Halo: Season 2 - Discussion Thread

[Noname Given]

I think s2ep4 may be the best ep of the series

Spoiler

At the risk of being called a "battle porn" lover...

There is going to be more complaining from the "helmetless" crowd and now no suit either... But I think it showed who Master Chief is. The new head of the program told Master Chief that he was "just a guy in a suit".

He just proving all of that wrong. Him being there inspired other marines and he was showing just how deadly he is. Suit or no suit. He took out several covenant hand to hand, then even was holding his own against the elite guard guy before getting shot in the back.

I'm not surprised a member of Silver team died, but was surprised Vannak was the first to go. Also I flipflopped between going in expecting Admiral Keyes to die and then thought he was going to survive.

I think the effects in this ep were very good and actually smartly utilized. Some of the s1 finale felt too game-like and fake. The darker halls and even overcast or darkened outside really helped to tone it down and present the aliens as a more realistic appearance. I think they realized their maximum ability in the s1 finale and have been "smartly" using things like smoke,fog, or lighting to help keep it from being as "fakey"

Curious as to how the next few episodes/season plays out and how much more fighting/survival is part of it.

Spoiler

I only played the original HALO and am honestly not a big fan; but, even though, yes, the episode has some nice moments, and the Admiral's speech was a good one - sorry but if you're doing HALO, I need the carrot too - and that's some action IN the Powered suits. Master Chief as just the enhanced grunt doesn't cut it IMO.

And don't get me started on the plot armor that keeps him from being killed because Makee (clone or otherwise) just shows up and says: "Not yet..."

I mean hell, they don't even take him prisoner; they just walk off leaving John and his comrades on the floor. Even the one character who sacrifices himself is only killed because he grabbed a Covenant weapon and tried to kill a Covenant soldier walking away.

They only have 8 episodes and the story is still a meandering mess. I liked S! more because at least it had an underlying plot of BOT SIDES trying to find what the significance of the artifact was and the Covenant knew more than the humans and we even get to see a glimpse of the series namesake - the actual HALO.

I could personally care less if they allow John to remove his helmet out of combat and give him a backstory, but if you're gonna do a show about enhance maries in power armor - you need to show them doing more than wearing it a few times, with ONE decent Power Armor action sequence after 4 episodes of an 8 episode season (and even in hat sequence John only survives again because of Plot Armor. )

I can't believe after so many failed attempts of trying to bring a live action HALO based story to the screen - this is what Microsoft gave a green light to. Did they even read the script or plot treatment? I don't think so.

It's only 4 more episodes, so I'll complete the watch, but if this is the level of storytelling these guys do - I don't care if it gets a third season. And unless they really turn it up in the last 4 eps, I doubt I'd bother with the 3rd season if P+ gives it one,

 

[Airmandan]

Interesting that the leadership would go through all that trouble of being evacuated ahead of time yet forgot to grab Cortana. Definitely a better episode than last one, though the CGI muzzle flashes without visible brass being ejected bothered me for some reason. Nice that the various storylines got seriously condensed so we're not bouncing all over the place. Wonder if we're gonna get a Makee episode explaining her survival and her story since we last saw her.

 

[thribs]

Love the latest episode but I'm not a fan of Cortana's new look. I wish they just make her look like what she did in Halo 4.

 

[1987SpaceGuy]

and introducing "lame side stories again" it goes - sigh
Hopefully they remaining 3 episodes are better again.

Spoiler: Episode 2.05

Interesting and good bits

• Riz wanting to "live", becoming a nobody, leaving her tags behind. Nice character arc, if she gets written off this way.
• Halsey "Halo"-talk with John
  
• Cortana "helping" Mackey convincing the big Covenant guy
• Kai working with ONI-guy, leading? the marines for him/them. Wonder how she'll feel when she learns the truth about ONI(-guy), MasterChief. Prediction: Out of guilt, she's gonna bite the dust sacrificing herself for MasterChief fighting ONI or the Covenant.

meh

• it being Soren's wife and Kwan rescuing them. They just by chance knew where to find them...

sigh - dreaded storyline detours

• Soren and his wife's "Halo helmet" kid taken by UNSC
• Kwan and red hooded religion, monster whatever prophecy/vision

 

[FreezeC77]

and introducing "lame side stories again" it goes - sigh
Hopefully they remaining 3 episodes are better again.

Spoiler: Episode 2.05

Interesting and good bits

• Riz wanting to "live", becoming a nobody, leaving her tags behind. Nice character arc, if she gets written off this way.
• Halsey "Halo"-talk with John
  
• Cortana "helping" Mackey convincing the big Covenant guy
• Kai working with ONI-guy, leading? the marines for him/them. Wonder how she'll feel when she learns the truth about ONI(-guy), MasterChief. Prediction: Out of guilt, she's gonna bite the dust sacrificing herself for MasterChief fighting ONI or the Covenant.

meh

• it being Soren's wife and Kwan rescuing them. They just by chance knew where to find them...

sigh - dreaded storyline detours

• Soren and his wife's "Halo helmet" kid taken by UNSC
• Kwan and red hooded religion, monster whatever prophecy/vision

I hoped after S1 the Kwan stuff was gonna go away.

Spoiler

So that didn't happen... And all the mystical/prophecy/vision stuff... Meh

I did like Sorens wife in this ep, but I didn't need them to get a find their son ARC.

I am a little curious how people are settling down on Aleria. The group just traveled their from Reach which was destroyed by the Covenant. I think you'd want to get further away...

Also a bit of a broken record from me, but I love showing the actual damage/reality to what John suffers. This isn't a video game where you take dmg, use a health pack and immediately are fine.

 

[FPAlpha]

Were those Spartan IIIs Kai was looking at?

I agree with the others that it is annoying when a show gains massive momentum and then immediately steps on the brakes the next episode. it is very jarring and i don't like it even if it serves character development.

I honestly don't care about Kwan and Soren's plotlines and i don't know if the new showrunners had to deal with them contractually or if they have some kind of master plan to make their storyline support the larger story somehow. Right now i don't see it and they're only an uninteresting distraction.

 

[Tuskin38]

They made a single brute with a hammer feel very intimidating, like the games

the action sequences in this season I think are better than season 1

 

[Tuskin38]

Were those Spartan IIIs Kai was looking at?

Onyx is the home of the SIII program in the main lore, so probably

 

[David cgc]

Personally, I love Kwan's weird Forerunner shit. I want more and I want weirder (also, a little embarrassed that I didn't recognize the old woman's tattoo in the season premiere is the face of a Monitor, or half the symbol of a Reclaimer, I guess context matters). And it seems impossible that Kessler wasn't voluen-told to become a Spartan III (right age, apparently orphaned in a glassing), so that's not going to be much of a distraction.

Very curious about what's going on with Makee, the Arbiter, and Cortana. I wonder if they're planning to combine the ring-side plots of Halo 1 and 2, and then have all of the Earth stuff happen at once after that.

 

[Airmandan]

Well it’s definitely deviating further from the games now. Why do I think there’s going to be a violent clash between the old Spartans and the new. Honestly I wonder how long they can drag out not even making it to a Halo, the show doesn’t seem to be engaging people and unless they make some changes I doubt its going to make it to a third season

 

[Skywalker]

Personally, I love Kwan's weird Forerunner shit. I want more and I want weirder (also, a little embarrassed that I didn't recognize the old woman's tattoo in the season premiere is the face of a Monitor, or half the symbol of a Reclaimer, I guess context matters). And it seems impossible that Kessler wasn't voluen-told to become a Spartan III (right age, apparently orphaned in a glassing), so that's not going to be much of a distraction.

Very curious about what's going on with Makee, the Arbiter, and Cortana. I wonder if they're planning to combine the ring-side plots of Halo 1 and 2, and then have all of the Earth stuff happen at once after that.

It's starting to feel like they might do something like combining them since it looks like we're not even going to actually get to Halo until the end of season 2, which would have shocked me if you'd told me that would be the case before the show started. It would be a bit redundant doing two separate Halos, but I wonder how they'd set up Master Chief being back on Earth just in time for the Covenant to show up.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

If I didn't really get into season 1 is this a "stick with it as its gets better" type situation or "if I don't like it from the start I won't like it now" type show ?

 

[fireproof78]

If I didn't really get into season 1 is this a "stick with it as its gets better" type situation or "if I don't like it from the start I won't like it now" type show ?

I think Season 2 is far and away better than Season 1. The characters carry more weight, the drama is multi-faceted, and I have thoroughly enjoyed John 117's journey this season.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

I think Season 2 is far and away better than Season 1. The characters carry more weight, the drama is multi-faceted, and I have thoroughly enjoyed John 117's journey this season.

Thanks.

 

[FPAlpha]

Wait so everyone on Planet Reach died? And UNSC just ran away?
A bit confused here, but who in their right mind will follow UNSC ever again, after such betrayal? This is a very strange plot they added to the series.

When you know an overwhelming attack is coming and you're highly unlikely to hold or even win what would you do? Evacuate strategic ressources to fight another day elsewhere or hold and lose everything there just to go down swinging?

We are used in entertainment to have the heroes hold and win or at least die heroically to inspire everybody. Reality is that any well led army would do the same what Ackerson did - think strategically and long term and putting ones' ego on the backburner. They even laid it out in the episode when Master Chief opposes Keyes and tells them he shouldn't join the frontline but organize the retreat and save the civilians, he's far more valuable organizing and commanding than being just a single person more with a gun.

 

[David cgc]

The original story about the Fall of Reach after weeks of fighting, was more believable.

Well, in the game, and even then, the UNSC was actively hding the invasion from areas of the planet that hadn't been struck yet. In the novel, Reach was razed in a day or so. The supplementary material that tried to reconcile the two versions had it that the UNSC was trying to salvage the situation by using Reach as a trap once the Covenant discovered it anyway.

 

[fireproof78]

This should be the end of UNSC, their own soldiers would have executed such leaders.
The original story about the Fall of Reach after weeks of fighting, was more believable.

So, a coup in the middle of a war?

So, humanity is fucked.

 

[FPAlpha]

If it was an outpost, or a small colony sure, but a Planet with 700 000 000 population, and you didn't informed anyone about upcoming invasion? - This should be the end of UNSC, their own soldiers would have executed such leaders.
The original story about the Fall of Reach after weeks of fighting, was more believable.

I wonder if the show budget was the one that determine the outcome of the plot.

So what you're saying is you would have caused an intentional panic for no benefit because you had to know you can't evacuate everybody. How would that have helped the long term effort to win the war?

Back in WW2 the British had cracked the top german code called Enigma and were able to read significant parts of the Nazi communication yet they kept it a secret and allowed attacks to happen even though they could have prevented them but risked that the Germans would wise up and change the code. It was estimated that this allied action ultimately has saved millions of lives because it contributed to the end of the war and without it it would have lasted longer and be much bloodier.

So you see leaders even in reality have to make extremely hard decisions sometimes because they have to think long term - lose one big battle but try to win the war itself. It sucks, it will have a huge impact on morale once word spreads but that's what happens when you lose battles but soldiers understand this usually. It only gets critical when you lose too many battles and morale can't be improved by wins elsewhere.

Look at the WW2 Pacific War - after Pearl Harbor and a string of other defeats morale was very low in the US but they gritted their teeth and put their entire industry to war production. A while later they started to win major battles - Midway Islands, the Phillipine Sea and the Marines retaking island by island. There are conspiracy theories that the US let Pearl Harbor be attacked because that even a hard hit on a primary base wouldn't put them out of the war and that (if they knew about it) they were powerless to stop it or a defense would cost them much more than they were willing to give up at that point ( the US carriers) so what would have a warning accomplished in that case if you can't stop it coming? While Pearl Harbor took a big hit and thousands were lost strategic assets like the US carriers were safely away - either by luck or if the conspiracy theorists were right by design.

As i said - Hollywood has conditioned us to think a certain way. We celebrate noble defenders to heroic levels and villainize people who make tough decisions and knowingly sacrifice lives like Ackerson in Halo. I don't consider Ackerson a villain actually, he (and others) made a strategic decision in wartime based on hard facts to lose a major base with millions of lives because this war is for the very survival of the human species.

 

[fireproof78]

When your leaders are prepared to sacrifice 700 000 000 people, we are no longer in the Halo Universe, we are in Warhammer 40k

More they were prepared to have to cut losses due to an overwhelming force.

How much resources were they to put in to a losing battle that threatened to wipe out humanity?

And a military coup is not the answer.

 

[fireproof78]

There is nothing strategic about keeping population of 700 000 000 in the dark about upcoming invasion.

Yes, there is. Minimize panic, reduce strain on resources and avoid riots.

It's a sad part of this story that humanity is on the brink of extinction. A coup would have divided resources, even more so than they already were, and resulted in more deaths.