- the real Janaka
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- Exalted Heroic Member
Haters are going to hate.
Praisers are going to praise.
The Bungie Forums are what keeps my mind sharp and my fingers active, between writing my own movie scripts, drawing, and studying industrial design. At the moment I'm working on miniatures for a short movie that I'll hopefully be able to film once I've saved up for a camera... That's me, with the mug, trying to have a conversation with Konoko.
Hmm, I'm a bit reluctant to post my answer to many of the fine responses this thread has received, cause I'm worried that it'll all appear as yet another bash on Halo post Bungie, since if I am to defend my feelings about the original trilogy being enough to tell the core story, I'll have to point out the reasons for why I don't think it's necesary to expand anymore... But here it goes:
Many of your points actually are awnsered by the games.Posted by: ajw34307
How did John get back to Earth?Ah yes, the gaps between the games are a bit abrupt; they don't exactly flow into each other. But I still don't think an entire book is the answer for that. Speaking of "galaxy-hopping", that is kind of what the books describing the events between the games ended up being, although not vague, but super detailed (going back to Reach and rescuing CASTLE Base, the Unyielding Hierophant). The problem lies with the games, they should have tied into each other better. Seeing as the mistake has been made however, I wouldn't argue that the books have handled those gaps particularily well, even though they featured tons of cool stuff. What happened before Halo CE?Harvest didn't respond, the UNSC sent a fleet--to investigate--of which only one ship made it back, and when the Covenant invaded Reach, the Pillar of Autumn made a blind jump (Instructions Manual). It's not very detailed, but it's answered none the less. Which was the point of the thread; does the core story work within the games(?). Why is Johnson alive?This is one of the parts where the games fall short, and I'm not sure I could live without the "uneven elephant" quote.. Why do the Covenant want to kill us anyway? Was Halo 2 that boring? Also, manual + Conversations From the Universe.What went on in the month-long time gap between Halo 2 and 3?Same as before. If nothing happened, why spend anything on it? Unless one decides to come up with an elaborate side-story... What's all this about Forerunners? I hate to say this, but they were supposed to be mysterious... Even so, we have learned a lot about them, the problem is only that most people don't seem to be able to take things for granted whatsoever, they don't seem to get any satisfaction unless a question is answered on a meta level, have it confirmed by Frankie, or whatever, even though one really can't interpret most of the things in more than a couple of ways.
A couple of things we have learned about the Forerunner: Five or six fingers? (is the panel made so that five-fingered beings are able access it with either left and right hand, or has it changed just for the Chief?). Seriously, in how many ways is it logical to interpret this particular detail? I for one react in the complete opposite way: have everything completely unvailed and I'll fall asleep.
The door size: they can't be bigger that their doors.. Ops..
Their architecture tells a lot about their top teir ranks. Form follows function, less is more, efficiency; they rely on basic physical atributes rather than elaborate endeavours, etc.
I can't even begin to stess enough how much of the story the multiplayer levels from Halo 3 are able to tell, if you're able to make something out a the vague stuff.
The story of the Didact and the Librerian: Tells us that, even though they were highy intellectual, they were still bound by emotions, very much like human beings. They even had to program powerfull A.I.s to make the hard decisions. Their entire culture, way of life, beilief in the Mantle, was hypocritical, etc.
Multiplayer map descriptions, Terminals. They give us a pretty good view of who the are/were. Especially this picture. Yes, it is completely based on assumption, but why assume something else that isn't strengthened by other vague clues? Cause that's the point really, the more time one devotes to investigating all the small, vague details, the more rewarded one will feel.
From the Gravemind we learned: a lot of story-specific poetry.
When 4, 5, 6, and yet another trilogy of books is released, and all questions are answered, then what? I definitelly don't think that the Forerunner were undefined.There would just be too many unanswered questions IMO, enough to make Halo 3's story seem more like a badly structured fanfic than it already does.I've seen this sentiment here and there, but I've never read a detailed description of why. A lot would be unanswered, left with little light shone on, but I think it was left in a rather atmospheric state of illumination, opposed to bloom.Posted by: Spartan1995324
Posted by: ajw34307
This.
Without it, Halo is basically Battle LA. Random aliens attacking for no reason.You are definitely underestimating how much the games were able to tell.Posted by: Wolverfrog
"I'm initiating the Cole Protocol; Article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana. Destruction or capture of a shipboard A.I is absolutely unacceptable." ~ Keyes, The Pillar of Autumn.Thanks! I knew I was being lazy when I decided to post without at least watching the cutscenes on youtube.. It is however sad that nothing about the flash-cloned-brain-A.I. lore made it into the games. Makes me wonder from where idea originated; if it was Nylund himself or if Bungie had given him that information. The only previous occurrence that is a bit similar from Bungies side that I can think of is the Deadly Brain, from Oni (must refresh my Marathon memory).Posted by: ajw34307
What does the 'A' stand for?Nice, that almost proves on its own that Cortana and her origin should have been fleshed out a bit.Posted by: MAC Blast
If there was no FS, Halo 2 would probably have started different, probably with the UNSC picking up John or another character expositing about the events between the gamesThis is a really good point. If it weren't for the books, if they didn't carry the heavy load, there might have been a lot of blatant exposition in the games.Posted by: AH4L
I think if you were to throw in Halo: Reach, yes, the games would be enough to tell the story.I'm wondering, what do you think Reach (the game) added to the core story?Posted by: Uriel S167That's fairly similar to what I think.If there is anything that the games can't be without, it's their virals.
[Edited on 09.28.2012 5:11 AM PDT]