[Various Chirps and Whistles]

Hallo! This is my Halo blog! Prepare for nerdstuffs.

[huragoks]

343 needs to release a variant of the binary rifle that’s this:

The Non-Binary Rifle.

(By @carconutty)

[huragoks]

I had a dream Halo Infinite came out and playable Sangheili were back and there were SO many customization options, you could even change the head shape of your Elite and it was bliss. Hopefully my dream was a vision of what’s to come. 

[huragoks]

A probable interaction during the Spartan II Program:

Trainee: Can I go home now? On a starship?

Halsey: No! In fact, we're gonna train you into super soldiers, and you're gonna fight the Covenant for thirty years!

Trainee: Why are you doing this??

Halsey: 'Cause we're the ONI, and life is a fucking nightmare.

[communistkenobi-archive]

new hotness: replying with “it is our duty as soldiers to protect humanity, whatever the cost” whenever someone thanks you for doing some inconsequential and easy task

[spartanlocke]

Another example of Bungie/Halo’s fanbase being bitches? Halo 2 and Halo 4 were the most creative, risk-taking, emotion-driven games Bungie and 343 made and they received the worst backlash. 

[huragoks]

While Halo: Bad Blood said Chief and Thel “reminisced” on the past for a night that was off-screen, I am happy there was this bit shown:

"’Farewell, Spartan.’ The two of them reached out and clasped forearms. 'When we first met, we were enemies. Fighting to end each other. Now as allies, I am confident we can face this new threat together once more.' ‘Thank you.’“ I’m happy the Chief/Arby friendship is explored, even with this small bit. And maybe in future fiction we’ll see what that catch-up conversation was all about. 

[huragoks]

“Master Chief, I don’t feel so good...”

[foxinwhiteroses]

The Halo 6 trailer is just the Brady Bunch squares, only with Blue Team, Osiris, and the Arbiter.

[foxinwhiteroses]

Meanwhile on Sanghelios….

This is the story Of some lovely Spartans Who were doing their very best to save the world….

[jame7t]

you ruined the punchline

[huragoks]

Sometimes getting friends into Halo is.... hard...

[77sevenseven77]

❉Happy birthday John!❉

                               3.7

[spartanlocke]

“After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They, and all additional sentient life within three radii of the galactic center, died, as planned.”

Also known as holy shit look at the way Johnson looks at Thel how did I never notice that before. 

[greenreticule]

If you don’t mind me reposting a whole set of feels I had back when I was rereading Contact Harvest…

It must have been going through his head as Thel charged the Jiralhanae that were keeping him and the marines captive.

It must have been going through his head as he waited for Thel to confirm the truth about the Halo rings.

It must have been going through his head as he looked at Thel with all that sympathy.

“Make me proud, do what’s right. This had been his Aunt’s instruction on the day of his enlistment, her small but strong fingers reach up to cup his nineteen-year-old chin. Become the man I know you can be. And Avery [Johnson] had tried. He’d left Earth ready to fight for her and those like her – innocents whose lives the UNSC had convinced him were threatened by men inimical but otherwise identical to him. Killers. Innies. The enemy. But where was the pride? And what had he become? … ‘I’m sorry,’ Avery croaked, wishing he aunt were alive to hear it. Then his mind collapse under the multiplicative weight of loss and guilt and rage.” (Harvest, pp 45).

The opening of Contact Harvest has Johnson questioning where he lies in this war, questioning all the death he caused and all the civilians caught in the crossfire between the Insurrection and the UNSC. His Aunt’s final words to him ring in his ears consistently.

Even though he saw the beginning of the Human-Covenant, he never got to see the end of the war waged within humanity. And he would only go on to see more and more innocents die because of another war caused by conflicting ideologies.

So what if the words “Make me proud, do what’s right,” are whispering in his ears as he stares down the Scarab canon he has aimed at the Sangheili who captured both himself and Commander Keyes? Aimed at a killer. A Covie. The enemy. Sure, this Sangheili just saved him, but that doesn’t undo every single murder committed by this alien. 

Johnson could end this high-priority target right there, eliminate one of humanity’s greatest threats.

Or he could give him a second chance. 

“Do what’s right,” he thinks and choses mercy.

And as Thel confronts Tartarus, Johnson holds off on firing at the Chieftain because he realizes that just as he had been convinced that the Innies were all monsters, Thel must have been convinced that the humans were too by the Covenant leaders. He realizes that Thel needed closure, clarification, just like he did.

And as the enormity of the War and all the lies, that multiplicative weight of loss and guilt and rage crashes down on Thel, I am certain that Johnson looks and sees himself in the Sangheili. And maybe, just maybe, Johnson is running those same words in his head:

“Make my mercy mean something - Make me proud.” “Show me that sparing you was the right thing to do - Do what’s right.” “Become the man I know you can be - whatever kept me from pulling that trigger, show me that now.”

And then we see Thel offer the exact same hand of peace, the same new start, to Tartarus that Johnson offered to him.

Thel’s pursuit of peace started with Johnson giving him a second chance.

And I swear it’s all because Johnson wanted to make his aunt proud.

Johnson joined the UNSC to protect people like his aunt. And because he joined the UNSC, he was there to decide to give Thel a second chance. A choice which saved the galaxy and gave it its best chance for peace. He became the man his aunt knew he could be.

[spartanlocke]

And as the enormity of the War and all the lies, that multiplicative weight of loss and guilt and rage crashes down on Thel, I am certain that Johnson looks and sees himself in the Sangheili.

I haven’t read Contact Harvest, but this paragraph and the one before is exactly what I imagined was going through his head right then. This is the one thing, for me, that has always separated Halo from the rest of  war-themed games: it’s a story with war, not about war. It’s not about survival of the fittest or revenge or just plain violence, it’s about how war corrupts and destroys. And most importantly, it’s about the people that war affects.  It’s, as someone put it, a story about salvation. It’s about breaking through the lies, the oppression of those who’d dictate who you are, and claiming your agency against all odds. It’s about escaping damnation and becoming who you want to be and no one else. 

And this, this scene right here, it’s the perfect example of that. 

Also, Greenie? That meta was really fucking good. 

[huragoks]

Jul 'Mdama? More like Jul 'MDAMNa! Amiright?

My friend, Leo. 

[huragoks]

In honor of Valentine’s Day coming up, here’s what Let ‘Volir says about Atriox in the last issue of The Rise of Atriox. 

[huragoks]

Now this, this is art. 

[huragoks]

So this popped up on my Facebook memories thing, and I shared this around 2012. 

Boy, has this meme aged well.

[huragoks]

One good thing I hope for Halo 6 is that we get a ME3-esque scene where we see dozens of ships, human and alien alike, coming together to do an epic space battle against the Guardians. (Or, a guardian). 

Maybe the gang finds a way to weaken the Guardians, so it would be a fair fight. But man, it would just be great to see human and Sangheili ships (and hopefully other species!) coming together against a common enemy. 

Shit like that is SO GOOD.