Halo: The Series Season 2 Discussion Thread

[SgtSaint]

What if they are setting her up to be Spartan IV? Events are lining up for it.

I don't see it. But the last episode did a decent job of showing her as a fair body guard/killer.

Spoiler: eps3 spoilers

066's wife might act tough be she clearly didn't have the bite to back up the bark. Kwan managed to think far enough ahead to save Kessler by getting him out of harms way *and* save the wife. I'd sooner believe that's a good fit for her and let her keep her new adopted family at the same time.

 

[FalseShepherd]

I'm really enjoying Season 2. Feels more like bad ass Spartans counterset with shady ONI. ArcSol had an interesting idea about Kwan.. What if they are setting her up to be Spartan IV? Events are lining up for it.

I thought they were gonna make kwan a spartan recruit from the minute I saw her on screen. They have since made that path fairly difficult but I suppose still an option. I just don't see her voluntarily joining the UNSC at this point but ya never know!

Trends in TV. (Streaming effect)
FalseShepherd Sounds like you and I are of a similar mind when it comes to the episode count being a problem for the story telling. I'd extend that to being a pattern outside of sci-fi as well. This all feels very much like the shift in SEAL Team, when they went from being a broadcast show to a streamer. There was a steady decline in episode count but tried to keep just as much story per season.
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At this point its 7th/final season is only supposed to be 8 episodes. I don't see them running a real mission plus tieing up loose plot threads in 8 eps.

Its been happening throughout the TV industry. I first noticed it when "Defiance" was calling 10 episodes a season which at the time (2013) was like... "My arse 10 episodes is a season. This isn't the BBC". And to give credit where it is due, Defiance had tons of make-up, CGI, conflict, story, family... all the things Halo is claiming they are inventing for the TV show scale and they did it well a decade earlier. While at the same time managing to do integration between the show and their multiplayer on-line game. Sound familiar to anyone? Or Farscape was basically doing movie-budget make-up and effects shows 22 episodes a season (adjusting for the production year of 1999-2003).

All I'm saying is it can be done, it has been done and it could be done again - if it weren't for this trending of 8-10 episodes a season. Battlestar 2005 did big story arcs, effects and all the rest of it in 20 episode seasons. 8-10 is just not enough time to cover all the bases to be covered. If you want to have a 10 episode season you have to limit the scope of the show like they did with Silo. There was one story line, a glimpse of backstory, and basically a straight line from start to end. Even Foundation's 10 episode seasons aren't trying to run 3 parallel stories: Its all Empire v. Foundation. Halo is trying to run
1. UNSC story
2. Makee story
3. The Rubble story
4. The Insurrectionists story (at least they killed this off for season 2)

So yeah, totally agree that what's killing the show is trying to cram too much into a compressed show schedule. On this schedule it either needs to be a normal 20-ish episode season, or a single story line.

SgtSaint , I'm glad you brought up Seal Team because I was literally thinking about that show while writing that last post. I have the same issues with that show and I didn't even make it through season 2 with that one. I got so bored with all the "everything that wasn't cool military stuff" that I just lost interest. I look forward to continuing to agree with you as season 2 progresses.

 

[SgtSaint]

Ok... Along those lines of recutting the show...
These guys put the helmet back on 177

 

[ThreeEvening158]

I'm still not sure the helmet off was the thing that was wrong with the series, but I do like the idea that if he's wearing armor then the helmet should be on. That's some quality work though!

 

[marinesniper]

Ok... Along those lines of recutting the show...
These guys put the helmet back on 177

oh yeah that the way i like to see the show those guys did a great job on this

 

[SgtSaint]

oh yeah that the way i like to see the show those guys did a great job on this

I gotta say - 117 keeping the helmet on while the others had it off... Did something to set him apart. More than a team member but the leader. Without saying a thing

 

[marinesniper]

I gotta say - 117 keeping the helmet on while the others had it off... Did something to set him apart. More than a team member but the leader. Without saying a thing

you are dead right on that it just totally sent the show in the right direction now if they would run with it on the show lol.

 

[SgtSaint]

Just watched 204

Spoiler

Holy F!

 

[marinesniper]

My boss ask me why I was watching TV I said I'm on break lol. But yeah just WOW!!

 

[SgtSaint]

My boss ask me why I was watching TV I said I'm on break lol. But yeah just WOW!!

At work? Tablet/phone?
I was watching in the living room. 70" 4k. Using my iPhone and earbuds as remote earbuds for the Roku - Knew it was going to be loud and didn't want to disturb the house didn't want the house to disturb me. Dang that's a movie theatre experience.

 

[marinesniper]

Yeah it would be I have a desk to PC I have paramount+ on it. And I have a blue tooth speaker you can hear it for a way lol

 

[RCSRex]

So S2E4 was uh.... interesting?

 

[marinesniper]

So S2E4 was uh.... interesting?

To say the least for sure

 

[RCSRex]

To say the least for sure

Spoiler: S2E4 Spoilers

I guess killing off a chunk of characters is one way to get the impact of the Fall of Reach across lol. Also that Arbiter beheading that one Elite cuz he EMP'd the Chief made me lol

 

[SgtSaint]

I'll give credit to whomever wrote the Admiral's speech: It was good.

 

[SgtSaint]

Spoiler: Is that a ...

Antique shop. That is what I think it is, isn't it?

 

[marinesniper]

Yes, yes it is I had to do a double take my self

 

[RCSRex]

Yeah, slightly head tilting that they had to remove the actual Xbox logo. Wonder if that was a legal reason or not. Also, those capacitors inside probably burst some 400 years ago, lol

 

[Cadet]

Spoiler: Spoiler

I don't think they are going to pull a fake out and have him survive, but I also can't believe Keyes is dead. We've had some pretty large diversions from the main timeline in the show, but for Keyes to die before even setting foot on the Pillar of Autumn or arriving at Halo is a very large jump. I wonder who is going to be the Captain of Autumn, because I can't imagine they won't have have the Autumn be the ship they arrive at Halo on.

I'm also wondering about the Timeline for the IIIs/SPI/Mirage Armor. We're into the Fall now, and I can't imagine the battle for Reach stretching out very long, but they made it seem like Ackerson stole Silver Team's armor in order to develop his own SPARTANs. From the trailers, though, we know the SPI/Mirage armor is coming this season. So, either the armor is not ready, and will drop at the end of the Season once Ackerson and ONI can reverse engineer and mass produce the SPI armor, or they do already have the SPI armor and soldiers to wear it but Ackerson wants to make it better with the technology in Silver Team's MJOLNIR armor.

Kai was suspiciously absent from this episode, and from the Trailers, we saw her in a Pelican and overlooking the Parade ground with what we assumed were Ackerson's SPARTAN-IIIs in the SPI/Mirage armor. So, this also plays into what the timeline is for the rest of the season. I wonder if Ackerson kidnapped her to train his IIIs, in a twist on Kurt-051 being forcibly recruited to train the IIIs, and maybe Kai will instead convince them to to go back to Reach with her to try and rescue Chief and the others.

 

[ThreeEvening158]

Spoiler: Spoilers for all of the episodes

I'd guess that we'll see a few members of Silver Team die

Well then… overall I think it was a good representation of how screwed Reach was, but I did have some things that just irritate me.
Why did they have to steal Chiefs armor? It finally could’ve been a chance to see MJOLNIR armor in a game-sized battle but it’s just gone.
I’d guessed at Vannak dying to raise the stakes, but a single Needler round?
The Battle Rifle and Needler just fired differently for no reason, I’m pretty sure knockoff Thel Vadam would’ve gotten supercombined, especially if it’s firing like a Needle Rifle and he seems to have no shields at the moment.
Never would’ve noticed that Xbox cameo, fun way to acknowledge where the series came from.
Where are other Spartan teams? Silver can’t be the only one on the planet, it would’ve been nice to at least mention others.
Maybe Miranda will take over the Pillar of Autumn for Keyes? His death was a shock to me, maybe if the Battle Rifles worked like they’re supposed to Silver could’ve saved him haha.
I could see Riz dying in some big sacrifice, we got the Kat-style death with Vannak kind of.

Other than those complaints, I thought it was a pretty good episode with nice action. Sorry about the minor pettiness but I can’t exactly put that stuff in my official reviews, so it goes here.