- OrderedComa
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RussianSpartan, Ninjakenzin, PlasmaPrestige, and all of the usual suspects have got everything absolutely right. They nailed exactly why Glasslands Trilogy is an awful mess when it comes to the rest of the Halo lore, story and universe.
Posted by: Wolverfrog
Veiwpoints and Forcing
Whether someone accepts the views being presented or not, it still doesn't change whether it's forcing readers to think one way and forcing their views onto everyone. If I wrote a Halo book where the UNSC were treated as outright being evil and the Covenant are the good guys, and nothing to say otherwise is at all presented...that's still forcing my point of view onto readers, even if they know otherwise. Traviss isn't simply presenting another point of view (otherwise she'd actually have people putting up effort to support Halsey or stand against her sermon preaching self-inserts), the other side simply doesn't completely vanish and have no mentions or appearances when changing to a different perspective.
Yes, actually, Traviss, or any writer, does need to include at least a token of the other perspective in order to keep things balanced within the story. Nylund's novels gave us Colonel Ackerson, we saw why he didn't like Halsey and countering the other views we had...fiction needs balances or the characters and story just gets flat and boring. You can't just provide the persepctives of the main character and treat them as fact, you need to show other ways to view people. Like in Harry Potter for instance, from Harry's perspective, Draco is viewed as completely evil for pretty much the entire series (as well as the other Malfoys, though there's more grounds for them to be viewed that way) and Snape is viewed very negatively as well, but we're presented with other ways to view them either through someone else's memories in the pensieve, or any number of other situations. We learn that Harry's perceptions of the people around him aren't entirely accurate or the truth....that is not something we get from Traviss when it comes to Halsey, it's all "Halsey's evil, hate her" all the time and nothing else.
I don't think anyone is saying that the opposing view needs to have a point of view character...all that needs doing is talking about these groups or mentioning how widespread they are, or even having minor characters who show these opinions that Traviss has Telcam, or more likely Jul, interact with freqently. But she has the same problem as with Halsey...none of this is shown at all or even mentioned, instead we get shown every single Elite, even those on the side of the Arbiter, hate humans and want to kill them all off. As I said before, when writing a believable story, you need more than just one side of something represented in it.
Spartan IIIs, Characters, and Traviss' Writing
Too bad, because the IIIs are exactly the same average in terms of strength levels as the Spartan IIs. The only differences in terms of strength is not having their amplified by Mjolnir. Personally the scene where Halseys gets punched isn't really a big deal to me for that reason, I take issue with it because of the general and overall error of misrepresenting Halsey's character and making it into something it isn't. Punch killing vs not killing is not something I really care about. Not being able to lift an Engineer however is stupid. It means Lucy can't even lift or shift her own weight...which is absolutely ridiculous for an augmented super soldier...or hell, even for a normal soldier!
As for Star Wars, I don't think the issue is killing off a major character, at least that's not really what I'd take issue with, the issue, for me personally at least, is killing off a character that wasn't hers without even consulting him or asking about it. If I was hired to write an expanded universe novel for some series, I would never kill of another author's character unless they specifically said I could. From who I've talked to, The Game of Thrones series actually suffers from his killing off so many characters, the way it was described to me was just killing for the sake of killing and it all came off as feeling cheap and just not serving any purpose. In fiction you want to avoid killing off to many main characters or characters...do it too many times and death becomes cheap and provokes a response more or less of "oh look, someone died again", that's also one of the flaws with the Harry Potter series, most of the characters who die do it pointlessly and it just felt cheap and contrived.
Buckell is actually one of the better Halo writers, Cole Protocol is one of the best there is in the series. And yes, every book has something that is a flaw in it...however, none of them are outright ignoring, blatantly changing, or anything else Traviss has done that doesn't fit with the lore just because they wanted to. They all did their research and made sure things fit....none of which Traviss has done. That's why her books in Halo are a problem. There's nothing wrong with her actual writing (from a formula and structure standpoint), merely her portrayal of the universe and story. Whatever Nylund may have been lacking in, he at least stayed true to the lore and didn't change things as he wanted to just because it was his preference.
Posted by: RobertoJH
Seriously, go read all of the earlier books again, most especially The Fall of Reach. I really can't stress this enough: HALSEY. DID. NOT. CREATE. THE. SPARTANS. ON. HER. OWN!!!!! ONI and those within the actual command structure of the UNSC were the ones who came up with the program, and they went to Halsey and asked her to lead up the project. This was not something she started all by herself and then told the UNSC about, or something she came up with and proposed to the UNSC. Are you really that out of touch with the lore that you think she created the Spartans all on her own with no authorization or anything from ONI or High Command within the UNSC?
And really? You think the clones could have been used? This was also talked about in TFoR, and you seem to be ignoring or forgotten, flash-cloning a whole human does not work, it's beyond their capabilities, organs and things on a small scale can be flash-cloned just fine...a full clone of a whole human though, it won't work, it can't sustain itself and the cloned human degenerates and develops problems that eventually kill it of natural causes. They weren't something Halsey engineered to die, it was something that couldn't be helped. And the whole reason Parangosky did anything concerning Halsey is purely simple, petty spite and hatred. She has absolutely no legitimate grounds for imprisoning Halsey or anyone, that is not within ONI's legal parameters or rights. That lies with the UNSC and UEG.
There is no other alternative but that is what she wants (audience to hate Halsey), that is the only view we are presented with, none of the Spartans stick up for Halsey, Mendez doesn't do anything but tear at Halsey (which is out of character and not how he thinks of the Doc), Hood doesn't do or say anything about it (Thursday War pretty much blatantly states he knows what Parangosky has been getting up to in regards to Halsey). And how Halsey herself was portrayed from her own perspective and from overall portrayal in general...Traviss wanted the audience to follow her position and view Halsey as the worst, most evil monster in human history. Asking questions or reading a wikipedia entry isn't enough, that's not proper research of a series. Playing the games and reading the books in addition to asking questions is...and Traviss did not do that, all she did was ask, she has outright stated she refuses to read the books, play the games, or watch the movies of the series that she is writing for, whatever is applicable.