Forerunner Design Changes – Art Style – Lore and Theory

40 thoughts on “Forerunner Design Changes – Art Style – Lore and Theory”

1. The problem with using the lore as an excuse is that 343 are writing the lore to suit their art style which is so bad it's brutally split the fan base. I'd have to disagree with the idea that the majority of the fan base would happily have gone along with it given better in-game reasons.

   The new covenant species designs are awful, the Promethean designs make no sense they just look bizarre, and the environment art design is almost illness inducing to me personally. The lighting and look to some of the campaign levels especially anything to do with forerunner areas almost is unbearable for me to look at. Not at one point from CE to reach did I have that.

   343 are altering and directing the lore to suit their art style so I don't take it as an excuse any longer as to the difference.

2. I love this explanation and makes me slightly appreciate 343's games forerunner art style

3. One potential problem with this is the shield world found in halo wars that uses the old aesthetic and seams to be a huge shipyard/fleetbase. Witch to me sounds like something the warriors would be verry much involved in.
   Also I wish the ships from halo wars returned becouse they look intresting if not a bit wierd

4. So how does it make any sense that the Builders whos purpose was to construct look far more simple and bare than the artistic and more beatiful designs of the warriors that really doesnt make sense

5. I think the Halo Installations have simpler/more brutalist architecture because they are weapons after all. They weren't intended to be inhabited by their creators like the shield worlds such as Requiem were built for. The Halos are supposed to be eternal and they were built in a hurry because of the urgency of the Flood onslaught of the Forerunners.

6. You shouldve shown og graphics for Halo CE. Halo Anniversary changes a lot of how forerunner stuff look.

7. The same civilisation that built the Colosseum also built the Hagia Sophia. There’s no need to explain why not everything a civilisation built looks the same, it’s what happens over time and due to different designers

8. Alright, i CANNOT be the only one who thinks that the building on the right (in the thumbnail) looks like a dude jackin off.

9. 1:06 Love the effort put into the music transitions. Glorious

10. All these lore explanations are being used to dance around the actual reason.

    343 changed the art style, plain and simple. They received backlash (all of which was justified, fuck their forerunner art style) and so they shat out lore to explain their mistakes.

    They did it with Chief's armor, the FUD, and all sorts of other things.

11. Fascinating insight and theories. While 343 should have shown a reason more distinctly, the reasons you proposed make sense. Before actually watching, my guesses were that the Halos and the lesser ark weren't wholly representative of Forerunner architecture, that their society's aesthetics had changed over time, or were different, and or that the simpler solid designs of the first encountered constructs were concessions to practicality since they had limited resources, and bleak needs, including these things lasting for millenia without any Forerunners there.

    That assumption that the simplicity was meant to reduce power consumption and minimize degradation over time doesn't seem to track though, since the warrior constructs are even older, and not only do they work just fine, but the aesthetic was present in shield world designs, which were also expected last a long time, though their interiors would at least have sentient life around to appreciate the sophistication and aesthetics, unlike the arrays.

    It's also possible that some of that floating part aesthetic is present in the halos, which you bring up in relation to forerunner constructs being multipurpose. The rings' sections can be disconnected,so maybe that plays into an alternate use.

12. Great video! Do you have one or could you make one explaining how all of a sudden the Galaxy is littered with Forerunner soldiers when the Covenant spent centuries looking for them and their constructs?

13. I think the answer to this question is best answered by looking at a building from Rome to that of a building in Tokyo. While there are some crossovers nobody would think that they’re from the same culture.

14. I can just imagine a mission where the player has to find an artifact made by the Builders in order to counteract the Warrior-Servant war-machines:

    “How do we know what we’re looking for?”

    “Look for something that looks weathered and has no shiny floaty bits!”

15. I wonder if the gas mining facility on Threshold might not be an example of a structure made by the Miner Caste.

16. There is another set of art design changes in halo 2. When arby go to the gas mine on threshold the art design is different from the installation 04 that it was supposed to be servicing and also installation 05

17. I think it would've been nice to mention other instances of floaty bits. On the mining platform of Threshold, some of the interior pathway panels weren't connected to the bridge itself. And on the Halo 3 map Epitaph, there's a fairly large structure which floats in the middle of the cathedral

    Edit: Let's also not forget the activation index's casing

18. I always just assumed the architecture was different bc of the 2nd reason you gave. Aesthetics are a luxury and when you're fighting a war u need stuff to work not look pretty.

19. I like to look at it as Requiem and Genesis where built in the golden age of the Forerunners, in all their pride and arrogance, even the Ark had a touch of this grandeur.

    But the as the Halos where made, the design became more subdued, sombre and reserved, in the full realisation that they failed in their Mantle of Responsibility and where finally humbled.

20. Builder:
    These things must be built, let's not be too picky on the specifics.

    Warrior-Servant:
    artistic screeching

21. I enjoy the way u explain Why the change in Art style happend with in lore reasons.

    Ther is only one inconsistency, the Shield World we Encounter in Halo Wars 1 , its artstyle is more alike Halo 3 … yet it should technically have more smth like Requiem… never got an satisfing in lore reason why.

    Greets Thel.

22. Fore some reason i prefer the old school halo 2 style

23. You may be stretching the lore just to make sense of 343's retcons.

24. 2:08 sick music transition. Also it’s my personal belief that the Delta Halo Stone Ruins were constructed by Ancient Humans.

25. H2a is king

26. Halo is just a dream, an ancient forgotten memory that talked about future visions that are as well of ancient past.

27. How did I not find your channel sooner. You sir got a new subscriber. You deserve a lot more than you currently have. I've really been enjoying your content.

28. Wait… So might we see Onyx Sentinels in Cortana's forces of Warrior-Servant leftovers?

29. Good theory. Here's the real answer.

    All the structures and facilities in the newer games (namely Requiem, Genesis) were built with the aesthetic of intending to harbor a viable living populace of the Forerunner species. The multifaceted shape changing structures of the shield world's allowed a surviving forerunner populace to quickly change and repurpose their structures to their needs.

    The Halo's were a weapon that we're going to annihilate all species including the Forerunners. The static, single purpose design of the Halo's wouldn't need to change and repurpose themselves as the entities that created and used them would only likely inhabit and be able to use them once. Reliability and sturdiness would be key factor, hence the simpler styles in design and engineering. *Mic Drop*

    The Builders, by their title, designed and built all Forerunner technology. They may have Incorporated design or engineering choices per request by the other various caste rates within the Ecumene, but the design and construction was ultimately done by the Builders.

30. I like your enthusiasm in saying that there is a reason as to why the art style for the forerunners changed but there isn't a lore reason at all. You can retroactively say there is but that's just dancing around the fact that this was personal taste. Look at every other aspect of the games, weapons, vehicles, even the master chiefs armour was charged for no other reason then change its self. The only reason we are seeing a return to the classic art style is because a majority of the people didn't like the swap and were alienated by it.

31. Halo CE-2: Generic Utilitarian Forerunner
    Halo 3 Ark – More Elegant Utilitarian mixed with Builder given its importance and its role as a potential shelter
    Halo 4 – Warrior Servant architecture (Floating chaos which assembles to form a perfect shape with hardlight connections, greys, blacks and orange hardlight)
    Halo 5 Genesis- Artistic Builder (smooth and flowing, little seam lines, solid geometry, whites and silvers with blue hardlight)

    Theres also an example of a miner structure in iirc Halo 4 in one map

32. This is something that should have been explained in game. So many people were upset about the changes, but if this was explained by cortana or something in game I reckon the changes wouldn't have been critized so much.
    Even just having that Aussie Marine, or a Spartan 4 saying that requium looks different to the rings, and having cortana or a monitor saying it's cause one was made by builders ect.

33. Installation00 you covered some great points, but what about both Halo Wars? In the first Halo Wars it shows us a shield world with the more classic forerunner design. Then, in Halo Wars 2 we, the audience, are shown a location we are already familiar with, but now it has a completely different look (343i's design).

34. This episode of lore and theory was one of the best I've seen.

35. You're one of the few speakers about Halo who just talks in facts with your speculation remaining reasonable. Plus, it's refreshing to hear someone talk about Halo without either getting over-hyped and spewing rampant none-sense or doing things like complaining that being able to aim a gun killed Halo.

36. My greatest issue with the new Forerunner art style is the eyes and lack of diversity in color. I’m okay with the Knights having 2 eyes because they aren’t artificial intelligence. That said, watchers, soldiers, and crawlers only need 1 eye, and it would make them look better with slightly more practical shapes. And the color scheme is only blue and orange, but the Forerunners used a whole plethora of colors, including green, silver, brown, red, russet, and even violet. I don’t mind the hardlight aesthetic so much as i mind the weapon and structural design. It’s one thing for an obsolete feature to be there for additional aesthetic. It’s completely different for it to be there for the main aesthetic rather than a simple enhancement. I’m not against floaty parts, but when they serve no purpose and are the foundation for aesthetic, it feels like a waste of resources

37. It is a delight for me to watch your videos .

38. You forgot to show the Miner rate architecture shown in the comics. I like both designs, but I wish the architecture in Spartan Assault showed that it was a Miner construct and that Genesis in Halo 5 was more Builder in style, considering that it was a Builder world. And I really, really want to see somewhere how the Lifeworker architectural style looks.

39. What about the shield world from halo wars? In that game there are no obnoxious floating bits everywhere and that is supposed to be a warrior servant construct.

40. This video made me realise something about your channel, due to the way you handle things, you have been able to just get the people in the Halo community (as of the moment) that are not all salty and angry about Halo (that call themselves fans), that would have already commented something like "343 sucks, bring the old classic, iconic art style" or the other side that just doesn't cares about what the legacy pf Halo is, or that has learned to hate Bungie.
    And you get quite good comments, even from people that do prefer the old style or the new one, so that's good, your channel is a safe heaven of the not toxic parte of the Halo community

    PS. Would it be a crazy video idea to analize all of Halo's soundtracks? Why they were made like that, etc.

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