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I realize the mistake I have been making.
I had en epiphany...
I thought it out...and I realized...that in my previous posts, I have been analyzing the events like a normal and rational human being would.
Yes...this is it.
Let's forget the books for 2 seconds here and look at the story laid out by Halo Wars, Halo Reach, Halo 1, 2, ODST, and 3.
I HAVE played all of these games, contrary to many baseless assumptions otherwise, I have played the games. We know how they play out. We have all seen it.
I am going to continue my thesis about how the Elites were the WRONG choice for human allies on the premis that Brutes had more reason, in reality, to defect, than the Elites.
Here is why:
Remember, forget the book for 2 seconds. We are going to look at this as rational human beings...because we all know...nerd rage canon dogma...negates rational thought.
Alright, lets look at the Elites:
-They are akin to mass murderers and genocidal killers.
-They are directly responsible for all the killing.
-They oppress other races and bound them as underlings.
-They mercilessly enforce religion with killing.
In human context, the Elites are like SS officers, Slavers, and the Spanish Inquisition...all rolled into one. These are three of the darkest, most evil, aspects of human nature, all personified by the Elites.
Alright, lets look at the Brutes:
-They are carnivores, clearly.
-They devoutly follow a religion, which is oppressing them.
-They are a naive, childlike race. Adopted by another civilization.
-They currently parallel many human plights (read an earlier post to elaborate on this)
From what I can tell...Brutes are guilty of one crime, and that is devoutly following a religion. They are, essentially, religious people in the most basic state.
Furthermore, in Halo 2, they were the only race without armor. Now, before anyone says "clan this" and "rules that"...I want to make it clear, we are ignoring the books for now, and all that schlock that was written. The message my brain picked up when I first saw Brutes with no armor, was Brutes were at the bottom of the caste system. They were being oppressed. Even Grunts had armor. I think Brutes had a shoulder pad and a belt...and some of them had metal hats, but it certainly wasn't Covenant equipment and it certainly wasn't good equipment.
Another point, they had no liberties to exercise. While the Elites had representation on the council, the brutes didn't. They were not even represented in an official Government capacity. Sure, they had Tartarus to speak for them, but he had no observable political pull, that we could see, in Halo 2.
I sympathize with the Brutes, not because of what someone writing a book says, but because I recognize the reality of their plight, in spite of the lack of common sense and rational human thought that went into writing the story. They were not treated fairly. Any rational human being, who was playing the games, and not reading these books, would see that Elites, for all their evil connotations, were being glorified.
When I first played Halo 2, I was glad to see the Arbiter get pushed off a cliff. To me, that was someone who was oppressed, killing his slave master. And yes, I see Elites as slave masters, because they lead the military, they have the authority, and they carry out punishment that the slave owner orders.
But see...Halo 2 is where the story broke down. Its where common sense was abandoned. It is when the observable facts of the Elites and Brutes were ignored. Why would the humans ally with their executioners? Did anyone writing the story stop and think about this? If you say "Well...the Elites had a mutual enemy." I would say one of two things: either "Tyrannical mass murders cannot be trusted" (as seen by Germany betraying Russian in WW2...because I have drawn many parallels between the Elites and the Germans of the WW2 era) OR "The humans have nothing in common with the Elites, and commonality is a good thing to have when making friends"
See what I mean? Both brutes and Humans were being oppressed. They had something in common.
Common sense is key to story-writing, because its lets normal people, like you and I, accept the story and what is going on. If a story has no common sense, we become detached from what is going on. When you become detached, you begin to accept the schlock the illogical story begins to throw at you. You lose the ability to analyze what is going on, to see whats going on under the schlock, because, hey...you are accepting schlock at this point...you don't need to think for yourself.
These books are also guilty of force feeding us even more schlock, based on the schlock that was given to us in Halo 2. These books glorify the Elites in all their cruelty and malice while condemning Brutes because they devoutly follow a religion.
My appreciation for the Brutes comes from my own analysis of their plight and difficulties, primarily seen in Halo 2. I call the story schlock because...in reality...I would much rather ally myself with an oppressed religious person, instead of a genocidal mass murderer.
The only reason people say "Brutes would have been terrible allies" Is because they are regurgitating facts from schlock books. When the alliances were being drawn in Halo 2, had the story writers thought about what they had established up to that point, they would have realized that the Elites were the wrong choice for allies. The only reasons Brutes are "savage" and "violent" is because someone writing books wanted to depreciate the nature of the antagonists. They were easy targets. It was a cheap shot. Writers capitalized on the fact brutes look evil, and they were mean, and they ate people, they were the bad guys...they capitalized on this fact to depreciate them and dish out a fan service.
You people who quote books non-stop...you accept this, without thinking about why it was written this way.
I like Brutes because of my own reasoning, and not what other people want me to think. To be frank...I would be damned if I ever considered mass murderers acceptable allies.