Theory on why the Halo show "doesn't feel like Halo."

Community General Discussion
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I made a post before defending the Halo show, now that we are almost 4 episodes in, I’ve come to a realization on why some many fans don’t think this fits with Halo. I actually like the show, but I think I understand the confusion.

In my previous post I mentioned how alot of this stuff came from the books, and trying to fit by theme not lore accuracy. Fans have an issue disassociating “lore accuracy” and “themes and tones” as to which is more fitting for the Halo show. But that isn’t the only issue and not the subject of this post.

The issue is that season 1 is basically a prequel to the “real” Halo show. I think that’s why season 2 was already greenlit. Because Season 2 is meant to be the Alpha Halo storyline and that’s what most Halo fans actually wanted. They probably knew this and don’t want to leave Halo fans dead in the water with season 1.

We are slowly building up to the Master Chief people know of. Episode 3 was started to see this more familiar chief.

But aside from retelling Halo CE for the 5th time, the whole Halo CE story line would fit best as a movie, not as a show. So in order to extend it, they are focusing on building multiple characters up and setting the background for what is to transpire on Alpha Halo. Probably making changes and focusing on more that just chief’s side, probably even pulling from Halo: The Flood novel. (Which I haven’t read)

The reaction to Chief and the show in general, is the same reaction as what happened to my friend who made the mistake of starting on Halo Reach. They felt starting on Reach, that Halo was just a generic military shooter, just with Aliens and sci-fi tech. They didn’t have the context that Chief was the last spartan (games wise, this was stated in the manuals), got the least “Halo”-like sound track and visuals (until Halo 4) It took them until Halo CE for them to be hooked.

Halo Reach is best served as something to play after the games, not before, even as a prequel.

The books in tone fit the show, but the books are side material. They are a little hard to read without the story from the games to contextualize them.

The show as of right now is like starting on Halo Reach before the other games, without having the other games.

As much as I like the show, this really sucks. It makes me think the show suffers from the same fate as Halo Infinite. That is, it will eventually get good. But the creators hurt their first impression and now they have to work harder to make up for that. Remembering how my friend got into Halo made me realize why people make the claim “This is not Halo!” or “This is not master chief!” because we are meant to watch this guy turn into the Chief we know. But Halo fans are frustrated because we have the context of the games, but can’t disassociate that from the show despite being told to.

But the Studio is scared of just dumping new fans into the universe like how Halo CE did for us. But since it is a show, not a movie, they could blow through the whole Halo CE story within 2 episodes. So in order to pad that out, they have to go slow now, which only pads it out even further.

I don’t know how true this will be yet, but I have a feeling that if season 2 comes out how I think it will, and the show does well enough for a season 3, that I’m going to tell people to watch season 2 first, go back to season 1 (like how most people read Fall of Reach after playing the games), then go into season 3.

This isn’t to convince anyone to watch it, or to even come back to season 2. This is just to say I think I understand your frustrations, and with Season 2 confirmed before the first episode was even out, I think they knew it too.

What does anyone else think?

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This show is complete dog crap because the creators failed to play a game when this show, IS BASED ON A GAME.

For christ’s sake, they have Chief parading around naked and looking in the mirror like some teen age girl. Chief is the greatest soldier humanity has ever seen and trained from the age of 7 to do so. Chief is a living weapon and the creators have completely destroyed everything about Halo. Jesus, this is just pathetic. Any true Halo fan should hate this is crap as it does not represent nor have anything to do with Halo in any way, whatsoever. Only reason I know about any of this is from a youtube video going over this aborted garbage.

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Hm.

Ah. I see.

The books are not side material; Fall of Reach released a month before CE. On the contrary, I’d say the books contextualize the games, not the other way around.

But I think your overall point stands. There are a lot of very passionate ‘fans’ of the games who have not dipped into the extended lore. I myself have been in this since the beginning and only recently started really digging into the books.

As I’m progressing through the books it’s clear to me how much more interesting the show must be to someone who is all caught up. First because names of people and places come with core context, and second because they get to see and understand why changes were made in this adaptation of the story.

It should go without saying, but an open mind is necessary.

On the whole, I’m very much enjoying this show. The changes made make sense given the medium and scope. Plus, the lore deviation permits me to experience Halo again as if for the first time.

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The dialogue has been terrible so far and it feels like they show one cringe moment after the next. The young boy trying to get a kiss then scientist trying to sneak a kiss of a clone version of Halsey before she is ultimately killed and mind is made digital. Episode 2 has John screaming what am I over and over. They should of been smart about revealing John’s face at the very least. I guess it enjoyable to watch how much of a s***show it is.

Here is to hope that maybe MAYBE a movie can be lore accurate and maybe some forum of retelling of the first 3 installments of Halo. And pay people that actually made those games.

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As someone who was into the extended lore up until halo 5…its a disaster.

Pointless changes, weird focuses, rushed plot points. Unless you particularly loved the karen traviss novels i don’t see how knowing the books makes this much better.

Does including the innies more make sense? Sure. But right now they’re painted in a very different light with a very unlikeable lead for that plotline. The UNSC was always kind of shady but this one makes them the main villains it seems.

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Exactly.

But I (and most people) see Halo as the games first, alot of people don’t like the dour tone of the show that is common in the books. But I didn’t mean it as a one-way street, sorry for the misunderstanding. The main games are noticeably more upbeat and optimistic.
The books and games work together because the darker aspects of the books help amplify how hopeful the games are. And the other way around, the hopeful games show how far down humanity fell before the games.

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I just finished Glasslands, so that might show some of my bias.
And honestly the Innie/UNSC stuff in the show is execution problems.
I don’t like that the show is basically going “Wait, keep watching it will get good!” That’s the point of this post. Innies should be a non-issue at this point and probably should have been left until after the Halo stuff.

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Yeh this show is heading to a Halo centric season 2 for sure and I’m sure like you said this build up to that has not worked for some fans.
Even so there’s one detail altered that may have negative repercussions going forward, they already know halo is a weapon. Granted they still don’t know what it does or why, but landing there in CE you know literally nothing. Only time will till how that story is told and how it differs.

Nevertheless I have enjoyed what I’ve seen so far.

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Ah yes, Halo, the story of chief walking around his childhood home, digging in the backyard, having family memory time, and then going to another hole that he encountered as a kid.

Chief is…just not good in this show. Silver team seems great, this ep actually made me like their take on Miranda.

Kwon’s story still feels woefully disconnected from…everything. The UNSC/Covenant plot is clearly focused on getting to halo even if its throwing up some really weird plot elements to get there. Kwon’s…just trying to make a mess of things. Also apparently her father wasn’t inspired by like…how bloody evil the UNSC is in this…but by mystics in the desert? What?

Yeah episode 2 pretty much broke halo CE’s, and arguably 2’s plot, since the covenant apparently knows it kills all life in the galaxy too. Chief knows it now too.

Fall of Reach barely touches on Forerunner stuff (they get directions from a weird rock, which honestly makes no sense but whatever), and Halo CE just dumps you at the halo. No prior forerunner experience, just this big ominous unknown thing. CE’s also careful not to tell you halo kills off everything till AFTER the flood reveal.

I don’t see how this show will eventually get good. They’ve pretty much mucked with everything that makes halo good.

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Episode 4 has me extremely mixed.

What I THOUGHT they were doing with Chief is have the visions use his memories and point him to the artifact. Like Eridanus II isn’t Chief’s homeworld, it was just using memories to fill in the gaps. But no… It is his home apparently, and he isn’t just coincidentally lucky and naturally skilled. Apparently he touched an artifact that he couldn’t lead his parents to for some reason and it made him crazy? They better not say that the artifact changed him and made him special. That devalues his character.

Silver team and miranda are mostly good. One part I don’t like is where they talk about pets. That feels unnecessary for them considering the conditioning and augmentations to their mental state. It also felt like the writers trying to say “Look! The UNSC is so bad!” Like. You guys shown a kid dying already. You want the UNSC to look bad, why don’t we have more flashbacks to the spartan training itself? Is child soldiers not bad enough? You have to include animals just to make them look that much worse? Also, where’s captain keyes in all this? (I’ll come back to this)

Yeah, Kwan’s story has absolutely nothing to do with the events the show should be focused on. And the mystics is just weird. Also an assassin using a sword? Really? Kwan’s whole section summarizes most of the weaknesses with the show for me. What’s worse is that I feel like if they had to force the innie stuff into this, why didn’t they instead give captain Keyes this to help his character out as an honorable, but dutiful captain? Like he is the one who has to mop up the innie stuff on Madrigal and he sees how the UNSC has problems, but helps out the colonists within the UNSC’s rules by using loopholes? Kwan can still be there too! Heck, keep Soren there as the guy who plays devil’s advocate for the innies, and dig up some tension between Keyes and an ex-spartan! Kwan can be his ear to the ground on taking back Madrigal and slowly trust Keyes! And show the colonists that there are some good people in the UNSC. I just thought of this and I already like it more than Kwan and Soren on their own with weird mystics! Then they could have Keyes being re-assigned back to Reach and we get the show version of the Fall of Reach story!

Halo CE breaks Halo 2’s story too though. Keyes learned that Halo was a weapon on a covenant ship while captured, just like the cringey insane guy. Halo 2 then turned it around into a religion. This is even ackowledged by Cortana in Halo 2 when Regret talks on his holograms during the mission. “Great Journey? Don’t they know what these rings do?” So the miscommunication between humans and covenant is fine. Halo CE and Halo 2 did the exact same thing. And literally in the 3rd mission in CE we learn Halo is a weapon. We learn that much pretty fast. It isn’t until Two Betrayals, 5 levels later that we learn Halo’s real purpose, then 2 levels more until the game is over. We learn the real purpose over halfway through. Meanwhile in the show, they still don’t know much of anything. They don’t know what halo is, they had an insane weirdo that only Chief knows about say something about a weapon. As horrible as that scene was, the dude wasn’t clear and isn’t the best source of info. Otherwise we wouldn’t have to find the 2nd artifact. The UNSC hasn’t connected the dots yet.
Also we know next to nothing about what the covenant actually know (because they keep focusing on Makee as a character instead of the covenant themselves…)

And yeah, getting directions from a weird rock is exactly what’s going on in the show. At least until Chief apparently found the other piece already? Somehow? For some reason? Kid walked from a picnic and miles on miles to a specific hole in the dirt? Also he is still showing his face way too much.

I’m still hopeful, and Episode 2 was bad for different reasons than Episode 4 for me. This episode makes it clear that Kwan’s story is there because they probably didn’t have the budget to do a better covenant story. Same with Makee instead of Thel. And some crazy guy over-acting when he was apparently a Jackal in Cole Protocol. And that they had an interesting way to tie the Spartan backstory to the artifact dangling right in front of their faces, but they instead took it too far and are now over-explaining Chief. The show can still course correct, but they made some serious mistakes on the writing already. And if they carry some of these threads past an episode or two then the writers will have to work even harder to get this show back to being Halo.

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I do’nt like they decided to make an adaptation from Halo. There are already enough confusion between games and books, only a few fans have really play and read everything, so add a new reality was really the worst idea. Halo is a big universe who have hundreds story to tell, there was no utility to rewrite everything.

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