Halo: The Series Season 2 Discussion Thread

I remember an exchange between Kai and Ackerson... I thought it was a trailer... maybe it was a snippet in one of the 'Declassified's.
Kai: We aren't built to just sit around. What do you need me to do?
Ackerson: Train them.
I don't think Kai was kidnapped. She was just presented with the next opportunity after Silver team was stood down from active combat duty. Nothing more sinister than "Your team is offline. Do you want a job where you can train thousands to save humanity?"

I don't think they are reverse engineering the S-II armor. They don't need to: They have all the plans and so on. Its one big happy military and the Oni is the top of the food chain. They've known this day was coming, for far long than the lower levels knew about. They certainly didn't mass produce soldiers and armor in 72 hours since the attack. So they've been preparing for this for months at full speed. Ackerson knew Halsey for years. Had access to her work. He just went a different direction for parallel work.

He also didn't need to take Silver team's armor for development purposes when there are at least 8 other teams. That also mean spare parts and spare suits on Reach to keep the teams on-line. When Vannak said "The suits are gone" - I think he meant every suit and part. Otherwise there should have been enough there to cobble together at least some partial protection: We've seen Sorren wear it piecemeal.

I'd sooner believe they gathered everything, from every team, and spares, and tech to make the suits, and and and... so it didn't fall into enemy hands and so they could keep the other 6-8 teams operational. You can't have all that be used to find vulnerabilities in your greatest military assets. And if Ackerson could get rid of Silver team who knew about is foreknowledge and could expose what the top brass had done, all the better. He gets to use 117 who was already the symbol of the war effort as a martyr for the entire human race to rally behind.

Just a hunch... I bet episode 5 is all Kai, and none of the rest of the team. Total change of location to the training of the S-III and leave the audience hanging about Vannek and what's going on back on Reach. With some wasted time spent on Sorren's wife and her new body guard Kwan. 4 had none of them, 5 will be just them. All the actors get their equal screen time and down time.
Episode 6 will the be reunion of the survivors, rejoining of the team, everyone gets brought up to speed on what the others went through and are doing and the big plan to ensure humanity's survival. And a touching double-funeral scene.
7 becomes the big push back against the covenant with a mission to recover Cortana and because she can't be left in the hands of the enemy. And if the big artifact becomes available along the way then grab it.
8 Somehow getting Ackerson out and Halsey back in the good graces of the brass and back in a position to do some good, and re-formation of Silver team v2 because its not going to stay 3 person.

> 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.
I wonder if this sets up Admiral Parengoski to come back and take charge. She never left after all, just went under cover.
 
I'm so glad the crew and cast got to flex again. And I can appreciate bold choices (I like the Last Jedi - besides Finn and the Casino arc). But... but...

I wondering if Keyes's actor wanted out of his contract? If that's not the reason, then why? Just why? He only needed to make it one more season where his death then will hit like a hammer and also be a gut wrenching moment for what Chief needs to do when he finds what's left of Keyes. Also imagine the scenes we could have got from him when he is fighting the proto gravemind. Its drawn out, agonizing, hope of survival slipping with ever second Chief doesn't arrive. Also, it made a flood infection a high stakes thing. The narrative wasn't going to allow salvation from the flood even for KEY (lol) characters. They already have Vanick to be a sacrifice this episode, throw in a few more plucky NPCs we get to meet to add to the toll of war and boom, fall of reach is still a gut punch. Let Keyes keep doing his thing make us fall in love with him even more.

*oh I'm sorry upon review, there was also Luis's sacrifice. Jeez keep this up and there won't be anyone to sacrifice themselves to buy chief time to escape to the halo. agh!

Again, why, Showtime team, are you giving yourself more work than necessary? I'm just scratching my head at this point. I'm sure it all makes sense with the knowledge and restraints that they have, and I don't know about.

I'm wondering now who on the cast will be the proto-gravemind on Alpha halo. Miranda? She might have command of ship they will need to overload. (this assumes they even decided to stick to the framework of the original narrative at this point.)
 
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Does anyone else feels like the showrunners are kinda trolling fans at this point? Like trying to make it abundantly, overwhelming clear that this is the “silver timeline” and it’s gonna be different. Just for the sake of being different?
 
I need more time to collect my thoughts but I'm pretty mad that
vannak died. He was my favorite spartan.
. Very good episode tho. I thought it was compelling and exciting and very well done. Anyone who is still mad about continuity needs to get with the program. It's season 2- canon changes should not be a surprise by now.

Also
kia was definitely evaced by ackerson. That's why she wasn't in this episode, but she will probably be pissed when she finds out that he left them without their armor. Also I don't like that makee is back, they could have done this whole thing without her. Just make it an arbiter thing.

More to come just need to think first. As a general rule, if anyone really cares about my opinion, I agree with SgtSaint . Will try to post again tomorrow with more thoughts.
 
I just finished S2E4 and wow, this is easily my favorite one so far.
While my initial reaction to Chief not having his armor in this episode was "I can't believe they did this, he should have his armor." I also couldn't help to think about how interesting of a twist it was as well, as how cool it is to see Chief still take down Covenant despite the disadvantage. I feel like if all the Chief fight scenes from this episode were in one of the books, it'd probably be praised in a similar way to that ODST gym fight from the Fall of Reach. I also think the writing for Chief has been a lot more on point this season. Armor or not, his lines still felt like something Chief would say in the games/books.
 
Does anyone else feels like the showrunners are kinda trolling fans at this point? Like trying to make it abundantly, overwhelming clear that this is the “silver timeline” and it’s gonna be different. Just for the sake of being different?
I don't know as they're trying to make that point to the fans. There's no profit in that; and at the end of the day this is still a business that needs to keep its funding.

I think instead there was some listening to the fans, while trying to ease in changes. They kept Makee but not an entire Makee storyline. You see a shadowy leader here and there. It could be anyone and have the same effect but its not consuming 25 minutes of every episode. They kept Kwan but not a Kwan storyline to consume another 15 minutes of every episode. As a bodyguard to Soren's wife, it could have been any random person but this way they kept the contract with the actor and didn't have to introduce a new person.
[Updated after the eps5 trailer. So much for not keeping the Kwan story line. F**K]

If they're trying to make a point to the fans I think its this: "We heard you and we're course-correcting as hard as we can without totally capsizing."
As a product the show is leaning into being the best they feel they can make while staying true to their original vision and making the fans happy so they can stay in business and thus make more seasons. One look at the money poured into things like the Reach under city for what amounted to 10 mins of footage shows they have good intent and are willing to go all-out. Not everyone will agree with their vision but I don't think anyone can say they aren't putting in 110% into achieving it.

And personally, if this thread is any meter to go by they are winning fans over. First season was nothing but "this show sucks" throughout social media. Now there's people here, on facebook and on Discord talking positively about it. Even saying things like "I wasn't willing to speak up until now because I'd just get bashed down if I said I liked it and now I don't care, I like it dammit". To me it feels like the initial heat of the anti-canon fire is dyeing down, people are being honest that not every game or book in the 25 year history was a masterpiece and there is some room for other in-universe story telling.
 
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I'm trying to like the show. I'm a hardcore reader so I expect the shows and movies that are made "based" on books are more "loosely based" on the books. I started looking at shows being different entities a long time ago. My biggest issue with the TV show is how gosh darn slow it is. The books are action packed, the games are action packed...I just want more action! The few big action scenes we've had have been pretty amazing so why not more?

That all being said, I really would have LOVED to have seen the show lean more into The Fall of Reach. I really enjoyed the backstory of how MC came to be. His time learning, training, and growing with his team was a good story line + the bond he had along with the loss of them all was important to his character arc. There was a lot of great content that could have been used but it was just kinda tossed aside. Anywho...that's my little rant.

Here's to hoping we get more action like Ep4 had.
 
I don't know as they're trying to make that point to the fans. There's no profit in that; and at the end of the day this is still a business that needs to keep its funding.

I think instead there was some listening to the fans, while trying to ease in changes. They kept Makee but not an entire Makee storyline. You see a shadowy leader here and there. It could be anyone and have the same effect but its not consuming 25 minutes of every episode. They kept Kwan but not a Kwan storyline to consume another 15 minutes of every episode. As a bodyguard to Soren's wife, it could have been any random person but this way they kept the contract with the actor and didn't have to introduce a new person.

If they're trying to make a point to the fans I think its this: "We heard you and we're course-correcting as hard as we can without totally capsizing."
As a product the show is leaning into being the best they feel they can make while staying true to their original vision and making the fans happy so they can stay in business and thus make more seasons. One look at the money poured into things like the Reach under city for what amounted to 10 mins of footage shows they have good intent and are willing to go all-out. Not everyone will agree with their vision but I don't think anyone can say they aren't putting in 110% into achieving it.

And personally, if this thread is any meter to go by they are winning fans over. First season was nothing but "this show sucks" throughout social media. Now there's people here, on facebook and on Discord talking positively about it. Even saying things like "I wasn't willing to speak up until now because I'd just get bashed down if I said I liked it and now I don't care, I like it dammit". To me it feels like the initial heat of the anti-canon fire is dyeing down, people are being honest that not every game or book in the 25 year history was a masterpiece and there is some room for other in-universe story telling.
Overall, I am enjoying Season 2 much more, and I agree that they are putting everything into it. I really liked about 95% of Episode 4. I'm mainly referring to the unnecessary deviations from the core canon; i.e. - their Mjolnir missing, Cortana being stolen, and Keys dying. Those are massive shifts, with a ton of ripple effects moving forward.

I enjoyed the scenes, speeches, and scenarios from a story-telling perspective. It just feels like those changes were so massive, and so unnecessary, that it was more of a deliberate effort to further distinguish the show from the established game lore.

Regardless, Season 2 is proving to be much closer to what I was hoping to experience in Season 1. Although, we are 1.5 seasons into Halo, and still no Halo. Lol.
 
. Very good episode tho. I thought it was compelling and exciting and very well done. Anyone who is still mad about continuity needs to get with the program. It's season 2- canon changes should not be a surprise by now.
I don't think the core of the issue is they are changing up continuity, it's the why of it. If you are going to change a story that works you need to have a good reason why, and know where it's going to go with that change. You can rewrite Star Wars where Han is a Jedi (an interesting thought experiment for sure), but then your left trying to figure out what to do with Vadar and the Skywalker family.

If Showtime wants to change all these pivotal moments that are pillars to the Halo/Master Chief story, then why do Halo? That answer can still be Yes, but it needs to be compelling. What is it about these changes to the Halo story that are bringing out new and interesting facets of the existing narrative that are so compelling that they can stand on their own for multiple seasons and be as equally desirable as a more 1/1 adaptation?

If you have watched the Netflix Series of Unfortunate Events adaptation, they address this. From super early on, they make a huge framing change to the narrative (that is total spoilers for the books, so I'll need to be vague) that allowed their adaptation on the story to stand alone, providing something new but still congruent with the source material. From my experience, I wanted to get to the end of that show because I wanted to see what their story had to say about Series of Unfortunate Events.

So, am I mad that Showtime seems to be writing a mostly decent sci-fi super soldier war drama? Nah, it's got its moments, and its budget is on the screen. Am I mad they want to call it Halo and use all of Halo's set dressing? I'm pretty frustrated, because opportunities like this rarely come around (and fantasy/scifi IP fatigue is starting to show in Hollywood, so we are going to start seeing less of it here soon) so I don't want see Halo and its incredible, globally, multi-generational compelling story miss it chance to be told in a new medium with millions of dollars and expert talent to back it.

And I don't have to watch it. But then how do I constructively engage with it?
 
If Showtime wants to change all these pivotal moments that are pillars to the Halo/Master Chief story, then why do Halo?
I COMPLETELY get where you're coming from on this. I was saying nearly the same thing for Star Trek: Discovery. I was screaming at the top of my keyboard about how they destroyed the Klingon species by totally re-imagining it when it wasn't needed at all. When you have the entire universe at your disposal why ruin an existing species? Why not tell the exact same story with a new species or turn all this new perspective on a species not yet explored like the Kazon or Nausicaan?

My personal opinion on this... Its good business. When a production company has to make 50 million fans watch the show to get the budget to keep going - you use what already exists to hook them. In the case of Trek and the Klingons, I also say its because that production team can't create anything new and don't have enough confidence in their own creations to stand behind what they make. Because they did have the option of an existing franchise of dedicated fanbase and only had to use a species other than Klingon. Halo didn't have that option: They had to make the whole new show from scratch.

In the case of Halo - if they told the same story with an all new show, all new background, all new enemy, all new everything... I would have died at the end of season 1 just like a ton of other new sci-fi that doesn't make it out of the gate. Firefly was amazing and gained a cult-following status only after it died with only 13 episodes. Sci-fi is like the restaurant business: 80% of new startups fail in 12 months.

But, if you can plug in to an exist fan base... Even if you stir the pot... ESPECIALLY if you stir the pot and create a huge amount of free social media advetising then you get exactly what you said:

> And I don't have to watch it. But then how do I constructively engage with it?
Bam, you're a viewer whether you like it or not.
 
> And I don't have to watch it. But then how do I constructively engage with it?
Bam, you're a viewer whether you like it or not.
Oh, I am totally aware of the "good" business choices at work here. But I figure that's a whole other off topic essay worth of thoughts, and I'm already capping out on the amount of grace this forum has offered me :lol:.
 
absolute radicalness:


dont wory guys the show can still be accurate to halo ce!1!!11
keyes survives because he is resistant to fire because he is already hot. then keys comes to the pillar of autum and suddenly the autum is broken into by elits!111111 !! one of the elites ar isa nosolee the invisibl guy in the book! so then the the autum takes of and then they attackd by arbiber (the thel vadameee guy) and then the series continues to folow the game story!!!1111! (massive amounts of hopium)
 
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absolute radicalness:


dont wory guys the show can still be accurate to halo ce!1!!11
keyes survives because he is resistant to fire because he is already hot. then keys comes to the pillar of autum and suddenly the autum is broken into by elits!111111 !! one of the elites ar isa nosolee the invisibl guy in the book! so then the the autum takes of and then they attackd by arbiber (the thel vadameee guy) and then the series continues to folow the game story!!!1111! (massive amounts of hopium)
So, everyone else in this thread is having a mature, respectful discussion of this series, even if their personal feelings don't agree. In the future could you please respect and maintain that tone?
 
I think I missed something and I kinda pride myself on getting the details...
Cobalt team and Visagrad. There was a flight plan. They flew there. The phrase was **ON** Visagrad.
And then... Suddenly... Covenant is on Reach.
At what point did we go from the covenant being on another planet to this assumption/realization that they were on Reach-Where did that happen? (And talking like Visagrad is a station on Reach versus another planet?)
 
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Visegrad was a comms relay on Reach right? They hit the cons relay in a sneaky deaky attack first just like episode 1 (of s2). That hit was training for the one on Reach. I think that is where the arbiter and makee were stealing the big artifact from but I'm not super sure why it was being kept at a coms relay now that I say it out loud.
 
Visegrad was a comms relay on Reach right? They hit the cons relay in a sneaky deaky attack first just like episode 1 (of s2). That hit was training for the one on Reach. I think that is where the arbiter and makee were stealing the big artifact from but I'm not super sure why it was being kept at a coms relay now that I say it out loud.
Visegrad is village/town/area on Reach that had a communications relay.
The Coms relay hit in the opening episode was training for the one on Reach, located in the Visegrad region.

The artifact wasn't stored at the coms relay, rather the coms relay was taken down so that the UNSC's communications would be disrupted and Makee and her strike Team could more easily infiltrate to where it was stored, which I thought was SWORD base, without anyone being able to raise the alarm as well as the Covenant being able to stage an overall attack on and invasion of Reach without the UNSC being able to mount an effective counter attack or defense because their communications were down.
 
I can get that the artifact was hidden in a place that it shouldn't be. The most secure armory makes sense-That's why you don't use it. Instead hide it in the walk in freezer at the steak house and keep the restaraunt filled with your people in plain clothes.

What I'm having issues reconsolcing is...
A flight path through multiple star systems to get to a comms relay on the planet you're already on.
I guess I go rewatch the scene.
-------------
UPDATE
Ok. My bad. I confused the scene. 117 is looking through lots of flight paths trying to find Cobalt.
Flight path... scan... flight path... scan... flight path... scan...
Then he find the unidentified team on an unknown mission, on Reach at the comms relay.

I just combined it all in my head to: A flight path that found Cobalt.
Snag_17dda371.png


I now return you to your regularly schedule insanity.
 
So, everyone else in this thread is having a mature, respectful discussion of this series, even if their personal feelings don't agree. In the future could you please respect and maintain that tone?
I apologize for that it was a small joke I thought was funny.
 
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