Radical Reformation
A political movement protesting the UNSC, led by Nyla Isaka. open/close all folders
In General
Radical Reformation
Appearances: Lifebringer | Judgement | Brotherhood War | Hyborean
- Big Bad Ensemble: The Reformists find themselves competing with the Hyboreans in Lifebringer, with both being hostile factions toward the UNSC and working toward their own agendas. The Reformists end up on the losing end, as their forces are wiped out by the more advanced Hyboreans.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Despite their impressive technology and large following, the Reformation mostly consists of bitter colonists with little military training, and only a select few officers have real combat experience. Outside of their surprise attack on Seattle, the Reformation are on the losing end for much of the war, with the UNSC wiping out their fleet and capturing their leader six months in, and the rest of the war is just one long mop up from there. They only won thanks to the Lifebringer, who was just using them as pawns in her own agenda.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Like the Covenant, they have different colors to distinguish rank, with blues and reds being the common grunts, greens being heavy troopers, and gold being commanders. Assassins get special black armor.
- Elite Mooks: They aren't seen often, but Assassins are mercenaries and ex-UNSC personnel who have better equipment and the benefit of real combat experience.
- Expy: Of the various Insurrection groups in the Halo canon, as well as the Separatist Alliance. In the case of the latter, they're a political movement of disgruntled civilians who take up arms against their own government that they've come to view as corrupt, and are ultimately pawns of the Big Bad.
- Pyrrhic Victory: By the end of Brotherhood War, the Reformation gets what it wants: the destruction of the UNSC. However, the Lifebringer easily takes power for herself and institutes an even worse regime, and the Reformation is too weakened by the war to do anything about it.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Notably subverted. Outside of Garrett, the Reformation commanders are stunningly inept, both as leaders and as soldiers.
Word of God surmises that most of them were either politicians, financial backers, or close associates who were handed the rank regardless of their qualifications. - The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: They're the first major insurrectionist group to instigate a galaxy-wide civil war with the UNSC in hopes of toppling the government and instituting a new regime.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The UNSC brands them as the former, while the Reformists view themselves as the latter, battling a corrupt regime for a better future.
Leadership
Nyla Isaka
Nyla Isaka
Species: Human
Appearances Judgement | Brotherhood War | Brotherhood War: Aftermath | Hyborean
Voiced by: Ashleigh Aishwarya
A senator of the UNSC government body. With the support of the outer colonies, she formed the movement known as the Radical Reformation.- Big Bad Wannabe: As charismatic as she is, it's clear that without the Lifebringer, she'd just be another dime-a-dozen politician with delusions of grandeur, and plays perfectly into the Lifebringer's hands.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Despite being set up as the Big Bad of Brotherhood War, Isaka is captured halfway through and Garrett takes over from there, until the Lifebringer supplants the Reformation entirely.
- Exact Words: When Mannix offers his life in exchange for his men to be spared, Isaka agrees to let them leave the area. When they've left the immediate area, Isaka tells Garrett to kill them.
- Greater-Scope Villain: As the leader of the Radical Reformation, she's the mastermind behind the Reformist troops fought by Zach in Lifebringer.
- He Knows Too Much: Inverted. Mannix and his men don't know what the Reformation was doing on Cradle during the events of Lifebringer so Isaka decides to keep it that way by killing them.
- Irony: One of the richest examples in the series. For one who derided the Spartans as puppets of the UNSC, she herself ended up being the biggest puppet of them all. In her drive to ensure a better future for humanity, Nyla only handed it to the tyrannical clutches of the Lifebringer. The irony is not lost on her as she is left to rot in her cell.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Rather than freeing Isaka, the Lifebringer decides to keep her as a prisoner to use as insurance against the Reformation. Isaka whispers "What have I done?" as she realizes where dealing with the Lifebringer had gotten her.
- Non-Action Big Bad: She's a political figure, not a soldier. The only kill she has onscreen is Mannix, a disarmed prisoner. When confronted in person by Zach, Denver, and Silva, she's easily taken into custody.
- Purple Is Powerful: Her armor is purple, a color typically associated with power and royalty, which fittingly reflects her political clout and status as the leader of the Reformation.
- Secret-Keeper: Aftermath reveals only she knew of Garrett's past as a Spartan-III.
- Unwitting Pawn: She ends up being played for a fool by the Lifebringer, who wastes no time betraying her after dismantling the UNSC.
Marcus Garrett
General Marcus Garrett / Spartan B-088
Species: Human
Appearances: Judgement | Brotherhood War | Brotherhood War: Aftermath | Hyborean
Voiced by: Hugh Verheylewegen, Logan Williams (young Garrett)
A high-ranking commander of the Reformation, and Isaka's second-in-command. He was one of Zach's squadmates who defected after the UNSC left him for dead.- Anti-Villain: He joined the Reformation out of deep seated hatred for the UNSC taking away his life and using him as a Super-Soldier, then throwing him away when he rebelled. He wants to make sure they can never do it to anyone else again.
- Dark Is Evil: He's clad in grey and red armor.
- Defector from Decadence: He openly despises the UNSC for taking children and forcibly augmenting them into brainwashed Super Soldiers. He was one of them and was left for dead when he refused to be another obedient soldier, making it particularly personal for him.
- The Dragon: Isaka's right-hand man and a high-ranking official of the Reformation's military. He's also the Reformation's trump card, due to being a seasoned Spartan-III with decades of experience. He later turns out to be one for the Lifebringer, as he had been working to bring her back so that her Hyboreans can help the Reformation win the war against the UNSC.
- Dragon Ascendant: With Isaka captured, Garrett is left to finish what they started together and assumes command over what's left of the Reformation.
- Dragon-in-Chief: While Garrett is subordinate to Isaka, he has an equally authoritative presence as the commander of the Reformation's military, and is a far more personal threat for Zach. Garrett is actually much stronger than Isaka but is fortunately a loyal and devoted second-in-command. Even with Isaka in custody, Menaias states that Garrett must be killed to truly stop the Reformation.
- Dragon Their Feet: Isaka gets captured by the UNSC roughly halfway through the film, but Garrett manages to escape and continue the war effort.
- Enemy Mine: It takes some convincing, but Zach talks Garrett into allying what's left of the Reformation with the UNSC to combat to greater threat of the Lifebringer.
- Et Tu, Brute?: He really takes it hard when Zach refuses to join him and takes it as a personal betrayal. His voice notably shakes a bit as he swears that he believed he could change Zach's mind.
- Inverted later on when Zach takes a blow meant for Garrett, surprising the latter.
- Evil Counterpart: Being a fellow Spartan-III and experienced veteran in his own right, he's the Reformation's answer to Zach.
- Evil Sounds Deep: In conjunction with his baritone, his voice is fairly low.
- Face–Heel Turn: He used to be a Spartan-III, like Zach, but defected to Isaka's cause after being left for dead.
- Fallen Hero: A former Spartan-III who allied with Isaka after the UNSC sent him on a suicide mission.
- Foil: For Zach. Both lost their families at a young age and were taken by the UNSC for the Spartan program, but whereas Zach grew loyal, Garrett resisted and was sent to his death. Whereas Zach doesn't appear to harbor resentment and sees that the UNSC has changed since the Spartan-III program, Garrett is convinced that they're still corrupt and deserve to be destroyed, in favor of imposing an entirely new order.
- Freudian Excuse: When he refused to go along with the UNSC's program, they sent him to die on a suicide mission, but he survived and pledged his allegiance to Isaka and the Reformation to bring down the UNSC.
- The Heavy: Nyla Isaka is the leader of the Reformation, but Garrett is the one driving the plot. Isaka herself ends up captured halfway through the film, which leaves Garrett to do the heavy lifting that allows the Lifebringer to take control of the UNSC.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After a brief skirmish with the Lifebringer and Fireteam Corsair, Garrett realizes the odds are against him and retreats to fight another day.
- Motive Rant: He gives one in his first scene, furiously denouncing the UNSC as a corrupt government that ruined the lives of countless children and threw them away when they weren't needed. A justified example, because he wants Zach to join his side and would rather not fight him.
- Not Quite Dead: He was one of Zach's presumed dead squadmates, but he was revealed to have survived and had a change of allegiance.
- Old Soldier: Chronologically, he's roughly in his 60s, like Zach, but has maintained his youth and body through cryo freezing.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's the general of the Radical Reformation's military, naturally making him their best operative. It's justified, because he's a Spartan.
- Super-Soldier: He's actually a Spartan-III, one of the last ones in fact, and has decades of combat experience to boot. Flashbacks from Aftermath prove this, as he is shown to be just as combat-efficient as Zach, taking down a hunter with only an energy sword.
- Undying Loyalty: Garrett is unyieldingly loyal to Nyla Isaka, and trusts her completely. In turn, she has enough faith in him to finish the job when she is captured by the UNSC. It's this loyalty that sparks Garrett to turn against the Lifebringer when she reveals she has Nyla as a prisoner and doesn't intend to release her.
- The Unfought: Garrett and Zach never come to physical blows, despite their more intense relationship. Justified, as Garrett refuses to fight Zach, who he cares for as his brother and wants him to join his side.
- Walking Spoiler: His true identity is the main reason why most of this folder is marked out with spoilers.
- We Can Rule Together: He has some emotional attachment for Zach due to being comrades and wants him to join his side.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: As it turns out, the Lifebringer wanted Zach to assassinate Garrett for her because she also recognized he was a potential threat. Fortunately for Garrett, Zach doesn't go through with it.
Others
Hawthorne
Sergeant Hawthorne
Species: Human
Appearances: Judgement
Voiced by: Deldour
A Reformist sergeant.- Crusading Widower: He's fighting the UNSC to avenge his family. His wife and son died to UNSC bombing raids on insurrectionist territory.
- Freudian Excuse: His wife and son lived in insurrectionist territory during the Human-Covenant War and they were killed when the UNSC bombed the area, leading to his decision to join the Reformation.
- Outliving One's Offspring: His son, along with his wife, was killed by the UNSC in a raid.
Thomas
Private Thomas
Species: Human
Appearances: Judgement
Voiced by: Numbskull
A Reformist private.- Evil Brit: Speaks with an English accent.
- Freudian Excuse: The reason he joined the Reformation was because he lost his family to the Elites at Cairo and the UNSC did nothing to help them.
Jonah Abadi
Jonah Abadi
Species: Human
Appearances: Brotherhood War
Voiced by: Tatsumari
A Reformist grunt encountered during the invasion of Earth.- Ambiguously Evil: It's never confirmed whether he truly killed Abraham in self-defense or was just lying to save his own skin.
- Boom, Headshot!: Hadley offs him this way point blank.
- Dirty Coward: Another interpretation is that he did murder a wounded Abraham in cold blood and conjured a sob story to save his own skin when confronted by Zach and Corsair.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Maybe. If his claims of self-defense were genuine and he did, indeed, mean what he said, then Hadley's cold execution of him qualifies as this.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Downplayed, as his speech is discernible enough to understand what he's saying, but he's clearly torn emotionally.
- Not What I Signed Up For: He joined the Reformation to bring about change for downtrodden colonists the UNSC forsook, but he didn't realize they intended to attack populated cities to do so.
Albrecht Stigler
Albrecht Stigler
Species: Human
Appearances: Zulu Flight | Hyborean
Voiced by: Sean Valley (Zulu Flight), Tatsumari (Hyborean)
A Reformist defector who joins Zulu 4-Niner in his effort to escape Seattle.- Character Death: Dies defending the civilians from the Spartans when the Lifebringer seizes control of them again.
- Defector from Decadence: While he wasn't treated badly, per say, he was nonetheless displeased with Isaka and Garrett for unwittingly helping the Lifebringer take control of Earth and defected out of disgust.
- Enemy Mine: Invokes this with Zulu 4-Niner, rightly pointing out that the threat of the Lifebringer eclipses any grudge between the UNSC and the Reformation.
- Everyone Has Standards: While he joined an organization that worked toward the forceful overthrow of the government, dealing with the Lifebringer wasn't what he signed up for and promptly defected upon realizing his leaders put an alien megalomaniac in power.
- Fire-Forged Friends: With John Miller, AKA Zulu 4-Niner. Their escape from Seattle and subsequent survival in the wilderness together made them into close friends, and they remain so in Hyborean, almost always seen together and casually chatting it up.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. He draws the Spartans' fire to give Zulu an opening to make for the Pelican, knowing full well he'll likely die in the ensuing shootout, but Zulu's superintendent A.I., Cecil, winds up being the one to sacrifice itself so that Albrecht can escape with Zulu.
- Little "No": Utters one when he hears John was killed.
- Mauve Shirt: He's a common Reformist grunt in the grand scheme of things, but receives a name and some personality to help him stand out from the rest.
- Token Good Teammate: While a member of an insurrection movement dedicated to bringing down the UNSC, Albrecht is rather upbeat and civil in stark contrast to his more zealous comrades and has little issue working with UNSC personnel to survive the Lifebringer.
