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This topic has moved here: Subject: Halo as a Christian Allegory
  • Subject: Halo as a Christian Allegory
Subject: Halo as a Christian Allegory

I appreciate your concern, JKuberFAIL but you need to understand that I'm calling Halo a Christian ALLEGORY. In other words, I'm in no way directly related the Halo universe (including Master Chief as a Christ figure) to the Bible. Now THAT would indeed be blasphemy! Rather, I'm making comparisons between the Chief and Christ in ways that I feel are fairly obvious and intended by the creators of the game. I'm certainly reading into it a bit, but the analogy stands more or less on the basics. And the Chief is SPECIAL, JKuberFAIL, make no mistake about it. The game doesn't beat around the bush when saying that the Chief is THE savior of the universe and the one that Cortana chose specifically for the epic task at hand. Spartan program or not, John 117 is the central focus of the Halo universe (thus far) and that fact shouldn't be overlooked just because of the expanding media of the universe.

  • 07.13.2010 8:47 PM PDT

1/19/2009 5:41 PM: Duardo [94371] sent a warning to this user.
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SO WHY STOP THERE?

This comparison just opens a can of worms. Seeing Halo from this (obvious) perspective actually degrades it a little, ya know? Meaning that once again, people can't come up with an original idea. Why, because they haven't been exposed to any other.

You see, all information is serial. Depending on how broad ones perspective is, there is no such thing as creativity. Because we take what we know and rearrange it in different ways until it has a new, shiny finish.

Even the myths from the monotheistic Abrahamic religions share much commonality in their stories with many other polytheistic predecessors.

  • 07.14.2010 8:14 PM PDT

Nice one Bro!!!

  • 07.16.2010 5:50 PM PDT

Posted by: Zee JollyRoger
Posted by: Adam 36O
With the many talented, diverse, and dynamic people that work for Bungie I'm sure it would impossible to NOT find allegorical type stories in their works. It just makes their games that much better.

A great game or story can be interpreted in many ways and I am sure many allegories can be "unearthed," from Halo. Nice job on your version. :)


This is true. I always enjoy pondering about the Halo Universe and seeing how parallels can be drawn comparing what's happening today and what happened in the past. All this makes the story a little more important to me. Heck, it even makes the games that more interesting to play through.

Also, it's sad to see a very neutral thread like this (where the OP is in no way forcing any opinion and only culling discussion, really) receive so many flames. If you disagree with the OP, then please post the parallels that you find accurate. Honestly, this the OP was very successful at keeping his post very neutral and stating that it was what he thought. If you don't like his opinion, don't post at all. This thread does NOT deserve flames as the discussion is rather intelligent and on topic.

Great thread, OP.

  • 07.18.2010 2:49 PM PDT

No Christian allegories. Ever.

  • 07.19.2010 3:14 AM PDT

Posted by: artist2nv
KILLING AND RAPING MY XBOX DOESNT IMPROVE MY MATHS TEST RESULTS!!!

Noble Team's symbol is similar to the Freemason eye and pyramid on the $1 bill.

  • 07.19.2010 4:05 AM PDT
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-Bungie Follower and Supporter, Jakey

I would write something really long as a response to this, but I'm almost positive there is no way I could.

Like the OP said, there is no way to be sure that Halo is written off the bible, and Christianity, but it really does line up fairly well.

Great job writing this, and I will keep this in mind.

  • 07.19.2010 5:41 AM PDT

You summed it up quite nicely. Very nice job.

Spartan 117 - Revelations 117

Spartan 117 - John - The book of John.

There are a ton of little things you could pay attention to that would point to christ. Those 2 are basic.

  • 07.25.2010 11:04 PM PDT

Bite the bullet .

i think christians as the good guys.

  • 07.25.2010 11:41 PM PDT

Bite the bullet .

what does bungie have to say about this? did they create the halo story relative to the bible?

  • 07.25.2010 11:43 PM PDT
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The legendary ending for Halo 4 is Masturcheef and Arby making love.

Good,well written thread.Must have took you a while to write this.
Huh...I've never looked at Halo at this point,but why would Bungie make a plot from Christianity? I'm not a religion hater,but it just seems weird if you look at the plot this way.

  • 07.26.2010 12:47 PM PDT

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Posted by: V4V3ndetta
i think christians as the good guys.


I think people are the 'good' guys and dogmatic ideologies are the 'bad'.

  • 07.26.2010 6:34 PM PDT

My apologies, but I fail to see the relationship between the Covenant and the Catholic church. Cr4sh Dummy's cas made more sense to me.

  • 07.26.2010 8:26 PM PDT

1/19/2009 5:41 PM: Duardo [94371] sent a warning to this user.
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Posted by: AI carsaib
This thread does NOT deserve flames as the discussion is rather intelligent and on topic.


If by flames you mean criticism, then I would have to disagree. EVERYTHING deserves criticism especially dogmatic ideologies. It seems faith is the only thing not criticized these days and that is to bad.

Anyway, back on topic, I was going to say that the story of John 117 is an allegorical representation of Joseph from the old testament. As he was an allegory of Jesus.

Of course, one doesn't have to stop there. If we look at pre-christian predecessors like Mithra, Attis, Krishna and Dionysus we can find the similarities there as well.

Sad to say it is hard to be 'original' these days for all information is serial. If someone were to come with something truly original, it would fail dramatically because no one would be able to associate with it at all.

So, in the end, you don't want to be original, you want to be just new enough.

  • 07.28.2010 10:44 AM PDT

I am a practicing traditional Catholic.


Posted by: V4V3ndetta
what does bungie have to say about this? did they create the halo story relative to the bible?


Yes indeed. I'm sure if you'd like I could find the interview in which they say this.


JOIN THE SANGHEILI REVOLUTION AND PREPARE THIS WORLD FOR THEIR CONTROL!

[Edited on 07.29.2010 9:04 AM PDT]

  • 07.29.2010 9:01 AM PDT

I am a practicing traditional Catholic.

I would like to point out to all those users who keep saying that Christians just "find the faith in what they want" that Bungie themselves have confirmed back in older days that Halo was at it's core a Biblical allegory and that Bungie are "religous guys". So I think if Bungie have given us a confirmation we should be inclined to believe what the makers of the game say (the same as we should believe our maker when he tells us that he exists and is the God of the christians)

JOIN THE SANGHEILI REVOLUTION AND PREPARE THIS WORLD FOR THEIR CONTROL!

[Edited on 07.29.2010 9:16 AM PDT]

  • 07.29.2010 9:03 AM PDT

-Squishy-

Very, very well written.

  • 07.29.2010 12:33 PM PDT

Again, I'd like to thank you guys for keeping the constructive criticism alive and well. It's good to hear things from both sides. I'd like to note that Bungie has indeed been quoted as saying that Halo intentionally alludes to allegorical Biblical material, and that it was influenced by "religious guys" on the team (as mentioned in a post above). Even if you aren't buying every single thing about the post (which is totally justifiable and understandable, we all have our own viewpoints) you shouldn't overlook the obvious: the Western World has been greatly influenced by Christianity. Christian allegories are a huge part of our culture and are a huge part of all kinds of media whether we realize it or not. So while Bungie may not be entirely "original", it's only natural that they reflect on Christianity in their epic work, as such reflections have been made for centuries in our culture. Anyways, just a thought. Thanks again, guys!

  • 08.01.2010 8:02 PM PDT

Halo 3: Lone Wolves - 44
Team Slayer - 38
Team Doubles - 46
Team Snipers - 25
MLG - 20
Team SWAT - 28
Halo: Reach: Brigadier Grade 2 - 73% Armory Completion

There's not much I can do to argue this other than say: everything you just said is coincidence. So, I'll do just that.

You were looking for these connections. Thus, you were able to make them. You can connect something to theoretically anything else in our known universe if you do the right research.

I can respect all the work you did and the effort you put into your hypothesis but, I will not be giving it a second glance entirely for the reason stated earlier, it is all coincidence.

  • 08.05.2010 3:27 AM PDT
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Don't scream, it will only make me laugh.

Wow. We expected you to get ripped apart for this topic but you did an absurdly amazing job.


Read the whole thing and all we can say is
Well Done Brother...

However, we see the Covenant more resembling the Catholics, and the Humans resembling the Christians... and before we start a storm, the two are not the same. Simply look at the history. Truly look at it, Catholocism was started by a Roman leader. Christianity was started by Christ and his apostles whom he ordained as leaders of the Church.

(We subtracted some of the quote to fit in our own post, sorry)

[Edited on 08.05.2010 11:33 PM PDT]

  • 08.05.2010 11:28 PM PDT

Blah.

Oddly enough, this guy isnt the first person to notice this, i have witnessed past threads of people figuring out that most of halo, can literally be compared to the bible, or religious things. My favorite of them all: Cortana is the name of some Angels sword. :D

  • 08.06.2010 12:04 AM PDT

Im a Christian, and while Ive thought about this quite a bit, you thoughts are very... interesting. I always knew that there was a connection between Christianity and Halo, but Ive never given it in depth thought.

Very nice OP, well thought you and well written. Id give you a 10 if I could, but would you settle for a cookie?


Btw, thread saved.

  • 08.06.2010 12:45 AM PDT

I am a practicing traditional Catholic.

Nice to see this discussion is still thriving. You really hit on something hear Adam.

JOIN THE SANGHEILI REVOLUTION AND PREPARE THIS WORLD FOR THEIR CONTROL!

  • 08.12.2010 1:16 AM PDT

very well said but I would like to disagree, only on the grounds that the last thing I want are peoples religions getting mixed up into my sci-fi xD so I will make my attemps to believe that :P

oh ya by the way, china wants its wall back

  • 08.12.2010 1:38 AM PDT

Hehe, well don't let me rob you of the enjoyment of this amazing Sci-fi universe. While there may be some interesting connections to relgions and past events, I still believe that Halo universe stands very well on it's own and has a lot more potential to be tapped and used. I also believe, however, that there are far too many references to Christianity and religion in general to be considered mere "coincidence". No way does Bungie mention the "Flod", the "Covenant", and the "Ark" all in the same storyline and not intend at least some sort of a reference. I'm not saying they're getting into everything that I mentioned, I just enjoyed digging a little deeper. Just something to think about, so don't hang on my every word and I hope you gain a little insight on the storyline as a whole.

  • 08.13.2010 1:34 PM PDT