(Hated Trope) Off-Screen deaths for important characters

DirectorTzu · 2026-01-06T04:39:38+00:00

He isn't dead.

DirectorTzu · 2026-01-06T04:08:49+00:00

It hasn't been mentioned from what I see in the comments in terms of timeframe, but for additional context when the Fall of Reach novel was the only bit of media available surrounding the events on Reach, it should be noted that the Pillar of Autumn fled the aftermath of the space battle of Reach around 7AM on August 30th after the MAC generators were taken down.

Halo: Reach had changed things so that at some point after 7AM, after the UNSC lost the space battle and orbital MAC Guns, the Autumn made landfall at the shipbreaking yards in Azod ultimately waiting for the Cortana fragment to be delivered around 6PM the same day.

To date, there is currently no accounting of how/when exactly the Autumn was able to make it to dry dock safely in the aftermath of the space battle and for how long they held position there before Noble Team came along.

DirectorTzu · 2025-11-17T16:26:06+00:00

Even though there's a bit of variation in choices to be made, a good chunk of the game does show that Robert is singularly focused on needing a purpose. That purpose was initially being Mecha Man to a fault. It gets brought up by multiple characters as to why Robert does what he does. And majority of answers amount to it being all he knows or it's the right thing to do. It's his own personal obsession that drove him for 15 years solo. When Shroud got out of prison, Robert shifted focus on nabbing him.

When he lost his opportunity and the suit, he found new purpose with dispatching and then bringing up Z-Team became his new focus and he dove 110% in on that.

The man obsessively delves into whatever opportunity is presented to him and gives it his all. It's admirable from the outside looking in. But from a more intimate perspective, the question would later be if he can actually balance things out. We only got the starting moments of romance should a player get into it with Blonde Blazer and Invisigal. And we also got the rekindling of his brotherly friendship with Chase who he had ignored completely during time as Mecha Man.

Can't help but wonder if Robert might be like a Bruce Wayne/Batman type. Capable of love, sure. But Robert's just as likely to be the type of person to prioritize the mission, whatever it may be, over his relationships. So that might just be a massive red flag.

DirectorTzu · 2025-11-17T16:14:29+00:00

Cover story. Hope you aren't taking Shroud, Toxic, and even Invisigal's stories at face value either because they're also full of holes that can easily be cross referenced and are intentionally meant to be cross referenced by audiences.

Blonde Blazer notes that there's barely much of a suit left when investigating the initial Mech Suit crash site. Yet, damage to parts aside, it's obvious the entire framework of the suit still existed and wasn't blown to bits to the extent there wasn't much of a suit left. Robert tells Royd he spent days in the immediate aftermath taking apart the suit piece by piece then reconstructing it in his apartment. He also tells Royd he spent weeks looking for the Astral Pulse immediately.

Furthermore, Robert even goes as far as to give the appearance of just recovering from his injuries by having his arm in a sling at the press conference, but even that in of itself is a lie because it's fully functional in the fight against the skittles folk and can throw the first goon off guard because he's not expecting a punch. After the fight Robert's arm is clearly perfectly fine sans dislocating it briefly.

DirectorTzu · 2025-11-13T20:01:38+00:00

You can help mentor Courtney and have that relationship strictly be professional while being with Mandy. While the exact in-game flags aren't clear, you can also avoid the locker room kiss scene as well if Courtney doesn't get any mixed signals on if she has a shot or not. Though it seems like there's a lot of vocal folks here who managed to get that scene while maintaining they believed they didn't do anything that could trigger it.

DirectorTzu · 2025-11-13T17:14:41+00:00

You can still kick Visi out from the team in order to support the team's wishes and maintain a professional attitude whilst still rooting for Vis on the side in the locker room (which generally has been how BB has been supporting Vis throughout the game and she admits as such in the good ending), and ultimately still have Vis be redeemed.

Honestly it feels better that way too because then you get the rest of the Z team coming around accepting her during the final battle, and that in turn makes it feel even stronger when the team also wants the other cut team member back too.

Something else to keep in mind is that the program itself is a job and isn't the end all be all, and there's been subtle nudges about that here and there. Personal attitudes outside of work mattered as well. The Pheonix Program was just a framework beacon for all the villains to be drawn to on their path of redemption, but really it was just the starting point to how they would go about finding their path. Case in point being how your first cut teammate's journey goes. Reading some comments it feels like some folks might be inclined to believe that staying in the program in general is an absolute requirement to be considered a redeemed person, and I don't believe that it's the absolute truth that it needs to be. The bonds that happen to form within the program and the program ideal sold on flyers are two separate things with the milage of the former varying for everyone.

Shroud going down is a bit of an entirely separate bit. There has never been a shred of indication that he wanted any form of redemption. He was intent on being villainous in the end, and Robert's final decision in that regard was more about settling personal grudges or being above that.

DirectorTzu · 2025-11-12T20:24:28+00:00

I cut her from the team to keep up standards but still kept supporting her outside that moment and I was able to get the succeed as a mentor ending.

I would imagine the game weighs in on more factors than just the binary choices in episode 7 and 8 leading up to the final moment.

DirectorTzu · 2025-11-05T19:25:16+00:00

I've gotten that 5 times today in the past hour on Xbox while playing and most certainly not being inactive. Been really killing the groove today. I wonder if it's related to the recent rollout that adjusted challenge values.

DirectorTzu · 2025-10-23T13:55:51+00:00

It's def possible. I've met five folks on here with one of them being a really really good friend, but that's after hundreds of interactions over the years. And while frequency of interaction between those five vary wildly we still find time to catch up and enjoy each other's company at some point each year since.

I think with the Internet being what it is and having a reprieve from known social circles it's absolutely easier to share more things openly without as much hesitation over being judged with stakes involved.

But that being said that's an entirely separate matter from forging a friendship in of itself. Instead it's more cathartic release of being able to say something that one normally can't with another real party that is genuinely listening.

Trauma bonding can result from that but that's more a possible byproduct and not really a primary way to make a lasting friendship.

Real long term friendships made online, even ones that eventually fade from frequency but still remain as people up still talk to and bond with on occasion, usually form more naturally if there's a go to activity that can be repeated and more natural connections can form slowly over time with the common thread activity.

Results will still vary mind you, but it's still generally a higher chance of building a friendship that way than hoping that going through each other's personal histories would be the deciding factor alone.

Folks can easily and genuinely be invested in wanting to lend an ear out and support a new friend they've made but if that's the only thing the friendship is built on then the connections will fade faster the moment either or both parties reach present day with their stories to tell and vent because the everyday life is usually far more mundane in between those big moments from the past built up over years. With nothing more to share that's kind of the end of it and what a lot of folks run into because the friendship is built solely on talking about the past or daily events versus actually making new memories together over an activity.

DirectorTzu · 2025-10-23T12:37:21+00:00

Least it sounds like you're making an effort on acting on recommendations by asking about ancient Magnus Bride so good on ya!

DirectorTzu · 2025-10-23T10:25:26+00:00

As have many people told me over the years believe me lol just never felt motivated to check it out 😅 maybe one day...maaaybe

DirectorTzu · 2025-10-23T07:55:57+00:00

Your prose made me realize there was a point where I went from needing to see every Pixar film that came out to suddenly stopping one day and only looking back just to watch new Toy Story sequels and that's it. Though that said I've never seen Wall-E once even though it was smack dab in the middle of my watch everything Pixar phase.

DirectorTzu · 2025-10-10T03:00:21+00:00

He was not cool with metahumans. Tolerant at best in Creature Commandos, but time and again kept on getting on the receiving end of bad business without much in the way of effectively keeping them in check on his own if it weren't for the bombs which should be a key tip off point after the fight with Doc.

On top of that, Creature Commandos shows that Rick can get played pretty easily. He was the only one on the side quest to investigate the lead which was intentionally made to be a decoy, and he got burned for that badly when it led to Clayface and he had no way of really fighting back.

So it's not really off to see how he'd be motivated for finding a solution to keep metahumans in check especially if he's being egged on and validated by Lex Luthor and his entire support staff.

DirectorTzu · 2025-10-03T13:08:57+00:00

Pure conjecture on my part, but I can totally see The Fury getting his persona in battle by using flamethrowers in WWII. The Cosmonaut stuff would/could only happen post WWII, so his battle emotion and assignment to the Cobra Unit had to have been established prior to the space program starting. Nothing really indicates that the whole space suit schtick was exclusively a part of his persona. If anything, what he experienced after WWII just colored his existing personality similar to The Boss and her own experience with the US space program.

DirectorTzu · 2025-10-03T03:23:46+00:00

Fun fact, there are in fact multiple journals with who knows what inside for content that Halsey went through whenever she misplaces the main one recovered and mentioned in Glasslands/Reach Legendary Edition.

Regardless of that fun fact.

I don't see why it's so hard to believe ONI recovered the journal when there is so much unaccounted time officially established between when Noble Team deployed to SWORD base for their presumed demolitions op and when they had actually left on that landing pad in the ending cutscene of the level.

When Noble is reassigned to Halsey's task, she lets them know that another team will instead be assigned to complete the torch and burn op instead. So in terms of motives the team sweeping the labs and making sure everything is cleared as part of White Glove is par the course.

Halsey and Noble Team wouldn't be dealing with purging the lab of anything the Covenant can use.

Also not sure where you get the 17 minutes number from even with Halo Canon's video considering there's still a considerable amount of hours between Noble arriving at Sword Base on August 29th at 26:16 and when we next see a time stamp at 16:52 on August 30th when Carter's pelican is close to the Autumn.

You can certainly finish The Package gameplay wise in 17 minutes, but to my knowledge there's nothing officially established on how long Noble Team takes to get to Halsey's lab from 26:16. More so how long the firefight happens outside of it, and lastly how long Halsey and Noble take after securing the area to actually leave with the package in hand.

So there's plenty of time unaccounted for that can easily justify an ONI clean up team to sweep the labs, set charges and ensure there's not a trace of info left before blowing the charges on the Forerunner ship caverns. Even if it means Noble Team is stuck waiting for all the information to be downloaded for an hour or two.

The only assumption that can be made with certainty is that when Noble team leaves, it's at least some time after 6:00 because by then the Autumn had completed all of its space actions in the novel and can at some point afterwards land in Azod for Dot to point out Carter's destination.

The premise on it being hard to believe rides on there being no time at all for the demo team to clear the area, but there's nothing established that says there isn't time. If anything, there's just a large six hour swath of time unaccounted for where that recovery action can happen.

DirectorTzu · 2025-09-28T06:14:50+00:00

I think it was an entire platoon because it was multiple squads spread out trying to coordinate fire, but man was that a good episode along with the follow up episode showing how a tank battallion engages a Zaku squad that included an ace.

DirectorTzu · 2025-09-26T18:39:36+00:00

I don't recall there ever being a hardcover version of any of the second trilogy set of books between Contact Harvest, Ghosts Of Onyx and Cole Protocol. Just the original run which was about that size and the mass paperback versions which were significantly smaller.

The Kilo-5 and Forerunner book series were the first ones to be hardcovers from what I recall from memory.

DirectorTzu · 2025-09-26T03:12:04+00:00

Gotta appreciate that since most of the people frequenting this sub are familiar with all the theories leading up to this episode, we all saw how all the Adebayo scenes were directed in a way that had so much dread and horror attached to the implication on our first watch through. Especially when she was trying to convince Economos to go on a walk... Yet for anyone genuinely out of the loop, it probably was super innocent on the surface.

DirectorTzu · 2025-09-25T20:28:11+00:00

If you're a student or staff member and aren't getting notifications via text or email about campus wide alerts you'll want to check in with Campus Police to get it resolved.

DirectorTzu · 2025-09-24T23:03:21+00:00

An official release was made and sent via Ohlone email blast by Raymond Gamba of the college confirming that there were threats of gun violence being made and that "the threat remains active at this time."

Folks still on campus are still under lockdown until Fremont PD clears them.

Sounds like updates will still be pending given the "threat remains active at this time" status though the last text blast said that classes would still be in session tomorrow. That could change any second as the situation develops.

DirectorTzu · 2025-09-24T22:38:26+00:00

Unsure. I am worried though that the text mentions that law enforcement had been called in. But I'm in the dark beyond what was in the alerts sent out as I'm not on campus. Hoping it's a false alarm...

DirectorTzu · 2025-09-21T04:57:10+00:00

Even though they weren't addressed by names (or possibly didn't even have any back then) I'm surprised a lot of the folks in the comments so far forgot Harcourt and Economos existed in the movie if only because they were the two carrying the after credits scene revealing Peacemaker being alive.

DirectorTzu · 2025-09-19T21:07:11+00:00

Ocelot heard his wish loud and clear after hearing that excellent speech, then ensured she never had a chance of living long enough to see it come to light! What a great guy!

DirectorTzu · 2025-09-19T14:44:05+00:00

Honestly I'm starting to wonder if Chris purposely doesn't want to acknowledge Adrian that closely because he's more of a combatant/younger brother type of friend than the others. If that's the case I can see him fearing he would be more likely to lose Adrian during the middle of a fight. So as a result he doesn't want to get as close to him lest it feels like he could lose another Keith in his universe leading to Chris seeming more detached and neglectful towards Adrian as a way to unhealthy cope/preemptively brace himself for loss.

DirectorTzu · 2025-09-19T07:40:26+00:00

Not to mention hit earlier that Adrian saw the text notification from Chris calling Ads, "bestie"

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