User blog:Maslab/On the subject of Noble Six

Since the community seems divided on the subject and there has been as of yet no real answer to how to deal with the issue, I've decided to bring my foot down on the subject of whether or not Noble Six, aka SPARTAN-B312, can survive the events of Halo: Reach.

In short: No.

For the long answer, let's start with the actual story. Particularly the last level of Halo: Reach.

As we know, the last level of Halo: Reach is Noble Six simply fighting off ever larger and more powerful waves of Covenant forces. It's clear this is intended to serve as a last stand, Noble Six's shining moment as a Lone Wolf. It's a neat level that does well to marry the plot and gameplay together (important in a, you know, game) and serves that purpose quite well.

So what about the story? Well, we also know that Noble Six is essentially the one who is handing off the reins to John-117 by carrying Cortana to the Pillar of Autumn (which is, by the way, noted to be the last remaining vessel in drydock at Aszod). Passing the torch as the savior of humanity. The Chief could not have done what he did without Cortana, and Cortana would not have been wholly with Chief if it hadn't been for Six, etc.

And here's the story reason: Six's story is at an end. It is concluded. There's really nothing more that can be told about them. Halsey's eulogy at the end cements this. Six surviving completely negates the ending and renders it pointless, and we all know how well that goes when game companies want to tack on another story to an already finished one.

So the story supports Six's death. Now let's just get to the actual scene of his/her death. During the level we see parts of Six's HUD fade out and the visor cracking, indicating that they are taking lots of damage while still continuing to fight. In the final scene we see Six take more damage before being knocked down with no fewer than three Elites (Halopedian states that seven Elites attacked Six during the ending cutscene, and those seven alone did a lot of damage) around them, with one already stabbing downward and presumably more on the way. Keep in mind that Sangheili culture would make a target like Noble Six very worthy of killing, so a lot of them would be gunning for Six.

So let's make a short list of the required things Six would have to survive in order to escape Reach.


 * 1) Survive numerous and, for all practical purposes, unending waves of further Sangheili warriors (many of whom are Zealots) who are highly trained and very capable.
 * 2) Survive the glassing of Reach. From what I can tell the Aszod Shipbreaking Yards are outside the zone around CASTLE Base that was left alone, and thus the area would have been glassed.  As far as I can tell this is true, as the Aszod Shipbreaking yards appear to be much further away from any mountainous range where CASTLE Base might be located in.  Halsey's eulogy to Noble Six also supports this, as she states that Six's body was burned to glass.
 * 3) Find a way off-planet. This is, as hard as the other two would be to survive (the odds of which are so small as to be zero), would be the hardest.  From all we can tell the Pillar of Autumn was the last ship docked at Aszod and the last UNSC ship to make it off-planet.  "There was only one ship," stated the Arbiter at the beginning of Halo 2.  So Noble Six would have to, alone, find a way to get onto a Covenant Ship, neutralize all crewmembers on it, and learn how to operate a Slipspace-capable ship all on his/her own while severely wounded, not helmet, and without AI assistance.
 * 4) Somehow survive long enough to fulfill the Cole Protocol and link up with UNSC forces.

I don't see the first one happening, nevermind the other three.

So Six's death not only serves the story, but is statistically inevitable.

And even then, after all this, you decide you still want to have Six do all of the above. If story and canon are not quite enough for you, we have one more thing.

The Word of God.

No, not an actual God. What I mean in this case is a piece of canon that has been handed down to us not by a game or a book or any media from it, but directly from a creator of the universe itself.

The Creative Director for Halo: Reach himself, Marcus Lehto, has said that Noble Six is dead.

There really is no way around this. The story supports it, what we know in canon and can see supports it, and Bungie employees themselves have confirmed it. There should be even less controversy over this than the question as to whether or not Johnson had Boren's Syndrome (Spoiler alert: He didn't) or whether or not he survived Halo 3 (Spoiler alert: He didn't).

So with that, let me be absolutely clear about this: With regards to this site's rules and the canon that has been put in place by Bungie (not 343 Industries), Noble Six cannot have possibly survived the events of Halo: Reach and any articles claiming that he or she did shall be tagged as NCF without exception. Unless and until the community and administration decide on whether or not to make an exception in the canon rule for this, this will be what I shall enforce.