Nope, the Halo writers just give their characters weird names so that 15 year old boys like you go like "Oooh...thats deep and there's meaning and connections and shit probably", even though there's really not. They do the same with starships, planets etc.
The Johnson-Arbiter cooperation is the first instance we directly see of Human-Covenant cooperation, but the first *implied* instance is in Halo: Combat Evolved. In the level "343 Guilty Spark" you can find a group of marines and jackals on top of a crate, dead. The atmosphere and overwhelming flood presence implies they teamed up to fight together in hopes to make it out alive, but failed.
"Tarturus... The prophets have betrayed us...." I think that is the most powerful line the Arbiter has said in any of the Halo games. What a fantastic job by his voice actor
@@doctor_owl 2 years late but the more I think about the "The cable... I'm going to cut it" line, the more I'm convinced that Jason Jones and Joseph Staten to be absolute geniuses. No other line of dialogue ever written past that point makes as much of a difference as that one. Delta Halo, Regret, Sacred Icon, Quarantine Zone, Gravemind, Uprising, High Charity, The Great Journey - all filler, after that singular line said in The Oracle. I cannot believe they even decided to make the rest of the game after writing that part. They should've immediately known it was wrapped up for the rest of Halo altogether, and Bungie should've just went around their boardroom giving out handshakes to everyone - congratulating them for their help with Halo 2, and that it was now ready to ship.
@@VictimHazard LOL still true 2 years later! I watched the dev commentary and they all laughed about how important that single line was. Pretty much what you said - that's a wrap boys, the pinnacle of gaming right here!
1) I've said for a long time that the Arbiter (Thel Vadam) was the main character in Halo 2. Anyone who says otherwise wasn't paying attention lol. He actually had a character arc, unlike the Chief. Like you said in the video, the Chief's parts were all set up for Halo 3, he had no development of his own. Halo 3, while it nailed the tone (mostly thanks to the scores by O'Donnell) really fell short on the story. I've always had the feeling we never actually got Halo 3, we got "Halo 3: Abridged". This is pure speculation on my part, but I am absolutely sure that Microsoft wanted to avoid a repeat of Halo 2's multiple delays, and so set a HARD deadline for development. As well, they wanted a greater emphasis on multiplayer to support Xbox live and continue the trend set by Halo 2. Therefore much more time was spent on multiplayer development relative to the campaign, and if I'm right and that is the case then it reaaaaaallllly shows. Halo 3's story feels rushed, like a short movie based on a long book, as if there's a lot just.....missing. Like the Lord of the Rings Movies. Great movies, but they had to throw out like 2/3 of each book. That's how Halo 3 feels to me, like 2/3 of the story is missing. 2) Diving outside of the game real quick here to discuss Truth and his motivations. You make a good point about how whether or not Truth actually believes what he's preaching, it's irrelevant. All he cares about is his own status and the preservation of the Covenant. The entire reason Truth started the war with the Humans was to cover up evidence that the Covenant's beliefs could possibly be flawed. He learned that Humans were supposed to be the inheritors of the Forunner's power/empire, not any of the Covenant races. Basically if God showed up and told the Jews, "Hey so sorry about this but you guys actually are NOT the chosen people, that was a translation error. My Bad". Truth would commit genocide against an entire species to maintain his Covenant, which leads me to believe something very disturbing about his role in Halo 3. It's my personal belief that Truth knew full well by the time of his demise in Halo 3 exactly what the true purpose of Halo was. I believe he was willing to activate the rings and kill not just himself, but every intelligent species in the galaxy if it meant he didn't have to be exposed as a liar, lose his power, and suffer the same shameful fate as he inflicted on the Arbiter and who knows how many other "Heretics". Or perhaps it was a kind of "Kool-Aid" type of deal where he believed this ritual death was the path to ascension. Either way I'm certain he knew full well that activating Halo meant death for everybody. 3) The Arbiter/Thel never explicitly says that he intends to stop the ring from firing when he meets up with R'tas (The white armored Elite in the tank). He simply says "I must get inside". He is thinking about what the Gravemind told him, filled with doubt and seeking the truth, seeking the confirmation of his doubts. The Control Center is a logical place to look for the Index/key, as it MUST end up there eventually if Truth planned to activate it, right? After all, IF the Gravemind is right, then activating Halo would be VERY bad. So I don't think it's a stretch to believe that he could want to at least delay the activation until he knew for ABSOLUTELY SURE that turning on Halo wouldn't toast literally everyone and everything he's ever met. It isn't until the final confrontation with Tartarus, when he is able to ask Guilty Spark about the purpose of Halo and the fate of the Forunners, that he fully sheds his past beliefs. He wasn't JUST trying to convince Tartarus to stand down, he needed to hear it from the Oracle for himself.
Its even more evident in the Anniversary cutscene on how the Arbiter is animated to act. He doesn’t truly focus on Tartarus, he’s mostly looking down, like he’s speaking to himself and is acting as if his entire worldview has changed.
As a Christian, I can say that organized religion is dangerous, and Jesus seems to agree. Heck, the new testament seems to be nothing but a plea to keep faith small-scale, personal, and open. So yeah, love halo 2 lol.
Indeed. All ideas can be turned to dogma and extremism. If people hold on to them too hard and cast out all else it just builds a cycle of self destruction. Religion, politics economic ideas/systems , etc. Are not inherently bad, its just that people all too happily corrupt ideas and turn them to be about getting power and supremacy.As was sort of said before at 40:13, there isn't anything wrong with Religion itself, its really extremism and the lack of compassion or empathy for outsiders that is the real problem.
@Cghcf I don't know what that is. I'm personally not religious. I just couldn't help but notice that the catholic church has changed a lot, even if just in many small ways, over its existence. I imagine it's just about to change again, what with the child abuse scandals and society's changing moral norms again.
If RUclips's channel recommendation algorithms actually worked I'd have found you months ago instead of getting a flood of "Elsa does crack?!" bullshit or whatever. 6 minutes in and you earned yourself a subscriber.
Games As Literature I salute you for proving that Halo and Halo 2 in particular actually have a far more compelling and subtle narrative than people give it credit for. And kudos to you for praising the Arbiter. I always thought he was a far more fleshed-out and neat character to play as. It astounds me to this day that reviewers panned his levels for being too jarring, when if you pay attention to the damn game it actually makes sense because these little things called "cutscene transitions" exist.
Twisted Logic - unfortunately that is not what everyone else thought after Halo 2. I remember everyone crying about being him. That reason why I love Halo 2 is the Arbiter’s story. I love this game, but it’s story got a lot of hate.
So did MGS2 for much the same reason, but it retroactively received a lot of acclaim. I hate being the one to say it, buy gamers are fickle bitches by and large. They want what they want but often they're not sure what exactly what that is.
No offense but halo 3 was a disappointment compared to halo 3 Halo 2. Halo 3 Replayability. X. _ Adds perspe- ctive to plot. X. _ Great multiplayer. X. _ Forge/theater. _ x Who won the Space race? [Edit] halo 3 also kinda ruined the flood.
I was hoping you'd talk more on the gravemind's quotes like "I am a monument to all your sins". I think its a powerful scene. It's more or less any enemy you've killed coming back to haunt you.
It's moreso a retconned story arc where humans were originally intended to be descended from forerunners. The forerunners were originally the ones that brought rise to the flood by genociding the precursors. Signs point to the fact that Bungie originally intended this but it was retconned sometime around halo 3. ruclips.net/video/nXqK2pSJXK0/видео.html
One little bit of low key storytelling I really like in the first 2 Halo games is that whenever the Flood show up this strange creeping synth electronic music is layered into the background, to my knowledge this is the only music in the original Halo trilogy that uses synth, which underscores how different and wrong the Flood are.
In that light I think there's something to be said about how synth heavy the soundtrack to Halo 4 is. In combating the Flood, the Didact essentially created his own version of them.
Thank you for bareing yourself and your struggles for us to see on this one. I can see it means a lot to you and i really respect how professionally youve approached this enormormous topic. I continue to look forward to more insightful commentary from you.
This really speaks to me. I used to be quite religious, and it took something similar to what happened to the Arbiter to realize that I couldn't take it anymore, and left. Thank you for this analysis. It allows me to contextualize what happened to me in stricter terms, and that helps me out a lot.
JDRPG Care to share what happened? I'm not saying I don't believe you, just that "something similar to what happened to the Arbiter" has me honestly curious lol
Not literally what the Arbiter went through, I didn't have to get captured by a giant monster and fight my way through hundreds of enemies. But his spiritual journey about how even though he was a firm believer in his religion, it betrayed him, and it took an outside force to help me see what was wrong.
JDRPG I thought it might have been something like that. Care to share which religion? I'm Roman Catholic but don't consider myself a strict adherent to Catholicism. I actually believe that while there is likely a higher power that created things via the big bang over millions or even billions of years (7 days to whatever God is) I do not believe this higher being to be quite like anything we've been traditionally taught. I personally believe the Bible exists merely as a form of guidance and as a way of explaining things that are far beyond our comprehension in simple terms and stories. In essence I believe in a form of the divine but simultaneously believe in science, etc. I believe we should never stop asking questions and see any religion that harshly punishes us for using our brains and thinking for ourselves as potentially dangerous in it's authoritarian restrictions on freedom of thought.
Hopping on to various Games as Lit videos to remind folks to share these around to your friends. It makes a hige difference; even just getting some of these older videos more exposure will bring more people in on the fun.
Halo 2 has had the most impact on my life of any game. Let's head back to 2004, when the game was released. We were just over 3 years since 9/11. The war in Afghanistan and been going since then, and the war in Iraq had been going for about a year and a half. At the time, I was following in the footsteps of many of my white, Republican, conservative family and friends by being hateful to Muslims. Now, I didn't see it as a hate. I just figured they were all evil. So, as you can imagine, when I sat down to play Halo 2 and realized I would play as the Arbiter, I was very put off. I didn't mentally connect the real world parallels to the game. I just saw him as the enemy. But by the end of his journey, especially having the final mission be from his perspective, I definitely liked him. As I reflected more on his arc, and as I've learned more about what it means to be Christian, and an American, I've come to value him as a better hero than even the Master Chief. Needless to say, I was also very salty that the Arbiter didn't get his own arc in Halo 3, or even Halo 4. (I have yet to play Halo 5). Another great video! Happy New Year!
We can never judge a religion based on people's actions only on what the religion atcually teaches. Which is why if someone murders someone in the name of Jesus they are going agaisnt Jesus. Whereas all of thr Nice Muslims I've met go against their Religion. Even if they don't realize it.
@@magnenoalex2 true, taking a disliking to Islam is like taking a disliking to the Covenant. Those parallels are obviously intentional, the Arbiters original name during development was "the Dervish". You dont hate the individual, you hate the ideas and beliefs, and the actions that come from them. I see each species of Covie as a sort of parallel for a type of personality found in humans.
Can't wait for you to tackle Halo 3. Especially since the second level has a secret cameo from the guys at RoosterTeeth, back when Red vs Blue was their only notable and remembered series.
Hello, Games Professor. ^^ I just wanted to say thank you for making this channel and for putting so much thought and work into your videos. I've been following your videos for a few months now, and I absolutely love your work. I can't begin to express how much I appreciate you for representing video game storytelling in such an engaging and respectable way. I will be supporting you on Patreon as soon as I get my finances back on track after the holidays, haha. :) In regards to this specific video, I really appreciate the details you went over involving the religious themes in this series. I come from a similar background in regards to spirituality, so it was really nice to hear your viewpoints on this topic as well, especially considering how respectful you are over the subject. I love the Halo series on a very personal level, to the degree it helped me grow stronger in my faith when I was going through a dark time in my life, so I really enjoyed seeing it represented so well. On a side note, Halo will always mean a lot to me. I've seen the good and bad in religion in my life personally, and I feel that it's represented well in this game series. I know you talked about it briefly in the Halo 1 (I hate the subtitle too) analysis, but one thing that always stood out to me was Master Chief's name and it's meaning. I always thought it was taken from the Bible verse 1 John 2:17, "The world and its desires shall pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." I always interpreted that as an explanation to the "luck" that Cortana mentions in the beginning of Halo 3. To me, Chief (in Halo 1, 3, and 4) and Arbiter are representative of how believers should be (approaching the unknown, adapting to what is learned, persevering, and fighting for what's right even at personal cost) while the Covenant are clear examples of how damaging blind religious obedience and manipulation of religious guilt can be. But that's just my simple view of things, haha. Again, thanks for all that you do for gaming as an artistic medium. I hope to have perfect attendance in this class going forward, hahaha
I'm late to the party, but have been replaying some of the old Halo games on the Master Chief Collection and was looking for some interesting insights on the plots. Your channel does not disappoint! A+ material right here.
Tyler it shocked me to see the HD version. I expected a more detailed yellow monster, not a bloody mouth that looks like something Lovecraft would make.
Wonderful video, but I think you're discounting Chief's point of view just a little bit. Keeping Chief's point of view wasn't just a marketing decision- it also expands the universe and helps tell the Arbiter's story as well. (Or maybe Halo 2 is my favorite game of all time and I'm unwilling to accept any sort of criticism, lol.) Halo 2 is the first time we get to see humanity's full capabilities and technology level. We truly get an understanding of how outclassed humans are against the Covenant- they beat the orbital defenses and landed on the surface with a tiny, tiny, fleet! The entirety Chief's second level gives you the sense that if something big doesn't change, humanity isn't going to last very long. It's important to set up this tone for both this game and the later games. Chief's POV also really hammers home the intensity of the church split. "Gravemind" is a spectacular level as far as storytelling goes. It's unsettling as hell to watch your former enemies fighting each other instead of you. It also feels incredibly immersive- as if it isn't just a game with predetermined enemies, but instead a living, breathing world that would continue to go on even if you log off. It brings a kind of realness to the schism that you would otherwise be detached from in the Arbiter levels; seeing all the dead elites on the ground wouldn't mean as much if you didn't just come from witnessing the bloody massacre aboard the High Charity.
I think a good explanation for Arbiter's sudden turn is him seeing how the Brutes had killed his fellow Elites, and even the Councilors. Its not much, and his turn is still rushed, but I think it'd be some nice visual storytelling
Imagine how controversial this game would be if you could only play as the Arbiter in the campaign hahaha, and if you had missions in which you'd kill humans. I'd love the game to death if it did that
I ended up playing Halo 1 and 2 back to back having arrived to the party late (just as Xbox LIVE was kicking off) and having read the expanded material previously. Having these two in quick succession blended them for me, and the expanded material published up to then made the world much much richer for me as a result, all sort of compounding to great effect. But Halo 2 was an amazing experience regardless. The menu suite alone is still nostalgia goosebumps inducing. It's been a really long time since playing these. I hadn't quite realized just how literal some of the religious parallels were and how much depth there was to what it was trying to do. Halo 3 had a lot to live up to. I've come from a similar upbringing, and I have too seen the darker side of what these kinds of mindsets enable. What organized religion has shown itself to be capable of and where those more perverted mindsets lead a person (as far as self-destruction in some cases), has all been enough to unseat even the most conditioned and blindly accepting person of faith in myself. Not healthy. Not healthy at all and quite far from what that religion is meant to champion or represent. I really liked what you said about the mindset of heresy and how that gets extended to deviation from the norm in general. The concept of betrayal is also a very strong one. Even if you don't outright or immediately abandon all tenets of your faith, seeing what that faith is capable of compelling people to do and especially to you personally completely unseats the basis of what that faith was meant to represent or facilitate.
For me as a kid when I got thrown into the Arbiter’s missions I didn’t like it at all. I think I was like 10 or 11, so coming off H1 I always saw them as the enemy. As I’m sure most players did. However, having gone back through the series as an Adult I’ve come to appreciate these missions. Not just because they show the social structure and inner workings of “the enemy” but because the highlight that the races within the Covenant(specifically the Elites’ race) aren’t the enemy. Humanities enemy is the same sort of extremist religious fundamentalism that humanity fought over amongst itself for thousands of years throughout its history and had only relatively unshackled itself from before the events of the first game. The Arbiter’s missions put the face to true enemies of humanity(other than the Flood of course). That being the Prophets Truth, Regret and Mercy. As well as the Brutes intentionally creating a power struggle within the Covenant itself. The “lower” races were forced into servitude, while the elites truly believed the teachings the Prophets spewed out on a whim to make themselves and their actions align with said teaching despite them actively ignoring said teachings while holding all those beneath them to a strict doctrine. Using the Brutes from H2 onwards as their “inquisition,” if I may draw parallels to our own history. It’s the ideology that is the foundation of the Covenant and those who would abuse it who are the true enemy of the original trilogy. And without the Arbiter’s missions we may never have come to realize this problem and how to solve it.
Very good critique, but I have an issue when you bring up that Arbiter never has a point where he there's a visual change/realization where he reforms. He doesn't have one because the player is supposed to fill in that gap after all the cracks that Arbiter has witnessed. First, the heretic leader fills him in on some info, the oracle was with the leader that made him turn heretic (of course he was also an elite), then later he is betrayed by the brutes and the prophets he always followed. Again gets info from the gravemind and com. that the great journey is bullshit. Then sees all the destruction being done to his kind and etc. And also his people are fighting alongside him already. I think that first elite you meet says "they have shed our brothers lives and for that they must die" so regardless of what the Arbiter thinks about the great journey at that point, right now all he and the rest of the elites are concerned with is saving their race and getting revenge. Even when he meets up with Shipmaster he doesn't say "the great journey is false" and later Johnson says "he's gonna activate this ring and kill use all," Arbiter still doesn't say "yes that's true" but again he hears more confirmation that the great journey is BS. It isn't until the ending where he finally says out loud anything that confirms the change in thought. There is that one point at the start of "The Great Journey" where he remembers what the Gravemind said, but even that can just be interpreted as Arbiter thinking the Great Journey is still possible but it def. shouldn't be done with these assholes. Also not to mention that the humans have been fighting against them this whole time as well with the idea that the GJ is BS. But I can understand the desire for that "moment of realization" as the player already knows the journey is BS etc. edit: posted this before the ending of the vid. So Yea I agree with that take more.
The first video I discovered from you was your review of Halo CE, and I've been anticipating this review for almost a year. This is fantastic and you did a phenominal job. I'm look forward to your Halo 3 analysis and how you wrap up the trilogy's themes and messages!
Excellent video. I appreciate your thorough and open breakdown of the concepts in Halo 2. This is the first one of your videos I've watched and I'll definitely be checking more out.
Great commentary on this game. I've personally always felt that the Arbiter was a better character than Master Chief and he is my favorite in the original trilogy. I also really liked your comment about whether he is more Martin Luther or Paul, this really gives me a lot to think about and I'm glad you brought it up. As a fellow Christian who has gone back and forth as an adult, I can understand some of the personal struggle with faith. For me, my parents always push me to attend church and they believe it is some significant achievement in your faith, but my wife and I aren't as interested in doing that. Currently we focus on attending a much smaller group with a focus on studying the Bible. This has really been a great outlet as it brought me away from all the guilt tripping and "Repent Now" type messages I see in churches often. I'm not saying that all churches do that, but it has been a large portion of my experience. Back to topic, this has helped me focus on what I think the Christian faith should be focused on: a relationship with God. I say all of that just to give you a personal anecdote about my struggles with the Christian faith as well. Hopefully you can find some meaning in your struggle and come to some answers or conclusions that help you live with peace. Great video, keep it up!
I sympathize with your view on faith, and the estrangement from the Church. My mother went through a similar thing and, though she did just fine, I feel like a small piece of her went with her choice to no longer be a member of it. Can't be easy to step away from something you spent twenty years - from adulthood I might add - trying to be an active part of. Better to have ideas regarding belief than dogma.
This was a really good analysis, I've always loved this game for its narrative and thought it stood out within the series for the complexities in it. Whilst most criticised the game for this, it's what made me love it so much. I am sorry to hear about your experiences with Christianity. I am Christian myself, having come from a previous more agnostic/atheistic background when younger, but absolutely agree with the condemnation of organised religion here. So often it warps and shifts away from what the religion is actually about, for the sake of furthering the power of its figureheads, and I believe this is part of America's problem, as well as so-called Christians across of the world. Relevant mainly to me are those who denounce homosexuality using the bible as reference, ignoring the context of said passages (I don't believe that God has any issue with homosexuality at all), and also ignoring many other things the bible condemns as well; the most obvious and frustrating ones of these is divorce, which the bible has some very angry things to talk about, certainly in contrast to homosexuality, but I don't see these people rallying against that. Pure hypocrisy. I also liked your explanation for the Arbiter's curious turnaround. This is one I've thought about before but you're the first I've seen to both actually talk about it and to come to a conclusion similar to my own, albeit a bit more in depth and detailed than my own previous thoughts, which were vaguely along similar lines. I saw it as the things he's seeing since the Gravemind teleported him there as giving him doubt, which I think was ultimately, fully confirmed by Guilty Spark's revelation to him and Tartarus; I think THAT is the moment he totally realises the whole thing has been wrong, though rather than saying it's wrong per se, what he says is that the Prophets have betrayed them, the real important point here. This also emphasises what you were saying, as the betrayal of the Elites/Sangheili being what finally opened his eyes, and not the real facts behind the religion, per se. Also good on you for not delving into the extended universe much just yet. The games and their narrative should be expected stand up on their own without relying on that material, and furthermore most of it came after the game, sometimes a LONG time after (basically all the 343 stuff that I do NOT care for at all. As far as I'm concerned, Halo ended when Bungie left it), and so it cannot and should not be relied upon to have any relevance regarding Halo 2's development, intent and our interpretation of the material it presents.
These are some of the best videos on RUclips and just like Gears of War 2 they had a pretty good and deep story would love to hear your thoughts on Halo 4. went for a more personal story of Chief way more than any other game. I believe Halo Reach came pretty close as well as having a pretty grounded personal story... Anyway you're one of my favorite RUclipsrs can't get enough of your work
Truth abandoning the other Prophets and Thel 'Vadam denouncing the Covenant for his people's suffering is really important for the cultural differences, I think. The EU establishes that Sangheili culture places importance on community and what one does is both for honor and the community so much so that unrelated Sangheili will refer to each other as being brothers or sisters. Another thing is that historically the Arbiter was a highly respected title earned through valor and honor, but the San'Shyuum turned it into something shameful akin to banishment; most likely to repress any uprising due to the Sangheili importance of kinship with their conspecifics. Considering the origins of an Arbiter, it's really quite fitting (and likely purposeful) that Thel 'Vadam as the Arbiter leads resistance-bringing back the honor and respect, going to its roots, outright reclaiming the Arbiter as a title belonging to his people and his people alone.
My real disappointment for the arbiter sequence was being an Elite and NOT fighting human enemies. I really think they should've added a level where you get dumped into the arbiter right before his shaming, perhaps even make it the first level of the game to really get peoples' attention, where he fights marines or insurrectionists even. And when he returns from that mission, THEN he's called before the prophets. I feel like if you're going to go down the "playing as covenant" route you need to go all the way. I think it would've pissed a lot of people off, but would also GENUINELY present a reverse perspective. It would've also given more opportunity to play up the animosity between the Elites and Brutes and the different caste roles of the covenant. One of my biggest gripes with Halo is its lack of flagrant world building. They are great at putting world building into their maps and environments, but Halo - ESPECIALLY the new games - suck at portraying the wider scope of things and the politics of the times, both within the human factions and between the humans, human colonists or insurrectionists , and the covenant. There is a lot of opportunity there but it doesn't seem to be taken advantage of a whole lot. It kinda reminds me of the new Star Wars trilogy where we have no fucking clue what's going on outside of the events of the story or the geo-political stage on which the events are supposed to unfold. Playing Halo 4, my questions were "What's going on with the covenant now, what's going on with the Elites and the Humans, is there any cooperation or interaction whatsoever?"
Loved the video! Just to let you know, the Forerunner being ancestors to humans is from the Halo novels, which was being written when Bungie was still taking over the games. The reason why we don't know anything about it is because Microsoft started going by the novels after Halo 3...which is where most old school fans get pissed. In fact, 343 Guilty Spark was human, who was killed by the Diadect and his memories were uploaded to the floating orb. Now, when Guilty Spark goes rampant, that is his human memories taken over and his intense isolation mixed together. Johnson's survival of the flood attack of Halo 1 is because he is a proto-Spartan, and his cells were changed. Again, explained in the novel. The Gravemind is what happens when the parasites become a ture hive mind, which has all information , and what Captain Keyes was becoming in Halo 1. The biggest problem with the Halo series, is the fact that they made novels and made no mention of it during the writing process of the games, which can be irritating when you read the really, really long books and then play the game.
Chief affects the most change in Halo 2. He helps defeat the initial Covenant invasion of Earth and kills the Prophet of Regret. Regret's death is the excuse Truth needs to replace the Elites with the Brutes as honor guards, which is the impetus for the Covenant Civil War. The Arbiter changes personally far more than Chief does- Chief barely changes if he does at all- but the Arbiter doesn't really change all that much personally apart from his own mind.
44:40 Contact Harvest, written by Halo 2's primary writer and cinematics director, Joseph Staten, reveals answers to all your questions about Truth's motivation.
This is the first video of yours I've seen, and I've got to say, it's an impressive offering. I thought at first this might be a parody, as in, you just dump on the idea of treating games like art or analyzing them, but I'm glad it really is about you analyzing and thinking about things. I played Halo growing up, I distinctly remember suffering because I was grounded the week Halo 2 dropped, and eagerly awaiting my chance to play it. I got up early in the morning to watch the downloaded 144p (it must have been) Halo 2 trailer. ... The one where basically none of it actually got into the final game, with the UNSC field hospital and all that. And I never really thought about the game as an active critique of when organized religion goes bad, even though, or perhaps because, it seems so obvious it smacks you in the face. The Covenant are the bad guys, and inherently have the [religion] tag smacked prominently on them, but the way you detail, step-by-step, how accurate the Aribter's journey is to real religious experiences, at least the bad ones, well. It's undeniable. EDIT: In summary: The Chief is a soldier. The Arbiter is a warrior. Together, they fight galactic crime.
awesome review! so glad you came back to this series! your openness with your beliefs and how it effects your analysis and the insight it brings to your analysis of the arbiter is very welcome. as an objectivist i appreciate the distinction between religion and organized religion and how a lack of true moral and ethical core will lead inevitably to destruction. cant wait for you BioShock Infinite review. will you be doing a review for BioShock2?
33:12 this is minor and I'm sure few care, but few people realize that Narnia isn't based on the Bible it is supposed to be an allegory to this Bible. Therefore the references must be obvious. One wouldn't make a comparison that's hard to understand because it would be counterintuitive to do so
We still need the episode about Halo 3! Would love to hear you talk about how the flood act in that one (briefly joing forces) as well as the story of Mendicant Bias as told through the terminals and how that is a story of tradgic redemption, but only maybe? Please!
Hmm I'm surprised this doesnt have 10x as many views, not because I dont agree with u, but because u speak to something, that speaks to me, in a much more authentic way.
I actuall think that the anniversary version of gravemind looks way better the old one looks like a venus flytrap you couldnt even tell if he aas flood the new one way better i see blood on him and bones and flood biomass skulls you name it
This is pretty damn good. Though I can't help thinking of this guy who long ago said that halo was racist, (His arguments were really bad too. He argued that since the human faction was just humans and how the covenants where a bunch of different aliens that somehow made it racist.) This video definitely proved him wrong.
I guess I could see the idea that painting a single race as the good guys and a coalition of diverse races as the bad guys is problematic, but I don't think that read checks out in this case.
Yeah I think the guy wanted to find reasons to hate halo, and FPSes in general since he made a video about FPSes and he basically said "All FPSes are the same." (Except for bioshock and half life 2 for some reason.)
+GamesAsLiterature Since he did not link to the video, it is here for you to judge for yourself: ruclips.net/video/WS7eeGbDIz4/видео.html At no point does he call Bungie racist, though he is of the opinion that the UNSC is quasi-fascist (which, given what is shown of ONI, is an opinion backed by canon). He thinks it is more just a "collective unconscious" thing rather than any wilful intent. He thinks it makes the protagonists less interesting when the UNSC is mostly humans in military uniforms while the covenant has a pretty wide variety of enemy designs. What he did take issue with was a live action ad for Halo: Reach for, intentionally or not, having the visual symbolism that the procedure to become a Spartan was a success by showing the Spartan candidate's eyes turning blue which... yeah, that was really stupid.
I have watch the guy's other videos and he really doesn't do research, in one video he admitted that he didn't play or watch the game that was played but felt like he had a good argument about it and also a lot of his two videos on the subject was yelling at people who didn't agree with his argument (And was really ableist about it. Like comparing the fans to the villain of misery, infact he also supports eugenics as well storify.com/Model_Omega/yes-you-can-support-eugenic-worldviews-without-bei )
There is nothing wrong about it, you hold the front with you're left hand and hold the trigger with you're right hand but he already had the smg in his right hang. 5:11 watch it in 0.5 speed
In my opinion, I think the Arbiter is closer to Luther, due to how shattering his break is with the Covenant. At the same time though, he did solidify certain parts of the Covenant while working for it, which is definitely similar to Paul.
Cghcf when did that ever happen to Paul or Luther? Both utilized the scriptures to reform the catholic church and the Jewish church to believe what the scriptures actually say. Luther wanted to be rid of the book of James because of his disdain for works, yet retained it due to his belief that the Canon was flawless.
Hey, I know this is many years later but I'm just seeing this for the first time and I really appreciate you opening up about your experience of growing up Christian and still having your own beliefs but not really joining a church. I myself have felt this as well.
Halo 2! My personal favourite. Interesting point about the shift in tone and atmosphere. That's a huge thing for me in how I think the series went downhill, but I don't think it was a big issue in Halo 2. While it's true that shift was happening right from the start, I don't think it actually went so far as to change the major focus away from awe and exploration until after the original trilogy. I'd say Halo Reach is probably the moment where it really tipped over, with ODST being something in the middle ground. But the original trilogy are still what I would consider the atmospheric ones.
To be fair with the seeming abruptness of the Arbiter's shift, to me it seems like he's mostly just trying to get revenge on the brutes at first, and doesn't actually denounce his faith until he asks Spark to explain what the rings are for and gets the same answer that the gravemind had given him.
My only complaint about this game is that Chief didn't have a character arc. I know, a controversial opinion, but I think giving him a personal arc in Halo 2 would have served both to add more nuance to the story and juxtapose him to the Arbiter in yet another way. Maybe something about how he's been fighting the war for twenty years, and wants to stop but knows he can't for the sake of humanity? Idk how they would have pulled that off but I think it would be interesting. Regardless, Halo 2 remains my favorite game of all time
I would suggest that the Chief's story is one of rising costs for doing what it is that has to be done. The Arbiter didn't really have all that much else to lose, but the Chief lost one of the only friends he really had left (before 343i started doing their thing and such). As such, Halo 2's Chief storyline is really more of a preamble to Halo 3's more consolidated storyline.
Only thing I would change about Halo 2 is Tarturus & Arbiters relationship I would have them more as rivals that respected each other and once Arbiter realizes the truth tries to convince him to leave the covenant and he hesitates but ultimately still supports the prophets leading to the final boss battle. I think that would’ve added more to tarturus character than just being the typical bad guy with no redeeming qualities.
Having recently finished the original trilogy in the master chief collection, I really like the extra lore on the arbiter, information on the covenant, and conversations between Guilty Spark and the heretic added via the terminals. It is a shame that the lore wasn't more organically integrated into the narrative though. Also a shame the heretic only really gets interesting through optional lore long after he's dead. It is fun to get Guilty Sparks take on the Covenant. I do actually rather like Guilty as a robotic character and antagonist.
I agree with your comments about the tone of the second game. I've only played the first two since I don't own an Xbox system but I really loved the first one precisely because of that sense of mystery and awe. The second one was also enjoyable to play but I didn't like it as much. And of course it took me years to get to these games so I have no experience with the multilayer.
While I can't say I'm of fandom in anyway, I do enjoy the thoughts and opinions of such a lover of literature, a community I don't support but highly respect in a fondness way.
Last note throughout the whole of the arbiters missions wh are shown how the covenant religion is wrong from the religious icon saying "hey no, your wrong", seeing the prophet mutalated and deformed, and the whole of the last two missions showing the elites being slaughtered with nothing the arbiter can do which puts a parallel between the arbiter and the chief as they both have to watch helplessly as their race, their people are slaughtered by the covenant.
I experienced what you called Church Splitting within a political group I used to be part of. ): I miss that political group. I’m sad it broke up into like 7ish smaller groups. ):
Thank you! I always felt like Halo 2 had the best story, but people often cite it as their least favourite game due to its glitchy nature and the fact its ending was chopped up and rushed
This came out in much less time than the Alan Wake one, hopefully this means the analyses are becoming more regular again! The three High Prophets names are heavily ironic. Regret goes out with no regrets, Mercy isn't shown any mercy, and Truth... well, if it's not obvious by now, it will be by the end of Halo 3. I realize this is outside of the narrative of Halo 2, but in one of the EU short stories it's confirmed that Truth knew for some time the true purpose of the Halo array and chose to continue to lie to the Covenant to keep his position of power. Perhaps he even started to believe his own lie after some time, but regardless, still a scumbag. Anyway, great video as always and I look forward to both the Transistor and Halo 3 analyses! Best of luck professor!
If I may criticize your criticism: I would wager long-form content is where your viewers are at. (Or at least me.) The more of this the better. I like how you let the game speak for itself. Clips are good when not overdone. (Pretty good editing!) The cut with the chalkboard underline ("Heresy") was a good style choice. But also. Synopsis is not analysis. I zoned out a few times in the first half... Summary is better than Synopsis. Keep it snappy! (It's also a good place to put humor) Additionally your "voice" "drones" just a teeny bit. (But improving cadences is super hard. So that's nitpicky.) Hope these opinions help! I'll watch all the long videos you make. Peace. :)
The reason chief dosent get much character development out side of the books and halo 4 is that in the bungie games he was mean to be a vehicle for the player to immerse themselves into the halo universe. When cortana talks to chief and he dosent respond that's because she is talking to the player not the character master chief.
Regret died by his regretful actions, Mercy died because his brother had no mercy for him, Truth dies because he's blinded by his lies.
That’s deep
They are all hypocrites. Regret has no regret, truth tells lies, mercy had no mercy.
@@jcnom6606 One thing they all have in common is they got what was coming to them.
Nope, the Halo writers just give their characters weird names so that 15 year old boys like you go like "Oooh...thats deep and there's meaning and connections and shit probably", even though there's really not. They do the same with starships, planets etc.
@@lf2208 the main writer for Halo majored in theology. Yes, it is deep on purpose.
The Johnson-Arbiter cooperation is the first instance we directly see of Human-Covenant cooperation, but the first *implied* instance is in Halo: Combat Evolved.
In the level "343 Guilty Spark" you can find a group of marines and jackals on top of a crate, dead. The atmosphere and overwhelming flood presence implies they teamed up to fight together in hopes to make it out alive, but failed.
You forgot to mention the actual hard bosses.......every single Jackal sniper on legendary difficulty.
You just have to memorize the placement and use a BR. It's the only way.
even the fking hunters were easier ohh and dont forget the over agressive elite commanders fml
Caustic Cataclysm are you forgetting shotgun Flood those guys are a lot worse than sniper jackals.
PTSD intensifies
@@bennettfender1546
No no no the sniper jackals on legendary were way worse. I couldn't even get my HUD to show up before dying to sniper jackals
"Tarturus... The prophets have betrayed us...." I think that is the most powerful line the Arbiter has said in any of the Halo games. What a fantastic job by his voice actor
No no no, the most powerful phrase said by the Arbiter was clearly "the cable... I'm going to cut it."
@@doctor_owl 2 years late but the more I think about the "The cable... I'm going to cut it" line, the more I'm convinced that Jason Jones and Joseph Staten to be absolute geniuses. No other line of dialogue ever written past that point makes as much of a difference as that one. Delta Halo, Regret, Sacred Icon, Quarantine Zone, Gravemind, Uprising, High Charity, The Great Journey - all filler, after that singular line said in The Oracle. I cannot believe they even decided to make the rest of the game after writing that part. They should've immediately known it was wrapped up for the rest of Halo altogether, and Bungie should've just went around their boardroom giving out handshakes to everyone - congratulating them for their help with Halo 2, and that it was now ready to ship.
@@VictimHazard LOL still true 2 years later! I watched the dev commentary and they all laughed about how important that single line was. Pretty much what you said - that's a wrap boys, the pinnacle of gaming right here!
Were it so easy
1) I've said for a long time that the Arbiter (Thel Vadam) was the main character in Halo 2. Anyone who says otherwise wasn't paying attention lol. He actually had a character arc, unlike the Chief. Like you said in the video, the Chief's parts were all set up for Halo 3, he had no development of his own. Halo 3, while it nailed the tone (mostly thanks to the scores by O'Donnell) really fell short on the story. I've always had the feeling we never actually got Halo 3, we got "Halo 3: Abridged". This is pure speculation on my part, but I am absolutely sure that Microsoft wanted to avoid a repeat of Halo 2's multiple delays, and so set a HARD deadline for development. As well, they wanted a greater emphasis on multiplayer to support Xbox live and continue the trend set by Halo 2. Therefore much more time was spent on multiplayer development relative to the campaign, and if I'm right and that is the case then it reaaaaaallllly shows. Halo 3's story feels rushed, like a short movie based on a long book, as if there's a lot just.....missing. Like the Lord of the Rings Movies. Great movies, but they had to throw out like 2/3 of each book. That's how Halo 3 feels to me, like 2/3 of the story is missing.
2) Diving outside of the game real quick here to discuss Truth and his motivations. You make a good point about how whether or not Truth actually believes what he's preaching, it's irrelevant. All he cares about is his own status and the preservation of the Covenant. The entire reason Truth started the war with the Humans was to cover up evidence that the Covenant's beliefs could possibly be flawed. He learned that Humans were supposed to be the inheritors of the Forunner's power/empire, not any of the Covenant races. Basically if God showed up and told the Jews, "Hey so sorry about this but you guys actually are NOT the chosen people, that was a translation error. My Bad". Truth would commit genocide against an entire species to maintain his Covenant, which leads me to believe something very disturbing about his role in Halo 3. It's my personal belief that Truth knew full well by the time of his demise in Halo 3 exactly what the true purpose of Halo was. I believe he was willing to activate the rings and kill not just himself, but every intelligent species in the galaxy if it meant he didn't have to be exposed as a liar, lose his power, and suffer the same shameful fate as he inflicted on the Arbiter and who knows how many other "Heretics". Or perhaps it was a kind of "Kool-Aid" type of deal where he believed this ritual death was the path to ascension. Either way I'm certain he knew full well that activating Halo meant death for everybody.
3) The Arbiter/Thel never explicitly says that he intends to stop the ring from firing when he meets up with R'tas (The white armored Elite in the tank). He simply says "I must get inside". He is thinking about what the Gravemind told him, filled with doubt and seeking the truth, seeking the confirmation of his doubts. The Control Center is a logical place to look for the Index/key, as it MUST end up there eventually if Truth planned to activate it, right? After all, IF the Gravemind is right, then activating Halo would be VERY bad. So I don't think it's a stretch to believe that he could want to at least delay the activation until he knew for ABSOLUTELY SURE that turning on Halo wouldn't toast literally everyone and everything he's ever met. It isn't until the final confrontation with Tartarus, when he is able to ask Guilty Spark about the purpose of Halo and the fate of the Forunners, that he fully sheds his past beliefs. He wasn't JUST trying to convince Tartarus to stand down, he needed to hear it from the Oracle for himself.
Its even more evident in the Anniversary cutscene on how the Arbiter is animated to act. He doesn’t truly focus on Tartarus, he’s mostly looking down, like he’s speaking to himself and is acting as if his entire worldview has changed.
@@xCrimsonxTidex That is certainly one of the better-directed anniversary cutscenes for that very reason.
Suggested timestamp-chapters:
0:00 Title
0:10 Intro & Recap
2:06 Plot Summary Part 1: Two Ceremonies
4:59 Sequel Differences
6:50 Plot Summary Part 2: Prophets
17:59 Sticking to the Game
19:50 Plot Summary Part 3: The Flood
27:14 Different Tones, Complexity
30:45 Personal Resonance
32:50 Broad Religious Themes
33:54 The Arbiter
- 34:21 Heresy (Dogma)
- 36:15 Shame
39:49 Criticism of Organized Religion
48:51 The Arbiter’s Heel-Face Turn
52:45 Faith and Observation
54:36 Thanks, Plugs, Previews
55:23 Credits
Overdone version:
0:00 Title
0:10 Intro & Recap
2:06 Plot Summary Part 1: Two Ceremonies
- 3:41 Strange Invasion
4:59 Sequel Differences
6:50 Plot Summary Part 2: Prophets
- 7:42 Tartarus, Brutes
- 8:40 The Arbiter
- 9:13 Killin’ Heretics
- 10:52 An Oracle
- 11:57 Another Halo
- 14:01 Covenant Upheaval
- 14:35 Retrieving the Icon
- 17:34 Gravemind
17:59 Sticking to the Game
19:50 Plot Summary Part 3: The Flood
- 21:05 Getting Complicated
- 23:31 Meanwhile, Betrayal
- 26:32 Finish the Stupid Cliffhanger
27:14 Different Tones, Complexity
30:45 Personal Resonance
32:50 Broad Religious Themes
33:54 The Arbiter
- 34:21 Heresy (Dogma)
- 36:15 Shame
39:49 Criticism of Organized Religion
- 41:30 Mausoleum Suite Backwards
- 42:47 Approach
- 43:18 Hypocritical Authorities
- 44:56 Power, Church Splits
- 46:16 Review: Power and Corruption
48:51 The Arbiter’s Heel-Face Turn
- 51:04 Seeing the Harm
52:45 Faith and Observation
54:36 Thanks, Plugs, Previews
55:23 Credits
thank you dude, the lack of this guys organization was giving me a f*cking aneurism
Never realized how much H2 had an effect on my worldview. Truth is best observed, rather than believed.
Akuro Adennyciia amen. Same.
Truth is best sought out and accepted. No matter where it leads so long as its true.
As a Christian, I can say that organized religion is dangerous, and Jesus seems to agree. Heck, the new testament seems to be nothing but a plea to keep faith small-scale, personal, and open. So yeah, love halo 2 lol.
Indeed. All ideas can be turned to dogma and extremism. If people hold on to them too hard and cast out all else it just builds a cycle of self destruction. Religion, politics economic ideas/systems , etc. Are not inherently bad, its just that people all too happily corrupt ideas and turn them to be about getting power and supremacy.As was sort of said before at 40:13, there isn't anything wrong with Religion itself, its really extremism and the lack of compassion or empathy for outsiders that is the real problem.
@Cghcf The thing is a "church" back in the day refers to a group of people and NOT Church a s a Organization.
So basically you're the "it's not a religion, it's a relationship" type.
@Cghcf >unchanging
Someone's not familiar with their history.
@Cghcf I don't know what that is. I'm personally not religious. I just couldn't help but notice that the catholic church has changed a lot, even if just in many small ways, over its existence. I imagine it's just about to change again, what with the child abuse scandals and society's changing moral norms again.
If RUclips's channel recommendation algorithms actually worked I'd have found you months ago instead of getting a flood of "Elsa does crack?!" bullshit or whatever.
6 minutes in and you earned yourself a subscriber.
Feel free to share it around if you want to help others do the same!
Games As Literature I salute you for proving that Halo and Halo 2 in particular actually have a far more compelling and subtle narrative than people give it credit for.
And kudos to you for praising the Arbiter. I always thought he was a far more fleshed-out and neat character to play as. It astounds me to this day that reviewers panned his levels for being too jarring, when if you pay attention to the damn game it actually makes sense because these little things called "cutscene transitions" exist.
The shafting of the Arbiter in Halo 3 is is one of my biggest disappointments in gaming. Dude deserves his own game.
Twisted Logic - unfortunately that is not what everyone else thought after Halo 2. I remember everyone crying about being him. That reason why I love Halo 2 is the Arbiter’s story. I love this game, but it’s story got a lot of hate.
So did MGS2 for much the same reason, but it retroactively received a lot of acclaim. I hate being the one to say it, buy gamers are fickle bitches by and large. They want what they want but often they're not sure what exactly what that is.
A game that follows the arbiter as a side story would be dope... Bungie make it happen, 343 stay out of this.
No offense but halo 3 was a disappointment compared to halo 3
Halo 2. Halo 3
Replayability. X. _
Adds perspe-
ctive to plot. X. _
Great
multiplayer. X. _
Forge/theater. _ x
Who won the
Space race?
[Edit] halo 3 also kinda ruined the flood.
Twisted Logic as far as I am concerned, halo 2 is the arbiter’s game
I was hoping you'd talk more on the gravemind's quotes like "I am a monument to all your sins". I think its a powerful scene. It's more or less any enemy you've killed coming back to haunt you.
It's moreso a retconned story arc where humans were originally intended to be descended from forerunners. The forerunners were originally the ones that brought rise to the flood by genociding the precursors. Signs point to the fact that Bungie originally intended this but it was retconned sometime around halo 3.
ruclips.net/video/nXqK2pSJXK0/видео.html
Thank you so much for this one. I can't get enough of you tearing my favorite games to pieces.
Woah! It’s you!
oh hi
;On a side note the prophet that says "Nay it was heresy" was voiced by Marty O'Donnell's dad.
That's actually hilarious.
Didn't he also voice the Hunters and Jackals?
One little bit of low key storytelling I really like in the first 2 Halo games is that whenever the Flood show up this strange creeping synth electronic music is layered into the background, to my knowledge this is the only music in the original Halo trilogy that uses synth, which underscores how different and wrong the Flood are.
In that light I think there's something to be said about how synth heavy the soundtrack to Halo 4 is. In combating the Flood, the Didact essentially created his own version of them.
Thank you for bareing yourself and your struggles for us to see on this one. I can see it means a lot to you and i really respect how professionally youve approached this enormormous topic. I continue to look forward to more insightful commentary from you.
This really speaks to me. I used to be quite religious, and it took something similar to what happened to the Arbiter to realize that I couldn't take it anymore, and left. Thank you for this analysis. It allows me to contextualize what happened to me in stricter terms, and that helps me out a lot.
JDRPG Care to share what happened? I'm not saying I don't believe you, just that "something similar to what happened to the Arbiter" has me honestly curious lol
Not literally what the Arbiter went through, I didn't have to get captured by a giant monster and fight my way through hundreds of enemies. But his spiritual journey about how even though he was a firm believer in his religion, it betrayed him, and it took an outside force to help me see what was wrong.
JDRPG I thought it might have been something like that. Care to share which religion?
I'm Roman Catholic but don't consider myself a strict adherent to Catholicism. I actually believe that while there is likely a higher power that created things via the big bang over millions or even billions of years (7 days to whatever God is) I do not believe this higher being to be quite like anything we've been traditionally taught. I personally believe the Bible exists merely as a form of guidance and as a way of explaining things that are far beyond our comprehension in simple terms and stories.
In essence I believe in a form of the divine but simultaneously believe in science, etc. I believe we should never stop asking questions and see any religion that harshly punishes us for using our brains and thinking for ourselves as potentially dangerous in it's authoritarian restrictions on freedom of thought.
I used to not be relgious. So I sorta had the opposite effect.
Hopping on to various Games as Lit videos to remind folks to share these around to your friends. It makes a hige difference; even just getting some of these older videos more exposure will bring more people in on the fun.
Halo 2 has had the most impact on my life of any game. Let's head back to 2004, when the game was released. We were just over 3 years since 9/11. The war in Afghanistan and been going since then, and the war in Iraq had been going for about a year and a half.
At the time, I was following in the footsteps of many of my white, Republican, conservative family and friends by being hateful to Muslims. Now, I didn't see it as a hate. I just figured they were all evil.
So, as you can imagine, when I sat down to play Halo 2 and realized I would play as the Arbiter, I was very put off. I didn't mentally connect the real world parallels to the game. I just saw him as the enemy. But by the end of his journey, especially having the final mission be from his perspective, I definitely liked him. As I reflected more on his arc, and as I've learned more about what it means to be Christian, and an American, I've come to value him as a better hero than even the Master Chief.
Needless to say, I was also very salty that the Arbiter didn't get his own arc in Halo 3, or even Halo 4. (I have yet to play Halo 5).
Another great video! Happy New Year!
I got a very similar impact from halo 2. Though I feel it's the reson I don't take religion nor do I care about it.
We can never judge a religion based on people's actions only on what the religion atcually teaches. Which is why if someone murders someone in the name of Jesus they are going agaisnt Jesus. Whereas all of thr Nice Muslims I've met go against their Religion. Even if they don't realize it.
@@magnenoalex2 true, taking a disliking to Islam is like taking a disliking to the Covenant. Those parallels are obviously intentional, the Arbiters original name during development was "the Dervish". You dont hate the individual, you hate the ideas and beliefs, and the actions that come from them. I see each species of Covie as a sort of parallel for a type of personality found in humans.
Can't wait for you to tackle Halo 3. Especially since the second level has a secret cameo from the guys at RoosterTeeth, back when Red vs Blue was their only notable and remembered series.
Hello, Games Professor. ^^ I just wanted to say thank you for making this channel and for putting so much thought and work into your videos. I've been following your videos for a few months now, and I absolutely love your work. I can't begin to express how much I appreciate you for representing video game storytelling in such an engaging and respectable way. I will be supporting you on Patreon as soon as I get my finances back on track after the holidays, haha. :)
In regards to this specific video, I really appreciate the details you went over involving the religious themes in this series. I come from a similar background in regards to spirituality, so it was really nice to hear your viewpoints on this topic as well, especially considering how respectful you are over the subject. I love the Halo series on a very personal level, to the degree it helped me grow stronger in my faith when I was going through a dark time in my life, so I really enjoyed seeing it represented so well.
On a side note, Halo will always mean a lot to me. I've seen the good and bad in religion in my life personally, and I feel that it's represented well in this game series. I know you talked about it briefly in the Halo 1 (I hate the subtitle too) analysis, but one thing that always stood out to me was Master Chief's name and it's meaning. I always thought it was taken from the Bible verse 1 John 2:17, "The world and its desires shall pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." I always interpreted that as an explanation to the "luck" that Cortana mentions in the beginning of Halo 3. To me, Chief (in Halo 1, 3, and 4) and Arbiter are representative of how believers should be (approaching the unknown, adapting to what is learned, persevering, and fighting for what's right even at personal cost) while the Covenant are clear examples of how damaging blind religious obedience and manipulation of religious guilt can be. But that's just my simple view of things, haha. Again, thanks for all that you do for gaming as an artistic medium. I hope to have perfect attendance in this class going forward, hahaha
I'm glad your back bro, I really missed you and I totally love your work on how you break down the video games to a better understanding for me.
Now I cant wait for Halo3 :D !
Man after hearing you talk about these two I gotta see the Halo 3 video, whenever you get around to it, I’ll be waiting patiently
I'm late to the party, but have been replaying some of the old Halo games on the Master Chief Collection and was looking for some interesting insights on the plots. Your channel does not disappoint! A+ material right here.
Great video. Never knew Papa Grave got a redesign for the HD version of the game, I was rattled to see it.
Tyler it shocked me to see the HD version. I expected a more detailed yellow monster, not a bloody mouth that looks like something Lovecraft would make.
In canon he is literally made of rotting corpses, so I guess it fits that he really looks like that
The teeth were originally going to be skulls but they figured that was *too* far lol
Wonderful video, but I think you're discounting Chief's point of view just a little bit. Keeping Chief's point of view wasn't just a marketing decision- it also expands the universe and helps tell the Arbiter's story as well. (Or maybe Halo 2 is my favorite game of all time and I'm unwilling to accept any sort of criticism, lol.)
Halo 2 is the first time we get to see humanity's full capabilities and technology level. We truly get an understanding of how outclassed humans are against the Covenant- they beat the orbital defenses and landed on the surface with a tiny, tiny, fleet! The entirety Chief's second level gives you the sense that if something big doesn't change, humanity isn't going to last very long. It's important to set up this tone for both this game and the later games.
Chief's POV also really hammers home the intensity of the church split. "Gravemind" is a spectacular level as far as storytelling goes. It's unsettling as hell to watch your former enemies fighting each other instead of you. It also feels incredibly immersive- as if it isn't just a game with predetermined enemies, but instead a living, breathing world that would continue to go on even if you log off. It brings a kind of realness to the schism that you would otherwise be detached from in the Arbiter levels; seeing all the dead elites on the ground wouldn't mean as much if you didn't just come from witnessing the bloody massacre aboard the High Charity.
I think a good explanation for Arbiter's sudden turn is him seeing how the Brutes had killed his fellow Elites, and even the Councilors. Its not much, and his turn is still rushed, but I think it'd be some nice visual storytelling
Imagine how controversial this game would be if you could only play as the Arbiter in the campaign hahaha, and if you had missions in which you'd kill humans. I'd love the game to death if it did that
I was pretty disappointed as a kid when I found out I was playing as the Covenant but wouldn't be fighting any humans.
Lord Shaodeus There should be a spin off for the Arbiter. Even if not that Arbiter some of the past Arbiters are awesome too.
+Twisted Logic - EXACTLY - That was my real disappointment of the sequence, just fighting covies with texture swaps.
I love your work and have been really looking forward to this! I hope everything is going well and really hope you're able to do more of these.
I ended up playing Halo 1 and 2 back to back having arrived to the party late (just as Xbox LIVE was kicking off) and having read the expanded material previously. Having these two in quick succession blended them for me, and the expanded material published up to then made the world much much richer for me as a result, all sort of compounding to great effect. But Halo 2 was an amazing experience regardless. The menu suite alone is still nostalgia goosebumps inducing.
It's been a really long time since playing these. I hadn't quite realized just how literal some of the religious parallels were and how much depth there was to what it was trying to do. Halo 3 had a lot to live up to. I've come from a similar upbringing, and I have too seen the darker side of what these kinds of mindsets enable. What organized religion has shown itself to be capable of and where those more perverted mindsets lead a person (as far as self-destruction in some cases), has all been enough to unseat even the most conditioned and blindly accepting person of faith in myself.
Not healthy. Not healthy at all and quite far from what that religion is meant to champion or represent. I really liked what you said about the mindset of heresy and how that gets extended to deviation from the norm in general. The concept of betrayal is also a very strong one. Even if you don't outright or immediately abandon all tenets of your faith, seeing what that faith is capable of compelling people to do and especially to you personally completely unseats the basis of what that faith was meant to represent or facilitate.
For me as a kid when I got thrown into the Arbiter’s missions I didn’t like it at all. I think I was like 10 or 11, so coming off H1 I always saw them as the enemy. As I’m sure most players did. However, having gone back through the series as an Adult I’ve come to appreciate these missions.
Not just because they show the social structure and inner workings of “the enemy” but because the highlight that the races within the Covenant(specifically the Elites’ race) aren’t the enemy. Humanities enemy is the same sort of extremist religious fundamentalism that humanity fought over amongst itself for thousands of years throughout its history and had only relatively unshackled itself from before the events of the first game.
The Arbiter’s missions put the face to true enemies of humanity(other than the Flood of course). That being the Prophets Truth, Regret and Mercy. As well as the Brutes intentionally creating a power struggle within the Covenant itself. The “lower” races were forced into servitude, while the elites truly believed the teachings the Prophets spewed out on a whim to make themselves and their actions align with said teaching despite them actively ignoring said teachings while holding all those beneath them to a strict doctrine. Using the Brutes from H2 onwards as their “inquisition,” if I may draw parallels to our own history.
It’s the ideology that is the foundation of the Covenant and those who would abuse it who are the true enemy of the original trilogy. And without the Arbiter’s missions we may never have come to realize this problem and how to solve it.
Very good critique, but I have an issue when you bring up that Arbiter never has a point where he there's a visual change/realization where he reforms.
He doesn't have one because the player is supposed to fill in that gap after all the cracks that Arbiter has witnessed. First, the heretic leader fills him in on some info, the oracle was with the leader that made him turn heretic (of course he was also an elite), then later he is betrayed by the brutes and the prophets he always followed. Again gets info from the gravemind and com. that the great journey is bullshit. Then sees all the destruction being done to his kind and etc. And also his people are fighting alongside him already. I think that first elite you meet says "they have shed our brothers lives and for that they must die" so regardless of what the Arbiter thinks about the great journey at that point, right now all he and the rest of the elites are concerned with is saving their race and getting revenge. Even when he meets up with Shipmaster he doesn't say "the great journey is false" and later Johnson says "he's gonna activate this ring and kill use all," Arbiter still doesn't say "yes that's true" but again he hears more confirmation that the great journey is BS. It isn't until the ending where he finally says out loud anything that confirms the change in thought. There is that one point at the start of "The Great Journey" where he remembers what the Gravemind said, but even that can just be interpreted as Arbiter thinking the Great Journey is still possible but it def. shouldn't be done with these assholes. Also not to mention that the humans have been fighting against them this whole time as well with the idea that the GJ is BS. But I can understand the desire for that "moment of realization" as the player already knows the journey is BS etc.
edit: posted this before the ending of the vid. So Yea I agree with that take more.
I didn't know that track was actually saying something, that's pretty cool
The first video I discovered from you was your review of Halo CE, and I've been anticipating this review for almost a year. This is fantastic and you did a phenominal job. I'm look forward to your Halo 3 analysis and how you wrap up the trilogy's themes and messages!
Hi from 2021. I re-watched this again and still loved your analysis. And still await the day for more Halo from you ...
Excellent video. I appreciate your thorough and open breakdown of the concepts in Halo 2. This is the first one of your videos I've watched and I'll definitely be checking more out.
I hope some of my other videos live up to that same standard!
Great commentary on this game. I've personally always felt that the Arbiter was a better character than Master Chief and he is my favorite in the original trilogy. I also really liked your comment about whether he is more Martin Luther or Paul, this really gives me a lot to think about and I'm glad you brought it up.
As a fellow Christian who has gone back and forth as an adult, I can understand some of the personal struggle with faith. For me, my parents always push me to attend church and they believe it is some significant achievement in your faith, but my wife and I aren't as interested in doing that. Currently we focus on attending a much smaller group with a focus on studying the Bible. This has really been a great outlet as it brought me away from all the guilt tripping and "Repent Now" type messages I see in churches often. I'm not saying that all churches do that, but it has been a large portion of my experience. Back to topic, this has helped me focus on what I think the Christian faith should be focused on: a relationship with God.
I say all of that just to give you a personal anecdote about my struggles with the Christian faith as well. Hopefully you can find some meaning in your struggle and come to some answers or conclusions that help you live with peace.
Great video, keep it up!
Also still super salty about the Arbiter just disappearing from the narrative after Halo 2
I sympathize with your view on faith, and the estrangement from the Church. My mother went through a similar thing and, though she did just fine, I feel like a small piece of her went with her choice to no longer be a member of it. Can't be easy to step away from something you spent twenty years - from adulthood I might add - trying to be an active part of. Better to have ideas regarding belief than dogma.
Halo: Mystery and journey to find “Truth”
Halo 2: Accepting that “Truth”
this is seriously the coolest shit great vid and good luck in the making future ones
This was a really good analysis, I've always loved this game for its narrative and thought it stood out within the series for the complexities in it. Whilst most criticised the game for this, it's what made me love it so much.
I am sorry to hear about your experiences with Christianity. I am Christian myself, having come from a previous more agnostic/atheistic background when younger, but absolutely agree with the condemnation of organised religion here. So often it warps and shifts away from what the religion is actually about, for the sake of furthering the power of its figureheads, and I believe this is part of America's problem, as well as so-called Christians across of the world. Relevant mainly to me are those who denounce homosexuality using the bible as reference, ignoring the context of said passages (I don't believe that God has any issue with homosexuality at all), and also ignoring many other things the bible condemns as well; the most obvious and frustrating ones of these is divorce, which the bible has some very angry things to talk about, certainly in contrast to homosexuality, but I don't see these people rallying against that. Pure hypocrisy.
I also liked your explanation for the Arbiter's curious turnaround. This is one I've thought about before but you're the first I've seen to both actually talk about it and to come to a conclusion similar to my own, albeit a bit more in depth and detailed than my own previous thoughts, which were vaguely along similar lines. I saw it as the things he's seeing since the Gravemind teleported him there as giving him doubt, which I think was ultimately, fully confirmed by Guilty Spark's revelation to him and Tartarus; I think THAT is the moment he totally realises the whole thing has been wrong, though rather than saying it's wrong per se, what he says is that the Prophets have betrayed them, the real important point here. This also emphasises what you were saying, as the betrayal of the Elites/Sangheili being what finally opened his eyes, and not the real facts behind the religion, per se.
Also good on you for not delving into the extended universe much just yet. The games and their narrative should be expected stand up on their own without relying on that material, and furthermore most of it came after the game, sometimes a LONG time after (basically all the 343 stuff that I do NOT care for at all. As far as I'm concerned, Halo ended when Bungie left it), and so it cannot and should not be relied upon to have any relevance regarding Halo 2's development, intent and our interpretation of the material it presents.
These are some of the best videos on RUclips and just like Gears of War 2 they had a pretty good and deep story would love to hear your thoughts on Halo 4. went for a more personal story of Chief way more than any other game. I believe Halo Reach came pretty close as well as having a pretty grounded personal story...
Anyway you're one of my favorite RUclipsrs can't get enough of your work
Quietly waits for The Professor to get to Reach...
Truth abandoning the other Prophets and Thel 'Vadam denouncing the Covenant for his people's suffering is really important for the cultural differences, I think. The EU establishes that Sangheili culture places importance on community and what one does is both for honor and the community so much so that unrelated Sangheili will refer to each other as being brothers or sisters. Another thing is that historically the Arbiter was a highly respected title earned through valor and honor, but the San'Shyuum turned it into something shameful akin to banishment; most likely to repress any uprising due to the Sangheili importance of kinship with their conspecifics. Considering the origins of an Arbiter, it's really quite fitting (and likely purposeful) that Thel 'Vadam as the Arbiter leads resistance-bringing back the honor and respect, going to its roots, outright reclaiming the Arbiter as a title belonging to his people and his people alone.
Completely agree on the points of Oeganized religion vs faith. I'm a Christian but I have huge issues with most organized religion
My real disappointment for the arbiter sequence was being an Elite and NOT fighting human enemies. I really think they should've added a level where you get dumped into the arbiter right before his shaming, perhaps even make it the first level of the game to really get peoples' attention, where he fights marines or insurrectionists even. And when he returns from that mission, THEN he's called before the prophets. I feel like if you're going to go down the "playing as covenant" route you need to go all the way. I think it would've pissed a lot of people off, but would also GENUINELY present a reverse perspective. It would've also given more opportunity to play up the animosity between the Elites and Brutes and the different caste roles of the covenant.
One of my biggest gripes with Halo is its lack of flagrant world building. They are great at putting world building into their maps and environments, but Halo - ESPECIALLY the new games - suck at portraying the wider scope of things and the politics of the times, both within the human factions and between the humans, human colonists or insurrectionists , and the covenant. There is a lot of opportunity there but it doesn't seem to be taken advantage of a whole lot. It kinda reminds me of the new Star Wars trilogy where we have no fucking clue what's going on outside of the events of the story or the geo-political stage on which the events are supposed to unfold. Playing Halo 4, my questions were "What's going on with the covenant now, what's going on with the Elites and the Humans, is there any cooperation or interaction whatsoever?"
Yeyeyeyeye. More Games as Lit hypeness.
Wow. I have to really say that this is one of the best videos I've watched in a long time. Thank you for this.
Loved the video! Just to let you know, the Forerunner being ancestors to humans is from the Halo novels, which was being written when Bungie was still taking over the games. The reason why we don't know anything about it is because Microsoft started going by the novels after Halo 3...which is where most old school fans get pissed. In fact, 343 Guilty Spark was human, who was killed by the Diadect and his memories were uploaded to the floating orb. Now, when Guilty Spark goes rampant, that is his human memories taken over and his intense isolation mixed together. Johnson's survival of the flood attack of Halo 1 is because he is a proto-Spartan, and his cells were changed. Again, explained in the novel. The Gravemind is what happens when the parasites become a ture hive mind, which has all information , and what Captain Keyes was becoming in Halo 1. The biggest problem with the Halo series, is the fact that they made novels and made no mention of it during the writing process of the games, which can be irritating when you read the really, really long books and then play the game.
Almost 3 years later and still waiting on Halo 3
I love long form review videos! Keep this up man.
Chief affects the most change in Halo 2. He helps defeat the initial Covenant invasion of Earth and kills the Prophet of Regret. Regret's death is the excuse Truth needs to replace the Elites with the Brutes as honor guards, which is the impetus for the Covenant Civil War. The Arbiter changes personally far more than Chief does- Chief barely changes if he does at all- but the Arbiter doesn't really change all that much personally apart from his own mind.
The Arbiter stopped Tartarus, and led the Elites and many Grunts into full rebellion
44:40 Contact Harvest, written by Halo 2's primary writer and cinematics director, Joseph Staten, reveals answers to all your questions about Truth's motivation.
This is the first video of yours I've seen, and I've got to say, it's an impressive offering. I thought at first this might be a parody, as in, you just dump on the idea of treating games like art or analyzing them, but I'm glad it really is about you analyzing and thinking about things. I played Halo growing up, I distinctly remember suffering because I was grounded the week Halo 2 dropped, and eagerly awaiting my chance to play it. I got up early in the morning to watch the downloaded 144p (it must have been) Halo 2 trailer.
... The one where basically none of it actually got into the final game, with the UNSC field hospital and all that.
And I never really thought about the game as an active critique of when organized religion goes bad, even though, or perhaps because, it seems so obvious it smacks you in the face. The Covenant are the bad guys, and inherently have the [religion] tag smacked prominently on them, but the way you detail, step-by-step, how accurate the Aribter's journey is to real religious experiences, at least the bad ones, well. It's undeniable.
EDIT: In summary: The Chief is a soldier. The Arbiter is a warrior. Together, they fight galactic crime.
awesome review! so glad you came back to this series! your openness with your beliefs and how it effects your analysis and the insight it brings to your analysis of the arbiter is very welcome. as an objectivist i appreciate the distinction between religion and organized religion and how a lack of true moral and ethical core will lead inevitably to destruction. cant wait for you BioShock Infinite review. will you be doing a review for BioShock2?
Just finished the video, and I gotta say good job! Can’t wait for you to do halo 3.
33:12 this is minor and I'm sure few care, but few people realize that Narnia isn't based on the Bible it is supposed to be an allegory to this Bible. Therefore the references must be obvious. One wouldn't make a comparison that's hard to understand because it would be counterintuitive to do so
Damn, I am SO waiting for the ODST's narrative analysis
We still need the episode about Halo 3! Would love to hear you talk about how the flood act in that one (briefly joing forces) as well as the story of Mendicant Bias as told through the terminals and how that is a story of tradgic redemption, but only maybe? Please!
Hmm I'm surprised this doesnt have 10x as many views, not because I dont agree with u, but because u speak to something, that speaks to me, in a much more authentic way.
Truth loses the pursuit of truth while Master Chief pursues truth while the track pursuit of truth plays. GOAT.
I actuall think that the anniversary version of gravemind looks way better the old one looks like a venus flytrap you couldnt even tell if he aas flood the new one way better i see blood on him and bones and flood biomass skulls you name it
8-bit novelty ties should be a crime. Otherwise, good analysis. :D
This is pretty damn good. Though I can't help thinking of this guy who long ago said that halo was racist, (His arguments were really bad too. He argued that since the human faction was just humans and how the covenants where a bunch of different aliens that somehow made it racist.) This video definitely proved him wrong.
I guess I could see the idea that painting a single race as the good guys and a coalition of diverse races as the bad guys is problematic, but I don't think that read checks out in this case.
Yeah I think the guy wanted to find reasons to hate halo, and FPSes in general since he made a video about FPSes and he basically said "All FPSes are the same." (Except for bioshock and half life 2 for some reason.)
+GamesAsLiterature Since he did not link to the video, it is here for you to judge for yourself: ruclips.net/video/WS7eeGbDIz4/видео.html
At no point does he call Bungie racist, though he is of the opinion that the UNSC is quasi-fascist (which, given what is shown of ONI, is an opinion backed by canon). He thinks it is more just a "collective unconscious" thing rather than any wilful intent. He thinks it makes the protagonists less interesting when the UNSC is mostly humans in military uniforms while the covenant has a pretty wide variety of enemy designs.
What he did take issue with was a live action ad for Halo: Reach for, intentionally or not, having the visual symbolism that the procedure to become a Spartan was a success by showing the Spartan candidate's eyes turning blue which... yeah, that was really stupid.
I have watch the guy's other videos and he really doesn't do research, in one video he admitted that he didn't play or watch the game that was played but felt like he had a good argument about it and also a lot of his two videos on the subject was yelling at people who didn't agree with his argument (And was really ableist about it. Like comparing the fans to the villain of misery, infact he also supports eugenics as well storify.com/Model_Omega/yes-you-can-support-eugenic-worldviews-without-bei )
Sorry I shouldn't have gotten on this tangent I'm taking focus away from the video for a petty reason.
This is amazing. I love all of your stuff but Halo is in my DNA. You gave me so much to think about. Bravo!
Another excellent analysis. This along with your Alan Wake video are my favorites.
Happy to hear that! I feel similarly about those two, so I'm glad they're coming through well. :)
on 5:14 Master Chief is not holding it right!
There is nothing wrong about it,
you hold the front with you're left hand and hold the trigger with you're right hand but he already had the smg in his right hang.
5:11 watch it in 0.5 speed
So many people completely misunderstand the Halo universe and what it's trying to accomplish. You actually get it!
In my opinion, I think the Arbiter is closer to Luther, due to how shattering his break is with the Covenant. At the same time though, he did solidify certain parts of the Covenant while working for it, which is definitely similar to Paul.
Cghcf when did that ever happen to Paul or Luther? Both utilized the scriptures to reform the catholic church and the Jewish church to believe what the scriptures actually say. Luther wanted to be rid of the book of James because of his disdain for works, yet retained it due to his belief that the Canon was flawless.
Hey, I know this is many years later but I'm just seeing this for the first time and I really appreciate you opening up about your experience of growing up Christian and still having your own beliefs but not really joining a church. I myself have felt this as well.
Halo 2! My personal favourite. Interesting point about the shift in tone and atmosphere. That's a huge thing for me in how I think the series went downhill, but I don't think it was a big issue in Halo 2. While it's true that shift was happening right from the start, I don't think it actually went so far as to change the major focus away from awe and exploration until after the original trilogy. I'd say Halo Reach is probably the moment where it really tipped over, with ODST being something in the middle ground. But the original trilogy are still what I would consider the atmospheric ones.
To be fair with the seeming abruptness of the Arbiter's shift, to me it seems like he's mostly just trying to get revenge on the brutes at first, and doesn't actually denounce his faith until he asks Spark to explain what the rings are for and gets the same answer that the gravemind had given him.
This was an incredible first impression to your channel, I hope the fickle Recommendation Gods elevate this video
My only complaint about this game is that Chief didn't have a character arc. I know, a controversial opinion, but I think giving him a personal arc in Halo 2 would have served both to add more nuance to the story and juxtapose him to the Arbiter in yet another way. Maybe something about how he's been fighting the war for twenty years, and wants to stop but knows he can't for the sake of humanity? Idk how they would have pulled that off but I think it would be interesting.
Regardless, Halo 2 remains my favorite game of all time
LOVED IT! Have to ask, is System Shock 1 and/or 2 going to get it's analysis?
I would suggest that the Chief's story is one of rising costs for doing what it is that has to be done. The Arbiter didn't really have all that much else to lose, but the Chief lost one of the only friends he really had left (before 343i started doing their thing and such). As such, Halo 2's Chief storyline is really more of a preamble to Halo 3's more consolidated storyline.
Only thing I would change about Halo 2 is Tarturus & Arbiters relationship I would have them more as rivals that respected each other and once Arbiter realizes the truth tries to convince him to leave the covenant and he hesitates but ultimately still supports the prophets leading to the final boss battle. I think that would’ve added more to tarturus character than just being the typical bad guy with no redeeming qualities.
Having recently finished the original trilogy in the master chief collection, I really like the extra lore on the arbiter, information on the covenant, and conversations between Guilty Spark and the heretic added via the terminals. It is a shame that the lore wasn't more organically integrated into the narrative though. Also a shame the heretic only really gets interesting through optional lore long after he's dead. It is fun to get Guilty Sparks take on the Covenant. I do actually rather like Guilty as a robotic character and antagonist.
I agree with your comments about the tone of the second game. I've only played the first two since I don't own an Xbox system but I really loved the first one precisely because of that sense of mystery and awe. The second one was also enjoyable to play but I didn't like it as much.
And of course it took me years to get to these games so I have no experience with the multilayer.
Someone worked hard for this one lol
While I can't say I'm of fandom in anyway, I do enjoy the thoughts and opinions of such a lover of literature, a community I don't support but highly respect in a fondness way.
Face reveal at 20k subs?
I ain’t a floating potato >:(
Last note throughout the whole of the arbiters missions wh are shown how the covenant religion is wrong from the religious icon saying "hey no, your wrong", seeing the prophet mutalated and deformed, and the whole of the last two missions showing the elites being slaughtered with nothing the arbiter can do which puts a parallel between the arbiter and the chief as they both have to watch helplessly as their race, their people are slaughtered by the covenant.
I experienced what you called Church Splitting within a political group I used to be part of.
):
I miss that political group. I’m sad it broke up into like 7ish smaller groups.
):
Thank you! I always felt like Halo 2 had the best story, but people often cite it as their least favourite game due to its glitchy nature and the fact its ending was chopped up and rushed
This came out in much less time than the Alan Wake one, hopefully this means the analyses are becoming more regular again!
The three High Prophets names are heavily ironic. Regret goes out with no regrets, Mercy isn't shown any mercy, and Truth... well, if it's not obvious by now, it will be by the end of Halo 3.
I realize this is outside of the narrative of Halo 2, but in one of the EU short stories it's confirmed that Truth knew for some time the true purpose of the Halo array and chose to continue to lie to the Covenant to keep his position of power. Perhaps he even started to believe his own lie after some time, but regardless, still a scumbag.
Anyway, great video as always and I look forward to both the Transistor and Halo 3 analyses! Best of luck professor!
More halo is always great. Would love to see your thoughts on odst as well in particular
Best part of halo 2 is that you can go into a couple of multiplayer maps and learn about how the flood escapes delta halo and one map in halo 3 mythic
I can’t imagine how long the analysis of Halo 3 would be
Would love to hear your analysis on 4,5, infinite or Reach!
That ending with Halo 3 lol perfect
Another amazing video. Now to start the wait for H3.
No blur cutscenes? I am sad.
If I may criticize your criticism:
I would wager long-form content is where your viewers are at. (Or at least me.)
The more of this the better.
I like how you let the game speak for itself. Clips are good when not overdone.
(Pretty good editing!)
The cut with the chalkboard underline ("Heresy") was a good style choice.
But also.
Synopsis is not analysis.
I zoned out a few times in the first half...
Summary is better than Synopsis. Keep it snappy!
(It's also a good place to put humor)
Additionally your "voice" "drones" just a teeny bit.
(But improving cadences is super hard. So that's nitpicky.)
Hope these opinions help!
I'll watch all the long videos you make.
Peace. :)
Great video!! Cant wait for Halo 3 and hopefully Reach!
I loved the outro, though I can't believe you got away with a CR song in 2017
The reason chief dosent get much character development out side of the books and halo 4 is that in the bungie games he was mean to be a vehicle for the player to immerse themselves into the halo universe. When cortana talks to chief and he dosent respond that's because she is talking to the player not the character master chief.
The Arbiter's 95 plasma grenades?