Spartan Ops' Effect on Halo 5?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

So could anyone actually tell me what the point of spartan ops in Halo 4 was? From a story perspective at least. As far as I can tell, literally NOTHING from Spartan Ops was used or was important in Halo 5.

They set up Jul 'Mdama to be the big-bad Didact’s Hand collecting Forerunner weapons of destruction (the keys. Janice Keys was it? Don’t remember their name), but at the very first opportunity they kill off 'Mdama in an incredibly anti-climactic and 1 sided fight against Locke’s team. What exactly was the point of him?? They spent so much building him up in both books and Spartan Ops, and then do a complete 180 on him and basically just change their mind. He could have been “nameless zealot #1” by how much he affected the story. (and don’t say his death sparked the all-out attack on the Arbiter’s keep. This is a fictional universe. That attack happens if the writers decide they want it to happen, and required no reason to happen considering they were in a civil war anyways).

And speaking of him being the Didact’s Hand, the Storm Faction working together with the Prometheans was dropped like a hot coal wasn’t it? It was never explained in game WHY they stopped working together at all. It wasn’t the death/disappearance of the didact either, because some of spartan ops took place after that and they were still working together in that.

What happened to Halsey’s anger and sense of revenge? I understand Cortana’s meddling with the guardians gave her the need to work with the UNSC again, but she comes figuratively running back to them. She even interacts with Spartan Palmer, the woman that SHOT HER ARM OFF, and there isn’t even the slightest hint of disdain between the two of them. Wtf?? We all know Halsey isn’t exactly one to be so nice to someone that she has every right to hate. And Palmer is Palmer so her nice manners towards Halsey was equally odd.

And finally (sadly there really was only like four important things coming out of all of spartan ops), what happened to all the characters it introduced? What happened to the Spartan IV fireteams that we spend all our time getting to know? I mean, sure, most of them had no personality but what about Spartan Thorne? They seemed to be setting him up to be the bridge between the mediocrity of the Spartan IV’s and the legendary status of the Spartan II’s with his conversation with Halsey about not feeling like a real spartan and focusing on him in general, but he might as well never have even existed as far as Halo 5 is concerned.

So am I just missing something here?

2

<mark>Do not bump threads.</mark>

You know I never actually got an answer to this. Did 343 really just decide to cut their losses and abandon everything spartan ops stood for?

3

<mark>Do not bump threads.</mark>

I’m simply not getting an answer or discussion to this am I

4

Absolutely nothing. Presumably some of it was expounded in the books and comics, but it did not really tie into Halo 5. At least not in a meaningful way as Jul was killed off in the first mission.

5

They completely threw out Spartan Ops and Halo: Escalation. That’s all there is to it. They [Lead writer and team] screwed up hard, and people are now very upset because of it.

6

Fireteam Osiris was originally going to be Fireteam Majestic from Spartan Ops. Even when that idea was abandoned, early versions of Fireteam Osiris included Thorne (eventually replaced by Buck, because Thorne’s voice actor, Ethan Peck, wasn’t available) and Palmer (eventually replaced by Tanaka, because Palmer was needed for other aspects of the story).

7

Only thing is Halsey heading off with Jul.

8

343 had run into some issues trying to seamlessly connect previous canon works into the post- Halo 3 universe. Simply put, numerous events cost 343 any semblance of a story. The very vocal Halo minority of the website called “Waypoint” complained about SPARTAN Ops. With Chris Schlerf’s departure, 343 lost that connection between Halo 4 and the rest of the series. With what Im presuming was Microsoft’s push and orders, what was supposed to be a trilogy instead expanded into a saga. More filler material means more money, now everything has to be spread around. Then you get into the near present day: the lack of communication between the story departments (comics, games, books, videos) were enough to throw the entire story off, plus everyone was just doing their own thing. To get the story back on track, they decided to restart… like everything. Halo 4, SpOps, Escalations, HtT, and the books are virtually irrelevant as far as we should be concerned.

9

Yeah I didn’t play spartan ops and seriously had no idea who that elite was until after I killed him. Halo 5s reliance on the lore was so foolish considering its lore based off a damn game in the first place. I thought Mdama was an elite officer or something. Hopefully the writer for 6 is different. I loved halo 5s campaign, but the writing was horrendous

10

Poor planning and management over the past 3 years from 343.

11

Spartan Ops was a start for Halo: Escalation comic.

12

We need Joseph Staten back… Seriously