: A while back Halo Legends was released and it's been one of the more divisive
: entries in the Halo franchise. Some folks liked it many stories and unique
: approach to the universe, others thought it was a mess of canon errors and
: cliches. And there's further debate about which of the stories were great
: or terrible.

: Lately, though, I've been watching Fate/Zero and thinking over its themes
: about the overt battlefields of war vs the hidden ones. These are themes
: that wouldn't be out of place in Halo, with the explosive battlefields of
: Spartans vs Covenant over the machinations of ONI, the Prophets, AIs...

: The post-Covenant War Halo universe has changed and maybe there's room to see
: how its universe is transforming. Halo is often at its best when telling
: multiple tales. And now with Spartan-IV, the anime writers are free to
: kill as many Spartans and draw as much ridiculous armor as they want.

: So I ask you, should there be a Halo Legends 2? By whom, and about what?

I'd like to see a Legends 2, but with some caveats. Some of the, er, more exotic designs were a little silly, especially in The Duel, which was otherwise a quite serviceable story. And whoever was in charge of designing Halsey in The Package...well, let's just say there's a circle of hell waiting for them. Likewise, I'm sick of seeing Spartans die - Cal, Daisy, Arthur and Solomen should have felt like a god on the battlefield, and they went out like chumps. I did like how it dealt with the origins of the Spartan-II Program, and Ghost's story was good, and the story of the ODSTs and Cal was MOSTLY really good except for the unmasking.

There were several that I thoroughly enjoyed. The Origins two-parter, as a mental overview in the mind of a rampant AI was a wonderful refresher of the history of the Halo universe, and was visually beautiful, including the Forerunner stuff, which was our first visual interpretation of actual Forerunners and is, in my opinion, still superior to what we've seen since. And the ridiculously silly but highly entertaining tale of Spartan-1337. And the first part of The Package (that Prowler <3) and first half of the second episode. And the mech episode.

If there were to be a hypothetical sequel, they need tighter control on the visual interpretations. Package!Halsey or Han 'Chava(mee?) ruined what were otherwise great films. That doesn't mean NO interpretation, just that they need to still look like they belong in the Halo universe. I would also argue that while the standalone format was an admirable experiment, a future collection would need to follow a common threat, telling smaller segments of a larger, overarching story. Also...some of the anime tropes need to be toned down. Chief looking at the camera, saying he "needs to get stronger?" I expect the guy to start glowing gold and firing lasers from his hands.

That said, what kind of stories would I like to hear? Let's go back in time - let's see a Kig-Yar pirate queen defending her homeworld, using the asteroid belts to hide from great Covenant cruisers, ducking waves of Seraphs. Let's see a squad of Spartan-IVs who think they're veterans find out that they're suddenly rookies next to their S-II and III predecessors, and that they need to prove themselves. Let's see Ben and Petra breaking out of Midnight. Heck, let's have a quiet campfire episode between a handful of Covenant soldiers, asking each other why they're fighting. Or give us the point of view of an Insurrectionist cell desperately fighting for freedom against a totalitarian UNSC, and for survival against the xenocidal Covenant. The new EU has boundless potential, arguably more than the old material no matter how much I love it, which would free up the studios involved to tell more diverse stories than "X has to save Y by shooting everything, also some emotional tearjerker end to be thoughtful."