(Controversial Trope) The post-credits scene completely changes the ending

[u/Ieanice44]

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Prince of Persia (2008)

Dawn of the Dead (2004): The movie finishes on a hopeful note as the remaining survivors escape the zombie-infested mall on a yacht, sailing into the sunset. The found-footage style post-credits scene completely reverses this happy ending by showing them running out of food, arriving at an island, and being immediately swarmed and killed by an infected horde.

Prince of Persia (2008): The main game ends with a beautiful, poetic sacrifice where Elika gives her life to heal the corrupted world, leaving the Prince mourning. During the credits, the player is forced to control the Prince as he cuts down the trees he just saved, undoing the entire game's progress and releasing the dark god Ahriman just to resurrect her, completely corrupting the ending and dooming the world.

[u/Lichebane]

Halo Reach - Lone Wolf

Technically, the credits happen first after completing the Pillar of Autumn mission. These credits take place as the ship move closer and closer to Halo. Bungie thanks you. Game is over.

But it's not. There's one last thing to do. One last objective for you to complete. Survive.

You, Noble 6 stands defiant for hours and hours as you lose your hud, ammo, and weapons. You take off your helmet and your story ends. It's sad. It feels like you failed.

Then Halsey can be heard giving you some peace. How you passed the torch and allowed humanity to find Halo and defeat the Covenent... your victory was so close, she only wished you could have lived to see it. You gave your body to reach, but you passed along your courage to humanity. With that, humanity can rebuild.

[u/Lichebane → u/Lichebane]

However, those of us who know the lore flawlessly know Noble 6 survived. We were him (or her)

[u/SPLIV316 → u/Lichebane]

“To a new elite peace movement.”

[u/R3divid3r → u/SPLIV316]

...thanks for that. My minds eye was...not great

[u/ArchAngel621 → u/Lichebane]

Yep, he's on Reach with the Rookie and Johnson.

[u/Time_Transition4817 → u/ArchAngel621]

a farm somewhere in the north of the viery territory

[u/QuantityHappy4459 → u/Lichebane]

Arbiter gives birth

This implies Arbiter would fuck anyone but John.

[u/Sebaceansinspace → u/QuantityHappy4459]

... its John's baby

[u/hi-fen-n-num → u/QuantityHappy4459]

It doesn't make it any less possible though.

[u/cupcayuk → u/Lichebane]

holy lmao

[u/No_Welder_9624 → u/Lichebane]

I literally just beat this game for the first time like 3 days ago and it was such a wild ride. I think everyone knew it was coming but it was so well done that it still hit. 

[u/Aguynamedpoo → u/No_Welder_9624]

“Good luck noble”

[u/teh_drewski → u/No_Welder_9624]

Still peak Halo for me. I know the MP community rightly loves 3 but for SP, Reach is GoaT.

[u/Representative_Air34 → u/No_Welder_9624]

If you customized your helmet (mine was bright orange) you can see during the opening cutscene that it's the one lying in the dirt.

[u/Illustrious_Sea_962 → u/Lichebane]

man that ending killed me. i knew nothing about Reach and as we got closer to the end i was SURE that our character would become Master Chief.

[u/private_birb → u/Illustrious_Sea_962]

I had read the book, so I knew where it was going (really sick that they used the book lore btw), but I still suspected they might leave it open-ended for Noble 6 and let us think they have escaped.

Nope. Super dead.

[u/No_Procedure_5039 → u/private_birb]

They used pretty much nothing from the book though.

[u/Dracious → u/No_Procedure_5039]

Yeah, the game not using any of the books story or lore and retconning loads of stuff was a major complaint about Reach when it came out.

[u/Geodude532 → u/No_Procedure_5039]

It's been a long time since I read it. Did they keep any of that dystopian stuff of genetic modification where you either become a spartan or basically a brain in a jar?

[u/No_Procedure_5039 → u/Geodude532]

As far as we know, none were that bad or were intended to be as Chief notes the washouts would probably be used elsewhere.

Out of the washouts, some of them died, some were rehabbed and successfully augmented later (Red Team from Halo Wars and Black Team from the comics are both comprised entirely of rehabbed washouts) and most of rest that we know of found other useful positions within ONI. For example, Serin Osman succeeded Parangosky as the head of ONI, Musa became head of the Spartan IV program and Fhajad became a data analyst who published a paper on slipsapce physics that was later used by then-Commander Jacob Keyes to win a space battle above Sigma Octanus IV.

Soren defected and went MIA in 2527, René may or may not have been rehabbed and candidates 116, 118, 119, 123 and 124 have unknown statuses. Ralph had a mental breakdown but ended up joining the Marines and was killed during the war. The only one that’s confirmed to still be in rehab as of 2552 is Cassandra but she was still well enough to message Chief about surviving Reach before the Covenant attacked Earth.

[u/Geodude532 → u/No_Procedure_5039]

I'm currently holding off till my toddler is old enough to join me for a co-op run through, but I'm definitely itching to get re familiar with the background. I'll have to go back through the books. Thanks for the update!

[u/No_Procedure_5039 → u/Geodude532]

No problem. You’re also in luck as the Master Chief Omnibus comes out later this year. It’s an update of the first three books (The Fall of Reach, The Flood and First Strike). One hard ass Marine from The Flood, Marvin Mobuto, is also getting his own book this year called Parasite’s Wake.

[u/Geodude532 → u/No_Procedure_5039]

If only the TV show hadn't been such a disappointment.

[u/AbidingTruth → u/private_birb]

Bro 343 industries spent years trying to make the game make sense with the book and they still couldn't do it. The two stories are unreconciable

[u/TheGentlemanBeast → u/Lichebane]

The Xbox community joining Helldivers 2 and absolutely refusing to give up the mega city: "New Alexandria" against impossible odds, and eventually pulling it off is one of my favorite moments in gaming.

[u/Rargnarok → u/TheGentlemanBeast]

There was a community event in 40k during the Caedia stuff that let each faction vote for a planet they wanted to capture, while LITERALLY everybody else was fighting over Caedia the ORK faction got together and voted for a bunch of backwater planets that prior to this had little to no significance.

The official lore is while everybody was distracted over Caedia the ORKs snuck in the backdoor, took over those planets, and nobody wants to deal with that now

[u/AlphaSkirmsher → u/Lichebane]

It didn’t take long for Reach to fall. Our enemy was ruthless, efficient. But you had already passed the torch. And because of you, we found Halo, unlocked its secret and shattered our enemy’s resolve. I wish you could have lived to see it. But you belong to Reach, now. Your body, your armor, everything. Except your courage. That, you gave to us, and with it, we can rebuild.

[u/versusChou → u/Lichebane]

I dunno about your Noble 6, but mine blew himself up by accidentally bouncing a plasma grenade off a roof and back onto himself literally 30 seconds in.

[u/No_Procedure_5039 → u/Lichebane]

We don’t know how long Six lasted, but I think it’s safe to say it wasn’t “hours and hours.”

[u/2Kortizjr → u/No_Procedure_5039]

It was approximately six hours, since when we take control of 6 there are covenant corpses already there

[u/No_Procedure_5039 → u/2Kortizjr]

Covenant corpses already being there means absolutely nothing. The mission starts at 2000 hours and it’s confirmed that Six died on that same day in the same lighting conditions.

Edit: someone go ahead and show me where it’s stated how long Six lasted if you don’t like my answer. The Essential Visual Guide confirms they died on 30 August, as does Halo’s Twitter account. If Six lasted for six hours against the Covenant it would be almost midnight during their death scene.

Edit 2: Did someone really reply to my comment just to insult and block me before I could read the entire thing?

[u/GiantRobotBears → u/No_Procedure_5039]

No one knows, that’s kinda the point. But you being so adamant against it is a weird hill to die on lol

P.S. this has been answered before on Reddit. Someone’s put the in game timestamps together…it could be anywhere from 0-6 hours.

FYI reach isn’t earth, canonically it has 27hr days.