: That and the podcast confirm what I've suspected for years: the Chief wasn't
: made to be a fleshed-out character. More than that, they confirm Bungie
: was never hot on the expanded universe, and they explain why: from the
: very beginning, people were countermanding and overriding the universe
: they were trying to create and their decisions about how and when and
: where to make it. The podcast says they had a lot of latitude but going
: against their wishes to put out a book, even one that was well-liked and
: sold well, I mean that's got to hurt. If anything it doing well might feel
: worse since it makes you look like a fool for opposing it. That might
: explain why they didn't make Reach conform to canon very well-- they
: didn't write the canon that existed at that point and they were annoyed
: they had the chance to taken away from them, as I think most people would
: be. It looks like one person is largely responsible for all this-- and
: ironically also largely responsible for the first game's script coming
: together.

: I never minded the blank slate character, and actually it bothers me that
: everyone seems to be getting rid of them. I don't like the idea that a
: certain character archetype is bad, even if that archetype is mainly
: defined by what it lacks. Not only that but a game is about the only place
: a blank slate character can work, and not only that but work to great
: effect. What blank slates do we have left in larger games? Even Gordon
: Freeman has a bit of backstory and ostensibly has a personality now. Why
: can't we have some blank slate characters in things other than little
: indie games?

Depends on the game, but let's be honest. The silent protagonist only ever originally excisted due to sound/hardware limitations. It's one reason why Duke Nukem 3D was widely praised when it was released. With a universe a fleshed out as Halo you can't keep playing as a blank slate character. To be perfectly honest though we never truly had a blank slate character in Halo until ODST, which looking at this now is fairly ironic.

: I would also rather have a blank slate than the cartoonishly evil origin
: story we got from Nylund. Abducting little kids, replacing them with
: clones that will die soon, training the kids in combat, subjecting them to
: experimental procedures that kill a bunch of them and make others unable
: to have a normal life... we're used to overlooking it but that's on the
: level of a bad comic book villain. The fact a lot of things established in
: The Fall of Reach were contradicted by other authors suggests... well you
: can probably see where that's going. I still wonder if giving the
: Spartan-IIIs a slightly different origin was a response to feedback on the
: S-IIs. I will say I don't particularly blame him beyond the existence of
: certain concepts-- the whole thing was stressful, he had to write it in 7
: weeks, it was his first entry into the universe, and Bungie, who came up
: with the universe, were too busy to talk to him.

I'd hardly call the Spartan II project cartoonishly evil, it's not something you would see in a saturday morning cartoon aimed at kids or teens. The Fall of Reach was an excellent novel and the origins of the Spartan II's is damn dark. Can you imagine if a country in the present day attempted it? There would be hell to pay.

: As to the comments about Bungie, they're... interesting, especially the comic
: ones... Trautmann himself said he can't speak for all them and there were
: plenty of good and reasonable people there, and that they were
: (understandably) not too happy about Microsoft injecting people into their
: team.

: All in all, I'm still just waiting for the reboot.

The way I look at things it seems that without Microsoft Halo would not have turned into the great franchise it is today. It would not be as interesting as it is not going by what we now have with Destiny. Microsoft and people like Trautmann and Nylund deserve credit on helping to create an expanded universe that helps to make the Halo series more fresh and exciting to explore.