: I really, really hope that's not the case.

I do too. If I had to plead his case, I'd argue that the Halo universe is much more interesting with him alive than him dead. I've really liked his interactions with Halsey as well. Maybe he bugs out at the last minute and vows revenge, or something.

To your point about Jul forming his faction of the Covenant, though, and our earlier talk about Last Light, it does feel like there's room for a c 2555-2557 tale of the state of play of the ex-Covenant species. We have mostly everything either from just a few months after the end of Halo 3 to right before Halo 4 and afterwards, and I feel like there could be a lot of interesting stuff in that transitional period. (Like what happened to Telcam and the Servants of the Abiding Truth? Keepers of the One Freedom?)