I think that although it is quite possible that Adjutant Reflex isn't an Installation Monitor, that doesn't rule out the possibility that it is a Monitor. We know that at this time all of the Monitors were at their own Installations (or at least so it seems) so can someone tell me that if Adjutant Reflex isn't a Monitor:

What exactly is that picture of a Monitor of in the video on the Server?

Guilty and Penitent are NOT 1:1 synonyms.
One feels guilty and then becomes penitent. Penitent is more like repentant -- active remorse and attempting to right the wrong. Guilt is just feeling bad.

This leads me to think that the Monitor's names are not going to be in such a pattern as previously thought. They seem more cyclical than strictly being synonyms. There is a religious theory on this, the Pride Cycle (copied and pasted from random Google search): "Basically, God loves his children, so He gives them blessings. After a while, they get all prideful in their success and riches and power, completely forgetting God. So He knocks them down a few pegs to humble them, and when they get poor and destitute enough, they remember Him and pray for help. And because He loves them, He blesses them again and the cycle starts over."

Everyone has been looking at the noun definition of "adjutant", taking "military assistant" literally. But according to thesaurus.com, the adjectival synonyms amount to "delegated, surrogate, provisional, temporary". Couple that with the noun "reflex", which is either "response, reaction" and can be automatic to a stimulous OR "a reproduction, copy, adaptation". So, Adjutant Reflex could be a Temporary Copy or a Provisional Reaction.

And, in fitting with this "cyclical monitor" theory, Adjutant Reflex could fit the model of a Monitor, falling either before the "Spark of Guilt" as a Provisional Knee-jerk Reaction or after the "Tangent (Change of Course) of Penance (Repentance)" as a Temporary Reproduction.

Now, to argue with myself , I personally don't think that AR is a monitor, but I do think that this theory of Cyclical Monitor names makes more sense than the "RST theory", or the "6-/5-letter theory"... (you're trying to tell me that one of the monitor's names is going to be "Al G"? )

Since when has anything in the Halo-verse been linear?

We're going on things we know (and from there on, assume). As far as we know, everytime we've encountered a Monitor, it introduces itself. It's also more than willing to divulge information to those who ask. It's also been noted that the names of the Monitors have a certain sense of synonym-osity(?).

I like the theory, and it's a good point that guilty and penitent aren't 1:1 synonyms, but if I were to look in a thesaurus, I'd no doubt find penitent as a synonym for guilty.

You would find it, but it would be further down the list, and therefore further away from a synonym. After a few words in a thesaurus, you just get words with a similar correlation, not necessarily a "synonym".

Think of it this way -- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade... "Only the penitent man shall pass," so you had to kneel in order to not get your head lopped off... You can't cleanly substitute "guilty" for "penitent" in that sentence and still keep your noggin!

Like I said, I don't personally think AR is a monitor because it didn't introduce itself as one as the others did. That, I think, is the strongest evidence we have thus far. But I am not going to dismiss it outright, because there is also cause to believe that he may still be... he's innocent until proven, um, penitent?

As a matter of definition, penitent and guilty are not synonyms. The condition of being guilty is necessary for the condition of penitence, but it is extremely possible (and probably fairly common) for someone to be guilty without ever arriving at the state of penitence, which is when one is conscious of one's guilt as such, and remorseful for it, and attempting to act in a way which shows that.

Penitence is thus a form (loosely speaking) of guilt. It's a syllogistic fallacy to say otherwise, like saying "all cats are lions" is true because "all lions are cats."

That's Aristotle for ya!

My cat is a tiger.

Seriously though, is the Penitent Tangent/Guilty Spark debate still going?
I don't mean to be a party-pooper, but it seems we've beat this dead horse more than Axl Rose did on Use Your Illusion I, fellas.

It's time for a new angle on this thing--maybe a comparison of the dialogue of our two (not so?) friendly monitors? Toss it together and see what shakes out, maybe...

I compared the game script between the two. Something struck me:





Just a little connection I noticed. Sorry if it's already been seen or isn't helpful.

Oh and I did NOT find this script out by myself, I merely compiled it from various resources on Gamefaqs.com

well, looking at the transmission logs and the array recorder data, i think that AR was definatly involved in the activation of the halos, and survived- being an AI or something- the halo's being desinged to wipe out life with sufficient biomass to sustain the flood not the flood or mechanical life. but somehow, life did survive and AR detected it, but did not know what to do

If AR's a monitor, which I doubt, I don't think he'd be the monitor of a halo. 343's got that market cornered. It's possible he's the monitor of the ark, though I doubt there is one, but more liklely he's just an AI with duties pertaining to the halos and/or the ark.

Well I think he would in alphabetacal order and be the monitor to installation 3.