Was a fun read.

: -Librarian can apparently plan the course of evolution over
: many generations. There is in fact no roadmap to evolution, and no way for
: there to be one without invoking divine power.

"Authorial Fiat" is a better way to phrase it. It works for the same reason that prophecy works: Because The Author Said So.

: I certainly don't
: see how "guiding" evolution would let her plant the idea to
: invent Mjolnir and Cortana, which she implies in Halo 4.

: -Librarian can "accelerate" the Chief's evolutionary journey.

I would have asked 343i to turn in their license to write science fiction when I heard that line, but they already lost it when Cortana was blabbing about how the Mantle belongs to whoever's evolution is most complete.

: Changing something in the Chief instantly to make him immune to
: the Composer isn't biology, it's magic.

Alternatively, it's screwing with the Composer's fire-control system.

: -All the ancestral humans are white dudes, both in Legends and the Halo 4
: terminals. The archaeological record clearly shows that humans originated
: in Africa, and that for most of the species' history, all humans would
: have looked like people of African origin.

Um... yeah. What does the archaeological record say about Humans getting up and moving to a different part of the galaxy several hundred thousand years ago, before getting transplanted back here and building airships?

: -Halsey calls spartans "humanity's next step, our destiny as a
: species." This nearly ruins the otherwise awesome opening scene to
: Halo 4 for me, because it means absolutely nothing and makes Halsey sound
: like a crazy Dr. Science. The spartans were augmented, but if Halsey is
: implying they could somehow pass that augmentation to offspring, she's
: fallen off the Lamarckian cliff. Or does she think that all humans in
: the future should be augmented? Her attitude toward the Spartan IVs later
: on would suggest otherwise. Basically, this line is dumb.

I think that her opinion is that augmentation is where Humanity is going next. Her contempt for the Spartan IVs stems from the fact that they're all unlikable schezniks their distinct lack of professionalism, and possibly their motives for augmentation.

: *Full disclosure: I'm a
: science teacher, and it's important to me that people have some basic
: science literacy.*

*Full disclosure: I'm an engineer, and it's about time that we had some entertainment too.*