Halo Legends 'The Package' review.

And don't forget the three we lost during the events of Halo Wars in 2531.

They won't be coming back, unless you want John knowing about the Flood.

By my count, there are 6 MIA/KIA Spartans they've added. (3 in Legends, 3 in HW)

Now there were two unnammed Spartans which were MIA beofre Reach.

So You can't really say it's canon, unless you start mixing and matching, which just doesn't make sense.

As for the Creators, all I say is this. Joesph Staten Originally said I love Bess wasn't canon. Frankie later said it was. Joesph now says he isn't sure if it fits or not.

Even they don't know what is canon and what isn't.

Vigil wrote:What about the other 2 that died in this one, or Red Team in HW going MIA?

The numbers are getting pretty sketchy nowadays.

If this occurred between 2542 and 2552, one of them is accounted for in FoR. The other is not. But frankly, I wouldn't even try to rationalize this one. The Package has a clear disregard for canon.

KrAzY wrote:yes it does...

we know all of the spartans who weren't at reach....

Quite the contrary.

"Assembled here tonight," she said, "are all surviving Spartans save three, who are engaged on fields of combat too distant to be easily recalled. In the last decade of combat there have only been three KIAs and one Spartan too wounded to continue active duty. You are to be commended for having the best operational record of any unit in the fleet." -Halo: The Fall of Reach page 240

So, we can gather several things from this passage. First, there are at least eight Spartans not currently in attendance at this meeting (all of whom go on to fight at Reach). These eight are the three "KIA" between 2542 and 2552, the WIA, Gray Team, and Sam (was KIA prior to 2542). So, if we assume that these are the only people not in attendance, then there are 25 who fight on Reach, of whom 22 fight planetside (as John, Linda, and James take the space mission). Of those 22, 4 died during the landing, 3 became Team Alpha and attacked the Covenant base,
6 became Team Beta and defended the generators, 3 became Team Gamma and went to secure Vice Admiral Whitcomb, and 6 became Team Delta and went to secure CASTLE Base.

"Despite the UNSC policy of listing every Spartan as missing or wounded in action when killed," Dr. Halsey continued, "I have kept track of those actually 'missing.' There was Randall in 2532, Kurt in 2531, and Sheila in 2544." -Halo: Ghosts of Onyx page 173

A lot of fans have drawn a connection between this and the three KIA mentioned in the passage from The Fall of Reach. However, for the moment, let's assume that they are not. This adds a two more members not present at Reach (Kurt and Randal both went MIA prior to 2542), and also reveals a second member of the KIA group (Sheila was killed after 2542, and now joins Cal among the KIA group), meaning only 20 were planetside, and Team Beta is down to 4 members (the number was not specified, but must be greater than 3).

KrAzY wrote:so unless they changed one of the missing Spartans names to Cal... which they wouldn't have considering that they also seemed to think that brutes were being used as front line troops between 2542 and 2552...

We all know Bungie retconned Brutes to be part of the war. Annoying, yes, but Bungie did it, not some third party.

KrAzY wrote:don't try to defend these... the creators obviously aren't trying to maintain canon... making up excuses and "possibilities" isn't how canon is upheld... right now we have 4 dead spartans whose number effects the number of spartans present at reach... a number that I consider to have more weight than some fucking anime.

Well, technically speaking, the number Nylund gives us in FS is 27 planetside, which is numerically impossible, even if we assume that the three MIA in GoO are the three KIA in FoR. 33-Reach Station Gamma (John, Linda, James)-Gray Team (Adriana, Jai, Mike)-KIA (Sheila, Kurt, Randall)-Sam-WIA (Maria)=22.

And I'm not defending Halo Legends as a whole. It is terrible, and I hate it. I am simply saying that one particular episode (as each is made by a different studio) isn't nearly as terrible as some of the other episodes.

Vigil wrote:And don't forget the three we lost during the events of Halo Wars in 2531.

I like to pretend that Halo Wars doesn't exist. It's what I plan to do with pretty much all of Halo Legends after I'm done ripping its credibility to shreds.

Vigil wrote:So You can't really say it's canon, unless you start mixing and matching, which just doesn't make sense.

Mixing and matching makes perfect sense: If it abides by canon, it's cool. If it does not, it isn't cool, and we ignore its existence.

Vigil wrote:As for the Creators, all I say is this. Joesph Staten Originally said I love Bess wasn't canon. Frankie later said it was. Joesph now says he isn't sure if it fits or not.

Even they don't know what is canon and what isn't.

The main reason ilovebees doesn't fit anymore is because Bungie didn't tell them that there weren't going to be new SPARTAN-II classes, and Nylund had no washouts of any of the SPARTAN-III classes. The year Jasmine was kidnapped fits perfectly with SPARTAN-III Beta Company, though. She was kidnapped in 2537, the very same year Beta Company was authorized. Janissary probably would have been part of Gamma Company, were it not for her dad preventing her from being kidnapped.

KrAzY wrote:yes... but people saw Cal die... so if cal was shiela she wouldn't have been a true MIA... as Halsey would have found out she had died from the debrief

...I'm not saying Cal is Sheila. I'm saying that Randall and Kurt aren't part of the three KIA Halsey mentions in FoR any more than Sam is, and therefore, there were two unnamed Spartans that were killed sometime between 2542 and 2552, one of which could be Cal. I doubt they thought of this when they wrote Halo Legends, but in this regard, they caught a lucky break.

Rasq'uire'laskar wrote:Another thing I'd like to point out: Apparently, some of the stuff written by Nylund didn't sit well with Bungie. Namely, Johnson's Boren's Syndrome being an explanation for his Flood immunity, introduction dates of the more common Covenant species, and a certain plot-hole-warping Forerunner Chrystal.

I just wish they'd leave the rest of the stuff alone.

What's funny is that Bungie pretty much dictated these things, though I'd note that the Elite encounter at Reach Station Gamma was not a first encounter for John-117, but was described like one because it was the first time the reader had encountered an Elite.

Rasq'uire'laskar wrote:In all fairness, what Joseph Statten said was, if it was up to him ilovebees wouldn't make the cut.

Just means Bungie should play a bigger role in story development when third parties make content for them.

Rasq'uire'laskar wrote:I believe Nylund had a lot more freedom than that with GoO and FS.

As for FoR... he had seven weeks to write that. They didn't have time to go over it.

That's ironic, considering most believe FoR to be his best work within the Haloverse.

Rotaretilbo wrote:

Rasq'uire'laskar wrote:I believe Nylund had a lot more freedom than that with GoO and FS.

As for FoR... he had seven weeks to write that. They didn't have time to go over it.

That's ironic, considering most believe FoR to be his best work within the Haloverse.

Indeed.

First Strike and Ghosts of Onyx were still damn good though.

Haven't read what his part of Halo Evolutions yet, hopefully it will be good.

Edited the original post with Part 2.

I think The Babysitter was the best one, I mean sure there was funky hair, weird armor, and one Spartan death. That's better than the Covenant kidnapping a human, two Spartan deaths, X-Wing Motorbikes, Shields, and Star Wars-esque battles.

Vigil wrote:Halo Legends: The Package Review Part 2.

Well time for the second part of this review, as it has now been released. I skip the first seven minutes AS THEY MAKE YOU WATCH THE FIRST PART ALL OVER AGAIN. Beware of Spoilers ahead.

Righto, let's do this thing.

Vigil wrote:

Spoiler:

We catch up with the action right where we left off. The Spartans charge forward in a V formation, killing everything that gets in their way. Fred fires his laser and blows a hole in the door in front of them and they move up. We then get a cut away to John’s HUD. It’s a Halo 3 HUD, with a Shield bar. Did not one tell them that they didn’t have shields then?

Spoiler:

And so they seal their fate. It's really too bad, because I liked some sections of this episode.

Vigil wrote:

Spoiler:

The Chief runs out of bullets in his assault rifle and switches to two SMG’s leaping over a Brute and killing more Covenant as they go. The ships commander orders all the hatches to be sealed and more Covenant pour out from the sides of the corridor. Fred pulls out his own SMG and fires one hand as he charges the laser, while Kelly clears out the rest with her grenades.

Spoiler:

At this stage, I like the fighting sequences, but it is noteworthy that all Covenant blood is green for some reason. Guess they never had the joy of beating down Covenant corpses and splattering cyan or indigo blood everywhere.

Vigil wrote:

Spoiler:

We get another cut away to the Chief’s visor where he has over 800 rounds of SMG ammo (they must be the ones with extra clips or something) and sees a plasma turret on the second floor above them. He leaps up and slow-mo kills them with his SMG’s. Kelly also leaps up and grabs two plasma rifles. Then three elites drop down, one of them is the red Major we saw before. He lunges at chief he dodges the blow. A second minor domo attacks Fred with a sword, and he blocks it with his laser somehow… Fred loses and drops his laser but pulls out his combat knife and stabs the elite in the eye. Two problems with this. Firstly, the Elite had no shield protecting him, and the blood that spurts from the wound is GREEN. Even that asswipe the duel got that right.

Spoiler:

Again, the fighting sequence was enjoyable to watch, but the mistakes made were pretty obvious.

Vigil wrote:

Spoiler:

Fred helps Chief and tells him to keep going drawing a second knife and says, ‘All right, the Great Journey ends here,’ (And I thought John got all the good one liners eh?) Kelly is a little bit ahead of the Chief, finally showing that she is faster, she sounds worried about their comrade but the chief just tells her to focus on the mission.

Spoiler:

No issues here.

Vigil wrote:

Spoiler:

The ship commander knows how close they are getting to the package and starts ejecting parts of the ship to stop them. Kelly seems to make it through just fine, Chief a few steps behind. They then reach a massive gap which Kelly meets chief hallway and propels him across leave her behind. Chief yells ‘KELLY!…..Kelly’ Showing a bit of emotion about his childhood friend.

Spoiler:

For a second, I thought they were going to kill off Fred and Kelly.

Vigil wrote:

Spoiler:

We now find out what the ‘Package’ was and are you ready for the big surprise? In front of Chief is a cryo pod, with the name ‘CATHERINE. E. HALSEY’ on it and yes she’s inside fully clothed of course, we couldn’t have her naked now could we? Chief activates the pod and she steps out. She seems a bit too young in my opinion, with long blond hair, not a wrinkle on her face, she looks around her mid-twenties, which is not how I envisioned her at that point. Sure she did stay in stasis a lot, but I’m pretty sure she did show signs of her age in the books, please correct me if I’m wrong.

Spoiler:

If this is occurring around 2552, then she should definitely be showing signs of her age. If it were much earlier, it would make sense.

Vigil wrote:

Spoiler:

She then refers to him as John and he asks if she slept well , to which she replies ‘no thanks to your driving yes.’ (Direct quote from the Chief in Halo CE) He then says that she seems to be in one piece, which she replies that maybe his luck his rubbed off one her. John replies ‘We make our own luck’ (multiple times in the books) but he always be ther- and Halsey says ‘Don’t make a girl a promise, if you know you can’t keep it (Cortana Halo 2). Ah it’s so nice when you rip off other people’s dialogue to make yours look better.

Spoiler:

I definitely felt that the quotes were out of place, especially the first and last ones.

Vigil wrote:

Spoiler:

After exchanging more dialogue they decide they got to get moving, and they run in the Major again. Chief just shoots him with his assault rifle which the Elites BLOCKS WITH HIS SWORD! Seriously, what the hell, you have shields for Christ’s sake. He throws a energy sword hilt to John, and they duke it out for a while, until John loses. They then run out of time. The Covenant fleet has cleared the magnetic disturbance and are preparing to jump. The Commander orders all of that section to be jettisoned the minute they are ready to jump. The Elite at the helm asks about the Red Elite and his team , to which the commander replies ‘ He has already been shamed, he will die or Arbiter.’ Thanks for telling me the obvious there chuck.

The Arbiter gets sucked up into the leaving ship, leaving John and Halsey in the detached part of the ship, and he says ‘Commander you fool! I had him! A THOUSAND HELLS AWAIT YOU!!!!!!’ (Not quite ‘And so you must be silenced’ is it?)

Spoiler:

I got the distinct impression that the Commander was leaving the Major behind, based on what he was saying. Then they beam him aboard and I'm like "huh?"

Vigil wrote:

Spoiler:

Halsey and Chief run and use an escape pod to get away, when they get ambushed by Seraphs. With no weapons on the pod and nothing John can do they look doomed, until Fred and Kelly arrive in a captured Seraph and give them cover. They make it to the UNSC ship which decloaks and the ship fires LASERS. LASERS!!!!!!!!

Spoiler:

Well, to be fair, the Prowlers are supposed to be equipped with some kind of Pulse Lasers, per GoO, but I think that was much later in the timeline.

Vigil wrote:

Spoiler:

We then close with a classic John/Halsey conversation. She says he really is lucky, to which he replies that he wasn’t lucky enough. Two Spartans died today and that Elite was strong. He says he needs to be stronger. Halsey replies that they all have to be stronger as she thinks this is only the beginning( Shall I award it? Ah what the hell. ‘No. I think we’re just getting started.’)

Spoiler:

You may also notice that they do a pan out as Chief takes off his helmet so that you don't get to see his face just as he removes it, just like at the end of the first game.

Vigil wrote:So overall, this is still the best one they’ve done so far, but this one is riddled with even more minor little annoyances in the canon, but nothing to crippling that we saw last time. It was the closest they ever come to getting close to the books and I’ll give them credit for that. But still, we’ve got a few to get through and it looks like they let the worse till last.

I disagree. I still think The Babysitter was the best, so far. It has some issues, but none on the scale or in the numbers as The Package. This newest one was a good watch, but the issues were glaring and would have been really easy to fix if they'd given two flying fucks about Halo canon.

No. But it would be wrong to say that you won't actively try to forget it exists.

I couldn't enjoy The Duel at all. The other two I enjoyed watching, canon errors aside.