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Made in us
Nihilistic Necron Lord






Anyone else check this out? I’ve only played one of the games myself, and don’t remember which it was even, but still figure it would make a cool show so I watched the first episode. I found it quite entertaining. The interaction between the Rebels and the Spartans when they first show up was neat. I’m interested in where the story is going. I was disappointed he takes his helmet off though. That is not the way.

 
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

I watched it, but I need to see more before I'm ready to pass judgment one way or the other. I'm still processing it in my head, so no hot takes yet from me.

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 7 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in au
Anti-Armour Swiss Guard






Newcastle, OZ

They've changed a few little details from the games.

Cortana doesn't seem she will be an AI in the same way as the game. The project in the cryotank DID look like Halsey, though.

It has already been greenlit for S2.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/03/26 02:36:58


I'm OVER 50 (and so far over everyone's BS, too).
Old enough to know better, young enough to not give a ****.

That is not dead which can eternal lie ...

... and yet, with strange aeons, even death may die.
 
   
Made in mx
Towering Hierophant Bio-Titan




Mexico

 chromedog wrote:
They've changed a few little details from the games.

Cortana doesn't seem she will be an AI in the same way as the game. The project in the cryotank DID look like Halsey, though.

It has already been greenlit for S2.

Actually, I think she will be. Cortana was created from a destructive brain scan of a Halsey clone. The project in the cryotank is likely a clone who is soon to have their brain destroyed to make Cortana.
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut



London

Watched it. Was puzzled how rebels who like bunching up inside walls hadn’t all died long ago to indirect fire. Also puzzled how they though firing lines in the open were a good idea.
Toned down expectations.
Saw Spartan take off helmet and look goofy, realised this was going to be at best middling sci fi which will in theory be military but never done with any kind of logic.
Honestly they must have watched mandalorian after spending $100 million, seen him never take off the helmet, looked at their show and got an expensive sinking feeling.
   
Made in sa
Mad Gyrocopter Pilot





Northumberland

I've yet to watch it but it just seems odd. Why not leave the helmet on and have Steve Downes doing the voice? Why not just base the TV show on one of the numerous books?

I will eventually probably watch it. Maybe they purposefully made a bunch of changes to make it standalone.


One and a half feet in the hobby


My Painting Log of various minis:
# Olthannon's Oscillating Orchard of Opportunity #

 
   
Made in ca
Gargantuan Gargant






I mean, it's not a great sign when the people who made the show explicitly said they never looked or talked about the game when they were in the processing of writing and creating it.
   
Made in us
Nihilistic Necron Lord






The point where he takes the helmet off does kind of work for what he was trying to do at the time. If he keeps it off it will be the true failure. That lid needs to go back on the can and stay there.

 
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut



London

 AduroT wrote:
The point where he takes the helmet off does kind of work for what he was trying to do at the time. If he keeps it off it will be the true failure. That lid needs to go back on the can and stay there.


I would take the bet where I think it stays mostly off... Most directors can't cope with helmets/Japanese masked theatre/not having their actor gurn away on command. Plus insert rubbish about 'humanising' the character.
   
Made in us
Nihilistic Necron Lord






You’re probably right, which will be monumentally disappointing

 
   
Made in gb
Leader of the Sept







Karl Urban wants you to report yourself to your local isocube facility for processing for suggesting that helmets can come off



I guess Dredd helmet design leaves a visible mouth at least...

Please excuse any spelling errors. I use a tablet frequently and software keyboards are a pain!

Terranwing - w3;d1;l1
51st Dunedinw2;d0;l0
Cadre Coronal Afterglow w1;d0;l0 
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

 Grimskul wrote:
I mean, it's not a great sign when the people who made the show explicitly said they never looked or talked about the game when they were in the processing of writing and creating it.


You can tell too.

Not even five minutes in and the first episode feels like something someone wrote after reading a brief summary of Halo and the end result is something that is even more generic and bland. The production values are okay I guess but I really don't feel like a Halo TV series should feel like a Firefly spinoff.

I'm also getting really tired of the current trend of murdering a bunch of kids in viscerally graphic and detailed ways as a short cut to saying 'this show is going to be violent and bloody and anyone can die except they can't we're just going to bop some teenieboppers on screen to tell you this is serious bizniz.' It's been happening a lot lately and it's just lazy. It's the dramatic equivalent of a jump scare and everyone and their lazy edgy cousin seems to be doing it now.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/03/30 01:54:18


   
Made in us
Last Remaining Whole C'Tan






Pleasant Valley, Iowa

I liked the first episode, but I should qualify that I have never, ever played a Halo game and can probably sum up literally everything I knew about Halo in less than 20 words: It stars a space marine named Master Chief, he talks to a AI hologram named Cortana, and fights aliens. OK, it only took 19.

I will say, even with zero background, Pornstache's face did not fit with what I expected under that helmet. I have nothing against the actor per se but that seems like... questionable casting.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.

 Flinty wrote:
The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
 
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

I'm kind of just not impressed. Lots of weird plot choices and about the only thing they've kept from the game's lore besides the names and visuals is all the stupid no-brain stuff Karen Traviss wrote into it. The rest just isn't Halo. Not that Halo's setting is exactly all that special but... meh. The stuff I liked about it isn't here.

   
Made in es
Inspiring SDF-1 Bridge Officer






Hilarously, Angry Joe did a review of the first 2 episodes...




and boy did CBS took umbrage about it!

They manually blocked the ep 2 review video on acount of apparently 16 seconds of footage, so they did it again.


   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

I'm kind of just surprised we went from Forward Unto Dawn to this. FUD wasn't fantastic by any means. It could have afforded to explain a few things for people who had no idea what was going on and maybe the plot was a bit too soft-spoken and threadbare, but it was still really good for what it was. It took a setting and made a decent enough movie in it and took a not-bad stab at telling a story about characters who were likable and not shoehorned into something really generic.

The series is worse in every measure. Sometimes by a lot. I soldiered through to episode 2 just to try but the second episode was even worse than the first. I just don't get some of the plot decisions they made. I loathe that the only things they've really kept are the post-Traviss additions to the lore that I've always found really stupid. I'm not even sure why episode 1 and 2 are a thing when episode 2 ends basically resetting the plot to 0 but with a random character development moment that basically skips the development part?

And Silver Team kind of exemplifies it. That's totally Will, Linda, and Kelly. Except they're not. I don't know why they're not. They're just not. For... i don't fething know. I don't know why they invented the Soren character when Grey Team already exists and could do the same role in the plot without any of the stupidity or the plot holes. I have no idea what's going on with the Covernant in this or why there's a random human with them. I can guess but honestly that's such a stupid plot point I don't care. The series spends a lot of time on brain dead dumb politics that I just couldn't care less about. The only thing that made UNSC politics interesting in the past was the subtlety of it and how it wasn't Hunger Games level cartoon villainy but a more quiet sort of oppressor that managed to get by because aliens were genociding humanity, lots of people in the UNSC were genuinely good people (they butcher Keys, both of them, in this series) trying to do good, and the villains were these shrewd operators who behaved intelligently and were more evil for their extremism in the pursuit of their goals than because they were petty and gunning down civilians just to exemplify how evil they were.

Halo isn't exactly a series that reinvented the wheels storywise. I'm confused why they'd choose to make it even more generic and bland at every turn while cutting out the little things that gave it its small amount of flavor. Maybe the action scenes could save it if the CGI weren't so bad and everything so over-choreographed.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2022/04/01 20:59:58


   
Made in us
Nihilistic Necron Lord






I didn’t watch the entirety of that review but I wouldn’t disagree with what I saw. Even not being a big Halo guy it felt pretty generic so far. Not Bad, just ok.

 
   
Made in us
Towering Hierophant Bio-Titan




Mexico

 LordofHats wrote:

And Silver Team kind of exemplifies it. That's totally Will, Linda, and Kelly. Except they're not. I don't know why they're not. They're just not. For... i don't fething know. I don't know why they invented the Soren character when Grey Team already exists and could do the same role in the plot without any of the stupidity or the plot holes.


Nitpick, they didn't invent Soren. Soren 066 is an established character that appeared in the Pariah short story.
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

 Tyran wrote:


Nitpick, they didn't invent Soren. Soren 066 is an established character that appeared in the Pariah short story.


I reject!
Spoiler:

It's not the same character. If they used the Soren from prior lore, the character would actually make sense because Soren washed out of the Spartan-II program and his augmentations didn't take right. He did defect from the UNSC, but he wasn't a fully trained and equipped Spartan and never would be. Had they used that character, I'd be way less confused. The guy using Soren's name in the series is Soren in name only (no true Spartan!). I mention Grey Team because they explicitly were Spartan-IIs in the belt, operating outside UNSC authority and mostly doing things their own way. They easily could have replaced Soren, and it would explain away a few plot holes cause I could belief Chief would know how to find Grey Team.

The idea that the UNSC just 'lost' not just a Spartan but an entire suit of Mjolnir armor at that early stage is kind of absurd. Even more absurd is that, apparently, they know where he is. I think? Chief knows where he is. How does Chief even know where he is? Soren doesn't seem to be hiding his history as a Spartan either so I kind of call nonsense on that entire element of the character, and feel baffled by it because a few little changes would resolve the issue entirely and make for a more interesting, less generic, character. As the series presents it, it's just a massive, world's luckiest coincidence, that Soren was there.

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2022/04/01 21:17:34


   
Made in us
Towering Hierophant Bio-Titan




Mexico

 LordofHats wrote:

I reject!

It's not the same character. If they used the Soren from prior lore, the character would actually make sense because Soren washed out of the Spartan-II program and his augmentations didn't take right. He did defect from the UNSC, but he wasn't a fully trained and equipped Spartan and never would be. Had they used that character, I'd be way less confused. The guy using Soren's name in the series is Soren in name only (no true Spartan!).


Not equipped, sure, but Soren was 16 when he defected, and by that age Spartans were already fully trained, having endured a decade of brutal training regime.

The idea that the UNSC just 'lost' not just a Spartan but an entire suit of Mjolnir armor is kind of absurd.
Even more absurd is that, apparently, they know where he is. I think? Chief knows where he is. How does Chief even know where he is? Soren doesn't seem to be hiding his history as a Spartan either so I kind of call nonsense on that entire element of the character, and feel baffled by it because a few little changes would resolve the issue entirely and make for a more interesting, less generic, character.

John knows where Soren is because Soren told him he was going to The Rubble.
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

Spoiler:
Soren had 1 leg that half worked and another that didn't work at all. His training never completed because he became incapable of completing it. He defected years later at 16 after being unfulfilled by paper pushing. Which was a good story. Lots of Spartan-IIs washed out because the augmentation process was experimental and we were told they were given other duties to make use of their talents since lots of them were still wicked smart. Soren being put behind a desk would be miserable. A prime target for rebels to try and bring to their side, especially with his knowledge of the other Spartans.

That Soren I'd be interested in and even find believable. The UNSC losing a washout who isn't capable of being an overt threat I could buy into.

Soren just walking off fully trained and with his armor is less so. Granted, I recognize this is probably a peeve only someone with prior familiarity and investment would have.

I guess I missed the part where he tells John where he's going... THough I'd nitpick that too because why would you tell this guy who just sort of betrayed you where you're going with no surity he won't tell the UNSC? It's just lazy writing.

I pondered that maybe I should spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen ep 2 so that's why I'm doing that >.>


EDIT: And I guess while I'm ranting Ima rant about the AIs;

Spoiler:
Where are the AIs? The AIs were a huge part of why humanity could even put up a resistance and were central to the UNSC's state but we haven't seen a single one. Do they just want to make Cortana even more special by making her not only the only and first AI, but secretly illegal? Why? One of the most dystopian aspects of Halo was that the Spartan-II program flash cloned its subjects and swapped them so no one would notice their kids were gone. Instead that technology is illegal in this show? Why? Why on Earth would a council that doesn't even blink at their puppet governor executing people in public in brutal fashion balk at the idea of cloning? This is that Karen Traviss gak I keep complaining about XD This completely arbitrary and nonsensical setting detail whose sole purpose is to make the super special soldier guy even more super special because they're not special enough /rant

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2022/04/01 21:46:04


   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






This about sums up my general reaction to what I've read and seen so far.
Spoiler:

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/04/01 21:57:32


 
   
Made in us
Towering Hierophant Bio-Titan




Mexico

 LordofHats wrote:
Spoiler:
Soren had 1 leg that half worked and another that didn't work at all. His training never completed because he became incapable of completing it. He defected years later at 16 after being unfulfilled by paper pushing.


Spoiler:

Spartan augmentation was done at 14, so Soren still had ~8 years of military training. Even before augmentation Spartans were described as Olympic level athletes with the training to put any Special Force to shame.

In fact, when Soren defects and is shoot down over the forests of Reach, the UNSC just gives up trying to locate him because in spite of his debilitating mutations, you simply do not successfully hunt a Spartan.

Spoiler:

EDIT: And I guess while I'm ranting Ima rant about the AIs;

[spoiler]Where are the AIs? The AIs were a huge part of why humanity could even put up a resistance and were central to the UNSC's state but we haven't seen a single one. Do they just want to make Cortana even more special by making her not only the only and first AI, but secretly illegal? Why? One of the most dystopian aspects of Halo was that the Spartan-II program flash cloned its subjects and swapped them so no one would notice their kids were gone. Instead that technology is illegal in this show? Why? Why on Earth would a council that doesn't even blink at their puppet governor executing people in public in brutal fashion balk at the idea of cloning? This is that Karen Traviss gak I keep complaining about XD This completely arbitrary and nonsensical setting detail whose sole purpose is to make the super special soldier guy even more super special because they're not special enough /rant

Spoiler:

Agree on the lack of AIs, but (complete) flash cloning has always been illegal. Flash cloning is only legal for organs transplants like flash cloning a kidney or a heart. A full sapient flash clone is illegal because flash clones are not built to last so it is extremely immoral for obvious reasons (also the reason why Spartans were not flash clones). But Halsey being Halsey and ONI being ONI never particularly cared about laws and stuff so they made full flash clones.

This message was edited 13 times. Last update was at 2022/04/01 22:14:27


 
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

 Tyran wrote:

Spoiler:
Agree on the lack of AIs, but (complete) flash cloning being always being illegal. In the books flash cloning is only legal for organs transplants like flash cloning a kidney or a heart. A full sapient flash clone is illegal because flash clones are not built to last so it is extremely immoral for obvious reasons (also the reason why Spartans were not flash clones). But Halsey being Halsey and ONI being ONI never particularly cared about laws and stuff so they made full flash clones.



You are correct. I forgot about that.

Spoiler:
I think it's an important detail though. The UNSC didn't just grab some kids. It cloned them, swapped them with the clones, and then whistled all the way home. They knew those flash clones would die. That was that point. That way the families of these kids would never know their children were kidnapped and would think their kids just died of natural causes. That's fething evil. It's crazy fething evil. And it forms an important corner stone of the setting because it's intelligent evil. It establishes the kind of organization ONI is, and provides a real and meaningful reason besides pointless empty drama for why some people wanted to end the Spartan program.

Who are these soldiers loyal to? The UNSC? Humanity? Or ONI? The part of the UNSC so evil the entirely of the rest of the UNSC looks at them with constant suspicion and weariness. No one wanted ONI to have its own private army and the Spartans scared them. It provided a reasonable basis, at least before the Convenant War, for why some people wanted to end the program. They knew what ONI was about. They were suspicious of Halsey's motives and methods.

It was also an important piece of Halsey's character before Traviss butchered it. Halsey regretted this. She looked back on the Spartan-II program not as some self-serving exercise of her own ego, but as children whose lives she irrevocably altered. It made Halsey a deep and compelling figure, with her own arc and growth. Completely different from this banal unfunny Rick Sanchez figure she became after Traviss got a hold of her. It also explains a lot about why John and the Spartans could be the 'defenders of humanity' they they are because Halsey did have a conscience and despite her willingness to do morally reprehensible things she had real ideals she believed in. She made the Spartans to protect and advance humanity, not just the UNSC's political interests. She did that even before the Covenant were a known threat.

Maybe that's just me because this retcon is pretty old now, but I liked the original Halsey character, and the one who now appears in every Halo property is just this banal and generically evil mad scientist who maybe sort of cares insofar as it boosts her ego. We need more characters like OG Halsey in fiction because they're nuanced and complicated. Even if we wanted to look at her regret and say 'too little too late you fethed up big' it makes for a much better character than Halsey as an unrepentant egotist full of excuses and arrogance.

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2022/04/01 22:11:09


   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

The first episode Is up on the Paramount Plus youtube channel. If it's like what they did for various trek shows, it'll only be there for a day to a couple days. The first episode isn't as bad as various reviewers make it seem but there are some really perplexing to flat out dumb choices made by both the creative's working on the show and the characters in universe.

We Munch for Macragge! FOR THE EMPRUH! Cheesesticks and Humus!
 
   
Made in us
Fiery Bright Wizard





California

I don't think the show is that bad, there's glimmers of potential in there that may or may not pan out. Hopefully season 2 doesn't get canned, sometimes shows like this stumble and fumble their way through the beginning and finds it's footing later on, especially if they respond to feedback properly.

 
   
Made in us
Nihilistic Necron Lord






It’s like the first seasons of Discovery, decent generic sci-fi that happens to share a name and a few in universe details with a popular franchise.

 
   
Made in ca
Hangin' with Gork & Mork






I only finished Halo 1 and 2 but I don't recall the UNSC basically being a fascist human organization that executed children to save face.

Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
 
   
Made in gb
Preparing the Invasion of Terra






 Ahtman wrote:
I only finished Halo 1 and 2 but I don't recall the UNSC basically being a fascist human organization that executed children to save face.

The UEG was basically upheld by the UNSC, especially in the outer colonies where the Insurrectionists would gain much of their support. Many colonies wanted autonomy from the UEG, so in response the UEG sent in the UNSC. The UNSC was seen as an invasive force and the colonies rebelled, at which point the UNSC presence in the colonies was increased again. Then the UNSC assumed control of nearly all facets of the UEG when the Human-Covenant War started and there were serious concerns that it wouldn't give up power if/when the war ended. Throw in the ONI boogeyman that was very much a threat to people who didn't agree with the government.
The UEG wasn't fascist but it's policies in the colonies were certainly close to fascism.
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

 Ahtman wrote:
I only finished Halo 1 and 2 but I don't recall the UNSC basically being a fascist human organization that executed children to save face.


It rarely came up in the games and was mostly something you saw in the books.

I also wouldn't say it was fascist. The UNSC was depicted as a sort of military junta, but not cartoon evil. The only evil part was ONI, the intelligence service that dodged oversight and flew around in stealth ships doing whatever it damn well pleased half the time. The insurrectionists were also actual terrorists. They had legitimate grievances with the way the UNSC engaged in taxation without representation, but their response to that actually did consist of bombings and attacks on civilians. The whole thing was a lot more nuanced and John's character development in the backdrop was pretty good in Fall of Reach.

A lot of this was retconned by the Glasslands trilogy, which tossed basically all the nuance out the window because in Karen Traviss' worldview everyone who isn't a soldier is evil, every soldier who isn't a super soldier is well-meaning but hapless, and since politicians are always evil of course the insurrectionists were virtuous heroes (but not super soldiers, so not that heroic).

I'd also honestly agree with a lot of commentary that all sympathy for whats-her-face basically flew out the window when her response to a manipulative but not wholly unreasonable request to work together in face of a crisis was 'give me everything I want or I tell everyone you murdered my daddy and everyone else, I didn't see no aliens.' Like, she's a kid and that's actually kind of a believable childish lashing out, but then again so is the UNSC looking at that response and saying 'feth it we're already fighting genocidal aliens, we don't need this gak.' Of course, they have to kill her because they're stupid evil. The UNSC in the books would more likely have tossed her in a corner sans trial and misplaced the key because they have important gak to do and no time for this nonsense.

I've complained about a few things, so I might as well additionally complain about the butchering of Jacob Keys' character in the series. Keys was the nice guy with scruples in contrast to Halsey. Here he nonchalantly blows off-putting a dictator in power because who cares we got what we want, and that's just the complete and total opposite of who he was.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/04/02 10:51:59


   
 
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