Halo, And Respectfully Depicting Military Realism

Community Halo Universe
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You Have The Conn: Halo, & How To Respectfully Depict True Military Realism With Characterization

Hello Halo-Nation.

Time for another issue of Full Circle, and this time we go deep. The United States recently celebrated veterans day, a national holiday where we as a nation remember our veterans and active service individuals.While we celebrate our warriors, we also tend to forget what it truly means to serve. Not just us as individuals, but also as gamers and the games industry as a whole.

This issue will look at how Halo depicts conflict, war, and war-fighters. Is it respectful, does it hold weight or impact? More importantly, is it respectful? I look to an unlikely franchise, for the answer.

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War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be

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> 2533274916736578;2:
> War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be

Ah, an interesting (if ignorant) sentiment, likely originating from the constant exposure to the Aristocrats are Evil trope from countless fictional works.

Nevertheless, I’m not sure what this has to do with the fictional Great War - a desperate battle for survival pitting humanity against aliens - who started with the decision to commit genocide against another civilization under the pretense of faithfully adhering to an a dysfunctional ideology and corrupt morals that supports self-serving superiority to all believers (but mainly the Prophets), on top of the destruction of the non-believers. That’s not to say that the UNSC are any better, in fact, the entire franchise uses Irony as one of the main literary devices for story-telling.

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> > War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be
>
> Ah, an interesting (if ignorant) sentiment, likely originating from the constant exposure to the Aristocrats are Evil trope from countless fictional works.
>
> Nevertheless, I’m not sure what this has to do with the fictional Great War - a desperate battle for survival pitting humanity against aliens - who started with the decision to commit genocide against another civilization under the pretense of faithfully adhering to an a dysfunctional ideology and corrupt morals that supports self-serving superiority to all believers (but mainly the Prophets), on top of the destruction of the non-believers. That’s not to say that the UNSC are any better, in fact, the entire franchise uses Irony as one of the main literary devices for story-telling.

Yeah, I was gonna say, last I checked the Covenant declaired (and I qoute): “Your destruction is the will of the gods and we are their instrument.” This wasn’t a war for resources or anything. This was “The Covenant are coming to exterminate us, we can either lay down and die or fight back.”
Maybe the Insurrection could be better described as what Santa was suggesting, though even then its a bit of a stretch.

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> > War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be
>
> Ah, an interesting (if ignorant) sentiment, likely originating from the constant exposure to the Aristocrats are Evil trope from countless fictional works.
>
> Nevertheless, I’m not sure what this has to do with the fictional Great War - a desperate battle for survival pitting humanity against aliens - who started with the decision to commit genocide against another civilization under the pretense of faithfully adhering to an a dysfunctional ideology and corrupt morals that supports self-serving superiority to all believers (but mainly the Prophets), on top of the destruction of the non-believers. That’s not to say that the UNSC are any better, in fact, the entire franchise uses Irony as one of the main literary devices for story-telling.

Not entirely to do with the Great War, but the Spartan IIs were from the outer colonies( considered the poor compared to inner) so those colonies weren’t considered an issue even if they were to find out. And the Spartan IIIs were orphans from fallen colonies.

The only 2 generations of super soldiers to be trained from children into absolute killing machines were from poor and/or unimportant colonies so they could protect the inner (rich) colonies.

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> > > War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be
> >
> > Ah, an interesting (if ignorant) sentiment, likely originating from the constant exposure to the Aristocrats are Evil trope from countless fictional works.
> >
> > Nevertheless, I’m not sure what this has to do with the fictional Great War - a desperate battle for survival pitting humanity against aliens - who started with the decision to commit genocide against another civilization under the pretense of faithfully adhering to an a dysfunctional ideology and corrupt morals that supports self-serving superiority to all believers (but mainly the Prophets), on top of the destruction of the non-believers. That’s not to say that the UNSC are any better, in fact, the entire franchise uses Irony as one of the main literary devices for story-telling.
>
> Not entirely to do with the Great War, but the Spartan IIs were from the outer colonies

False. Spartan IIs were selected from many worlds across the Inner (Fred, Osman, Randall, Jorge, etc) and Outer Colonies.

> (considered the poor compared to inner) so those colonies weren’t considered an issue even if they were to find out.

Also wrong, considering that the very first thing Admiral Paragonsky had to consider before evaluating the genes of potential S-II candidates was to figure out a way to not raise suspicion in the Outer Colonies out of fear of violent reprisal ("Tell some farmers that they gotta register their kids genes, and they’ll all be reaching for their rifles"). Its not just a PR mess, its a morally ambiguous (if evil) process that would have resulted in the acceleration of an interstellar civil war…

> And the Spartan IIIs were orphans from fallen colonies.

What does that have to do with “Rich People”? S-III candidates were selected because the UNSC needed more Spartans to protect humanity, a necessary evil to act as the Sword and Shield of the UEG’s will. It was either sacrifice 900 orphans (“Sacrifice few for the Greater Good”) or lose billions of people in an attempt to maintain the higher moral ground, which in itself would be a debate, since taking no course of action could arguably been just as morally incorrect.

> The only 2 generations of super soldiers to be trained from children into absolute killing machines were from poor and/or unimportant colonies so they could protect the inner (rich) colonies.

As proven above, no. Four generations of children were taken to prevent the loss of billions of lives, that had been the entire intention of the Spartan Program - sacrifice a few kids now, to save humanity. The Insurrectionist conflict wasn’t a war of selfish desire, it was a conflict of ideology, of economics.

The Insurrectionists had nuked a city prior to the events of Contact Harvest, killing millions in the process. Using the Carver Findings as a foundation for the military’s strategy intended to address the shortcomings of an urban conflict spanning dozens of light years and hundreds of worlds, ONI had decided upon the establishment of a program that would conceive the greatest counter-terrorism unit of all time, equipped with a host of experimental technology that would have otherwise taken millions of soldiers, into a mere 40-strong force.

This is no different then the argument involving alternate pathways to the defeat of the Empire of Japan in WWII, it may not be the best comparison but - Atomic bombs (Spartans) Vs Operation Downfall (Conventional invasion and occupation by UNSC forces). Thats not to say that either one is okay, their both pretty bad options when you break them down.

As for S-IIIs, species survival vs species morality. Its a crapshoot either way.

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> > War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be
>
> Ah, an interesting (if ignorant) sentiment, likely originating from the constant exposure to the Aristocrats are Evil trope from countless fictional works.
>
> Nevertheless, I’m not sure what this has to do with the fictional Great War - a desperate battle for survival pitting humanity against aliens - who started with the decision to commit genocide against another civilization under the pretense of faithfully adhering to an a dysfunctional ideology and corrupt morals that supports self-serving superiority to all believers (but mainly the Prophets), on top of the destruction of the non-believers. That’s not to say that the UNSC are any better, in fact, the entire franchise uses Irony as one of the main literary devices for story-telling.

Agree

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> > War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be
>
> Ah, an interesting (if ignorant) sentiment, likely originating from the constant exposure to the Aristocrats are Evil trope from countless fictional works.
>
> Nevertheless, I’m not sure what this has to do with the fictional Great War - a desperate battle for survival pitting humanity against aliens - who started with the decision to commit genocide against another civilization under the pretense of faithfully adhering to an a dysfunctional ideology and corrupt morals that supports self-serving superiority to all believers (but mainly the Prophets), on top of the destruction of the non-believers. That’s not to say that the UNSC are any better, in fact, the entire franchise uses Irony as one of the main literary devices for story-telling.

Very well said.

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> > > > War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be
> > >
> > > Ah, an interesting (if ignorant) sentiment, likely originating from the constant exposure to the Aristocrats are Evil trope from countless fictional works.
> > >
> > > Nevertheless, I’m not sure what this has to do with the fictional Great War - a desperate battle for survival pitting humanity against aliens - who started with the decision to commit genocide against another civilization under the pretense of faithfully adhering to an a dysfunctional ideology and corrupt morals that supports self-serving superiority to all believers (but mainly the Prophets), on top of the destruction of the non-believers. That’s not to say that the UNSC are any better, in fact, the entire franchise uses Irony as one of the main literary devices for story-telling.
> >
> > Not entirely to do with the Great War, but the Spartan IIs were from the outer colonies
>
> False. Spartan IIs were selected from many worlds across the Inner (Fred, Osman, Randall, Jorge, etc) and Outer Colonies.
>
>
> > (considered the poor compared to inner) so those colonies weren’t considered an issue even if they were to find out.
>
> Also wrong, considering that the very first thing Admiral Paragonsky had to consider before evaluating the genes of potential S-II candidates was to figure out a way to not raise suspicion in the Outer Colonies out of fear of violent reprisal ("Tell some farmers that they gotta register their kids genes, and they’ll all be reaching for their rifles"). Its not just a PR mess, its a morally ambiguous (if evil) process that would have resulted in the acceleration of an interstellar civil war…
>
>
> > And the Spartan IIIs were orphans from fallen colonies.
>
> What does that have to do with “Rich People”? S-III candidates were selected because the UNSC needed more Spartans to protect humanity, a necessary evil to act as the Sword and Shield of the UEG’s will. It was either sacrifice 900 orphans (“Sacrifice few for the Greater Good”) or lose billions of people in an attempt to maintain the higher moral ground, which in itself would be a debate, since taking no course of action could arguably been just as morally incorrect.
>
>
> > The only 2 generations of super soldiers to be trained from children into absolute killing machines were from poor and/or unimportant colonies so they could protect the inner (rich) colonies.
>
> As proven above, no. Four generations of children were taken to prevent the loss of billions of lives, that had been the entire intention of the Spartan Program - sacrifice a few kids now, to save humanity. The Insurrectionist conflict wasn’t a war of selfish desire, it was a conflict of ideology, of economics.
>
> The Insurrectionists had nuked a city prior to the events of Contact Harvest, killing millions in the process. Using the Carver Findings as a foundation for the military’s strategy intended to address the shortcomings of an urban conflict spanning dozens of light years and hundreds of worlds, ONI had decided upon the establishment of a program that would conceive the greatest counter-terrorism unit of all time, equipped with a host of experimental technology that would have otherwise taken millions of soldiers, into a mere 40-strong force.
>
> This is no different then the argument involving alternate pathways to the defeat of the Empire of Japan in WWII, it may not be the best comparison but - Atomic bombs (Spartans) Vs Operation Downfall (Conventional invasion and occupation by UNSC forces). Thats not to say that either one is okay, their both pretty bad options when you break them down.
>
> As for S-IIIs, species survival vs species morality. Its a crapshoot either way.

Well I should say they did their best to stick to the outer worlds , because of less risk.

Paragonsky was not worried about the outer worlds, sure try to keep them happy like anyone else would , but as soon as they would find out ,they’d shut the outer worlds out like they just recently did.

And youre missing the point with that last section… The point is the two generations that were strictly from outer or fallen colonies(with a few exceptions) , were the only ones to be made into child soldiers.

I now see why that beginning sentiment is ignorant to you . Not everyone can see it or understand it and that’s ok

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> 2533274916736578;2:
> War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be

I wonder if African American slaves carried your exact same overly simplistic generalized sentiment? Perhaps the Jews who were able to be saved from the -Yoink!-? I find your lack of critical thinking disturbing. If men were angels there would be no need for war.

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Back on the earlier topic…Im wondering if we can draw comparisons between the modern day military and the Spartan Branch, since no such equal organization exists in the current day (since, you know, we dont have genetically and biologically altered supersoliders).
Not to say that we can’t make comparisons to others, and I doubt it would be all THAT different even with supersoldiers as members…but I feel like there could be SOME variation. Sorta like how the Air Force evolved into its own thing after it left Army command in 1947 (interestingly enough Spartan Thorne himself made that connection, according to the Infinity briefing packet in Halo 4)

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Bungie Era halo games did justice to war, it’s warriors from both sides and even went as far as to make icons out of the weapons that were used to fight it. I will make brief descriptions of each and then show how 343 has handled the same points and offer my humble opinion. Hope it generates some dialogue.

The War
The first thing which grabbed me was that humanity was losing…badly. As you look at the reasons why the prophets went to war and why the UNSC tried to keep it quiet it was all to preserve their power structure. That is true of every war, from the crusades to the second Iraq war, it is always fought to re assure someone’s political power. However Halo also presented us with the destruction and horror of a total, desperate, genocidal war. Glassing, the Nova “planet cracker” nuke, the hunting of humans for sport, the near God status given to Spartans. These all are examples of each side willing to go to what ever means needed to achieve victory.

The Warriors
“This war has enough dead heroes” On both sides troops fought and died for their ideal. For both sides it was this simplemail ideal which propelled them. Halo didn’t give us GI Joe’s. Each character we meant had to wrestle the demons of war, Loss, Love, Vengeance. To me Emile from Reach is the best example of such a character. With the loss of each squad member we see him attempt to cope. Laughter with Jorge, Disbelief with Kat, Grim Acceptance with Carter, all summed up with his last mission ensuring that with his last breath he killed all those responsible for his pain.

Icons
The Warthog, Banshee, Pillar of Autumn, High Charity. Names for weapons, tools if you have to be blunt, yet in the Halo universe these names carry stories of tenacity and courage that is true of some real world counterparts. The Warthog is the best example as in the lore and in real life it’s namesake generates fear, admiration and certainty whenever it is present on the battlefield.

343i Era halo universe builds on some parts well while others can be improved.

The War
Now open hostilities are over, 343i has done a great job in showing how dealing with the sudden end of a 30 year waround leaves a power vacuum and also now leaves factions like the UNSC the uncomfortable truth of having to face choices it made during the war like abandoning colonies. That is the equivalent of the inquiries into the validity of the Iraq war for example.

Warriors
What they started to do at the end of Halo 4 with the death of Cortana was brilliant in my eyes. The MC having to deal with a loss like that while contemplating her words, which ensures with him heading down to Spartan deck to remove the machine armour around him was brilliant. Now Halo 5 is just…meh. No clear or meaniful connection is made. MC is back with blue team yet it feels like a bunch of Marines tagging along and the S-IVs act like more like jocks than harden troops turned SF. They have to revise their approach for H6.

Icons.
Infinity should have this title in the bag from how she was introduced in both Thursday war and the beginning of Spartan Ops. However since then more and more fans want it knocked out as it is always being boarded or heavily damaged in some lame way. It should have kicked legendary amount of -Yoink- by now. Similarly the Mantis, Strident, Mammoth and Broadsword should have had set pieces cutscenes to cement how powerful they are.

I said I would keep this brief and I really tried to do so. Halo has done a great job in telling war and being respectful. As of late I think it’s starting to stray, if that is due to marketing being part over story we can only guess. I hope with Halo wars 2 and on ward that we go back to what it was. Honest.

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To follow up with An Asian Santa and Beta 5 Operator I don’t think it’s disrespectful that many of them came from outer colonies. In the US military, many service members (especially in the Army, Air Force, and Marines) come from rural areas in the US interior, and they prove to be very capable members because they carry psychological qualities that the military finds desirable (respect, obedience, and the willingness to do hard work to accomplish the mission).

With that in mind, I would actually venture to say that I feel the colonies could feel a measure of pride that some of them were selected, because that means that the leaders of humanity felt they were the best-qualified individuals to undertake these most vital missions for all of humanity. Both Jameson Locke and Holly Tanaka, for example, were colony kids and turned out to be great assets to FT Osiris.

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> 2533274889125491;3:
> > 2533274916736578;2:
> > War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be
>
> Ah, an interesting (if ignorant) sentiment, likely originating from the constant exposure to the Aristocrats are Evil trope from countless fictional works.
>
> Nevertheless, I’m not sure what this has to do with the fictional Great War - a desperate battle for survival pitting humanity against aliens - who started with the decision to commit genocide against another civilization under the pretense of faithfully adhering to an a dysfunctional ideology and corrupt morals that supports self-serving superiority to all believers (but mainly the Prophets), on top of the destruction of the non-believers. That’s not to say that the UNSC are any better, in fact, the entire franchise uses Irony as one of the main literary devices for story-telling.

If you want Irony, I recommend Catch-22. The Halo military system actually realistically depicts what a military-based government WITHOUT POLITICIANS would look like. It is missing some factors, but overall it is a pretty solid system. Even the idea of a religious genocidal enemy makes sense. After all, 80% of wars are due to religion. Also, An Asian Santa, you are mostly right. War is good, decent people with courage and bravery fighting for what they believe, but are commanded by corrupt, self-centered, cowardly generals and commanders that don’t have the courage to fight, so they ask other people to do it for them. They are no better than politicians. To quote Catch-22, “War is you trying to kill people you don’t know because those people you don’t know are trying to kill you.” The thing is, nobody wins in war. Most people die, the winning people are in debt, the losers have to pay for damage, and also end up dead, the decent people are all killed, and the only people alive are the corrupt ones. So what’s the point?

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> 2535410648744984;14:
> > 2533274889125491;3:
> > > 2533274916736578;2:
> > > War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be
> >
> > Ah, an interesting (if ignorant) sentiment, likely originating from the constant exposure to the Aristocrats are Evil trope from countless fictional works.
> >
> > Nevertheless, I’m not sure what this has to do with the fictional Great War - a desperate battle for survival pitting humanity against aliens - who started with the decision to commit genocide against another civilization under the pretense of faithfully adhering to an a dysfunctional ideology and corrupt morals that supports self-serving superiority to all believers (but mainly the Prophets), on top of the destruction of the non-believers. That’s not to say that the UNSC are any better, in fact, the entire franchise uses Irony as one of the main literary devices for story-telling.
>
> If you want Irony, I recommend Catch-22. The Halo military system actually realistically depicts what a military-based government WITHOUT POLITICIANS would look like. It is missing some factors, but overall it is a pretty solid system. Even the idea of a religious genocidal enemy makes sense. After all, 80% of wars are due to religion. Also, An Asian Santa, you are mostly right. War is good, decent people with courage and bravery fighting for what they believe, but are commanded by corrupt, self-centered, cowardly generals and commanders that don’t have the courage to fight, so they ask other people to do it for them. They are no better than politicians. To quote Catch-22, “War is you trying to kill people you don’t know because those people you don’t know are trying to kill you.” The thing is, nobody wins in war. Most people die, the winning people are in debt, the losers have to pay for damage, and also end up dead, the decent people are all killed, and the only people alive are the corrupt ones. So what’s the point?

Everyone here should read Joe Haldeman’s Forever War. If you want a glimpse at war, in all its horror and courage, I urge everyone here to read it.

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For most of its life as a franchise, i don’t personally feel that Halo has been very interested in depicting war and those who fight in it realistically as much as it has wanted to deliver an action-movie feel with action movie characters. Yes, like COD. But there have been exceptions such as Reach , which is in my opinion the most realistic in its depiction of war and has the most believable cast (aside from Buck and Palmer who are also very believable as veteran members of the military) with Noble team. Heck, it contains one of the most believable war deaths ive seen in a game (ARMA’s not included) as Kat dies mid-sentence without ever even knowing that she was targeted. That’s how people die in war: No insipiring last words, no heroic last stand. You just die. And the people you fought with won’t have time to dwell on it, just like in Reach.

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> 2607664605679914;15:
> > 2535410648744984;14:
> > > 2533274889125491;3:
> > > > 2533274916736578;2:
> > > > War is just a bunch of puppets fighting and dying for rich people. That’s all it ever was and that’s all it’ll ever be
> > >
> > > Ah, an interesting (if ignorant) sentiment, likely originating from the constant exposure to the Aristocrats are Evil trope from countless fictional works.
> > >
> > > Nevertheless, I’m not sure what this has to do with the fictional Great War - a desperate battle for survival pitting humanity against aliens - who started with the decision to commit genocide against another civilization under the pretense of faithfully adhering to an a dysfunctional ideology and corrupt morals that supports self-serving superiority to all believers (but mainly the Prophets), on top of the destruction of the non-believers. That’s not to say that the UNSC are any better, in fact, the entire franchise uses Irony as one of the main literary devices for story-telling.
> >
> > If you want Irony, I recommend Catch-22. The Halo military system actually realistically depicts what a military-based government WITHOUT POLITICIANS would look like. It is missing some factors, but overall it is a pretty solid system. Even the idea of a religious genocidal enemy makes sense. After all, 80% of wars are due to religion. Also, An Asian Santa, you are mostly right. War is good, decent people with courage and bravery fighting for what they believe, but are commanded by corrupt, self-centered, cowardly generals and commanders that don’t have the courage to fight, so they ask other people to do it for them. They are no better than politicians. To quote Catch-22, “War is you trying to kill people you don’t know because those people you don’t know are trying to kill you.” The thing is, nobody wins in war. Most people die, the winning people are in debt, the losers have to pay for damage, and also end up dead, the decent people are all killed, and the only people alive are the corrupt ones. So what’s the point?
>
> Everyone here should read Joe Haldeman’s Forever War. If you want a glimpse at war, in all its horror and courage, I urge everyone here to read it.

Honestly, most of the war novels are biased and unfair. Catch-22 actually depicts a hilarious, almost unreal picture until you realize how scarily close to reality it is. That’s the beauty of it.

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> 2533274907200114;11:
> Back on the earlier topic…Im wondering if we can draw comparisons between the modern day military and the Spartan Branch, since no such equal organization exists in the current day (since, you know, we dont have genetically and biologically altered supersoliders).
> Not to say that we can’t make comparisons to others, and I doubt it would be all THAT different even with supersoldiers as members…but I feel like there could be SOME variation. Sorta like how the Air Force evolved into its own thing after it left Army command in 1947 (interestingly enough Spartan Thorne himself made that connection, according to the Infinity briefing packet in Halo 4)

I’ve mused on this question from time to time too, and come to the conclusion that honestly just nothing today really compares. The relatively closest groups would probably be the ultra elite forces like US Navy SEALS, British SAS, etc. but honestly even then they’re probably closer to the ODSTs. The Spartans really just have no equivalent IRL, I think.

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> 2533274961806222;18:
> > 2533274907200114;11:
> > Back on the earlier topic…Im wondering if we can draw comparisons between the modern day military and the Spartan Branch, since no such equal organization exists in the current day (since, you know, we dont have genetically and biologically altered supersoliders).
> > Not to say that we can’t make comparisons to others, and I doubt it would be all THAT different even with supersoldiers as members…but I feel like there could be SOME variation. Sorta like how the Air Force evolved into its own thing after it left Army command in 1947 (interestingly enough Spartan Thorne himself made that connection, according to the Infinity briefing packet in Halo 4)
>
> I’ve mused on this question from time to time too, and come to the conclusion that honestly just nothing today really compares. The relatively closest groups would probably be the ultra elite forces like US Navy SEALS, British SAS, etc. but honestly even then they’re probably closer to the ODSTs. The Spartans really just have no equivalent IRL, I think.

For the ODSTs? Figured 3PARA and Spetsnaz (organization at bare minimum)

The Spartan Branch itself? Little more tough, no “autonomous” dedicated special operations forces branch to compare to real life (the existence of such would indicate very specialized threats to the stability of a governed institution that requires very precise responses - a centralized body can help out with response times to extreme threats like Forerunners without having to go through the entire chain of command and responding only when its too late. Lots of problems there though, the greatest being the cost of business, only enough resources to go around, now the annual budget has to fund all these expensive operations. But’s thats the nature of the beast.) So the existence of the Spartan Branch is a big deal, as are the threats that face the UEG in modern time, then any other period in human history.

Spartans themselves are more akin to Delta Force, DEVGRU, units composed of mostly “mature” folks, with the occasional elite paramilitary guys (think of SAD) thrown into the mix. As not all Spartans take their orders from the Spartan Branch, ONI and other special interest groups do have their own, they must be capable of operating outside normal legal parameters, with greater jurisdiction over UNSC forces then others.

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I think well have something similar 120 years from now