• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Halo TV Series | Discussion

Pilgrimzero

Member
Do you mean the Covenant-adopted human? If so, the captain doesn't need to know "what" she is to know that she is clearly a threat at that moment, and that she's obviously giving orders to the lekgolo as they attack the UNSC soldiers. So like... stop shooting at the wormy thingy that's impossible to shoot and shoot instead at the humanoid form in front of you?

It's a nitpicky silly thing, but it bothers me when writers corner themselves into these idiotic scenarios where the only way to make things work is to have the characters behave illogically (which to be fair to the Halo writers happens a lot both in TV and film).

Instead, they could have:
1. Shown the Covenant-adopted human being picked up just like in the show. Get on the ground, they search her, etc.
2. Show the lekgolo slithering through vents or whatever, out of sight.
3. Bring the human to an interrogation room. The lekgolo have made their way to the bridge where the captain is. They attack there while the prisoner is in the interrogation room.

It's just so silly to force characters to act irrationally just for the story to proceed. These are trained UNSC soldiers, that have probably killed other humans before (insurgents). Why would they not kill this one human that is clearly a threat and clearly in command of the enemy forces during that sequence?

It would have also spared us the plasma nail-knife or whatever that idiotic thing was haha.

No, Cortana. They cant act like friends yet like in the games because they have zero history together at this point.
 
No, Cortana. They cant act like friends yet like in the games because they have zero history together at this point.
Oh, my bad, thanks for clearing that up.

I'm not expecting them to act as friends. I'm about to go on again about the source material vs this adaptation, so I guess feel free to ignore me :p haha.

In Fall of Reach Cortana chooses Chief as her teammate. By the time they "meet" she's already studied him and his service record, probably done a full psych profile on him, and understands that Chief raises the odds of successfully completing the mission ahead (infiltrating the Covenant home planet and capturing a Prophet). When Chief finally meets Cortana, she's introduced by Halsey in terms of a "system improvement", a weapon, tactical advantage for their upcoming mission. Even if Chief is initially wary about having an A.I. possibly controlling him or the armor (a concern Halsey dismisses by explaining it's not possible due to the technology used), he accepts to work with Cortana right away because it's the mission and the mission is the only thing Chief cares about. It's his character. So after going through an obstacle course and confirming that in fact Cortana is improving his chances of success, he's interested in working with her.

In the show, Chief goes AWOL in E1 and is working against his training and conditioning, essentially malfunctioning. So Halsey needs to bring Chief back in line, and she uses Cortana for that, who apparently was designed precisely to have full mental and physical control over Chief. So from the beginning they obviously distrust each other because Chief is unreliable, and Cortana feels her directive is to fully override Chief, which she's not being allowed to do. In more than one ocasion in that episode she's trying to take over control of Chief until Halsey gives her permission to do so. Out of all the scenarios the writers could have gone with, they decided to go with the antagonistic one where Chief's broken, does not want to work with Cortana, and she just wants to use Chief like a suit of armor. Why? Is this just trying to force character development where Chief will eventually understand that the mission is the #1 priority and stop being emotional, and Cortana will come to know that Chief does not need to be overriden by an A.I.? Or will the characters continue on this same path and just constantly put each other at odds because they can't work together? Either way I think it's kind of a poor choice, in my opinion of course.

Time will tell I guess? As I said in an earlier post it seems people are ok with the characterization for Chief, Halsey, and now Cortana, so maybe people like a bit of soap opera in their military sci-fi content. :(
 
Last edited:

miles118

Member
Oh, my bad, thanks for clearing that up.

I'm not expecting them to act as friends. I'm about to go on again about the source material vs this adaptation, so I guess feel free to ignore me :p haha.

In Fall of Reach Cortana chooses Chief as her teammate. By the time they "meet" she's already studied him and his service record, probably done a full psych profile on him, and understands that Chief raises the odds of successfully completing the mission ahead (infiltrating the Covenant home planet and capturing a Prophet). When Chief finally meets Cortana, she's introduced by Halsey in terms of a "system improvement", a weapon, tactical advantage for their upcoming mission. Even if Chief is initially wary about having an A.I. possibly controlling him or the armor (a concern Halsey dismisses by explaining it's not possible due to the technology used), he accepts to work with Cortana right away because it's the mission and the mission is the only thing Chief cares about. It's his character. So after going through an obstacle course and confirming that in fact Cortana is improving his chances of success, he's interested in working with her.

In the show, Chief goes AWOL in E1 and is working against his training and conditioning, essentially malfunctioning. So Halsey needs to bring Chief back in line, and she uses Cortana for that, who apparently was designed precisely to have full mental and physical control over Chief. So from the beginning they obviously distrust each other because Chief is unreliable, and Cortana feels her directive is to fully override Chief, which she's not being allowed to do. In more than one ocasion in that episode she's trying to take over control of Chief until Halsey gives her permission to do so. Out of all the scenarios the writers could have gone with, they decided to go with the antagonistic one where Chief's broken, does not want to work with Cortana, and she just wants to use Chief like a suit of armor. Why? Is this just trying to force character development where Chief will eventually understand that the mission is the #1 priority and stop being emotional, and Cortana will come to know that Chief does not need to be overriden by an A.I.? Or will the characters continue on this same path and just constantly put each other at odds because they can't work together? Either way I think it's kind of a poor choice, in my opinion of course.

Time will tell I guess? As I said in an earlier post it seems people are ok with the characterization for Chief, Halsey, and now Cortana, so maybe people like a bit of soap opera in their military sci-fi content. :(
I am okay with Chief. But I do not like this version of Cortana at all. I hope they will somehow correct this in the coming episodes.
 
It has been almost one week and the image of "Master Chief" standing bare ass naked in the gray concrete bathroom while Cortana creepily stands behind and stares at him, has been seared into my mind.

One of the most disturbing images from a TV show or Film in recent memory.
 
Last edited:

LordOfChaos

Member
This is definitely not as bad as I thought it could be. You have to forget all the Halo lore you love to get into it, but as just a marines in space with aliens and a lot of details borrowed from the Halo universe, not bad.
 
It has been almost one week and the image of "Master Chief" standing bare ass naked in the gray concrete bathroom while Cortana creepily stands behind and stares at him, has been seared into my mind.

One of the most disturbing images from a TV show or Film in recent memory.

Nylund's books Cortana would have looked down, smirked and had a quip to fire off as well.

Now that's a natural formation Chief.

Cocked and loaded I see.

Humanity evolved indeed.
 
Last edited:
After a slower Ep3, which was good, I was hoping for more action and progression with Ep4. It has been pretty slow and slow continued through Ep4 alright.

I really don't care for the revolution side of things. Can we get to some Spartan/Chief vs Covies already? Again no space battle at all. No Spartans deployed in the middle of a war. Nothing really pushing Chief and Cortana forward in terms of relationship or tight spots or discoveries. Too much touchy feely again for me.

It feels like Nightfall again, slow with little action. I hope there is a ton of action and progression in the last 3-4 episodes. We are 45% through and I feel like Ep2-4 just rehashed the same human feeling aspects over in slightly different ways.

Where is the big picture stuff? Space Opera? Action? Strategy in battle? Humanity on a knife edge?
 
Last edited:

jason10mm

Gold Member
Remember when the 70's era space show Battlestar Galactica had 1 obligatory space battle per episode, mostly with recycled footage?

Can we at least go back to that?
 
This show just keeps getting better and better and better. I'm seeing why it was renewed for a second season. They fucking did it. They managed to make an amazing TV Series based on the Halo franchise. It's genuinely up there.

This show is made for people who love Halo's extended lore and the novels, and it shows. I see some people asking about the larger conflict with the Covenant, the larger human extinction threat, but they ask such questions not seeming to understand that what's depicted here is exactly what the human and covenant war was. It wasn't always a massive UNSC vs Covenant standoff. It wasn't always the massive encounters like the Reach attack, the battle on the first Halo, the Covenant finding Earth, the Ark, Delta Halo, the battle on Requiem.

Everything builds to that stuff. They're wise to start out by first giving us greater insight into all the characters and the larger universe. It's the only way the major events and big climax will mean anything.
 
Last edited:

jason10mm

Gold Member
This show just keeps getting better and better and better. I'm seeing why it was renewed for a second season. They fucking did it. They managed to make an amazing TV Series based on the Halo franchise. It's genuinely up there.
.....
Everything builds to that stuff. They're wise to start out by first giving us greater insight into all the characters and the larger universe. It's the only way the major events and big climax will mean anything.
I'm curious. Do you think that somehow MC will reconcile with the government and come back around to being a loyal soldier? Without that how does anything in the show ever reconnect to anything in the games?

From what I can see so far, we are going to get a three way race to some forerunner macguffin at best. I don't see how he can remain a spartan used in major ops when he is directly subverting the program. I'm sure there will be battles and planetary take overs that use names from Halo but, like everything in this show so far, it's just a name slapped on an almost totally different thing.
 
I'm curious. Do you think that somehow MC will reconcile with the government and come back around to being a loyal soldier? Without that how does anything in the show ever reconnect to anything in the games?

From what I can see so far, we are going to get a three way race to some forerunner macguffin at best. I don't see how he can remain a spartan used in major ops when he is directly subverting the program. I'm sure there will be battles and planetary take overs that use names from Halo but, like everything in this show so far, it's just a name slapped on an almost totally different thing.

This tells me you probably don't read the books, and if you do, I'm more blown away by your analysis.

This isn't some other thing with the name Halo slapped on it. This is the extended and, in my view, superior depiction of the Halo universe that has been around since before the release of the very first game, and has continued on ever since in books like Halo: First Strike, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, the Kilo Five books, Forerunner history books, the new Master Chief focused Novels by Troy Denning, and so many others in between.

No aspect of Master Chief has turned traitor or is really going to go against the UNSC. His loyalty to humanity and the cause of humanity has not once been seriously in doubt by viewers in this entire show (unless they don't know Halo). The only ones who doubt it, predictably, are the characters in the show who are meant to have nerves and apprehension about humanity's greater hero potentially learning too much about his past and what was done to him, and are afraid of what he might do and how he might react.

Master Chief has many times doubted the UNSC/ONI, its aims, orders and/or objectives throughout the history of Halo. Many like him have similarly expressed such doubts about the people in charge and giving the orders. This IS HALO.

The books over the years spell this out. When push comes to shove, the Chief will always do what's right and what's best for humanity. This is how the Chief chose to work with the arbiter, previously an enemy who fought for a covenant that helped wipe out humanity and entire colonies in the most vicious of ways. This is how the Master Chief chose to withhold vital information on the flood from the UNSC/ONI when presented with a choice from Dr. Halsey on what might happen to Sgt. Johnson should he share all the data he was provided. That was in violation of everything Master Chief is SUPPOSED to be known for as a "loyal soldier." Master Chief if he was a simple "loyal soldier" that was just set on a path and never questioned a thing would have immediately handed Cortana over for destruction in Halo 4 when Captain Del Rio of the UNSC Infinity angrily ordered him to. Master Chief disobeyed orders to his face.

What is Chief's alternative to protecting humanity? Siding with the Covenant? He will never cause harm to humanity. As to the outer colonies, the insurrectionists, he was basically created to kill them, but Master Chief has no issues with being allies with them where necessary. He does possess a strong moral compass and is a person of incredible sense of duty and integrity. That's his character, and so far this show has done a tremendous job of displaying that. What we are witnessing in this TV Series is the REAL, full layered Master Chief we rarely get in the games, but 343 to their credit have done a better job in Halo 4 and Halo Infinite of bringing that Chief out. It isn't always appropriate to bring that version of him out, but when they do, you learn that Master Chief is much more than just a mindless machine who doesn't question or think. He just efficiently acts when the time calls for him to do so.

What we are seeing is a Master Chief who, motivated by his desire to defend humanity, needing to learn more about what the covenant are after. And it appears that in doing so, it also means learning a little more about what is in his past and what was done to him. It's the most clever possible way for them to have chosen to approach this. You can tell 343 and the likes of Frank O'Conner had a major hand in this.
 
Last edited:

reksveks

Member
I'm curious. Do you think that somehow MC will reconcile with the government and come back around to being a loyal soldier? Without that how does anything in the show ever reconnect to anything in the games?
What if the government/military is willing to kill innocent people for a political purposes? Would the loyal soldier carry out that act?
 

reksveks

Member
Episode 4, enjoying that a bit more than the previous 2 episodes.

I like the menace of Halsey, also like the mention of the grunts ( it's like a running gag) and generally liking the MC main story.

Still waiting on Kwan to become interesting though.

Also Cortana was rather boring here but think next episode, she might be more important.
 
This show doesn't establish ANYTHING that's going on in the universe and just gets bogged down into a painfully slow and boring A-Plot about Master Chief and spartans feeling things. Who cares? Who cares about these characters at all? Why should I care if Master Chief is discovering his humanity if he was only known as a silent killer for 5 minutes in the first episode?

Humanity is facing EXTINCTION by ALIENS and we are supposed to care about soldiers who found out they have feelings and a rebel girl freeing her village against Nazi's. Like what? What the hell is this show?
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
What if the government/military is willing to kill innocent people for a political purposes? Would the loyal soldier carry out that act?
Are these "innocent people" rebels that are undermining the governments ability to provide for the rest of humanity, build ships to resist the Covenant, or are otherwise hampering the war effort?

Just becausee THEY say they are innocent oppressed doesn't make it so.

And dies it really take an inhuman super soldier to blast a little walled fort into oblivion? MC was there to fight Covenant, not humans. Is that girl even correct that MC killed her dad and what was he doing at the time?
 
This show doesn't establish ANYTHING that's going on in the universe and just gets bogged down into a painfully slow and boring A-Plot about Master Chief and spartans feeling things. Who cares? Who cares about these characters at all? Why should I care if Master Chief is discovering his humanity if he was only known as a silent killer for 5 minutes in the first episode?

Humanity is facing EXTINCTION by ALIENS and we are supposed to care about soldiers who found out they have feelings and a rebel girl freeing her village against Nazi's. Like what? What the hell is this show?

I have to agree, it's missing everything about the Covenant entirely. If they want a broader audience away from the game fans what is the wider threat to humanity exactly in this show?

So far Covies have taken a village and failed, have a spacestation that floats like a jellyfish and took one little ship over.

Not exactly the existential threat to all of humanity the books or games establish.

I also don't care about the Kwan arc at all. It's just filler and boring.
 

Fbh

Member
Just saw episode 4. IMO it was the weakest one yet.

-Cant bring myself to care about the Madrigal subplot. Kwan is annoying and even though they are hinting at some larger significance to her character so far it all just comes across as needless filler.

- Female Spartan gets feeling and within a day she has pink hair and is fighting back against social injustice. My prediction a few pages ago that the Spartans would get feelings and discover Twitter was fairly accurate.

-The actual main plot with MC continues to best and only interesting part of the show. I wish they'd focus more on it

-Agreed with others that they could do more to establish the covenant as a threat. Maybe they should have gone with people in costume instead of CG so they could actually afford to have them show up.
 
Last edited:

jason10mm

Gold Member
This tells me you probably don't read the books, and if you do, I'm more blown away by your analysis...... to him. It's the most clever possible way for them to have chosen to approach this. You can tell 343 and the likes of Frank O'Conner had a major hand in this.
That's a wall o text but I appreciate your insight. I disagree with setting MC against the gov so quickly though. The in media res cold opening tactic is a mistake here I think.

I've never read a halo book.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
There's a really good core to the series but I honestly feel - except Halsey - this is a case of terrible casting decisions and a weak subplot.

Kwan is a terrible subplot, poor casting and Madrigal is just flat out boring. I'm hoping it's just used to get us to the mystics but the way Kwan is dodging death makes me think she will be round for a while.

MC is also not what I envisage as him. He looks like a driving instructor. Though I respect some of the acting prowess he's shown so I can probably get used to him over time.

Riz and Vannak escape a little. At the moment they are still true inhibited Spartans but Kai suddenly acting the way she was felt bizarre/rushed.

Really like how brutal the covenant weapons were. Was not a fan of the in-helmet FPS view, felt it made the show look cheap.

Cortana is decent, would like her to be more playful and mischievous as in the books. Soren is a decent character but relegated to bodyguard duties for Kwan.

There's enough here to show it may have an up and down first season but grow into something really good. Finding its feet and identity is probably a good way to summarise it in my opinion.
 

Pilgrimzero

Member
This show is fine until Kwan shows up. I get they needed filler but they need to Find something else because her and her plot are just anchors on this show.
 
So far, I have been enjoying the series. The only thing that is bothering me is that revolution plot line which I don’t care at all.
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Episode four: mostly boring, but sometimes great
- A plot takes too fucking long to achieve something. Also, really bad direction with the flashback scene
- Master Chief still passes too much time without a helmet. It's bugging my shit out
- B plot with the girl and the retired Spartan still sucks and doesn't add much to them. Has a kinda cool bike chase scene, but that's a few seconds of nice and everything else bad
- C plot with the other Spartans are by far the best part. It has character development for the them, Miranda and even convenant shit. It's great
 

ManaByte

Gold Member

It is getting worse. Pity .
Funny how that guy’s stuff isn’t allowed on the gaming side, but when he shits on the Halo show that’s memory-holed.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
My Paramount + sub expired so I look forward to a season recap in a month. If it turns around (and if ST:SNW is any good) I'll resub for a month over the summer and binge them.
 
EP5 in 6-ish hours better bring the heat and get things moving, far more than the last 4 episodes combined. They've been pretty dull overall IMO. I'm likely to drop kick my paramount sub if this doesn't start getting good. I only have it for this show and it's really not keeping me interested enough to pay AUD$9 a month for it. Hopefully EP5 sways me.
 
For some reason I thought the actor playing master chief was Wayne friend wart from wonder yrs.
p1308687_e_v7_aa.jpg
 
I have to agree, it's missing everything about the Covenant entirely. If they want a broader audience away from the game fans what is the wider threat to humanity exactly in this show?

So far Covies have taken a village and failed, have a spacestation that floats like a jellyfish and took one little ship over.

Not exactly the existential threat to all of humanity the books or games establish.

I also don't care about the Kwan arc at all. It's just filler and boring.

Kwan's arc is crucial to establishing a bedrock of Halo extended novel lore - the impact on the outer colonies and the events that take place there. Just because the Covenant threat is out there and exists is no reason to ignore life in the outer colonies in a Halo TV series. This isn't one of the games, they have to cast a wider net, and not always just focus on the Chief and Spartans and the Covenant. Halo in the novels is at its best when it follows all these various arcs and finds a way to connect them or bring them to conclusion, or set them up for something bigger.

You can't depict what the Covenant as a threat represents without showing the people who suffer at the hands of their existence and threat. The covenant sent just a squad of elites, and just like that they did all that damage, even killing what appeared to be Madrigal's top general. They did so with relative ease. But just because that happens is no reason to ignore the local power struggle and local issues taking place inside Madrigal. I can't believe people aren't seeing just how crucial the Kwan Ha side of this whole thing is. They are even teasing potentially some larger role possibly tied to Halo and the Forerunners involving Kwan and her family, the supposed real reason they're on Madrigal in the first place. And if you know about the novels, you know how things end on Madrigal. Why wouldn't we wish to see that play out in a TV series, even though Madrigal technically survived much longer than it did in the original lore timeline. Madrigal was the second colony planet utterly wiped out and destroyed, or glassed, by the Covenant after Harvest.
 
Kwan's arc is crucial to establishing a bedrock of Halo extended novel lore - the impact on the outer colonies and the events that take place there. Just because the Covenant threat is out there and exists is no reason to ignore life in the outer colonies in a Halo TV series. This isn't one of the games, they have to cast a wider net, and not always just focus on the Chief and Spartans and the Covenant. Halo in the novels is at its best when it follows all these various arcs and finds a way to connect them or bring them to conclusion, or set them up for something bigger.

You can't depict what the Covenant as a threat represents without showing the people who suffer at the hands of their existence and threat. The covenant sent just a squad of elites, and just like that they did all that damage, even killing what appeared to be Madrigal's top general. They did so with relative ease. But just because that happens is no reason to ignore the local power struggle and local issues taking place inside Madrigal. I can't believe people aren't seeing just how crucial the Kwan Ha side of this whole thing is. They are even teasing potentially some larger role possibly tied to Halo and the Forerunners involving Kwan and her family, the supposed real reason they're on Madrigal in the first place. And if you know about the novels, you know how things end on Madrigal. Why wouldn't we wish to see that play out in a TV series, even though Madrigal technically survived much longer than it did in the original lore timeline. Madrigal was the second colony planet utterly wiped out and destroyed, or glassed, by the Covenant after Harvest.

I prefer things like Cortana selecting Chief, Nylund's action, Spartan training, Chief and Cortana being field tested and swatting away a nuke, Cortana reconfiguring a captured Covie vessel and with laser like precision taking out enemy craft to turn the battle tide all while realising the Covies are imitative and not innovative. Give me the Keyes Loop or Spartans using their intimate planet knowledge growing up to evade and attack while being glassed etc. There's so much better stuff in the lore and books but you/343 want focus on a village in the dirt with the most boring 3 episode arc I've seen in a TV series so far? The pay off better be huge but I've a feeling we're about to see 2 mins of action in 50 mins of exposition once again with EP5.

I'd rather see Spartans before they got their suits or Chief vs ODSTs, or getting MJOLNIR (even Halsey designing the suits for a 2min montage would have been aces) and being awkward trying them out or gaining shield tech or Cortana pairing with Chief. Honestly there is so much better content to be adapted than this disparate Kwan arc. It's filler thus far. Fingers crossed it gets better this EP5. They haven't even put the Spartans in battle or used any strategy during battle or delved into what specialised skillsets the Spartans each have. These are the things that make Halo great. There isn't any mystery, space opera, advanced tech that isn't just magic trope waving we have so far etc.

I guess we just have different ideas about what Halo elements entertain the most, for me it ain't the interpersonal drama of an Innie colony for half the run time when there is a plethora of better things to show, explore and tease with for current episodes and future seasons.

For reference I have read every Halo book, waypoint article and played every game, even read most of the comics too. So far this TV show ain't it Chief. EP5 please be the change of winds this season 1 so badly needs.
 
Last edited:
I've not watched any. Does he slate it lol?
He's pretty fair for the most part TBH. The show is mediocre and change for the sake of change thus far. Even taking Silver universe on its own merits as totally separate it still doesn't sell itself very well at all. I pretty much align with Joe'n'co's take on this show. The copyright claims are total nonsense, they have more content created from their own Angry Joe chatter and the parts they've used are less than 1-3minutes in 1 hour shows. It's a pathetic attempt to halt mediocre reviews that are every bit deserved.
 
Last edited:

ElRenoRaven

Member
So finally watching the new episode. Gotta say I love Chief's exchange with Cortana near the beginning. Her reply to him was so snarky and really funny. I'm really starting to like their dynamic.

Also This episode is so good. Some really cool stuff in it action wise.
 
Last edited:
'Kai, take of your helmet, we don't wear those in this show'

Takes of helmet right after a big battle...

The battle was pretty cool but the characters are shit. That fake faint at the end was terrible acting and cortana should easely pick up on that.
 
Hmm, sustained action finally and there is some good stuff in there. The visual material is good as are setups and sets and CGI etc.

Jackals and grunts and brutes and Banshees and phantoms and spirits oh my. The jackals and mixed action was really brilliant looking in parts. Kudos on that front.

The trouble is the battle is just so brain dead, zero plans in an emergency, ships far away from the cargo, Spartans fighting out in the open for extended periods against Banshees.

It's atypical of 343, one step forward and one step backward. Do they not have military advisers or preplanning for these enegaments and story beats?

Did Kwan really pull a Rambo on Soren and his Spartan reflexes or intelligence didn't kick in. It's just brain dead watered down Halo.

The writing is not up to par in terms of Spartans being the pinnacle weapons for humanity.

All that investment for years and Makee from the Covies to just send one drop ship and a brute to ensure they retrieve the artifact?

As for the helmet shit, fucking hell give it a rest. It's comically bad at this point.

Chief's BR ain't 3 burst fire either? WTF.
 
Last edited:
He tells the person doing this for cbs manually if they do it again he’s taking them to court and tells them to back the fuck off.

Empty threat that likely isn't going anywhere. And knowing him and the massive urge (financial) he would have to spread a lot of negativity around this show, I for one am glad I'm not giving any of his videos the time of day.
 
Top Bottom