: -Leonard Nimoy, Reuters May 5, 2009

: Almost 15 years ago, haloreach.isnotcanon.net was created. Designed to poke
: fun at Bungie's storytelling choices, it kind of spiraled into something
: else. And yes. At the time, we were upset Bungie chose to 'ignore' aspects
: of Fall of Reach.

: As time goes on, I care less an less about the tiny details like this.
: Especially with the Halo show, I see how a rigid adherence to 'canon'
: prevents a lot of people from giving the show a chance to simply be what
: it is. Life's better when you look at something on its own terms - when
: you let it be its own thing and you evaluate it for what it is, not what
: you want it to be.

What if what it is, is a steaming pile of dogshit? And yet it carries the Halo name?

See, the TV show isn't canon. Canon is the running tally of events and facts that make up a continuing story. Some are hard, like dates, others are softer and more open to interpretation, like characterization. But unless you're writing complete nonsense like Ren & Stimpy, canon helps you tell a better story. Sure, sometimes you need to retcon what came before because plans change or you really weren't thinking things through when you wrote something earlier. But often retconing is the easy way out.

But that's beside the point, because the TV show isn't canon. The TV show is an adaptation. Alternate-timelines nonsense aside, the TV show is an adaptation of the games and books much in the same way that Jurassic Park and Dune and Lord of the Rings were adaptations of their books. Someone is taking the story structure and themes and names from one medium and recreating them in another medium. When this is done, it is perfectly possible to compare the two and decide which one did the better job in execution. Sometimes an adaptation is better than the original. Believe it or not, The Prestige was based on a book, and it is a masterclass in extracting two or three decent plotlines from a meandering mess of a novel.

Compared to the books and the games, the Halo TV show is drawn in fingerpaint.

It's not just that they changed things. I've seen scripts for adapting the first game to a movie that took liberties with dialogue and whole levels, and the end product was a good story. The Halo TV show changed things, and the changes sucked.

Long story short, there's this meme that sums up the state of modern adaptations perfectly, but I can't be arsed to hunt it down. Some stick-figure is reading a book labeled Blue and enjoying it. The guy clearly loves Blue. He's happy to hear that Blue is getting adapted to the big screen, so he buys a ticket and plops into his seat with a big ol' bucket of popcorn.

Only to be dismayed as BLUE starts playing.

Long ago, I got tired of being that guy.