this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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Not a surprise. I didn't mind the show (I didn't play the games so I didn't go into it with any preconceived expectations, and it was a fun enough 'switch brain off and enjoy' sci-fi story). But it got so much flack from fans (rightly or wrongly - I'm not making any judgement there), the plot was a bit meandering, and they had sort of boxed themselves in by the end of season two. And it clearly cost a lot. So an imminent death was expected.
They turned Chief into a war criminal rapist. Captees cannot give consent to their captors.
And that's the rub. If this show had been called 'Space War' and had no connection to Halo, you'd have been equally happy. A decent number of Halo fans probably would have enjoyed the 'Space War' show.
Connecting something to an existing fictional universe creates expectations in the fans that are supposedly being appealed to. This show diverged so hard from the source material that right from the beginning the creators unambiguously called it an alternate timeline (the "Delta timeline") as a get-out-jail free card from criticism. Except that doing that just validates all the worries by fans that the people making the show don't care about the franchise.
That is a legitimately excellent point. Yes, if they were going to diverge that much then they should have made it its own thing instead of trying to cash in on an existing franchise.