Halo Legends: The Duel

[xalener]

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.

Cool... But I'm sure they had the right amount of mandables, but the painting effect blurred the lines out.



I just want to see the one that was done by the Ghost in the shell guys. (forget the studio's name)



GITS changed.... everything really. It basically was the spark that created the modern sci fi narritive. Halo probably wouldn't exist without GITS.



Plus the screens I've seen of it have been the most appealing to me stylistically.



The odd one out looks funny as hell, I've got to see that.

 

[Meleck]

But Ghost in the Shell has a story that is deeper and can introduce thinking. It can make us rethink our conception of humanity. There is nothing of that in the Duel.

And no, there didn't have the right amount of mandibules. I was paying close attention to any sort of splitting of the lower chin. Even very faint. They could have made it work with very little changes from the concept that they had. I liked the fact that the two lower mandibules could move as one but they acted way too often as they were fuzed at the chin. And I never saw any aspect of the central mandibules except maybe when the Arbiter yells out.

 

[xalener]

You could see it plainly when they were roaring :/

 

[key0]

Um.... it was okay.



I mean, it was entertaining. I mean, hell, the Arbiter took out an entire frikin' army... that was amusing (most specifically when the Grunt runs screaming "He's a demon!" and gets croaked. pure lol moment.)



The storyline... cliche and overdone. I know. I accept that everytime I come across it, so that wasn't a biggie for me.



It is very japanese. Not anime. Just japanese. Two seperate things.

When I see and think Elite... nothing really japanese about them to me. Now, if it was showing a sub-culture, that would be good information to know.



Yeah. The chick. We all know. Avatar.

Are we really that surprised? Seriously? I mean, look how much of James Cameron and Bungie works look the same.



Alot of the movement is a bit odd.

Yes, the mandables. They're there. Just the style and lack of subtle movement made them near-invisable.



Giant Hunters. Cool. But- wha? Sure. Whatever.



About the 'at what point in time is this supposed to portray?' thing. Um, if they're going so creative-liscense on this, what makes you think that they're really going to put that much effort into what creatures/what events involved were absolutely acurrate?



I like the fact that they were pushing the artistic quality, but there needed to be a better handling of it at times. Even watercolor can have details.



That awkward pause right before the duel at the end; needed another grunt running around screaming "He's a samurai!" That would have made my day and a half.



I personally liked The Babysitter more. But that might be my love for ODST and the excitement for a kick-arse Spartan Gal speaking.

 

[Vilanova]

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.

damn it MARK!

We have the same opinion!

What really pissed my off was the fact that the main elites did not have their lances at all!