What do you think works better in halo?
Halo as a Science fiction:
Ie still within the realm of reason albeit still quite implausible as actual reality.
OR
Halo as a science fantasy:
Ie essentially space magic.
While I like much of halos 343 era EU content the more grounded humanity are forerunners events are bigger than the characters featured in them approach definitely workes better for me than deified librarians and warlords having the universe revolve purely around them and god like beings.
Curious what the consensus is.
NOTE this isnt a discussion on the narrative content or a bungie vs 343i thread.
Its purely a question of if you favour the scfi war story style or the heros and villains fantasy style more for halo.
For example, the more grounded approach to the narratives and scale of say ghost of onyx is far more appealing to the near intangible or unrelatable style of the forerunner trilogy.
- Fiction
- Fantasy
- Don’t care
- Other(post below)
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I would say Science fiction as i think Halo works better as a mostly grounded series. At least when human technology is grounded. Its one of the reasons I don’t like the mantis. Sure its possible but in a more realistic military humans wouldn’t build that as if you take out a leg its game over for the mantis.
Definitely liked Bungies direction of Halo more than 343s as a whole but i do really like Infinite.
Also you should make a poll so we can vote and see results.
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All good points mr. Spoon
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Preferably science fiction. I don’t think the pre-343 era of novels are much better. Rather the games just focused on harder elements.
The books after all, had humans magically understanding covenant control consoles, as well as a space crystal that warped time for some reason. The location of a halo ring being on a rock that fell from space is also really weird.
Similarly I feel the forerunner saga books, while very high tech, still felt somewhat grounded. The forerunners had limitations and objects were purpose-driven still. While the forerunners in 343’s games tend towards more magical mcguffins and super powers, same goes for the TV show and its weird pulse antics.
I think the problem for 343’s games is they hired comic book writers which turned spartans into super heroes and forerunner artefacts into magic plot tokens.
To be fair the mantis at least has shields.
The cyclops from halo wars however is a big issue. Similarly for the Scarab and Locust.
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I guess you are right but thats where i wasn’t a huge fan of human vehicles having shields. It was fine for the Spartan armor to have it as it was so expensive and hard to make few people had access to it. I don’t like the jump from super rare, hard to produce to easily mass produced in the short time frame Halo has. I guess i kind of understand it though as the elites would probably have given the humans a lot of help with stuff like that but still feels weird.
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I always hated the crystal tbh.
And not under any illusion that bungie era was perfect lots of steange choices in narrative to be sure.
The mantis though, im torn like bipedal unsc stuff seems dumb but then i think.
A Tbagging tank? The most quintessential halo experience truely the only natural progression of the chief himslef.
Unsc shields should be stationary generators or dedicated vehicles similar to early mjolnir exos imo.
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I’ll have to go with sci fi.
But I don’t mind the Forerunner and Precursor eras being more far out, as it’s science that is supposed to be entirely incomprehensible to us basic -Yoink!--sapiens.
But the “modern age” in the Halo universe should be way more grounded.
Both, depending on where you look. I’d argue all the games are space fantasy, but some of the novels really try to lean into hard sci-fi and aren’t that unbelievable from the context of working within the Halo Universe.
Other
Sci fi and space Fantasy are far too broad terms.
Star Trek and The Expanse are both definitely sci fi but the latter is more about the message/story than a hard sci fi series like The Expanse that consciously tries to keep everything close to home and grounded.
Likewise Star Wars, Destiny, Warhammer 40,000 and Dune are all Space Fantasy but vary wildly in their tone and the quality of the philosophical message; but they’re all Space Fantasy elements up to people having magic powers, god emperors and all that.
I’d say Halo is a Space Opera. It very much leans into those 80s pulp sci fi tropes. So you have your 7 foot super human soldiers and your -Yoink!- AI sidekick. It’s not the Expanse where the ships are something we might conceivably make. The image and the tone takes precedence over everything else.
Are there outright fantastical elements?. Depends what you mean. I am guessing you mean things like the Librarian alluding to Chief being the Chosen One or some Forerunner tech seeming magical like the Prometheans being an army of Undead (genuinely go look at that Didact Comic where you have digital Hell). Yes, but then Halo does have religion woven into it. Like the Covenant isn’t wildly different from what you have in Dune with a crazy religion at the heart of it. The Gravemind is a Lovecraftian monster. So the Tech resembling some more fantastical tropes isn’t out of the question. It’s definitely not like Destiny which is all in on the space fantasy. Sure a Guardian looks like an Angel but it’s not an ethereal god engine like the Traveller.
I’m totally for Fiction, except for the Halo ring. I would prefer it appear as a technology so advanced that it looks like magic. Actually, they give a lot of explanation about the Halo functioning, who only destroy neural system, then the Librarian use a forerunner Solute to disintegrate the body. I would prefer to see the Halo desintegrate all biological body with no explanation
for me what i understand as fantasy in the context of halo would be something like 40 k. where technlogy and logic exists besides the warp , demons and gods , sainst anf psychic energy etc. the universe explaines some things with in science fiction reasoning but its fantasy elements dont need explaining and are not cophenesible for the normal human , just like the force in the original star wars trilogy was clearly fantasy element in an science fiction setting. but Halo is in its essence a pure science ficition. even gigantic , god level events are all logical. even the “gods” of halo in other words the precusors are not otherworldy etc. there may be things we dont understand yet but it is explainable. and halo worls best as such , fantasy dosent fit halo.