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Edited by Dr. Halsey's Left Arm:
8/7/2013 5:01:06 AM
19
Will Halo's fiction ever evolve?
A few days ago I finished reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Following young Ender as he moves through adolescence with the fate of his species in his hands was captivating and his unwitting xenocide of the buggers and the miscommunication between them and humanity that made that happen was pretty deep. It was depressing stuff.
I have also recently finished reading the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov from Foundation to Foundation and Earth, I have no read the two prequels yet. I've seen that series grow from the development of the Foundation on Terminus as it moves towards the coming Second Galactic Empire through political maneuvering and technological advancement to nearly seeing it collapse from the might of the Mule and his mind powers to seeing it grow suspicious of the Second Foundation and it's council of members with mind powers to the revelation of the entire galaxy being put on track towards becoming a super organism created by an ancient robot. Confusing I know, but what I am saying is that a simple concept of a coming empire arising after the collapse of the previous one morphed into something so much more satisfying.
To look at something different from a different author and two different books from said author, Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End offered a "spiritual" take on science-fiction about humanities evolution while Rendezvous with Rama is a straight up mystery that begs a lot of questions yet doesn't have many answers. Those are some great concepts.
So when I look at what Halo has to offer recently, I just hang my head and wonder when the fiction is going to actually improve in terms of quality and scope. Now a disclaimer, I think the Forerunner Saga does a lot to evolve the fiction. What I am mostly concerned with is pretty much everything set after Halo 3 in the games and books. From the looks of it, Halo is stuck in a rut and can't do anything else but retread everything.
I have to ask, when is Halo going to move past the Covenant, move past the Forerunners, move past morality of things like the Spartan-II Program. I'm not saying things like that should be ignored, but there are so many better topics and stories that could be told instead. At this point I'm getting really sick of the "Humans vs aliens" and "Humans -blam!- yeah!" plot of post-Halo 3 Halo. Shit, I can't be the only one who would love to see humans and some former Covenant species exploring the galaxy together. Maybe it seems a bit too happy-go-lucky, but it sounds way better to me than following around Jul "Humans are worse than the Flood" 'Mdama and the cast of clowns in the Kilo-Five squad. Halo 4 didn't really break this trend either, 343i even made shooting the Covenant easier by making them look more like ugly monsters this time around and throwing away the development those species got during Halo 2-3 and books like Contact Harvest and Cole Protocol.
When are we going to see more alien species introduced into the franchise? The Milky Way Galaxy is huge place so I find it hard to accept that around 8 sentient species are all that there is. It'd be awesome to see how new beings view the Forerunners and all of the mysteries of the cosmos. New technology, new weapons for the games, new places to explore, think about it.
That last part especially really bugs me, we have a vast universe to play with and we never really go anywhere. Instead of a stupid comic book about Sarah Palmer, why not a look at the voyage of the Infinity as it goes from planet to planet. We know it helped in the exploration of Installation 03, that'd be cool to explore.
Frankly, it seems all Halo has going for it now is constant plots about war and killing. And even though I love the Forerunner Saga as it actually had an emphasis on world-building, exploration and mystery, the Precursors on reflection are a bit disappointing. They are basically Cthulhu now, not that that is a bad thing but I would've love to see them more in a chessmaster role with the Mantle, making occasional moves and throwing challenges at humanity to see how they will react and if they are worthy of the Mantle. As of now, they are pretty much, "We're just going to eat all of you guys because you pissed us off".
Maybe I'm judging things a bit prematurely what with two more games on the horizon and no doubt more novels on the way, the Halo story just doesn't look like it is going to change and that is disappointing more than anything because Halo has the potential to be something more.
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1 ReplyWell the Forerunners have never been explored before, the human race is arguably being depicted as evil, and the morality of the Spartan II program has never been discussed before (unless you count a few paragraphs mentioning Halsey's regrets as "discussions"). And we have Escalation coming up, which promises to show the Arbiter and co., humans, and even Brutes in a diplomatic, friendly light (as friendly as Brutes can be that is) post-Halo 4. But seeing as the overarching theme of Halo has been the human race Reclaiming its destiny, achieving that destiny won't be possible without resolving old conflicts. As peace keepers, the holders of the Mantle would have to demonstrate their ability for peace, something the UNSC, Hood, and even Lasky all show signs of, and something ONI does not. ONI may be the main characters of the Kilo-Five trilogy, but nowhere did anyone say they had to be the good guys, and their proclivity for some very Faber-esque racism would suggest that they are in fact not the good guys. Thematically I'd wager ONI represents what kind of mentalities need to be spaced for the human race to evolve into their destined roles, in the same way Faber represented the same thing to the Forerunners (and why they failed so miserably), but for that to be thematically relevant, it needs to be literally discussed in detail. Hence, ONI's BS in the Kilo-Five trilogy. But anyway, I find it difficult to understand how you can think Halo's story isn't evolving. The morality of the Spartan II program, and the fate/nature of the Forerunners had [I]never[/I] been discussed before 343i took over, but now they're the focal points of the universe. They may be old topics, but that's the whole definition of "evolving," taking things which existed before and expanding upon them. What you're talking about isn't evolution, it's revolution, new ideas, new concepts, new places and so on. And while that may work down the line, Halo 3 left far too much hanging to shift the focus onto entirely new concepts. An old expression I heard was that the end of war is only half the battle, and the same rings true here. There's an entire galaxy now no longer distracted by the immanent threat of obliteration, and as the dust settles the world will start to look far more complex than the simple "us vs. them" Halo had been for the longest time. Loyalties start to become tested, political backstabbing comes into play, people point fingers, people start asking questions, and conflicts will resume in a different fashion. Realistically Halo 3 didn't really end anything, it just gave us more questions. Halo has always been predominantly one overarching story that ties everything together, so for now the focus will remain on what it has remained on, but that focus [I]is[/I] evolving as the story must. Things are progressing--the UNSC and the Arbiter evidently have an alliance and are in peace talks with the Brutes, of all people. The Forerunners are becoming fleshed out characters and are returning. The Chief is questioning his humanity in the face of defeat, and in turn the UNSC may even be questioning him. The Precursors are beginning to show themselves which may result in the whole universe coming to a head in the end. I think that's what makes it interesting to me, is that with each story you start to see a larger picture developing, you see how one thing leads to the next. Halo is evolving. It may be slower than the rose-tinted ending of Halo 3 would have implied, but realistically, galaxy-spanning epics would hardly be very fast progressing would they?
