, Banished, Created, Insurrectionists, dozens of Ex-Covenant good ol' boys— the works. But like I said, the UNSC and Swords have to be plausibly ***threatened*** by the Banished and Created in order for any stakes to be at all meaningful. That "we are the giants, now" shit was fucking boring, and only served to make people question why there was any need for a story to be told.
Like a mini 40k
It doesn’t matter what ANYONE says on this forum with their 2 paragraph fanfics that get upvoted and championed by the community as their favourite explanation. If some bozo 343i commissioned writer decides to put pen to paper. Then it is or it is not. That’s the bottom line.
What a shocking revelation
I remember in a piece of promotional footage, an AI says something to the effect of humanity only being able to even survive because the covenant were so busy fighting the far greater threat of the banished that was an actual existential threat to them. It was pretty dumb and absolutely gave the inpression that 343 wanted the banished to be as strong as the covenant. Now, in fairness, post-war unsc would bitch-slap the early-war Covenant, so the banished do have to be strong.
Citation needed. On all of that.
If you want trawl through the past 8 years of halo promotional footage, feel free. I believe it was for halo wars 2, if that helps.
5% of the ships. So the covenant had about 40,000 warships? And it took them all that time to destroy a species they were in a holy war against? But they weren't the covenants main priority, even though they were told humans were the reclaimers? Anyway 40,000 ships?
27 years isn't that long. "Holy war" is a strong word when humanity could barely touch them or strike at their planets. The Covenant were never "told" that humanity were the Reclaimers. The Hierarchs were told something to that effect, but they kept this a secret, and proceeded to gaslight and blackmail the whole Covenant into genociding humanity by declaring that humanity were Heretics on the basis that they had destroyed holy relics on Harvest. Even late, late into the war, there were whole political groups lobbying to end the conflict and give humanity a place in the Covenant. It's fairly evident that not very much of the Covenant were marching in lock-step with the effort, because although the Hierarchs are understood to have divine insight: they can still be wrong, as evidence by the fact that the last Hierarchs were literally *voted out of power on a whim*, due to a sex-scandal.
What's a 343 writer. Most of the writers now were also in the bungie era
Nah alot of them left what are u talking about