Halo

Never played the games but first episode was fine. Not as bad as some people were implying. Kinda reminds me of The Expanse in aesthetic

Valderen said:

Ok second episode was a lot of talking and setting stuff up but very little happening. Not good but not bad…we’ll see if there is a payoff to any of this. Still interested to see where it’s going but hopefully gets moving sooner than later.

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Ya, 2nd episode was pretty much exposition dump and setting up a more familiar plot (Cortana being authorized, the Halo ring)

This feel/sound like a Boba. I'll rewatch something else

this is an odd one... it's not bad... but you kind of can't help but imagine it as a better show. they change some things up from original canon, which always immediately alienizes your core fanbase. but then they lean into the original canon in other areas so they can speedrun some drama.

master chief going rogue doesn't have the gut punch it's meant to because they've barely spent any time establishing how legendary this dude is. we all know about the spartans and the UNSC, but let's pretend we know nothing and this is a brand new character for us. the show literally starts out villainizing them through insurgent ghost stories.

i think there's WAY too much plot around the UNSC and ONI being the bad guys. that's something you show gradually, so that when master chief goes rogue, it means something.

but, i don't hate the show... i like everyone's performance, except for keyes being the head of xenobio-whatever while looking like she's still in college... and the indian military chick (can't remember her name). i don't care about her race or gender, i care that she doesn't behave like she's in the military. she's super soft spoken and meek and it's really distracting.

ugh. maybe i do hate the show. every time i talk about it i try to start with something positive and it just nosedives before the end of the sentence

It's very weird that it's humanizing John, because that's what everyone liked about him in the games. He was a stone-cold and emotionless badass. I mean the scene of him jumping out of the ship in space manually carrying a nuke was the most 117 shit I can imagine. That scene, at the time, was just peak badass. Now we're going to have a feeling/thinking/PONDERING Spartan. I understand they have to do this because he's the main character and having an entire multiple season show that was just 1:1 with the games having the entire plot being him killing covenant at some new location each episode wouldn't work. Maybe for a miniseries, but not for a show they plan to probably make their flagship show.

I'm hoping John finds his humanity and emotion and shit, but then when we end up in post-Reach and on The Ring it's still the Master Chief we knew from the games. We know that he's got emotions and concerns and shit, but out there he's still a murder robot doing what he does best. Kind of like Mando when he was just monotoned and ass kicking, and you never knew he was fucking panicked or scared until the few times he took his helmet off and you saw that he's basically just doing his best to keep his cool ALL the time. I wouldn't mind that.

If they just go a whole human drama thing with Spartans and Chief being angry about his development and shit, ehhhhhhhhh. The Halo lore is pretty fucking lame for the most part, the best parts are the killin' parts and I give 0 to 0.5 fucks about Madrigal and non-UNSC colonies and shit. I just want to see 117 make it rain purple all over the place.

Now, maybe if they give him a convert Grunt sidekick, THEN they could maybe suck another season out of me. Grunts always were the best part of the game.

episode 1 is free on Youtube for a week


if you have gamepass ultimate there is a 30 day trial code for Paramount+ in perks

I mean it's retarded to depart so far from 20+ years of source material but it's to be expected these days. Since this is pre fall of Reach they could still roundabout end up at the same spot the series was pre-Halo 1. The artifact is likely to attract the Covenant and end with Reach being glassed so while this season may be a mess.... maybe they could turn it around in the future and follow the games? At least for Halo 1 and 2. Don't really care much after that even though 3 was still good. I'm not getting my hopes up, watching more out of morbid curiosity now.

Watched the first two episodes, I enjoyed it. It has that Godzilla problem where whenever Spartans or Covenant are on screen its really good, whenever humans only are on screen I don't really care what happens. After suffering through the shit shows of Foundation and Wheel of Time this year I expected another dumpster fire in Halo so at least its got that going for it.

I fully expect the show to turn to shit at some point, so far the production values are still fairly high (albeit in that Stargate SG1 sorta way), I'm not a huge Halo guy so I don't know much of the lore beyond Halo Rings, Forerunners, The Flood, etc but I like the universe they are building out so far.

Xevy said:

It's very weird that it's humanizing John, because that's what everyone liked about him in the games. He was a stone-cold and emotionless badass.

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Heh, do you know anything about how to write screenplays? You think an emotion less protagonist can carry an entire series?

It's like Cameron humanizing the t-800 for the sequel, because it wouldn't work without him learning from Jon etc

Ossoi said:

Heh, do you know anything about how to write screenplays? You think an emotion less protagonist can carry an entire series?

It's like Cameron humanizing the t-800 for the sequel, because it wouldn't work without him learning from Jon etc

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It can be done, but not for an entire series. I'm not surprised they did it, I'm saying that it's going to piss off the fanbase because that's LITERALLY John's only redeeming quality. He's a stone cold badass. That's his entire character. He just does the right thing against all the odds. He's Captain America without the pep rally speeches. He just fucks Covenant butt and everyone watches. They can't make that a full series though because at that point it's just "big battle of the week" which is taxing on their budget and leads to the most base and LCD of fans (ANIME WATCHERS) who just want to see who 117 OMEGA PUNCHES this week!

Ossoi said:

Heh, do you know anything about how to write screenplays? You think an emotion less protagonist can carry an entire series?

It's like Cameron humanizing the t-800 for the sequel, because it wouldn't work without him learning from Jon etc

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They sort of did the same thing with TSCC.

Anyways, a show with an unlikable character is hard to watch. Any media where they have a main character who is supposed to be stone cold, mostly emotionless almost always a) has some sort of character development where they thaw out a bit b) basically part of an ensemble main cast and their character that is mostly there to look cool and for the other characters to inject the needed emotion/etc into the scene.

A bunch of Spartans acting like human robots is going to make the audience tune out fast. If you look at the themes in the first 2 episodes, it tries to highlight the 2 extremes:

1) John questions an order involving killing a child - it shows that he isn't just a cold robot
2) Introduces a Spartan that broke out of their programming, although adds a contrast to what John is: While emotion can be good, John also realizes he has a greater duty to mankind and doesn't want to huff drugs all day

Basically, that allows them to develop the story to show what John has to decide - does he start to thaw out more and become more "human", but in doing so, is he putting shit at risk? That gives you some decent stuff to work into stories. Plus I imagine the "blessed one" woman on the Cov side will probably have a similar journey and no doubt come across Master Chief at some point, letting them play out different outcomes I imagine for the same type of "hero journey"

watched episode 3, still enjoying the show. It has a lot of flaws, Cortana looks kinda weird, I really don't like the tiny asian chick character or her story, but the Spartans and Covenant are neat

its a high budget version of the 90s SyFy trash shows I've always enjoyed

lol i thought the doctor was Kate Winslett (smokin!) but its another british actress, Natascha McElhone

Paramount+ app is absolute trash though, might watch the rest from torrents instead of fighting the app.

spronk said:

watched episode 3, still enjoying the show. It has a lot of flaws, Cortana looks kinda weird, I really don't like the tiny asian chick character or her story, but the Spartans and Covenant are neat

its a high budget version of the 90s SyFy trash shows I've always enjoyed

lol i thought the doctor was Kate Winslett (smokin!) but its another british actress, Natascha McElhone

Paramount+ app is absolute trash though, might watch the rest from torrents instead of fighting the app.

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I use a media PC to watch it through Amazon. I cant imagine having to use any of the 5 million apps on my TV's.

I agree with you about the little Asian girl. I just kind of roll my eyes and want to fast forward through her scenes. But it's whatever, Im sure her scenes will involve the Spartans at some point. Like you, I'm enjoying the show overall though. Really want the Flood to make an appearance and just have a lore bomb in the show. Even if The Flood doesnt play a significant role because of the time line, the directors could give some hints that theyre there in the background, unnoticed.

Do not like the way Cortana looks, but that horse has been beaten to death. The way Cortana links up with John is interesting. Never thought it was done like that - always thought she was part of the Armor or something.

I liked how they introduced Cortana - gives them a chance to make that character grow as well and better explain the Master Chief/Cortana partnership. Plus the doctor is pretty fucked up - conscious, sentient flashclone of her earlier self and basically murdering it to create the framework to make Cortana work. Looks like her brain was literally liquefied.

Daidraco said:

I use a media PC to watch it through Amazon. I cant imagine having to use any of the 5 million apps on my TV's.

I agree with you about the little Asian girl. I just kind of roll my eyes and want to fast forward through her scenes. But it's whatever, Im sure her scenes will involve the Spartans at some point. Like you, I'm enjoying the show overall though. Really want the Flood to make an appearance and just have a lore bomb in the show. Even if The Flood doesnt play a significant role because of the time line, the directors could give some hints that theyre there in the background, unnoticed.

Do not like the way Cortana looks, but that horse has been beaten to death. The way Cortana links up with John is interesting. Never thought it was done like that - always thought she was part of the Armor or something.

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in the games, cortana is removeable. she's a little chip that slips in the back of the helmet.

also, about the flood, there is a minor eyebrow raising moment when cortana is telling chief about the "plague" that hit his home planet. she mentions "upsilon protocol" which refers to how to handle a spartan that has been corrupted by the flood. so i don't know if that's just a little easter egg, or if we're going to see the flood when john goes home.

on one hand, i'm excited to see the flood, on the other hand if that's how they introduce the flood it doesn't make much sense

j00t said:

in the games, cortana is removeable. she's a little chip that slips in the back of the helmet.

also, about the flood, there is a minor eyebrow raising moment when cortana is telling chief about the "plague" that hit his home planet. she mentions "upsilon protocol" which refers to how to handle a spartan that has been corrupted by the flood. so i don't know if that's just a little easter egg, or if we're going to see the flood when john goes home.

on one hand, i'm excited to see the flood, on the other hand if that's how they introduce the flood it doesn't make much sense

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When they were talking about his parents and the plague, thats the first thing that came to mind for me as well. If they do introduce the Flood through John going to his childhood planet, then ya.. that'll be weird. I swear I thought this was before all the events of Halo 3.

chief totally gonna fall in love and bang covenant khaleesi

it would be hilarious if the flood is their baby. I've never done a full through of Halo and really wanna play Halo MCC in order so I can see the story of Halo, flood, the forerunners, etc all I know is the sketched out basics.

Plex recently intro'd a way to be a meta-app, and let you fold in every other service - P+, amazon, netflix, etc - through their UI, and unify search etc. I know friends who rave about plex and I have a plex server on my NAS but never really used it too much since my wife is happy with just netflix/amazon and I can play my 80 terabyte video collection straight off my PC. might have to play a bit with it this weekend though just to see how good it is.

spronk said:

it would be hilarious if the flood is their baby. I've never done a full through of Halo and really wanna play Halo MCC in order so I can see the story of Halo, flood, the forerunners, etc all I know is the sketched out basics.

Plex recently intro'd a way to be a meta-app, and let you fold in every other service - P+, amazon, netflix, etc - through their UI, and unify search etc. I know friends who rave about plex and I have a plex server on my NAS but never really used it too much since my wife is happy with just netflix/amazon and I can play my 80 terabyte video collection straight off my PC. might have to play a bit with it this weekend though just to see how good it is.

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wasnt flood, it was worms that coalesce to form Hunters one of the covenant's bigguns