What's next for the Halo Universe?

Community Halo Universe
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Just a theory-based thread on a topic I would like to see discussed. As we near the end of the current cycle of trilogies in novels with Silentium in a month and the final Kilo Five novel (likely) to be released in it’s typical Fall time period, what do you feel is next?

I suspect we will see another Spartan Ops season come this Fall to supplement Frankie’s desire to have content more frequently than Halo’s past, but I don’t suspect another retail (Halo 5) release until Fall of 2014. If S-Ops does as well as Episodes 6-10 did (in my opinion) with telling a story (in the episode aspect, missions still leave something to be desired when it is described as a “campaign” and not “firefight 2.0”) I suspect that a small team at 343i will flush out a more campaign-feeling Season 2, much like ODST was originally planned to be.

But what about novels? There is nothing in the public eye currently being worked on, but 343i has invested much into building the universe via other media outlets. I hope for continued novelization of the universe as Greg Bear’s and Karen Traviss’ (please ignore desires to fault her novels, they are genius in their own regard, even if displeasing and unsettling to some/most fans) have been excellent for Halo in my opinion. But what would be the next set of novels? We know the universe for Halo 4-6 is focused on the Forerunners and possibly more from Greg Bear’s novels (ignoring obvious spoilers for those who have not read). Perhaps flushing more of that out? Perhaps more with the UNSC? Perhaps even an interim 117 novel that bridges Halo 4 to 5?

Novels aside, what about comics? I have them all, not the biggest fan, but they are a great media outlet as well. I would also be a fan of seeing short stories flushed out like in Evolutions and Halo Legends.

What are your thoughts?

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I’d love to see a Spartan Ops Season 2, and I also agree we won’t see another game until Halo 5, late 2014.

Novel-wise, I, personally, would like to see something detailing the adventures of Blue Team as Spartan IVs (If they chose to sign up, I don’t think we ever got confirmation on that) and also the more prominent remaining Spartan IIIs, Tom, Lucy, Olivia, and Ash. (Permitting that they signed up as well)

I think it’d also be pretty cool if Nylund came back to write something, but I don’t know if he’d want to.

EDIT: Skipped over the comic part for some reason.
I was thinking maybe Black Team could be explored more in that regard? We never really found out what happened to them.
On top of that, it might be interesting to see other novels turned comic, like The Fall of Reach.

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For the novel, I would like to have a book on Master Chief following halo 4. His hero’s return, but with his own thoughts available for us to read, such as when we could in the Nylund books. The Chiefs debriefing, and his relationships with the UNSC, ONI, and the new Spartan IV’s. And maybe even he reunions with the other spartan 2s. All this stuff would not be expected in halo 5, since not everyone who plays the games reads the novels.

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I think the reason we got so many novels in such a short span of time was in order to move the universe forward. Halo 4 features the Forerunners as enemies, and to truly understand why, it’s almost necessary to read the Forerunner trilogy. In that way, the novels brought Halo into its future - by fleshing out its enemies. It also introduced the Didact and the Librarian as legitimate characters, and not just enigmas on ancient Terminals. Both characters play central roles in Halo 4.

With the Kilo-Five trilogy, we got insight into the UNSC Infinity, the brand new Spartan-IVs, the resurgence of the Sangheili, the general state of the old Covenant races, Jul 'Mdama, the current Commander-in-Chief of ONI, the Captain of humanity’s biggest star ship, the circumstances surrounding Halsey’s discovery and arrest on Trevelyan, the reason humanity is now at the head of the galaxy, and the circumstances surrounding the Covenant’s discovery of Requiem. And probably even more that I’m just missing.

Without the novels, all of that could have been implied, but the novels really propelled the overall narrative in the right direction. They built really sturdy foundations that have been solidly fleshed out in Spartan Ops and the Campaign of Halo 4, and even in War Games to some extent.

So with all of that said, I don’t think we’ll be seeing nearly as many novels in the future. There were six Halo novels in 2010. In the three years since, there are now six more, bringing the total to twelve. We doubled our number of Halo books in a few short years. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s kind of an overload. With the universe successfully moved into 2558, and with the event that is Spartan Ops, the necessity for novels will have diminished.

I hope to see some, but it would be nice to get back to them filling in the cracks between games. Halo: First Strike and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx were probably some of my favorite novels. I would also love some completely unrelated spin-off titles, such as Halo: Cole Protocol, that just serves to flesh out some obscure time in the universe with new characters and setting. For the new era of Halo, it would be nice to have some of that to add some extra context to everything.

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To compliment the post above…

Maybe Laskie’s lost years - Between Forward unto Dawn and Halo 4?

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I’d really love to see Halo 4 written in novel form, like they did for C:E etc

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I want more 'Mdama media, or maybe something on Gek

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> I want more 'Mdama media, or maybe something on Gek

I agree, I happened to really like Gek as a character for some odd reason, and IMO, Jul 'Mdama is probably my favorite Sangeheili in existence.

Sorry Arbiter…

But Jul is the greater good…

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A rip off of Game of Thrones, methinks. I’ve been suspecting it for a while now ever since Frankie made the comparison on HBO, and the post Halo 3 fiction is becoming more and more like it in terms of tone and narrative.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Thel gets his own Red Wedding soon.

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> > I want more 'Mdama media, or maybe something on Gek
>
> I agree, I happened to really like Gek as a character for some odd reason, and IMO, Jul 'Mdama is probably my favorite Sangeheili in existence.
>
> Sorry Arbiter…
>
> But Jul is the greater good…

Jul is a very interesting character IMO I think he may be one favorite Halo characters

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> A rip off of Game of Thrones, methinks. I’ve been suspecting it for a while now ever since Frankie made the comparison on HBO, and the post Halo 3 fiction is becoming more and more like it in terms of tone and narrative.
>
> I wouldn’t be surprised if Thel gets his own Red Wedding soon.

One would find it to be relatively difficult to rip off a fantasy book series/TV show while making a science fiction series… Just saying…

As for the Red Wedding… IT SLIGHTLY CONTRADICTED THE BOOKS!!!

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> > A rip off of Game of Thrones, methinks. I’ve been suspecting it for a while now ever since Frankie made the comparison on HBO, and the post Halo 3 fiction is becoming more and more like it in terms of tone and narrative.
> >
> > I wouldn’t be surprised if Thel gets his own Red Wedding soon.
>
> One would find it to be relatively difficult to rip off a fantasy book series/TV show while making a science fiction series… Just saying…
>
> As for the Red Wedding… IT SLIGHTLY CONTRADICTED THE BOOKS!!!

I said in terms of tone and narrative, not in terms of ideas and fiction. That’s very easy to do. They’ve already done it with Kilo 5 actually.

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> > > A rip off of Game of Thrones, methinks. I’ve been suspecting it for a while now ever since Frankie made the comparison on HBO, and the post Halo 3 fiction is becoming more and more like it in terms of tone and narrative.
> > >
> > > I wouldn’t be surprised if Thel gets his own Red Wedding soon.
> >
> > One would find it to be relatively difficult to rip off a fantasy book series/TV show while making a science fiction series… Just saying…
> >
> > As for the Red Wedding… IT SLIGHTLY CONTRADICTED THE BOOKS!!!
>
> I said in terms of tone and narrative, not in terms of ideas and fiction. That’s very easy to do. They’ve already done it with Kilo 5 actually.

I think Frankie said that the Halo TV Series would have a budget the size of Game of Thrones, not that it would be a copy/paste in terms of narrative and tone.

However, Game of Thrones follows many different factions and characters, and that’s something that Halo lacks with it’s one-sided pro-humanity scheme.

It would be nice to follow several different characters/factions that are somehow connected in one way or another. What if the show told it’s story through the views of people like Jul 'Mdama, Thel 'Vadam, Blue Team, and Serin Osman… These people have opposing viewpoints, but they are all connected within the story.

Sort of how Game of Thrones follows the Lannisters, the Starks, the Targarians, and the Baratheans. They all are fighting over the throne and live in different locations, but their stories interconnect with one another.

That would be the kind of thing I would like to see in the TV Series, several different view points, several different locations, and a shared narrative that interacts with each character.

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> I think Frankie said that the Halo TV Series would have a budget the size of Game of Thrones, not that it would be a copy/paste in terms of narrative and tone.

It was long before that was mentioned, back when he was defending Glasslands from fan criticism when it first released; he mentioned that Halseys’ “arc” in it was similar to Jaime Lannister’s.

aSoIaF/GoT is built on the premise that life will not live up to your expectations; that it is cruel and won’t lead to anywhere meaningful in the end. That’s what I mean when I say that Halo is increasingly conforming to that style. It may not even be GoT it is mimicking but it has in general become more defeatist, and unlikeable characters have quickly filled up the roles (Palmer now has 3 things devoted to her) and leaving behind almost nothing worth caring about. Though I have to admit that I’m not sure if this is by design or if the writers just have no talent for this kind of stuff. SpOps is probably the latter as Brian Reed wrote Spider Man comics before coming to Halo. He has no experience writing military science fiction or space opera and it really shows. As for the greater fiction, I’m not sure.

Thel is a good example of the dramatic shift in style; one of the heroes of the fiction and one of the most important characters, and one of the very few Sangheili characters with any real depth, likeableness and charisma to him, is thoroughly debauched, ridiculed and made completely irrelevant in the fiction. If Halsey is like Jaime Lannister, then I fear that Thel may actually become Halo’s version of Robb Stark. So as for what is in store for Halo’s future, that’s what I think we will be seeing a lot more of really.