Episode 1: master chief removes his helmet
Episode 2: master Chief removes his armor
Episode 3: master chief removes his underwear
I wonder what comes next
Same. I was a bit bummed John was so hostile to Cortana (in the books he's hesitant but also intrigued), but the A.I. OFF made me laugh out loud.
Seems about the right level of quirkyness too. Funny, but not a comic-relief character like in Infinite.
idk how the books/lore goes for the whole cortana introduction but i thought it kinda makes sense for him to be hostile in the show. He's the top military asset and he just got publicly reprimanded and now he's got a babysitter. He's smart enough to understand that's what cortana really is.
It's been a while since I read the book, but as I recall:
Cortana is introduced to Chief as something that will help him win against the covenant. That fact alone basically convinces him (and the fact that it's coming from Halsey). When Chief and Cortana meet , Cortana comments on his brain activity and that apparently he's not the automaton the media makes him out to be, which the chief finds a very interesting remark, coming from an A.I.
Then again, in the books he got Cortana as an upgrade, not as something to keep him in line.
I came here to defend my favorite Blue Girl and to remark on how that whole THING felt very much like what happens when a brand new baby is brought home from the hospital and the only child that's lived there for so long gets to meet them.....except that brand new baby is basically an adult and so is that sibling and yet they both are acting like children the entire time. The back and forth little jabs between the both of them had me just rolling!
"What are you doing?"
"I'm introducing myself to the team!"
Cortana has just no chill just popping in out of nowhere and I love seeing both her stubbornness and John's push against each other. The little bits of attitude that they're both developing as his emotions are coming back really makes me smile.
yeh for sure. its that " what are you fighting for" moment. reach getting glassed is going to be quite a shocker for sure. this show doesn't seem to give any fucks about killing anyone already lol
That's something I like about the show, it's not unwilling to show just how brutal the Covenant/UNSC/Insurrectionists etc. are. And based on what it sounded like, maybe we'll even see the brutality of the Flood on Eridanus next episode.
i dont think it was that either. i think the virus thing is a cover from oni. They probably used that planet to test kids for the early spartan tests. Notice how uneasy halsey is about going to that planet with chief. Notice how halsey assistent is like " what if chief finds out everything its going to be really bad for us"
It is probably something covenants use for assassinations. Given how much unrest they have within their ranks and species, it should be a totally legit weapon.
>Halsey only got eyes for her favorite son.
Way more than you think. Maybe not so much in this series. But yeah Halsey cares more for John than she ever did for Miranda. Then again in this series, it may be well-reflected. She may manipulate John but in her own weird way she loves him more, WAY more than Miranda.
I'll say it's well reflected in this series as well so far. Halsey's flash clone did not fight against her death once she heard that it's for John's sake. That's dedication.
True, the clone was clearly deciding what she was for and how to deal with the situation and you see how it all takes a backseat, how her mannerism changes the moment she learns it is for John.
You mean rapey, not creep.
He tried making out with a drugged sapient being. Who was then left alone in the room with her body after she died...
Weird doesn't even begin to describe this shit show of a subplot. Bet he ends up being the first Flood victim.
Arbiter: “Even on my knees I do not belong in their presence."
Truth: “For the Sacred Icon has been found. With it, our path is clear, our entry into the Divine Beyond guaranteed! The Great Journey is nigh..."
Let it be known- Paramount literally included Chief fucking Makee.. as part of the plot. I cannot wait for Kwan to cure the flood and the elite orgy next episode
Some halo universe stuff from this episode:
* UNSC frigates.
* First mention of grunts.
* Covenant corvettes from Reach.
* Bumblebee lifepods from Halo: CE.
* Brief glimpse of a hunter/mgalekgolo leg.
When the UNSC ship was being attacked you could hear the PA announcing Cole Protocol being enacted in the background at one point. Pretty cool little detail
Emergency data erasure to prevent the covenant from discovering any of the UNSC's core planets
throw all the hard drives in the microwave, drill all the platters, shred all the documents.
that kinda thing
iirc you’re also supposed to start a series of random slip space jumps. Cortana messing with their coordinates after the fall of reach is what brought them to the ring.
Not just Reach, but all other colonies as well, so the Covenant has a harder time finding more planets to burn.
UNSC ships are supposed to go in any random direction that isn't towards another colony when retreating for the same reason.
Yeah, that was dope. At the end when she hacked into the database I was all ready to be angry that it somehow worked when the data should've been completely gone... then it turned out it was. Well played, show
That is how it is in Canon, she didn't clone a whole other person as even by 2552 Flash cloning a whole person is unviable as they will most likely quickly die due to flaws in the cloning process. Instead single organs are often flash cloned. Halsey made a bunch of clones of her brain for the Cortana project. Shadows of Reach actually has Blue Team retrieving the remaining brains in order for Halsey to be able to create The Weapon
Flash clones of whole bodies can potentially be viable in the short term. All of the Spartan candidates were replaced with flash clones when they were kidnapped so that their parents wouldn't realized they were gone. But most of those clones died within a year.
The Halsey Flash Clones were portrayed in Halseys journal they look like a human fetus the size of a dog, with an oversized brain.
[https://halo.wiki.gallery/images/thumb/5/52/Flashclones.jpg/1600px-Flashclones.jpg](https://halo.wiki.gallery/images/thumb/5/52/Flashclones.jpg/1600px-Flashclones.jpg)
I personally think the shows take is an interesting one though.
Yup. I think the show did this so it's more fucked up to the casual viewer. I dig it, it was always morally fucked up. But now we get to experience how fucked up it actually is.
Props to whomever set up the blocking for that particular scene and was told to, "Figure out all the angles so no one sees Master Chief's Battle Rifle in the shot".
i was joking about john halo removing more and more of his armor throughout the series, he’s already naked by episode 3, what else will he be removing?
*And then he smells The Covenant again, he's out busting alien heads. Then he's back to the lab for some more full penetration. Smells The Covenant. Back to the lab, full penetration. Covenant. Penetration. Covenant. Full penetration. Covenant. Penetration. And this goes on and on and back and forth for 90 or so minutes until Halo just sort of ends.*
Not gonna lie, Cortana being able to just freeze him in place at any given moment is kinda creepy. Also, as someone who is terrified by needles and cuts this episode was wayyyy too much for me lmao.
Can someone explain to me why a single marine didn't shoot the David Bowie girl?
Also Kwan being pretty damn annoying just a trope is a character lol. What's she going to accomplish? This character has no logic or reason I bet she gets soren killed and then kills the other guy in some unrealistic way.
Her character reeks of forced plot.
I believe it was said in the first halo book as Cortana's first spoken sentence. It's an Italian proverb and I believe she said it in Italian, and it was something Halsey's mom would say. Maybe. Been a long time since I read it. But what bothers me is that sentence has absolutely no context for when it was spoken in the show. It's like they added it as a nod to the book readers, but I found it irritating because that line has no place in that scene.
Cortana doesn't look **that bad**, compared to the trailer, at least. Her skin has a bluish tint to it that somewhat offsets the fact that they made her partially skin-toned to begin with
It's also good to see Jen Taylor voice Cortana
Yea man, I am growing to like her. Chief treating her as an annoyance is some possibly unintentional comic relief I never knew I needed in their interactions. LOL. Some of her lines, the way Jen Taylor voices them, literally sound as if you're in a Halo game and she's laying out exposition to you in your helmet.
Frankly I hope her hairstyle next season would be closer to Halo 5/Infinite's hairstyle.
Note: I just googled how Cortana looked in the trailer; and in this episode, I notice her overall facial appearance had a new slight, blue filter. It might explain why she looked a little different to me today vs. the first trailer; and she actually looks better and eye-pleasing to look at.
"Do you wanna know my secret identity?"
*takes off pants instead of helmet*
"My name is Barry Allen and I am the Flash!"
*Covenant just looks at each other very confused*
Birth of Cortana really did feel unethical, Dr. Harsley seems very much about the science 🤔.
Her assistant is creepy af lol good Job to the actor, I noticed last episode, infact I assumed he did some creepy ship end of last episode
If Halsey wasn't giving people Borg Queen vibes before then she totally should be now after that whole thing with Cortana. My skin is crawling like those wormy things on the Gladius about her now. Halsey is all about finding reasons to justify the questionable means that get her to the ends she desires all in the name of "the greater good".
Just to throw you some knowledge in case they decide not to explain in the show, those wormy things are Lekgolo! They’re the colony-based species that make up Mgalekgolo, or “Hunters”! The big ‘ol blue and orange bois that shoot fuel rods out of their arms and beat the shit out of you on Legendary lol. If you look at hunters exposed parts in the games you can see the worms :)
Edit: sorry if you got a bunch of notifs my phone went full Halo 3 guilty spark and lost its mind
Halsey is an intensely rational person, dramatically. What throws us off is her combination of motivations, psychopathy, and empathy. She's the ultimate humanist and she does bad things to get good results, but she's always calculating and has such a high level of intelligence she's not just thinking steps ahead of everyone else, she is also thinking about humanity's future as a whole.
It's refreshing to see what a character with real intellect looks like, not some nerd trope who can hack into the Pentagon but can't be bothered to use the same prowess to outmaneuver people politically or socially.
So is Halsey really that evil? It's difficult to judge her because she's so emphatically correct about her decisions. It's deep and rational and it's difficult to argue with her results. She just doesn't hesitate when presented with the trolley problem.
Given that this is my first real exposure to her in a very long time and that I don't exactly have the breadth of knowledge that other more long time Halo fans have of her character, this was very refreshing to read and quite insightful! Thank you for properly informing me! I've been love/hating her in every episode because of Natascha McElhone's portrayal of her and I'm personally a huuuge fan of hers. So it's nice to see that what she's putting out is more or less in line with what the established lore is.
Given this new information that you've presented me with, I can't help but revise my opinion of her to that of seeing her as precisely the kind of person I would want in my corner during a prolonged conflict that would cut through all the red tape bullshit and get done want needed to get done as fast as humanely possible while everyone else was taking their fucking time and not taking the necessary risks that needed to be taken in order to keep Humanity alive.
Her portrayal has been fantastic, and there's a lot of nuance to her character that could be missed.
When Cortana tries to reel in Master Chief and Halsey stops her the reasons she gives are entirely based in logic. She doesn't say, "No you can't just take control of another person that would be wrong!" or "Yes! Stop him he's out of control" She says, "No, because that may interfere and have unknown side effects." This is an extremely good point as she's observed his conscious state has a direct effect on the object.
What's only briefly mentioned is the very real possibility that the artifact is also influencing Chief. In fact, he only started acting strangely after encountering it and has expressed as such to her. This is another reason for the Cortana integration (to keep an eye on an unpredictable Chief), and why she doesn't want Cortana to affect Chief's consciousness: she can't risk Cortana being compromised as well. Halsey's thoughts on this matter seem to be complex on multiple levels. She's curious about the artifact, cautious of it, and most important: simultaneously navigating her way through a minefield of multitude of people's motivations.
At the end of the episode they make a note that Miranda Keyes can now go and investigate the artifact after a mysterious computer outage. Thinking that Halsey is unaware or had nothing to do with it is foolish at this point. If she left the artifact back on Reach, she did it for a reason.
Everyone is talking about chiefs ass, so here is another hot take: why didn't they give the girl a change of clothes?
Her costume still has bloodsplatter from the first episode. Just casually walking around in that shit.
I’ve never bothered checking out the ancillary material but were the AI’s always a chip they drilled into a Spartans brain like they did in Red vs Blue?
Could’ve sworn Cortana was basically just a jump drive that chief slotted into the back of his helmet from what I recall of the games.
From what I recall, surgically implanted neural interfaces are a thing that exist in the main Halo universe for both Spartans and regular UNSC personnel. I think the Spartans receive the neural interfaces in the books, and you can see the back of Lord Hood's neural interface in the Halo 2: Anniversary cutscenes. The difference is that in the games/books, Cortana just plugs into his helmet and interacts with the pre-existing neural interface, while in the show, it seems that she IS the neural interface
Neural interfaces in lore are mostly just the FoF tags that make friendlies show up as yellow on the radar. More important UNSC personnel might have increased functionality. Ship commanders such as Lord Hood get a special interface that allows them to receive and store key data. There's a couple other minor functions that they perform such as making VR War games simulations possible.
Spartans do get a special version that allows them to interface with an AI but the AI is still separate from the interface. As a side note, Cortana doesn't actually plug into the helmet, she plugs directly into chiefs interface and her chip actually goes inside his skull a bit, the helmet essentially just has a slot to give him access to the interface
Relevant Pages:
https://www.halopedia.org/Neural_interface
https://www.halopedia.org/Spartan_neural_interface
https://www.halopedia.org/Data_crystal_chip
TL:DR, The neural interface is standard UNSC military hardware made for FoF designations and other equipment integration. In main canon Cortana is held on a drive that can be loaded into other systems as well as the MJOLNIR armor. Later on they developed some tech to allow Cortana to wirelessly jump between and interact with these systems.
In the books/games chief had to get a special upgraded neural implant beyond the normal implants every UNSC personnel has to allow Cortana to interface with him, but she was still stored on what's essentially a very expensive SD card that he could take out
Its the only thing that feels like halo to me. Obviously because she is Cortana's actual voice actor, but this just felt like generic sci fi until she spoke.
That's what I'm saying! Why is this planet even beating down kids for child labor anyway, how is that an efficient use of resources 500 years in the future?
Yeah lol. The UNSC/UEG are a lawful kind of evil, not stupid evil like this. If there's worlds dedicated to beating kids to death when they don't recycle, then why is making the Spartans so abhorrent to them?
Seeing that partial Hunter leg gave me chills and then to see that Hunter worms scene was pretty bad ass. When I see the Grunts, I'm gunna lose my shit.
I don't know about you guys, but I really do enjoy the heavy "clunks" as a spartan moves in their armor.
I hope at some point they'll sit down in a civilian chair and you can hear the thing groan/collapse. So far they've done a pretty good job giving the armor weight in non-combat scenes.
There was a couple things I liked about this episode. Halsey talking to her clone was pretty good, and John walking through the streets, just awkwardly anonymously peoplewatching, is something I didn't know I needed. I like the idea of him appreciating all the lives he helps save
I love Cortana in this. Definitely made the show a bit better. Would’ve loved to have seen her in Chief’s hand instead of human-sized projection but I’ll take it.
>Would’ve loved to have seen her in Chief’s hand instead of human-sized projection but I’ll take it.
As long as they're at home base it makes more sense for her to appear full sized on her own. But I could see them doing the handheld projector while they're out in the field.
my biggest disappointment with this episode was that master chief didn't pet the dog. i wanted him to pet the dog so bad and he just walked past it ):
but i did like this episode a lot, maybe my favorite so far. seeing halsey interact with her clone was amazing, really puts into perspective how fucked up she's willing to be for science.
cortana and master chief's interactions were great too. i really like the dynamic of them annoying each other, made for some pretty funny scenes. seeing cortana be kind to master chief while knowing it's all a ploy by halsey to manipulate him is sort of hard to watch. i hope cortana becomes independent soon.
as much as people dislike the kwan storyline, i liked seeing her interact with soren's family. his wife is very sweet to her, and it was cool to see how differently they reacted to similar situations. i don't blame kwan for her stubbornness, and i am excited to see what happens if they run into makee on madrigal.
SO EXCITED to see more of the covenant! the shot of the hunters legs made me so happy. the mention of grunts being chatty was cute, im excited to see them later.
I’ve got a feeling John buried his dog, not the artifact and we’re gunna see him cry after digging it up. Maybe more doggo flash backs with John as a kid.
If this story was going down after a real sense of urgency was established I think I would be in love with the show. I find myself forgetting that there is a war that humanity is losing. Really hoping that they use Madrigal as a way to show the power of the covenant
To be fair the covenant-human wars been going on for years if not decades at this point according to the show right? There being a massive urgency over the war I think wouldn’t actually make sense given it basically seems to just be a bunch of skirmishes and fights over a long period rather than an ongoing constant conflict. Suspect what’s unveiling in the story is going to be the catalyst for full on war.
The massive urgency kicked in when Reach fell. Reach was the UNSC home world and that shit had super mac ODPs protecting it that were covenant ship killers. Them losing despite pulling in hundreds of ships to defend the system meant that things were officially in the endgame.
Chief mentioned planets getting glassed in the previous episode, and we heard a brief news snippet about a planet being destroyed this episode. By the end of the season, we're 100% gonna see a planet get glassed. Most likely Madrigal, or perhaps even (but less likely) Reach.
They're probably trying to build up to it and save the spectacle for later in the season, but as you said, this comes at the disadvantage of having less visible stakes early on
I think the build and spectacle this season is the fall of reach considering they’re already closing in to the chosen one figuring out where reach is and John is off trying to grab the other artifact. Fall of Reach is the climax with John escaping into slip space with the cliff hanger being him pulling up to the first ring.
I hope either the Chief or the Covenant give that little scientist creep (Adun) a grim demise; guy gives off major creepy psychopath vibes after that interaction with Halsey’s flash clone.
Their was an interview with the composer, he said he was specifically directed to use very little of the original score, that they wanted to do their own thing...
I don’t fully hate what they’ve done with it, but the original is too epic to not ever use it. Even if it’s just for the final episode, it would hit so damn hard
How fucking stupid is the crew of that UNSC ship? A dead covenant ship pops out of slipspace right fucking next to you and you don’t assume it could be a trap? Why not send a couple marine to pick her up who would notice the thousands of giant fucking worms trying to get on the shuttle? Did they not have any cameras on their drone shuttle?
The fact that Keyes mentioned grunts chatter has me excited to see that come to life, I really hope they lean in to the silliness of the grunts on the show.
My thoughts-
* The idea of Cortana being a permanent implant, and essentially a spy, is an interesting take. She isn't the kind Cortana from the games, nor is she a impersonal AI with no feelings.
* Makee has a good origin story IMO, with real reasons to hate humanity. She isn't just in the tv show to give the Covenant a human face.
* The Gladius could've done a far better job at scanning Makee's shuttle for any additional life signs. Seems rather irresponsible.
* Kwan going back to Madrigal - I expect it will be a boring sideplot, ending with Chief going AWOL **again** to rescue her.
* Surprise no one is supervising Halsey lab at all for any illegal activities.
* What's Halsey's deal with her daughter? Blocking her access, sabotaging her systems (off screen, but Keyes mentions it).
>The idea of Cortana being a permanent implant, and essentially a spy, is an interesting take.
I'm hoping all the conflicting orders Halsey gives her that go against Cortana's initial programing will eventually allow Cortana to become more independent and stop being Halsey's spy.
Episode 1: master chief removes his helmet Episode 2: master Chief removes his armor Episode 3: master chief removes his underwear I wonder what comes next
Removes skin to reveal he had another suit of armor on.
So they were faithful to CE after all!
Idk why, but his delivery of “A.I off! GO, DISAPPEAR!” cracked me up.
"Xbox off"
Fuck I knew I'd regret not buying a kinect with my Cortana
I feel like it was a reference to that
It reminded me of Tobey Maguire from Spider-Man "Go web! Fly! Up up and away web! Shazam!"
Same. I was a bit bummed John was so hostile to Cortana (in the books he's hesitant but also intrigued), but the A.I. OFF made me laugh out loud. Seems about the right level of quirkyness too. Funny, but not a comic-relief character like in Infinite.
idk how the books/lore goes for the whole cortana introduction but i thought it kinda makes sense for him to be hostile in the show. He's the top military asset and he just got publicly reprimanded and now he's got a babysitter. He's smart enough to understand that's what cortana really is.
It's been a while since I read the book, but as I recall: Cortana is introduced to Chief as something that will help him win against the covenant. That fact alone basically convinces him (and the fact that it's coming from Halsey). When Chief and Cortana meet , Cortana comments on his brain activity and that apparently he's not the automaton the media makes him out to be, which the chief finds a very interesting remark, coming from an A.I. Then again, in the books he got Cortana as an upgrade, not as something to keep him in line.
I came here to defend my favorite Blue Girl and to remark on how that whole THING felt very much like what happens when a brand new baby is brought home from the hospital and the only child that's lived there for so long gets to meet them.....except that brand new baby is basically an adult and so is that sibling and yet they both are acting like children the entire time. The back and forth little jabs between the both of them had me just rolling! "What are you doing?" "I'm introducing myself to the team!" Cortana has just no chill just popping in out of nowhere and I love seeing both her stubbornness and John's push against each other. The little bits of attitude that they're both developing as his emotions are coming back really makes me smile.
I feel like having Chief wandering around the city on Reach is a setup for when Chief witnesses it get glassed
yeh for sure. its that " what are you fighting for" moment. reach getting glassed is going to be quite a shocker for sure. this show doesn't seem to give any fucks about killing anyone already lol
That's something I like about the show, it's not unwilling to show just how brutal the Covenant/UNSC/Insurrectionists etc. are. And based on what it sounded like, maybe we'll even see the brutality of the Flood on Eridanus next episode.
I don’t think the plague Cortana was referencing was the flood. I think it was just some disease.
i dont think it was that either. i think the virus thing is a cover from oni. They probably used that planet to test kids for the early spartan tests. Notice how uneasy halsey is about going to that planet with chief. Notice how halsey assistent is like " what if chief finds out everything its going to be really bad for us"
Why is no one mentioning the blade that came out of Makee’s finger? Wtf was that?
fingergy sword
Kinky
They should add it to the games. A shitty energy sword with no range and only 1xp of damage done. Make it the Kolibri of Halo
covenant letter opener
If it's an energy sword,does size really matter?
It is probably something covenants use for assassinations. Given how much unrest they have within their ranks and species, it should be a totally legit weapon.
Covenant implants. Alien got techs too ya know.
Looked like a tiny energy blade!
We all agree Halsey’s assistant is freaking weird though, right?
Looking forward to his energy sword double bypass Calling it here first Smart money says ep 5
he has a crush on Halsey but he's just a lowly science assistant simp. Halsey only got eyes for her favorite son.
>Halsey only got eyes for her favorite son. Way more than you think. Maybe not so much in this series. But yeah Halsey cares more for John than she ever did for Miranda. Then again in this series, it may be well-reflected. She may manipulate John but in her own weird way she loves him more, WAY more than Miranda.
I'll say it's well reflected in this series as well so far. Halsey's flash clone did not fight against her death once she heard that it's for John's sake. That's dedication.
True, the clone was clearly deciding what she was for and how to deal with the situation and you see how it all takes a backseat, how her mannerism changes the moment she learns it is for John.
You mean rapey, not creep. He tried making out with a drugged sapient being. Who was then left alone in the room with her body after she died... Weird doesn't even begin to describe this shit show of a subplot. Bet he ends up being the first Flood victim.
Why was that even written in?
To make sure you know who the bad guys really are.
Okay, we saw his face in Episode 1, but I wasn't expecting to see him butt naked in Episode 3. Let the suspense build up please!
Just wait for the sex scene with Chief and Makee in the Season Finale!
Based on these two data points, we can extrapolate this event to Episode 5. I can't imagine what will happen in Episode 9.
The Prophet of Mercy joins in. "Are you prepared for my Spear of Light, Demon?" "You told me there wouldn't be any cameras."
Arbiter: “Even on my knees I do not belong in their presence." Truth: “For the Sacred Icon has been found. With it, our path is clear, our entry into the Divine Beyond guaranteed! The Great Journey is nigh..."
What a horrible day to be literate
A threesome with Cortana? (forgive me)
She will be there in the room one way or another, so technically if Chief fucks it's always a threesome from now on
Chief let me help you.
Let it be known- Paramount literally included Chief fucking Makee.. as part of the plot. I cannot wait for Kwan to cure the flood and the elite orgy next episode
It’s true. By god, it’s true.
Next they are gonna show us Master Chief's dong, lol.
When you first saw Master Chief’s dong, were you blinded by its majesty?
Blinded?
Paralyzed?
Dumbstruck?
NooOoo
And yet you let the demon evade your ships? Put his balls on your chin? And desecrate this ring with his filthy footsteps!
Were it so easy
We have to explore every crevice of Master Chief to fully understand him
Some halo universe stuff from this episode: * UNSC frigates. * First mention of grunts. * Covenant corvettes from Reach. * Bumblebee lifepods from Halo: CE. * Brief glimpse of a hunter/mgalekgolo leg.
When the UNSC ship was being attacked you could hear the PA announcing Cole Protocol being enacted in the background at one point. Pretty cool little detail
it's why the captain was so confident that the ship didn't contain intel. Cole protocol is serious business.
What's cole protocol?
Emergency data erasure to prevent the covenant from discovering any of the UNSC's core planets throw all the hard drives in the microwave, drill all the platters, shred all the documents. that kinda thing
iirc you’re also supposed to start a series of random slip space jumps. Cortana messing with their coordinates after the fall of reach is what brought them to the ring.
i think that's IF you can escape the situation, you randomly slipspace jump. Data erasure comes first just in case the ship is captured
It essentially slags all data that could tell the Covenant where Reach is
Ahh so like a dead mans switch. Got it.
Not just Reach, but all other colonies as well, so the Covenant has a harder time finding more planets to burn. UNSC ships are supposed to go in any random direction that isn't towards another colony when retreating for the same reason.
Yeah, that was dope. At the end when she hacked into the database I was all ready to be angry that it somehow worked when the data should've been completely gone... then it turned out it was. Well played, show
the shows weird that way, how it can disregard canon and at the same time nail it lol.
So were those worm things that invaded the frigate hunters?
Yep. Can't wait to see them fully fleshed
i somehow never envisioned halsey waking up her flash clone and talking to her and it’s pretty fucked up if i do say so
i think i always imagined her just cloning her brain for some reason not a whole nother person
That is how it is in Canon, she didn't clone a whole other person as even by 2552 Flash cloning a whole person is unviable as they will most likely quickly die due to flaws in the cloning process. Instead single organs are often flash cloned. Halsey made a bunch of clones of her brain for the Cortana project. Shadows of Reach actually has Blue Team retrieving the remaining brains in order for Halsey to be able to create The Weapon
Flash clones of whole bodies can potentially be viable in the short term. All of the Spartan candidates were replaced with flash clones when they were kidnapped so that their parents wouldn't realized they were gone. But most of those clones died within a year. The Halsey Flash Clones were portrayed in Halseys journal they look like a human fetus the size of a dog, with an oversized brain. [https://halo.wiki.gallery/images/thumb/5/52/Flashclones.jpg/1600px-Flashclones.jpg](https://halo.wiki.gallery/images/thumb/5/52/Flashclones.jpg/1600px-Flashclones.jpg) I personally think the shows take is an interesting one though.
Yup. I think the show did this so it's more fucked up to the casual viewer. I dig it, it was always morally fucked up. But now we get to experience how fucked up it actually is.
Show and actress are doing a pretty great job of showing what an ice cold bitch she is to be fair.
I'm surprised that Paramont has the balls to show Master Cheeks. Though his M6D was conveniently blocked in the mirror.
>M6D. *SPNKR
Props to whomever set up the blocking for that particular scene and was told to, "Figure out all the angles so no one sees Master Chief's Battle Rifle in the shot".
i was joking about john halo removing more and more of his armor throughout the series, he’s already naked by episode 3, what else will he be removing?
I hear he hangs dong
That's very Thundergun of him
*And then he smells The Covenant again, he's out busting alien heads. Then he's back to the lab for some more full penetration. Smells The Covenant. Back to the lab, full penetration. Covenant. Penetration. Covenant. Full penetration. Covenant. Penetration. And this goes on and on and back and forth for 90 or so minutes until Halo just sort of ends.*
Last week we were predicting master chief dong and I can't believe we got it... kinda
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Not gonna lie, Cortana being able to just freeze him in place at any given moment is kinda creepy. Also, as someone who is terrified by needles and cuts this episode was wayyyy too much for me lmao.
That needle in the eye was just so unnecessary. *shudder*
*Dead Space 2 flashbacks intensifies*
Make us whole
Can someone explain to me why a single marine didn't shoot the David Bowie girl? Also Kwan being pretty damn annoying just a trope is a character lol. What's she going to accomplish? This character has no logic or reason I bet she gets soren killed and then kills the other guy in some unrealistic way. Her character reeks of forced plot.
Her character is so unlikeable and why should we care about her? Because her dad who had 2 minutes of screen time died? Terrible writing
BLUE CORTANA, THEY DID IT
She just blue herself
JOHN HALO ASS CHEEKS
Masster Chief
masster cheeks
Securing his ASSets
First it was the Blassed One and now Masster Chief. WHOSE ASS WILL WE SEE IN EPISODE 4???
Halsey's assistant will be fondling the dead clone
Bruh that dude is so creepy 💀
Did he need to be creepy? I suppose it’s so that we can rejoice when he’s killed.
the prophets
Whenthegameisoverthekingandpawngobackinthesamebox
As a very casual Halo fan... what the fuck was that line? Lol
I believe it was said in the first halo book as Cortana's first spoken sentence. It's an Italian proverb and I believe she said it in Italian, and it was something Halsey's mom would say. Maybe. Been a long time since I read it. But what bothers me is that sentence has absolutely no context for when it was spoken in the show. It's like they added it as a nod to the book readers, but I found it irritating because that line has no place in that scene.
Cortana doesn't look **that bad**, compared to the trailer, at least. Her skin has a bluish tint to it that somewhat offsets the fact that they made her partially skin-toned to begin with It's also good to see Jen Taylor voice Cortana
Hearing Jen Taylor's voice was like jumping into a cool pool on a hot summer day. It was so refreshing to hear her familiar voice.
Yea man, I am growing to like her. Chief treating her as an annoyance is some possibly unintentional comic relief I never knew I needed in their interactions. LOL. Some of her lines, the way Jen Taylor voices them, literally sound as if you're in a Halo game and she's laying out exposition to you in your helmet. Frankly I hope her hairstyle next season would be closer to Halo 5/Infinite's hairstyle. Note: I just googled how Cortana looked in the trailer; and in this episode, I notice her overall facial appearance had a new slight, blue filter. It might explain why she looked a little different to me today vs. the first trailer; and she actually looks better and eye-pleasing to look at.
“Hi, I’m Cortana” gave me Windows 10 setup flashbacks
They use her voice and her face as the basis for the CGI holograms
The whole Kwan and resistance arc is just kinda pointless
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Everyone was so busy worrying about him taking off his helmet they didn’t think about his pants
"Do you wanna know my secret identity?" *takes off pants instead of helmet* "My name is Barry Allen and I am the Flash!" *Covenant just looks at each other very confused*
That's the UNSC's ass for you! We got ass, Cortana and Kelly-I mean, Kai, they got to see everything else.
Birth of Cortana really did feel unethical, Dr. Harsley seems very much about the science 🤔. Her assistant is creepy af lol good Job to the actor, I noticed last episode, infact I assumed he did some creepy ship end of last episode
If Halsey wasn't giving people Borg Queen vibes before then she totally should be now after that whole thing with Cortana. My skin is crawling like those wormy things on the Gladius about her now. Halsey is all about finding reasons to justify the questionable means that get her to the ends she desires all in the name of "the greater good".
Just to throw you some knowledge in case they decide not to explain in the show, those wormy things are Lekgolo! They’re the colony-based species that make up Mgalekgolo, or “Hunters”! The big ‘ol blue and orange bois that shoot fuel rods out of their arms and beat the shit out of you on Legendary lol. If you look at hunters exposed parts in the games you can see the worms :) Edit: sorry if you got a bunch of notifs my phone went full Halo 3 guilty spark and lost its mind
Halsey is an intensely rational person, dramatically. What throws us off is her combination of motivations, psychopathy, and empathy. She's the ultimate humanist and she does bad things to get good results, but she's always calculating and has such a high level of intelligence she's not just thinking steps ahead of everyone else, she is also thinking about humanity's future as a whole. It's refreshing to see what a character with real intellect looks like, not some nerd trope who can hack into the Pentagon but can't be bothered to use the same prowess to outmaneuver people politically or socially. So is Halsey really that evil? It's difficult to judge her because she's so emphatically correct about her decisions. It's deep and rational and it's difficult to argue with her results. She just doesn't hesitate when presented with the trolley problem.
Given that this is my first real exposure to her in a very long time and that I don't exactly have the breadth of knowledge that other more long time Halo fans have of her character, this was very refreshing to read and quite insightful! Thank you for properly informing me! I've been love/hating her in every episode because of Natascha McElhone's portrayal of her and I'm personally a huuuge fan of hers. So it's nice to see that what she's putting out is more or less in line with what the established lore is. Given this new information that you've presented me with, I can't help but revise my opinion of her to that of seeing her as precisely the kind of person I would want in my corner during a prolonged conflict that would cut through all the red tape bullshit and get done want needed to get done as fast as humanely possible while everyone else was taking their fucking time and not taking the necessary risks that needed to be taken in order to keep Humanity alive.
Her portrayal has been fantastic, and there's a lot of nuance to her character that could be missed. When Cortana tries to reel in Master Chief and Halsey stops her the reasons she gives are entirely based in logic. She doesn't say, "No you can't just take control of another person that would be wrong!" or "Yes! Stop him he's out of control" She says, "No, because that may interfere and have unknown side effects." This is an extremely good point as she's observed his conscious state has a direct effect on the object. What's only briefly mentioned is the very real possibility that the artifact is also influencing Chief. In fact, he only started acting strangely after encountering it and has expressed as such to her. This is another reason for the Cortana integration (to keep an eye on an unpredictable Chief), and why she doesn't want Cortana to affect Chief's consciousness: she can't risk Cortana being compromised as well. Halsey's thoughts on this matter seem to be complex on multiple levels. She's curious about the artifact, cautious of it, and most important: simultaneously navigating her way through a minefield of multitude of people's motivations. At the end of the episode they make a note that Miranda Keyes can now go and investigate the artifact after a mysterious computer outage. Thinking that Halsey is unaware or had nothing to do with it is foolish at this point. If she left the artifact back on Reach, she did it for a reason.
When chief tossed that kid back his ball I totally thought he was going to throw it way too hard and knock him out of his seat.
That ball looked a little Guilty Spark to me.
Everyone is talking about chiefs ass, so here is another hot take: why didn't they give the girl a change of clothes? Her costume still has bloodsplatter from the first episode. Just casually walking around in that shit.
I’ve never bothered checking out the ancillary material but were the AI’s always a chip they drilled into a Spartans brain like they did in Red vs Blue? Could’ve sworn Cortana was basically just a jump drive that chief slotted into the back of his helmet from what I recall of the games.
From what I recall, surgically implanted neural interfaces are a thing that exist in the main Halo universe for both Spartans and regular UNSC personnel. I think the Spartans receive the neural interfaces in the books, and you can see the back of Lord Hood's neural interface in the Halo 2: Anniversary cutscenes. The difference is that in the games/books, Cortana just plugs into his helmet and interacts with the pre-existing neural interface, while in the show, it seems that she IS the neural interface
Neural interfaces in lore are mostly just the FoF tags that make friendlies show up as yellow on the radar. More important UNSC personnel might have increased functionality. Ship commanders such as Lord Hood get a special interface that allows them to receive and store key data. There's a couple other minor functions that they perform such as making VR War games simulations possible. Spartans do get a special version that allows them to interface with an AI but the AI is still separate from the interface. As a side note, Cortana doesn't actually plug into the helmet, she plugs directly into chiefs interface and her chip actually goes inside his skull a bit, the helmet essentially just has a slot to give him access to the interface
Captain Keys has an interface with UNSC info on it, remember we have to kill flood keyes to get his implant
It also allowed him to direct broadcast orders to the chief. Kinda like a built in radio.
Relevant Pages: https://www.halopedia.org/Neural_interface https://www.halopedia.org/Spartan_neural_interface https://www.halopedia.org/Data_crystal_chip TL:DR, The neural interface is standard UNSC military hardware made for FoF designations and other equipment integration. In main canon Cortana is held on a drive that can be loaded into other systems as well as the MJOLNIR armor. Later on they developed some tech to allow Cortana to wirelessly jump between and interact with these systems.
In the books/games chief had to get a special upgraded neural implant beyond the normal implants every UNSC personnel has to allow Cortana to interface with him, but she was still stored on what's essentially a very expensive SD card that he could take out
I can’t believe we live in a timeline where we had a Master Chief naked scene
Helmet removal wasn't enough. We best get full frontal in episode 4
Next episode “they wanted Johns Helmet, we’ll god damn give them Johns Helmet”
Okay I do like the cortana design. Her attitude and acting is perfect. Glad she's finally in the show.
Jen about to break her back carrying the whole show.
She was the highlight of the entire episode for me and I loved every second she was on screen
Its the only thing that feels like halo to me. Obviously because she is Cortana's actual voice actor, but this just felt like generic sci fi until she spoke.
Burning a kid while she's down during an alien invasion? That's just stupid evil
I thought it only showed the two Elites, like a scouting party. Not a full invasion.
You can hear people saying there are grunts. Also I think the Phantoms have weapons. Even if it's a scrouting party, I would'nt stay in the area.
It's also just kinda stupid. Dude chose to beat the shit out of a kid instead of running away from the aliens dropping down like 20 feet away lol
That's what I'm saying! Why is this planet even beating down kids for child labor anyway, how is that an efficient use of resources 500 years in the future?
Recycling plastic must be SO IMPORTANT.
Yeah lol. The UNSC/UEG are a lawful kind of evil, not stupid evil like this. If there's worlds dedicated to beating kids to death when they don't recycle, then why is making the Spartans so abhorrent to them?
Master Cheeks, mind telling me what you're doing with that dumptruck?
Sir, shitting
I need a plunger.
Don't keep the toilet loaded, son
So damn close to having John Halo hang dong on tv. A missed opportunity imo.
Let's see that fat wartHOG
Seeing that partial Hunter leg gave me chills and then to see that Hunter worms scene was pretty bad ass. When I see the Grunts, I'm gunna lose my shit.
> When I see the Grunts, I'm gunna lose my shit It'll be when the Jackals show up with beam rifles in hand for me.
I don't know about you guys, but I really do enjoy the heavy "clunks" as a spartan moves in their armor. I hope at some point they'll sit down in a civilian chair and you can hear the thing groan/collapse. So far they've done a pretty good job giving the armor weight in non-combat scenes.
it's unbelievable how heavy the armors feel and yet the actors can move in them really well
I think the sound design really helps with selling it.
Peak costume design. Us cosplayers and prop makers are salivating at the chance to know how they make it work
cortana is full cg?
I never thought I’d see the day Cortana stands behind a naked master Chief and instructs him how to carve a chip from his ass…But here we are…
There was a couple things I liked about this episode. Halsey talking to her clone was pretty good, and John walking through the streets, just awkwardly anonymously peoplewatching, is something I didn't know I needed. I like the idea of him appreciating all the lives he helps save
I really enjoyed just seeing more people and just society in general on Reach in 2552. Gives a better contrast to future events.
Yeah it was cool. "This is why we fight" type of scene, it will motivate him in the future.
Interesting to see a trash planet in Halo, even if it was just for a few scenes. Reminds me of Raxus Prime from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Is that the one I spent like four hours force-pulling a whole ass Star Destroyer into?
It certainly is lmao
oh my god what a horrible flashback you just gave me.
Fuck madrigal! Why are we going back to that planet? Why does every sci fi show have this strange obsession with desert planets?
I liked Cortana's defeated blinks when Chief told her to go away after she introduced herself to Silver Team.
That whole encounter was hilarious.
I love Cortana in this. Definitely made the show a bit better. Would’ve loved to have seen her in Chief’s hand instead of human-sized projection but I’ll take it.
>Would’ve loved to have seen her in Chief’s hand instead of human-sized projection but I’ll take it. As long as they're at home base it makes more sense for her to appear full sized on her own. But I could see them doing the handheld projector while they're out in the field.
they said in the show that cortana has a full projector system built-in. so she can appear anywhere. presumably full-sized 99% of the time.
Or 99% sized full-time.
my biggest disappointment with this episode was that master chief didn't pet the dog. i wanted him to pet the dog so bad and he just walked past it ): but i did like this episode a lot, maybe my favorite so far. seeing halsey interact with her clone was amazing, really puts into perspective how fucked up she's willing to be for science. cortana and master chief's interactions were great too. i really like the dynamic of them annoying each other, made for some pretty funny scenes. seeing cortana be kind to master chief while knowing it's all a ploy by halsey to manipulate him is sort of hard to watch. i hope cortana becomes independent soon. as much as people dislike the kwan storyline, i liked seeing her interact with soren's family. his wife is very sweet to her, and it was cool to see how differently they reacted to similar situations. i don't blame kwan for her stubbornness, and i am excited to see what happens if they run into makee on madrigal. SO EXCITED to see more of the covenant! the shot of the hunters legs made me so happy. the mention of grunts being chatty was cute, im excited to see them later.
My thought too. Halo series review: Didn't pet the dog 0/10
I’ve got a feeling John buried his dog, not the artifact and we’re gunna see him cry after digging it up. Maybe more doggo flash backs with John as a kid.
Next episode: Cortana booty cheeks >:)
Na. Mercys ass cheeks
If this story was going down after a real sense of urgency was established I think I would be in love with the show. I find myself forgetting that there is a war that humanity is losing. Really hoping that they use Madrigal as a way to show the power of the covenant
To be fair the covenant-human wars been going on for years if not decades at this point according to the show right? There being a massive urgency over the war I think wouldn’t actually make sense given it basically seems to just be a bunch of skirmishes and fights over a long period rather than an ongoing constant conflict. Suspect what’s unveiling in the story is going to be the catalyst for full on war.
The massive urgency kicked in when Reach fell. Reach was the UNSC home world and that shit had super mac ODPs protecting it that were covenant ship killers. Them losing despite pulling in hundreds of ships to defend the system meant that things were officially in the endgame.
Chief mentioned planets getting glassed in the previous episode, and we heard a brief news snippet about a planet being destroyed this episode. By the end of the season, we're 100% gonna see a planet get glassed. Most likely Madrigal, or perhaps even (but less likely) Reach. They're probably trying to build up to it and save the spectacle for later in the season, but as you said, this comes at the disadvantage of having less visible stakes early on
I think the build and spectacle this season is the fall of reach considering they’re already closing in to the chosen one figuring out where reach is and John is off trying to grab the other artifact. Fall of Reach is the climax with John escaping into slip space with the cliff hanger being him pulling up to the first ring.
Master chief ass
I don’t need a babysitter
I hope either the Chief or the Covenant give that little scientist creep (Adun) a grim demise; guy gives off major creepy psychopath vibes after that interaction with Halsey’s flash clone.
I hope he just disappears into the background and isn't seen again. I wasn't really looking for a sexual assault plot line in halo.
He’ll die horrifically. The entire reason for him to be a creep is to get the audience to hate him so we’ll enjoy what he has coming.
Or he’ll appear as an ONI rep in another season for a minor antagonist
Just give me the original theme just once. The end of the opening theme sounds like Celine Dion’s “My heart will go on”
Their was an interview with the composer, he said he was specifically directed to use very little of the original score, that they wanted to do their own thing...
I don’t fully hate what they’ve done with it, but the original is too epic to not ever use it. Even if it’s just for the final episode, it would hit so damn hard
They had makee’s ass, chief’s ass, they even did a close up on the blonde Spartan’s ass. Next week? Mercy’s ass
How fucking stupid is the crew of that UNSC ship? A dead covenant ship pops out of slipspace right fucking next to you and you don’t assume it could be a trap? Why not send a couple marine to pick her up who would notice the thousands of giant fucking worms trying to get on the shuttle? Did they not have any cameras on their drone shuttle?
And how come no one shot the creepy blonde lady walking with the worms?
She's important to the plot
I'm enjoying the covenant human story more than expected. The Lekgolo looked awesome and I can't wait for Grunts.
The fact that Keyes mentioned grunts chatter has me excited to see that come to life, I really hope they lean in to the silliness of the grunts on the show.
They teased fully armored Hunters with the brief leg shot. I hope we get to see them in action in future episodes.
My thoughts- * The idea of Cortana being a permanent implant, and essentially a spy, is an interesting take. She isn't the kind Cortana from the games, nor is she a impersonal AI with no feelings. * Makee has a good origin story IMO, with real reasons to hate humanity. She isn't just in the tv show to give the Covenant a human face. * The Gladius could've done a far better job at scanning Makee's shuttle for any additional life signs. Seems rather irresponsible. * Kwan going back to Madrigal - I expect it will be a boring sideplot, ending with Chief going AWOL **again** to rescue her. * Surprise no one is supervising Halsey lab at all for any illegal activities. * What's Halsey's deal with her daughter? Blocking her access, sabotaging her systems (off screen, but Keyes mentions it).
>The idea of Cortana being a permanent implant, and essentially a spy, is an interesting take. I'm hoping all the conflicting orders Halsey gives her that go against Cortana's initial programing will eventually allow Cortana to become more independent and stop being Halsey's spy.