Halo: Season 2 - Discussion Thread

[Lordcommanderdarkwolf]

First Trailer

 

[David cgc]

Looks like we're getting the Fall of Reach. When the show first started, I expected that to be the big season one finale, but the show mixed things up a lot with laying out its version of the universe. I thought that was interesting, but it was, and remains, profoundly tedious to see the negative reaction in Halo fan spaces to every slight alteration from the existing story (I wish that vehemence had been present when the original Halo tie-in novel threw out every plan and implication from Bungie in the original game about the backstory; oh, now you hate that the Spartans were brainwashed child-soldiers commissioned to murder political dissidents on Earth colonies, maybe you should've registered your displeasure back when it would've made a difference, in 2001).

 

[FPAlpha]

Looks like we're getting the Fall of Reach. When the show first started, I expected that to be the big season one finale, but the show mixed things up a lot with laying out its version of the universe. I thought that was interesting, but it was, and remains, profoundly tedious to see the negative reaction in Halo fan spaces to every slight alteration from the existing story (I wish that vehemence had been present when the original Halo tie-in novel threw out every plan and implication from Bungie in the original game about the backstory; oh, now you hate that the Spartans were brainwashed child-soldiers commissioned to murder political dissidents on Earth colonies, maybe you should've registered your displeasure back when it would've made a difference, in 2001).

I honestly don't get this need to have everything translate 1:1 across mediums. We already have seen and played the videogame story, why have it re-filmed 1:1 as live action and know every story beat in advance?

Un-helmeting Master Chief in the first episode was a bold choice and i was not sure in the beginning if i liked it but as the season progressed i was ok with it. Some things didn't work as well as maybe intended and i can't even remember her name, the rescued woman from the first Master Chief fight - every time she took center stage in an episode the show came to a halt.

However i liked the direction the show was taking and all the other characters and their stories so in the end i enjoyed the season for the most part and was definitely looking forward.

I too expected the glassing of Reach to be the season finale but we'll get it in this season - it's just the question if it will be season 2's finale or not. Based on the trailer i believe it'll be the season finale and the catalyst to reach Halo in person and not just a vision.

 

[Lordcommanderdarkwolf]

New cast members are Cristina Rodlo as UNSC Marine Corps communications specialist Talia Perez A character Original to the show and Joseph Morgan as James Ackerson a colonel in the UNSC Army He's an important character in the expanded universe.
https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/silver-debrief-season-2-reveal

 

[captainkirk]

I thought that was interesting, but it was, and remains, profoundly tedious to see the negative reaction in Halo fan spaces to every slight alteration from the existing story

As someone who started with the show as my introduction to the franchise, the online Halo fans put me off trying the games for a very long time. They just seemed so negative about everything. Once I played the games I did understand some of the criticisms of the changes, but I also don't think a 1:1 adaptation would work as well as they think it would.

The thing is that Master Chief in the games is not an overly compelling character. He exists to make players feel awesome while blasting aliens. That's perfect for games, but 10 episodes of that would get really old.

 

[Ridcully]

Hope it will be fun and...gruesome!

 

[Lordcommanderdarkwolf]

Second trailer

 

[fireproof78]

Elites getting a lot of play here.

 

[FPAlpha]

Damn - i got a little misty eyed for what is most likely the Fall of Reach playing out. Such an iconic moment in the lore and the initial games never truly have shown it.

This will be epic and they sure plan very long term because i think they will get to Halo at best in the season 2 finale, which is no small feat to leave the central storyline to only appear in full in season 3.

 

[Lordcommanderdarkwolf]

I think i see MA37s/MA40s.
It's my favorite AR.

 

[Tuskin38]

the story is terrible, but the show has a art style down.

https://www.ign.com/articles/halo-f...r-chief-to-put-his-helmet-back-on-in-season-2
What a load of bull, you can do stories where the main character barely takes their helmet off.

The Halo games did it, The Mandalorian did it fine.

 

[fireproof78]

It's not cannon, so

I mean, it is shooting things so cannons are involved

And, yes it is canon, but it is an adaptation which will involve changes. It will not be like the video game, with a nearly blank slate for a character fir the player to get their wish fulfillment out of.

 

[David cgc]

The Halo games did it, The Mandalorian did it fine.

Of course, Halos 1, 2, 4, and 5 all began or ended with the Chief helmetless (honorable mention to "Reach" doing it at both ends with its protagonist). It's not a religious thing, it's not even an in-universe thing, in non-visual media, he walks around like a normal person all the time (and even the visual depictions have been gradually pushing the line back on how old John can be before we stop seeing his face). It's an affectation within the games that the audience (and the audience alone) never sees his face, that only works because they're mainly in the first-person and mainly set when he's on-duty. It was pretty much a dead issue from day one, Bungie clearly wanted the Master Chief to be a nameless, faceless vessel for the player, like his spiritual ancestor, the Security Officer from Marathon, or his to-the-extreme descendent, Noble Six, but that went out the window when Microsoft demanded a prequel tie-in novel that gave him a name, a physical description, and a life story regardless of any plans the actual developers had, and the book sold well enough it couldn't just be ignored. Once that happened, you may as well show the man's face, you've given away everything else about him.

It's already wacky when Chief is standing around with a bunch of other Spartans and he's the only one wearing his helmet, it would've been so much worse trying to write around it in the show. You'd either have to make it an actual in-universe thing that he refuses to show his face, have him in full gear all the time even when it makes no sense, or make it into a joke where his face is always out of frame or hidden ("Halo: The Series," starring Wilson from "Home Improvement" and the the tall guy from "Police Squad!").

I think they made the right choice getting it out of the way early on the show. I even like how they leaned into it metafictionally, with using nudity versus armor as a symbol and metaphor, even though most of the audience just took it as "Lawl, buttz."

And, yes it is canon, but it is an adaptation which will involve changes. It will not be like the video game, with a nearly blank slate for a character fir the player to get their wish fulfillment out of.

I mean, it's canon to itself, but it's explicitly set in a different version of the universe than everything else, called the Silver Timeline. It's kind of moot until we see the first tie-ins directly with the series, novels or comics or what-have-you set in the Silver Timeline instead of the game version, but it's definitely an official thing that there are two separate and distinct Halo continuities going on.

 

[fireproof78]

I mean, it's canon to itself, but it's explicitly set in a difference version of the universe than everything else, called the Silver Timeline. It's kind of moot until we see the first tie-ins directly with the series, novels or comics or what-have-you set in the Silver Timeline instead of the game version, but it's definitely an official thing that there are two separate and distinct Halo continuities going on.

Yes, thank you for making that clear distinction.

 

[FPAlpha]

Of course, Halos 1, 2, 4, and 5 all began or ended with the Chief helmetless (honorable mention to "Reach" doing it at both ends with its protagonist). It's not a religious thing, it's not even an in-universe thing, in non-visual media, he walks around like a normal person all the time (and even the visual depictions have been gradually pushing the line back on how old John can be before we stop seeing his face). It's an affectation within the games that the audience (and the audience alone) never sees his face, that only works because they're mainly in the first-person and mainly set when he's on-duty. It was pretty much a dead issue from day one, Bungie clearly wanted the Master Chief to be a nameless, faceless vessel for the player, like his spiritual ancestor, the Security Officer from Marathon, or his to-the-extreme descendent, Noble Six, but that went out the window when Microsoft demanded a prequel tie-in novel that gave him a name, a physical description, and a life story regardless of any plans the actual developers had, and the book sold well enough it couldn't just be ignored. Once that happened, you may as well show the man's face, you've given away everything else about him.

It's already wacky when Chief is standing around with a bunch of other Spartans and he's the only one wearing his helmet, it would've been so much worse trying to write around it in the show. You'd either have to make it an actual in-universe thing that he refuses to show his face, have him in full gear all the time even when it makes no sense, or make it into a joke where his face is always out of frame or hidden ("Halo: The Series," starring Wilson from "Home Improvement" and the the tall guy from "Police Squad!").

I think they made the right choice getting it out of the way early on the show. I even like how they leaned into it metafictionally, with using nudity versus armor as a symbol and metaphor, even though most of the audience just took it as "Lawl, buttz."



I mean, it's canon to itself, but it's explicitly set in a different version of the universe than everything else, called the Silver Timeline. It's kind of moot until we see the first tie-ins directly with the series, novels or comics or what-have-you set in the Silver Timeline instead of the game version, but it's definitely an official thing that there are two separate and distinct Halo continuities going on.

A thousand times this and exactly my opinion on the subject.

I understand fan obsession and sticking to original material ( can be like this in other material myself) but an adaptation is just that and it leaves changes open for the benefit of the story. Then again we know that fandom can be a super whiny bunch at times yet will watch anything within the brand they whine about.

 

[Tuskin38]

(mostly) Spoiler Free review of the first 4 episodes

The embed cuts off the full title, it ends with (Yet it's good)

Basically they say you're still going to dislike it if you're looking for a Halo adaption. But thinks it's good if you ignore the fact it's meant to be an adaptation of Halo, and just see it as it's own thing, and so far it is better than Season 1 from just that perspective.

If you completely divorce it from the Halo games it's a good sci-fi series.

 

[Aragorn]

First two episodes are up.

 

[DarKush]

Saw the first two episodes today. The first episode starts with a bang, but then slows down to introduce many of the important characters and storylines of the season. I thought it slowed down a bit too much, but it ended on a good enough note. I thought the second episode flowed better, but I can't say I'm really drawn into this story. I do like the cast, I like the aesthetics, a good deal (but not all) of the special effects, but the story is middling to me. I am not a gamer and I have never played HALO (though I've read some comics, read a bit of a novel, and saw some of the straight-to-video DVDs), and I'm largely looking it like I would a relatively new military science fiction/space opera without a massive gaming franchise behind it.

Right now, I can't say the characters are all that interesting to me, outside of Soren, Dr. Halsey, and Joseph Morgan's character. Much like last season, I enjoy whenever Bokeem Woodbine is on screen. Pablo Schreiber does fine acting wise, but his character is understated by design so he's not as interesting for me to follow. Here's hoping that the hints of seeing more of his team will be realized throughout the season. Danny Sapani also has gravitas, and I would love to see him as a Starfleet captain.

 

[1987SpaceGuy]

Having played Halo like once and not familiar in detail with it all - yay it's finally back, after what feels years, but seems to have similar flaws like season 1.


visually - shaky parkour cam moments aside - it's really good.
I like the glowing/dark and Iceland/the waterfall parts especially.

Spoiler: Halo version of a familiar SciFi sequence

the ship(s)/fleet ascending out of the nebula was nice > seems familiar from Star Trek/Star Wars and many other SciFi shows I'm sure.

the side stories and character conflicts rather drag however - just fill out the "world"/episode buffer time.
Probably a result of having to create more or stretch out of little.

Spoiler: ep 1 and 2 spoilers

Those ONS/people in charge make it easy to root against them...
I don't care about the religious red robes on the now glassed planet, nor whatever the survivor girl from season one is up to.
the Spartan team d*ck measuring contest is also annoying.
so only the MasterChief, somewhat his squad's inner conflicts are interesting to me.

Presumed dead "Mackie" is alive? like WTF
the now arrested pirate/former spartan will somehow assist MasterChief 117 I'm sure.
the most interesting new character is the human communication specialist Perez, hoping she teams up with the MasterChief and his squad and survives.

 

[Tuskin38]

Bear McCreary is the composer for this season