: Today, "you're an idiot". Tomorrow, "Oh we thought that was a
: good idea all along."

I can't think of anything in TFoR that would have convinced fans that ODSTs are a special brand of awesome. What I do remember is kind of one-note and uninteresting compared to the Spartans.

Halo 2, though... they were awesome in Halo 2.

: Thinking he could buy Alan Moore... :-)

It's possible, but you'll need a time machine.

: What does he gain by lying?

Doesn't have to be lying. Look, he's talking about a contentious project from over ten years ago. Take it from someone that knows, exact details get stretched. I was on a writing team once, and my co-writer... well, let's just say this. He was an anime fanboy who just loved mechs, and he made thebruce0 look like a pessimist. You can guess how well we got along.

He wanted to write World War II in the 23rd century(Minus the Eastern Front and the United States) with a heaping dollop of Code Geass and quite a bit of Halo thrown into the mix. My idea was a mix of Half Life 2, War of the Worlds, and Terminator, with a lot of Halo and transhumanism. We could agree on basic plot points, for a little while, but then we'd get hung up on the details and then he'd want to completely change this or add a new chapter with a secret volcano lair, and we'd be back to square one.

It wasn't nearly as bad as Trautmann's ordeal, but we were at each other's throats constantly until the project fell through. And when we got back together last year and compared notes, we couldn't agree on what either of us had wanted. I brought up plot points that I'd suggested and ideas that I remember him pushing for months. He remembered those plot points being different and coming from another team member, and that one big idea was something he'd brought up once and dropped after I talked him out of it. Things only got more muddled when we brought teammember C into the conversation.

The reason I'm not taking Trautmann's as gospel is because it's one side of the story about contentious events that happened 10-15 years ago, not necessarily because I think he's lying. My personal experience tells me that when people are working against each other on a creative project, each one of them will walk away with a different story.