Halo Legends: The Duel

[Kwydjybo]

I know it should make sense, but I just don't like this anime.

-all forerunner structures look like dojos

-elites act too human

-elites look like samurai

-They made everything look watercolor, which dosen't work in a Sci-fi

-The female elite dosen't look like an elite. Dosen't have mandibles

-The hunters where the size of scarabs. That just dosen't work out



In my opinion, the babysitter was much better than this.

 

[Arithen]

I don't care about gravity rules and specifics, A Hunter is not a Gundaum.

Well you should care about gravity and specifics as it completely applies to hunters. In fact that was almost the only thing in this film that actually came close to replicating what is happening in the halo series. Hunters are swarms of worms, there is no set rule of how large a colony can be. However, when there is a rule set in place by the covenant then the colonies will split, forming two separate hunters with a bond. hence the reason you always see two hunters together.

 

[ForgedReclaimer]

i just finished watching it on the youtube, i think they got Fal's name wrong i think it was Fail, lol jk. the female elite is to far from accurate, its a good character but more suiting elites after a few thousand years more of evolution. I agree that the treatment of the wives(wife) is not feeling right with it also (Elites just dont seem like that). it wasn't too bad, the armor of that one elite is just plain horrible, and they just don't look right ?





Elites culture isn't Asian or American or Europa styles or anything else, they have there own, and i don't think it was portrayed well if at all really, they got the honor part right







wasn't bad, just too... something

 

[GalacticWombat]

Some are saying the closing of their mandibles was a more off duty/ etiquette thing back then since this is over 1 to 3 thousand years before the games.

theres no way this story took place that long ago, because grunts have only been in the covenant for 411 years. so it had to take place between 2142 and before the human/covenant war started

 

[the stig]

-The hunters where the size of scarabs. That just dosen't work out

Scarabs are large hunters.

 

[RadioactiveMicrobe]

Thoughts: meh...



the female Elite looked like the things from Avatar, and I realy didn't like the Japanese thing going on with the Elites.



Massively Ginormous Hunters: no.

 

[crackhead09]

uh I really didn't like this at all and not one little bit of it, well maybe a little bit.



In my opinion I like babysitter better because I had two things against it, which was the japanese looking forerunner stuff and the ODST's having long hair: that was it.



As for the duel, I'll admit I didn't like it to begin with when I saw it in the trailer so lets start.

-the watercolor, stain glass filter really wasn't necessary at all, why hide what your trying to show your audience, when your audience is squinting to look through it to see whats happening.

- As everyone else has already pointed out the female elite's look is bad, such as the hair or headdress, no mandibles makes her another species altogether, and why would the arbiter care about one wife when elites have several with solely for the purpose of extending the bloodline.

-The japanese culture is everywhere, I thought I was on an alien world with a different culture and all.

-Half of the time I was also trying to figure out if the artist forgot that the elites have mandibles, and pleasantly surprised to see they remembered.

-To be honest with you guys I can understand the hunters being huge it wasn't surprising at all since they are colonies of worms that can be collected into larger structures like the scarab (just look at the scarab's weak point it has the orange worm things flowing into it).

-The samurai wearing elite was the biggest thing i had with this it was atrocious. Why would an elite be wearing something that is human? I mean everyone see's the problem with this one right?



Those were my points on this episode and all I can say is I think the guy who did this just did a japanese drama and replaced humans with elites just to make money on the halo franchise adding nothing other than showing what an elite would look like in full samurai armor. The whole episode in my opinion, should be considered non canon. Sorry to those who liked it I just hated this episode and hope for another episode to come out that is actually halo and not halo things in japanese clothes.



... and if someone says it's because I don't like ghost in the shell, well I have never seen the anime and therefore I cant be skewed by any opinions of the director's previous works.

 

[Halochief89]

theres no way this story took place that long ago, because grunts have only been in the covenant for 411 years. so it had to take place between 2142 and before the human/covenant war started

Its been stated this is the beginning of the covenant empire where the sangheili alliance is just joining the covenant thats why they're asking the arbiter to join, he refuses the covenant's belief of the great journey angering the prophets "san shyuum" therefore they did this to Fal. And then they made the rank of arbiter a shameful rank for sangheili who have lost their honor like that of Fal Chavamee. This is the beginning of the covenant that we're seeing here. Human kind is still in the roman empire era right now.

 

[tubachris85x]

I'm sorry, but this show so far is not halo to me. Yea, it guises itself in the feable "appearence" of the halo universe, but this is nothing I'd ever consider to be halo "cannon." It's really a mood killer IMO. When I think of halo, I see just that, not some overly hyped up cartoon drowning in Japanese culture. I'd like about 100% less anime in my halo. If they really wanted to put this crap out, they should have re-named it something else.



This is really just ruinning the whole halo series. I don't "get" the sense of intensity that mankind is on the verge of extinction. This show is just throwing that whole atmosphere away, causing it to be sucked dry of any real substance that makes halo a great story. I still cannot believe this crap is being put out with the Halo name on it. I think I need to spend a few hours on the "Believe" site to re-affirm why I love halo



-TC

 

[Cadet]

Its been stated this is the beginning of the covenant empire where the sangheili alliance is just joining the covenant thats why they're asking the arbiter to join, he refuses the covenant's belief of the great journey angering the prophets "san shyuum" therefore they did this to Fal. And then they made the rank of arbiter a shameful rank for sangheili who have lost their honor like that of Fal Chavamee. This is the beginning of the covenant that we're seeing here. Human kind is still in the roman empire era right now.

If it it at the beginning of the Covenant, the initial alliance between the Elites and the Prophets, there should have been no Hunters, Grunts, Brutes (I swear I saw a brute in the big plain battle), Wraith Tanks, or Ghosts. As all of these things came much later in the history of the Covenant, Grunts for instance joining only 400 years before the encounter with Humanity. So in that case, if this is supposed to be the initial alliance, the writers showed a very obvious disregard for the well established, and previously published (multiple times) time-line.



I'm sorry, I did not enjoy this one at all. The poor art direction, the very stale and "cheap" feeling animation (multiple uses of simple frozen single frame images on the close up of the Artibter and others), this just did not feel like it fit Halo, even more so than The Babysitter

 

[pooper]

Well, just got through watching it on YouTube, and I did like it... everything that I don't like about it has already been said (female elite doesn't look right, mandibles, etc.), so here's a few things I liked...



• The Arbiter was a complete Bad@$$ in my opinion, and made me like the Arbiter role even more.

• The back story on why it's now a mark of shame to be the Arbiter... (or shamed elite's chosen to be the Arbiter)

• I liked the fight scenes

Scarabs are large hunters.

Like Stig mention, the Scarabs are made up of the same worms that makes the hunter's, so why can't there be a bigger hunter?



So, I thought it was good, and I liked it as much as "the Babysitter." My 2 cents...

 

[Meleck]

I thought The Babysitter's punch was cheesy to the max but the rest was OK.



I honestly didn't like this one. I like samourai fights and iaido duels a lot and the actual one-on-one duel is about the only thing I liked. What's with the samourai armor and the big sword and all the japanese references? Come on. There is enough material in Halo to be able to gather something better. And that story was utterly one dimensional.



- Hero has honor and doesn't want to go along with Master Villain plan.

- Anti-hero (strong arm guy of Master Villain) has hero's wife killed to really piss hero off.

- Against all oddds, pissed-off Hero slays entire master villain's army.

- Hero and Anti-Hero duel. Both die but Hero wins because he doesn't really care if he lives because wife is dead.



For that, it's very very manga.



I shouldn't expect much from a 10-minute clip but I do wish the story had more depth.

 

[Kirrou]

Besides the stain glass look that really blurred out all the detail, I have to say I liked it.



The fight scenes were epic. Giant Hunter pure awesome. Yeah the chick really didn't seem like an elite and the overtly Japanese culture influence was a bit much. But over all I though it was great.



And even though some what cliche, I though the story brought some depth to the elite race, along with the explanation of the shame place upon the arbiter. I'll take any tid bits of back story Bungie will throw at me. lol

 

[ImaGonnaGetYou]

I'm sorry, but this show so far is not halo to me. Yea, it guises itself in the feable "appearence" of the halo universe, but this is nothing I'd ever consider to be halo "cannon." It's really a mood killer IMO. When I think of halo, I see just that, not some overly hyped up cartoon drowning in Japanese culture. I'd like about 100% less anime in my halo. If they really wanted to put this crap out, they should have re-named it something else.



This is really just ruinning the whole halo series. I don't "get" the sense of intensity that mankind is on the verge of extinction. This show is just throwing that whole atmosphere away, causing it to be sucked dry of any real substance that makes halo a great story. I still cannot believe this crap is being put out with the Halo name on it. I think I need to spend a few hours on the "Believe" site to re-affirm why I love halo



-TC

Agreed.



From the two episodes that have been shown, this doesn't seem to be something that will really sell the Halo storyline to people, besides people who like anime (not many compared to most Halo sales).



Unless the rest show some potential as actually relating to Halo, then I really can't see this little series selling well. I mean, they have to make it extremely prominent and even give it out for free to Halo players just to get people to buy it. Does that say something to anybody?

 

[RadioactiveMicrobe]

Still, the hunters bug me. Yes, the colonies can be different sizes, butwould they make a new armor size for every new colony? I don't think they would waste that much time and resources.

 

[GremlinLord]

The problem with The Duel is exactly what has been said in this thread, it's feudal Japan. Samurai armor, check, Japanese buildings, check, Japanese culture, double check. I don't see anything alien there except for the character models and even those where different with incorrect mouths most of the time. The female had the stero typical anime mount that is way to small and the "water color" just hides the fact that this was banged out by the studio (they didn't even make the characters mode when talking). Every time I see a single hero slice though and entire army (with guns!!!) I want to make a run for reality, far far away from 20second, dramatic, random, black and white poses. Over all the Elites are just too human and too Japanese in this short. All things considered I liked The Babysitter better even if it make elite human special forces look like high schoolers... Special forces are the best of the best and extremely disciplined (yes, SIR. no, SIR). The making of Babysitter made my want to smack the director lets see if the making of the Duel differs.



We do have to remember the purpose of these films is not to please the western audience that already enjoys Halo but to attract the eastern audience. That being said my overall expectations for the rest of the films has been greatly lowered.

 

[xalener]

Boo hoo. The Japanese animation is too japanese.



Remember when I said everytime one of these shorts comes out I become more and ore ashamed of America and My fellow Halo fans? This still stands.

 

[ACDCrockr209]

Why the hell didn't they read the Halo ecyclopedia or somthing. Not everything is supposed to be japanese. If you are going to make some a show with humans as the one and only speices that is going to doing all of the talking, then go ahead, but when you are going to be working on an alien species with a totally different personality and culture, then you have to do alot of research before you even begin to put pen to pad.





I hope Bungie had some say in this because if they didn't, then we finally have an answer to why the shows are sucking.



-Pony

 

[Meleck]

Boo hoo. The Japanese animation is too japanese.



Remember when I said everytime one of these shorts comes out I become more and more ashamed of America and My fellow Halo fans? This still stands.

Look, it's not that it's too Japanese. It's that it's inconsistant with the already established architecture and artwork for the Covenant. That's what I find disagreable. Why didn't the Elite have five mandibles in The Duel; I have no explanations. None. I had not much of a problem with the fact that the Forerunner ruins in The Babysitter were Japanese even though it's inconsistant because it had little to do with the story line. I thought it was a nice cameo and was acceptable as creative liberties.



For example, if I stay within the premise of the Halo history. How come an Elite has an armor that resembles so much to Hayabusa armor? It would be Heresy to wear something that is obviously from the filfth that humans are. Or how come a Spartan armor looks so much like a Covenant armor? Even the blades of the Elite Honour Guard don't have a lot to do with the style of the Japanese or Chinese weapons. The huge metal sword is acceptable even though I don`t like it because it fits the style. Give me a power Naginata and I'd like that a lot more. Give me an Elite armor and clothing based on the Japanese and I'm perfectly fine with it. They didn't even try with The Duel to come up with something different. That's my strongest objection to this episode.



But for me the biggest problem is that the storyline is weak when it could have been so much more. I kinda liked the artwork as a memory style or an ancient story. Provide a narrative in voice over of what happened without a single word from all the characters and you can provide more depth to the story. Take out the wife angle to the story and make it simply about honor, the path sought by the Prophet, and the shame of the Arbiter, explore that angle more and I find the story more interesting. The application of bushido with the Arbiter can fit the character to a certain extend, there are other warrior codes than just the Japanese but in anime I'd forgive them to have something of the bushido.



It may sound weird but I've got nothing against the fact that it's too Japanese, it's just that it's not Covenant enough. Give me very Japanese and very Covenant and I've got no problems.



With that said, I'm looking forward to the other ones.

 

[Boba Fett]

The problem with The Duel is exactly what has been said in this thread, it's feudal Japan. Samurai armor, check, Japanese buildings, check, Japanese culture, double check. I don't see anything alien there except for the character models and even those where different with incorrect mouths most of the time. The female had the stero typical anime mount that is way to small and the "water color" just hides the fact that this was banged out by the studio (they didn't even make the characters mode when talking). Every time I see a single hero slice though and entire army (with guns!!!) I want to make a run for reality, far far away from 20second, dramatic, random, black and white poses. Over all the Elites are just too human and too Japanese in this short. All things considered I liked The Babysitter better even if it make elite human special forces look like high schoolers... Special forces are the best of the best and extremely disciplined (yes, SIR. no, SIR). The making of Babysitter made my want to smack the director lets see if the making of the Duel differs.



We do have to remember the purpose of these films is not to please the western audience that already enjoys Halo but to attract the eastern audience. That being said my overall expectations for the rest of the films has been greatly lowered.

Totally agree. I've never been a fan of animae. Just too cheezy. Halo the game has a WEstern look. Keep it western style. Now, of there was an animae series on MEtroid prime, that's a different story. I say theBAbysitter, and it was ok. But still to much Animae junk.