I’m writing this one because Halo fans are notoriously awful at understanding basic aspects of storytelling like metaphor and allegory or the simple fact that gameplay is not representative of how Spartans or any of the equipment in the Halo universe would actually function.

I’m also writing it because the rest of you probably think that “games as literature” is a total meme (it probably still mostly is) but we’re gonna do it anyways.

When it comes to Halo: Reach, the questions that come up a lot are “Why did Noble 6 die in that industrial park? Did he1 try to get off the planet? Did he get ambushed? Why didn’t he stay at the Aszod Shipbreaking yard?”

The at first glance unsatisfactory answer is “the narrative demanded he die there” but this is deeper than it sounds and is foreshadowed at several narrative levels. There are many meta storytelling aspects of Halo: Reach and Bungie actually weaves these into the game quite cleverly.

Noble 6 was first introduced in the trailer “A Spartan Will Rise” in which Six is described as a “hyper lethal vector” and how “there is only one other Spartan with that designation” (Implying Master Chief). The backstory given to him largely describes him as a scalpel wielded by ONI for solo wetwork and black ops missions including a stint as a test pilot for a classified UNSC space superiority fighter program.

Crucially, when we first actually see Noble 6 interact with the rest of Noble Team, Carter tells him:

Fast forward to the end of Halo: Reach and Noble Team is about as done as this franchise is right now.

Jorge is dead. Teleported himself into oblivion with a third of a CSO-class supercarrier.

Kat is dead. Gunshot to the head from one of the Devoted Sentries.2

Jun is not dead. But Noble Six has every reason to assume he is given he’s headed deeper into Reach with Dr. Halsey and orders to kill her if she might be captured as the Covenant close the noose on the planet.

Carter is dead. Captain (technically Commander) goes down with the ship and he ran it down mid at a Scarab.

Emile is dead. Unnecessary celebration. One yard penalty. Energy sword through the chest.

Noble 6 may have been told “there is no “I” in Noble team” but there sure as hell is a me in that motherfucker and I am the last man standing.

Maybe Noble Six was going to attempt a shitty anabasis and get off of Reach3 but it’s very likely that was secondary to him trying to do what he does best and take as many alien freaks to hell with him.

If that was the case why not stay at the shipbreaking yards?

I’d wager he had a pretty good reason not to. There’s a good chance that the gun he used to make sure the Pillar of Autumn got off the planet isn’t going to have power for much longer. There’s also a good chance that the Covenant might just glass the facility rather than Leeroy Jenkins their way toward him again.

Either way he wouldn’t have gotten far. The level The Pillar of Autumn begins on August 30, 2552 at 16:52 and the epilogue of Lone Wolf begins on August 30, 2552 at 20:00. That leaves a little over three hours for the entirety of the level The Pillar of Autumn and however long it took for Six (presumably moving on foot) to make it to that industrial park where he made his final stand.

Enough about the stuff happening in the game, let’s move up one narrative level and talk about the story as it exists in our world.

We need to remember that Halo: Reach was Bungie’s last Halo game and they knew it. They made that entire game as a swan song to the franchise they had created and that playable epilogue is the capstone to it.

Every Halo game divides up it’s levels into “rally points” that use sequential NATO phonetic alphabet designators. These are also accompanied by “chapters” where the HUD fades out and title bars pop in with little quips. The most memorable of these is Halo: CE’s Two Betrayals where the title card of “The Gun Pointed at the Head of the Universe” follows the reveal of the Halo installations being a galaxy scale fumigator.

Notably, these quips often break the fourth wall and should not be interpreted as relevant to the narrative of the game itself. They should be interpreted as relevant to the narrative of the game as the player experiences it.

Lone Wolf, the epilogue of Halo: Reach begins with Noble Six assessing his surroundings as dust and ash fill the atmosphere from Covenant glassing operations and Covenant dropships begin circling his location like vultures. Gameplay begins and the player is presented with a title card.

If we load the level Lone Wolf from the main menu, it breaks breaks the trend of sequential designations for rally points in favor of “Rally Point Omega.”

“Rally Point Omega” isn’t a UNSC rally point for the scattered remnants of UNSC forces on Reach. Omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet for the last level in the last Halo game Bungie would ever make.

When the title card flashes, “There’ll be Another Time…” it is not Noble Six’s internal monologue.

It’s Bungie talking to you.

It’s Bungie telling you that this chapter is done but there’s always all the other memories they made for you.

Noble Six died in that industrial park because the narrative demanded that he die there. He died there because that’s where Bungie’s Halo died.

“Open Mid” is a phrase that originates in League of Legends solo queue. Opening a lane means the player will leave it entirely with no intention of returning, typically because they believe a victorious outcome in the current match is impossible.

The mid lane in League of Legends is a fulcrum, the most important lane and most important position.

Opening mid is an omen of defeat.

May 11, 2023: China’s victorious Bilibili Gaming poses onstage after victory against North America’s Cloud9. Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games.

In yet another unsurprising result, two North American teams have been decisively defeated by their Chinese adversaries. The venture capital backed Cloud9 fell 3-0 to JD Gaming, owned by the Chinese e-commerce website JD.com and Golden Guardians, a esports affiliate of the Golden State Warriors fell 3-0 to Bilibili Gaming, owned by the Shanghai based video sharing website Bilibili. 

This is not just a worrying trend, it is a standard occurrence. The last time a North American team won a single game against a Chinese team was 576 days ago (as of time of writing) with Team Liquid’s roster of three Europeans, one Korean, and one American. The last time a North American team won a series against a Chinese team was 1461 days ago with a different Team Liquid roster of two Europeans, two Koreans, and one American. Many American teams have significant financial backing with expansive support structures. They recruit players from across the world; Cloud9’s current active roster consists of one American, one European, one Australian, and two Koreans. Golden Guardians’ active roster consists of one American, one Canadian, and two Koreans.

May 17, 2019: North America’s Team Liquid poses onstage after victory against China’s Invictus Gaming, the last time a North American team has defeated a Chinese team in a Bo5 series. Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games.

You may dismiss this as nerds playing games but there are parallels that can be drawn to the United States on the global stage. In a great power conflict “nerds playing games” will be on the frontline, be it in technological innovation or as the controllers of advanced weapon systems. North American League of Legends teams may be owned and operated by Americans but our trigger pullers are overwhelmingly not American. Even when we were capable of defeating the Chinese, those rosters still only featured a singular American player. We have become far too accustomed to relying on our allies and even then they fail us. Pluralism was supposed to make us stronger but it seems to have stripped us of any ability to compete.

This is in stark contrast to Chinese League of Legends teams who have significant financial backing from everything, ranging from billionaires to major corporations. They have training facilities for their teams, backup teams, and internal recruitment pipelines. Not only this but their rosters are majority Chinese nationals. The American corporation Riot Games invented League of Legends in 2009 yet not a single American team has won the World Championship. We are being beaten at our own game.

November 2018: Hangzhou has opened an “esports town” spanning 3.94M square feet and costing $280M. China’s LGD Gaming and Allied Esports have opened a joint venue in the town. This will be LGD’s home venue in China’s League of Legends Pro League. Hongyu Chen, The Esports Observer.

In January of 2012 a number of prominent American League of Legends players discussed the possibility of Koreans, who had just acquired their own region server, being a threat on the international stage that was at the time dominated by European and American teams. The panel was dismissive, citing that Europeans and Americans had such a massive head start that it would take years for them to catch up to us. That same year the winner of the World Championship was Taiwan’s Taipei Assassins and the runner-up was Korea’s Azubu Frost. In less than a year we were overtaken by Korea who to this day retains a dominance of the League of Legends scene acquiring their first championship title in 2013 and possessing seven world championship titles and nine finals appearances. China has made six finals appearances and won three world championship titles, their first in 2018. They also possess a playerbase that dwarfs the rest of the world combined.

Meanwhile, North America’s greatest achievement is two semifinals appearances in the entire competitive history of the game, one of which was at the inaugural world championship in which no Korean or Chinese teams participated. Our playerbase from which we can pull players is dwindling and North American teams increasingly rely on second rate or “washed up” talent imported from Europe and Korea.

This may seem distant and abstract with few real world consequences but this is a mere harbinger of the obstacle the United States faces on the geopolitical stage.

Yet again, there are real world parallels. America has rested on its laurels for too long. Our triumph in WWII that created the postwar international order and subsequent victory over the USSR in the Cold War has fostered a dangerous hubris. We increasingly rely on our technological edge and are too sure that it will be retained. This complacency has led to stagnation with China eclipsing our shipbuilding capacity and a rapidly maturing 5th generation multirole stealth fighter in the J-20. Unlike the Russians who can barely put a squadron of Su-57s together, the J-20 is well into serial production and poses a serious threat to American airpower with deadly consequences given our doctrinal reliance on airpower. The US military struggles to meet its yearly recruitment goals while the People’s Liberation Army has over 2 million active personnel.

Our belief that pluralism and alliance systems will make us stronger as a collective is deluded. Much like how American rosters staffed by Koreans and Europeans fall short of China’s domestically staffed rosters, American military might cannot rely on the support of allies. American financial backing of European and Asian allies means nothing if there is a possibility they will not heed the call to arms and the economic and geographic proximity of many of our Asian and European partners to China raises that chance ever higher. 

Do not be so quick to dismiss the state of American professional League of Legends as simply “kids playing games” as those children will one day have to compete with China in the real world. They will one day have to be the leaders of industry despite our waning advantages in industrial development and capacity. They will one day have to fight off China’s influence despite knowing a world in which they dominate their social media and entertainment. We are wholly unprepared to face this threat and even our children only know a world in which our influence is waning.

Photo by David Lee/Riot Games