: Some of the points made were honestly ridiculous. The site dedicated to
: defending canon and The Fall of Reach, ignores canon and dismisses
: Halsey's Journal, which was written by Nylund himself. 2/4 of the story
: critiques were centered around Noble Six (one about them needing to 'grow
: as a character', the other saying that they don't work as a self-insert),
: which just feels absurd.

: I think the wider picture here is fairly clear. Halo: Reach's story
: contradicts The Fall of Reach's depiction, which is beloved. This means
: that no matter what, the game is already tainted. It's lack of the
: super-solid character-driven story they were going for certainly isn't
: helping the notion that the contradictions are worth it. All of this leads
: to passionate critiques to air grievances—even if those critiques don't
: entirely hold up.

: But I don't disagree with the main message. Bungie (and anyone else) should
: be kept honest with their storytelling. Don't get me wrong; fair points
: were raised. Personally, I enjoyed too much of Halo: Reach to say that I
: would prefer it not to have been made, but it had problems. The characters
: were overall pretty flat, and the stretching of Reach's fall to multiple
: months doesn't come across as necessary.

: One thing that's fairly forgotten nowadays is that Bungie at large kept
: Halo's fiction to a high level of cohesion. Contrary to this post, canon
: should matter, and it did. The reason the site was made in the first place
: is that Halo: Reach bucked that trend.

: I can only imagine why halo4.isnotcanon.net was never made, because Halo 4's
: complete eclipsing of Halo: Reach's retcons definitely called for it. I
: suppose, the sheer weight of them, along with the fact that it was pretty
: clear nobody was listening, made the effort seem futile.

I think the main point HRINC made that I think throws the issues in stark relief is that if you change the timestamps and a few pieces of dialogue, almost all the issues are removed (leaving just the gymnastics of Cortana and Autumn at the end). The game theoretically broke canon to give you a richer character story but it fundamentally didn't do that (it also wanted to directly link Reach to 1, which is a classic "we're coming full circle!" strategy prequels do that is always, always a terrible idea.)

Some people are always going to be upset at retcons, but I can't blame people's reactions when it felt ultimately so unneeded. I think it's also a situation that feels worse even after all these years, now that the background of how hostile Bungie was to Nylund and how little they seemed to feel indebted to him for helping to create the world fans loved.