Hey everyone! Ive read most of the original books when i was younger but recently just finished Glasslands and started Thursday War. Let me say Glasslands felt a bit slow at times but I was obsessed and the ending had me so intrigued I knew I had to cough up some extra dough to keep going. In Glasslands the characters Lucy, Halsey, Naomi, Parangosky, and Osman were all really fun and intriguing each for their own reasons. I never really thought of it till today but I greatly appreciate the female representation in Halo. I’m a male and usually when I see female characters in these roles I see people online complain (per usual) but I never see it here. Halo is different though and its not spoken of much but maybe its one of those “When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all” scenarios. The only article I could find talking about this was from 2014 which talked about Halsey, Cortana, and Sarah Palmer. While I can say I don’t find 4 memorable people seem to have a disliking when it comes to Palmer, I cant say much from my opinion besides filling in the role of the legendary Sgt. Johnson is a monumental task. In the article Cortana is painted as a a crying, helpless, and overly sexualized AI while Halsey is a crazed villain with no depth. I’m assuming she is purely speaking of the game and later the mini series “Forward Unto Dawn”.
The books give Halsey and in tandem Cortana much more depth and personality when it comes to how they handle past regrets and why a character acts as they do. Spoilery bit: Glasslands brings up why Halsey would use flash clones knowing they’d die, that you could donate your brain to ONI if youre wicked smaht and want to become an AI, and the fact that Halsey used a flash clone of her own mind to create Cortana (the brain also has the low life expectancy as the child clones so its assumed that Cortana would enter rampancy much earlier than expected). This part of the story really made me appreciate Halsey’s character much more! The entire arc of Lucy and the begging of unraveling Naomis past were also great!
I guess I’m getting off topic but I really am enjoying the Kilo Five trilogy and wanted to know what everyone else thought about female representation in the Halo-verse
I’m glad you enjoyed the Kilo Five Trilogy so much. You may be surprised to hear then that many in the community do not like those books at all. I personally have mixed feelings about it. Some parts are great while others are rather meh. But it wasn’t about the women in the books. Most of the criticism I’ve seen has been about the general writing style and premise. For example, many readers didn’t like Halsey’s portrayal as an “evil space -Yoink!-” while so many other people who were involved in the Spartan-II program pretty much got a pass.
As for diversity in Halo, I think the idea of “When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all” is spot on. One thing that has been done so well in Halo is the fact that race, ethnicity, and gender have never really been emphasized one way or the other. All the humans are just treated as humans. A big problem I’ve seen in media lately is that characters are being defined by their gender or race. So I’m very proud of the fact that Halo hasn’t gotten bogged down in that stuff yet, at least as far as I’ve seen.
> 2535435902217648;2:
> I’m glad you enjoyed the Kilo Five Trilogy so much. You may be surprised to hear then that many in the community do not like those books at all. I personally have mixed feelings about it. Some parts are great while others are rather meh. But it wasn’t about the women in the books. Most of the criticism I’ve seen has been about the general writing style and premise. For example, many readers didn’t like Halsey’s portrayal as an “evil space -Yoink!-” while so many other people who were involved in the Spartan-II program pretty much got a pass.
I haven’t finished yet, I’m halfway through Thursday War at this point though! I feel you on the it’s either meh or great part as there were dull points in Glasslands. The Halsey thing I’m waiting to see how it unfolds but as of right now you’re very spot on! I feel like whenever shes brought up shes like a Wernher von Braun, pretty hated for her role in her field (which shes the top of) but too useful of a tool to dispose of. I can only picture her dying once theres some new type of Cortana AI that’s with Chief. Really unfortunate that her character took the turn it has but I still have much more to read and think about.
I think that race/gender/and so on go out the window when an alien threat is involved which makes the concept of a unified humanity (and everyone being equal) a lot easier.
I think I must be the only person I know who enjoyed the Kilo-5 Trilogy. Not perfect, but I did like it.
> 2533274906306948;4:
> I think I must be the only person I know who enjoyed the Kilo-5 Trilogy. Not perfect, but I did like it.
Not true, I also enjoyed it.
On the note of “Halsey is a monster”, I just interpreted it as that is how near any member of the public who was not privy to the full details of the Spartan program would view Halsey, because Kilo-Five didn’t know much til they met Naomi. And when they found out what happened to her, they were disgusted. People in the real world show just as much disgust when we hear so much as a whisper about child soldiers. So maybe while it’s slightly exaggerated at times, I consider the view at least moderately realistic, while also considering we have way more info on the situation than many of the characters in a given scene would.
> 2533274906306948;4:
> I think I must be the only person I know who enjoyed the Kilo-5 Trilogy. Not perfect, but I did like it.
Im only halfway through book 2 but I’m enjoying it quite a lot!
> On the note of “Halsey is a monster”, I just interpreted it as that is how near any member of the public who was not privy to the full details of the Spartan program would view Halsey, because Kilo-Five didn’t know much til they met Naomi. And when they found out what happened to her, they were disgusted. People in the real world show just as much disgust when we hear so much as a whisper about child soldiers. So maybe while it’s slightly exaggerated at times, I consider the view at least moderately realistic, while also considering we have way more info on the situation than many of the characters in a given scene would.
Very real take I had not quite though of (though maybe I dont know enough about Naomi yet). I will say that now that I’ve spent more time with the Sangheili I don’t really enjoy the way the women are treated in their society. I understand it as a reflection of an archaic time and the Sangheili are warriors but they say the females are the politically inclined and when we reach one theyre so far out of the loop. Hoping to have issues like that smoothed over once i get in further or maybe even Broken Circle but I’ll have to keep reading to see!