#forthencho

[bloodgulchblog]

The best thing Forthencho did as a character was tell us how homoerotically warrior horny he was for the Didact, change my mind.

[monitorchakas]

Every fucking time I download a picture of this man, my photo gallery preview crops it perfectly on his "more than a little exaggerated genitalia" - primordium

Im almost convinced Forthencho hacked my phone and is doing this on purpose

[wonderwafles]

Absolutely batshit things in Halo: Epitaph:

-The Warden Eternal dropkicking the Didact for several kilometers, where upon landing he is promptly beat up by a bunch of humans

-The Didact having secret parents who were rebels that were erased from his memory, basically giving him Jimmy Rings' backstory

-Haruspis being a caste of third-gender priests, all of whom were slurped up by the Domain after the Halos fired and turned, Voltron-style, into Skeletor-bot from Halo 5

-The Didact choking a Created AI out with his bare hands

-The Didact and Cortana having very uncomfortable and adversarial therapy sessions together

-Forthencho has a last name

-Yprin Yprikushma did not appear

-The Didact fighting the Warden with his Fucking Sword

Please add on if you think of more

[holyshonks]

Halo: Epitaph Review

You got that right! Spoilers below the cut.

I want to start by saying that this book felt like an apology in the same way that Infinite is an apology.

The first quarter to half of the book is just summarizing the events of the Forerunner trilogy, Halo 4, and Escalation, in the form of the Didact slowly regaining his memories. While I definitely appreciated the refresher (I forgot a lot since then), I also couldn't help but wonder who it was for. To anyone who had never engaged with any of that media, a huge amount of the book is just a rather dull recounting of events in a desert setting. To that end, the book feels targeted directly at people who love the Forerunner stories and were horrified by the hasty introduction and death of the Didact. It is, in essence:

"We're sorry we took a pivotal, beloved character with a rich story arc, introduced him to the fandom at large with zero context, and then killed him in a shitty comic. What if we did this instead?"

And is it an upgrade? Well, let's see.

The Plot

The plot of the book is that, after being super-composed (sigh), the Didact awakens in a strange desert, stripped of his memories. He slowly regains them, becoming stronger in both body and mind. He is angry at humanity, and is determined to destroy them. We get caught up with the story so far, as well as some new Didact backstory. He discovers a Haruspis, a Forerunner rate that served as custodians to the Domain, who tells him that they are outside the dormant Domain, which shut down after the Halos were fired. Forerunner souls cannot pass into it anymore because of this, including the Didact. Also, Cortana is there, trying to convince the Warden Eternal, who is guarding the Domain, to let her in. The book becomes about both foiling Cortana, who wants the Domain to herself, and killing the Warden Eternal so that the Domain can be reactivated. Lots of failed attempts, some arguing with Cortana. Along the way, he runs into other souls who are trapped outside the Domain, including, to his surprise, his old enemy, Forthencho. He explains that humans that were composed also come here. They scuffle. Didact gets punched a bunch.

Eventually the Warden sides with Cortana and allows her in the Domain, and she looses her Created upon it. The Didact makes another attempt to enter, and kills some AIs while he's at it, including this one, who has a wine mom personality that I found amusing.

Now we're in the last quarter of the book, where things start to get interesting. All the while, the Warden is chasing the Didact with his millions of forms across the Domain, leading to a Scooby-Doo-style villain chase where the Didact is throwing himself through portals and doors to evade him and eventually find Cortana. By this point, the Didact has softened and he no longer wants vengeance. There's no discussion of the Xalanyn, which I was hoping for. In a moment I don't agree with, the Didact tries to reason with Cortana and says some things that clearly rattle her before he takes his leave. Next, the final standoff with the Warden, with the help of the friends the Didact made in the desert.

The thing I liked about the last portion of the book is that it finally feels the way the Forerunner trilogy felt: a universe that felt endless and expansive, but also, a classic coming-of-age with unlikely allies. In fact, just as I thought that, the book said this:

It also had that familiar thread of silliness, such as the Didact clowning on Haruspis' hat, and during the last final battle, where, after acquiring a quantum sword, the Didact learns that the Warden has a larger, better quantum sword.

They fight, Didact wins, hooray. He reactivates the Domain and he and Forthencho make a wager to see who can get rid of the most AIs that are still in the Domain. In addition, human souls(?) can now access the Domain. However, as expected, the Didact's final action is to reunite with his wife.

The Thoughts

This book is essentially just a re-write of the Didact's ending, giving him a proper close that I didn't really realize I wanted or needed, but actually? I missed the Didact. I liked the Didact, a lot, something I kind of forgot after Halo 4. I also forgot how nice it is to read from the perspective of a Forerunner with context about the tech. Most of what we see in Halo are people marveling at the mystery of Forerunner objects. Here, the Didact knows exactly what he's looking at, which was refreshing.

This book was very much written for lore-loving Halo fans who were disappointed to see how he was killed off. It had to be, because the people who only play the games wouldn't know who he is, or the stupid way he died. On the other hand, that makes this book pretty dull for the uninitiated. I would not recommend this book to a newcomer.

Cortana absolutely did not need to be in this book. Not in the slightest. It seems like they were just trying to further entrench Eviltana to account for Infinite, while also finding a way to get rid of her army of AIs. I really didn't like the implication in the book that Cortana changed her mind about taking over the galaxy because of the Didact. One of the things I actually liked in Infinite is that Cortana realized that her actions were wrong, and tried to make up for it on her own accord. Having the Didact convince her of the error of her ways really cheapens this moment.

The other thing that kind of fell flat is the Didact's belief that his new calling is to forge his own path:

But that's not true. This choice was the Librarian's, who wanted him to forgive and learn from humanity all along. He, of all people, should know this.

Now, about the Librarian. The Great Manipulator. There's irony in the fact that she is ostensibly the character with the most agency in the entire universe, but is consistently a narrative wisp. She "is" Halo--the course of the universe as they know it unfurled from her plans. Everything that happens, happens because of her.

And yet, we never see or hear from her in any meaningful way. We never hear her story from her mouth. I already knew that she wouldn't appear, save for a big reveal at the end, because Halo novels have done this no less than twice before. It's frustrating to see her consistently presented as this ethereal figure with no real voice.

At least in Point of Light, Spark challenges her a little bit--he accuses her of manipulating him, of abandoning him and then asking for his help, of assuming he will assist her because of her imprinted influence, and ultimately, he does, because that's how powerful she is. I wanted to see some of that, to have the Didact call her out or even just disagree with her, a little. Instead, he spends the book yearning for her (I will concede that his flashbacks are a little cute, alright? You got me there).

The Librarian is complex. She's a hero and a villain. Everyone who knew her would tell you so. But you'll never hear it from her! Sigh.

Also, her choice of words: "Took you long enough, Warrior." Is that a reference to Halsey in Halo 5? We're really drawing that parallel??

To the original question of "What if we did this instead":?

I mean...I prefer the Didact "alive" than dead so, yes? I guess? You really can't be a Halo fan in 2024 without being very forgiving.

In the end, he's still essentially "checked out" making it clear that he's not going to meddle in mortal affairs anymore. So narratively, he's dead. But yeah fine, this kind of dead is better than being super-composed.

The book also slams the door on the (very huge) implications of humans being allowed in the Domain. Is it all humans? Only composed humans? The Forerunners rose to power because of their access to the Domain. Does that mean that humanity will--oh, sorry. Oh, sorry, what? The Domain is fading into obscurity? We're not telling anyone its open so we don't have to deal with that? Got it.

This point also made me laugh because the Didact is satisfied and resting on his laurels because adding humans to the Domain created "diversity", and therefore, balance. Hey, Didact? There's an entire galaxy of intelligent species out there??

Which begs one final question: Do Unggoy go to heaven?

[halo-smashorpass]

Should I even say propaganda for this guy? Go ask Chakas he can tell you 🤭

[faecaptainofdreams]

One of the most haunting and subtle details of Halo: Primordium has to be how when Chakas lands on the ring, he thinks “This is how a dead man feels.” But he’s wrong. He lived. But then later right before he died, right as he lost consciousness he heard Forthencho say “This is how a dead man feels.”

And Forthencho was right…

[cappurrccino]

the fact that forthencho has died and is still obsessed with nothing more than destroying the forerunners, like bud! the primordial and the flood are not trustworthy, holy shit

[monitorchakas]

What's he playing?

I know who he's playing with (Forthencho, duh)

Do you think the Librarian is supportive of her gamer husband?

Fuck it. Didact in his gamer chair

[aauditor]

HaloFollower was already invalid but on that day I witnessed him pronounce “Forthencho” like that, he was pronounced triple invalid

[bloodgulchblog]

Forthencho has been dead for 100,000 slutty, slutty years

[artofaauditor]

LORD OF ADMIRALS FORTHENCHO

DEVIANTART | YOUTUBE

[monitorchakas]

Forthencho too

It makes me sad they white washed him in canon. Hes supposed to look like gamelpar

Why do so many people draw Chakas and Riser as white. Chakas was literally born and raised in prehistoric East Africa and Riser (Homo floresiensis) is from Indonesia. Every time someone draws these two as Europeans I should be allowed to whip them with a belt.

[cappurrccino]

Yprin: "And who are you?"

Fortencho: [rattles off his entire long title]

Yprin: "Ah, the guy that lost the entire war."

Forthencho: "........ Yeah. Well. Shut up."

[gamelpar]

so Forthencho was gay, right

[tlaquetzqui]

Agreed, Young Justice had like two and a half good seasons in it (the third season being only half good), and then went “or we could suck?”

I was just thinking, though, that it’s funny how everyone is constantly up in arms over “whitewashing”, but they ignore it when the subject is people who are older than light skin itself. The humans that fought the Forerunners in Halo are another: Forthencho the Lord of Admirals is depicted way too light, in the Halo 4 terminals. (The novels do get that right, describing him as dark-skinned.)

Come to think of it, shouldn’t Vandal Savage be dark skinned? He’s 50,000 years old. Nobody had light skin yet, not even Neanderthals.

[fengren-art]

It took far too much time but it’s finally done. Inspired by this beautiful art by @sembbo​.

​I also have Twitter (link in info) so if you like it, you can give it some attention there too 👀

And a little Halo lore thing:

Discovering Halo universe, I learned about ancient people who existed at the same times as the Forerunners. Their army was commanded by a man named Forthencho. This serious guy:

As you can see, he also has a war paint on his quite handsome face. So I thought, “Hmm… He was one of the coolest man in ancient human society, a soldier and a warrior and the placement and the pattern itself probably reflect it sooo what if I give Locus a similar pattern?”. And here we are. x)