: I think it was glossed over in The Fall of Reach and First Strike. Shining a
: different, but very good light on the topic in Ghosts of Onyx. As for the
: Halsey Journal, I don't know. All I'm saying that it wasn't fully explored
: as a central topic until the introduction of Glasslands. I personally
: enjoyed the new perspective on the universe that didn't attempt to plainly
: glorify or justify what ONI did where fresh, external minds concluded what
: they will about the topic.

First of all, let me quote Rama from the Spacebattles forums:

Furthermore (and I'm aware that I'm guilty of double posting, but I would like to add an addendum here), the problem with Traviss's writing doesn't necessarily stem from an absence of research, but the existence of just a bare minimum of research required for the narrative to remain functional (place names, dates, historical events, characters etc.) that then allows her to broadly repaint a number of pre-existing characters with her typically monotone anti-elitist tar brush; even though she typically deals with military organizations where explicit forms of elitism are often favoured. Traviss believes in narrative deconstruction, that much is clear, but even in lieu of a universe where there is so much existing potential to break down narrative tropes she has to essentially lie about fairly explicitly documented events to make her interpretations and hamfisted character assassinations work.

Take her treatment of Halsey for example. According to Traviss's revisionism:

- Halsey was solely responsible for the S-II program, condoning the kidnapping of children, genetic experimentation and illegal cloning.

The truth is that Halsey was no saint, however her involvement in the project was initially as an advisor for a plan already outlined by ONI, but when faced with the impending collapse of civilization her research helped refine the S-II program beyond the borderline barbaric outlines created by ONI. Despite several Traviss characters comparing her to Mengele her role in the program reduced the number of enlisted casualties and greatly succeeded over prior programs, her involvement from there on was to ensure the survival of her unit, improving their health and working conditions and even rehabilitating those who were left injured or crippled.

- Halsey altered the memories of several of the S-II candidates.

Also false. She states on several occasions that brutal honesty is the best policy when dealing with the Spartan candidates, failure to adhere to which could lead to future rebellion or distrust of authority, hence why she elected to personally open an honest dialogue with the children mere minutes into their orientation. Then again this is only just a major scene repeated in several formats throughout the canon, nothing compared to the necessary revisionism to paint her broad anti-elitist brush. Remember, Halsey can only be Mengele 2.0 if she doesn't "volunteer" six year olds.

- Paragonsky's S-III program was ethically and morally superior due to the nature of the candidate selection process.

Highly questionable. Despite several complaints that Halsey's genetic screening of children was ethically unsound and created an emotionless army of robotic killers, Paragonksy's and Ackerson's S-III program fully acknowledged in numerous FLEETCOM meetings (Mendez was sat two feet away from Kurt and Paragonsky when he complied with this decision) that the S-III units were also to be genetically screened and culled based on genetic and physiological qualities. Also their supposed volunteer army was actually a large number of war orphaned children traumatized by the loss of their families and homeworlds, sent on suicide missions as shock troopers (with the current record for survival is currently less than 1% when generous) where the likes of Gamma company so highly tampered with that they were augmented and engineered as children for sheer aggression, so without a consistent course of medication some individual members are liable to being extremely hostile, dangerously unbalanced and prone to violently lashing out.

Good luck rehabilitating your mentally unbalanced, ludicrously superhuman PTSD riddled child soldiers who are capable of casually shattering bones in a fit of rage. But Halsey was the bad guy, because she didn't bother to coerce mentally and emotionally undeveloped orphans to fight monsters and had the audacity to screen candidates so that her patients didn't spontaneously sprout massive uncontrolled bone tumors after surgery. Hooray?

- Halsey regarded Jacob Keyes as a scientific curiosity.

Disgustingly false. Her personal diary and several other accounts reveal that Halsey felt especially affectionate of Keyes, and despite their fractured family life and eventual disconnect (man Traviss, it turns out brutal interstellar wars are a bad time to for key government employees start a family and raise children) in her own way she still loved him unconditionally, musing over his appearance, his intelligence and even remarking that she felt genuinely nervous recounting their brief fling in person. Even when they were separated by dozens of light years she secretly pulled strings to protect and nurture him.

In the space of a single novel Halsey went from a ten year arc where she was depicted as a morally complex genius plagued by guilt, crushed by the burden of both a fratricidal war and an extermination campaign led by a highly advanced alien polity who developed a faux maternal bond with her candidates - a woman who genuinely felt and agonized over every single death throughout the war; to a borderline Nazi scientist who experimented on children to sate her own curiosity, regarded her loved ones with a cold and calculated egress and was despised by her closest friends and allies, people who previously regarded with affection.

Maybe The Fall of Reach did gloss over the monstrous aspects of the Spartan II program. Personally, I think it just presented the facts and left the moral conclusion up to the reader, but let's assume that whitewashing did occur. Let us assume that a story was needed that explored the negative aspects of the Spartan II program, one that looked at the human cost and let the characters decide for themselves whether it was worth it.

The Kilo 5 Trilogy is not that story. The Kilo 5 trilogy fabricated events and derailed characterization in order to drive home the point that Halsey alone ran the Spartan II program, and Halsey alone is disgustingly, inhumanly evil. Every single character comes to this conclusion. Parangosky, Osman, Vaz and Mal, and Chief Mendez all condemn Halsey with the same narrative voice. Kilo 5 treatment of the Spartan II program is like having a debate about the Affordable Care Act, only for some idiot to run into the room shouting that Obama is a Muslim and the ACA is written to send political opponents and old people into death camps.

Bonus points: Traviss's treatment of Lucy B-091.

: One of the best things they could have done was how Catherine Halsey
: interacted with everyone in Spartan Ops. You see that Glasslands-like hate
: in the eyes of Sarah Palmer.

"Glasslands-like hate"

Seeing as how Palmer deserted her post and cut off all communication with her subordinates to watch Halsey like a feral dog, that's actually a fairly good simile. She'd fit in well with Mal and Vaz.

: You feel that lazy contempt from the likes of
: Tom Lasky, Paul DeMarco, and Anthony Madsen. What's most important in
: order to contrast is how Gabriel Thorne engages with Halsey. They interact
: each other with the same sort of contemplation as older works like The
: Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx did for the topic. It's all about
: perspectives and I enjoy that there's more than one out there with a take
: on the universe worth having discussion about.

Spartan Ops was a great treatment of the morality of the Spartan II program. If the question is to be brought up in the future, I think that a short story that stars the people who ran the Spartan II program (Halsey's assistants, team leads, guards, etc) would be a great avenue. Just got to find the right person to write it.