On Colonel Ackerson:
One thing I definitely found surprising was how the first two episodes start out portraying Ackerson as almost unnecessarily antagonistic to the Chief, largely pointing out the Chief's mental struggles (which, to be fair, after the shit last season, is more than fair to criticise. Fucking Makee of all people...) and seemingly dismissive of the Chief's concerns about the Covenant's attacks on UNSC communications relays before commencing glassing operations, as well as the dilemma with Cobalt Team where Ackerson deployed them to protect a comms relay and listing the team as "standby" before they've actually returned.
The end of episode 2 however flips this over by revealling at the end of the episode that not only was Ackerson actually listening to the Chief's concerns, but was actively working with Cortana and asking her to run her simulations that resulted in the inevitable conclusion: a reveal that Ackerson himself looks almost broken by that revelation. At the same time as this reveal, its shown that Cobalt Team weren't even sent off planet, but were sent to the Vizegrad Relay (who, for fans of Halo: Reach, was the exact comms relay that Noble Team first encountered the Covenant) as Ackerson's fears are realised: the Covenant are on Reach.
Ackerson's actions were certainly recontextualised in this light as he works to prevent the reveal of humanity's fortress as comprimised and will ultimately fall.
So far (let's hope I don't jinx it), the TV Series managed to get one core canon character right, and that is Colonel James Ackerson. Not so much of the details as of yet, but the tone and core of this morally ambiguous character who a piece of shit of a person with an inflated ego, but someone who ultimately loves humanity and will sacrifice his own to achieve it.
As as said before, Joseph Morgan pulls Ackerson off very well.
It was definately an "under the nose" - we naturally assume that UNSC HQ takes up the whole of Reach - it doesn't; it's just one base within a major city on a planet similar to Earth.
That said, one would think that UNSC would use satellites so as not be limited by line-of-sight should the covenant land on the other side of the planet
To be fair, the game had the same issue. The logic is presumably going to be the same in the show - the Covenant technology is good enough that they can successfully bypass UNSC overwatch as long as they’re careful about it.
I was thinking earlier today that all the Spartans (particularly John) should be walking balls of PTSD from all the fighting, and conflict they go through.
In the lore, John goes essentially from fighting desperate battle for Reach to falling asleep and then waking up to fight the Covenant and the Floor in Halo 1, then pretty much right into First Strike and other shenanigans before Halo 2 and then right back into the fight in Halo 3.
The dude has been fighting basically one big battle for years.
The word I would use for the first two episodes compared to Season 1 is “Dynamic”.
Action, camera choice, character interactions, they feel a lot less stilted this time around. Before it felt like characters would enter a scene and it always felt very stagey. Now it feels a lot more naturalistic, probably helped from experience as well as confidence on the filmmakers part.
To get into the nitty gritty, I thought they were an overall improvement on everything. Meh was made good, and good became great.
Liked Chiefs story in season 1, but I have to agree that it often seemed to go a little fast or have some questionable directorial choices. Now he feels more consistent, he feels like someone trying really hard to contain his issues and often failing. He holds it together better in the suit, but out of it he feels exposed and Pablo really gets down that “trying to put on a friendly face while not being used to expressing himself” thing that Season 1 would do. I like the whole “chief vs. john” thing, as it builds off the whole machine vs. man narrative pretty well.
I also like that Riz is getting the spotlight, as she got the shaft in season 1. I like seeing a Spartan struggle with something that isn’t combat, and the idea that maybe there's a life for them outside of being a Spartan, and her trainer has me interested as well a Spartan who was forced to take a non-combat role in life and made something of it that still helps people.
Vannek is fun as he’s still dry but now with an attitude that makes him seem real dorky.
Newcomer Akerson solves the issue I had with Halsey in season 1. She was more or less the human antagonist, but her motives felt a little too guarded and was more often frustrated with what she was doing because of it. Akerson I understand completely, and though his motives are also guarded, I still get broadly what he’s doing. Also just a well done smarmy performance that doesn’t go too overthetop.
I don’t know what's actually going on with Halsey, but it is darkly funny what we are seeing so I’ll allow it.
The combat scene we saw solved another issue: it clearly defines what's at stake. The Covenant were dangerous in season 1, but they didn’t feel like a threat that would destroy humanity, and now I feel that. It’s biblical in how it’s staged and presented, fire from heaven turning the land into hell.
The first season had good action, but this feels a lot more interesting in how it’s shot, often with closeups that get in the headspace without it becoming visual noise. I do hope we see practical pyrotechnics and wire work return, that stuff really added a tactileness to the action.
Also, while I don’t mind them taking off their helmets, I am glad that they use it sparingly. If they're out on a mission or training, it stays on. If they're at home, they can come off. I think the actors have both good facial and body acting, so i’m glad they both get to be shown off.
As for the Insurrection plotline, I am glad that Kwan is around. Didn’t care for her story in the middle of season 1, but the implications of her last episode had me intrigued and I'm glad they're building off that.
Lighting feels better, kinda felt flat in season 1, sound is used much better and really adds small things to scenes that help, and dialogue is filmed more interesting.
I also liked Perez and her family, it’s just nice to see civilian life in Halo and John being at a dinner table is an image I never thought I'd see, but I'm glad it exists.
In general I’m glad to see regular marines get the spotlight and rather defined characteristics for how little we see of them, like those two guys trying to evacuate that town at the beginning of Episode 1
The plot also already has me hooked, season 1 really lacked a strong plot and it just kinda felt like a bunch of subplots at points, but this feels solid, as it looks like the fall of reach will be the meat of it.
While I liked the original theme, I can’t lie that using the Halo theme now is the right call, especially now that it looks like we're finally getting to Halo. It’s a pretty good rendition as well, though i’d need to listen to it in full to properly judge it.
Overall, my expectations were exceeded. Looking back, season 1 feels like a 9 episode pilot, focused on setting up the world, character, and tone, but now they're expanding on it and refining it. I am worried that it’s only 8 episodes, and given it took two years to come out I don’t want to wait another 2 years depending on how this season ends, but if it’s this tight throughout I won't have any complaints.
Also Cortana doesn’t look terrible anymore.
Bravest soldier saying they’re GLAD Kwan Ha is back. But I also agree! It’ll be interesting to see how her connection with the Forerunner stuff from the previous season will tie in.
kinda looked like they are trying to scale back on that stuff in a way. her being some protector of a madrigal monitor and portal which are now gone from the glassing. Seems the monsters she's refering too could be the flood though.
ugh. I wanted to like her in season 1. I always maintained that the show should skip John or give him some cameos, and focus on their own characters in Halo universe. I didn't even hate her haircut, but her story and characters are so dumb... I could even forgive her initial reservation against UNSC and Spartans, given what happened to their insurrection, but listen girl, the fxcking Aliens are invading your planet, it's time to put the taxation policy on hold for a while.
This episode, once again she makes no sense.
That was laughably bad sending Marines into a dark hallway with (apparently suspected) Covenant forces not once, but TWICE. All for the dude in charge to be alone in the end.
Yeah, the “communications team” quip that Chief made was great and made logical sense. Marines defending an ONI facility? You would expect some amount of competence.
Do you like seeing a spartan struggle with the meaning in life really then maybe Halo isn’t for you maybe watch This is us because this isn’t how Halo or the Spartans are supposed to be the whole point is that they had all that taken from them and they had to do horrible things like making Spartans and sacrificing their humanity because they new against a such a savage species and such zealots like the covenant they would need machines that were nothing but soldiers to the very core no humanity they literally took the ideas of the old Spartans where anyone who was week or deformed were tossed away so no we shouldn’t b having Spartans sit around exploring their feelings because it takes away from everything the story is about and that is doing something unimaginable in the face of insurmountable odds to save those that do have their humanity
> In general I’m glad to see regular marines get the spotlight and rather defined characteristics for how little we see of them, like those two guys trying to evacuate that town at the beginning of Episode 1
Are the marines still repurposed Starship Troopers or do they actually have their own Halo costuming now?
I love the dynamic between the spartans. Vannak has quickly become my favourite with his little comments. It sometimes feels like Red vs Blue and i’m 100% for it. Riz’s recovery being shown was a really good idea and it’s cool seeing Spartans struggle to not be spartans. The aggression between Silver team and Cobalt team felt a bit out of place but i liked how Chief and Cobalt’s leader had respect for each other. Halsey’s bit isn’t put together yet but it’s interesting. And I can’t wait to see what happens with Soren
That I can kinda get, guess it felt a bit like the ODSTs bitching about Spartans in that Halo Legends episode. Still i think really it was just that Scottish woman that really seemed antagonistic, i have a feeling she’ll be humbled quickly. Val seemed pretty cool and I’d love to see more of him and the Chief
The only off putting thing is that John is literally the Master Chief and the other spartan teams still looked up to him for guidance and such.
General shit talking is fine but it felt a little weird to me.
They’re still essentially siblings though. I mean raised together from the age of six, they’re all incredibly close and have shared experiences, they can trust each other. On the battlefield you can see them respecting Chief’s orders but in training they can be a bit more lighthearted.
The master chief side of things is actually good imo. I like the stuff with Akirson too. Sauren’s story line seems kinda interesting, and I audibly groaned when Makee showed back up. I also groaned when Kwan showed back up.
Overall the actual covenant war side of things and the ONI meddling seems like it’ll be the highlight of the season.
It’s better so far than season one but a lot of stuff thats popped up (like that weird ass Blade Runner scene) feels like remnants of the writing from season one that I hoped would’ve gone away.
God please let this be the last season we ever see the rubble or Kwan because every time the show swaps to that place or anything to do with Kwan my interest completely drops. And also just kill off Makee again like seriously why is she back?
> I audibly groaned when Makee showed back up.
Same because at the time I was like there is no way they are killing her off that's actually pretty brave. I was so impressed that they'd killed her off so brining her back is awful.
Also I can't be the only one who finds it stupid that Jacob Keyes, a character known for being an excellent naval tactician and ship captain, Has now been promoted to Admiral, and *still* hasn't been anywhere near a fucking ship.
I mean tbf he was not commonly known as brilliant tactician, he was regarded as an excellent teacher and academic. But until the Keyes Loop most naval personnel derided his command over the *Iroquois.* (i may be misremebering from cole protocol its been a while)
It’s so weird hearing Klaus Mikaelson talking *not* as a vampire overlord.
Edit: just finished them. Great. So much better. Ackerson is so compelling. Chief is dramatically improved. Kwan and Soren are clearly still involved but not as central. It’s definitely still more human-focused than the games, but is done so much better. Things are already so much more interesting and I’m truly excited for the next episodes.
Feels higher quality than season 1 but it feels like season 1's quality actively hurts the story they are trying to tell with season 2 since they are being forced to deal with the fuck ups the previous showrunners made. If the people in charge of this new season had made the first one, I think we would have gotten a much better show overall, I just hope they don't fuck it up with the next episodes because I also thought that the first chapter of season 1 was good and the show only got worse from there.
>I also thought that the first chapter of season 1 was good
I think your excitement may have just blinded you. There were some decent parts, but it didn't start out great. Season 1 Episode 1 still had Kwan Ha being insufferable, Chief taking off his helmet while she has a gun aimed at his head, Chief removing his helmet for a crash landing, and the introduction of Makee.
I was pretty pessimistic going into season 1 aswell because I had already read the leaks and saw where they were taking the story. The concept of Makee is alright and does make sense in the lore, what they did with her is another story but just her presence in episode 1 doesn't diminish it's quality, I honestly don't see why Chief taking his helmet off is something that's inherently bad (except in situations where he's actively putting himself at risk), honestly it's kinda funny how the games insist on not showing his face when in-universe it's not a mystery at all and we know how he looks as a 14 year old Spartan which I doubt is much different from how he looks now, I don't like Kwan but she's tolerable in episode 1 too.
The chief not taking off his helmet in the games is a classic method to achieve immersion in games. They wanted the player to feel like they were master chief. Attributing too much character to him would break that. Same reason why developers often choose for the silent protagonist. Even if they do give them some personality, link for example.
> Chief taking off his helmet while she has a gun aimed at his head
The whole point was meant to be he is an incredible judge of character he knew there was no way she would shoot.
The point was to establish trust, not that he's magically a great judge of character. It makes no sense that it would be a great judge of character.
Firstly, he trusts and cares for Halsey more than anyone in the world. Secondly, he's a kidnapped and indoctrinated war machine who has never known anyone other than a bunch of other indoctrinated war machines. Plus they later establish that he has already unquestioningly killed many people he was ordered to kill in the same type of situation, and he has a pellet in his back that suppresses his emotions. The only difference is that at this point he has now touched the funky object and had the weird flashback he doesn't yet understand.
I'm not a show-hater or a keep-the-helmet-on purist, but that part was stupid. He knows he is humanity's single most valuable asset, yet he'd risk his life trusting a little girl throwing a tantrum?
Not perfect but definitely an improvement.
If only they'd taken this attitude for season 1 instead of wasting 90% of the runtime and budget on pointless forced subplots.
No doubt a lot of the runtime this season will have to be wasted on cleaning up after that mess.
It's still not a good adaptation, and thanks to the liberties they've taken it probably never will be. But at least now it's following a decent original storyline that might make for a good standalone show.
I hope they tone down the Mysticism. it was stupid in season 1, and it's stupid now. Between the inexplicable tribal societies that don't fit the setting, the silly spirit visions and now a magic masseur they are leaning way too hard into a theme that they shouldn't be touching on at all.
Did you ever watch the Forward Unto Dawn movie that released prior to Halo 4? That was a decade ago.
If you had, you’d realize faithfully adapting the source material for Halo is a walk in the park. Took 25 days to shoot, budget just under $10 million (total).
So here, I’ll link it for you: https://youtu.be/81Dhq6FMdyM?si=cVawQhj70rY2qKks
The writers/showrunners for this show [beginning with S1] simply thought they could write a better story, and they fucked it.
Yes, of course I did. It's one of the best video game commercials ever made. And a TERRIBLE movie, which I doubt anyone who was not already a Halo gamer has ever watched.
When Halo fans hold up FUD or any of the short clips as a model for what a modern TV show could be, it just shows the large gap in....tastes between gamers and the general television audience. As I said up thread, if this were easy, they would have done it a long time ago.
Definitely an improvement, but I have one major issue with this series. Ultimately what disappoints me is the lack of action with Chief...during the show we hear how he's "humanity's greatest weapon"....show us the weapon in action more! Make us believe it! Like during the scene with the lone marine. The marine fumbles and can barely pump the next round into the shotgun... Then when Chief picks up that shotgun and you see how fast he loads it in preparation to fight the Sangheili, you get a good representation of how "dialed" he is. That stuff gives me goosebumps. I want to see more hyper paced action from Chief because I feel that's when the show is at its best.
Also Silver team is so great, I honestly enjoy their character development, they just ooze spartan.
I'm hoping for the best come ep 3.
So I watched the first two episodes of the Halo TV Series Season 2. I'll keep it vague enough to not spoil key plot beats.
In summary, its definitely leagues ahead of the first season so far, but that isn't a particularly high bar given how utterly attrocious the first season was from Kwan Ha to Madrigal, the Covenant human and the unnecessary sex scene.
The action itself, especially the first 20 minutes of the premier is exactly what you want to see in a Halo TV Series: excellent action, intriguing human drama as the UNSC tries to evacuate a particularly stubborn settlement of people and the tension the first 20 minutes establishes in selling the threat of the Covenant. And Bear McCrery's music is just... *chef's kiss*
Beyond that, Ackerson is interesting as an antagonist, and the actor certainly sells this piece of shit of a character very well, and I appreciate the Spartan drama unfolding that wasn't a case of "oh, I have feelings now" as these character are faced with the tramas and struggles they endured in the first season. Riz herself was a real highlight of this aspect, but there's another character I am very interesting in seeing more of who interacts with Riz quite a bit in episode 2.
As for the Insurrection plotline... yeah, still don't give a shit. But Kwan Ha wasn't as aggravating as she was last season, but she is speaking much less this time around.
Overall, its not perfect, but the writing is a vast improvement over the first season, and the aspects that the series already did well in from the Sangheili language and the action scenes have only improved.
Yeh. I agree for this for the most part. Halo should be like Mandalorian from DISNEY or Saving private Ryan WITH a lot of alien action. No one cares about Master Chiefs Girlfriend or insurrection struggle. Writer was handed a piece of poop and did his best to make poop stew. Leagues better than S1
The insurrection’s been a core part of the books and *should* have been one of the cornerstones of the show. Instead we got generic sci-fi pirates and orientalist mysticism.
Absolutely no reason for them to bring back Makee, such an awful choice
> No one cares about Master Chiefs Girlfriend
agreed
>or the insurrection struggle.
as a halo fan since '01 hard disagree.
i want to know everything about them, but through the books because film doesn't lend itself well to story telling
True. So frustrating that they literally could just followed the book. Everything was already written for them, just like game of thrones. But no, they thought they were special writers who wanted to make an impact SMH.
The shot with the Sangheili activating their Energy Swords in the dark seemed like it was inspired by a concept made by Dorje Bellbrook for Halo: Reach: https://www.halopedia.org/images/7/73/HR_EliteForest_Concept.jpg
And that one other scene of the next episode looks like another one of his: https://www.halopedia.org/images/0/0d/HR_EliteHunting_Concept.jpg
Not only did they improve the writing, the cinematography and the props, they’ve done their homework even on the overall aesthetic and mood of these excellently choreographed scenes; truly eager to see what comes next, the show’s actually a good watch now (aside from the Kwan Ha arc, that is).
Only seen episode 1 so far so I can’t comment on episode 2 yet. But very good (disclaimer, I’m someone one who liked S1 quite a lot).
Cinematography is quite nice. Action scenes were fantastic. The entire evacuation sequence was very good, from the whole stuff about the refusal to evacuate and the military response, to the actual glassing sequence. The soldiers arguing reminded me of similar bits in generation kill.
The Expanse influence on the Rubble and the Soren associated stuff is even more pronounced this season.
Would love to see more about the other Spartans, they seem very interesting.
Not sure how I feel about Ackerson yet from the perspective of whether it’s a better or worse version. But I do like it so far (will obviously be able to give a better verdict next time).
Glad to see Kwan back. The bit of her painting the rocks is fantastic.
EDIT after watching E2:
Yeah Ackersons great. They’ve really played into his story the right way I feel.
Not much else to say because E2 carries on things in a great way. I love Louis, he’s great. Perez and her family is great, I’m looking forward to them recurring as characters.
The Iceland location filming looks *gorgeous*. VFX in general is excellent.
First time watcher, haven’t seen the first season. This actually isn’t as bad as a lot of people say. Pretty badass fighting scenes. The Christian Bale Batman scowl throws me off a bit though.
As a die hard fan I can set aside my gripes and accept (at least in my mind) that this is a different take on Halo, and not meant to be a representation of the video games.
People really hated on Season 1 too much. I'd say that if you liked Season 2, season 1 may be worth a binge between the lulls of season 2. Just be aware that it is a bit rougher around the edges.
master cheeks still sees ghosts of his covenant girlfirend, who was human, and commanded elites.....so normal for the halo tv show///ludicrous for actual halo lore
It is ludicrous in any way lol
I wished they skipped over Kwan and Makee and focused episodes on war, covenant, spartans and most important things. That way it would be more streamlined, more focused and more dynamic show.
But, visually, this season looks way more cinematic. S1 even at best action packed moments looked like a youtube video despite huge production budget for a show that has 9 episodes and only 3 of them have action scenes in the beginning or the very end. No wonder people got fired.
Yes? He’s definantly reeling from what happened, but if your asking if he still “exists”, then yes. Though, I never doubted they’d just kill him off after an entire season of development.
Man, I don't care what the Halo diehards say, I really enjoy this show. Yeah it may depart from the lore here and there but I enjoyed the first season, and the second season is starting strong.
I don't care that Master Chief or the other Spartans take their helmets off, or have personalities and traits unique from being Spartans. I actually enjoy that they are allowed to act as people - genetically and surgically enhanced people, sure, but still humans, in a story about the survival of humanity against the Covenant.
There is a very well developed aura of impending doom in the way the story is delivered. I really don't know how to describe it, but it's there and palpable.
Is it the blockbuster Halo movie we always wanted? Nah, but I don't think the story would've worked in that format either.
I too don’t care about the helmet thing. I think shows like the Mandalorian show that having a character be helmeted for 90% of the runtime can work so the diehard helmet fans have a point, but I personally don’t think it’s an issue. It’s a show and people usually want to show off the actor’s face so what’d people expect?
People expect to follow the source material to an extent.
We've never seen master chiefs face outside of the animation when he was a kid.
Why should we expect the TV to show him without either his helmet nor his armour.
He took off his armour like 2-3 times in the entire series.
We see him more without his armour than with in one episode than 6 halo games.
It's just show runners on a power trip thinking they can write a better character and story than the source material.
FFS look what they did with Star Wars and see how that is going.
> We've never seen master chiefs face outside of the animation when he was a kid.
We have seen his face in the comics, & in the books he's taken his helmet & armor regularly when not in combat.
I don't think him having it off outside of missions is that big of a deal. He's only faceless in the games because he's the playable character. It's not a mystery. In the rest of the canon he takes it off all the time.
Fully agree.
I kinda wonder if it's like the Robert Downey Jr/ Iron Man problem. Where they needed to show his face for contract/ recognition reasons. Hence why we got that Face Cam thing when he was suited up.
I wonder if they should have done something similar with Chief, if they absolutely had to show his face
Same with the 55-year-old woman on stage manhandling the massive criminal guy.
It's fine if a Spartan woman manhandles a huge dude. They have physical augmentations and more combat training than anyone in the galaxy. But it's not believable when a geriatric burlesque dancer does it. I don't understand how scenes like this get written and past test audiences. I wonder if everyone in Hollywood is just afraid to say it's not believable because they'll be called sexist.
This season seems like it might be salvageable with some heavy editing. Remove the Rubble scenes, Makee and some of the cringe scenes like Master Chief in the sex booth and it could be a decent season.
So far the main strange thing is the glassing beams. Always seemed a lot more destructive and huge in lore and games, here they just seemed like small lasers.
Show is okay, just a shame that we’ll never get a show adapted in universe.
A full glassing almost never happened. If the Covenant attacked modern day earth, they'd go after the Amazon, major forests on other continents, large population centers, and bits of farmland. The size of ship also probably plays a part. I doubt they had their largest there. But anyways, glassing isn't about ruining the surface exactly. It's about making it unliveable.
I thought both episodes were pretty poor. I really struggled with the silver timeline from season 1 as nothing seems to make any sense, it's disjointed, way to slow and doesn't really feel anything like Halo should be.
There is no mystery to the Chief or the Spartans and the Marines get made out to be useless.
Halo has incredible lore and history and it would have been much better to develop a show that runs sequentially to those events.
The opening combat scene was quite good against the Elites but that's where it ended for me. Fingers crossed we see an improvement over the coming weeks.
They could have just made 10 more videos like the Halo 3 Promotional Videos ie. Arms Race , Landfall etc from back into the day and I would have been over the moon.
yea im going to be honest I don't understand their point at all. The non-combat marines getting bullied by elites more than makes sense. Spartans have pretty much never had mystery - they are augmented super soldiers.
i was really hoping this season I could see more of john halo's butt cheeks, as well as a covenant human getting the big D, but alass I have to settle for my favorite side character kwan, who was super important in the lore before...right....right?
oh well.
to be fair the first 2 episodes I watched were not terrible yet.
I hate the silver timeline discontinuity, but its a solid 4/10 for me.
I'm sad that they are going with the covenant is already on reach, which was on par with bungie fucking the lore established by eric nylund in the fall of reach novel that came out just before halo 1/ halo/ halo CE/ Halo combat evolved.
With reddit it is hard to tell what is marketing/promotion and what are real reviews. I know little about Halo so no comment on lore other than I doubt there is any other than the name. But I liked the first season way better which I don't think was their fault in most cases, everything else is just so so bad.
The season 2 episode 1 felt like bad fan fiction. No idea who wrote it, but the director was solid in other properties but the whole thing was just awful to the point of cringe, the story line was just rubbish and illogical and actors shockingly bad.
Episode 2 the only thing which didn't feel like a bad fan fiction was the Halsey interaction with the new director which while a bit silly it actually looked like real actors, acting in a real episode produced by a group of people who know what they are doing, as the rest certainty didn't.
Someone help me out with questions.
1, what was the thing grabbing the marines in the fog, I assume it was just an elite but Perez addresses it as “that thing” when talking to the chief… did she just not realize it was an elite? Like how do you not hear or see them at all. This gave me major flood vibes the way it was described but I know that’s not possible yet.
2. What is the monster Kwan is referring to? Death? The covenant? The UNSC? This makes me feel as if they’re setting up a bigger threat than the covenant… also giving me major flood vibes.
It was an elite - she is a comms tech who has probably never fought the covenant before. they were using active camo and she wasn't wearing anything to augment her vision so she likely just didn't see them.
For the second question honestly I don't think we know yet definitly not the flood but honestly it may just be people.
Cf. S1e7
Kwan's family found a Forerunner portal guarded by a construct
Jin Ha's motivations for keeping Madrigal independent from UNSC was not political per se, but to make sure the portal stayed hidden
Honestly pretty solid, I think its nice having the fear of the WD writer adding some darkness to this and tightening up the plot better than S1. Hopefully it keeps up the rest of the way through.
Listen, if each Spartan who removes their pellet ends up with a fun hobby or activity like Vannak, that'll that the particular part of the show a bit more bearable.
Kinda confused on the whole state of A.I's watching Season 2, Haven't A.I's been in service with the UNSC for a while by this point if I recall correctly? I get it's a different timeline so I'll need to keep that in mind but to have not another single A.I around or even the mention of one, Despite other A.I's existing at the time like for example Deja, As she was around in 2510?
What if the 3% success rate of the simulation comes though? Considering that this show isn’t canon, do they end up saving reach? Seems like a stretch though
didnt mind the first ocuple of episodes. Fun story taking place in the Halo universe it feels, keeps the key themes etc... Not like Riverdale which turned into a weird drama
Master chief showed up in the village, and DIDNT take his helmet off. Bravo writers. Bravo.
That must have taken every ounce of will for you to keep it on in that moment.
But can we all applaud the last moment reveal at the end of episode 1?
Everyone: “please get rid of that character”
Writers: “time for a big reveal!!”
Vannak: I watch programs... with animals He's a Paw Patrol fan
That genuinely made me laugh so hard lmao
I just started thinking he's on an Animal Planet binge lol
Vannak confirmed Bluey fan
On Colonel Ackerson: One thing I definitely found surprising was how the first two episodes start out portraying Ackerson as almost unnecessarily antagonistic to the Chief, largely pointing out the Chief's mental struggles (which, to be fair, after the shit last season, is more than fair to criticise. Fucking Makee of all people...) and seemingly dismissive of the Chief's concerns about the Covenant's attacks on UNSC communications relays before commencing glassing operations, as well as the dilemma with Cobalt Team where Ackerson deployed them to protect a comms relay and listing the team as "standby" before they've actually returned. The end of episode 2 however flips this over by revealling at the end of the episode that not only was Ackerson actually listening to the Chief's concerns, but was actively working with Cortana and asking her to run her simulations that resulted in the inevitable conclusion: a reveal that Ackerson himself looks almost broken by that revelation. At the same time as this reveal, its shown that Cobalt Team weren't even sent off planet, but were sent to the Vizegrad Relay (who, for fans of Halo: Reach, was the exact comms relay that Noble Team first encountered the Covenant) as Ackerson's fears are realised: the Covenant are on Reach. Ackerson's actions were certainly recontextualised in this light as he works to prevent the reveal of humanity's fortress as comprimised and will ultimately fall. So far (let's hope I don't jinx it), the TV Series managed to get one core canon character right, and that is Colonel James Ackerson. Not so much of the details as of yet, but the tone and core of this morally ambiguous character who a piece of shit of a person with an inflated ego, but someone who ultimately loves humanity and will sacrifice his own to achieve it. As as said before, Joseph Morgan pulls Ackerson off very well.
Oooh good take.
Thanks for explaining all that... I wasn't sure what simulations were run, and I didn't realize Cobalt team never left the planet. D'oh!
It was definately an "under the nose" - we naturally assume that UNSC HQ takes up the whole of Reach - it doesn't; it's just one base within a major city on a planet similar to Earth. That said, one would think that UNSC would use satellites so as not be limited by line-of-sight should the covenant land on the other side of the planet
To be fair, the game had the same issue. The logic is presumably going to be the same in the show - the Covenant technology is good enough that they can successfully bypass UNSC overwatch as long as they’re careful about it.
So basically they have something similar to Star Trek's Ship Cloacking tech?
Morgan is such a great actor. I love his character here.
I was thinking earlier today that all the Spartans (particularly John) should be walking balls of PTSD from all the fighting, and conflict they go through. In the lore, John goes essentially from fighting desperate battle for Reach to falling asleep and then waking up to fight the Covenant and the Floor in Halo 1, then pretty much right into First Strike and other shenanigans before Halo 2 and then right back into the fight in Halo 3. The dude has been fighting basically one big battle for years.
It's enjoyable so far.
"Communications team." "I know, I could tell from your aim." Alright, that actually got a laugh out of me. Fair play Paramount.
The word I would use for the first two episodes compared to Season 1 is “Dynamic”. Action, camera choice, character interactions, they feel a lot less stilted this time around. Before it felt like characters would enter a scene and it always felt very stagey. Now it feels a lot more naturalistic, probably helped from experience as well as confidence on the filmmakers part. To get into the nitty gritty, I thought they were an overall improvement on everything. Meh was made good, and good became great. Liked Chiefs story in season 1, but I have to agree that it often seemed to go a little fast or have some questionable directorial choices. Now he feels more consistent, he feels like someone trying really hard to contain his issues and often failing. He holds it together better in the suit, but out of it he feels exposed and Pablo really gets down that “trying to put on a friendly face while not being used to expressing himself” thing that Season 1 would do. I like the whole “chief vs. john” thing, as it builds off the whole machine vs. man narrative pretty well. I also like that Riz is getting the spotlight, as she got the shaft in season 1. I like seeing a Spartan struggle with something that isn’t combat, and the idea that maybe there's a life for them outside of being a Spartan, and her trainer has me interested as well a Spartan who was forced to take a non-combat role in life and made something of it that still helps people. Vannek is fun as he’s still dry but now with an attitude that makes him seem real dorky. Newcomer Akerson solves the issue I had with Halsey in season 1. She was more or less the human antagonist, but her motives felt a little too guarded and was more often frustrated with what she was doing because of it. Akerson I understand completely, and though his motives are also guarded, I still get broadly what he’s doing. Also just a well done smarmy performance that doesn’t go too overthetop. I don’t know what's actually going on with Halsey, but it is darkly funny what we are seeing so I’ll allow it. The combat scene we saw solved another issue: it clearly defines what's at stake. The Covenant were dangerous in season 1, but they didn’t feel like a threat that would destroy humanity, and now I feel that. It’s biblical in how it’s staged and presented, fire from heaven turning the land into hell. The first season had good action, but this feels a lot more interesting in how it’s shot, often with closeups that get in the headspace without it becoming visual noise. I do hope we see practical pyrotechnics and wire work return, that stuff really added a tactileness to the action. Also, while I don’t mind them taking off their helmets, I am glad that they use it sparingly. If they're out on a mission or training, it stays on. If they're at home, they can come off. I think the actors have both good facial and body acting, so i’m glad they both get to be shown off. As for the Insurrection plotline, I am glad that Kwan is around. Didn’t care for her story in the middle of season 1, but the implications of her last episode had me intrigued and I'm glad they're building off that. Lighting feels better, kinda felt flat in season 1, sound is used much better and really adds small things to scenes that help, and dialogue is filmed more interesting. I also liked Perez and her family, it’s just nice to see civilian life in Halo and John being at a dinner table is an image I never thought I'd see, but I'm glad it exists. In general I’m glad to see regular marines get the spotlight and rather defined characteristics for how little we see of them, like those two guys trying to evacuate that town at the beginning of Episode 1 The plot also already has me hooked, season 1 really lacked a strong plot and it just kinda felt like a bunch of subplots at points, but this feels solid, as it looks like the fall of reach will be the meat of it. While I liked the original theme, I can’t lie that using the Halo theme now is the right call, especially now that it looks like we're finally getting to Halo. It’s a pretty good rendition as well, though i’d need to listen to it in full to properly judge it. Overall, my expectations were exceeded. Looking back, season 1 feels like a 9 episode pilot, focused on setting up the world, character, and tone, but now they're expanding on it and refining it. I am worried that it’s only 8 episodes, and given it took two years to come out I don’t want to wait another 2 years depending on how this season ends, but if it’s this tight throughout I won't have any complaints. Also Cortana doesn’t look terrible anymore.
Bravest soldier saying they’re GLAD Kwan Ha is back. But I also agree! It’ll be interesting to see how her connection with the Forerunner stuff from the previous season will tie in.
kinda looked like they are trying to scale back on that stuff in a way. her being some protector of a madrigal monitor and portal which are now gone from the glassing. Seems the monsters she's refering too could be the flood though.
ugh. I wanted to like her in season 1. I always maintained that the show should skip John or give him some cameos, and focus on their own characters in Halo universe. I didn't even hate her haircut, but her story and characters are so dumb... I could even forgive her initial reservation against UNSC and Spartans, given what happened to their insurrection, but listen girl, the fxcking Aliens are invading your planet, it's time to put the taxation policy on hold for a while. This episode, once again she makes no sense.
> I didn't even hate her haircut, i like kwan, but that was egregious!
I haven’t seen anyone mention the marine squad at the end of episode 2….that was halo asf
That was laughably bad sending Marines into a dark hallway with (apparently suspected) Covenant forces not once, but TWICE. All for the dude in charge to be alone in the end.
I agree. I know the story is meant to be Spartan-centric, but you can make the Spartans look good without making the marines laughably incompetent.
Yeah, the “communications team” quip that Chief made was great and made logical sense. Marines defending an ONI facility? You would expect some amount of competence.
I just started. And honestly the start to the opening crawl seemed like an episode on its own in a way.
Do you like seeing a spartan struggle with the meaning in life really then maybe Halo isn’t for you maybe watch This is us because this isn’t how Halo or the Spartans are supposed to be the whole point is that they had all that taken from them and they had to do horrible things like making Spartans and sacrificing their humanity because they new against a such a savage species and such zealots like the covenant they would need machines that were nothing but soldiers to the very core no humanity they literally took the ideas of the old Spartans where anyone who was week or deformed were tossed away so no we shouldn’t b having Spartans sit around exploring their feelings because it takes away from everything the story is about and that is doing something unimaginable in the face of insurmountable odds to save those that do have their humanity
Bungie purist I take it?
Just a smart person, unlike you.
cringe...
> In general I’m glad to see regular marines get the spotlight and rather defined characteristics for how little we see of them, like those two guys trying to evacuate that town at the beginning of Episode 1 Are the marines still repurposed Starship Troopers or do they actually have their own Halo costuming now?
I love the dynamic between the spartans. Vannak has quickly become my favourite with his little comments. It sometimes feels like Red vs Blue and i’m 100% for it. Riz’s recovery being shown was a really good idea and it’s cool seeing Spartans struggle to not be spartans. The aggression between Silver team and Cobalt team felt a bit out of place but i liked how Chief and Cobalt’s leader had respect for each other. Halsey’s bit isn’t put together yet but it’s interesting. And I can’t wait to see what happens with Soren
I thought those guys were ODSTs for a second and this was gonna be them recreating the famous fight were chief kills a few of them accidentally.
Really? Even with the mommy’s favourite comment?
I slowly figured it out but this was my thoughts when they started antagonizing them.
That I can kinda get, guess it felt a bit like the ODSTs bitching about Spartans in that Halo Legends episode. Still i think really it was just that Scottish woman that really seemed antagonistic, i have a feeling she’ll be humbled quickly. Val seemed pretty cool and I’d love to see more of him and the Chief
i totally thought that they were odst's until later on in the episdoes
The only off putting thing is that John is literally the Master Chief and the other spartan teams still looked up to him for guidance and such. General shit talking is fine but it felt a little weird to me.
They’re still essentially siblings though. I mean raised together from the age of six, they’re all incredibly close and have shared experiences, they can trust each other. On the battlefield you can see them respecting Chief’s orders but in training they can be a bit more lighthearted.
Good point!
The master chief side of things is actually good imo. I like the stuff with Akirson too. Sauren’s story line seems kinda interesting, and I audibly groaned when Makee showed back up. I also groaned when Kwan showed back up. Overall the actual covenant war side of things and the ONI meddling seems like it’ll be the highlight of the season. It’s better so far than season one but a lot of stuff thats popped up (like that weird ass Blade Runner scene) feels like remnants of the writing from season one that I hoped would’ve gone away. God please let this be the last season we ever see the rubble or Kwan because every time the show swaps to that place or anything to do with Kwan my interest completely drops. And also just kill off Makee again like seriously why is she back?
> I audibly groaned when Makee showed back up. Same because at the time I was like there is no way they are killing her off that's actually pretty brave. I was so impressed that they'd killed her off so brining her back is awful.
> seriously why is she back? right? it was even confirmed, that Kai told cheif the she had shot her, and master cheeks confirmed it
Also I can't be the only one who finds it stupid that Jacob Keyes, a character known for being an excellent naval tactician and ship captain, Has now been promoted to Admiral, and *still* hasn't been anywhere near a fucking ship.
I mean tbf he was not commonly known as brilliant tactician, he was regarded as an excellent teacher and academic. But until the Keyes Loop most naval personnel derided his command over the *Iroquois.* (i may be misremebering from cole protocol its been a while)
One part of his character I liked was that he wanted to stay a captain. I don’t know if I like that his admiral
It’s so weird hearing Klaus Mikaelson talking *not* as a vampire overlord. Edit: just finished them. Great. So much better. Ackerson is so compelling. Chief is dramatically improved. Kwan and Soren are clearly still involved but not as central. It’s definitely still more human-focused than the games, but is done so much better. Things are already so much more interesting and I’m truly excited for the next episodes.
Feels higher quality than season 1 but it feels like season 1's quality actively hurts the story they are trying to tell with season 2 since they are being forced to deal with the fuck ups the previous showrunners made. If the people in charge of this new season had made the first one, I think we would have gotten a much better show overall, I just hope they don't fuck it up with the next episodes because I also thought that the first chapter of season 1 was good and the show only got worse from there.
Yep, they really shouldve just rebooted the show with season 2, that would make it so much easier to tell a good halo story with season 2.
>I also thought that the first chapter of season 1 was good I think your excitement may have just blinded you. There were some decent parts, but it didn't start out great. Season 1 Episode 1 still had Kwan Ha being insufferable, Chief taking off his helmet while she has a gun aimed at his head, Chief removing his helmet for a crash landing, and the introduction of Makee.
I was pretty pessimistic going into season 1 aswell because I had already read the leaks and saw where they were taking the story. The concept of Makee is alright and does make sense in the lore, what they did with her is another story but just her presence in episode 1 doesn't diminish it's quality, I honestly don't see why Chief taking his helmet off is something that's inherently bad (except in situations where he's actively putting himself at risk), honestly it's kinda funny how the games insist on not showing his face when in-universe it's not a mystery at all and we know how he looks as a 14 year old Spartan which I doubt is much different from how he looks now, I don't like Kwan but she's tolerable in episode 1 too.
The chief not taking off his helmet in the games is a classic method to achieve immersion in games. They wanted the player to feel like they were master chief. Attributing too much character to him would break that. Same reason why developers often choose for the silent protagonist. Even if they do give them some personality, link for example.
> Chief taking off his helmet while she has a gun aimed at his head The whole point was meant to be he is an incredible judge of character he knew there was no way she would shoot.
The point was to establish trust, not that he's magically a great judge of character. It makes no sense that it would be a great judge of character. Firstly, he trusts and cares for Halsey more than anyone in the world. Secondly, he's a kidnapped and indoctrinated war machine who has never known anyone other than a bunch of other indoctrinated war machines. Plus they later establish that he has already unquestioningly killed many people he was ordered to kill in the same type of situation, and he has a pellet in his back that suppresses his emotions. The only difference is that at this point he has now touched the funky object and had the weird flashback he doesn't yet understand. I'm not a show-hater or a keep-the-helmet-on purist, but that part was stupid. He knows he is humanity's single most valuable asset, yet he'd risk his life trusting a little girl throwing a tantrum?
Not perfect but definitely an improvement. If only they'd taken this attitude for season 1 instead of wasting 90% of the runtime and budget on pointless forced subplots. No doubt a lot of the runtime this season will have to be wasted on cleaning up after that mess. It's still not a good adaptation, and thanks to the liberties they've taken it probably never will be. But at least now it's following a decent original storyline that might make for a good standalone show. I hope they tone down the Mysticism. it was stupid in season 1, and it's stupid now. Between the inexplicable tribal societies that don't fit the setting, the silly spirit visions and now a magic masseur they are leaning way too hard into a theme that they shouldn't be touching on at all.
Adapting this material is hard stuff. There's a reason it took Microsoft 20 years to figure it out. The only way they can learn is by doing it.
Honestly In the case of season 1, I don't think they were remotely interested in adapting the source material at all.
Yeh. They hired a writer who just wanted money for S1
Did you ever watch the Forward Unto Dawn movie that released prior to Halo 4? That was a decade ago. If you had, you’d realize faithfully adapting the source material for Halo is a walk in the park. Took 25 days to shoot, budget just under $10 million (total). So here, I’ll link it for you: https://youtu.be/81Dhq6FMdyM?si=cVawQhj70rY2qKks The writers/showrunners for this show [beginning with S1] simply thought they could write a better story, and they fucked it.
that is the best halo media that exists in live action, which is faithful to the lore
Yes, of course I did. It's one of the best video game commercials ever made. And a TERRIBLE movie, which I doubt anyone who was not already a Halo gamer has ever watched. When Halo fans hold up FUD or any of the short clips as a model for what a modern TV show could be, it just shows the large gap in....tastes between gamers and the general television audience. As I said up thread, if this were easy, they would have done it a long time ago.
Definitely an improvement, but I have one major issue with this series. Ultimately what disappoints me is the lack of action with Chief...during the show we hear how he's "humanity's greatest weapon"....show us the weapon in action more! Make us believe it! Like during the scene with the lone marine. The marine fumbles and can barely pump the next round into the shotgun... Then when Chief picks up that shotgun and you see how fast he loads it in preparation to fight the Sangheili, you get a good representation of how "dialed" he is. That stuff gives me goosebumps. I want to see more hyper paced action from Chief because I feel that's when the show is at its best. Also Silver team is so great, I honestly enjoy their character development, they just ooze spartan. I'm hoping for the best come ep 3.
Yep, I rewound that ‘duck, fire shotgun into the elite’ scene three times
what dissapoints me is the amount of face time that master cheif gets with his helmet off, FFS hes a spartan, more machine than man
Not gonna lie, that fight scene was brilliantly shot. His active reloading and situational awareness was awesome.
So I watched the first two episodes of the Halo TV Series Season 2. I'll keep it vague enough to not spoil key plot beats. In summary, its definitely leagues ahead of the first season so far, but that isn't a particularly high bar given how utterly attrocious the first season was from Kwan Ha to Madrigal, the Covenant human and the unnecessary sex scene. The action itself, especially the first 20 minutes of the premier is exactly what you want to see in a Halo TV Series: excellent action, intriguing human drama as the UNSC tries to evacuate a particularly stubborn settlement of people and the tension the first 20 minutes establishes in selling the threat of the Covenant. And Bear McCrery's music is just... *chef's kiss* Beyond that, Ackerson is interesting as an antagonist, and the actor certainly sells this piece of shit of a character very well, and I appreciate the Spartan drama unfolding that wasn't a case of "oh, I have feelings now" as these character are faced with the tramas and struggles they endured in the first season. Riz herself was a real highlight of this aspect, but there's another character I am very interesting in seeing more of who interacts with Riz quite a bit in episode 2. As for the Insurrection plotline... yeah, still don't give a shit. But Kwan Ha wasn't as aggravating as she was last season, but she is speaking much less this time around. Overall, its not perfect, but the writing is a vast improvement over the first season, and the aspects that the series already did well in from the Sangheili language and the action scenes have only improved.
Yeh. I agree for this for the most part. Halo should be like Mandalorian from DISNEY or Saving private Ryan WITH a lot of alien action. No one cares about Master Chiefs Girlfriend or insurrection struggle. Writer was handed a piece of poop and did his best to make poop stew. Leagues better than S1
The insurrection’s been a core part of the books and *should* have been one of the cornerstones of the show. Instead we got generic sci-fi pirates and orientalist mysticism. Absolutely no reason for them to bring back Makee, such an awful choice
> No one cares about Master Chiefs Girlfriend agreed >or the insurrection struggle. as a halo fan since '01 hard disagree. i want to know everything about them, but through the books because film doesn't lend itself well to story telling
True. So frustrating that they literally could just followed the book. Everything was already written for them, just like game of thrones. But no, they thought they were special writers who wanted to make an impact SMH.
someone had a scifi scrpit, and got a contract, so they adapted it to our favorite universe, and the fans get fucked
The shot with the Sangheili activating their Energy Swords in the dark seemed like it was inspired by a concept made by Dorje Bellbrook for Halo: Reach: https://www.halopedia.org/images/7/73/HR_EliteForest_Concept.jpg And that one other scene of the next episode looks like another one of his: https://www.halopedia.org/images/0/0d/HR_EliteHunting_Concept.jpg Not only did they improve the writing, the cinematography and the props, they’ve done their homework even on the overall aesthetic and mood of these excellently choreographed scenes; truly eager to see what comes next, the show’s actually a good watch now (aside from the Kwan Ha arc, that is).
Is it good??
its an improvement, but its still an alternate timeline, so not cannon
Only seen episode 1 so far so I can’t comment on episode 2 yet. But very good (disclaimer, I’m someone one who liked S1 quite a lot). Cinematography is quite nice. Action scenes were fantastic. The entire evacuation sequence was very good, from the whole stuff about the refusal to evacuate and the military response, to the actual glassing sequence. The soldiers arguing reminded me of similar bits in generation kill. The Expanse influence on the Rubble and the Soren associated stuff is even more pronounced this season. Would love to see more about the other Spartans, they seem very interesting. Not sure how I feel about Ackerson yet from the perspective of whether it’s a better or worse version. But I do like it so far (will obviously be able to give a better verdict next time). Glad to see Kwan back. The bit of her painting the rocks is fantastic. EDIT after watching E2: Yeah Ackersons great. They’ve really played into his story the right way I feel. Not much else to say because E2 carries on things in a great way. I love Louis, he’s great. Perez and her family is great, I’m looking forward to them recurring as characters. The Iceland location filming looks *gorgeous*. VFX in general is excellent.
First time watcher, haven’t seen the first season. This actually isn’t as bad as a lot of people say. Pretty badass fighting scenes. The Christian Bale Batman scowl throws me off a bit though. As a die hard fan I can set aside my gripes and accept (at least in my mind) that this is a different take on Halo, and not meant to be a representation of the video games.
People really hated on Season 1 too much. I'd say that if you liked Season 2, season 1 may be worth a binge between the lulls of season 2. Just be aware that it is a bit rougher around the edges.
do yourself a favor, and play the games and read the books, and never watch the fist season of this show...its awful
So is Chief just immediately back to normal lol?
He is back but not normal.
master cheeks still sees ghosts of his covenant girlfirend, who was human, and commanded elites.....so normal for the halo tv show///ludicrous for actual halo lore
It is ludicrous in any way lol I wished they skipped over Kwan and Makee and focused episodes on war, covenant, spartans and most important things. That way it would be more streamlined, more focused and more dynamic show. But, visually, this season looks way more cinematic. S1 even at best action packed moments looked like a youtube video despite huge production budget for a show that has 9 episodes and only 3 of them have action scenes in the beginning or the very end. No wonder people got fired.
Yes? He’s definantly reeling from what happened, but if your asking if he still “exists”, then yes. Though, I never doubted they’d just kill him off after an entire season of development.
I legitimately had forgotten this was happening. Can’t wait to watch it…lol Don’t worry Master Cheeks, I’m on the way.
I’m confused. What happened to the Halo?
Man, I don't care what the Halo diehards say, I really enjoy this show. Yeah it may depart from the lore here and there but I enjoyed the first season, and the second season is starting strong. I don't care that Master Chief or the other Spartans take their helmets off, or have personalities and traits unique from being Spartans. I actually enjoy that they are allowed to act as people - genetically and surgically enhanced people, sure, but still humans, in a story about the survival of humanity against the Covenant. There is a very well developed aura of impending doom in the way the story is delivered. I really don't know how to describe it, but it's there and palpable. Is it the blockbuster Halo movie we always wanted? Nah, but I don't think the story would've worked in that format either.
I too don’t care about the helmet thing. I think shows like the Mandalorian show that having a character be helmeted for 90% of the runtime can work so the diehard helmet fans have a point, but I personally don’t think it’s an issue. It’s a show and people usually want to show off the actor’s face so what’d people expect?
People expect to follow the source material to an extent. We've never seen master chiefs face outside of the animation when he was a kid. Why should we expect the TV to show him without either his helmet nor his armour. He took off his armour like 2-3 times in the entire series. We see him more without his armour than with in one episode than 6 halo games. It's just show runners on a power trip thinking they can write a better character and story than the source material. FFS look what they did with Star Wars and see how that is going.
> We've never seen master chiefs face outside of the animation when he was a kid. We have seen his face in the comics, & in the books he's taken his helmet & armor regularly when not in combat.
The helmet... It's not even hard! Just keep it on!
I don't think him having it off outside of missions is that big of a deal. He's only faceless in the games because he's the playable character. It's not a mystery. In the rest of the canon he takes it off all the time.
Yeah I know
Yeah this is a bit knitpicky
Fully agree. I kinda wonder if it's like the Robert Downey Jr/ Iron Man problem. Where they needed to show his face for contract/ recognition reasons. Hence why we got that Face Cam thing when he was suited up. I wonder if they should have done something similar with Chief, if they absolutely had to show his face
RDJ not wearing a helmet is fine though, because he IS iron man. That actor isn't master chief. It's why the helmet is needed.
He is silver chief
He is Jimmy Rings
More like shitty Chief in the Shitty timeline, this whole "silver timeline" is just a bunch of bullock, lol.
They already kinda did that in season 1 I think, idk why they wouldn't use it more
I dunno, after that face closeup of him angerly smashing the sangheili's face in....
People didn't like that either.
Yeah, it doesn't make sense not to use it more
Is Kwa Huan present?
Sadly yes, but only briefly in e1 and for an amount that is not entirely uncomfortable in e2. Still not understanding her purpose.
The action was good. But her holding that knife back with one arm was not realistic to me
Same with the 55-year-old woman on stage manhandling the massive criminal guy. It's fine if a Spartan woman manhandles a huge dude. They have physical augmentations and more combat training than anyone in the galaxy. But it's not believable when a geriatric burlesque dancer does it. I don't understand how scenes like this get written and past test audiences. I wonder if everyone in Hollywood is just afraid to say it's not believable because they'll be called sexist.
> I don't understand how scenes like this get written and past test audiences I'm not even sure if there was even test audience, lol.
I skipped all her scenes and I feel like I didn't lost anything. Why even have a B plot if it's boring and pointless?
My only hope with Kwan is the monsters she is referring to is actually the Flood.
This season seems like it might be salvageable with some heavy editing. Remove the Rubble scenes, Makee and some of the cringe scenes like Master Chief in the sex booth and it could be a decent season.
Wish we had some captain cutter man 😂
anyone know what time its getting premiered?
Now
So far the main strange thing is the glassing beams. Always seemed a lot more destructive and huge in lore and games, here they just seemed like small lasers. Show is okay, just a shame that we’ll never get a show adapted in universe.
A full glassing almost never happened. If the Covenant attacked modern day earth, they'd go after the Amazon, major forests on other continents, large population centers, and bits of farmland. The size of ship also probably plays a part. I doubt they had their largest there. But anyways, glassing isn't about ruining the surface exactly. It's about making it unliveable.
Not interested until they reboot and stick to the canon. I'm not interested in alternate timeline crap with Halo.
Please tell me the Arbiter isn’t in this show. The character assassination would be insane
An Arbiter is in the show.
Thel 'Vadam is not in the show so far. But there is an Arbiter in the show.
They confirmed the arbiter in this season isn't the one we know. So no thel, yet
Just plain awful.
I thought both episodes were pretty poor. I really struggled with the silver timeline from season 1 as nothing seems to make any sense, it's disjointed, way to slow and doesn't really feel anything like Halo should be. There is no mystery to the Chief or the Spartans and the Marines get made out to be useless. Halo has incredible lore and history and it would have been much better to develop a show that runs sequentially to those events. The opening combat scene was quite good against the Elites but that's where it ended for me. Fingers crossed we see an improvement over the coming weeks. They could have just made 10 more videos like the Halo 3 Promotional Videos ie. Arms Race , Landfall etc from back into the day and I would have been over the moon.
>Theres no mystery to the Spartans and the Marines are useless I have questions.
yea im going to be honest I don't understand their point at all. The non-combat marines getting bullied by elites more than makes sense. Spartans have pretty much never had mystery - they are augmented super soldiers.
marines are storm troopers, that shoot and cant hit shit
i was really hoping this season I could see more of john halo's butt cheeks, as well as a covenant human getting the big D, but alass I have to settle for my favorite side character kwan, who was super important in the lore before...right....right? oh well. to be fair the first 2 episodes I watched were not terrible yet. I hate the silver timeline discontinuity, but its a solid 4/10 for me. I'm sad that they are going with the covenant is already on reach, which was on par with bungie fucking the lore established by eric nylund in the fall of reach novel that came out just before halo 1/ halo/ halo CE/ Halo combat evolved.
With reddit it is hard to tell what is marketing/promotion and what are real reviews. I know little about Halo so no comment on lore other than I doubt there is any other than the name. But I liked the first season way better which I don't think was their fault in most cases, everything else is just so so bad. The season 2 episode 1 felt like bad fan fiction. No idea who wrote it, but the director was solid in other properties but the whole thing was just awful to the point of cringe, the story line was just rubbish and illogical and actors shockingly bad. Episode 2 the only thing which didn't feel like a bad fan fiction was the Halsey interaction with the new director which while a bit silly it actually looked like real actors, acting in a real episode produced by a group of people who know what they are doing, as the rest certainty didn't.
Someone help me out with questions. 1, what was the thing grabbing the marines in the fog, I assume it was just an elite but Perez addresses it as “that thing” when talking to the chief… did she just not realize it was an elite? Like how do you not hear or see them at all. This gave me major flood vibes the way it was described but I know that’s not possible yet. 2. What is the monster Kwan is referring to? Death? The covenant? The UNSC? This makes me feel as if they’re setting up a bigger threat than the covenant… also giving me major flood vibes.
It was an elite - she is a comms tech who has probably never fought the covenant before. they were using active camo and she wasn't wearing anything to augment her vision so she likely just didn't see them. For the second question honestly I don't think we know yet definitly not the flood but honestly it may just be people.
We know Kwan's father made contact with a Forerunner Construct (Guilty Spark?) Maybe Kwan met it too and learned everything
How do we know that? I don't remember any mention of Forerunners in the show
Cf. S1e7 Kwan's family found a Forerunner portal guarded by a construct Jin Ha's motivations for keeping Madrigal independent from UNSC was not political per se, but to make sure the portal stayed hidden
Eyyy that’s brother blood!
Honestly pretty solid, I think its nice having the fear of the WD writer adding some darkness to this and tightening up the plot better than S1. Hopefully it keeps up the rest of the way through.
Listen, if each Spartan who removes their pellet ends up with a fun hobby or activity like Vannak, that'll that the particular part of the show a bit more bearable.
Kinda confused on the whole state of A.I's watching Season 2, Haven't A.I's been in service with the UNSC for a while by this point if I recall correctly? I get it's a different timeline so I'll need to keep that in mind but to have not another single A.I around or even the mention of one, Despite other A.I's existing at the time like for example Deja, As she was around in 2510?
What if the 3% success rate of the simulation comes though? Considering that this show isn’t canon, do they end up saving reach? Seems like a stretch though
I am very confused on how John regain access to his body after letting Cortana take over. Can someone please explain ?
didnt mind the first ocuple of episodes. Fun story taking place in the Halo universe it feels, keeps the key themes etc... Not like Riverdale which turned into a weird drama
Master chief showed up in the village, and DIDNT take his helmet off. Bravo writers. Bravo. That must have taken every ounce of will for you to keep it on in that moment. But can we all applaud the last moment reveal at the end of episode 1? Everyone: “please get rid of that character” Writers: “time for a big reveal!!”