Microsoft’s blockbuster Halo franchise has more than $81 million in sales since Halo Combat Evolved launched on the original Xbox on November 15, 2001. Fans of the series have been waiting more than 20 years to see live action Master Chief kick some Covenant loot on Halo. Time, it seems, has not been kind for once savior of the galaxy. At some point in history, Halo and developer Bungie Studios were responsible for a shift across the entertainment industry with halo 3 as it spawned $300 million in the first week.
On the first day, a video game would beat a multi-million dollar feature film, spider man 3. hello and the video game industry would never be the same again. Today, Halo has a very different place of business in the video game industry than it did over a decade ago. While millions of viewers tuned to the Paramount+ Exclusive Halo TV SeriesMaster Chief’s Television Debut Links much to be desired. From new characters, events in the Halo timeline and cannon seemingly just thrown into the wind, 343i has made it very clear that the Halo TV series does not follow the canon of the iconic video games. Join us and discover the biggest differences between Halo and the Halo TV series.
~~~ Spoilers for the Halo TV series below ~~~
10/10 The helmet
One of the more polarizing aspects of the Halo TV series is seeing the Chief without his iconic MJOLNIR armor on, more specifically his helmet. Paramount+ unceremoniously chose to portray the Halo TV Chief without his Mark VI helmet in an effort to humanize their interpretation of the Master Chief. Don’t worry, we’ll get there.
Chief without his helmet is less of a deal breaker because it happens early on, and he’s so often without. However, after a while it becomes easier to rate the Halo TV show more as a solid Sci-Fi action seriesrather than a by-the-numbers in-cannon Halo story.
9/10 Catherine Halsey
The creator of not only the SPARTAN Program and MJOLNIR Power Armor but also the literal brilliant mind Cortana spawned, The character of Dr. Catherine Halsey remains largely untouched in the Halo TV series. The only major difference between this Halsey universe version and the Halo gun version is that the Halo TV Halsey gets into trouble with the UN Security Council much earlier.
At this point in the Halo timeline, Dr. Halsey felt an extraordinary sense of guilt for her and Captain Keyes’ involvement in the child abduction for its SPARTAN-II program. Replacement children were: flash cloned and swapped with children they kidnapped to genetically modify and create Spartans. In the end, the cloned children died of genetic disorders within months as their organs fell apart genetically. In the Halo canon, Dr. Halsey personally monitors all child clones up to the year 2525.
8/10 Chief’s love interest
In the Halo cannon, the Master Chief was… genetically enhanced and vigorously trained to be a docile super soldier from childhood and complete the mission no matter the cost. In the first season of the Halo TV series, after John-117 comes into contact with the mysterious alien artifact, he removes his emotion regulator that should suppress his natural human emotional responses. This allows him to deal with his emotions instead of suppressing them. One of these emotions that Paramount+ wants you to know John is capable of is love.
In the Halo TV series, Makee, a human who sided with the Covenant, is deliberately imprisoned by the UN Security Council, which then leads to an emotional relationship between her and John. While it’s also a direct violation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003, John’s love interest seems crippled and a sign that 343i and Microsoft probably felt comfortable moving away from the Halo cannon after reading the script.
7/10 Silver Team
Halo’s iconic Blue Team takes a back seat to the Halo TV series Silver Team, which is probably best seen where the first season ends. Blue Tea members Frederic-104 Assault, Keely-087 Scout and Linda-058 Marksman are all seemingly absent from the Halo TV show and have been replaced by Silver Team’s Kai-125, Vannak-134 and Riz-028.
Of John-117’s new teammates, Kai-125 is the most interesting new addition to Halo. Kai recognizes that John hasn’t been himself for most of the season, and while spying on him, she comes up with the idea of removing her emotional inhibitor as well. She also embarks on her adventure in the background, trying to deal with her newly unregulated emotions.
6/10 Soren
Spartan-066, or Soren, is a Spartan II dropout and eventual AWOL soldier in Halo canon. Soren had spent a significant amount of time with The Master Chief and the other recruits while they were training and more importantly, undergo genetic modification. Soren couldn’t stand the biological enhancements and eventually fled the SPARTAN training center in the middle of the night, but not before stealing his MJOLNIR power armor.
The last time Halo fans heard of Soren, he was hiding in the woods near the site of a crashed Pelican training ship. Paramount+ more or less had a blank slate developing the character Soren, who would be as old as John at this point. Soren is often reduced to leader of the rebellion in a shelter along an asteroid belt take more than he gives to his people.
5/10 Master Chief dies
The Halo TV series eventually ends with Cortana strategically killing John-117 in a seemingly last-ditch attempt to save him and his team of certain death.
Cortana takes control of the MJOLNIR power suit while the chief is dead, and it has never been fully stated whether he is ever revived in the suit after the battle. Just to be clear, Halo Cannon Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 is currently very much alive wrestle over mountains on Zeta Halo.
4/10 Kwan Ha
Outer Colonies, Civil Wars and Insurgents have always existed in the Halo lore, Paramount+ introduces Kwan Ha to the series as an insurgent rebel against the UN Security Council. Both Kwan Ha’s parents were killed by the UN Security Council and she witnessed her mother’s murder by… Master Petty Officer John-117.
Kwan Ha and Soren take up a lot of screen time that never leads to anything important. The character Kwan Ha seems like a busy job for Soren, that the creators may have had a unique time trying to lock in as a meaningful character.
3/10 Make
Kidnapped by the Covenant as a child, Makee is a new character in the Halo franchise and is sympathetic to her captors’ belief in the Great trip. Makee, who has nothing but contempt for humanity, too possess a gift very important to the Covenant. Makee is inexplicably able, like John, to interact with the mysterious alien artifact found in the show’s first episode.
The alien artifact turns out to be a map with coordinates to a mysterious ring world, the location of the Covenant’s Great Journey. Makee does not exist as a channel for Installation-04 in the Halo canon. Both the Covenant and the UN Security Council found Halo by chance. Her inclusion in the Halo TV series opens up many more questions than it closes.
2/10 Cortana
Cortana and Master Chief are just as pseudonymous as … and the Master Chief and Halo. Cortana, in the Halo cannon, is a Smart AI Combat Advisor that was made by the brain of Dr. Mapping Catherine Halsey and use that architecture to bring Cortana to life. Cortana and The Master Chief team up to save the universe during the height of the Covenant-Human War. Halo TV Cortana appears to be presented as the the world’s first Smart AI, made from a cloned version of Dr. Halsey. Her mission is more of a control function than a combat advisor in the TV series.
in hello, Smart AIs are not common because they are expensive to engineer, but they abound. Smart AIs are capable of many more computational processes than traditional AIs, allowing them to think and make decisions that are more humane than a robot. Smart AIs typically have a lifespan of 7 years, after which they slide into what is known as AI Rampancy. AI Rampancy eventually leads to the AI’s death as the process gets stuck in an infinite loop, effectively think oneself dead.
1/10 Hello?
For a show that has the word Halo in the titlewould you think we would see more of the deadly planetary Eden with his lush landscapes and intimidating alien structures. Probably the most glaring and baffling difference in the first season of the Halo TV series is the near absolute absence of the ring world known as Halo.
For comparison: the Halo ring world appears 25 seconds in the first movie in Halo Combat Evolved, and you destroy the alliance gear on the planet in the second mission.
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