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Halo 5: Bombadil crushes the character limit
- Thread starter Bombadil
- Start date
Well, first off, I didn't mean to offend anyone with that concept. I've just always felt that the Flood were more than just a biological parasite. Gravemind's iambic speech belied some kind of hidden genius.
The Prometheans are machine-like. They're a major step down from the Covenant. The Covenant express rage, fear, motive, culture, beliefs. Machines do nothing. They are inherently uninteresting, and the only thing about them that is intelligent is the Didact. As for retconning character deaths, I disagree with your claim that I did that. The nature of the Flood allows for them to come back, in some form or another. I brought them back for good reasons. First of all, the Prophet of Mercy was the servile follower of the Prophet of Truth. The Prophet of Truth later betrayed him and left him for dead. I would like to see how Mercy would behave when brought back. As for Tartarus, he was the natural archnemesis of the Arbiter. The Arbiter is lacking that now. Tartarus's return gives the Arbiter an enemy. Both of them have it in for each other.
The developers never showed much respect for the book lore. Why should I? The video games have always been underwhelming in the story department, save for Halo 2, which actually made an attempt to show both sides from two different perspectives. I never understood why Halo fans thought 2 was the weakest. I know it makes me sound like a prick to say this, but I always though the people who hated Halo 2 simply didn't like a game with an emphasis on story. They just wanted to shoot and kill and be the Chief and anything that deviated from the simplistic plot of CE was just too much for them.
I'm not shitting on him. 343 didn't develop him well enough in the video games. I just didn't want him to dominate Halo 5 because his mystery was explained in 4. He explained his purpose, his motives. Now he's just an enemy. On the other hand, Gravemind's motives were always a little too functional. Since he has intellect, I figured in Halo 5 he can explain what he is and what he wants.
Megalomaniacs aren't interesting. They're overdone. For instance:
Sliva seemed like an interesting character. But then the veneer wore off and he just ended up being another insane guy on a power trip. That's the Didact.
You didn't rain on my parade. At least you read it, man. I thank you for that. Too many people in this thread proudly announced that they didn't read it. That hurt far more than people actually giving me feedback. Does each new Gravemind have a memory of the other Graveminds? Also, I read in the Halo 3 wikia that Gravemind escaped at the end of Halo 3. So, it's possible he'll return for this trilogy right?
MyAbsolution
Member
Thanks for making an interesting read but I just wanna touch up on this point about Halo 2 and the hate for its story.
First I wanna say that yes, BUNGIE, had almost no respect for the book/canon lore, and it pissed me the fuck off, Reach was the final straw.
Lots of people hate Halo2 for various reasons, here is MINE (story wise).
Halo CE released (after Fall of Reach), and then my fav Halo book of all time released: the DIRECT sequel to Halo CE called "First Strike". In it, Master Chief essentially stalls a Covie fleet from coming to our solar system, and rescues 5 or 6 of his fellow Spartan IIs! So going into Halo 2, me and many people legit thought that hey we might see more Spartans or even acknowledge their existence, but no, nothing. Let down. Big one for me.
Second, the actual "invasion" of earth was completely pussified. It was like one carrier that seemed to get to the surface and then it left and you were off earth for the rest of the game... so much hype was built on this story taking place around Earth and it really wasn't.
Third, the entire civil war or schism within the covenant happens sooooo damn fast. Where the elites are moved down the ranks and brutes rise up, and then eventually Elites ally with humans and war is over on earth (This includes H3). Literally the war ends within a few weeks of Earth being invaded :/
Also, I didnt mind them trying to showcase the covenant more than just mindless zealots, and fleshed out their side. Thats ok from my pov.
Those are all valid points. I was unaware of the rescue of additional spartans in First Strike so I didn't get upset by the lack of them in Halo 2.
I also didn't know that the game was advertized as having an Earth invasion emphasis so, again, I wasn't really mad when it ended so soon. I thought New Mombasa was really cool.
Your third point is really good. I never thought about it, but yes, it was very rushed. I think that came down to their development schedule. According to Bungie, they cut out a lot of material from Halo 2 and had to end it the way they did. Still, I think the story of the Covenant hierarchy showed me a glimpse of good storytelling that I haven't seen since. The greatest decision they ever made was having the game played from 2 character perspectives.
For me Halo 2 was great for a variety of reasons. 1) I was 14 when I played it. 2) It had a decent story I hadn't seen in video games before. And most importantly, 3) I didn't know of what was promised from Bungie so I wasn't disappointed by anything that was missing in the final game.
*slow clap*Good job man!
MyAbsolution
Member
Well, the E3 footage for Halo 2 was actually not even running xbox hardware and was never in the final game as well. Not to mention yes, the entire premise was WAR ON EARTH over and over up until launch, its all I thought about really.
I guess a large part of my problems were a result of hype and false assumptions leading into it.
This unfortunately happened AGAIN, but much much worse in Halo: Reach. And like I said I wanted Bungie as far away from the Halo universe as possible at that point (story wise... and gameplay too tbh).
I guess a large part of my problems were a result of hype and false assumptions leading into it.
This unfortunately happened AGAIN, but much much worse in Halo: Reach. And like I said I wanted Bungie as far away from the Halo universe as possible at that point (story wise... and gameplay too tbh).
It's not mine, anymore. I think it belongs to Evilore.
MotionBlue
Member
Awesome story, but they would never do that. John 117 is too much of a Mary sue.
Also, I highly doubt
is one of the best things about the story/game.
Also, I highly doubt
Cortana is gone for good, the chemistry between her and Chief
Dictator93
Member
His boots are yellow... he's a happy fellow.
Awesome thread. So much in here is incredible. Just thanks.
Awesome thread. So much in here is incredible. Just thanks.
IamMattFox
Member
Of all the hilarious things in this thread, I think this made me giggle the most.
Agreed.
Edit : You seem more passionate and dedicated about your work than many Game Design Documents I've seen. You just got to work on various areas, but some have no inspiration to try new things and not only does their story summary looks boring, the whole document is. You seem to have fun doing it even though it's not the lore you created yourself and that's good.
Everyone is focusing on the Hitler part and not the part that matters: Anne Frank + Goku romance.
I've just read through the whole thing and you know what, I love it. Halo 4 was beautiful, but I believe most areas of the plot and gameplay were taken in the wrong direction. What you've written here has pretty much redeemed everything I had an issue with.
From reading a few replies it seems most are against the gameplay and perspective changes you've introduced, but I think it's exactly what this franchise needs. If anything, Halo 3 was a step back from 2 and left out a lot of the stuff great about it (multiple perspectives, insights in to Covenant hierarchy etc).
I seriously doubt Halo 5 and even 6 as a combined narrative will even come close to what's written in the OP, sad but true. I want so much more from this franchise in the core games, I don't have time for the books and whatnot.
From reading a few replies it seems most are against the gameplay and perspective changes you've introduced, but I think it's exactly what this franchise needs. If anything, Halo 3 was a step back from 2 and left out a lot of the stuff great about it (multiple perspectives, insights in to Covenant hierarchy etc).
I seriously doubt Halo 5 and even 6 as a combined narrative will even come close to what's written in the OP, sad but true. I want so much more from this franchise in the core games, I don't have time for the books and whatnot.
Nah, you're thinking of Killzone.
"Garza's dead!"
"So what, Rico? When the hell are you going to die!?"
CambriaRising
Member
I don't even know what to say here.
Odd.
Odd.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
I'd say it's scratching that itch some people have for militaristic SF with a grounded aesthetic. It's drawing inspiration from Aliens and Starship Troopers so its definitely got good pedigree, and it's not like its badly written or anything. The games also being good helped a shitload regarding making people care.
Monumental
Banned
Sometimes it's best not to beat your chest at how ignorant you are about a subject your voicing your opinion on.
Yes, it used to be in a sort of middle-ground between hard sci-fi and gonzo space fantasy. It shared a lot of themes with the "steel pothelms and starships" novels of the 1970s-1980s.
Oh gosh
Oops. I hope I didn't give you the impression that I was some religious person all up in arms at the concept of my god not being an ugly sentient Venus flytrap. I just meant that I like the Flood as they are.
That's true. But does the concept of Prometheans being
dead human AI constructs
I don't want to get into a debate about semantics, but in my view, retconning occurs when a character is revived after he gets transferred from the author who killed him to another who brought him back. If the original author brought a character back, it's because he regrets killing the character off or has some other dramatic purpose for them. But if another author revives a character that wasn't his, the author may have had similar intentions but it comes across to me as "hey I really liked this guy so I'm gonna bring him back lol fuck the original author"
I guess Mercy being revived could be pretty cool - assuming that the Flood didn't take over his personality and he was very aware (and pissed off) of the fact that he was betrayed.
Tartarus, though... in the Kilo-Five trilogy, Jul 'Mdama clashes with the Arbiter. Mdama's motivations are already more clear and established than Tartarus', and so I cannot agree with your choice to resurrect the old Brute.
This is true. However, 343 have gone out of their way to do the exact opposite - with a lot of Halo fans who didn't read the book finding themselves confused and wanting for details. I think it would be fair to say that if you're not reading the books anymore, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.
I still dunno, man. I'm really getting a Vader-vibe from the way 343 is using the Didact. I can't exactly put my finger on it, though.
I will say this, though: the Didact developed a begrudging respect for humanity after their war. It would be a shame to not explore that aspect of his character when fighting him.
Let's be fair here. Megalomaniacs can go either way. They still can be interesting.
I'm not sure if Graveminds can communicate but that wouldn't surprise me. I also wouldn't be surprised if new Graveminds were born with the knowledge of previous, deceased ones - which would help explain Halo 2/3's Gravemind's apparent infinite knowledge. If that's the case, the Halo 3 Gravemind can be dead and a new Gravemind would be just as interesting to clash with.
NYCmetsfan
Banned
This is one of the greatest things of all time.
I've played Halo 1-3 and the story was exactly this. It was kind of cool when the Arbiter teamed up with Chief I guess, but everything else was just generic "WE'RE THE MILITARY AND GOTTA FIGHT SOME ALIENS" kind of schtick. None of the characters were remotely interesting at all.
Ichabod
Banned
*dies*
I was totally gonna read the whole thing until i read that.
MagicWithEarvin
Member
lmao
Managed to be even more boring than the OP, gg.
Sapphire Dreams
Member
I never thought I'd see a fanfiction thread on Neogaf, it's true that you discover new things every day.
Viridiplantae.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
I thought the gravemind just sort of happened whenever the flood got big. Shows what I know.
The mortal enemy of the GAF hivemind.
On topic: congrats OP, you should totally sell this to Karen Traviss.
This is nothing. We had E3 conference fanfiction before.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=480527
Blue Ninja
Member
I will say this.
I hope the Flood don't show their ugly mugs during the Reclaimer trilogy.
You're right. The Gravemind is a compound intelligence the Flood create when their accumulated biomass reaches a certain threshold. The latest Halo fiction tried expanding on that fact, but ended up confusing everyone.
I hope the Flood don't show their ugly mugs during the Reclaimer trilogy.
You're right. The Gravemind is a compound intelligence the Flood create when their accumulated biomass reaches a certain threshold. The latest Halo fiction tried expanding on that fact, but ended up confusing everyone.
Honestly, I enjoyed it. Was more interesting then Halo 4s story. Especially enjoyed the split of arbiter/chief parts. Reminded me of Halo 2, and that's a good thing. Loved the part with the arbiter fighting his way to the top of his palace to see his family slaughtered. Brings some emotion and "need" to fight this war instead of just saving the universe.
StevePharma
Member
GAF you made my day introducing me to Gizoogle.
EmCee Biatch said:
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