Hello, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome back to another episode of Geek Verst Podcast.
I am one of your hosts, the small business owner titlor Field,
and I'm joined by I am the Mark Zero Kirk Colampatzer, and I am
the lone Lenny Dyla mus Taylor. Have you thought about saying halo everybody instead
of Hello? Oh? I like that. I'm gonna I'll pull that for
episode five, six, seven, eight? Nice okay reviews, because yes
we're reviewing hello. Is Deyla aluded to there? So Season two is well,
it's it's upon us and we're the halfway mark now and you can already
tell how he's so enthusiastic. We're gonna give you getting into it. I
can't wait. But before we get into our Nonepilter's thoughts, to start a
couple of plugs. You can find us with your inter connections. The search
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geek Versus is our Facebook. We have a ton a ton a ton of
thank you, so we got to show to our patrons. Here where are
those beautiful patrons? Oh, look at them. The producers Aaron Brady April
of Darkness, Jack, Grand, MUDs and Sam. You folks are fantastic,
love you all to the moon and back and then some so support us
on Patreon. I mean, how was Girl the show? Great new content?
What you get add free exclusive early episodes. There's tons of great stuff
over there, a bunch of redtros. We just did the Twilight retro that's
over there right now, so tons of goodles of stuff. That episode is
getting high praise. I heard MUDs liked it and I went over Patreon,
Tytler, I really loved it. So yeah, a lot of people are
liking the Twilight retrospective and paid for it specifically, so you know that.
I'm very glad you liked it. That what else I I guess I did
a bad Batch season three episodes one to three premiere spoilers review, and then
you guys did a Madame Web review. What else is cooking? We got
the Uh, well, we're currently watching Avatar Last Airbender and then Taylor and
not gonna be dropping a review for that. We haven't actually talked about the
day, so maybe we'll speak upon that off cast. But we're both on
episode three, so uh yeah, three of eight, So you can expect
that the very close in your future, and then we're recording a spicy newscasts
after this side quest. Me and Taylor had a really great discussion this week
talking about a bunch of Xbox News specifically, and next week me and Kirklan's
episode, I think is also gonna be very fun. So I go check
that out way for sure. We got due next week. That's gonna be
kind of like, my god, I still haven't mastered the chant, unfortunately.
I was very discord. That's like it's coming in a few days,
but it still doesn't sunk in until you said that for me. So that's
pretty exciting. Yeah, well, that's all the stuff. It's it's good
stuff, great stuff, but we're here to talk about some questionable stuff,
at least for me. But how did how did you guys feel about Episode
four non spoilers of Halo. Uh? Yeah, I would say I was
disappointed in this episode. I have very low expectations just across the board with
this show, like coming off of season one, going into season two,
and it like it. It hasn't impressed me since the start of the episode.
I think it's like it peaked in that first opening scene in episode one,
and then since then it's just kind of skyrocketed down. Not like it's
just going further and further down, but it's just kind of scrape in the
bottom, I think, and and uh just just failing to trying to like
try to tread above water for me, because like this one, especially last
week's, like we knew we were getting into the big fall of Reach stuff,
and I was expecting a lot of big action, Like even though I'm
not high expectations of the quality, I was still expecting like a lot of
action and hopefully some some good just just some good moving sequences and action set
pieces, because I feel like something that the show does pretty well, in
my opinion is at least like like the quality maybe of their of their CGI
usage of like the plasma rifles, or just the way that the Covenant looks
like I actually think that does that stuff looks really great, you know,
I said so many times they're like so good in the armor. Uh So
I was hoping for a lot of that in this episode, and I did
not get a lot of that in this episode. I feel like there was
maybe like one action sequence that I think looked pretty good, but other than
that, I feel like for this to be the big, the big climactic
like action episode, I thought it under delivered by far. And there's just,
yeah, a couple dialogue pieces between two or three characters that I just
wasn't really loving, and yeah, just some consequence that like should have had
higher consequence I felt like didn't really it wasn't really there for me, and
I think that's just a result of of like the show failing and making me
get attached to certain characters. So yeah, overall, I'm not really liking
what I got from this week. It's kind of a reoccurring theme week to
week, but uh, yeah, this one was thumbs down for me.
Yeah, it's another it's another week episode for me. But you know where
I actually do have some positives all on this one. There's certain character things
or certain dialogue stuff that I thought was pretty well done. And for the
first time in this show's history this season last season, I feel like this
had pretty good pacing. Like it was over and I was like, oh,
that actually went by. I had like a solid pace. I think
the where the pacing does fall off is when we were switching back to these
kind of secondary character storylines and then they kind of connect at the end.
That's just how this show is. They never really stick to just one thing
for one episode and then Yeah, I kind of with what you're saying,
Kirklan. I'm just like the quality of the CG and the action. It's
like the stuff with the elites and the just Covenant related things that always looks
really great, with like maybe minor exceptions, but it's always like the human
stuff, whether it's like them CGI and movements of humans or just like weapons.
I'll talk about that more specifically later. That stuff just looked really weird
and cheap in this episode, which was kind of a bummer. So yeah,
another another week episode for me. But I at least had some some
bright spots in it, so I'll definitely bring those up when we get to
them, because that doesn't happen too often in the show for me. So
I'm gonna keep it short because I gotta hear Taylor's thoughts on this episode.
I'm glad that you have some bright spots because I know that there are some
with this episode, but I just don't see them right now. I'm just
so angry you've seen Red. Yeah, I only seeing Red. There's man
there's certain things like I feel like I'm calling with the show and I fucking
hate that. I'm right, and there's one big thing and I got up.
I got up at like six am. I brought my daughter downstairs.
We're just having some breakfast. Like okay, I'm gonna I got I got
like two hours before work, I'm gonna watch Halo. I'm going to see
what this is all about. And man, it just got It was so
disappointing. It was really really disappointing. It's just the first episode that your
daughters seen. She's kind of like one and two. No, I sit
up for midnight for that, and then three. She was there for three
and this is she was there for this one too as well. But yeah,
so this her first word off. I'm just curious if this was her
first exposure. It's just like your lowest episode. So they did they they
did one line drop, and man, I was just ready to throw my
fucking cereal ball TV. I was like, this is this is fucking ridiculous,
and of course they fucking pull this ship. Oh my god, I
I all all this morning like it ruined my day. Pretty much, whole
day was fucking ruined. But I just wrote down notes. I just kept
running down every hour, and the discord was like a new Tailor post of
just disappointment and obvious or not obviously. I was just so upset. I
came home from work and I started telling Madison about how the episode sucked,
and I was like, I acknowledged her. I'm like, ye know,
this has no weight on your shoulders, so you don't know what I'm talking
about. But I'm just mad. And I all my notes that I wrote
down. I was just writing down all these shitty fucking all caps logs and
all your notes. I was just super super mad, super super maad.
There's another thing that happens in this episode, and I'm I'm hoping you guys
can confirm it for me, because from what I saw, I was like,
man, what the fuck? What is the Master keep doing in this
situation? I couldn't I couldn't believe it. It was really it's really questionable,
Like this guy should not be leading jack shit. When you say that,
I can instantly think of like three or four separate things that are like
why he was doing that, So I wonder what the one you're thinking about.
Oh yeah, I'm just I'm not feeling good. I'm not feeling good.
Boys. This show is just really just wearing me down. You can't
watch Halo before work anymore. You can't have it just ruining your whole day.
Oh no, I go to work and I'm angry at everybody. What's
wrong, Taylor? That fucking Halo show? I mean you want to talk
about I mean, we'll get to it later, but you know, at
least Avatar was a way to kind of pick my spirits back up a little
bit after that. Don't go watch Avatar out of Halo now. Yeah,
but that's all I'm gonna leave on for For non spoilers, it's just fuck
sakes. So is there anything else you guys want to have before we get
into the spoilers? I don't think. So where do you guys want to
start? I guess three two one? Okay, we're in spoilers. Where
do you guys want to start? I want to know what the line was
that you're I feel like, I can't wait. You got to tell me.
Okay, okay, let me pull out my note here. Okay,
holy shit, So something he said or just how you said, how he
handled the situation? Well, that's different that's a different thing. A situation
is a different thing. But something that character said, uh, we have
okay, reach is just crumbling around. It's just fucking bonkers, and Master
Chief is just saying, okay, I gotta get to Fleet Calm. So
it's with Perez and all that, and they go, they're trying to get
to Fleet Calm and they get there and you see uh Rids and you see
Vanic and Chief's just the whole time like I gotta get my arm. I
gotta get my armor, and what the fuck do this Vanik? First thing
he says, like the armor's gone. Suits, suits are not there,
cheap. It's like, fuck, known, I f you predicted. That's
exactly what you predicted last week. You're like, you's not gonna have the
arm for the battle, and I'm like, I hope you're wrong. And
then as soon as you said the line, I was like picturing what you
would have reacted. I never thought you would have been throwing your cereal at
the TV. But man, they like repeat it multiple times too. And
then he's talking to Commander Keys later and reiterates that again as well, like
I don't know why they were trying to rub salt in the room. I
think they were really trying to just justify him not having the armor by giving
us various explanations, but none of the explanations are really satisfying. There's like
it's gone. I guess I don't know where when the actresson did someone it?
I don't really have answer for you. So it's weird that they brought
it up as much as they did. But yeah, I mean that's such
a huge miss. I feel bad for you, Taylor in particular, just
because this scene, you know, the fall of Reach has been something you've
been looking forward to since like season one, the end of season one,
this whole season because we know we're leading up to it, and to have
this and just not have the most iconic thing that makes Halo Halo there,
it's like, goddamn, what a bizarre choice that they made here, And
you know, you feel like, like, Okay, what was the purpose
of it, Like what do they gain from doing it? I guess they're
like, maybe Pablo is a really great actor and you can kick convey some
of this, but I don't know if that's the case. You know,
I think the one thing that we do get is I like I like the
scene when Commander Keys brings up Chief and he like introduces him to all these
soldiers because they don't know what he looks like. And that's cool, But
you don't need him to not have the suit at all for that scene to
happen. You just have him take the helmet off for a minute, just
to help motivate them by being like, Oh, I'm a human too,
you know, I don't know whatever it is. There's a lot of ways
you could still get that scene without this whole, like this whole choice to
not have the iconic suit in there. It's really a bad choice. Yeah,
No, I like from that point on, I was just like in
my mind thinking of like why is this necessary, you know, like like
like why does he like what story purpose does he have to not have the
armor for? Like like what what type of growth of a characters are going
to have for like not having the armor. And I don't think they ever
really go there. I think there's like very weak attempts at like trying to
have like a like a kind of what you're saying, just let Pablo like
act with another character. And I don't think that happens at all, especially
with Perez like I feel like those two chemistry. I'm just like, like,
why is PRESI been here anymore? Like she could have just perished in
the church. I think I would have been okay with it, Like there's
no like major story thing. You could have had any character fly fly the
ship away at the end, like it doesn't have to be her, And
I do agree with you. I actually really liked pretty much the whole like
from start to finish with Keys and Chief, Like from the point where that
one or sorry when Chief asks like who's in charge and then he goes over
and talks to Keys, Like I think that part basically to the end is
like really strong, well not till the end of the episode, just this
is the end of the Keys part. Yeah, And like in my mind,
I'm just like, man like, I really don't think they juiced that
character enough for the entire show, Like that actor is actually like really good
with at least for how that scene went. So I personally feel rob that
they didn't utilize that a little bit more because it just seemed like in previous
episodes he would always be distanced from Chief and like kind of dealing with like
the high top stuff and then always being like kind of on that side,
and then by the end he's like, fuck those guys. So I am
sad that we didn't get more of him kind of being almost like the sergeant
what was his name, Sergeant Johnson type role, like like I wanted that
kind of in between thing, but unfortunately didn't get that. So I thought
that was strong and I do agree. I think it's funny because I think
I was posting that question last week about like doesn't everyone just know who Chief
is? Like when he was just walking along the streets, I'm like,
how is nobody like just like taking selfies with this guy? Like he feels
like the icon here. They kind of laid it out that obviously not like
even the soldiers don't know what he looks like, let alone the people out
there. So I did like, how that was mind changer guy, he's
changing, Yeah exactly, that's right. Yeah, so I guess all those
people that work there know exactly who he is. But yeah, and like
the action sequences, I'm just like, man, like this looks exactly how
he fights with the armor on, Like I like it almost like diminishes the
effect of the armor other than just looking like a badass. By the end,
like he takes like one blaster shot by that that elite that just gets
decapitated, and then it's like, Okay, I guess he's a little bit
more vulnerable, but like you could have had that same reaction with the armor
on right, just say that, like the shields are down and that's how
he gets hit. So I just I do not like the reason on why
they lose the armor. I don't even like have faith that like next episode
if it's like our goal is to get our armor back, like they just
kind of lost me at this point, Like I don't really care about that.
I think when he eventually gets the armor again and we do have a
cool action scene, I'll at least like it for the eye pleasure. What's
going on. But yeah, that was a big letdown, and I was
really hoping Taylor was going to be wrong with this prediction, but but you
were right. Yeah, It's just it's so unfortunate. Like the whole scene
of them bringing Chief up and trying to boost the morale, it's already depressing
enough because they're saying, yeah, you're if you stay here and fight,
it's you're you're not gonna make it. Here's master Chief, who's gonna fight
with you, but he doesn't have his armor either. I'm just mad about
how they handled all all of this because Reaches, it's it's a fortress,
and they're they're treating it like this is the only city on the planet and
the city is being destroyed. Obviously, but I feel like Reach, at
least in a game, Reach is so much more larger and expansive, and
you have the whole planet fighting, But here the fight's been going on for
a couple hours and now the power has been turned off, and like everything,
like what the fuck? Like, Reach is just so much more larger
scale. I get it, you don't have that kind of a budget because
you took the budget away from Chief Suit and put it towards adding like a
billion fucking jackals in one little hangar scene. So I understand that, But
other than that, it's just it's such a shame. I feel like the
scale isn't there, and so many things were missed. And just the fact
too that Akerson. In summary, Akerson left the planet and Spartan twos,
which costs I believe it's like the cost of like a small fucking fleet of
ships. You know, we're going to let them all die on the planet,
leave them behind, and then take their fucking armor away from them.
Why don't you evacuate the Spartan twos? Why don't you get them out of
there or just leave them the other I don't know, Like there's just some
fucking bullshit like with this. It's just, man, I just don't get
it, and it bothers me. I agree, Like if they're trying to
take the suits to save the cost of just the suits, even though the
Spartans themselves are a lot more expensive than the suits. Fuck, the whole
planet of Reach is probably a hundred times a million times more expensive than those
Spartans, So like, at least give them the tools to fight, take
out as many as they can to at least delay the like it. They
didn't even try to explain like the reasoning of it. And I know we
didn't see Acerson and those like higher ups. So maybe if someone wants to,
you know, play Devil's advocate, they could just say, oh wait,
wait till next week. Then they'll might have an explanation. Like I
just have no faith in the show to actually explain that and explain it in
a way that it's satisfying, Like it just seems yeah, that's just the
way it is. Where it take his armor, He's just gonna be this
samurai with no armor and just like fight to the last man. And when
they're like holding the line with all the army men at the end like he
they had, like the Spartans end up just like leaving like the group anyways,
right because the Marine's like we got this cheap like like they like,
I know he's doing it to help other people escape, but it's almost like
what Akerson's doing, like you just you're just letting the more valuable target leave
while the foot soldiers Pairish. I just kind of chuckle in that scene because
it's like so much for holding the line, Like I feel like they're fighting
for like five more minutes then they just take the back route. But well,
on that on that note, and it's kind of all involved with the
scene of him just with with Perez and and him trying to get to flee
COM. There's a scene here and this is something that he did that made
me question leadership because they're trying to get to flee comm so uh, basically,
if you imagine the scene they get into the alleyway where all the marines
are fighting. And this is after Chief like fucking football tackles the Elite fight
see Elite and all that which that's the whole other thing in itself. But
he's with Perez. Perez is tripping out trying to warn everyone, and Chief's
like, no, so that's too late. Let's get the fleet calm.
So they're moving out into where the alleyway is. The humans are fighting,
and there's a warthog that's still semi destroyed, and there's one marine up against
it, and he's like he's pinned down, but he's like holding his holding,
he's holding his ground right, and so Marine Chief and Perez is dead
last. Chief's in the middle. And I swear to God, like so
when Chief pushed, I wrote this is how I wrote it out. When
Chief pushed from the cover of the war dog with Perez, he was yelling
out like go, go go. And this was after, I guess,
so they had This is after they evacuate people from Fleet Calm. But this
marine that was next to him, I swear to God, Chief literally just
fucking shoves him out into the open and gets he literally explodes. The marine
dies and silly Chief literally like yells out, go go go, as if
it's clear, but the marine takes all the fucking fire and Chief just them
out and he dies. I felt so bad for this marine. I I,
I really did you catch that? I did not catch it? I
did, I didn't catch it either. But that doesn't surprise me, just
because there's multiple moments in here that I'm just like, do I even know
Chief as a character at this point? Because he just seems to not give
a shit about anyone at all, And that was like really shocking to me.
It doesn't make me want to root for the character personally. And but
yeah, there's like that that moment with Perez when she's trying to help people
in the street and he's like, ah, fuck it, they're they're doomed,
Like just leave them. One of the more shocking things to me was
Perez is like, I go back for my family, and he's like,
they're gone. Let's get out of here. Why would anyone in that situation
say that. First of all, he doesn't know shit, he doesn't know
they're gone. He's just telling this lady that her family is dead and just
forget about it and let's go immediately seems very unchief, like very unheroic as
far as I'm concerned. But yeah, then you're right there just kind of
like abandoning people in the streets that doesn't I want to warn people, doesn't
even want to try and warm people. Also, I don't know how those
people like in that area weren't aware of what was going on, But that's
beside the point. So yeah, I I all that was just really rubbed
me the wrong way. Like this chief guy is pretty nasty, hey,
and so does it surprise me that he threw some guy out there to get
exploded and take shots for them. Man when he has they have like a
moment of just to catch their breath between him and Perez. And that's when
I think it's Perez. Uh, correct me if it's a different character.
But that's when he basically is explaining how like he does all these battles and
and he doesn't die because he's just lucky. Like when you flip the coin
eleven times the Future, I was that scene, Yeah exactly, He's like
he's got foresight or something along those lines, because he's like, oh,
yeah, I flipped the coin eleven times. I knew what it was it's
it's the same thing with battle, like I a lot of people are gonna
die, but I know I'm always gonna live. And then and then there's
fucking scenes like Taylor's laid out that he's just tossing marines into the open fire,
no wonder he's surviving all these fights, like he's very questionable just outlook
on war. It's almost as if he has like no like humanity in him,
like, oh, it doesn't matter, like I'm always gonna survive,
So it doesn't really matter who who dies along the way, because I know
it's not gonna be me. And I don't know if that was supposed to
be like a video game type thing, because it's like it doesn't matter how
hard the mission is, like you know, along the storyline, Chief makes
it through like it's it's a linear story, so you know how it's gonna
go. I don't know if that was the attempt there, but it just
seemed like such a weird dialogue sequence amongst those two, and that was the
one I was just I was just like scratching my head. I'm like,
why I even have this dialogue, Like it's not making us like Chief anymore
because he's saying it in a way that he's like a tortured soul, like
oh yeah, or who's like not trying to act at all. But to
me, if that's like trying, I like the games anyway, Like that's
a complete fail because when I'm playing the games and I am master Chief,
I want to save every last soldier I can. They're super squishy, they'll
die to anything, but I get bummed when they die, not that they're
really helping me in anyway. I'm way more power powerful than any one or
ten of those soldiers, but I still want every last one of them.
Is like, if I can have a full ward Hog like that, let's
go. That is all I preferred state of being in the game. So,
I mean, I know the creators of this show don't really care about
the games. They talked about that was season one, right, but yeah,
like that also just didn't make me. They didn't listit the feelings I
get when I'm master Chief. Taylor, what was the other thing that it
wasn't a ligne You said it was another choice of his or something. Yeah,
well there was that one, and then I guess just kind of piggybacking
on what you're saying Kirkling about how he's talking about I flip a coin and
called it eleven times, which that's sticking to the lore. You know,
he did get tested by Halsey and he kept when he was a kid,
and he kept being able to call it heads or tails. And that's one
of the reasons why Halsey recruited him, because he had this luck factor.
It was just something, and that's genetic superiority over other humans. It's luck.
It's not like the ability to see the future. No, not not
seeing the future. It's just luck. But you never get this ego histical
sense of superiority from Chief in any of the games or any other media.
He just it's even like he just disregards this luck factor and he just to
himself, he tells himself like, hey, I have a job to do
a duty and responsibility and I'm gonna do what I can and do my best,
do the best that I can. And that has that is morphed to
a slight degree throat Halo to the point where he's turned on humanity at times
trying to try to save Cortana. And this is the point where and you
have a scene that mirrors this. I can't remember the pilot's name, but
he's the main character with Chief and Halo Infinite Infinite and you have a wonderful
moment. And this, this cut scene in Halo Infinite just brings me to
tears every time I watch it, because the pilot just admits he's a coward.
He can't handle this anymore, being trapped on this, on this four
hundred planet, he just can't deal with anymore. And Chief just consoles him
and lets him know like we all make mistakes, We're only human and yeadea
yeah, like, but we can do this together. And with Perez pez
Is, like you just went through there. You weren't like the chaos and
people are dying and you just like I'm the scenes are mirroring each other in
my opinion, where she's just implying like like I don't know how you can
do this, like what's wrong with you kind of a thing, like I'm
not you, and he's basically just implying like once we get there, like
oh, you can just go off on your own way do what you want
to do, like I need to get my armor. It's like, man,
you're such a fucking brick come on, you fucking and yes. So
anyways, when he's talking about, like I flipped a coin, call eleven
times since then, I knew every time I go into battle, it's not
gonna be me like you, how's that going to motivate any fucking marine?
You tell them you have some god complex, like you know what I mean.
I flipped the fucking coin. I'm not gonna die, but you you
might fucking die. Your family's already dead, You're probably gonna die. I'm
not looking good for you. Jesus not a motivational speaker. So I'm glad
he didn't really say much or anything when Keys brought him up, because if
Keys would have brought up his master chief one you have any words, John,
He's like, I flipped I know, I'm not. I want to
see that edit. And instead of just flipping the one coin like he does,
the President, the end just throws like a bag full of coins.
I yeah, the Perez thing. It's like, I just don't understand the
purpose of the character in the in the setting of this show and what it's
supposed to do for this story. And I wonder if it's I feel like
they kind of this this in season one with with Kwan, where Kwan was
like under Chief's wing, and it seems like they really like that in this
show to have a civilian type character that's under his wing maybe add more personal
touch, I hope for their sake. It's not just like his acting ability
is not there or or he's not being directed to really emote much. So
we're gonna give you a character who's gonna react in a bigger way. In
the case of season one, Kwan could react a more logical way to like
the stuff that's happening on Madrigal because that's uh people from or his press,
like her family here on Reach. And so I don't know if that is
the core purpose of it, but I don't I don't think we need that.
And if that is your only attempt at making me care for the people
of Reach, like the civilians on the ground, it's just not working because
you're not giving the time there and there isn't really much of a narrative purpose.
So it and it also just made that whole thing feel like Chief was
really lollygagging to get to the fleet calm wherever he was going. He's helping
this lady move a typewriter to the top of a shelf, he's talking,
he's picking up an axe, he's moving so slowly through there, actively not
fighting at all, And I feel like that whole sequence was very strange to
me, and I'm just struggling to see what the purpose is. Maybe by
the end of the season, I'll I'll see, Oh, that's why they
wanted to have this Prez character in there. Nothing to gain the actress,
because I think she's doing more acting than Pablo, and she's better, but
you know, she's just not as meaningful to the actual plot of the show.
She just seems like attachment there for a purpose I don't yet see.
Yeah, it's it's like they want to have a character that has a lot
more humanity I guess, like more so on the military side, and then
like to I guess explain those things chief because they even have that one's sequence
when I think it's they're just running from the Covenant, trying to get to
flee calm, and then she just stops because she's freaking out, and it's
like, I can't handle this. My training never prepared me for this.
And Pablo is just like just a fucking brick and he's just like flee,
calm, need my arm or let's go or actually, yeah, that's that's
when he says that line that like you can just like you can go find
your dead family or whatever it is. I'm paraphrasing, but it's just the
lines. Like that's how it felt though, because he just only cares about
getting to flee, com getting his arm or so he could just fucking rack
him up and then add to his kilt guns. He knows he's not dying
and he wants his full load out for that. But like when that happened,
it's just like, why even have this this dialogue. It's not like
I'm seeing some little hints and seeds of growth from from master Chief. Now
he doesn't have his mask on, I can show that actor act his ass
off, and that just did not happen. The whole like pawnshop thing with
that lady. I was just baffled. I'm like, I have no idea
why we're taking away from some cool action sequences for this for this here,
Like I I don't like this at all. I like the idea from like
a world building perspective, but in the context of like the Fall of Reach,
it's not good like that should be something when the stakes are much lower
and yeah, you're exploring the city or you meet this person, but yeah,
in this situation, it doesn't really work as well. It's like you
said, like like there should just be such an urgency and yet he's like
helping her lift up this typewriter and like like he he he goes from not
even wanting Perez to like warn these people because he just doesn't have time.
He goes he has to get to flee Cam to just having like a one
on one like talk with with this lady in her pawnshop and Prez freaking out
and he's like she doesn't want to know, she doesn't want to whatever.
The line was like, it's just man, that the dialogue the acting was
so bad in that moment and that that's it's just to me where I'm like,
I want the parallel universe that just shows me the show that was just
like straight up action scenes. It's just like straight up cut scenes from Halo,
like in the suits and everything. Like I want to see that that
whole show. But that's a completely different show from the ground up, and
that's not what we're getting. I zero faith that season three is gonna transition
into more of that. So I think I should have, I guess,
tempered my expectations, but I always just get hope my hopes up. I
guess I don't know. I probably just because it is an ip that I
am at least interested in, but I keep letting them hurt me. I
didn't like the whole scene with Chief and pres there in that shop, I
didn't care for. But everything with the lady just trying to explain why she
cares about these things and the wars they survived, and just this really old
connection to Earth. I really like that, And I like I like when
Halo touches on those those things a little bit too just Earth. It's just
it's just neat and just seeing how she's just praising these forms of technology and
such a like sci fi future. I like that. I thought it was
a nice, humbling little moment, like a little bit of world building.
But yeah, again, just Chief not in his armor and the dialogue from
them being just kind of weird just makes sense to me. Is there a
Halo game? It might be like Halo three or four, but like,
when did do they ever go to Earth? And Halo two Halo to opens
up on earkay, Okay, I definitely don't remember Halo two at all.
Watch watching this episode, it should make me want to go play Reach or
Infinite because I don't play that campaign. But I was like, man,
I can really go for some ODST right now that I just want. I
just want like the Desolate Streets. That's like the one right now with my
Halo. That's a class like yeah, ods T, Yeah, that's that's
Earth. Halo two's Earth, Halo three is Earth. I think that's everything.
What more games than I expected, honestly, Yeah, I just thought
most of them were like on I don't know, I guess Reach or the
Halos themselves, most of them ships. Yeah, what else do I got
to complain about? Well? One one another thing from that base camp scene
that we were talking about when I guess when everyone kind of meets up there
towards the end, was uh. I was pretty disappointed that Cobalt being like
Cobalt Team being killed was just like a random one off line, because that
was something that we really built up a lot for like an episode and a
half pretty much. And then Commander Keys just drops in a little one liner
there, and once again Pablo, who's really cared about them, and that
was why he got in trouble and was disobeying orders because he wanted to go
save them or find out what was going on. Once again, doesn't really
react, he doesn't have any line of dialogue that addresses it either. Uh.
And then we know Pablo, Yeah, he's not really emoting much.
He's the brick. So that was pretty disappointed to me. And you know,
COBALT's not like we've been built up to see a ton of them and
we know their personalities and I actively care about their faith, but I just
felt like they still deserved more than what we got, uh from them.
And yeah, within three or four sentence sentences, Commander Cues is already onto
a new topic and that was brushing on the rug and we will probably not
hear about them again for the rest of the season and therefore ever. So
it's like, I don't know that that seemed like a really weird setup of
two or three episodes. I think the show does that where they like build
up random, smaller things and then just don't really fulfill them, and it
just I don't know, It's like, obviously it's not the main a plot,
but it still feels like important to the story in the world, and
we're just kind of brushing it under the rug for whatever reason, time budget,
I don't know. Yeah, it's a shame. Damn shamea shame,
shame. Uh, let's jump to a quick ad break and we'll be right
back and we're back then when you're complaining about I think it was the no
armor line. I just was picturing you at like six thirty in the morning
eating your cereal. You're just waited your whole life for this live action full
of reach and that that's just the line. The nail in the coffin makes
you toss to your cereal of the screen. It's a funny image. I
was, I was, I did message to this, but I was just
laughing during those scenes and I feel bad about laughing, but I was like,
man, I can't. I can just imagine Taylor. Yeah. Now,
now, whenever something that happens, I'm just gonna imagine the cereal hitting
the TV's that's gonna be the image of my head. Well, it's like
they rip the band aid off or something right like it like kept waiting,
like when's he gonna get the suit? Is gonna be a cool armor suit?
Up moment. It's like, no suits, no suits, no suits.
We could have got a beautiful live action scene of armored master Chief holding
an energy sword. Do you know what we got fucking little Pablo holding energy
Okay, he's a little Pablo now in this scene, little Pablo. He
held that sword for probably two point one seconds before he just got capped and
then he dropped. Yeah. I you're right though, Like that's should have
been such an epic moment, like the like the energy swords, they like
they look sweet amongst the show. Like again, it ties into just the
cgi of the Covenant and like those scenes actually looking really good. And I
agree, I think it would have hit so much harder with the armor on.
But like that was just such a like I didn't even feel anything.
I think in that moment of like him like grasping the the I guess the
hilt of the sword and then just fu compowering up. Like that should have
been one of those moments where I'm like on the edge of my chair and
it just didn't have that effect at all. And I part of it is
probably due to the armor. Part of it is probably to do with like
the fact that they have I don't know who that elite is supposed to be.
I don't think the are you serious, it's not the we've come to
know. Oh okay, that's the position that makes sense. I guess,
is that like a military rank essentially, Yeah, it's it's from mind insights,
not insight my knowledge. It's that the arbiter used to be a much
more like among like the elites culture. The arbiter was like the b bee's
knees you wanted. It was a huge, great warrior. And so the
Covenant, I believe, kind of transition that where disgraced kind of elites would
be donning the armor of the arbiter, and to be an arbiter, you'd
be tasked with going on missions where you're not going to survive. You're doing
the most perilous, dangerous things and they're expecting you to die. And there's
been a lot of arbiters and we've seen two. We've seen uh, the
one arbiter in Halo Wars one, and then we've seen Alpha dam who was
the other main arbiter we've come to love from Halo two all the way up
to Halo five Guardians, So got nice. I don't know who the one
is I hope this one's not the arbiter. We like the is it the
same armor of the arbiter? They just like rip it off. It's they
all look the same, like, well, no, no, that that's
that. I don't know. I think it's all multiple sets of arbiter armour.
But this elite looks all these arbiters are just dying. Oh yeah,
interesting. Yeah, I mean I guess it makes sense that it would be
in that higher position and paired up with I always forget her name Marquis Marquise
seven, Marquis McKee McKee, No r there you go, I was completely
wrong, like paired up with her. I guess that makes sense. But
like have they name drop that he that that elite is the arbiter at any
point in the show, like has him and master Chief dueled off? Like
like I feel it it's as if it's like this is that the same one
like in that opening like foggy battle section, because there was clearly one who
was like the leader of that group and McKee was there too, so maybe
that I guess, yeah, this rivalry, but it doesn't really come across
that way. Yeah, it's as if they've like dueled at the end of
last season and like, oh barely got away, like I'll remember you.
Like we haven't had any of those moments or even just dialogue amongst this Arbiter
and McKee to like be talking about the chiefs that, like, you know,
he he has this like honor pack to just one v one him,
And I think even just having the other elite shoot him there, like it
had no effect because I was just like, what the fuck is going on
here? Like, are they really like blood rivals? Like they just did
such a good job, but I think setting the setting the table for this
big feast of a battle that we were supposed to get, and it just
super underdelivered. And that's not just because he got cheap shotted by the plasma
rifle, Like it's just like it just the one on one combat in general,
Like it just seemed like, like, I don't know, very lackluster.
Yeah, there's no reason for McKee and the Arbiter to actually be there
either. They got Kurtana and so they could have left. They didn't have
to go and be like let's take a detour and just fuck these guys up.
But that's entparently, what the Arbiter wanted to do. And on top
of that, yeah, you're You make a good point because there's no pre
existing build up of this, this dynamic between Arbiter and Master Chief at least
how I feel whatsoever. So what the building up here feels like it's Avengers
endgame, where Thanos it's like, I don't even know who you are and
Wanda's like, you took everything from me, and so Arbiter is basically like,
Chief, you took everything from me, and she's like, I don't
even know who you are, Like what's going on here? So that's what
it feels like. Equivalents. Maybe that's what they're going for the other Oh,
there's a couple of other battle sequeens haven't talked about. But once Chief
groups up with with Riz and that whole crew, we get that sequence where
I think Lewis is his name. It was like that the physical the therapist
guy, the physio. Right, do you guys remember Lewis? So I
sounded I think his partner died and then he and then he wanted to sacrifice
himself, right, And I didn't really I guess the partner dying was the
guy like in the previous room with like the his chest open. I just
like didn't even recognize him, so that after I kind of pieced it together
afterwards, but didn't really have that emotional effect. But you know, that's
one thing I do want to give credit to this show four is that oftentimes
and things like this big battle sequences, like usually your main characters aren't dying,
or like one character will die, or like one lower tier character will
die, and Lewis is a lower tier character. But then we also had
Vanig die and Commander Keys later in the episode. So I think in terms
of steaks so far in just like what seems like part one of the fall
of Reach, and I have to I mean, this next episode has to
be more Reach stuff because we're still in the thick of it. I think
that's good that they're having the stakes there and they had one, like a
tier character die and like a couple couple smaller ones as well. I don't
think that Lewis one really affected me all that much, and honestly neither did
the Vanik one, although I thought the Vanick like the the elite grabbing the
needle and like, I don't think this is how they work in the games
or anything, but grabbing the needle from the needler and just stabbing into his
chest and it blowing up was like that was some gangster shit, I really
really beautiful. Yeah, yeah, that was super cool. But yeah,
going back to that earlier sequence, I don't know, the death of Louis
and the sacrifice there do much for you guys. Unfortunately, not like we
did get some time amongst those two other characters, especially even just Lewis's interaction.
Well, I guess riz in like interaction with both those characters. I
thought they at least try to make us get attached to it, but personally,
I just feel like maybe we didn't have enough time for it. And
also maybe it's just because they only had interacted with Riz, Like if there
was some other connection amongst some of the other characters, maybe I would have
been a little bit more attached to them, because yeah, like I kind
of did what you did. Like I didn't realize it was Lewis's partner that
perished there, but it was just like, why is Riz so upset?
And then when Louis was asking about it, that's kind of when it clicked.
But I kind of even just forgot that he was there because I don't
know. I just I don't know. I don't know why I thought that
I would just kind of assumed that he was out of harm's way, but
got marked there and then yeah, right away, Lewis just sacrifices himself,
and I just I kind of chuckle to myself because you have like Lewis,
who's this blind guy with a noob tube, and he's just like that is
such a dangerous weapon to like, I get it. You know, he's
he's somewhat gone through the Spartan training program, Like he's definitely heightened and way
better than probably most of those marines that we come across. But there's just
a moment when he's like waiting to hear them, and then he just turns
around and just like shoots a shot into a bunch of elites. I'm like,
man, like if he heard someone else and just like turn and just
shot like a bunch of civilians with his noobtube, I'm like, this is
really the best idea here. But they set him up as like Daredevil.
They've said him no, like, hey, I went through this, I
came up with this disability and then I stopped going into combat because of it.
Then he's just out here and he's just as proficient as he was.
Yeah, I assumed. I don't know why they took him off the force,
like, let be part of it. He's clearly pretty successful here.
No, absolutely, And like when like the I guess the Resistance was first
starting and like you had Lewis when in the group there, like they were
going together, I was like, Okay, I kind of like this rag
tag team. But literally like five minutes later, it seemed that they just
died, and it just didn't really hit hard with me on those those saying
goodbye to those characters, even though I like last week I did like their
moments between them and Riz for sure, but yeah, yeah, a little
bit let down. Yeah, they didn't have enough enough weight behind the characters
for me to really latch onto them because we see Riz, we see Chief,
Perez, five Marines, and then both the Lewis and and the other
Spartan and they all die except for Perez, Riz and Chief, which is
sad, it's unfortunate, but there's no connection with these characters. I feel
like the screen time with them was minutes throughout season two, and I feel
like at this point, it's just a man the old catchphrase for Halo is
spartans never died, just missing an action, unless there are spartans on the
Halo TV show, because everyone's just fucking yeah, dropping like flies. But
I totally agree giving the give him the blind fellow the grenade launcher and he's
just firing up into every fucking window above him. It's just not a good
idea. And then they didn't They didn't show him take out the wraith,
and I feel like they just they set it up that he takes it out,
but they didn't show him taking out And I feel like this is again
a downside because people that know Halo know what a wraith is. But if
you don't know about Halo, there's like, oh raith, rais like what
the fuck's a wraith? And you can't even see really what it is because
it's still out in the distance. And then yeah, he just waltzes out
towards it. I thought we're gonna get like a King Kong Skull Island moment
where they is exactly the scene that I thought of, where they just shoot
him from a distance or a sniper picks them off and the wraith keeps going.
I quite liked the section leading into that set piece before we got that
where it's like rape, I guess when his partner dies, and that scene
before I just thought the cinematography was actually pretty good. Generally, I'm not
a big fan of the super shaky can that they have for the action scenes
in this show, but in that sequence, it felt it really felt like
a documentarian style, Like the camera's really close up, it was moving with
them, it was really highlighting the character's faces. It was like it really
felt like it was part of the space, and then just zooming in on
like important character reactions or zooming on that character's death and then kind of like
falling backwards out the window and like Riz jumping down, which was like the
thumbnail shot of the episode. So I thought that was really well done.
And then my my nitpick and I think I've nipicked this before. It's like,
man, it bothers me so much that the br doesn't have like three
round bursts in this show and just shoots whatever. And then do you guys
find that like the the CGI for like the gunfire just looks really cheap in
this show, Like the specifically the human weapons. I can't really recall when
my head right now, I'll look out for it. That's good. Maybe
maybe it's just me, but I it just it feels very cheap and it
it just it makes me feel like the things they're holding are like paper mache
just like or cardboard props or something. Also, just the way they like
swing them around, there's no recoil on them. I just I'm these weapons
are like so instaalgier for me because I play hoists. That was a wee
lad and so when when they look great, but then they just feel like
a cheap replica, really it really bothers me. So those are more nippicky
things. I will. I feel like that's something too that you it probably
I don't want to speak for you, but I feel like it might not
hit as hard if they were armored up too, because it just seems like
they're a lot more maybe secure. Like it, it makes sense that that
the recoil is not really affecting them because they're just totally suited up. But
yeah, like it, it definitely seems like there is no recoil there,
and I agree with them, like swinging around, it just seems a little
a little extra like they're they're going for some some flourishes with their with their
brs. But I didn't notice actually the three round first, So you're death
more of a weapon enthusiast when it comes to it's iconic weapon. What was
I gonna say? Oh yeah, with the Wraith, I agree with you
for the most part. With like the camera I don't really want to say
camera shake because it's not it's more than like it's more than that. It's
it's really a realism type effect that they're going for, Like in the action.
I did like it for the most part, but when it comes to
the Wraith at first, like I just couldn't even see what it was,
and it almost seemed like they're trying to hide it, as if it was
just like super weapon that like should be shocking when you see it. But
even when they have the close up, like before Lewis goes and dies it,
it seemed really blurry and I don't like maybe it was just poor CGI,
which is bizarre because I feel like I'm always giving them credit for how
good everything looks. But it just it was a bad showcase for a really
really badass Halo like signature. Uh vehicle, I guess vehicle weapon Like like
I because like they even showed us like a scorpion in this uh in this
episode right, like the giant tanks that the Marines have, and that looked
really great. So I don't know why they're trying to hide the ring so
much. That was when they were like before the Jackals come out, when
they're like just starting, the scorpion pulls up behind Chief and that's at that's
like my favorite vehicle in the Hale universe. I feel hashtag little Pablo so
this Travis Snell. So I was pretty let down by the by the overall
just I guess usage of the wraith because correct me if I'm wrong, But
have we seen one in like there swear we got one in that magical fight
scene. Uh yeah, one of those first fights of this first season.
Like, I don't think it was a ghost. I swear we saw a
Covenant vehicle because we've definitely seen the what are like the little at vs the
the ghosts is that what they're called. Well, there's the banshees, there's
not the bandsheet, but I don't actually see the ghosts yet. I don't
think we've seen a ghost Okay, whatever it might be in in that that
wraith scene. I guess they you know, they've taken me out many times
on the campaign like those. It's like a nightmare to me when I see
those on a level, So to have them here it really didn't have the
same fear factor that I was hoping for. Chief and the suit going up
to uh whatever it's call when you boot someone out of the view like that,
that's what I would have wanted to see that would yeah, exactly.
Yeah, they definitely, they definitely held back on it. They're like,
how can we do a raith with the lowest budget possible and call it and
still call it a wraith? And I think they achieved their goal. That's
what they're going for there. They're so deadly too in the games, like
that mortar strike that they have a little hard to take down. Yeah,
gets super close, which is not easy to do all the time. Like
the the way that the elites and it's just the enemies and stuff that are
dying just don't really make sense. We've seen how elites are very difficult to
take down before, but in here it looks like one grenade takes out like
five of them in a hallway. A couple of shots just seems to incapacitate
them, like very very easily. So I don't know, I feel like
it's not being consistent how easy it is to take down these Covenant members.
Well, the jackals were cool to see too, and I feel like there
was a little bit seeing sore and just kind of like pick their heads or
picked like in between like their hands between their their shields and stuff, which
is what you do in the game, which is kind of fun. But
they looked more dinosaur like to me then I think of them as from the
game, i'd say, I'd say, that's yeah, they're pretty good.
Maybe they just really are dinosaur like and I just don't think of them.
But they just look like lost wrapped her head with jackal body to me.
Mm. The shields looked great though. Did they always have those like little
mini energy sorts in the games? Like I know they have rightfles they often
have plasma pistols. Yeah, they have the sword though I think they can
in the later Halo games, but in the earlier ones, yeah, shield
and plasma pistols because it looks like an energy sword just like more transparent like
or translucent whatever which one it is. It just it didn't seem like it
had the same energy the Energy Sword had obviously, but I was like,
do they always have the Like I know they mail at you, but like
is that what they're maileing you with? I don't know. It seemed bizarre.
There are in the later Halo games are skirmishers and they run at you
with them. Oh okay, I'm usually du a wielding, got their dukes
up ready to go. You mentioned a name that I actually completely forgot about,
and he's in this episode, not like a lot, but like a
decent amount, especially paired it with Halsey, we got sore in the uh
the disgraced spartan man. I was I had no expectations for like his interaction
with Halsey, but this is not what I thought was gonna happen. And
I'm just like, I don't fucking care about this character anymore after this episode,
Like I didn't really before this one, But just like his like almost
like the Three Stooges type level of like humor. It seemed that he had
at moments like when when they're escaping him and Halsey and she like goes the
one way and he goes the other way, and he's like a little six
year old like I'm not going your way. I don't trust you. Oh
blah blah blah. And then like she's like it's actually this way, and
he's like shit, and then he turns around like walks over, like what
the fuck are we doing here? Like like what is going on in this
episode? And like even when I actually wrote it down because I didn't want
to misspeak, but when he's I think it's his first line that he has
with Halsey, uh yeah, what I would do if I was ever in
the same room room as you, And he just kind of like pauses and
he just looks like he has no no thoughts going on in his brain,
like he's just like frozen. He's like, well, what I do if
I was in the same room with you? Like it's just it seemed like
they were hoping to have this like really intense meeting between Halsey, who's just
put like so many families and people inder like so much distress because of this
Spartan program and like what it does to just the Spartan I guess Psyche just
going through all these things and like, oh, I have a one on
one interaction, Like is he gonna killer with his bare hands. It just
like nothing happened at all, and now that like they just escaped together.
It like, like I said, I had no expectations, but this is
not what I thought was gonna happen. And I was just like, why
are we even wasting time with this? Like this just seems so ridiculous.
Later on, he seems like she's like almost a different character than what she
was in later seasons. Specifically when like Keys dies, she's like, we
have to save him, and in my mind, I'm just like, this
is this just does this seems so far distance from where she was at the
end of last season. It seems like it was always about just Halsey.
As long as she's the one that kind of is living, then that's fine.
And it just it seems like a different character like it was last season.
I really watched that exception for the father of her daughter. You sorry,
you said you you don't think she would like her? And her and
what's his name? They because they're like they were married, right or I
forget if they were married, but they're definitely sexually involved at some point.
Yeah. To me, that to me, that that didn't strike like that
seems like if there's anyone that she's gonna care about. It's like him and
and Miranda, even if she doesn't care about them very much, she's still
like, well, you know, if it comes down to it, like
I'm try and save them. So that didn't that'sn't bother me in the same
way, did you fair enough? I feel like I almost forgot that they
even have that, that that relationship. It's hard to forget, so thank
you for reminding me about that. But I don't know, like I was
mostly just going off on the swor and thing. But Halsey hasn't been in
this in the season so far too much, and it just it seems very
different than she said. She's just locked in this one room and it hasn't
only talked too pretty much actress and at this point the Halsey stuff, it's
a mixed bag for me. One. I think like all those sequences whenever
we were always like build up to a very what was gonna be a very
intense moment in a battle like the bridge scene, where like getting set up
everyone the lines getting set up or calling in the scorpion, and then we
just like cut to Soreing and Halliday like you just removed all the tension that
was built up in this and there's no tension in those scenes even when they
are having their action sequences, So that that was like maybe the downside for
me, But I do still I think I felt this way in season one.
I feel the same way here that the actress that plays Haliday. I
think she's like the best actress in this show, and so I think that
she just has a bit more rain and other characters across the board, Like
even when she's out there on that ledge at the towards the end of the
episode, when she's just looking out at Reach and seeing what's happening and Soren,
of course it just blank stare Pablo Brick mode over here, but she's
you know, she's tearing up, she's looking at all this. Presumably a
lot of this she's like working on in this place that she cares about,
even if she is still maybe a cold hearted person at times. So I
just think she's a bit better quality of an actor than a lot of these
people. So I get a little bit more out of that. But generally
I was not really a fan of the sequence, and I think it does
largely come down to Soren, and I'm not really a big fan of that
character, and that does seem like they're gonna have some big altercation with each
other, but they don't really. I also feel like, I don't know
we're supposed to see these characters, like Soren is this kind of self made
man. He's like very resourceful, he's a pirate, and Halsey's like incredibly
smart person. So I don't like that how they got out of their cell
was just like there was a power ougin, they got lucky and they got
out of there. Because of that, I think it would have been cool
if they maybe work together to come up with a solution to break out of
this cage that they that they were put in. And I don't think it's
funny that, like Soren, this whole episode he's talking about how, oh
man I was I was great. I escaped you, I eluded you back
in the day when I was held captive, and she's like, no,
I let you go. And I like that the same thing happens here where
he just gets lucky and the power gets shut off and then he can escape
again. It's like, are you trying to show me that he's a resourceful,
like smart individual who did all these cool things. Seems like he just
gets lucky a lot when he's like in dire straits, So I don't know
if it's very successful. It's setting him up as a as an intriguing character,
so I don't know. I think there was a couple lines of dialogue
between them that we're all right, Like one from Halsey that I thought was
nice was they were just talking about the impending situation and he's because there is
at the very start of the episode, they're in their cage and they're like
hearing explosions going off, and so they start talking about war, and then
Halsey has the line that's like that he's like, wow, why is war
here? I thought the war was going on in these other outer planets,
and she's like, lots of thing about war. It never stays where you
put it. And I thought that was like a really nice, little poignant
line there. So there was some good stuff in all of that, But
for the most part, I think it's uh, just takes away from like
the tension of the episode. But it wasn't as bad as we didn't also
have Quan scenes. We didn't also have all these characters doing other things,
like for the most part, it was pretty much just like an A plot
and then a B plot, and they converged at the end at the end
of the episode. So for the first time ever, I feel like the
show actually successfully weaved multiple storylines together. That's once again why I think the
pacing was better here than it ever has been. So I hope that keeps
up in these I guess the rest of the season. I hope so too.
I was just look at my notes here at the end when Keys does
his honorable sacrifice and then you have Perez on the bridge of the ship.
I did not understand how she flew that ship out of there, because literally
all she did was grab All she does is grab the throat and just like
goes forward and it's like, I guess to turn on the jets to light
to the ignite, that makes sense, and then all of a sudden they're
just like going into orbit, and I'm like, did she like do anything
else or do All she did was hit that switch and it's just like self
drive, like maybe Keys did like an autopilot thing, and that's all she
had to do. She kept saying that she couldn't fly the ship without Keys
on there, and it truly felt that way. I was just shocked that
it just worked. So she more meant that as like on a personal level,
like right, no, yeah, for sure, But it was weird
to me that she was like not in a seat because I feel like as
soon as she would do that, wouldn't she just like fly back and smashed
the wall and then presumably get knocked out and then all these people would die.
So I think they definitely could have done that, definitely could have done
that a bit better. And now I just don't wonder what she's gonna do
because I feel like, once again, this happened with quant and season more,
where she was hanging out with Chief the whole season and then they got
separated at some point and then Kwan is off doing her own thing, and
so like, now pres gonna be separated, So are we gonna also have
this now? W We're like, we still are gonna presumably see more of
what Kwan's doing, We're gonna see what Prezz is doing, but they're not
gonna be a Chief anymore. It's like, why are you setting up this
relationship if it's not gonna go on? So maybe I'm talking too soon and
they are gonna get teamed up again, but just some weird choices, unless
like this is the end of pres and she just escaped and we don't think
about her again, But then why did she get all this screen time in
the first place. It's very weird. I would really much like if we
just took a break from them, and then maybe later on when we have
like survivors, you like, meet up with them and like the just the
survivors like like that, that would kind of make sense that Prez has just
kind of been making sure that the like the civilians are fine with wherever they're
flying to. Presumably they have a destination. I guess they're going to wherever
the like the higher ups went. They must have some sort of plan on
something. Yeah, I don't know what the planet is. I mean,
from what I've seen, Akerson is just completely sus and I don't know.
Yeah, we also got like finally, I mean, it's the smallest confirmation
of all time. But Halsey's asking Commander Keys, hey, hey, where's
Miranda, and he's like, yeah, she's gone, She's not here.
That's it. So I was like, I actually missed that entire line.
So I'm glad you told me that what is with this character, Like I
cannot believe that they're just not giving any info on where this like crucial character
from season one is and who's very relevant to the characters in this episode and
probably would have had a great emotional scene if we saw her react to her
father's death. So maybe we'll get that. But for all I know,
it seems like that actress just isn't in the show anymore, and they didn't
alter recasting. I don't know. Yeah, no, I I was gonna
ask the question, actually if we know anything else on Miranda, So I've
completely missed that line. It was in that elevator with those two plus Soren
when they were going up. Okay, yeah, okay yeah, And like
even that, like having the face to face amongst Soren Halsey Keys, like
I was expected a little bit more there. I also was kind of expecting
Chief to be there for that meet. I like, obviously Chief sees her
later on right before the explosion, but I was just expecting that, Like
this is a really big inverging of characters, like they have so much weight,
like amongst and like history amongst all those characters. Maybe next episode will
get spit something between Halsey and Uh and Chief. For sure, I would
expect that, but I don't know. It just seemed like a big moment
of like, let's get some great dialogue here, and then it just kind
of dropped the pieces and you know, you can make like the Devil's Advocate,
well like they're in a rash, it's big war times. Then why
do we have time to like talk with the pawn shop owner way earlier on
this episode, Like I'd so much rather take dialogue out of that sequence and
put it with these other characters that I should be caring about. I was
just I was led down and same thing with like the Sore and Halsey thing,
like like don't even have the interaction, give me some some other interaction.
But again, I'm just I'm hating on Sore and from here on out
unless they give you a reason to really love it, like soreing when when
you got a paired up with Halsey at first, it's like, ah,
why do these characters know each other? And it was like, oh,
yeah, okay, this spart and program, okay can go back and like
imagine and maybe there was scenes in season one of flashbacks that have to do
those charactersifically, but I can't really recall those. But yeah, someone like
Soword and command her keys, Like I don't know what scene I'm supposed to
get between them, like do they have a rapport or do they do they
like or dislike each other? I don't really know, And so it didn't
really it wasn't like some big cool moment that Okay, we spent three episodes
or even season one leading up to this, this connection between them. So
maybe we'll get some more of that in the the next episode. But there's
presumably a lot we have to get to still. I mean, Kai,
I don't know where she is right now. Each thing could go on for
many more episodes. I don't know how much that hits the budget, but
I mean I imagine there's still a lot more to be done there. What
if it's revealed that Kai like went on this rogue mission, she she sued
it up, she found her armor, and then she has like the other
Spartan's arm or at least the chiefs the other day, would that help you
at all? Right now, it seems like the armor is on a ship
to Alaska right now, like it's gone for forever. Yeah, it's it's
it's out the window. It's not happening. I mean unless Akerson's gonna like
do a YouTube like oh, we'll just drop that armor back off and and
uh yeah, but I'm I don't know, I'm just I'm just so unhappy
with that decision. It's just not it doesn't make sense. It really doesn't
make sense. Yeah, I could see that happening where she brings the armor.
She's like, okay, where where's Vanic? Time to give him his
armor? And then she that's where like when the moment she finds out and
she probably makes some dumb quip because in lack of her being here to make
her stupid quips. Soren was the one making clips where some guy dies in
front of him and he's like, oh, I'll take that, and he
like grabs his gun and then he starts firing off, like come on,
man, like no, like read the room a little bit here, like
we don't need your quips making fun of this guy who just died in front
of you. And I feel like every half the lines he brings on this
episode just stupid little quips. I liked his birds. I thought that was
kind of funny. He's like it's such a weird opening, and he's like,
cheeth Keith, is this Spartan thing? Like do Spartans just have a
big like affinity to avian creatures. That's because when he died, he's like
looking up and sees the bird flying overhead. I'm like, is this like
a lot of symbolism, Like that, is that actually what happened? I
didn't see. Yeah, I thought he was dead already. So it was
a weird shot because he's like laying their eyes open in the death stance,
and then it like goes from his perspective just watching a bird. Look,
maybe it's the last thing he saw. I don't know, a little bit
poetic. I think it's a reach. But Dylan, you already mentioned like
the needler death scene of Vanic. I just want to double down on the
actual look of the needler. It's not the first time we've seen it in
the show. But I fucking love that weapon. That's like top ten greatest
weapons ever made in video games, Like it's just oh, there you go.
Put a pin on that one, put a needle in that one.
Just like the actual look of the weapon. I'm always surprised on how big
they are I know, like in the games, like like they are really
large on a character's hand, but it's probably just like the first person view.
I'm just so used to just seeing the top of it and just the
reload effect when those needles come out. Fucking love that weapon and the explosion
was sweet. I also quite like the look of like the plasma explosions of
like the Covenant's weapons. It's mostly like artillery coming in, but it's just
like a sploosh of blue jelly that would just burn you to a crisp.
Quite like the look of that. And also when Riz tossed the grenade,
I thought she just threw like a like a regular frag grenade or something,
but it it And maybe you guys can correct me, but I thought only
like the plasma grenades have this like blue explosion. It kind of looked like
that when when she did throw it. I don't know, maybe I'm just
seeing things, but it looked like it had the blue plasma explosion with the
frag grenade effect. But are always like pretty small in the games, like
they don't really hit a huge area and they're pretty minimal. The plasmas are
a bit more explosive in that way. So maybe the exploded, maybe her
frag exploded the covenants scaRNAs and that's what I saw. Yeah, Daisy chained
it, so who knows. But I just wanted to shout out the effects
of those weapons because again, like that looks great, why not just do
well, It's probably very expensive to do only that in the show, but
I still think he could have done something better than what we're getting with the
cheaper budget budget. Probably too, guys, Commander Keys, he died,
He's dead, He's gone. I don't think. I don't think he's dead.
Really. I think I think compared to some of the other desks that
we saw were like an off screen version like this, this seemed like there
was It was way too ambiguous that he probably could have escaped from this and
the other thing too. And if if they again fiction time, yeah,
if this is actually where he dies, I would be so upset because he
plays such a pivotal, pivotal role in the first Halo game. Okay,
he's on charge of the Pillar of Bottom with Chief, they discover Halo,
and then he turns into a flood basically, and then Chief has to go
and basically pull out some of his implants for part of the posession whatever.
But he turns into a flood and it's it's a huge moment, and so
for this just to happen here he gets killed on a platform, just I'm
not buying it. Always saw was flames, and we didn't even see what
happened to the Jackals. It just look kind of destroyed. So I'm thinking
maybe he ducked and dodged somewhere. If not, it's super anti climactic.
He whips his fucking pipe out and that's how he goes. I would like
that you're right, just because I was actually liking that character by the end.
I think I always liked better actors. I would say, yeah,
I think that is what it is. Like I could just kind of tell
from the get go that he seemed like a better actor, So maybe I
was hoping for more scenes. And if that's just the end of that,
that's obviously just a goodbye to that character. So I do hope that you
are right, but I don't know. I don't want to say I'm not
buying it, because like I also didn't see him just get burned to a
crisp like you also, like you definitely didn't see that maybe he just grabbed
a jackal shield or something, you know, did the cover thing, Like
there is ways to write in that that he survived. Maybe he's incredibly disformed.
Who knows, but uh yeah, I would agree that if this is
the end, that's just a letdown. And I think in the moment,
I'm like, well, and again, like this is where I didn't part
of me. I didn't recall the whole Miranda name drop, how she's just
disappeared. So in that moment, I'm like, Hey, he's gonna die,
Miranda's gonna come in. That's gonna be like the passing of the torch
there, which would kind of make sense as somewhat of a script layout.
That's because we've already been introduced to Miranda. We know she's like she's not
the Pinnacle, but she is a higher ranking officer. Like all the cards
are kind of aligning that way. I don't know what they have planned.
Do they just introduce a new character to kind of be the new Keys.
I think that's a terrible idea. Yeah, I hope he's still around too.
I definitely I didn't even think about the possibility that that was a fake
out, But I think I'd be happy with it, even though even though
it kind of goes in to my point I was making earlier of the stakes
of the episode being so big because the these Marquee characters are dying. But
yeah, I guess the last thing on that is I just thought the music
was really good. I mean it it's it was started out just kind of
the generic, like the strings playing really emotional beats, but then there's kind
of like the SYNTHI beat under it that I don't know, just add a
little texture that I thought it was quite nice. So I thought it was
a fairly emotional scene for a character that I do care about. I mean,
there's very few of those in the show, but I genuinely like that
character. I think he hasn't really had too much of an arc this season,
but he's had a small, little baby one, I guess, so
that's more than a lot of characters can say. So so yeah, I
guess I hope he sticks around. Do you think that that would get resolved
next week or would that be something you save for a couple of weeks.
I think you could see opening of next week. Next week. That's just
like the smoke and the debris and he's like crawling through and he lifts his
head up. It's like, oh shit, it's keys. He's alive.
The spartan outfit. He just had the armor all alone. Yeah, Chie's
armor all alone. Yeah. And then she just just like he looks weak.
Leave him to die, guys. Yeah, but he's like on the
command. I just feel like the chief set up such a like we need
you, we need more leaders like you. You gotta survive this. Uh.
And then we already had Vanik die and a few other characters die.
So I feel like I feel like Vanik was then like cashing in on the
last and that was after. It was after Yeah, so I feel like
he's the true guy being killed. And he had the second guy to die
out of three in an episode, never actually dies. That's a classic rule
of film. I don't think have anything else on this episode. I've gone
through all my notes. The elite cutting arbiter cutting off the elite's head.
Didn't like that. I can't see an elite doing that. They're they're very
much like they're talking and like my brothers stuff like that. That's how they
kind of talk referred to each other. They're very honorable and even though an
arbiter is necessarily not in that same kind of boat anymore. I just don't
see that happening. It doesn't make any sense, and I didn't like it
most like chop off his hand or something, for yeah, firing the plasma
pistol with it, But murder seemed it seems kind of weird to me.
I don't know, it did seem very weird because even like thinking of was
it Halo two when you get introduced to the arbiter, yes, yeah,
so like even just that whole sequence where this this individual has like disgraced himself,
like they could just murder him there if that's their way of life,
but like they go through this ritual to give them the the armor of the
arbiter, and it doesn't seem like, you know, we're doing the ape
stretch right now. Ape doesn't kill ape. It seems like a covenant doesn't
kill covenant like that at least, So it just seemed it seemed uncharacteristic,
which is kind of funny to say, because I really don't know much about
how the Covenant work on like a lower basis, But it seemed odd even
for someone like me. That isn't you know well versed in that. What
else do I god here at that? I guess the last thing I have.
And there's one more quote actually, so in that speech, when Keys
was talking to John and trying to boost up them raw for all the Marines,
Keys says, today he needs no armor. Today, he needs the
warrior inside of himself. It's the same war in all of you. I
like what Keys is going for here, but I mean it's all they see,
is like the line that includes no armor. Yeah, I appreciate what
they were trying to do. The other thing and this is, uh,
this is something I'm gonna quote here because I thought this was great. I
was browsing the forums earlier and I quote which wait, sorry, which forums
we're doing? But read it redd it okay? For the Halo TV show.
Yeah, specifically the Halo TV show. I was looking specifically at the
Halo TV Show sucks forums And is everybody on there at like six thirty in
the morning, too, like like all eating their cereal? Probably time that
you checked. No, this was like midday. I'm convinced that, Like,
I'm happy that people can like this show. I really really am.
But at the same time, when I see people praising it like best action
show. I can't love this show. Yeah yeah, yeahda. I'm just
thinking, man, who bought you off? This is just absolutely bullshit.
I don't I'm not, I'm not. I just can't see it. But
and I quote, it's an okay show, but a fucking terrible Halo show.
End quote anonymous editor, I really don't agree with that. That statement.
You agree with it. I would agree with that. I'd say I'd
say it's an okay show, but it's a terrible Halo show. Huh.
I think it's a weak show. I think okay show is an overstatement.
I agree. I agree with the second part. It's not far off,
though, I'll give it to him generous, just in context of where things
are, because they've clearly leveled the playing field here. So the setup of
the story is Keys is on the Pillar of Bottomana. Halsey gets Quartana,
Halsey takes Krtana, gives Kortana to a few Spartan members of a Spartan you
see, and Halo reach the game a few Spartan members and their job is
to get Quartana to master Chief on the Pillar of Attom. And so that
is what you have to do, and you get Kurtana to the Pillar of
Bottom. Chief Keys and Kurtana basically get out of there with the Pillar of
Attom. They make a jump to a random set of coordinates, and those
coordinates are Halo. And so right now we're looking at Keys is dead,
Kortana's been abducted, and Chief has no armor, and there's no mention of
the Pillar of Attom or the ship or anything like that. It seems like
they're legitimately stranded on reach right now. So I'm really curious how this is
going to connect with them getting to Halo. And we don't even we don't
well shift, we don't even see how like they've changed how they they're going
to like go to Halo. I'm pretty sure, because at least the books
are not necessarily canon to the games, that's all changed. But the only
knowledge that I have is from the books where there was a museum that they
were the Spartans were fighting at the Covenant a long long time ago, and
in the museum there's a random gem that had some old writing on it and
they didn't think anything of it. Humans just disregarded, but it was on
the museum. Kurtana catalog the the information that was written on this gem,
and years years later, when they were ditching Reach and trying to get out,
she figured out, Hey, I'm just gonna punch this thin because maybe
these are coordinates. And it turns out the coordinates were the Halo Ring,
so they've changed that, and now it's the devices because the fore Runner tech
that Mackie and the Arbiter have they also have Kurtana. So really there's no
setup for how the Pillar of Automan Chief would even get to Halo. That
kind of eludes me. The other thing, too, is that the reason
reachesn't getting glassed is because there's a whole archive of fore Runner tech that they're
trying to excavate and dig into. We haven't even really seen that. Would
that be why McKee specifically is down there. Well, I think she's down
there just to kind of she's human and I feel like she can easily access
human systems and try and seek by and get to the Seed or whatever that
shit was that we saw in the first season of Halos. So I don't
know just the way that the games and the books have set up themselves with
the story. Right now, we're just in a completely different narrative, and
I'm really curious how they're going to get to the Halo ring. I just
I don't see that connection yet. Yeah, and even with what you're describing,
that doesn't seem so out of the realm possibility for a TV show with
this length and budget to achieve. So it's interesting. I wonder why they
made those choices. It beats me. Oh fucking show. I'm so sorry,
Taylor. You'll do the same thing next week. Are you gonna watch
it in the morning before work? I'll watch it in the morning. Yeah,
I'll probably watch it in the morning. Never learn near. Honestly,
if you want to enjoy good Halo content, go watch Halo Forward and to
Dawn. That's a fantastic Halo movie. You you've seen it, yes,
so you know it's fantastic. It's fucking fantastic. Great representation of master Chief,
all those characters. Okay, movie, Okay, Halo Anonymous read it
you. That is on my notes. I got nothing else to sneak in
there. Let's get out of here, all right. Thank you for tuning
in this week's episode. I will be back next week. We'll see you
in the search bar. By bye ye