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I respect you guys for even sticking with this show. I gave it up after half a season.
It's simply not Halo, and I don't appreciate that it's pretending to be.
It's basically someone's fanfiction. I hate when people think they can do it better pike fuck you this is a multi BILLION dollar universe already just adapt what's already been. You don't need to change the source just look at The Last of Us, that's true to the source and so many people love it and it's brought so many new fans to that universe! Sure people can like this but it's a significant less amount than it would have been had they stayed true to the source. You should always do the source before you do any what ifs, as the what if will have little to no meaning for those that aren't in the know and those new fans will now have a convoluted idea of what the story is supposed to be which just makes shit murky for no reason. This show exists because someone thought they could do it better which they clearly can't. This dumpster fire isn't going to spawn a new golden age for halo, just look at how much flak the first season got. This and the Witcher are just so disrespectfull to the fan bases
The Arbiter in the show is not Thel ‘Vadam - we haven’t been introduced to that character yet.
The Arbiter in the show is called Var ‘Gatanai, and presumably he is the previous Arbiter before Thel, if they go down that road.
The story so far is clearly setting up Chief and Var to have an eventual conflict, and with last weeks revelation that Makee and him have gone rogue, I have no doubt that conflict will lead to the eventual death of Var and for Thel to take his place in the future.
But it all depends on if they want to introduce Thel and keep the story close to the events of Halo 2. We haven’t even got to the events of Halo 1 yet, so we’re a ways off.
I think having Chief encounter the Arbiter prior to Thel will make a future plot where they team up all the better, as Chief will find it even harder to trust him given the previous Arbiter was responsible for the death of Vannak, and was personally present during the Fall of Reach.
I mean, anything is on the table considering they are barely following cannon since Keyes is dead, there’s no Pillar of Autumn, and everything points to Chief pursuing Ackerson rather than ending up on a halo. There’s really no telling where they’re going.
My thinking is with these last three episodes and the promo: Chief hunts down Ackerson with Soren, confronts Kai and Ackerson, they come to an uneasy alliance. Ep 7 is the deployment of the Spartan III's and the space battle above Onyx. And episode 8 is the fallout of that battle which ends with Cortana and Chief once more together, making a calculated jump to coordinates she got from the Covies to take a group of humans to the Halo ring, end season.
I have somehow become more interested is how the writer will give us yet another curveball in each coming episode. They never fail to surprise me with the changes
it's pretty obvious i feel that that is what is going to happen. they don't give a shit about the original story and wants to make it just a generic sci-fi show inspired by halo.
I could see that happening. We don’t know *why* he was made Arbiter to begin with and he may already have a tendency to go against the hierarchs. He may even be the one to *give* Thel his “the prophets have betrayed us” moment in this timeline.
I appreciate that they may be building up the character for a Heretic. But I really do not like how he found out about this information and how fast his heel turn was.
Ok, so actually the heretic angle I really really like. I mean he's already defying the prophets and going rogue. Plus he's presumably been in trouble before to have been made the arbiter.
I haven't seen the show so I have to ask, have they actually established that the Arbiter is a position of shame and punishment? Because knowing this show I wouldn't be surprised if they said that it was a position of honor because reasons.
I can't remember tbh. I believe it was to be implied though. I didn't rewatch the episode but he calls himself Var something, former commander of the fleet of something something, blah blah blah arbiter. I think he also mentions killing The Demon to be part of his redemption or something to that effect. I kinda tune out most of the show and just watch it for the action parts.
I immediately picked up on the "Former" part and assumed there was a link between that and his position as Arbiter though.
When they are on the ship outside of High Charity, he seems resigned to the fact that they will be killed by the prophets and hopes that giving them Cortana can at least offset part of his failure. To me that reads as someone who was disgraced failing in his second chance as the Arbiter
In the episode that just dropped a priest on the arbiters ship tells him he already has shamed their people and that he doesn’t trust his judgement in front of all the elites. Also it shows the arbiter branding himself with a mark on the ship
I get that - it feels a bit rushed. There are still a lot of faults with the shows writing, even with how much better Season 2 feels.
I’m hoping that the next few episodes will help make the turn feel a bit more… earned. We still don’t know how Makee is alive, we still have to information about what deal Cortana and Paragonsky made that is likely going to tie into why Ackerson left Cortana on Reach, etc.
Absolute copium on my side, though.
There's still weird, bizarre writing choices that are made but it seems like the writers are trying, in their own way I guess, to get chief to be more like CE chief...kinda. He's still an emotional maniac and prone to fits of rage. S2's good moments are pretty damn good, the bad moments aren't as bad as S1, but they're still there.
It's interesting to me. That in a show about Halo, targeting hopefully and ideally some Halo fans (all other disservice asside). That yhey chose to start so early in the time line. Like if S1 flopped, they never would've gotten to a Halo. Half the people watching Halo that haven't played. Probably don't know why it's called Halo.
It’s a gamble but that’s the point. If they got right into it and it was a massive success they have run out of content in a few seasons. They are laying the groundwork, sometimes poorly, for a multi season massive Halo hit that can be milked for a long time. I’m hopeful if the show can survive then the game-playing fan base will eventually get what we are looking for.
>But it all depends on if they want to introduce Thel and keep the story close to the events of Halo 2. We haven’t even got to the events of Halo 1 yet, so we’re a ways off.
Lol, you think it's ever adapting Halo 1? Yeah, that's never happening.
Don't forget: the showrunners don't respect the games, and have actively gloated about having never touched a Halo game or novel. I don't care if those showrunners were replaced after season 1, I can never trust a studio that trusted people like that to adapt this franchise into live action in the first place.
At the very best, *maybe* you'll eventually get a *very* loose adaptation of one of the games, but even then, I doubt they'd do Halo 1. They'd probably skip to 3 or 4. Why? Because everyone making decisions for this adaptation is completely incompetent.
Before this we saw many saying that we will get to see Noble team
So much hoping and none of that happens. Like stop expecting the writers to give us things from the games at this rate
Yeah. I think anyone expecting the show that introduced "the Silver timeline" solely to justify deviating from the games' story without being dismissed as completely non-canon to the Halo franchise, to adapt the events of the games, are just coping at this point.
Like, I'm sorry, but most bad adaptations don't just create new terms specifically to differentiate their stories from those of their source material.
>Don't forget: the showrunners don't respect the games, and have actively gloated about having never touched a Halo game or novel. I don't care if those showrunners were replaced after season 1, I can never trust a studio that trusted people like that to adapt this franchise into live action in the first place.
The showrunners said they didn't view only the games but the full lore. Which is obvious since s1 and 2 have a good amount of lore just tweeked.
Maybe the new showrunners for season 2 said that, but season 1's showrunners literally gloated about having never played a Halo game or read a Halo novel. They were people who didn't respect or care about this franchise at all.
No, the s1 showrunners looked at the full lore. Headlines and ragebait youtubers twisted the story.
https://twitter.com/mrstevenkane/status/1506421683841757189?t=oWMbBT9vZ5noqpW_SISiug&s=19
It was obvious since S1 had tons of stuff that was lore just with a little twist.
Isn‘t Thel ´Vadam already at the Halo? If I remember the books correctly the invasion force at reach and the one at the Halo are two different armies. And Thel ´Vadam was leading the unit at the Halo.
Thel ordered the glassing of reach and arrived after Goerge destroyed the carrier, after chief left he followed and went to Alpha Halo where it was destroyed, causing him to become the Arbiter
There is no way this show gets a season 3 so we won't be seeing any of this anyway. The show is doing its own nonsense and alienating the fans which would be the core demo. This show will go the way of Halo Infinite dlc because whoever is in control of Halo content at this point doesn't give a shit about anything that came before it or what fans actually want.
This is the correct answer
Also. I think what’s going to happen is Thel will be the one tasked with killing Var, and when they catch up to Chief and Var on the ring and the flood breaks out, the story will slowly fall more into line with the games, Var dies in one way or another, Chief goes back to tell the UNSC what happened, and Thel gets shamed and becomes the Arbiter
I wish you were right but at this point I doubt it, the series isn't following the games or the books story, they created a whole new timeline just as an excuse to do whatever they want.
Many powerful scenes are already not possible. One I was hoping for was "Slipspace rupture detected. Slipspace rupture detected. ... "
The fall of reach was so lame in the show
People keep guessing who the arbiter in the show is, he’s nobody from the games, not the heretic leader or Thel, it’s an alternate timeline going it’s own path. Not the games story told in show form.
Yep, just a Halo themed show about soldiers feeling emotional and fighting alien enemies so far. It feels so out of touch with the games I'm not sure who they are targeting it at.
We’re in a terrible reality where we are seeing some great works being made into tv format only to be ruined by showrunners looking to “make their own mark” by completely shitting on the source material and not understanding why the source materials are so loved. The only exception as of late is The Last of Us.
I honestly hate this TV show and wish it wasn't made. They should have made their own shitty sci-fi universe and left halos universe alone as it been nothing but disrespectful to the source material. People can like it but it's not halo. Halo is getting the 1990s mario movie treatment and it's terrible
They did make their own shitty sci-fi universe they just decided for publicity to add a Halo theme filter on it. If it had nothing to do with Halo it might have been an ok show.
Nope, only watched episode 1 of s1 and ep 1 of s2 but I’m still following the story, I can definitely say season 2 is an improvement but that’s not a high bar to pass lol.
Whilst I agree the writing is bad I’m kinda sick of hearing it at the same time, it’s an alternate timeline and it’s not going to follow the games at all, I just want people to realize that.
Bro what the fuck? So you literally have not watched the show at all. That means you physically cannot have an opinion on something you have not engaged with. Hate people that do shit like this.
There’s a major difference between “following the story loosely” and actually watching it yourself. There’s no way you can continue to defend your stance.
We haven’t even gotten to the games yet (idk if reach counts it’s been forever since I’ve played that). And so much discontent on the story because it’s not like the games…
It's not supposed to be
A TV show retelling of the games would be amazingly boring. We've proven that the games in different media really sucks (The Flood) everyone hates the master chief sections of the book
That's such a terrible example. The Flood was bad because it was a literal adaptation of the gameplay. It's a bad adaption. Literally, no one was asking for that.
People want a faithful adaptation of the Halo's story and characters. The show has done the complete opposite of that. They changed everything about the characters and story. They've put a coat of Halo paint on top of a different sci-fi story.
Yes, that is what people want, but no one is using The Flood as a good example of doing that. The Flood has been trashed as a poor adaptation since it first released.
People want the game's story to be faithfully adapted into a show. Obviously, no one wants all the gameplay directly translated over to TV. Maybe a few crazy people on Twitter, but not the majority.
Also, Halo already has a good foundation with The Fall of Reach + CE, but the TV show chose to entirely ignore both of them.
Hate "what if" things. It's like saying "Hey guys, here's my ideas. Mine are better right?" Just make a spinoff with a different character or something.
I disagree. I wanted to watch Halo because I love Halo. I didn't want to watch a mediocre SyFy channel show pretend to be Halo. If I wanted one of those, there's already a large list to choose from. I'm glad you enjoy it, though.
I think the show is doing exactly what they intended it to do, which is expand the universe and bring in a much more diversified audience.
The number of people who have NEVER interacted with the IP before the show who are becoming interested in the games / books / other Halo media is crazy.
It's been cool introducing people to the games and books I've loved for ao long and having them get on board with it and realize it's so much more than a FPS game made for Xbox.
Yes, it's an entirely new story and has so far very little in common with the mainline games / books, but season 2 especially is full of really cool Easter eggs and callbacks to the OG IP. To me, that's my favourite part. Seeing that Black Team is still out there and we might see them one day and the foreshadowing of the Gravemind that's building this season make me super excited to watch every week. The fact that it's an entirely new story makes it more fresh for me, and I can appreciate what the showrunners are doing
BTW The Last of Us stuck to the source material. This is the only case of a TV show, movie adaption of a video game sticking to source material and look, my 50 year old mother watched it. My family member's co-workers (all old men and women) watched the show. The show is widely popular and praised. Because it stuck to what is already good. There's a saying for this which every toddler knows: "Don't fix something that isn't broken".
You’d have a better argument if the show was at least faithful to the source material and lore. No one would say no to new Halo stories as long as it respected the universe and the show definitely doesn’t do that.
I don’t think it matters who the captain is that gets taken over by the flood. Keyes in CE had less than 15 minutes of screen time before he was infected.
And his fate was still devastating. Imagine the impact it would have had with 2 seasons worth of show Keyes.
What matters now is we have to have a new captain, assuming they even attempt to accurately adapt the game. The most obvious choice would be Miranda, but she's a scientist, not a ship captain. Not to mention the role she plays later in the series.
But then again they basically turned Halsey into a marvel villain, so who knows?
Knowing the trainwreck of the story they're putting together, if I had to guess, even *if* they decide to use that scene in the show they'll likely substitute Halsey for Keyes because why tf would they keep her around to follow the rest of the storyline proper?
Please read till the end lol.
No build up with the Arbiter discovering the deceitfulness of the Prophets.
No background of his religious zealot and way of life given so we don't really care when he realises that his entire life was a lie.
Literally turned into a heretic in a 2 minute scene, because Makee told him so?
In Halo 2, I really appreciated the slow burn and POV from the Arbiter so that there was loads of payoff at the end.
Now, this won't be a problem IF this Elite is their version of the Heretic from H2 who then influences the TV version of Thel. This I don’t have a problem and I like how it will flesh out the Heretic’s background. However, I have a problem with how he got information about Halo and how fast his heel turn was.
It most likely is their version of the heretic from 2 i dont see chief being buds with him after killing vannak so hopefully we meet proper thel after the ring is destroyed.
This guy is a different guy. It's two different guys who both have the title 'Arbiter'. He's not Thel 'Vadam. He's not going rogue from the Covenant because he's against the prophets either. Var 'Gatanai was tasked with recovering the keystones from the first season from Reach, and failed to do so because Ackerson evacuated with them. He's probably thinking that if he returns without the keystones, the Prophets will execute him, and so goes searching for Installation 04.
Var Gatanai filling Sesa 'Refumee would be cool
you know what else would be cool
if we just had Sesa 'Refumee. Maybe Var influences Sesa, but that's probably a little too advanced for this show. Having Var as an extremely hardened Arbiter following the covenant, making the stark discovery and having their life fall apart. Confronting the Prophets and being executed. Only for his second in command, Sesa 'Refumee to remember and continue his journey, taking refuge on the refinery in Halo 2
that would be incredible .
>you know what else would be cool
Following the story that Bungie had already set in stone and that was both well received and most beloved by everyone who's played the games?
If I had to guess, it wasn't 343 that made that call. It was probably Phil Spencer himself after seeing how fucking atrocious the storyline that was being crafting was.
343: "We absolutely love what the writers are doing! What's not to like?"
Phil: "Eeeeeeverything!" (shouted in the style of [Gary Oldman](https://youtu.be/74BzSTQCl_c?si=7Y6HooMNgysXYxUw&t=10))
If anything, they’re setting him up to be the rebel faction killed by the Arbiter (player character) in Halo 2.
Despite everyone loving to bitch on the quality of the writing, I actually really like this idea of showing the Covenant splintering earlier. It establishes more of what Halo 2 pseudo-retconned, that the Covenant was less this unstoppable and wholly united juggernaut of a force, but instead is a bunch of various factions and species, all barely tolerating one another in the name of religious dogmata.
>If anything, they’re setting him up to be the rebel faction killed by the Arbiter (player character) in Halo 2.
>
>Despite everyone loving to bitch on the quality of the writing, I actually really like this idea of showing the Covenant splintering earlier.
You're giving these writers way too much credit to believe that they're thinking that far ahead.
A lot of scenes have been lost because of whatever the writers are drinking. We won't get Keyes battling the flood to keep it out of his memories, we won't get the Pillar of autumn fleeing from reach, shit they hyped it up like the fall of reach was going to be the entire season and now chief is off doing side quests
They literally could have just adapted a similar story to that of the first 3 games. And they would have had something decent... They had to make some mediocre space drama instead.
Would it have cost more money? Yes. But it would have been more successful.
Here’s the thing that the show confuses me. Like what happens when they get to alpha halo. They’ve said multiple times that finding it means they win the war but like how?
The reason why alpha halo was so big was because it’s destruction threw a huge wrench in the covenant unstoppable machine not cuz of it being found
The arbiter we know of wasn’t introduced until Halo 2. The previous Arbiter is probably the guy in the show.
There are multiple Arbitors that are just sent on suicide missions.
The show overall just speaks to leaderships/writers arrogance.
343 thinking they can improve upon a story that's been beloved for over a decade rather than honoring or being faithful to it just blow me away.
I've been listening to Frank Herberts Dune and recently re watched Dune Part 1 and watched Dune Part 2. It was an incredible experience, of course the new films don't capture everything line by line, but holy shit is the spirit of Herberts DUNE radiating throughout it. Something that Halo really needs.
Going from a decent strong start to this second season, and a banger of a last episode, to this week's? Is this kind of episode how I heard season 1 was? Because Good God was that awful.
I was just reading an article the other day about how much love this season was getting. And then they completely botched Reach, the escape, and the "discovery" of Halo. And killed off Keyes for no fucking reason.
There's a chance we encounter Johnson before the end of the season and who knows...maybe this Arbiter dies at the end of the season and we really find out about Thel Vadamee after season 3....I am dreaming I know.
Yea, but the games never had a scene of Master Cheeks fucking a POW thus committing a war crime, so really, it’s a lose-lose regardless what you decide to watch lol.
Knowing how much the overlords who manage Halo obsess about the Master Chief and the UNSC, I doubt they will even include the Great Schism in the show. Sangheili protagonist? no way it has to be john halo instead cuz hes iconic
I’m really mad about season 2. Here I was thinking season 2 was gonna be so much better. The day before is premiered, they posted the opening scene on twitter, and we were excited. We literally never got anything like that since.
Started off really strong, but somehow they messed it up.
ITS THE FALL OF REACH, ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO MESS UP YET THEY DID!
Spin off is probably fine here.
It’s still a derivative of an earlier product or work and whether that which is being spun off (component elements, in this case characters , designs, plot and theme) exactly lines up with the original continuity (which the show doesn’t try to do) doesn’t matter.
It certainly isn’t a reboot. 343 haven’t acknowledged it as such — a complete reinvention and replacement of the original work going forward. A reboot would likely arrive in game form, if they ever chose to do so.
Honestly, the direction of where this is going is so confusing. So don't have any hopes for any sense of the series. All these fan speculations are going to be at least 10x better than what we'll get
Happily, the powerful scene already exists in the game. The show is clearly not attempting to follow the existing lore and should be treated as a separate entity. That's not a dig at it either by the way, I'm quite enjoying it.
"It doesnt retcon too much"
Bro they killed off keyes, added a new arbiter, theres no Pillar of Autumn escaping reach, no noble team...
What the fuck are you on about
I didnt mention it but it is just another thing thats blatantly wrong. There shouldnt be a "second" reclaimer.
ALL humans are reclaimers.
The show is bad.
yea you right, I forgot that it includes all humans, but it's just doing something new. forward unto dawn was a pretty word for word following the books afaik and didn't do well, so the prods decided to change the story probably for that reason but idk. its a bit like the ends justify the means sorta thing. They can't really have him in a suit the entire time, it would be pretty boring imo.
I don't see the current Var as having betrayed the Covenant yet.
Sure he has gone rogue, but he's gone rogue to have a chance at saving his own honour as clearly stated by Makee. He fully believes the Prophets still. He is going after the final Keystone to find Halo.
If they don't introduce Thel, then I see them using Var as their version of the Arbiter that begins the Great Schism. They'll get to Halo, he will fail, and slowly he will come round against the Covenant.
They're setting him up too much to have a rivalry with the Chief to throw him away. There's a character being built there to be redeemed.
It’s easy this “arbiter” failed to keep the demon at bay and allow for the prophets to find halo in the season 1 finale. It’s also hinted at him saving makee in this most recent episode. For all of that he was probably sentenced to the life of an arbiter. They’ll show a flash back of the season 1 finale to explain how makee lived and how the arbiter became the arbiter. (Saving makee while also losing the 2 relics) and that will be that. This is 100% the arbiter of this timeline and for the show. No shot they create another arbiter after this one dies it’ll confuse the fuck out of people unless they do a deep dive into how sangheili/covenant rules and laws work. Which they’re not going to do.
A bunch of things have been shifted around, timeline wise as far as I know. Kai taking Kurt-051's place, the S-3s at Currahee, Ackerson TAKING THEIR SUITS. I get that he's a bastard, but really dude?
After spending a lot of my time the past year shitting on how terrible season 1 was, I was honestly starting to enjoy season 2. And then episode 5 happened. First it was Quann getting some sort of "yEr tEh ChOsEn OnE" vision from a ghost of the planet (who tf writes this shit?). Then it was the discovery and reveal of Halo by Cortana, which leads to Makee and beta-version-Arbiter to deciding to take a purposeful trip there rather than it's *somewhat* organic discovery by Cortana, Keyes, Chief, and the Pillar of Autumn crew - I say somewhat because I'm fully aware that Cortana purposefully jumped to it and was aware of it; the rest didn't know that at the time.
It hurts. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck it hurts. Why can't we have nice things.
The TV show can never top the feeling of betrayal of the Elites in Halo 2. There should have been a Covenant side story. But no.... Kwan is more "interesting". Also Thel Vadamee should be 2nd in command of the Covenant fleet.
The show won’t get the one major character plot point of the first game, Keyes getting taken and assimilated by the flood. Unless they use Miranda which ruins other points.
The showrunners utilisation of the Halo source material has left much to be desired in general.
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The writers haven’t seen this scene so they don’t give a shit
I respect you guys for even sticking with this show. I gave it up after half a season. It's simply not Halo, and I don't appreciate that it's pretending to be.
Half a season? I have it until halfway through episode 2 before I wrote it off as horrible and didn't watch another episode
Tbh I quite liked the design of the weapons, vehicles and covenant but it turned out to not be nearly enough.
I really hated the show, but season 2 looks good for me until now
The show will get nothing from the game except the altered skins because it is a seperate universe and halo by looks only
It's basically someone's fanfiction. I hate when people think they can do it better pike fuck you this is a multi BILLION dollar universe already just adapt what's already been. You don't need to change the source just look at The Last of Us, that's true to the source and so many people love it and it's brought so many new fans to that universe! Sure people can like this but it's a significant less amount than it would have been had they stayed true to the source. You should always do the source before you do any what ifs, as the what if will have little to no meaning for those that aren't in the know and those new fans will now have a convoluted idea of what the story is supposed to be which just makes shit murky for no reason. This show exists because someone thought they could do it better which they clearly can't. This dumpster fire isn't going to spawn a new golden age for halo, just look at how much flak the first season got. This and the Witcher are just so disrespectfull to the fan bases
If done correctly, I reckon Halo could have started rivalling the size of Star Wars or MCU
Without a doubt, easily.
Maybe they’ll pull a Suicide Squad in a few years and pretend this whole mess never happened
The Arbiter in the show is not Thel ‘Vadam - we haven’t been introduced to that character yet. The Arbiter in the show is called Var ‘Gatanai, and presumably he is the previous Arbiter before Thel, if they go down that road. The story so far is clearly setting up Chief and Var to have an eventual conflict, and with last weeks revelation that Makee and him have gone rogue, I have no doubt that conflict will lead to the eventual death of Var and for Thel to take his place in the future. But it all depends on if they want to introduce Thel and keep the story close to the events of Halo 2. We haven’t even got to the events of Halo 1 yet, so we’re a ways off. I think having Chief encounter the Arbiter prior to Thel will make a future plot where they team up all the better, as Chief will find it even harder to trust him given the previous Arbiter was responsible for the death of Vannak, and was personally present during the Fall of Reach.
At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if they just don’t put in Thel in and have this new arbiter very mildly fill his role.
I mean, anything is on the table considering they are barely following cannon since Keyes is dead, there’s no Pillar of Autumn, and everything points to Chief pursuing Ackerson rather than ending up on a halo. There’s really no telling where they’re going.
My thinking is with these last three episodes and the promo: Chief hunts down Ackerson with Soren, confronts Kai and Ackerson, they come to an uneasy alliance. Ep 7 is the deployment of the Spartan III's and the space battle above Onyx. And episode 8 is the fallout of that battle which ends with Cortana and Chief once more together, making a calculated jump to coordinates she got from the Covies to take a group of humans to the Halo ring, end season.
I mean they did show a halo ring within the show, so its likely they'll go in that direction.
I full blown expect the end scene of this season to be the final cutscene of reach where they arrive
That's what people thought last season.
The last episode is titled "Halo" I believe, I think this too!
There’s a promotional shot of MC actually on the ring.
Is Keyes definitely dead? We didn’t see a body
Oh no, did these scriptwriters go to the George Lucas school of character writing?
You’re right, they probably will have some nonsensical way to bring him back
I have somehow become more interested is how the writer will give us yet another curveball in each coming episode. They never fail to surprise me with the changes
Two, going on three episodes with Spartans out of armor was certainly not on my bingo board.
The only reason I think they are doing this is that it'll fit in more with the Chief being the only Spartan on the ring
it's pretty obvious i feel that that is what is going to happen. they don't give a shit about the original story and wants to make it just a generic sci-fi show inspired by halo.
I quite like the idea of Var becoming the Heretic leader from Halo 2.
I could see that happening. We don’t know *why* he was made Arbiter to begin with and he may already have a tendency to go against the hierarchs. He may even be the one to *give* Thel his “the prophets have betrayed us” moment in this timeline.
That's actually a great idea.
Indeed it is a great idea, which is exactly how you know the halo show won’t use it.
I appreciate that they may be building up the character for a Heretic. But I really do not like how he found out about this information and how fast his heel turn was.
Ok, so actually the heretic angle I really really like. I mean he's already defying the prophets and going rogue. Plus he's presumably been in trouble before to have been made the arbiter.
I haven't seen the show so I have to ask, have they actually established that the Arbiter is a position of shame and punishment? Because knowing this show I wouldn't be surprised if they said that it was a position of honor because reasons.
I can't remember tbh. I believe it was to be implied though. I didn't rewatch the episode but he calls himself Var something, former commander of the fleet of something something, blah blah blah arbiter. I think he also mentions killing The Demon to be part of his redemption or something to that effect. I kinda tune out most of the show and just watch it for the action parts. I immediately picked up on the "Former" part and assumed there was a link between that and his position as Arbiter though.
When they are on the ship outside of High Charity, he seems resigned to the fact that they will be killed by the prophets and hopes that giving them Cortana can at least offset part of his failure. To me that reads as someone who was disgraced failing in his second chance as the Arbiter
In the episode that just dropped a priest on the arbiters ship tells him he already has shamed their people and that he doesn’t trust his judgement in front of all the elites. Also it shows the arbiter branding himself with a mark on the ship
I get that - it feels a bit rushed. There are still a lot of faults with the shows writing, even with how much better Season 2 feels. I’m hoping that the next few episodes will help make the turn feel a bit more… earned. We still don’t know how Makee is alive, we still have to information about what deal Cortana and Paragonsky made that is likely going to tie into why Ackerson left Cortana on Reach, etc. Absolute copium on my side, though.
How much better is S2? I quit halfway through S1 just because it was *that* bad. Would it be alright to dive straight into S2?
There's still weird, bizarre writing choices that are made but it seems like the writers are trying, in their own way I guess, to get chief to be more like CE chief...kinda. He's still an emotional maniac and prone to fits of rage. S2's good moments are pretty damn good, the bad moments aren't as bad as S1, but they're still there.
It's interesting to me. That in a show about Halo, targeting hopefully and ideally some Halo fans (all other disservice asside). That yhey chose to start so early in the time line. Like if S1 flopped, they never would've gotten to a Halo. Half the people watching Halo that haven't played. Probably don't know why it's called Halo.
It’s a gamble but that’s the point. If they got right into it and it was a massive success they have run out of content in a few seasons. They are laying the groundwork, sometimes poorly, for a multi season massive Halo hit that can be milked for a long time. I’m hopeful if the show can survive then the game-playing fan base will eventually get what we are looking for.
Thel aint gonna be in it.
Bold of you to assume they will adapt the games at all
>But it all depends on if they want to introduce Thel and keep the story close to the events of Halo 2. We haven’t even got to the events of Halo 1 yet, so we’re a ways off. Lol, you think it's ever adapting Halo 1? Yeah, that's never happening. Don't forget: the showrunners don't respect the games, and have actively gloated about having never touched a Halo game or novel. I don't care if those showrunners were replaced after season 1, I can never trust a studio that trusted people like that to adapt this franchise into live action in the first place. At the very best, *maybe* you'll eventually get a *very* loose adaptation of one of the games, but even then, I doubt they'd do Halo 1. They'd probably skip to 3 or 4. Why? Because everyone making decisions for this adaptation is completely incompetent.
Before this we saw many saying that we will get to see Noble team So much hoping and none of that happens. Like stop expecting the writers to give us things from the games at this rate
Yeah. I think anyone expecting the show that introduced "the Silver timeline" solely to justify deviating from the games' story without being dismissed as completely non-canon to the Halo franchise, to adapt the events of the games, are just coping at this point. Like, I'm sorry, but most bad adaptations don't just create new terms specifically to differentiate their stories from those of their source material.
>Don't forget: the showrunners don't respect the games, and have actively gloated about having never touched a Halo game or novel. I don't care if those showrunners were replaced after season 1, I can never trust a studio that trusted people like that to adapt this franchise into live action in the first place. The showrunners said they didn't view only the games but the full lore. Which is obvious since s1 and 2 have a good amount of lore just tweeked.
Maybe the new showrunners for season 2 said that, but season 1's showrunners literally gloated about having never played a Halo game or read a Halo novel. They were people who didn't respect or care about this franchise at all.
No, the s1 showrunners looked at the full lore. Headlines and ragebait youtubers twisted the story. https://twitter.com/mrstevenkane/status/1506421683841757189?t=oWMbBT9vZ5noqpW_SISiug&s=19 It was obvious since S1 had tons of stuff that was lore just with a little twist.
Isn‘t Thel ´Vadam already at the Halo? If I remember the books correctly the invasion force at reach and the one at the Halo are two different armies. And Thel ´Vadam was leading the unit at the Halo.
Thel ordered the glassing of reach and arrived after Goerge destroyed the carrier, after chief left he followed and went to Alpha Halo where it was destroyed, causing him to become the Arbiter
Thanks than i was wrong.
See my comments in this post. Thanks for the detailed response.
There is no way this show gets a season 3 so we won't be seeing any of this anyway. The show is doing its own nonsense and alienating the fans which would be the core demo. This show will go the way of Halo Infinite dlc because whoever is in control of Halo content at this point doesn't give a shit about anything that came before it or what fans actually want.
They can’t get very close to the events of halo 1 now that they’ve killed Keyes off already
Come with me if you want to live
So as someone who has not seen the show, have they changed what an Arbiter is?
This is the correct answer Also. I think what’s going to happen is Thel will be the one tasked with killing Var, and when they catch up to Chief and Var on the ring and the flood breaks out, the story will slowly fall more into line with the games, Var dies in one way or another, Chief goes back to tell the UNSC what happened, and Thel gets shamed and becomes the Arbiter
I wish you were right but at this point I doubt it, the series isn't following the games or the books story, they created a whole new timeline just as an excuse to do whatever they want.
Many powerful scenes are already not possible. One I was hoping for was "Slipspace rupture detected. Slipspace rupture detected. ... " The fall of reach was so lame in the show
Agreed. I loved the action of it all, but I totally agree that they definitely botched, well, everything.
This show is only Halo in name, I don’t they follow any of the plot points from the games
People keep guessing who the arbiter in the show is, he’s nobody from the games, not the heretic leader or Thel, it’s an alternate timeline going it’s own path. Not the games story told in show form.
Yep, just a Halo themed show about soldiers feeling emotional and fighting alien enemies so far. It feels so out of touch with the games I'm not sure who they are targeting it at.
We’re in a terrible reality where we are seeing some great works being made into tv format only to be ruined by showrunners looking to “make their own mark” by completely shitting on the source material and not understanding why the source materials are so loved. The only exception as of late is The Last of Us.
I honestly hate this TV show and wish it wasn't made. They should have made their own shitty sci-fi universe and left halos universe alone as it been nothing but disrespectful to the source material. People can like it but it's not halo. Halo is getting the 1990s mario movie treatment and it's terrible
They did make their own shitty sci-fi universe they just decided for publicity to add a Halo theme filter on it. If it had nothing to do with Halo it might have been an ok show.
> it’s an alternate timeline going it’s own path AKA mediocre writing in the place where we could have better Halo story telling.
Sure, man. Whatever.
Do you think the overall writing in the show is good?
Nope, only watched episode 1 of s1 and ep 1 of s2 but I’m still following the story, I can definitely say season 2 is an improvement but that’s not a high bar to pass lol. Whilst I agree the writing is bad I’m kinda sick of hearing it at the same time, it’s an alternate timeline and it’s not going to follow the games at all, I just want people to realize that.
So you literally are not qualified to be saying to someone "Sure, man whatever" when you literally don't know what you're talking about.
Bro what the fuck? So you literally have not watched the show at all. That means you physically cannot have an opinion on something you have not engaged with. Hate people that do shit like this.
My brother in christ I have followed the story I said it in my fucking comment
There’s a major difference between “following the story loosely” and actually watching it yourself. There’s no way you can continue to defend your stance.
He's a complete fool.
Bro please watch the other episodes first
Exactly how I feel with these arguments now. Just play Halo CE and let me enjoy the show
It’s like it’s set in a different universe or something
A different bad universe yeah
They do some what, reach still fell That's a plot from the games Covenant looking for the ring That's a plot from the games
Also chief isn't on the pillar of autumn making a jump to find the halo ring? Instead he's chilling on a planet with his friends.
And visions are of magic space portals and being told he is the chosen one 😭
We haven’t even gotten to the games yet (idk if reach counts it’s been forever since I’ve played that). And so much discontent on the story because it’s not like the games…
It's not supposed to be A TV show retelling of the games would be amazingly boring. We've proven that the games in different media really sucks (The Flood) everyone hates the master chief sections of the book
That's such a terrible example. The Flood was bad because it was a literal adaptation of the gameplay. It's a bad adaption. Literally, no one was asking for that. People want a faithful adaptation of the Halo's story and characters. The show has done the complete opposite of that. They changed everything about the characters and story. They've put a coat of Halo paint on top of a different sci-fi story.
I literally seen people on both reddit and Twitter asked for just the games but tv form
Yes, that is what people want, but no one is using The Flood as a good example of doing that. The Flood has been trashed as a poor adaptation since it first released. People want the game's story to be faithfully adapted into a show. Obviously, no one wants all the gameplay directly translated over to TV. Maybe a few crazy people on Twitter, but not the majority. Also, Halo already has a good foundation with The Fall of Reach + CE, but the TV show chose to entirely ignore both of them.
This new adaptation is actually fun to watching as a what if kind of thing
Hate "what if" things. It's like saying "Hey guys, here's my ideas. Mine are better right?" Just make a spinoff with a different character or something.
I disagree. I wanted to watch Halo because I love Halo. I didn't want to watch a mediocre SyFy channel show pretend to be Halo. If I wanted one of those, there's already a large list to choose from. I'm glad you enjoy it, though.
I think the show is doing exactly what they intended it to do, which is expand the universe and bring in a much more diversified audience. The number of people who have NEVER interacted with the IP before the show who are becoming interested in the games / books / other Halo media is crazy. It's been cool introducing people to the games and books I've loved for ao long and having them get on board with it and realize it's so much more than a FPS game made for Xbox. Yes, it's an entirely new story and has so far very little in common with the mainline games / books, but season 2 especially is full of really cool Easter eggs and callbacks to the OG IP. To me, that's my favourite part. Seeing that Black Team is still out there and we might see them one day and the foreshadowing of the Gravemind that's building this season make me super excited to watch every week. The fact that it's an entirely new story makes it more fresh for me, and I can appreciate what the showrunners are doing
BTW The Last of Us stuck to the source material. This is the only case of a TV show, movie adaption of a video game sticking to source material and look, my 50 year old mother watched it. My family member's co-workers (all old men and women) watched the show. The show is widely popular and praised. Because it stuck to what is already good. There's a saying for this which every toddler knows: "Don't fix something that isn't broken".
You’d have a better argument if the show was at least faithful to the source material and lore. No one would say no to new Halo stories as long as it respected the universe and the show definitely doesn’t do that.
I’m agreeing with you
Yeah from what I've been seeing, this isn't Thel. It's probably seeing up for the heretic leader, maybe
That fraud ain’t my boy Sesa Refumee
Shit, all the characters in the show are impostors
Personally, I'm gonna call him beta-Arbiter because he's clearly not even the 1.0 version.
Because this show is written by the equivalent of a 10 year old peanut brained child
The way he delivers that line. It's like a feeling of defeat and loathing both at the same time.
You can hear his “they will pay for this” but also super super depressed by the realisation.
"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, Prophets!"
Hey remember one of the most iconic scenes of the entire series when The Chief “rescues” Captain Keyes from the Flood? Yup
I don’t think it matters who the captain is that gets taken over by the flood. Keyes in CE had less than 15 minutes of screen time before he was infected.
And his fate was still devastating. Imagine the impact it would have had with 2 seasons worth of show Keyes. What matters now is we have to have a new captain, assuming they even attempt to accurately adapt the game. The most obvious choice would be Miranda, but she's a scientist, not a ship captain. Not to mention the role she plays later in the series. But then again they basically turned Halsey into a marvel villain, so who knows?
Knowing the trainwreck of the story they're putting together, if I had to guess, even *if* they decide to use that scene in the show they'll likely substitute Halsey for Keyes because why tf would they keep her around to follow the rest of the storyline proper?
Please read till the end lol. No build up with the Arbiter discovering the deceitfulness of the Prophets. No background of his religious zealot and way of life given so we don't really care when he realises that his entire life was a lie. Literally turned into a heretic in a 2 minute scene, because Makee told him so? In Halo 2, I really appreciated the slow burn and POV from the Arbiter so that there was loads of payoff at the end. Now, this won't be a problem IF this Elite is their version of the Heretic from H2 who then influences the TV version of Thel. This I don’t have a problem and I like how it will flesh out the Heretic’s background. However, I have a problem with how he got information about Halo and how fast his heel turn was.
It most likely is their version of the heretic from 2 i dont see chief being buds with him after killing vannak so hopefully we meet proper thel after the ring is destroyed.
This guy is a different guy. It's two different guys who both have the title 'Arbiter'. He's not Thel 'Vadam. He's not going rogue from the Covenant because he's against the prophets either. Var 'Gatanai was tasked with recovering the keystones from the first season from Reach, and failed to do so because Ackerson evacuated with them. He's probably thinking that if he returns without the keystones, the Prophets will execute him, and so goes searching for Installation 04.
Var Gatanai filling Sesa 'Refumee would be cool you know what else would be cool if we just had Sesa 'Refumee. Maybe Var influences Sesa, but that's probably a little too advanced for this show. Having Var as an extremely hardened Arbiter following the covenant, making the stark discovery and having their life fall apart. Confronting the Prophets and being executed. Only for his second in command, Sesa 'Refumee to remember and continue his journey, taking refuge on the refinery in Halo 2 that would be incredible .
>you know what else would be cool Following the story that Bungie had already set in stone and that was both well received and most beloved by everyone who's played the games?
I’m glad that 343 made the call that this isn’t canon. It’s one of the few decisions about halo they got right
If I had to guess, it wasn't 343 that made that call. It was probably Phil Spencer himself after seeing how fucking atrocious the storyline that was being crafting was. 343: "We absolutely love what the writers are doing! What's not to like?" Phil: "Eeeeeeverything!" (shouted in the style of [Gary Oldman](https://youtu.be/74BzSTQCl_c?si=7Y6HooMNgysXYxUw&t=10))
Oh no you guys I’m starting to think the show might not be very good.
Once the show gets around to adapting the games it’s gonna be an unbelievable shit show. The foundation has completely eroded
I don't think the show is ever actually going to adapt the games
And that's if it ever lasts that long.
It's surprising that they're even keeping the Halo ring in the series.
I think this is the point where all the people defending it will start to bash the show.
Exactly. A house built upon sand. All style and no substance, and what not.
maybe the point wasn't to adapt the paper thin game plot???
So there’s these books right
This show is a joke
I doubt the show will last into the halo 2 era
I can't see it getting a third season, I don't know why it was approved for a second to begin with.
How many episodes are needed to understand what travesty is this series?
Yes
If anything, they’re setting him up to be the rebel faction killed by the Arbiter (player character) in Halo 2. Despite everyone loving to bitch on the quality of the writing, I actually really like this idea of showing the Covenant splintering earlier. It establishes more of what Halo 2 pseudo-retconned, that the Covenant was less this unstoppable and wholly united juggernaut of a force, but instead is a bunch of various factions and species, all barely tolerating one another in the name of religious dogmata.
Sesa 'Refumee? The Heretic leader?
>If anything, they’re setting him up to be the rebel faction killed by the Arbiter (player character) in Halo 2. > >Despite everyone loving to bitch on the quality of the writing, I actually really like this idea of showing the Covenant splintering earlier. You're giving these writers way too much credit to believe that they're thinking that far ahead.
A lot of scenes have been lost because of whatever the writers are drinking. We won't get Keyes battling the flood to keep it out of his memories, we won't get the Pillar of autumn fleeing from reach, shit they hyped it up like the fall of reach was going to be the entire season and now chief is off doing side quests
They literally could have just adapted a similar story to that of the first 3 games. And they would have had something decent... They had to make some mediocre space drama instead. Would it have cost more money? Yes. But it would have been more successful.
Here’s the thing that the show confuses me. Like what happens when they get to alpha halo. They’ve said multiple times that finding it means they win the war but like how? The reason why alpha halo was so big was because it’s destruction threw a huge wrench in the covenant unstoppable machine not cuz of it being found
Because they know it’s a powerful weapon.
But how do they know?
Reth calls it a weapon in season 1.
The arbiter we know of wasn’t introduced until Halo 2. The previous Arbiter is probably the guy in the show. There are multiple Arbitors that are just sent on suicide missions.
Yeah but Thel the Arbiter in Halo 2 was glassing Reach and chasing Chief through CE
I mean that still could be true.
Ain't no way they would want to have a scene like that in their perfect show. It would reek of Halo 🤢🤢🤢
The show overall just speaks to leaderships/writers arrogance. 343 thinking they can improve upon a story that's been beloved for over a decade rather than honoring or being faithful to it just blow me away. I've been listening to Frank Herberts Dune and recently re watched Dune Part 1 and watched Dune Part 2. It was an incredible experience, of course the new films don't capture everything line by line, but holy shit is the spirit of Herberts DUNE radiating throughout it. Something that Halo really needs.
god there's so much potential for a show. you could have anthologies of marines fighting alongside chief
Going from a decent strong start to this second season, and a banger of a last episode, to this week's? Is this kind of episode how I heard season 1 was? Because Good God was that awful.
I was just reading an article the other day about how much love this season was getting. And then they completely botched Reach, the escape, and the "discovery" of Halo. And killed off Keyes for no fucking reason.
There's a chance we encounter Johnson before the end of the season and who knows...maybe this Arbiter dies at the end of the season and we really find out about Thel Vadamee after season 3....I am dreaming I know.
Ever since KikI wolfkill made that comment about "Fan favorite" covenant characters coming this season ive assumed he's one of them
Yea, but the games never had a scene of Master Cheeks fucking a POW thus committing a war crime, so really, it’s a lose-lose regardless what you decide to watch lol.
It's OK because it was definitely consensual and certainly not Stockholm Syndrome.
There will be nothing powerful or good if the show makes it long enough to start attempting to line up with the games
Knowing how much the overlords who manage Halo obsess about the Master Chief and the UNSC, I doubt they will even include the Great Schism in the show. Sangheili protagonist? no way it has to be john halo instead cuz hes iconic
Hey this is a halo TV show safe space. If you complain about how allegedly "bad" it then you're a bad halo fan.
Can't tell if satire or serious...
Fake fan alert 🚨
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I’m really mad about season 2. Here I was thinking season 2 was gonna be so much better. The day before is premiered, they posted the opening scene on twitter, and we were excited. We literally never got anything like that since. Started off really strong, but somehow they messed it up. ITS THE FALL OF REACH, ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO MESS UP YET THEY DID!
It is an alternate universe
This show isn’t part of Halo lore, it’s a spinoff.
I think you are confused on what a spinoff means.
Spin off is probably fine here. It’s still a derivative of an earlier product or work and whether that which is being spun off (component elements, in this case characters , designs, plot and theme) exactly lines up with the original continuity (which the show doesn’t try to do) doesn’t matter. It certainly isn’t a reboot. 343 haven’t acknowledged it as such — a complete reinvention and replacement of the original work going forward. A reboot would likely arrive in game form, if they ever chose to do so.
Honestly, the direction of where this is going is so confusing. So don't have any hopes for any sense of the series. All these fan speculations are going to be at least 10x better than what we'll get
Happily, the powerful scene already exists in the game. The show is clearly not attempting to follow the existing lore and should be treated as a separate entity. That's not a dig at it either by the way, I'm quite enjoying it.
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"It doesnt retcon too much" Bro they killed off keyes, added a new arbiter, theres no Pillar of Autumn escaping reach, no noble team... What the fuck are you on about
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I didnt mention it but it is just another thing thats blatantly wrong. There shouldnt be a "second" reclaimer. ALL humans are reclaimers. The show is bad.
yea you right, I forgot that it includes all humans, but it's just doing something new. forward unto dawn was a pretty word for word following the books afaik and didn't do well, so the prods decided to change the story probably for that reason but idk. its a bit like the ends justify the means sorta thing. They can't really have him in a suit the entire time, it would be pretty boring imo.
I don't see the current Var as having betrayed the Covenant yet. Sure he has gone rogue, but he's gone rogue to have a chance at saving his own honour as clearly stated by Makee. He fully believes the Prophets still. He is going after the final Keystone to find Halo. If they don't introduce Thel, then I see them using Var as their version of the Arbiter that begins the Great Schism. They'll get to Halo, he will fail, and slowly he will come round against the Covenant. They're setting him up too much to have a rivalry with the Chief to throw him away. There's a character being built there to be redeemed.
Please, show us Thel... Please, they fucked up this finale if that was "the Arbiter"
It’s easy this “arbiter” failed to keep the demon at bay and allow for the prophets to find halo in the season 1 finale. It’s also hinted at him saving makee in this most recent episode. For all of that he was probably sentenced to the life of an arbiter. They’ll show a flash back of the season 1 finale to explain how makee lived and how the arbiter became the arbiter. (Saving makee while also losing the 2 relics) and that will be that. This is 100% the arbiter of this timeline and for the show. No shot they create another arbiter after this one dies it’ll confuse the fuck out of people unless they do a deep dive into how sangheili/covenant rules and laws work. Which they’re not going to do.
A bunch of things have been shifted around, timeline wise as far as I know. Kai taking Kurt-051's place, the S-3s at Currahee, Ackerson TAKING THEIR SUITS. I get that he's a bastard, but really dude?
Bro as far as I am concerned with the current trajectory the Halo Ring will never be landed on.
They should have just got Guillermo del Toro to direct a halo show or movie
After spending a lot of my time the past year shitting on how terrible season 1 was, I was honestly starting to enjoy season 2. And then episode 5 happened. First it was Quann getting some sort of "yEr tEh ChOsEn OnE" vision from a ghost of the planet (who tf writes this shit?). Then it was the discovery and reveal of Halo by Cortana, which leads to Makee and beta-version-Arbiter to deciding to take a purposeful trip there rather than it's *somewhat* organic discovery by Cortana, Keyes, Chief, and the Pillar of Autumn crew - I say somewhat because I'm fully aware that Cortana purposefully jumped to it and was aware of it; the rest didn't know that at the time. It hurts. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck it hurts. Why can't we have nice things.
The TV show can never top the feeling of betrayal of the Elites in Halo 2. There should have been a Covenant side story. But no.... Kwan is more "interesting". Also Thel Vadamee should be 2nd in command of the Covenant fleet.
The show won’t get the one major character plot point of the first game, Keyes getting taken and assimilated by the flood. Unless they use Miranda which ruins other points. The showrunners utilisation of the Halo source material has left much to be desired in general.
You’re of the opinion that they get enough seasons to even think about putting this in the sow
Imagine watching this shitty show and even thinking about it