So last time I heard about the short series for halo I heard it was hitting difficulties. Accompanied by the picture of massive spartans I recalled watching forward unto dawn and thinking to myself. "why are they trying to make this epic series about the cold, robotic killing machines known as spartans? "Now don’t get me wrong I believe spartans could be their own interesting amazing characters inside the narrative gaming can provide. But I think it also over taxes things on a whole scale when it comes to story. Spartans are gods among humans. The last hope in the unwinnable fight and that’s great for video games. But I propose a slightly different story for a mini-series.
Why not do Contact harvest as a mini-series? Done in the style of Generation kill, focusing on a small team of people. The breakdown I believe could be something like.
Episode 1: Johnson and his last mission( A high paced high adrenaline conflict that slowly winds down as things unfold until the pacing grinds to a crawl though Johnson fighting with himself over what he’s done and ends with him being welcomed by an AI to harvest)
Episode 2: Welcome to harvest (Same slow pacing introducing the characters, part of the training, the ball and the alien encounter.)
Episode 3: The covenant (show the covenant’s side of things. The introduction to the prophets their ascent, the brutes and the ship,etc.)
Episode 4: More covenant (dab dab and his entire thing if not shown before and how he came to join the brute ship)
Episode 5: Realization and readiness (Johnson kicks things into high gear, ending with the episode reveal of the aliens)
Episode 6: A breakdown in negotiations. (joint episode sowing both sides and how things deteriorate)
the rest of the episodes would more or less just follow the conflict, key moments except for the last two episodes which would delve into the ending of both AI’s and the escape of the civilians along with wrapping up dab dabs arc.
I think that most of this can be made better with some work but the general premise is supposed to focus on the idea of HUMANS vs the unstoppable aliens. Getting some minor victories here and there but overall showing the hopelessness of the situation. This could include scenes among the civilians who are slowly losing hope and acting as people do in situations like this. Focus on the Malitia and their families. Focus on Johnson and his Arc. All in all, this is my belief to be a more grounded and easier to follow story that sets up the Halo universe for those who don’t dive much into the Lore and can be a more relatable series with some more relatable characters. If you REALLY want spartans you could make a follow-up series detailing the Spartans training, lives, and conflicts watching as each one is lost in a different fight.
I am not a cinema expert nor am I an avid consumer of the media. But these are just my personal opinions. Any ideas or thoughts on it?
Follow any Marine or ODST squad in the style of HBO’s “Generation Kill” would be very cool. And there’s plenty of leeway to do so and stay true and non-conflicting with canon. I liked that series. A few things I didn’t like, but overall really great. A geek version set in the Halo Universe would be cool.
I agree. The viewer will be able to feel more connected to characters and situations when they are relatable. Mere people can’t relate to Spartans because they are above everyone else. It’s hard to make a person feel connected to a character when the character they’re trying to connect to is a 7’2" super soldier that doesn’t show emotion.
Now with that being said, IMO Halo 4 made Chief way more human and emotional which made us feel for him as a person with feelings, rather than him just representing good and we want good to win against the evil. Good storytelling comes from evicting emotion in people to feel for someone in the story.
Now on the topic of your idea for a Contact Harvest series, or any Halo series, I like it, but it needs to be done correctly. It can’t be about good vs evil, it has to be about the effects of this “unwinnable war” on the average soldier. In the games, we don’t see how the Human-Covenant War affected the soldiers we were fighting beside.
If I could write a mini-series, this is how I would set it up (Episode 1/2):
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Pick a character and stick to them. It’s really hard to tell a story when you want multiple characters to go through the same journey. Now I’m not saying it’s impossible, Marvel did it, but for something that doesn’t have the resources of Marvel IMO it’d be best to stick to one character. - I would personally pick a Marine who has been on the front lines of the Insurrection War for the past couple years. (So this starts in 2525) He’s become numb to the terrible things that happen during war, and is in a pretty bad mental state. - His brother was killed in an Insurrectionist attack on a UNSC base on Eridanus II. The only thing he wants is to see every Rebel dead, paying for his brother’s life. - He’s only 20. - Fast-forward a couple years to 2530. News of the Covenant has reached him but he thinks that Eridanus II won’t be a target, as it’s only a small farming world with too much war for the Covenant to get involved. - UNSC forces have pushed back the last of the Rebel forces to a small mountain base. Right before he is able to see the last of the Rebels killed and vengeance for his brothers death fulfilled, his forces get orders to rescue all Rebels, bring them to their ship, and leave the planet. - He’s outraged by this. All these years of fighting the Rebels and exacting revenge, only to save them for some reason and leave the planet? He’s furious. - He thinks about it, and wonders “Well why do we need to leave the planet to save the Rebels? Why can’t we stay here?” As he says this, a Covenant battle fleet emerges from slipspace high in orbit. - Phantoms and Spirits drop to the ground across the whole planet, searching for any relics dear to the Covenant. - Covenant forces then drop near the Marine’s position and take out their transportation. - UNSC and Rebel forces make it into the Rebel mountain base. Tensions are high, not only from the Covenant attack, but because these men were just shooting each other less than an hour ago. - Some realize that they need to work together to get off the planet, as the Rebels have the only means of ground to orbit transport. The Marines call in their fleet to let them know they’re still down there and need the UNSC ships in orbit to wait for them to escape the system. - Our main character is at a crossroads. He has to decide if he will live to fight another day with the men who killed his brother, or die trying to kill them in an onslaught of Covenant attacks. This episode or two would cover the first two steps in the Hero’s Journey:
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Ordinary World - Call to AdventureThe next episode would cover the next three steps in the Hero’s Journey. This is only a start, but I think it could turn into something really special. Let me know what you think.