For those that don’t know, “Damsel in Distress” refers to a common trope that most commonly takes the form of the protagonist rescuing the princess from a tower or whatever. This trope is generally extremely boring, and we’ve already seen it in action during Halo 3.
And now, it unfortunately looks like, depending on the quality of the plot and the direction taken, we might see it again.
As we can remember, Spartan Ops concluded with Halsey siding with Jul 'Mdama to achieve common means but differing ends relating to the Janus Key. Escalation’s starting with 13 and beyond will continue to conflict of the Janus Key and will probably escalate it further prior to plopping it onto the next plate:
Halo 5’s story.
Halsey and Jul’s alliance was probably the best thing that came out of Spartan Ops. Sure, Halsey is missing an arm, but the possibilities for a terrific story to be told are almost infinite. Both Halsey and Jul could receive outstanding character development and hell, if things are really pushed forward, we may even see Jul lift his hatred for humans and realize that the actions of ONI don’t speak for all of humanity.
However, what’s equally likely to come out of the “Julsey” alliance is that ultimately, we’d be dealing with a “Damsel in Distress” plot in which, despite the possibilities for a terrific story being told otherwise, a primary conflict in Halo 5 would be saving Halsey from the evil mustache twirling Jul 'Mdama.
Needless say, I’ll be pretty pissed if Halsey and Jul’s alliance is reduced to such a cliched and shallow outcome. Nothing would frustrate me more than the potential of Halsey and Jul’s covenant being wasted on yet another story remiscient of the “Damsel in Distress” trope that seems to afflict stories far and wide.
Surely, I’m not the only one?
Edit:
Just to clarify, in the event that it wasn’t extremely obvious, I am not comparing neither Halsey’s character nor her situation to “Damsel in Distress.” I am merely stating how frustrated I would be if the story turned into a “Damsel in Distress” rather than achieving the potential that it could have had otherwise.
In fact, just to make my point even more obvious, this is what I would do with Halsey and Jul’s outcome if it were my choice.
Initially, as expected of an alliance between members of two opposing factions, there would be a lack of trust between Jul and Halsey. In the event that either of the two decide to dispose of their compatriot, both characters will actively be plotting ways to gain the advantage over the other.
However, as time passes and as plots against the UNSC in the name of the welfare of the galaxy continue to go into fruition, not only will Jul soon realize that not all humans are the nationalist psychopaths that call themselves ONI, but instead of being an organization meant to tie up loose ends following the Human-Covenant war, Jul’s Covenant will be all that stands against a galaxy afflicted by a “one race rules all” mindset that would ultimately cause the mistakes of the Forerunners to be repeated.
So in essence, we’d find out that the Covenant Remnant were the ones intended to hold the Janus Key rather than the nationalist UNSC/ONI.