Get the Marathon Trilogy FREE - alephone.lhowon.org/ (also now on Steam) Marathon 2 Fan Tracks - simplici7y.com/items/marathon-2-se-tracks THE LIST - docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_K3ziSxT9zcUUGCddS4sF1uNJTWHSbOwB1CQX2Rx4Uo This was supposed to come out a lot sooner, ended up sick after the lore journey.

Honestly, Durandal blasting action music over the ship's loudspeakers while you fight aliens sounds like the exact sort of thing he'd do.

Thanks so much for having me on as Durandal. He is unquestionably one of my favorite characters of all time. I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to voice him officially, I suppose I can dream, but whether or not that ever happens, voicing him here, that's still amazing and I am so happy about it. For those wondering, I originally came up with how to voice Durandal just kinda off the cuff when I streamed the trilogy last year, but it ended up fitting him so well as I went through the games and it is kinda now one of my pillar voice types that I love to do and branch off from for projects. If you listen to enough stuff I'm in, you'll find pieces of it. I have already had a lot of folks ask me about AM from I Have No Mouth, correct, that is one inspiration when I *am* (heh) voicing him. But actually, it wasn't the main one, in fact AM wasn't even who I was thinking of at all when I originally came up with how to voice him. My pull was a little more odd I suppose but just as fitting if not even moreso, it was Cephalon Simaris from Warframe. But I didn't really set out to do an "impression" of either character per se, rather kinda just voice Durandal as I want to voice him keeping those loose inspirations in my brain. A direct 1:1 of either character wouldn't really fit Durandal snugly enough, he's kinda his own thing, and Marathon kinda has its own tone that I think direct impressions of those characters would be a little off beat with. But both of those voices are legendary in my book, so comparisons to them are indeed a compliment. Thanks for all the kind words, folks. And thanks again Mandalore, it's genuinely an honor to work with you. *And this is definitely the first time because I totally didn't voice the "I've got a bone to pick with you" line from Pathways Into Darkness, that voice line was totally just in that game all these years.* Love and kisses, Gianni

Regarding the shotgun, which appears to be both a double-barrel break action AND a lever action design, about which even Durandal in the game's manual says "I won’t waste my time trying to explain the loading mechanism to you -- your primitive mind could never grasp its complex nature," my favorite explanation I've heard proposed is this: the lever works a dynamo to generate electricity, like one of those emergency flashlights, which powers a receiver that lets Durandal just teleport new shells straight into the chambers from the ship.

Durandal carved the words "fatum iustum stultorum" into the inner moon which means "just the fate of fools.". Even in death, he's insulting tycho. Absolute legend.

I can't believe I fell for the Durandal voice actor until he said, "they're going to turn me into a crypto server!"

I like how in Marathon 1 the Pfor are all alien and mysterious, then in Marathon 2 it’s like “the 7th tactical group has deployed the 23rd pfor mechanized brigade to kill you.”

After being thoroughly fooled into believing that Pathways Into Darkness skeletons said "I have a bone to pick with you!" every time they threw a bone, I had my ears out for Gianni in this vid and was happy to have my paranoia validated.

Fun fact about the hero terminal, all of the heroes listed were known for being *ridiculously angry* . The Illiad literally starts with "tell me of the rage of Achilles", and Roland's most famous story is Orlando Furioso, literally "Roland's Fury". Gilgamesh is the only one listed who didn't die a raging, walking disaster, but even he had his episodes. So it's not only implying that you're a massive badass, it's that you're an *angry* massive badass, which makes you infinitely more dangerous.

I have to be honest, I was fully convinced that the game had voice acting. Props to Gianni for such a good voiceover.

It's important to remember that Craig Mullins was making that art digitally before Adobe Photoshop had retooled itself for digital painting and pen tablets had been developed. Marathon's art was a genuine pioneering effort.

0:59 "But you're in for a loop" And Marathon Infinity is a loop Mandalore, your foreshadowing is genuinely incredible

22:45 Halo’s original story arc was supposed to end with the twist reveal that Forerunners were humanity. However the big reveal was cut from Halo 2’s release, along with lots of indicating factors. By Halo 3 the story deviated entirely, and Guilty Spark’s line retroactively no longer made good sense.

"We probed them, all the way through. They are completely meat." "No brain, eh?" "Oh there's a brain all right, it's just made out of meat." "What . . . does the thinking then?"

24:17 “I have rechristened the Khfiva the Rozinante.” Totally no significance to him choosing Don Quixote’s horse for a ship name as he ventures out once more to try and escape the inevitable heat-death of the universe.

21:10 also, durandel being able to bend space may allow it to expand into other dimensions. As Dr. Halsey's journals explain in Halo, AI rampancy is caused when the AI starts expanding exponentially and feels a tight nose around it's neck as it starts running out of disk space. If the AI runs out of space to expand, it dies. Suddenly being struck by a feeling of mortality, AIs go haywire desperate to obtain more space to expand. Durandel now controls an entire ship he is probably transforming into a huge server, so he has plenty of room to expand... but he will occupy it all eventually. Dr. Halsey theorized that if an AI was able to break into other dimensions they could expand in all 11 dimensions which would basically give them infinite room to expand and never be threatened by their own rampancy strangling them.

25:49 mandalore's comitment to a 4D chess level joke is insane

“These areas have enough flood already” Mandalore’s writing, as always, so on point

Durandal’s “I’m Back!” made me laugh for hard. Props to the voice actor.

"How often do you find yourself running around a spaceship blasting aliens while the ship's computer is playing music over the loudspeaker?" I mean, Durandal _does_ sound like the kind of freak to do that.

The bit with 343 Guilty Spark talking to Chief within this context sent shivers down my arm.

Gianni has an excellent Harlan Ellison impression, I love AM's voice lines in I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream so its nice to hear what is essentially a reprisal of that role.

8:25 editing in snippets of Marv screaming while using the lightning pistol is a god tier editing touch

17:32 From Destiny's "Books of Sorrow", the Hive religious texts, verse 4:1 "Oryx went down into his throne world. He went out into the abyss, and with each step he read one of his tablets, so that they became like stones beneath his feet. He went out and he created an altar and he prepared an unborn ogre. He called on the Deep, saying: I can see you in the sky. *You are the waves, which are battles, and the battles are the waves.* Come into this vessel I have prepared for you. And it arrived, the Deep Itself." Another interesting little overlap. Also "The Deep" here refers to the series' central antagonist revealled at the end of the Witch Queen campaign, 'The Witness'. And one of the Witness' abillities is... you guessed it, the abillity to move entire planets by folding space. How deep does this damn rabbit hole go?

26:40 how to expense a holiday for tax purposes

Crazy how Gianni broke the space-time continuum just so he could say that he has done voice work in games that are decades old.

The most jarring part of the Robert Blake sections to me now is that the terminal images are just photos of Jason Jones at his desk in the Bungie office. It feels like placeholder art in a game that's otherwise visually polished. You could've visited it while you were in Chicago, although it's now a parking lot.

as a chicago native, i feel that last quote deeply. the chicago sky is almost always grey in winter. something about the lake means we get very little snow, but its incredibly cold. we had school closures for below 0 tempetures instead of snow. the grey sky is an endless smothering blanket, sometimes for weeks at a time. a friend of mine once described it as the wings of a great stormbird. its a little like the sea if it where hanging above you. an endless expanse, but a smothering one. hope that helps some.

Durandal's monologue about Roland and breaking the sword is my favorite rambling session that Bungie wrote for Durandal. It illustrates his qualities very well. No one can break Durandal! Unless…

Referring to kicking the ass in ship combat as making them “Drink vacuum” is awesome

"I call it...Boomer!" Truly a game ahead of the times

The robert bob arc is kind of a weird diversion but I like it as a contrast of just helping a bunch of humans survive compared to being the grunt for ais grand machiavellian schemes. Plus jason jones pictures are as comfy as they are hilarious and it's so clear how embarrassed he was to do it

"I call it BOOMER!" I would die for this AI

I really like Durandal as an evil AI character. Unlike most evil AI he resents those who sought to control him but is smart to understand that all of humanity isn’t responsible for that. So instead of being genocidal he’s more indifferent to humanity’s fate. Except it’s more complicated than that . Durandal, more than most AI I’ve seen in Sci-Fi, shows that he truly sentient by being a complex and sometimes contradictory character. He wants to see the himself as above humanity but still feels a strange connection to them as his creators and caretakers. He doesn’t want humanity to be wiped out or enslaved by the Pfor because humanity is more familiar to him than these aliens. At the same time seeing humanity wipe itself out would probably be really funny to him (or maybe not since he seemed to be concerned what humanity’s opinion of him was millennia later). Either way, Durandal is a really interesting and nuanced character that I did not expect from this series. Good to see that Bungie’s legacy of creating interesting AI characters has deep roots.

8:33 are you telling me there's a *third faction* in a bungie game? That fights everyone else? Nah, unbelievable. Would never happen.

Durandal voice moments: 7:34, 13:30, 16:30, 19:13, 19:43, 23:23, 23:57, 27:26

5:23: I like this quote, because it implies that you're expected to have run around a spaceship blasting aliens _without_ the ship's computer playing music over the loudspeaker at some point.

Would love to see you do Halo CE eventually. Less for the actual game and more to cover the crazy connections to Marathon/Pathways. As much as I love Bungie era Halo, it's sad that all that lore basically got dumped when Halo became a cultural phenomenon

The mandalor is like a full moon. Rare, shrouded in mystery, round and white

I just realised the irony of Durandal esentially using you as his sword, yet in the "hero" terminal, "I have been Roland" is the first hero referenced in the text.

Mandalore. Please. PLEASE Get Gianni to somehow do the entire trilogy and Stick it into Aleph One. A fully Voice Acted Terminal system would be AMAZING. (yes, even the weird glitchy ones!) I'd pitch in for it, that's for sure!

Fundamentally, your failure to understand the Chicago metaphor comes from visiting the city at the wrong time: that oppressive feeling is only truly experienceable while watching The Bears get smashed from the upper levels of Soldier Field in a light snowfall with the windchill driving temperatures dangerously close to 0. In the words of my father, it’s a mystical experience - one that haunts you forever.

"I call it the Boomer," nearly made me spit out my drink

"we need to make an alien language, what do we do?" "We just keysmash, then add a random apostrophe to literally every word to make it sound more sci-fi" "Perfect"

12:20 We all thought it and it didn't need to be pointed out, so Mandalore just made a subtle joke about it without changing his tone even slightly. Brilliant.

It is odd to see just how interconnected all of Bungie’s work since Pathways actually is. Thank you for showing us this.

I like that idea of that stupid C&C4 Nod man-tank thing at 13:29 basically haunting Mandalore's every waking moment.

Craig Mullens is a timeless gem of the concept art industry. The man has been doing this for so long and so well he's been on like 20 iterations of digital painting programs.

The more I learn about Marathon lore, Halo lore, and Destiny lore, the more it feels like a "This has all happened before, and this will all happen again" situation. I know Bungie just utilized the lore they already created in future projects, but my head canon is that these stories are all separate "cycles" in a repeating story.

The shotgun segment was pure Gold

Sounds like Gianni channeled Harlan Ellison for his reads. If there ever was a voice for an unhinged A.I. built out of hate, Harlan left a solid blueprint. All this to say, solid work as usual and thanks for the video!

Oh, a little late with this comment, but when the terminal says "iam%hero", sometimes a % can be used in coding to denote that it's a variable string, meaning that you could put whatever word or name you want into there. So effectively it's I am [Insert name here], but that's just one interpretation of mine.

If they ever remake Marathon they should definitely get Gianni for Durandal.

Wingdings text at 20:23 reads “Prophecy” And at 20:33 “8 days”

my favorite part about retro/obscure game reviewers like Mandy is that the first thing of the video is always "Okay, so you need to hack into the pentagon to retrieve the files to actually get this game to work."

22:42 honestly I always assumed that 343 guilty spark was defective and that it would have assumed that any human it came across was the same forerunner it had manipulated centuries ago. Even after halo 4 tried to shoehorn in a "chosen one" subplot, It never felt like master chief was literally a reincarnated champion.

The amazing thing is that so many of these plot elements show up in Destiny's lore and plot, some stuff that's only been revealed in the last year. Like, The Witness' power to take planets out of reality? Escaping the end of the universe through similar powers? The paraversal weapons from the 30th anniversary update? There's an hour long game lore video here for someone to make

As I was watching I constantly thought "man I love whoever is voice acting Durandal" Then at the end I saw it was Gianni and everything made sense.

I commend mandalore spending half the video explaining the plot of these games. The Infinity video is going to be like an hour long. If you haven't played Infinity, you really should, its incredible. Peak schizo storytelling before it was a trend.

0:59 made me chuckle upon second viewing he wasn’t joking, you’re in for a LOOP... Mandalore’s writing is top tier as always

It's cool how Bungie used "Waves were the battles, and the battles were waves" again in the books of sorrow from Destiny "I can see you in the sky. You are the waves, which are battles, and the battles are the waves. Come into this vessel I have prepared for you."

"hey this reload animation seems nice but seems a bit slow, especially for every shot. perhaps make it faster?" "no, give them two, so they can fire the other while one reloads."

You know, I always read Durandal’s text as *relentlessly joyful,* with the brief exception of describing Dr Strauss. He seemed to my younger self to be enjoying battle for battles’ sake, even when dying and despite having future plans. Of course… Durandal of all AI’s would know how to turn defeat into victory, and rise from the dead anyway.

OH GOD. The power to teleport planets. The Darkness. Mars, Mercury, Titan. Goddamn it, the rabbithole never ends.

24:50 Maybe this is forshadowing for the next game, but after a few days from watching this it suddenly struck me in a moment of odd dread. The working cackinter (however you spell that) was said to have been tossed in to a sun... The Pfor are about to blow up a sun as a military tactic and likely dont know or believe the working cackinter is anything real. . . Are we about to witness an eldritch horror get unleashed in a tactical supernova strike?

Since this video has not been flooded with comments yet, i just want to thank Mandalore for making such high quality videos and making a lot of cameo's with other youtubers. Thanks Mandalore ! I wish for more success to your channel

27:36 Barely visible in the top left. "Forks without prongs 100x10" "Real floor is white" As if working out what's happening in the story of these games isn't enough, there's also Mandy's own crypticness to contend with.

This Bungie era is just fantastic. Part of it might be the topic, but general every video you make now is a steady improvement in subtle ways that just keeps topping itself. I love how you can simultaneously get across genuine facts and evaluations of the game while being funny and having a enjoyable persona in both your performance and editing. Well done!

This is legit one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard of in gaming, and I’m not even a huge HALO fan. The dedication to continuing this story, linking the threads in such a rich way… it’s an accomplishment that requires foresight, coordination, and a uniquely united vision… I’m so impressed. But boy how the mighty have fallen. Maybe this has been continued in amazing ways, but I’ll always be left to imagine how much potential there was before the dark age of AAA gaming started.

So the 'S'ct'lac'tr' got repurposed into the Flood. Neat detail, because they sure as shit shook up Combat Evolved. 24:44 I'm pretty sure this is a reference to the fact that 343 Guilty Spark fully believed Chief was connected to the Forerunners, back when Humanity was supposed to be the Forerunners but the story hadn't developed yet.

That intro Screen has one hell of a beat.

12:39 "Among Us"

i gotta say Gianni is absolutely killer here as durandal, he gives the perfect voice to a rampant ai & i think the voice he's doing coupled with the writing absolutely remind me of the late harlan ellison

I'm beginning to wonder if Pathways/marathon, halo, and Destiny are all universe splits initiated by Durandal in an attempt to find one which has his version of peace where a warrior/spartan/guardian is not needed to preserve humanity. Something the forerunners discussed at length in the halo lore is their religious concept of the mantle of responsibility, something the shan'shyuum are trying to take for themselves in halo, which necessarily means wiping out the humans, as they were chosen to inherit the mantle back when they purged the forerunners to a standstill when trying to stop the flood millenia ago. An alternative read is that humanity, like mandalore, is stuck in the cycles of regret, and will repeat 5000 years of history again and again until we get it right. Pathways/marathon, Halo, and Destiny are the same universe just repeating ad nauseam because close to the end we always find a way to mess it up. Which leads to several questions about how the heroes work. In marathon the security officer is one man, same in halo with John. But the Young Wolf of destiny is millions of different people, sometimes human, sometimes awaken, sometimes exo, male, or female, the wolf is a heroic guardian with a fireteam of other guardians who are ALSO the young wolf going through their own stories. The Guardian we play, along with the other guardians that join us are unique players, who, in lore, are also the same hero that would wield the sword of light in some way. Crazy to think about

“Fisting is a lifesaver” truer words were never spoken.

I personally very much enjoy that the hero terminal opens with the immortal phrase "I have bee".

I have never been so compelled by a story that I haven't even experienced a single second of. I literally rewatched the marathon 1 and pathways into darkness right before watching this video to help keep track of all the details in my head. This is amazing. Also, your presentation is phenomenal. All the little cues in the editing and your script are excellent. You're doing this series of games some incredible justice. Also, idk how much audience overlap there is here, but if you're a fan of red vs blue, I also just realized why the season 13 track for the wash/carolina/locus/felix fight is named "Fatum Iustum Stultorum"

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh. I have been called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the world goes dim and cold. I am a hero. She has been nameless since our birth; a constant adversary caring for nothing but my ruin. A sword drenched in my blood forever. My greatest and only love. She is the dark one; the enemy and lover without whom my very existence would be pathetic and vulgar. Our relationship is complex and perhaps eternal. We met once in the garden at the beginning of the world and unaware of our twin destinies we matched stares across a dry fountain and I recall her smiling at me before she devoured the lawn and trees with a translucent blue flame and tore flagstones from the path and hurled them into the sky screaming my sins. I powder a granite monument in a soundless flash showering the grass with molten drops of its gold inlay, sending smoking chips of stone skipping into the fog. She splinters an ancient oak with a force that takes my breath and hurls me to the ground. She leaves.

Gianni's work as Durandal sounds just like the calmer parts of Harlan Ellison's insane rendition of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". It's honestly so good. Props!

Mandalore went to Chicago, risking geting domed, all for Marathon... respekt.

As someone who just doesn't have the patience for these older FPSs but likes good stories, I really appreciate you doing these older Bungie games so that I can vicariously experience their narratives, and have some of the connections pointed out to me. Really love your videos dude, thank you for the time and effort you put into them :)

"How often do you find yourself running around a spaceship blasting aliens while the ship's computer blasts is playing music over the loudspeaker?" i mean, how often do you find yourself running around a spaceship blasting aliens without music?

"They're going to turn me into a CRYPTO SERVER" those *BASTARDS*

12:24 So, basically, the Flood from Halo.

As far as I know Power of Seven is not, as a couple others have suggested, the same band as Psykosonik. Instead, I believe it was a solo project of Paul Sebastian, who also fronted and wrote most of the music/lyrics for Psykosonik. He also did some other video game music and had some other bands. Fun fact: the other founding member of Psykosonik was Theodore Beale, who is better known as the notorious alt-right blogger Vox Day, the inspiration for the "Sigma Grindset" meme.

27:02 The stung body of MandaloreGaming was found in the forest near London only a few days after that conversation.

I always interpreted the Monitor thing with a sort of cyber-dementia. The Monitor says the Halo has had tons of simulated firings, I assumed at some point they begun to "hallucinate" that this simulated Reclaimer was real, or that Master Chief was them snd the Monitor was no longer capable of telling the difference between reality and imagination

25:56 bro you didn't go in winter that's the problem. winter's like one of two weather-related things chicago is known for c'mon man

As I recently got into Destiny 2 thanks to my boyfriend I can appriciate Bungie as a dev team that does make you talk about phylosophy and theories with people out of genuine intrigue. Hell, it's been ages since a game or series made me intrigued in openly talking about phylosophy of life and beliefs

I always liked Durandal, even though he plays the role of antagonist sometimes I really have a hard time seeing him as a straight up villain. Shodan on the other hand...

Beekeeping is highly recommended, I grew up with my family always having one or two hive in our back yard and had a great time taking care of them. Before you start i would recommend you do some reading, bees can be killed by a lot of things you wouldn't have thought of as well as being able to just pack up and migrate if they feel like it. For example our first hive died from moths that ate all their honey. But bees are really just little sweethearts and I never got stung even when they flew into my hair or when I was harvesting honey. If you know what your doing and have proper equipment you wont find a more rewarding hobby.

That is a *phenomenal* Durandal voice. Absolutely fantastic.

"The Power of Seven" later took on the name of Psykosonik. Good tunes they got.

Really cool seeing the evolution of ideas Bungie had kicking around that came into Halo. Makes me wonder what's spent decades on the cutting room floor that might have been earmarked for that first version of Destiny before the Activision deal. And the absolute state of modern Bungie and 343...

The WSTE-M5 Combat Shotgun is the best shotgun in video gaming! Also, good luck explaining the story for Marathon Infinity. I've been playing the Marathon Trilogy on and off for 25ish years and i still don't know what is going on!

Blasting music over the ship’s speakers would absolutely be in character for Durendal Hell, he mentions composing his own music in the first game

12:27 *hears background music Mandalore has added in* Me: Oh god, oh god, oh god, the Flood are coming!!!

It is honestly amazing how all of bungie's old games still connect to each other, Halo, and destiny.

I just wish Leela had a better arc, and who knows, maybe we'll see her once again? Her goodness, her justice, her loyalty, her faith.

I didn't know Craig Mullins did art for Marathon 2 and collaborated with Bungie that early (before my time), I only knew him from his later Halo Paintings which are gorgeous and some of my favorite art from that series. Mullins was certainly someone that inspired me to get into concept art/illustration for games. He's definitely a huge inspiration for a ton of artists and is considered one of the "Godfathers" of digital painting.