I remember a few years ago when I was lamenting the fact that the Halo TV show never went anywhere after its initial announcement way back around the time Bungie was still in charge. That it had just, more or less, been abandoned. I wish I could go back to those days. Those were good days.

it feels like the writers were assigned for something they've never got any interest to begin with so they deliberately sabotage the show, wait until the angry fan leaves and then proceed to do their own things which barely relate to the source materials.

I still think it's funny that the character that is black, gay, male, albino, and blind, is so obviously shoehorned in that it is statistically impossible for someone of his intersection to exist in the U.S.A. (the most diverse country on the planet). He was a "character" made purely to tick boxes.

The excuse for being so different to the games is that a show needs a deeper story. Yet it's no coincidence the highest rated episodes were mindless action because the writing is absolutely awful. The most fundamental element of storytelling, cause and effect, is completely lost on this show. Characters and factions make utterly backwards and nonsensical decisions, sometimes based on info they don't have yet and often based on nothing at all, just so the writers can tick all the boxes of clichés and 'iconic' moments they wanted. The set and prop design is generally pretty good, the cinematography is much better than s1, even the VFX is decent, but the writing and fight choreography is nonsensical and completely amateur.

I’m going to go to film school and make a halo movie worth the fans time. Just hang in there boys.

The only positive I can give is that I like the look of the Jackals, for the most part. Oh and the SPI armor is also aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. Those are basically the only pluses I can give this weird high budget fanfic of a show.

The Bungie-era games had a theme of humanity working together with the games portraying the UNSC, particularly the Marines, as likeable and with personalities Ever since Captain Del Rio in Halo 4, the UNSC's been portrayed as rather spiteful, distant or just not around (which is weird given how Forward Unto Dawn set Lasky up to be very respectable and respectful). Why the hell the showrunners would think it was even sensible to wedge a "Chief vs ONI" plot in a VERY bloated show, that didn't let much from any plotline breathe, really highlights someone either had an axe to grind or they wanted some kind of 'Game of Thrones' in the Halo universe...and holy sh*t: those old live action trailers...how far have we fallen?

I'm glad the rough currents eventually brought you back to safe harbour

26:00 while I'd agree a complete aversion is bad, I think it's important to note that this could be very well done. The Spartan program (well, technically the relaunch of the Orion program which later became the spartan program) wasn't done to protect humanity, it was done to shutdown rebellion. The spartans weren't meant to be soldiers or protectors, they were meant to be enforcers. You could have a very compelling parallel political narrative going on and I think the show would benefit massively from it. Hear me out Season 1 : We do not follow master chief, at all, at least not at first. We follow a small group of insurgents (I really don't want to give kwan a place here, but sure, you *_could_* follow her) that are trying to rebel against the UNSC for some dubious yet understandable reason. For instance, 'the UNSC said they'd do X Y or Z but haven't and that's left our world(s) in ruins!' or some such, buuuut maybe the UNSC had some good reason, like a strange number of cargo vessels have been going dark around that area and the UNSC doesn't know why so are literally unable to deliver them, but don't want to actually tell anyone because it's classified military inteligence and even *_they_* don't know the importance of it yet. Throughout the season we see Master Chief and the Spartans as one thing, and one thing only; the ones who kick in the door, and shoot the protagonists you've been following. You do not see Master Chief, you feel his very existence. In fact, start without the rebels even knowing about the Spartans. The first season's arc should begin with us hammering home that the Spartans are forces of nature, by hammering the 'heros' with them. The rebels, just like the UNSC, should have outposts that just randomly stop responding, only to check-in and find that the entire place has been raided with bodies covering the floor, but only their bodies, no-one else's. Through this arc however you'd also need to show Spartans having comradery, show some quiet moments where they're just on comms, patching wounds, etc. (edit : actually, it would be really well done if at first we know the rebels are having their bases taken out and we of course assume it's the spartans, only *_afterwards_* revealing that the UNSC also has ships going missing, leaving it ambigious which parties are responsible for what at first) For instance, have a character hiding in a vent when the Spartans breach and kill everyone in the outpost so they, completely paralyzed out of fear, just, wait there - silently watching as these people who just moments ago were terminators act so, human. Eventually as they slowly shift their body to leave have an internal HUD view of one of the Spartans helmets and see a faint ping on their motion sensor, only for them to start blindly firing straight into the vent without a moments hesitation. The character then only escapes because they can scamper around the vents and navigate in a way that the Spartans literally can't due to their armor and physical-build. (bonus points if that character grew up in that facility and there is a reason why they'd know how to navigate through the vents like second-nature) Finally, at the very closing episode or moments of the show have a moment where communications with both the UNSC and rebel HQ are randomly drowned out with interference when the Spartans and the rebels have their conflict interrupted by a new threat, a covenant threat. In this moment of uncertainty the Spartans, with their guns still trained on the rebels look to Chief and ask for orders, he hesitates for the first time in the entire show, and gives the order to defend everyone and work together to stay alive. Like that every one of the Spartans instantly pulls down their guns and starts handing over sidearms, rifles, etc. to the rebels, no questions asked. Chief gave the order, they're doing it. Season 2 : *_THEN_* after you've established that 1 : The Spartans are legitimate forces of nature, 2 : there are political tensions at play, 3 : The Spartans, and MC specifically, will follow orders, but also do still have general respect for humanity and value human life, 4 : they're willing to act against orders under specific circumstances, 5 : the spartans respect and look up to Chief specifically as a leader, and all that important background shit, you can start season 2 with the covenant conflict. The issue is that the games didn't need Master Chief to be a character, at least not a first. A show does, but the defining trait *_of_* Master Chief *_is_* that he is a closed book. The difference between a silent character who is interesting and a silent character who is boring is whether or not the audience understands and is engaged with *_why_* that character is silent. The audience has to believe there is an underlying thought process that they have, and that takes a long time to build naturally. By starting immediately with Master Chief they needed to speedrun character development and it backfired horribly. Master Chief only really got a decently fleshed out character probably around Halo 4. That's not a problem for games becuase you don't *_need_* to be playing as a fleshed out character, but in a show you do need to be following a fleshed out character. Master Chief is not an isolated agent, he needs a well understood and active world to bounce off of. Andor in his show was also not an active agent, the entire first few episodes solely existed to explain to us "he not good person, he fairly bland person, world is complicated" and what's interesting is seeing how his character unfolds and develops as a result of existing in such a messy and complicated world. (note : those are two different things, an 'unfolding' of the character would be exposing aspects we didn't see initially whereas a 'developing' of the character would be explicit or implied changes in their aspects. For instance, Chief may decide to disobey orders for the first time (development) because he values human life and understands that there will be a complete masacre if they keep trying to fight eachother and this new unknown threat. (unfolding)) The best way to make someone realize just how dangerous a lion is, is to ask them to hold a steak. Make Chief and the Spartans an almost eldritch threat, a persistent external agent that is unstoppable and non-negotiable. *_Then_* use that time you've bought with the Spartans as antagonists to develop their character slowly so that, by the time you need to treat them as active agents in their own right, they have enough character to stand. Now I'm not a writer, I'm by no means saying this is perfect or flawless, but what I am saying is if you can get me so invested in the Halo show I forget about Master Chief at all, then he kicks the door in and shoots the characters I'm engaged with, I'm instantly going to care a lot more. The Halo *_games_* were action first person shooters, but the Halo *_show_* should take far more queues from something more subdued like The Expanse because the things that made the games work just don't work for shows, not in the same way. (now that I think about it, yeah, seriously pull from the Expanse. Bobby Draper actually had a *_remarkably_* good arc about a dedicated soldier of dubious allegiances kicking ass in a high tech suit of military grade power amor.)

I enjoyed the story of Rogue John, my favorite part is when he went rogue twice then said,"I rebel", saw his father killed by the good guys, then joined them anyway, and stole the death star pla... wait.

I like to think of soren's wife's hair change as this: She went from looking too much like Halsey at a distance, to looking too much like Kwan at a distance.

So we're 2 seasons in to a show called Halo, and have they even explained what Halo is? Because it seems to me that for all the apologists crying out that the show is its own timeline and so it's okay for it to do things differently and you need to approach it on its own terms and it's not the same as the rest of the franchise, for all of that, it's relying an awful lot on people's existing knowledge of the Halo series. I imagine I'd be incredibly lost if I didn't have all the knowledge of the series I do filling things in subconsciously. Genuinely wonder what it's like to watch this with no knowledge of the games at all, how disconnected must it all seem?

Anytime I find a series with a big military that's just the good guys in a conflict it feels like a breath of fresh air now after so many stories keep doing the same thing with them being morally grey at best no matter the stakes. It's not a bad thing to do, but it's something I have little interest in seeing anymore after the versions that did it so well already came and went years ago. Sometimes I just want a faction to cheer for man.

Silver has never sounded more worthless than in its usage of defining this timeline. Should be called the protactinium timeline.

They did my mark 3 spartans dirty rip

The fundamental reason behind everything is the cost of depicting a military campaign. It’s always cheaper to have infighting and board rooms than all out war for 10 hours.

Now they are making a fallout movie and I'm getting flashbacks...

I am sorry for your loss little jelly fish. :(

Thank you for finishing the fight O7

God bless you and your work sir Jellyfish 😇😇😇 I admire your passion and dedication to your work sir. Respect from Croatia Europe 👍👍👍😎😎😎

The sad part of all of this is that there are elements of this show that shows what a Halo tv show could have been. At the end I was just watching for the sake of watching. Also its at least re watchable in clips unlike season 1. But as a whole the working Jellyfish was right. The subplots really hurt this season, and the writing is better but still not great. Honestly Season 1 was such a low bar that all they needed was to not show any nudity shots. Which they didn't so already better but the rest of the show at his point is like a 4 to 5/10 now.

Yeah your back!

Working Jellyfish: Sir, permission to leave the bay? Real Halo fans: For what purpose? Working Jellyfish: To give paramount back their bullsh** 🤣🤣

Halseys studies of forerunner tech is literally the only thing from the lore they got right other than 117 the number only the number😂😂😂

Last time is was this early I uhhhh um I can’t think of anything

Oh God, we've reached the point where we're using Halo 4 as a *positive* example? Jesus...

I'm always annoyed when militaries are portrayed at being complete and total dumbasses. When a korean kid who plays starcraft has a better grasp of tactics than people trying to write a 'competent' military, something is wrong. One is being paid far too much. But the writers clearly don't care about halo, they want to write about the lesbians adopting a kid, and whatnot. Very clearly just continuing the 'I want to do my own story, not the one I was hired for, so I'll just jam it into this thing.' Forgetting that nobody wanted their lame story. Correction, nobody *wants* their lame story.

Regardless of whatever issues you have with the Resident Evil movie adaptations, at least they're fun and give us a series where Milla Jovovich starts every film naked.

I chose to just not watch it

I thought i needed to clean my screen cause of the bubbles lol

1:01 😂😂😂

Just watch, season 3 incoming

I said it in the previous review you made this show broke me in a way that I didn’t think it could. So this time around I think I will elaborate more to contextualize the effect it has had on such a huge fan. I have been a die hard fan of halo since it was first released. I remember having nightmares the first time I fought the flood and couldn’t sleep because the clothes on the chair in my room oddly looked like a combat form, I have irreplaceable memories of when I first beat every game with my brother on legendary, I’ve made friends from across the world that I still keep in touch with to this day, I stuck with the franchise even during Halo 5 because it still was Halo just a different story, I’ve read almost every book there was about the human covenant war aside from a few. So when this show first was announced I got fucking hyped. But this show, feels more like monster wearing a halo skin suit trying to convince me it’s anything other than a generic sci fi tv show that just plagiarizes very poorly the Halo universe. As sad As I am to say it, this show has done something I didn’t think it could do, it killed my interest in the franchise as a whole.

I liked ep 5, even if most didn't.

G’day Jellyfish!

Circular Planet 2: Rise of the Shitty Writing

YAAAAAY!!!

I hope you didn't lose a tentacle with the see turtle encounter? 🙄🙄🙄💙💙💙👍👍👍

I stopped watching after episode 2, season 1. The dumpsterfire was fully engulfed by that point.

If I ever made a youtube channel for my particular interests, at this point, I'd just focus on building up the things I love while ignoring the hell out of the things I opposite of love. Because, most things that needed saying have already been said and someone complaining online has little to no effect on what corpos do in their own little *World™️.* All I could do, at least, is make something I think is good and respectful to what I enjoy while occasionally venting some frustrations I have with the new stuff in a way that doesn't invite the *wrath of the tism* upon me. At most, I'd create chaos in the fanbase by spreading my ideas, amassing followers and splitting community's apart so that if i have to live with the turmoil of postmodern bullshit being omnipresent in my life, then those who perpetuate it can join me in a endless struggle of despair as they war against fellow fans over minutia that I propogated, until they can no longer enjoy what they love like how I can't either. Maybe then I'd have some sort of satisfaction or peace. You know what they say; can't kill an idea, burn down a village to feel its warmth, rolling stones and algae, etc.

I honestly can't point out a single thing I like about this trash.

As a Latin American I despise the show for all the changes and unnecessary additions they make 😢

It's impressive how bad the show is, despite how expensive it is. They could have made a Firefly-budget ODST show and fans would have loved it, instead they burn money for something no one besides bots, professional reviewers, and casual content consumers will enjoy. And even the people claiming to like it will forget about it as soon as it's over. I've given up on the franchise. I had hope after Infinite's campaign, but then upon more reflection I came to understand that it was deeply flawed and I soured on its plot with time. Halo 5 was an abomination. I haven't really enjoyed a Halo game since Reach, and everything since is a few good ideas covered by in mediocre execution and often downright poor writing.

Hollywood is fucked, I only watch Japanese or Chinese or Korean stuff now. Or movies TV's shows before 2015.

Dam I actually like the show expect for episode 5 but the criticism is valid I hope for a season 3 where they portray the UNSC in the good here

27:00 Minor nitpick here, an Apologist is someone who defends the thing, not someone who makes apologies for it. When you make a video defending Halo lore, you're a Halo Apologist.

Thx for your service rewieving this garbage. My journey with Halo began back in the days when the first trailer dropped for the first Halo game ever. For me, it all ended with Reach/Halo 3. Everything that came after that is just bad fanfiction and a fever dream.

Dude this show sucks even for normies. This show is so fucking boring it hurts, how is it an alien war show is so boring?!’ With all this money and effects its a waste of time. Its awful for halo fans and boring to general audiences.

Can it just be a parody so we can laugh at the dumbness instead of trying to make it cool

This might be because I'm a bitter old curmudgeon today but after a while this whole thing just seems petty and gross. Halo died many a moon ago. Give it up already, whatever "Halo Community" or whatever you think exists out there are all either little kids who don't know any better or or people who are in a similar vein to me from about 6 years ago, clinging misguidedly to the idea of recapturing the glory days of an era long gone. Give it a rest already, quit playing these shitty games. The whole franchise was never really anything that special with hind sight, just sorta mediocre. Yeah, a mediocre community for a mediocre franchise like everything else.