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[eosos]

So what book should I start eith ifnI want to learn more about Halo? I think the universe is really interesting, but Ive only read one book a long time ago.

 

[Tzeentch]

One example is as soon as Halsey stepped on thier ship, she seemed like she was itching to put a bullet in her head, and she disobeyed a direct order from Laskey in order to persue her to kill her.

-- As far as most of the UNSC knows, she's Space Mengele. And Lasky is the one who received a direct order to kill her. Palmer was actually doing him a favor, as he didn't have to be directly involved.

 

[Havoc2049]

So what book should I start eith ifnI want to learn more about Halo? I think the universe is really interesting, but Ive only read one book a long time ago.

The Fall of Reach is a great read. It tells the back story of the Spartan II program, the Master Chief and the events leading up to the first Halo game.

 

[Flipyap]

343 is clearly interested in crafting a far more nuanced and realistic universe. I think they've largely succeeded, but would also add that if you're striving for realism and subtlety there's an extra onus for your writing to be tight and performances to be spot-on; they've got the latter, but the former could use some work.

I'm really not sure where you're getting this from. The Halo expanded universe was always full of organizations and characters with questionable morals. Under 343 all of those became mustache-twirling villains.
ONI is no longer satisfied with abductions and genetic experiments on a budget, they now take actions that either have a 50/50 chance to jeopardize what little remains of humanity (the civil war), or would almost certainly destroy all life in the universe (weaponized Flood). Halsey no longer does whatever she feels she must to keep humanity from destroying itself, she now seeks revenge backed by an army of profoundly moronic religious fanatics from outer space.
... and then there's the Master Chief's Magical Destiny.

343's take on the universe is certainly "darker" and "grittier", but it's an even dumber cartoon world than it ever was. And it was prettttty dumb.

#foodnipples

 

[Korten]

I'm really not sure where you're getting this from. The Halo expanded universe was always full of organizations and characters with questionable morals. Under 343 all of those became mustache-twirling villains.
ONI is no longer satisfied with abductions and genetic experiments on a budget, they now take actions that either have a 50/50 chance to jeopardize what little remains of humanity (the civil war), or would almost certainly destroy all life in the universe (weaponized Flood). Halsey no longer does whatever she feels she must to keep humanity from destroying itself, she now seeks revenge backed by an army of profoundly moronic religious fanatics from outer space.
... and then there's the Master Chief's Magical Destiny.

343's take on the universe is certainly "darker" and "grittier", but it's an even dumber cartoon world than it ever was. And it was prettttty dumb.

#foodnipples

The weaponizing the flood by ONI was by Bungie, not 343i, just to clarify. At least I'm pretty sure, it came from Halo: Evolutions, which I'm pretty sure was when Bungie still held domain over the IP's story.

 

[Flipyap]

The weaponizing the flood by ONI was by Bungie, not 343i, just to clarify.

[citation needed]

I don't remember seeing anything of that sort before Halo: Evolutions, which was 343's fault.

 

[The Flash]

This is my kind of party. Subbed.

 

[Tzeentch]

[citation needed]

I don't remember seeing anything of that sort before Halo: Evolutions, which was 343's fault.

-- Maj Silva wanted to bring back Flood for experimentation. That was wayyyyy back in The Flood

“It’s clear that the ship is still infected, sir. I suggest that we put down and sterilize every square centimeter prior to lifting again.”

“Negative,Lieutenant,” Silva replied grimly. “I have reason to believe that Halo is going to blow, and soon. Besides, I want some specimens, so see what you can do to capture some of the ugly bastards.”

“The Lieutenant is correct,” Wellsley put in dispassionately. “The risk is too great. I urge you to reconsider.”

“My decision is final,” Silva growled. “Now, return to your duties, and that’s an order.”

 

[Toa TAK]

Thank you OP for linking to the Superior wiki.

 

[Korten]

Well, fiction is a product of its time. And the fact that we do have intelligence organizations that act in a rogue fashion to further our interests in a way many would deem unethical or counterproductive makes ONI's actions ring true to me. Remember that it's not the whole UNSC that's at fault here.

With that said, Bungie never really spent much time on the fact that the humans we were rooting for were part of a Heinlein-esque totalitarian space corps. Being a regular joe in the Halo universe is not exactly a nice place, and it's completely understandable why the colonists went to such desperate measures to try and get their independence.

343 is clearly interested in crafting a far more nuanced and realistic universe. I think they've largely succeeded, but would also add that if you're striving for realism and subtlety there's an extra onus for your writing to be tight and performances to be spot-on; they've got the latter, but the former could use some work.

I have to agree, it very much is a more realistic universe. Things aren't so black and white. What ONI is doing, is bad, however not unrealistic. In real life history we have had groups (many part of governments) do horrible experiments on people and weaponize biological weapons. Not just that but many of these organizations gave weapons to groups in other countries to keep the flames of civil war going.

And the Halsey bashing by ONI? Understandable, doesn't make it right, but it's understandable. Near the end of the war, a lot of the S-II, and S-III information was being leaked, and if ONI was outted as being the mastermind, they knew they could never be trusted again. So they got a simple solution, put Halsey at the front, make her image the front of everything so the name ONI begins to fade from being part of the S-II and S-III programs.

 

[Flipyap]

-- Maj Silva wanted to bring back Flood for experimentation. That was wayyyyy back in The Flood

I haven't read that thing, so I don't know if there's more to it, but that quote doesn't necessarily suggest malicious intent.

Maybe he just wanted to keep some as pets, I hear they're quite decorative.

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

The weaponizing the flood by ONI was by Bungie, not 343i, just to clarify. At least I'm pretty sure, it came from Halo: Evolutions, which I'm pretty sure was when Bungie still held domain over the IP's story.

-- Maj Silva wanted to bring back Flood for experimentation. That was wayyyyy back in The Flood

That's hardly having ONI wanting to experiment and weaponize the Flood.

This was humanities first contact with the Flood and I don't think the opinion of one Major holds and credence to the goals of ONI or any Earth government.

With the knowledge of the Flood that humanity has now, I doubt they have any intentions to ever attempt to weaponize it.

 

[Tzeentch]

That's hardly having ONI wanting to experiment and weaponize the Flood.

-- The point is that it's not like the idea came out of left field in Evolutions. Or even out of left field in sci-fi, where it's a well known trope.

 

[l Zealot l]

I'm really not sure where you're getting this from. The Halo expanded universe was always full of organizations and characters with questionable morals. Under 343 all of those became mustache-twirling villains.
ONI is no longer satisfied with abductions and genetic experiments on a budget, they now take actions that either have a 50/50 chance to jeopardize what little remains of humanity (the civil war), or would almost certainly destroy all life in the universe (weaponized Flood). Halsey no longer does whatever she feels she must to keep humanity from destroying itself, she now seeks revenge backed by an army of profoundly moronic religious fanatics from outer space.
... and then there's the Master Chief's Magical Destiny.

343's take on the universe is certainly "darker" and "grittier", but it's an even dumber cartoon world than it ever was. And it was prettttty dumb.

#foodnipples

This so much.
Halo was never really one for realism, but I think 343 have taken it away further.
MC has always had a "chosen one" kinda feel but now it's just brought out abroad by events in 4. At this point I expect him to use biotic powers in 5, not really realistic.

Other things I think are stupid in the current universe:
Elites: I've talked about them to death about how I dislike their treatment post war, so much inconsistencies with their story and current status.
The Didact: this guy should have been paced way better, probably not even awakened until 5. They needed to build him up as this big bad guy that fucked shit up (which was shown in Bears trilogy) what we got was a half baked, c-movie grade villain. Just like in c-grade action films the bad guy mets his demise at the end of the film. His motives are near comical and as such made him a boring character.
UNSC: way to overpowered and boring.

 

[TacticalFox88]

Gotta admit though, they DID fucking nail the didacts voice if anything. Badass to the extreme.

 

[Toa TAK]

I'm really not sure where you're getting this from. The Halo expanded universe was always full of organizations and characters with questionable morals. Under 343 all of those became mustache-twirling villains.
ONI is no longer satisfied with abductions and genetic experiments on a budget, they now take actions that either have a 50/50 chance to jeopardize what little remains of humanity (the civil war), or would almost certainly destroy all life in the universe (weaponized Flood). Halsey no longer does whatever she feels she must to keep humanity from destroying itself, she now seeks revenge backed by an army of profoundly moronic religious fanatics from outer space.
... and then there's the Master Chief's Magical Destiny.

Sweet Marty, please don't remind me. Everything in the Librarian cutscene somehow undermined everyone in the Halo lore.

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

Sweet Marty, please don't remind me. Everything in the Librarian cutscene somehow undermined everyone in the Halo lore.

Seriously, what a stupid thing 343 did.

Everything that has happened was leading to this, it was inevitable that someone with your genetic makeup would come into existence.

She planned everything. After humanity was devolved she insured that humanity would be the holders of the mantle and that we would evolve back into our original glory.


Good thing Earth wasn't wrecked by an asteroid between that time period. Good thing Yellowstone didn't destroy civilization between now and then. Good thing any number of random events didn't happen that could have easily wiped out humanity, ensuring her perfect plan would go to shit.

How did she make sure John would come into existence at the right time? What if the chosen one was born a century too early?

The new lore of her basically ensuring humanity succeeding and thriving again is stupid. The original idea of us being found by the end of the Forerunner/Flood war actually makes sense. They were about to fire the last resort, their species was on the brink of extinction and they just found us.

We were special, we were their last resort for the mantle. Of all the species that existed in their infancy they entrusted only us. There was no great design or plan to make sure we would become space faring, it was just humanity or bust when it came to the mantle of responsibility.

Instead we have the new books came along and threw that all away.

Edit: You know what, I'll go so far as to say they should have never went into detail of the Forerunner's. One of the cardinal rules of having ancient alien civilizations is that you keep that shit fucking secret and mysterious. The terminals in Halo 3 were great because we got a window into what was happening during the Forerunner/Flood war and the events that led up to the rings firing. That's cool, we learned about an event that is huge, but still kept the identity of the Forerunners largely shrouded in secrecy.

You might be able to get away with having grandiose plans of long gone alien civilizations if you keep them dead and burred. The moment you bring them back to life or have direct detail into their actions everything starts to fall apart because it's extremely difficult to write legitimate explanations for the actions of gods.

Not only that, but you destroy any type of "Awe" when you reveal the true identity or origin of ancient civilizations. The Reapers in ME were a great because for two games we had no idea what they were, just they they were. They had no reason to explain their actions, they look at us as ants. That's why the original Sovern conversation was so amazing, you were speaking to something so powerful and godlike that had no interest in explaining what it was who why it was doing what it was doing.

Then they come along and explain not only the goals of the Reapers, but their fucking origin in a DLC.

Same thing happened with Prometheus, those fucking Space Jokey's should have stayed dead. They are so much more interesting if they stay a mystery, with only clues to attempt to piece their past together.

 

[TacticalFox88]

Seriously, what a stupid thing 343 did.

Everything that has happened was leading to this, it was inevitable that someone with your genetic makeup would come into existence.

She planned everything. After humanity was devolved she insured that humanity would be the holders of the mantle and that we would evolve back into our original glory.


Good thing Earth wasn't wrecked by an asteroid between that time period. Good thing Yellowstone didn't destroy civilization between now and then. Good thing any number of random events didn't happen that could have easily wiped out humanity, ensuring her perfect plan would go to shit.

How did she make sure John would come into existence at the right time? What if the chosen one was born a century too early?

The new lore of her basically ensuring humanity succeeding and thriving again is stupid. The original idea of us being found by the end of the Forerunner/Flood war actually makes sense. They were about to fire the last resort, their species was on the brink of extinction and they just found us.

We were special, we were their last resort for the mantle. Of all the species that existed in their infancy they entrusted only us. There was no great design or plan to make sure we would become space faring, it was just humanity or bust when it came to the mantle of responsibility.

Instead we have the new books came along and threw that all away.

Edit: You know what, I'll go so far as to say they should have never went into detail of the Forerunner's. One of the cardinal rules of having ancient alien civilizations is that you keep that shit fucking secret and mysterious. The terminals in Halo 3 were great because we got a window into what was happening during the Forerunner/Flood war and the events that led up to the rings firing. That's cool, we learned about an event that is huge, but still kept the identity of the Forerunners largely shrouded in secrecy.

You might be able to get away with having grandiose plans of long gone alien civilizations if you keep them dead and burred. The moment you bring them back to life or have direct detail into their actions everything starts to fall apart because it's extremely difficult to write legitimate explanations for the actions of gods.

Not only that, but you destroy any type of "Awe" when you reveal the true identity or origin of ancient civilizations. The Reapers in ME were a great because for two games we had no idea what they were, just they they were. They had no reason to explain their actions, they look at us as ants. That's why the original Sovern conversation was so amazing, you were speaking to something so powerful and godlike that had no interest in explaining what it was who why it was doing what it was doing.

Then they come along and explain not only the goals of the Reapers, but their fucking origin in a DLC.

Same thing happened with Prometheus, those fucking Space Jokey's should have stayed dead. They are so much more interesting if they stay a mystery, with only clues to attempt to piece their past together.

Eh? The problem isn't that the mystery should've kept mysterious. The problem is the explanations are fucking stupid.

 

[l Zealot l]

Eh? The problem isn't that the mystery should've kept mysterious. The problem is the explanations are fucking stupid.

The break between reach and 4 was filled with detailing a lot of Halos mysteries. It also in a way made 4 less appealing. Okay cool requiem, I already know it's function and it's purpose. Also due to the Didacts symbol been flashed everywhere I guess his in it.

 

[The Flash]

So do you guys think that the Flood will pop up again at some point?

 

[Fuchsdh]

I'm really not sure where you're getting this from. The Halo expanded universe was always full of organizations and characters with questionable morals. Under 343 all of those became mustache-twirling villains.
ONI is no longer satisfied with abductions and genetic experiments on a budget, they now take actions that either have a 50/50 chance to jeopardize what little remains of humanity (the civil war), or would almost certainly destroy all life in the universe (weaponized Flood). Halsey no longer does whatever she feels she must to keep humanity from destroying itself, she now seeks revenge backed by an army of profoundly moronic religious fanatics from outer space.
... and then there's the Master Chief's Magical Destiny.

343's take on the universe is certainly "darker" and "grittier", but it's an even dumber cartoon world than it ever was. And it was prettttty dumb.

#foodnipples

Why do you think Halsey is actually interested in revenge? I'd be telling the big bad Elite whose whims my life depends on what he wants to hear.

 

[l Zealot l]

Why do you think Halsey is actually interested in revenge? I'd be telling the big bad Elite whose whims my life depends on what he wants to hear.

I Feel the same. But I don't see her rushing back to the UNSC/ONI just to be trialed and sentenced either. She may well end up with the Innies.

 

[TacticalFox88]

I Feel the same. But I don't see her rushing back to the UNSC/ONI just to be trialed and sentenced either. She may well end up with the Innies.

Nah. I think the only side Halsey is on is her own.

 

[Flipyap]

So do you guys think that the Flood will pop up again at some point?

I think it should return, but I don't know if 343 can afford to announce that they're bringing back the thing that's synonymous with everything that is "bad" about Halo. It would probably take a cunning multi-game pile of plans and twists to ease people into the idea of fighting the Flood again, even if they were to radically change its design and behavior.
Then again, it's not like their current digital flood skeleton bug robots and their robot puppies are an improvement.

Why do you think Halsey is actually interested in revenge? I'd be telling the big bad Elite whose whims my life depends on what he wants to hear.

That sounds like something Nylund's Halsey would do, I don't know if this Halsey inspires as much confidence when they chose to ditch her arrogant scientist persona from Reach and replaced it with this bizarrely theatrical scheming villain performance after entire books and this CG series of constant abuse from UNSC (while characterizing her as Space Mengele). But hey, it's possible, even though it's going to confuse the living hell out of the video game audience.

 

[Fuchsdh]

I think it should return, but I don't know if 343 can afford to announce that they're bringing back the thing that's synonymous with everything that is "bad" about Halo. It would probably take a cunning multi-game pile of plans and twists to ease people into the idea of fighting the Flood again, even if they were to radically change its design and behavior.
Then again, it's not like their current digital flood skeleton bug robots and their robot puppies are an improvement.


That sounds like something Nylund's Halsey would do, I don't know if this Halsey inspires as much confidence when they chose to ditch her arrogant scientist persona from Reach and replaced it with this bizarrely theatrical scheming villain performance after entire books and this CG series of constant abuse from UNSC (while characterizing her as Space Mengele). But hey, it's possible, even though it's going to confuse the living hell out of the video game audience.

You throw out a lot of adjectives there, but frankly I think your rage regarding this blinds you to an even-keeled critical appraisal. She is not presented as a scheming villain in any way in Spartan Ops.

 

[Ein Bear]

So do you guys think that the Flood will pop up again at some point?

I hope so. I honestly like the Flood, I enjoy how crazy intense they make the games get. Kinda reminds me of Doom, makes for a fun change in gameplay. The Library, played co-operatively on Legendary is awesome.

I think Halo 2 handled them the best though, where the Flood levels were mixed in with the 'regular' levels.

 

[Toa TAK]

So do you guys think that the Flood will pop up again at some point?

I hope so, they seem pretty integral to the universe I would hate to see them go. But at the same time, I'm not all that for enemies just swarming me in gameplay.

 

[LordOfChaos]

I didn't think Spartan Ops vilified Halsey much, what's with that thinking? When I watched it without reading other opinions first, my take was that she was just dealing with an incompetent organization (ONI) that vilified her, not that the goal was to vilify her to the gamers watching.

I think there's little chance the Flood are gone for good. If they add them back with tact, I'm fine with it, just don't make a whole half of a game Flood or anything.

Spoiler

and pleaaaase stay dead when I kill them the first time

 

[Flipyap]

You throw out a lot of adjectives there, but frankly I think your rage regarding this blinds you to an even-keeled critical appraisal. She is not presented as a scheming villain in any way in Spartan Ops.

Uh huh, tell me more about how I feel about this, I'm learning some new things here.
Jen Taylor radically changed the way she plays Halsey for Halo 4, it sounds like either a woman who aged good 20 years in 5, or she's doing some weird villain routine.
There's no reason for anyone who hasn't read the books to have a single positive thought about that character. She's introduced as a traitor, all the good guys from the campaign hate her, she schemes behind their backs and is shown as not entirely competent, and by the end she makes a deal with the enemy.
I don't know if she even seems important to the plot by that point, because her so-called achievements were just a bullet point on an ancient alien's to-do list.

 

[LordOfChaos]

When did Jen voice Halsey before 4? I can't remember her being onscreen before it. Cortana, yes, but Cortana is supposed to be a younger woman/AI/thing

 

[Tzeentch]

You throw out a lot of adjectives there, but frankly I think your rage regarding this blinds you to an even-keeled critical appraisal. She is not presented as a scheming villain in any way in Spartan Ops.

This.

 

[Toa TAK]

When did Jen voice Halsey before 4? I can't remember her being onscreen before it. Cortana, yes, but Cortana is supposed to be a younger woman/AI/thing

Halo Reach.

 

[aarcane]

When did Jen voice Halsey before 4? I can't remember her being onscreen before it. Cortana, yes, but Cortana is supposed to be a younger woman/AI/thing

Halsey's in Reach.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Uh huh, tell me more about how I feel about this, I'm learning some new things here.
Jen Taylor radically changed the way she plays Halsey for Halo 4, it sounds like either a woman who aged good 20 years in 5, or she's doing some weird villain routine.
There's no reason for anyone who hasn't read the books to have a single positive thought about that character. She's introduced as a traitor, all the good guys from the campaign hate her, she schemes behind their backs and is shown as not entirely competent, and by the end she makes a deal with the enemy.
I don't know if she even seems important to the plot by that point, because her so-called achievements were just a bullet point on an ancient alien's to-do list.

I'm glad you're learning you're overreacting, because you are complaining about the voice direction, voice direction which makes perfect sense considering Taylor is twenty-five years younger than the age of the character she's playing. Criticize Taylor's ability to age her voice, I guess, but calling that a "villain routine" is ridiculous.

When did Jen voice Halsey before 4? I can't remember her being onscreen before it. Cortana, yes, but Cortana is supposed to be a younger woman/AI/thing

She shows up in two levels of Halo: Reach.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Ah, I hadn't seen that.

But anyways, I don't think she sounds villainous in 4, she just sounds like a woman who is completely fed up of years of questioning, and one who doesn't feel the need to explain everything to those less intelligent then her. I dunno. I never once interpreted Halo 4 or Spartan Ops as shitting on Halsey. It didn't say she was great for kidnapping children either, but it doesn't unfairly vilify her.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

But hey, it's possible, even though it's going to confuse the living hell out of the video game audience.

I think you'd be surprised at just how many people are thinking she's just telling the Elites what they want to hear lol

But hey, if anything comes from this it's that Halsey is a complex character in a complex situation who isn't dead yet, both literally and figuratively. She's easily one of the better characters in the Halo Universe.

 

[LordOfChaos]

I immediately thought she was bluffing to the elites too. She spent her whole life trying to save the human race, come on. She may be pissed at the ONI but helping the rebel faction is something else. I think she's just trying to stay alive and play them.

 

[The Flash]

I think it should return, but I don't know if 343 can afford to announce that they're bringing back the thing that's synonymous with everything that is "bad" about Halo. It would probably take a cunning multi-game pile of plans and twists to ease people into the idea of fighting the Flood again, even if they were to radically change its design and behavior.
Then again, it's not like their current digital flood skeleton bug robots and their robot puppies are an improvement.

I hope so, they seem pretty integral to the universe I would hate to see them go. But at the same time, I'm not all that for enemies just swarming me in gameplay.

I hope so. I honestly like the Flood, I enjoy how crazy intense they make the games get. Kinda reminds me of Doom, makes for a fun change in gameplay. The Library, played co-operatively on Legendary is awesome.

I think Halo 2 handled them the best though, where the Flood levels were mixed in with the 'regular' levels.

I'd like to see them came back in some fashion as well. Don't how or in what form but I think the Flood should back a come back.

 

[X-Frame]

Hey everyone,

Apologies if this has already been discussed, but the last Halo book I read was Ghosts of Onyx and I remembered enjoying it. Has there been a sequel to the story lines from that book with the same characters?

 

[Toa TAK]

I think you'd be surprised at just how many people are thinking she's just telling the Elites what they want to hear lol

But hey, if anything comes from this it's that Halsey is a complex character in a complex situation who isn't dead yet, both literally and figuratively. She's easily one of the better characters in the Halo Universe.

If not the best. Right now the competing two for me are easily her and Thel/the Arbiter.

 

[The Flash]

Hey everyone,

Apologies if this has already been discussed, but the last Halo book I read was Ghosts of Onyx and I remembered enjoying it. Has there been a sequel to the story lines from that book with the same characters?

Halo: Glasslands. To an extent.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Hey everyone,

Apologies if this has already been discussed, but the last Halo book I read was Ghosts of Onyx and I remembered enjoying it. Has there been a sequel to the story lines from that book with the same characters?

Glasslands features many of the same characters, but it's not a direct continuation of all the same story threads. So don't go into it thinking it's a "sequel" to GoO.

 

[X-Frame]

Halo: Glasslands. To an extent.

Glasslands features many of the same characters, but it's not a direct continuation of all the same story threads. So don't go into it thinking it's a "sequel" to GoO.

Thanks you two, I will check it out!

 

[PachinkoChampBruh]

Gotta admit though, they DID fucking nail the didacts voice if anything. Badass to the extreme.

yeah he has the best speech at the end, i hope he returns.

 

[l Zealot l]

Thanks you two, I will check it out!

It's not anywhere near as good as GoO IMO.

 

[Trey]

Halsey is obviously running the long con - pitting the Storm faction against ONI in order to destroy both.

At least the way I see it.

Few books in the Halo franchise are better than Ghosts of Onyx. Comparatively, the Kilo Five Trilogy had a bunch of boring characters I cared nothing about. It wasn't convincing in its tear down of Halsey, or making the reader really feel why Osman and Parangosky hate her so. They're just words on a page telling you "ugh, that bitch! Think of the children!"

The morality it tries to press falls completely flat on its face

 

[Regret Upon Approval]

Yes, yes I do quite like the Halo lore. I've spent time in the past browsing the wikis.

Seriously, what a stupid thing 343 did.

Everything that has happened was leading to this, it was inevitable that someone with your genetic makeup would come into existence.

She planned everything. After humanity was devolved she insured that humanity would be the holders of the mantle and that we would evolve back into our original glory.


Good thing Earth wasn't wrecked by an asteroid between that time period. Good thing Yellowstone didn't destroy civilization between now and then. Good thing any number of random events didn't happen that could have easily wiped out humanity, ensuring her perfect plan would go to shit.

How did she make sure John would come into existence at the right time? What if the chosen one was born a century too early?

The new lore of her basically ensuring humanity succeeding and thriving again is stupid. The original idea of us being found by the end of the Forerunner/Flood war actually makes sense. They were about to fire the last resort, their species was on the brink of extinction and they just found us.

We were special, we were their last resort for the mantle. Of all the species that existed in their infancy they entrusted only us. There was no great design or plan to make sure we would become space faring, it was just humanity or bust when it came to the mantle of responsibility.

Instead we have the new books came along and threw that all away.

Edit: You know what, I'll go so far as to say they should have never went into detail of the Forerunner's. One of the cardinal rules of having ancient alien civilizations is that you keep that shit fucking secret and mysterious. The terminals in Halo 3 were great because we got a window into what was happening during the Forerunner/Flood war and the events that led up to the rings firing. That's cool, we learned about an event that is huge, but still kept the identity of the Forerunners largely shrouded in secrecy.

You might be able to get away with having grandiose plans of long gone alien civilizations if you keep them dead and burred. The moment you bring them back to life or have direct detail into their actions everything starts to fall apart because it's extremely difficult to write legitimate explanations for the actions of gods.

Not only that, but you destroy any type of "Awe" when you reveal the true identity or origin of ancient civilizations. The Reapers in ME were a great because for two games we had no idea what they were, just they they were. They had no reason to explain their actions, they look at us as ants. That's why the original Sovern conversation was so amazing, you were speaking to something so powerful and godlike that had no interest in explaining what it was who why it was doing what it was doing.

Then they come along and explain not only the goals of the Reapers, but their fucking origin in a DLC.

Same thing happened with Prometheus, those fucking Space Jokey's should have stayed dead. They are so much more interesting if they stay a mystery, with only clues to attempt to piece their past together.

I agree. The ultimate chosen one as well as all the other things like humanity being a space faring race that was de-evolved... Was too much, couldn't wave it away with some suspension of disbelief.

 

[Ubersnug]

Glasslands features many of the same characters, but it's not a direct continuation of all the same story threads. So don't go into it thinking it's a "sequel" to GoO.

But it does introduce two new ODST's called Vaz and Mal who I enjoyed to read more about as I read through the Kilo five trilogy, especially in the last book (Which I haven't finished yet

Spoiler

Just got to the bit where Vaz and Mal are being interrogated by Naomi's father, Staffan. Vaz just told him that she was kidnapped for Earth's greater good and if he wanted more info then he better let them live.

.

 

[Tablo]

Oh man Ghosts of Onyx damn near blew my mind way back when I read it. Such a well written and great piece.

 

[l Zealot l]

But it does introduce two new ODST's called Vaz and Mal who I enjoyed to read more about as I read through the Kilo five trilogy.

I think I would have liked them more if they hadn't spent (what felt like for me) most of their time talking about Halsay been Hitler for kidnapping the kids and crying about Naomi's life.
It was boring and feels like already treaded on territory in the Halo universe.

I liked the part in Glasslands when they walked through a war torn Earth reflecting on the state of things.