In the article, I’m going to take a closer look at what is being seen and happening in the new Terminal trailer, released just a few days ago.

First though, here’s the trailer again, in case you haven’t seen it, or want a refresher:

Okay, so let’s take a closer look at this.

As you can see by the opening pic, I’ve left in the time bar. This is so you can see for yourselves at what time i the vid I got the images from.

The trailer starts off with a low tone and the sounds of digital letters appearing on a screen.
So is that Master Chief accessing this screen? Seems like it is. If so, is it at this point Chief learns of a secret kept from him?
Whomever the person is viewing it is now in the system.
Above is where this part gets interesting. ‘Target Profile’ Thel ‘Vadamee, whom we all know is the Arbiter is shown on screen. His target value being ‘Alpha’. Since that’s the first letter in the Greek alphabet, we have to assume alpha is of the highest priority. As well, we now have confirmation of Agent Lock’s first name, that being Jameson. As well we see he is a Lieutenant Commander. BTW, the proper abbreviation for this rank is ‘LCDR’. Though we can forgive 343 for that…LOL

Now since this trailer is about the terminals and 343 has stated they will go into the history of the Arbiter, the rest of the vid is narrated by the voice of the Arbiter. It’s none other than the original voice actor who portray the Arbiter in the first three games, Keith David.

He starts by saying he’s had many names in this long war.
“The humans knew me as, Destroyer.”
Does not that look like Reach? Of course it could be any number of cities on any number of human worlds. The Covenant didn’t take too much account of what they glassed.
Now in the screen cap above we see a Phantom knocking out a Longsword. Is the Arbiter aboard that ship?
The Arbiter goes on to say of his titles, “The Covenant, I was Supreme Commander.”
In the screens above and below we see wireframes of both Covenant and Human fleets. Are they engaging in battle or was this a peaceful meeting? I’m thinking it wasn’t so peaceful.
“The Prophets named me, Arbiter.”
“And your Master Chief calls me, Friend.”  The immediate screen above shows that one of the prophets is placing the Arbiter’s helmet upon Thel. Strange that he says Chief calls him friend. I don’t ever recall that being the case. They shared missions in Halo 3, but that was it. Barely enough time to become friendly. After all, when the Forward Unto Dawn was making it’s escape from the Ark, it was split in two. The Arbiter making away, while Chief was forced to go into Cryo-sleep. Now perhaps after the events of Halo 4, the two become friends, but that remains to be seen.
The screen above shows Thel before he became the Arbiter, in his then gold armor.
Now this screen above caught me a bit off-guard. Those large fins look like that of the armor from the Heretic, Sesa ‘Refumee. Could he be making a return somehow? Is this the Arbiter with that armor on? Note what looks like tufts of hair on his left hip. This image is a mystery I can’t wait to find out the meaning of.
The destruction of the Halo ring is used as filler, but wow, was it nice to see in such dynamic lighting.
The screens immediately above and below show us an unfamiliar Covenant ship. It’s small. Perhaps the personal craft of the Arbiter? It kind of looks like a Watcher from Halo 4 that has been converted to look like something Covenant. Though of course this ship is much bigger than a single Watcher.
As the scene unfolds, we see that there is a battle taking place.
Is this a battle on Sanghelios? There are green plasma shots fired from both factions. Hmm, will we fight against Jul ‘Mdama? Against the Artbiter? Or both?
The Arbiter goes on to say, “How well do you know your friend?” This line makes me feel as if there is a betrayal coming to Master Chief.

“And what will you call me, when you learn the truth of what I have done?” Again, another line full of mystery. What about the Arbiter do we not yet know that may make him an enemy of humanity again? Or specifically of Chief’s?
One of the last images in the trailer shows a white outlined elite, presumably the Arbiter in older armor. It’s a dark and perhaps foreboding image.

Now, at this point the trailer is all but over…except there is this one perplexing blink and you miss it shot.

In the screen above we see floating human corpses, with a marine helmet squarely in the middle of the shot. So what does THIS shot mean? e know this is in space. You can make out UNSC ships in the background.

Has the Arbiter found out about ONI playing both factions of Elite’s against each other? If so, has he in return helped give rise to a NEW Insurrection within humanity?

We’ll see more terminals when Halo: Master Chief Collection is released 11/11/14. Until then, unless 343 gives us any more clues, we are left to speculate.

-Sal