I liked it when I watched it. Gave it some time and rewatched it. I still like it.
No spoiler tags, but I do say all this stuff as if you’ve seen the episode. So I’m just leaving this on a “if you know, you know” basis. I more-so go into outside information than the episode itself.
I don’t understand most of the criticism on bad writing. Nothing so far is outright horrible.
I see most of the complaints the equivalent of someone reading the first chapter of Fall of Reach and going “Where’s the pillar of autumn, where’s the Halo, where’s Cortana, where’s the Flood, this isn’t Halo!” then dropping it. Wait until the season is over.
UNSC vs Innie was never the main idea behind Halo, it was just something filled in for background detail in manuals and the books. So including little bits of that in the human-covenant war is fine. It acts as a foil to the otherwise authoritarian UNSC. We never saw much of that in the games, but in the books we saw how evil ONI and the UNSC was. This first episode was trying to establish alot to make room for the plot.
Modern weapons have existed in Halo before. There is a desert eagle in Shadows of Reach, a MP40 in one comic. Also this is ignoring that, yes, replica weapons exist. Also Halo’s weapons aren’t that advanced. They aren’t mini-railguns like in Mass Effect or use energy like the Covenant. They still use bullets like everything else human. Just a different caliber. Sorry to go over current events, but in Ukraine we are seeing things like Mosin Nagants going up against AKM’s. We are literally seeing this exact scenario play out in real life, but call out the show for doing the same thing just 500 years in the future. (Which would be a case if they were using sci-fi weapons not bullets) MAC cannons, gauss guns, rail guns, is being developed right now, not 400-500 years in the future. Its old tech by then!
Spartans not knowing where they come from is a good way to show the audience what they are without having to go through the whole bootcamp stuff again. That makes sense for the books, when you have chapter after chapter and hour after hour to establish that. At this point, boot camp montages are more cliché than secret-backstory. This way it helps the show, and keeps both fans like me, and new ones guessing. It also, again, shows how evil the UNSC is! And so far, how it is shown, is used more as a reality check for Chief rather than “I need to go find who I am!” We have to wait for more episodes, but I feel their direction is “we need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
People seem to forget that Chief didn’t always follow orders by the letter. Not much is shown in the games, so again, back to the books. The theme of Halsey and Chief’s character arc from Fall of Reach and up through Ghosts of Onyx is that the “We have to win the war at all costs” excuse starts losing its luster after too many people die to “win” the war. If you keep sacrificing people for the “greater good” Who will be left to save? In First Strike (between Halo 1 and 2), Chief was given two data shards by Halsey on the Flood. Specifically, on Sergeant Johnson’s resistance to the flood. One shard didn’t include Johnson’s info, the other did. If Chief gave the UNSC on earth the shard with Johnson’s info, then it is possible that they would have dissected him, and killed him to learn how to gain a resistance to flood and help possibly though not confirmed “everyone” in the long run. But if he did that, who would be left to save? If you spend 25 years sacrificing the few to save the many, eventually the many become the few, and then no one is left to save. They are trying to have Chief learn this lesson through his backstory in the show, rather than having to wait to get there because the context shifted.
Speaking of Sergeant Johnson, race. Yeah Keyes was swapped, but unlike Johnson, race was never important to Keyes as a character. In fact, I’ll argue Keyes was never much of a character. In Halo CE he was an exposition dump with some small quips. As far as the games are concerned, the only depth he had was added retroactively by 343 in Halo CE:A. Specifically the Flood terminal. All he did in Halo CE (and as far as I can see in Halo: The Flood) was:
- Tell the Chief how bad the ship is and Cortana needs to stay away from the covenant.
- Explain what Halo is.
- Ignore all warning signs and release the flood.
- Become a mushroom and die.
4.5. Later turn out he resisted the mushroom for a long time and has strong will. - Reach cameo.
So again, I’ll fall back onto the books. Fall of Reach. Keyes was complicit in the creation of the Spartans. He was chosen because, as said by Halsey “He can keep a secret.” And that’s exactly who we see in the show. He would only take a moral highground much later in his military career. Which we will not see in the show because the last thing we need is to jumble 5 different timeperiods at once. He will have to have this character arc, you know, as the show progresses.. Notice how, none of this has to do with race? Lets take Sergeant Johnson, who is based off of a character in Aliens and many other black 80’s and 90’s action stars. Who has an exaggerated personality based off of them to be an inspiring comic relief. If they replaced Johnson with someone of any other race, that is political because it is integral to the character. This is expanded in Contact Harvest where we learn he is from Chicago. We now have a direct cultural link between the real world and Johnson. If Keyes or another character made some point on their race and how it is somehow important, then yes I would say it is political. So far, that isn’t the case. If it comes up later, then we know exactly what it is. Same with Parengosky. Nothing is lost in the change, nor is much gained. You want bad racial politics, go watch the end speech of Falcon and Winter soldier, where he talks down to everyone about inequality when he was being an idiot the whole show. That is bad. In this first episode, it simply does not exist.
Also, on the Covenant. They are as ruthless and genocidal as they should be! There is one sticking point, but did we forget that in the games Professor Anders was captured to access forerunner artifacts? Okay, fine that wasn’t done by Bungie. Fair. Halo 3! The prophet of truth uses Johnson and Miranda Keyes to start the Ark!!! Even though that flies in the face of the Covenant ideology that the prophets themselves since Contact Harvest know are lies! I don’t like what the show did either, but saying it isn’t “lore accurate” isn’t true! We’re just seeing this case in a new context! As for the elites, I don’t like the armor. The model is based off of Halo 2 Anniversary, but still have the bulk of Halo 4/5. If we get brutes, they better be freaking jacked compared to these guys.
I’m not saying this first episode is perfect there is plenty to be worried about, like a certain “covenant” character can be easy to mess up. And giving one thing away in the first episode isn’t good. Also the Animations look bad. However, most of the negative criticism on the writing is blown so out of proportion for a first episode. We don’t have all the info yet. And even if it was “canon” why would you want everything to tie into the books, games, and shows?
Hell, does no one remember how we hated Halo 5 for making us go do homework? You know having to read so many books and comics to introduce characters because the game didn’t do that for us? The show is making an excuse to avoid that, but now so many people are hating that its trying to avoid that! WTF do you all want?!
Also I keep seeing “If you read the books and played the games, this is horrible”. As someone who does both, who is currently reading Halo Glasslands BTW, no. Okay, maybe Parengosky isn’t as scary in the show as she should be. Again, so far not perfect. The show, at least in this first episode, is trying to establish everything in regard to tones and themes instead of being a word-for-word regurgitation of the lore. That kind of expectation is like you’re a history major, walking into the movie 1917, saving private ryan, the King’s Man, etc, expecting it to be a documentary and leaving being angry that it wasn’t a documentary, but instead you watched a movie. Yeah, you expectations were in the wrong place.
The goal of this show is to carry across the same feeling while keeping it interesting for new people, and without having to rely on all the baggage old fans are used to. The last thing we need is 4 retellings of Halo CE’s story. We already have 3 retellings (Arguably 4, CE, The Flood novel, CE:A, and Fireteam Raven) Adding another is just frustrating.
This show is something I can share with my parents, share with friends, and not have to answer every little lore question the show/game just expects you to know. Star Wars is falling into that trap. My parents have to pause every time a new character pops up in Mando or Boba Fett because they expect the audience watched all the cartoons and read the books and comics. Just because I have doesn’t mean I want to be “rewarded” for it if it means confusing everyone else. I hate this so much and I’m glad this show has built in on a fundamental level a way to avoid this. Themeatically, tonally, emotionally, everything fits, and I don’t have to go “Um Actually” Every freaking time they don’t do something right. Maybe some of you guys are looking for that, but I am sick of it!
I do enough of this deep-lore connecting stuff while getting my English degree. As much as I love it, and love ranting like this, I don’t like bringing this attitude into my chill and relax time! When I play Halo, I don’t want to worry about how this affects the books or the lore. I’m playing to shoot aliens. Everything else is extra fluff. Like it or not they are secondary in importance. This show is parallel to the games, but are not meant to replace them.
As my girlfriend said while watching “Its like being introduced to Halo for the first time again” And that is the best praise anyone can give this first episode. If you are looking for a straight retelling, go replay Halo CE. Or read Halo: The Flood, or go find a Halo: Fireteam Raven cabinet. All of that still exists. The books are just fine doing their thing, the game… okay, Infinite isn’t doing so hot with multiplayer. This show isn’t trying to take anything away. But you need to let this series grow and figure itself out its rare when a first season nails the landing. Especially when trying to convey the feelings of not just one medium, but many, into a new form that previously was much worse than this.