The Big Picture: Combat Evolved?

[FinalHeart95]

If someone outside the gaming industry said Halo was promoting Nazism/racism/"racial purity",m we'd be calling him/her batshit crazy right now.

So I'm inclined to disagree with you on this one MovieBob. You're allowed your opinion, I simply think that this is reading way to far into minute details of Halo. I mean, going after an eye color change in the commercial? Really?

 

[FFHAuthor]

It seemed like both gross oversimplification of the HALO storyline and a rather selective interpretation of it at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I can see how the plot points are made up, but making the argument based solely on the representations made in the games? Rather flimsly point to work of off. You really can't get that same characterization looking at the broader picture of the universe that's being presented.

I suppose it would have been a rather mental leap to identify the Covenant as having more in line with Imperialism and it's persecution of outsiders and it's attempts to dominate those that do not accept it?

Of course...that would have been a bad argument because cultures resisting being included by those that are different is bad. Because cultural conquest and joining the diverse whole is ALWAYS good, right?

Right?

Just ask the Germanic tribes...
Wait...
Just ask the Cherokee...
Wait...
Just ask the Ukranians...
Wait...
Just ask the Tibetans...
Wait...
Just ask the Chechnyans...
Wait...
Just ask the Bosnians...
Wait...

Multiculturalism does not always equal good. And a more...shall we say, comprehensive, reading of the situation in HALO kinda makes that big diverse Covenant look just a shade darker...and those limited and few SPARTANS seem a shade better...along with all those other soft squishy humans that fight along side them.

 

[Flamma Man]

Ah Christ, they gave him a show where he can stand on his soap box and rant?

Ugh.

 

[silver wolf009]

From and ad for Reach

Oh the delicious irony of it all.

OT: It seems to me that you dont like halo as a story, not as a game. And while I admit that Halo dosen't have the most serious or realisitic story every, there are plenty of other horrible stories out there to rag on. Good show as always but I hope hating on Halo dosen't become anything of a staple.

EDIT:

snippity

Well, the Prophets, or at least the specific 'big three' leading the Covenant are definitely evil; if you dig a bit into the back story (something I don't blame you for not doing, by the way) those three Prophets lied about the human race in an attempt to gain power for themselves.

I remember reading somewhere that they lied about the human race because Guilty Spark told them the true purpose of the Halos and they knew if the rest of the coventant found out, then it would fall apart. However I dont know this to be set in stone so please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Velocirapture07]

ugh...I don't have a problem with you saying what you did in the video Bob. But, I've gotta say I think you're reading WAY too much into it. The Covenant are, as you said, a group of aliens who have basically been forced to serve in a slave army. But more importantly they've all been mislead and deluded by the overlords (the "prophets")for selfish gains.

The regular gamer, I believe, sees this quite clearly. Bungie seems to have made it a point to show that the prophets are the real bad guys, as well as some of the misguided zealotry that some of the members of the covenant have. If anything the average gamer will just see them as the bad guys (regardless of the fact that they're a multi-culti army with arcane beliefs.

I also take offense to many of the people saying that NOBODY plays Halo for the story or subtext. The original Halo was perhaps one of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences I've ever had with video games. I respect you're right to disagree, but that doesn't change the fact that there is a ton of story going on, especially if you read the books and such like I have (I'm not saying that YOU have to or should, I'm just saying that there is a lot more here than many people give it credit for)

Further more, I find some of what you said a little discouraging in light of the current world climate and attitude. It seems to me that too many people are taking the idea that there "are two sides to every story" a little too far. I'm all for cynicism and understanding that not everything is black and white, but for God's sake, the alien race in question is trying to exterminate the human race! I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that makes them the bad guys no matter what color their skin is, what religion they adhere too, or what kind of agenda they have.

I'm not advocating simplifying things down to the way they were before the World War I and World War II, but it's important to look at things realistically (even if it's just a game, because how we feel about a game, reflects our real world thoughts and views). This should prove to be a good weekly column though, regardless of the subject being discussed.

 

[Sgt AssHead]

Its cool. Im not a big fan of all the creepy faces though

 

[jjboat]

Another brilliant show for the escapist. Movie Bob is very good at this kind of analysis and this show is the perfect avenue through which he can do it outside of the movie review format. can't wait for episode 2 ^_^

 

[Lancer723]

Your analysis completely ignores the Flood, which is the 3rd major faction in the halo universe. It's not fair to take 2/3 of the plot and try to apply labels to while completely disregarding the rest. If you wanted to apply your starship troopers reference then the flood are much closer to the arachnids than the Covenant.

And let's be honest here, the halo video games are not exactly shining beacons of storytelling anyway, so why bother making tenuous connections to unfavorable examples unless you are specifically trying to deface the series.

As a final point, the Covenant are set up the way they are because originally bungie wanted a way to give players a variety of enemies to fight, hence a number of types of aliens instead of one race of aliens. As the series grew so did the number of races in order to incorporate more and more new stuff.

I've seen some pretty interesting halo bashing, but this one takes the cake, comparing the story to fascist propaganda.

 

[Calvar Draveir]

I play halo for the story, and heck yes have I noticed this. the people in command of humanity in halo are a bunch of jerks, and completely unlikable. this is shown even more in the books. they're not very good, actually. The only guys in the covenant as diabolical as the humans are the prophets, the leaders of it all. I think this was intentional, as it means the only part of the humans who you really approve of or identify with are the soldiers who are really just trying to save lives. All this stuff just makes me like halo more.

 

[DalekJaas]

Talk about looking into it to much. Post above says it all ^^

 

[TitanAtlas]

Ok i acctually like your theory of racism towards space visitors, but dont the Convenent want to kill and Enslaved the Humans? And are searching through space for more forms of destroying the humans and erase humanity itslef from the fabric of universe!?

Your theory was pretty and dandy but i still think the aliens are the bad guys SINCE THEYRE TRYING TO KILL US ALL FOR NO APPARENT REASON....

So if i think the Spartans are the good guys? Well if an alien race was attacking myself and my hometown, for no reason, with the purpose of killing everything they see, and my decisions are between kiss and rainbow dancing with them, and hide behind a military super soldier badass, with the Codename Spartan, i think i would go with option number 2....

 

[Ensis235]

Dude... for a show called "The Big Picture," you kinda just missed the big picture. The Covenant aren't the almost embarrassingly multi-cultural and racial crew of the Enterprise... they're a bunch of religious Zealots who use slavery to kill millions for their cause.
Honestly, it felt like you were just trying to stir controversy. Either that, or you over analyze the hell out of stuff.
Halo is a shout out to all the old Pulp Sci-Fi that had preposterous story arcs and were more reminiscent of Greek Myths in space. For something so nerdy (because you have clearly demonstrated that EVERYTHING nerdy is always awesome all the time), it's strange that you shun Halo so. I wonder if it has something to do with its popularity? Does liking Halo no longer make you the cool indie guy hyping some unheard of gem and instead merely one of the proletariat on a band wagon?
From one of the proletariat happily on the Halo Bandwagon, I tell you to get over yourself and just relax. Liking Halo won't make you lose anything.

 

[A random person]

Wait, Moviebob has another show? If you'll excuse me, I have to go sacrifice some goats to the Escapist staff...

Also, while I don't think that subtext is entirely intended (I tend to think in the extremely-obvious text of the Covenant being religious zealots, said zealotry being why they have a multitude of species working for them), it's an interesting way of looking at things.

Of course, I find Moviebob at his best when gushing over Nintendo (his Game Overthinker episode about the Zelda timeline is one of his best) or talking about the general community (say what you will about his self-righteousness, at least he's self-deprecating about it and makes good points about online communities).

 

[willgreg123]

Here's to hoping The Escapist never realizes what it has unleashed upon the world, and also to all the future nerd rage this show will be causing.

My favorite parts of your movie reviews are when you get into more off topic subjects, so this is just awesome in my book. I sure hope there will be much more to come for a long time.

If Escapist registers success by the number of comments on the first episode (I always kind of kept track of traffic that way on this site) then I'd declare this debut a smash hit.

 

[Tohru_Readman]

Has it crossed bobs mind that maybe their isn't some big ugly subtext and maybe the reason for all the different creeds and colours of the enemies is to give you more variation in the things you shoot at?

I have to agree Bob is just looking far too deep in to this and I think the blue eye thing in the ad for Reach is unintentional and if you actually play all the games you will know that the human army isn't just skin-head white guys and don't most armies now make everyone have the same haircut and uniforms.

It would be nice to hear something else from him besides bitching about Halo. I'm not the biggest Halo fan but it's getting boring.

 

[Scruffydog15]

Bob I love your work and this new show looks awesome! The new faces add class man, looking forward to more thought provoking rants on geeky things-

 

[josemlopes]

I know it's kind of your job to over think things but would you not think that maybe the reason that the enemies in halo are alot more diverse then the player characters is because......they're the ones we're looking at all the time. It's a first person game remeber?

Also there are no good guys in halo. The spartans kill just as many humans as they do covenant, and in all of the stories surrounding the series, just as much sympathy is conveyed for the races of the covenant as for the humans, including halo 2 where you actually play as an elite.
In fact the only thing that comes close to a villain in the entire series is the flood......you know the homogenous consumption driven mass, the only aim of which is to propagate itself by means of wiping all individualism from the face the universe.

Exactly. He is reading waaay to much into this, and he's coming at it from the wrong angle. By the end of Halo 3 you're practically working with the Covenant against the Flood, whose STATED GOAL in the ark terminals is the utter homogenizing of the entire galaxy/universe.
Oh, and also: We were fighting the Covenant because their "arcane belief system" led them to try and wipe us out. I guess because they looked more diverse we should have just let them kill all the humans, right? Oh, and they were going to extinguish all life from the galaxy because their crazy prophets wanted to become gods. THAT is why we were fighting them, not because they were "the other". And honestly, DIVERSITY IN YOUR ENEMIES IS NECESSARY FOR INTERESTING GAMEPLAY. Oh, and one last point: you might want to note that for Halo 3, your team is comprised primarily of an alien, a black guy, a robot, and the love interest is an AI. If that isn't a diverse cast, I don't know what is.

but does that mean your ALLIES have to look the same? hell no.

Go to the army and tell me if they look like a rainbow

They do. You don't realize that there are MORE than just a shotgun guy and rifle guy. who heals the injured? who coordinates artillery shelling? who refuels the helicopters? who repairs the tanks? who drives the supply trucks to forward outposts? who BUILDS the forward outposts?

An army is more diverse than you think.

That has nothing to do with their uniform, they all have something to distiguish but it isnt all that much, you wont see the color scheme changing drasticly from one ocupation to another.

Also, the aliens diverse in species, we are only one specie, and Halo Reach in particular even has multiple races so they did made variety on the allies, they have multiple colors and diferent body structure. There is a russian (I think) chick, a black guy, a eastern huge dude, the tipical white guy and our character, all with their own colour and body sizes.

actually yes the color scheme would change depending on occupation. You don't expect the mechanic to have camo and heavy weaponry do you? not every occupation gives you an assault rifle and colored body armor.

But for what you do in the game (the missions) you wont bring a mechanic right?
In Halo CE you have the guys with semi casual clothes in the first and second level. They are doing their part with their red and yealow uniforms


Also, Master Chief is the equivelent of an Elite Covenent in the midle of the Grunts, so in the Covenent perspective there is some variety


PS: This discussion is taking quite a while lol

 

[Danz D Man]

Oh man, Halo, what an original topic for MovieBob to talk about.

It's gotten to the point where arguing serves no purpose since you'll never change your opinion even though you have no idea what the actual Halo storyline is...

Oh wait, that'd be fascism too, eh Bob?