FWIW, Trek fans have long had a "sliding scale of canon" by which they assess how valid anything they see or hear is to determining the in-universe 'reality'. The shooting script always trumps the visual FX. So, if (as occured in the TOS episode Balance of Terror) Kirk orders them to fire the phasers and then they show the photon torpedoes, that's an error on the VFX team's part and you should mentally substitudte phaser blasts.
What does that mean for us? If Sarge did go into Recovery Mode, that means that he had a set of armour on capable of Recovery Mode, irrespective of what armour he was shown as wearing. When you consider the limitations of Halo: CE as a Machinima platform, that becomes all the more important as very little customisation was possible back then.
In terms of canon, the eyes lie but the dialogue and plot never lies.
just a thought as i found the 'in caboose's head' sequences a bit weird. Could Caboose be the stupidity fragment of Church? Caboose certainly gets along well other A.I. just a thought, it'd be interesting to see why his interactions with A.I are so different to other characters.
That shouldn't make any sense but it really does. Caboose was one of the few people to coherently interact with Delta and it certainly seems odd that when Church "possesses" him he simply goes into his mind. It's a viable theory but I kind of hope it isn't the case, because Caboose just seems so much more lovable when his personality is his own.
Actually now that I type it Church has said several times that he doesn't understand Caboose. Washington pointed out that he understood and got along with the other AI like Delta very well (even pointing out that he and Delta agreed on their methods of thinking and thought each other made sense). So it's possible, but I doubt it. Then again I said the same thing when someone initially theorized CHURCH was an AI back during the early episodes of Reconstruction.
By all accounts, the cyborging of Simmons was retconned out.
However, in universe, we know that the armours are EMP-proof. However, the AI computer is not for some reason (possibly the external port for the AI chip is a vulnerability). So, whilst everything in the armour (like the enhancements and Simmons' borg bits) was okay, the software in the computer, the AIs would be killed.
By all accounts, the cyborging of Simmons was retconned out.
However, in universe, we know that the armours are EMP-proof. However, the AI computer is not for some reason (possibly the external port for the AI chip is a vulnerability). So, whilst everything in the armour (like the enhancements and Simmons' borg bits) was okay, the software in the computer, the AIs would be killed.
That doesn't work for several reasons. First of all, in Recreation (which happened AFTER the emp went off) Simmons references the fact that he's a cyborg in a conversation with Lopez so we know that Simmons's cyborg status IS in fact canon. Plus, all of the AI weren't in a computur, they were implanted in the Meta's armor, so in theory that would have protected them if the armor was emp proof, ergo it isn't.
You know it's possible Simmons was affected by the emp, just not visibly. His various internal parts might have stopped working temporarily but since they're mostly household items (assuming the Season 2 jokes referencing that are canon) they probably weren't doing much for his body anyway.
Plus, all of the AI weren't in a computur, they were implanted in the Meta's armor, so in theory that would have protected them if the armor was emp proof, ergo it isn't.
They were in a computer - the armour's AI computer specifically. Either that or the 'storage unit' referenced to in several places (although I doubt it as I don't think an AI in a storage unit can interface with the armour wearer's mind). However, either way, they were in an EMP-vulnerable computer.
I think Burnie mentioned all this in a post-Recreation interview.
Another plot hole is that church is thought to have this big romantic past with tex, however he clearly states that he is a gay robot. Thus this could not have happened.
-unless tex was referring to her voice filter being broken in season 1 in the way we didn’t think at first, what if it was her actual voice at first and a voice mast turned on making her sound female which means that tex whoever he may be may also be a gay robot that flipped switches with church.
May have been mentioned before, but in Caboose's mind it seems that if something is killed then it gets ejected into reality. That's how Tex, Church and O'Malley all got out and it even happened to Yellow Church! With that in mind, the first time Tex and Church entered Caboose's mind, O'Malley killed Caboose's memory of Church. Shouldn't that mean that another Church should have entered reality?
Only if the memory had a distinct existance outside of Caboose's mind. Everyone else who was killed/ejected was a seperate being whilst Caboose's mental Church was a part of his own mind.
Yellow Church would be the same though, just a part of Caboose's mind. But he got pulled into the real world when he died. Only to be sent back in time like 5 seconds later. I kinda think it was just something that happened so much earlier that they didn't think of it when writing how Yellow Church got to where he was with the Church clones.
yellow church was stood next to real church when he grenaded himself out of caboose's mind so it's possible that he could have been pulled through that way. he also seemed to know that caboose's world view is majorly twisted. as when church asked who he was he replies: "i am sister Church's twin brother. Yeah it doesn't make much sense to me either." The other representations of the blood gulch crew never knowingly knew they were any different. I'll certainly entertain the yellow church A.I fragment theory but i don't know how he get's in Caboose's head after sister gets there.
That's an interesting thought. The Yellow Church definitely knew that everything is wrong in there the same way Church and Tex knew. I would hope it gets revisited somehow.
In the Season 2 and Season 5 commentaries Burnie basically acknowledged the Caboose's mind plotholes. He didn't want to have to deal with writing in the hyper angry Church as a character but Caboose's mental image of Sister being Yellow Church fit in nicely for the time travel thing.
Why would the freelancers be given equipment if they couldn't use it without the use of an AI. How was Carolina able to use her speed enhancement without one?
Freelancers could run the more complicated enhancements so long as they have a pipeline back to a Command server. Project Freelancer already had an AI that could do the calculations for the agents. The UNSC seemed to be under the impression that agents were going to take turns with the Alpha, so it would make sense to train agents to use their equipment for when they had their turn with the AI... Of course, though, Project Freelancer ultimately decided to give each of their best agents an AI instead of having them take turns with one AI.
Wash said that half of the equipment required AI to work properly. It's possible that Carolina's two enhancements are part of the other half of equipment that doesn't need AI to work properly. Even when Grif tested out the super-speed enhancement, it appears that he was able to use pre-set calculations that ran on a timer, and the utilization of that enhancement didn't appear to cause any life threatening harm to him despite him having no experience with it.
Washington: A.I. help us in battle, depending on their functions. We couldn't run half our equipment without them.
Speaking of the random armor change when the bomb went off...
Is that not a plot hole in it's self? I mean from what I've heard, they didn't go into the future, and there is evidence to support they didn't. Not to mention that alone would not explain why they already had upgraded armor....
Project Freelancer's agents presumably replaced their armor with updated versions when they were knocked out, possibly because Project Freelancer wanted to install the Lockdown feature in their armor so that the Blood Gulch characters wouldn't be able to wander onto any top-secret facilities (like the Freelancer Fortress at Sidewinder) without Project Freelancer being able to shutdown their armor in case they got close to stumbling upon something important.
Actually the fact church survived the bomb is also a plot hole and the odds of Gamma yanking him out of the present at JUST the right time are slimmer than him making a mistake and letting the bomb go off in the past instead...
As for the caboose is an AI theory...
Caboose has an unhealthy obsession with Church.
Delta not only knew that Church was the alpha, but knew to leave his message in Caboose's mind. There is no logic behind that, period. Unless he knew something about Caboose...
Church was presumably encrypted until he could be recovered. Once recovered, he was probably placed in Gamma's computer at the Wind Power Facility so that Gamma could put Church through the time travel scenarios.
The Lockdown feature was used in Season 8. The Reds and Blues never stumbled upon anything important before that, so there was no need to use Lockdown on them... except for the time that the Reds stumbled upon VIC's computer, but that resulted from the Reds wandering in the caves where there was limited surveillance technology (plus VIC suggested that someone had tampered with his computer, which preoccupied his attention long enough for the Reds to stumble upon his computer... and maybe the tampering done on VIC's computer prevented him from activating Lockdown when the Reds and Blues worked toward ruining VIC's plans).
Project Freelancer's agents presumably replaced their armor with updated versions when they were knocked out, possibly because Project Freelancer wanted to install the Lockdown feature in their armor so that the Blood Gulch characters wouldn't be able to wander onto any top-secret facilities (like the Freelancer Fortress at Sidewi nder) without Project Freelancer being able to shutdown their armor in case they got close to stumbling upon something important.
Woah freelancers changed their armor? Is that something Bernie said at some point? That seems pretty out there.
I mean Recovery Agents/Commands Soldiers probably handled the transportation (like Recovery Six or the soldiers who worked at Command).
E-Delta said that Project Freelancer "sent" a team to the Great Burning Plains/Dig Site. This team was the Blood Gulch gang, and that would also make Project Freelancer responsible for all the other changes that the Blood Gulch characters underwent when they were transferred to site of the mysterious energy source.
E-Delta: The Freelancer project found a source of intense energy, so a scenario team was sent to investigate the area. But they left without doing anything.
Well dont forget that when Donut was being interviewed they asked him about the Burning Plains, i forget what the Counselor had said, but that might have something to do with it
Thanks. I know where to find certain lines in the transcripts that are relevant to a variety of questions.
I believe the Blood Gulch characters were transported (by vehicle/ship) to the plains by Project Freelancer, since multiple discussions seem to suggest that those characters were intentionally sent to that location (and to be blown there by the blast would have depended on too many variables for that to be intentional).
The Great Burning Plains, the post-apocalyptic wasteland, and the Dig Site are all indeed the same location, which is indicated in multiple scenes.
Let me just reach into my bag of quotes:
Counselor: Alright, now I want you to look at this picture.
Donut: Oh, hey, I know where that is.
Counselor: Which of the following best describes this picture? Would you say it is a) the new location where your team was assigned, b) the source of a mysterious energy reading, or c) -
Donut: That's just where we landed.
Counselor: Where you landed. Can you elaborate?
Donut: Yeah, we were defusing a bomb by this guy Omega, but then the bomb went off and it was such a huge explosion, that it totally threw us in to the future and we landed there in that place.
Counselor: I'm not sure I understand. The future?
Donut: Sarge said that since we were surrounded by ice when the bomb went off, and then it was all sand, the ice age must have ended, and that would have taken a reeeally long time. So, it must have pushed us in to the future.
Counselor: I, don't have a checkbox for that. So I'm just going to write down 'other'.
Donut: Yeah, other works. I like other.
Counselor: Well, I suppose there's no reason to ask the rest of our questions. Thank you for a very, enlightening interview. --- Donut: So, then after that, they transferred me to that new base. I guess we left before we were supposed to do what they wanted us to.
Caboose: That's a pretty crazy story Donut.
Donut: But when I got there, all I found was a distress beacon from Tucker.
