Halo: Season Two

[Sapphire Guard]

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Fortunately, the Covenant forgot to bring any ranged weapons to the invasion of Reach. So instead they just run into the teeth of gunfire with their laser swords. The Fall of Reach is probably not supposed to be funny, but the action is just Covenant charging machine guns with swords and somehow winning.

And that one poor Elite is not given any weapons at all and just assigned to punching people while invisible duty. They shell the city randomly, but not Fleetcom.

Did the show get a budget cut in season 2? The action has really gone downhill to generic war movie stuff. I can appreciate a style switch, but they need to orchestrate it better than this.

This show is just baffling. The production values are good, the performances are good, the characterisations are mostly consistent, but the fundamental creative decisions are bafflingly awful at every turn.

I've never played a Halo game. I don't care about the helmet. It's far more fundamental than that.

Ackerman takes critical assets with him, but leaves behind Cortana, who knows everything that humanity knows, as established in Season 1. Losing her means losing everything, it's massively out of character as well as generally idiotic. You could very easily make him be antagonistic and also make sense (for instance, he holds all the Spartans on Reach instead of on missions, which would have them all distrusting, only for the real reason to be he wants them there for the attack)

The core plot is badly thought out political maneovering that doesn't make sense, because most of it is family drama masquerading as political maneuvering. Kwan wants independent Madrigal, but only cares about it because her father did. Miranda wanted to one up Halsey, because she feels neglected by her mom. Ackerman dislikes Halsey and the Spartans... because he lost his sister to them. Jacob and Halsey and their relationship with the Spartans is more family drama than military rivalry.

Makee is leading the invasion force... for some reason. She;s useful as a human than can blend in and for touching artifacts, why does she have military command?

John's plot is 'why won't anyone believe me', it's like, the worst choice. There's a whole arc about 'what are you when you're not a soldier', only for the answer to be 'massacred by the Covenant.'

It's not because I'm wedded to Halo lore, all of this is silly even within the show as presented.

[Errorname]

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Makee is leading the invasion force... for some reason. She;s useful as a human than can blend in and for touching artifacts, why does she have military command?

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Oh no, is she still in this? She was a bad idea of a character and I hadn't even considered they might keep her around after her death in the first season.

[Sapphire Guard]

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The character is, she might be a clone. Honestly, it makes some sense, she can activate artifacts, the Covenant would want to keep her alive.

Although this does mean the same is true for John, so he's the last person ONI should want to be rid of.

I somewhat retract my earlier comment re kill death ratio, the character is referring to an in universe game called Spartan Attack, although it's still a really silly comment, on seeing a giant military person to immediately ask for their kdr in Call of Duty still doesn't make sense.

[NeptunianOM]

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I am 2 episodes behind right now but I have to say, season 2 has been really fun. It definitely feels like they are building towards Season 3 being the plot of Halo 1.

[Errorname]

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I am 2 episodes behind right now but I have to say, season 2 has been really fun. It definitely feels like they are building towards Season 3 being the plot of Halo 1.

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Hilarious that it's gonna take them two entire seasons to get to the point where the games (correctly) began telling their story

[Sapphire Guard]

Spoiler: Season 2

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The great covenant ranged weapon shortage continues.

The story has a major theme problem, because the show themes are all about 'no one gets left behind, everyone matters, no one is expendable' but at every turn, the main characters save other main characters and leave non main characters behind.

Riz saves Vannik's body, but doesn't bring any marines. Chief makes a big deal about all the marines being left to die, but he didn't save any either.

The Flood politely doesn't infect any of our lead characters, including Miranda, the person most directly exposed to them. Sure is lucky that her lab has no biosecurity measures. Everyone in the prison block is infected except Ackerson, Kessler and Quan.

Soren saves his own child from the Spartan program, but leaves all the others behind. His wife and Halsey get infected after a suitably dramatic delay. Halsey is the sole survivor of the bridge for some reason. Chief tries to save the Spartans, but they are all dead except the ones he personally knows, and Perez' friend Mullins.

Everything else is good, except all the creative decisions.