Whatever happens to Locke...

Don't give some lame reason on why hes not in the game. Some could say he played an... "important" role in Halo 5. But hes done things that made him important. If he leaves, not that I have a big problem, give him a proper reason.

Don't give him some "He was needed elsewhere" or if he dies, don't kill him off the first mission in a lame way that makes his reputation pointless. In overall, whether we like him or not, hes part of the Halo Saga now and needs to be treated as such. But if he does leaves then give him a send off. Not a bootleg.

I can see why people want more/better/different for Locke and Osiris in general to at least retroactively justify their "importance" in Guardians. I think the cleanest way for 343i to minimize their presence in Infinite is to pull the old, "Osiris is dealing with a problem somewhere else" shtick, by either having a cutscene at the beginning of the game where Chief gets to see them off, or the classic aside from Lasky or Palmer referring to their mission.

Not to say that doing that is better or worse than anything else, inherently, I just think it's the clean choice that leaves the door open to using them later and doesn't actively aggravate either side of the Osiris is Awesome/Awful dividing line in the fandom. I do think Locke has potential like a lot of people do, but also like a lot of people, I think he was misused in Guardians, and that first impressions take a lot to wear off or override. Where Infinite is slanted to be Chief's show, I think just avoiding trying to implement Locke as a competing ego is simple and clean. I suspect distance will make the heart grow fonder of Locke and Co. Fonder- or at least, less outright hostile.

All that said, I'd really appreciate if they manage to keep Buck somewhere proximate to the events of Infinite. He exists on a different and much higher level of fan opinion than anyone else in Osiris, and I believe the work done by Matt Forbeck's "Bad Blood" makes his story a very interesting one to keep an eye on.

As someone who likes Locke, and in extension FT Osiris, I have 0% expectation of his return in Infinite. I wholly expect a "he was needed elsewhere" reasoning for his absence. I wholeheartedly agree that he should be given more material to be expanded upon, but I just don't see that being given to him in Infinite.

If we finally get real campaign-based DLC, it would ideally tackle other aspects of the Halo universe after Infinite's campaign. That would be a logical time to have Locke return as well as other characters.

I DR HALSEY I wrote:

If we finally get real campaign-based DLC, it would ideally tackle other aspects of the Halo universe after Infinite's campaign. That would be a logical time to have Locke return as well as other characters.

I'd love to see him on a secretive mission for ONI Section 3.

VmasterRecon wrote:

Like many of the previous characters, I have a feeling he will just be dropped with no explanation to his whereabouts or his MIA status. 343i have done it before with characters and with the time jump between Halo 5: Guardians and Halo: Infinite and with the latter being a soft reboot, any existing characters chance of being mentioned are about zero in my eyes.

It's now called a spiritual reboot,so any old characters could be spirited away.

CeramicSugar248 wrote:

Who cares, same for blue team and the various other add ons through the years not all characters have to be present in every title, the writers have freedom on how they want to write it.we ether enjoy or we don't
Halo is at its core the intergalactic adventures of chief and corrana

Well yes and no. Halo started out as a one-off game about a cyborg and his artificial companion fighting an alien threat for the sake of humanity. But since then, it's blossomed into a sprawling franchise with dozens of interesting story lines and even more interesting characters. For a main line game, I absolutely agree that not all characters have to be present in every title. But to bring up a character like Locke and then completely throw them out the proverbial airlock will disenfranchise a decent portion of your audience.

I agree. I don’t have a problem with Locke. I think he has a lot of potential as a character.

CeramicSugar248 wrote:

Halo is at its core the intergalactic adventures of chief and corrana

Sounds like a recipe for a stagnating story to be honest.

I DR HALSEY I wrote:

CeramicSugar248 wrote:

Halo is at its core the intergalactic adventures of chief and corrana

Sounds like a recipe for a stagnating story to be honest.

This.

Part of 343i's storytelling problems (apart from not knowing what they want to tell as a whole and enforcing transmedia storytelling with negative effects on how easy the main canon is to follow) is just introducing and then disposing characters. Sure, its about Chief and Cortana at the core of things but its also so much more than them.
I don't particularly like Locke. He doesn't have a fleshed out personality and he's easy to miss. But I don't want another H5 opening mission thing where we kill off an important character and thats that.