Halo: Reach Discussion

[ejburke]

Like I said, I forgive science fiction for not being realistic. It can't be. I would, however, appreciate it if they avoided BS explanations whenever possible and made a better effort to follow their own internal logic. Which are areas I feel the Halo franchise as a whole could have done better. You are all free to agree or disagree with that assessment. I was just attempting to provide a perspective that you may not have considered.

[FRain]

Like I said, I forgive science fiction for not being realistic. It can't be. I would, however, appreciate it if they avoided BS explanations whenever possible and made a better effort to follow their own internal logic. Which are areas I feel the Halo franchise as a whole could have done better. You are all free to agree or disagree with that assessment. I was just attempting to provide a perspective that you may not have considered.

Isn't that what science fiction IS?

[teh lag]

"Good" science fiction (or any form of fiction to be honest) generally follows its own internal logic, regardless of whether or not said logic makes sense in "real life".

Ex: If in a sci-fi universe there are boats that can fly but only if they have enough assfuckium in their reactors, and then suddenly they can fly without assfuckium, it would be perfectly reasonable to call out that inconsistency.

[Heathen]

"Good" science fiction (or any form of fiction to be honest) generally follows its own internal logic, regardless of whether or not said logic makes sense in "real life".

Ex: If in a sci-fi universe there are boats that can fly but only if they have enough assfuckium in their reactors, and then suddenly they can fly without assfuckium, it would be perfectly reasonable to call out that inconsistency.

unless they went to the future and got a "Mr. Fusion"

[ejburke]

"Good" science fiction (or any form of fiction to be honest) generally follows its own internal logic, regardless of whether or not said logic makes sense in "real life".

Ex: If in a sci-fi universe there are boats that can fly but only if they have enough assfuckium in their reactors, and then suddenly they can fly without assfuckium, it would be perfectly reasonable to call out that inconsistency.

Exactly.

The criticism stands EVEN IF a pack of nerds devote all their time to resolving the lack of assfuckium with a drawn-out explanation. At that point, the fiction is bad not necessarily because it can't make any degree of sense, the fiction is bad because it's ugly. Unelegant. Confusing.

In Star Wars, Han Solo claimed the Millennium Falcon could make the Kessel run in 12 parsecs -- a measure of distance, rather than time. Obvious writer's gaffe, but if you look hard enough, you can find some fan explanation that halfway resolves the issue with the fiction. Still, the average person who knows what a parsec is is still going to be confused and that's why it remains a crack in the fiction.

To be fair, most of the BS in the Halo universe is confined to the books. The games do a good job of avoiding technical exposition. But when you have a line like, "Halo doesn't kill the Flood." in one game and the same characters (Chief, Cortana, Spark) having the expectation that Halo WILL kill the Flood in another, it stings.

[sdavis117]

In Star Wars, Han Solo claimed the Millennium Falcon could make the Kessel run in 12 parsecs -- a measure of distance, rather than time. Obvious writer's gaffe, but if you look hard enough, you can find some fan explanation that halfway resolves the issue with the fiction. Still, the average person who knows what a parsec is is still going to be confused and that's why it remains a crack in the fiction.

I always assumed the Kessel run was how far you could get in a certain pre-determined amount of time, and that that was what the writers intended.

[Siliconmaster]

I always assumed the Kessel run was how far you could get in a certain pre-determined amount of time, and that that was what the writers intended.

The "official" explanation (EU haters rejoice) is that the Kessel run goes past the Maw, a series of black holes. By skirting the black holes, Han and Chewie managed to get to Kessel faster and in less distance. Tada. End of controversy. Simple, retconned, and final. No idea if the writer (wasn't it Lucas?) knew what he was talking about at the time, but now we do have an explanation.

[ejburke]

Damn. Why'd I fucking bring that up?

Yeah, that's roughly what I heard on the matter. Without reading the white paper on the subject, I can't say for sure how sturdy or flimsy an explanation it really is, but my guess is that the "official" Kessel run explanation has a fucked up view of how black holes actually behave and interact with matter. For example, the new Star Trek movie portrayed them in about the most incorrect way I've ever seen. Black holes do not suck. Matter falls toward and orbits them just like it would any planetary body with equivalent mass.

Also, a parsec is a ridiculously long way, about 3.25 light years. Black holes are tiny, but their destructive tidal influence extends a decent way. Each Foot the Millennium Falcon would trim closer to the black holes would increase the tidal stress by multiple orders of magnitude. So, they couldn't have shaved off much distanceat all. If Han Solo did it in 12 parsecs, then the old record holder must have done it in 12.0000000000000000000000001 parsecs. And it says more about the Falcon's sturdiness than its speed or navigational guile.

Great, more tangents.

So, uh, Reach. Should be pretty good. Although...

I was hoping to see a truly sexified version of the Mark V armor from my beloved Halo 1. I guess if you want something done right...

[t3h m00kz]

The way I see it, the reason there's so much more detail in the armor is because they seem to be going for more of an "exposed interior" look, makes it all much more prototype-y.

I mean after all, the more advanced stuff gets, the sleeker it looks. For example, compare old laptops to the ones today.




Much less bulky, much sleeker, much less stuff sticking out everywhere.

[Terry]

I mean, shit. In Halo 1, the ring activations doesn't kill the Flood

If you played the campaign, you'd know that
1) Halo doesn't kill the flood, it kills their food. The flood will eventually die off of starvation.

2)The rings were never activated in Halo 1. The pillar of autumn was used to destroy that particular installation.

and in Halo 3 it does.

If you played Halo 3, you'd know that the Halo never managed to fire properly because it was incomplete and therefore collapsed in a catastrophic explosion that destroyed everything on that installation (again).

Except that Gravemind managed to survive the first activation while on Delta Halo. Don't even get me started on the "biomass" and "sentience" floodification requirements. Arbitrary BS.

Delta Halo? I remember them stopping an activation.... Which one do you speak of?

A corpse, as I explained, is certainly not sentient.

This is actually true. I don't get that either admittedly.

Guilty Spark thought activating the ring to counter the local infestation was a good idea.

Guilty Spark thought DESTROYING the ring and the Ark was a BAD idea.

There you go.

Intent.

I don't get your point. It's pretty clear that guilty spark was either just following preprogrammed orders, or didn't care much about the fate of sentient life to begin with. Everything points to him just being servile to all his instructions. This is precisely why we...kill guilty spark and go against his orders.

If he's not the same Gravemind, then it begs the question where he came from.

http://begthequestion.info/
Pet peeve.

Although you're right on the other points. Infact, I think making the flood sentient and having the gravemind exist at all was a bad direction. If he had to exist, they could have established him alot better.