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AcidXShark
@AcidXShark

so as someone who has written a lot of words here re: the halo tv show, you can imagine i have thoughts regarding the recently announced cancellation.

first off: the fuck you mean they cancelled the halo tv show after it finally got to halo???


secondly: i feel Weird about this. like, i'm bummed. i actually genuinely enjoyed my time with the show and seeing how it handled the story and characters it was interesting to see elements i recognized while also seeing what new things it brought to the table. Chief and Cortana learning to trust each other over the course of season 1? Excellent, with fantastic payoff. more focus on the Sangheili in season 2 with a fancy new Arbiter to boot? got me salivating. and hell, season 2 ended with introducing the Flood! the buildup to it was amazing, with the characters misinterpreting forerunner files as historical records, messages that say "rebirth" but with a negative connotation, etc etc

but i'm not so attached that i'm going to lose sleep over this cancellation. like let's be real, the show made many questionable decisions. There's the obvious stuff, y'know, like having Master Chief with his ass out in season 1 or the time he fucked the Covenant dogma out of Makee. i'm not a hardline "HE NEEDS TO HAVE HIS HELMET ON AT ALL TIMES" person but it did get kind of weird how often they found excuses to have him out of the MJOLNIR armor for long stretches of time. it's weird that, of all the major Covenant characters they could have put a lot of focus on, they decided to give the most season 1 screentime to the Prophet of Mercy (who isn't even the most important Prophet) and fucking Atriox of all people (who they were excited to show getting his """"iconic"""" lip scar).

And it's not like the writing on the wall wasn't there. season 2 generally seemed to have a cheaper budget than season 1; there were a lot more tricks used to hide CG characters, lots of showing the Covenant shrouded in fog and darkness. the big battle on Reach halfway through the season had long shots of battles raging through the streets but with no Covenant visible for large parts of it. Cortana was an entirely CG character in season 1 but switched to an actress with a holographic effect over her in season 2. so things were pretty clearly a lot tighter the second time around.

i hear that season 2 reviewed better than season 1, but it's kind of difficult to judge that; to be sure, aggregate review sites do list higher scores for season 2, but they also notably are pulling from fewer reviews. so maybe all the people unimpressed with season 1 just didn't bother coming back for s2 and thus didn't end up writing about it.

all in all, i think my biggest regret about halo (tv series) being cancelled is that my boyfriend thel 'vadam will never grace the silver stream. a true tragedy.

...but seriously how the fuck do you decide to cancel the HALO tv series just when we actually get to HALO!?


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in reply to @AcidXShark's post:

Oh god finding a post on this news that isn't just celebrating the show dying or repeating the same old tired takes ("CHIEF FUCKED A POW !!!") is so refreshing.

Like "Chief fucked the Covenant dogma out of Makee" is a funnier point to make than ignoring the entire show to try to make some moral objection...in a show where the super soldiers are made from kidnapped kids. Anyway, yea it's suck we couldn't even get a chance to see what they'd do with the events of Halo CE.

Especially with how they set up Miranda (I love this Miranda so much you have no idea), and her role as a scientist and even implying that Kai survived in space and all the Spartan 3 stuff. And all the stuff that was made post CE like the ODSTs or the Forerunner trilogy and just all the things they can and have pulled from but in a familiar setting and story of Halo CE.

Hell CHIEF Already knows the Halo is a weapon! So what Forerunner mystery can they use to have him find out! Idk! But I really really wanted to at least see them tackle Halo CE (and maybe some beats from Halo 2 with how much events they squash and mix together)!

Yeah I fell out of the greater Halo Fandom over time so I don't generally get a lot of exposure to anything that isn't just sort of a surface-level mainstream opinion (like general displeasure over seeing Master Chief's face) so I sort of just ended up going in to season 1 and 2 knowing that, generally, people weren't huge fans, but not really knowing anything terribly specific.

It definitely sucks to think we won't get to see what they would have done with CE. They showed a decent aptitude for pulling details from all over canon to utilize (like the amount of Ghosts of Onyx stuff they worked into s2's back half) and there's already so much you can work into CE with the additional storylines from the novelization, Halo Graphic Novel stuff, folding in Halo 2 elements (hell, show Shipmaster Thel 'Vadamee! Get His Ass Established Early). The last episode felt like it was even setting up to introduce the Gravemind???

The TV shows version of Miranda is really good, I was kind of upset she was so underutilized in the second season but she's also one of the primary POVs we see the Flood outbreak from so she gets that honor at least.

God I have so much to say. But first, Miranda is so fun in season 1. Her and Kai have such a chemistry (granted with season 2, I think Kai just has massive rizz with women...let her kiss a girl). While I was watching season 2 all I thought was "where's MIRANDA!?!"

Another thing I remembered was people hated how they changed Keyes. Which if you've read the books, fine. He was actually a character in that, but in the games? He was just the "captain goes down with the ship" trope and an exposition device. He had neat little details but he wasn't doing much really.

The changes to the Spartan 3s was not what I'd do but hey I honestly liked the spin they were doing. Especially since this is a canon where they're already are at the "Arrest Halsey and blame the Spartan 2 kidnapping on her" plot. So it'd make sense the Spartan 3s are a cheaper version of the main canon's Spartan 4s. (we still don't know if they're augmented or not.)
While ALSO showing that ONI still wants to make a Spartan 3 program like the main canon, ala KIDNAP THE KIDS AGAIN. AND THAT'S INTERESTING.

God this show just takes so much from the extended canon, like the flood outbreak on the ONI ship where it starts from smaller forms and then rapidly gets to what you see in the games. I wished we'd have a season 3 because introducing Thel before he changes sides, to see a Thel as a Shipmaster????????????!?!?!? omg.

argh. Anyway don't look at the wider news it's just the worst shit. Gamers being gamers and thinking a show's cancellation means it's bad. Ignoring how many amazing shows get killed just because.