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| Is Miranda Dr. Halsey's Daughter? | |
| Posted By: Dark One | Date: 9/18/05 11:28 p.m. |
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Now, I know this has been done before, but I noticed those times the justification was incredibly flimsy. To understand how solid the argument actually is requires some knowledge on foreshadowing and subtleties. An obvious example of a romance that is completely obscured by the author is in Lord of the Rings. Throughout Lord of the Rings implications are made. The biggest one is in Fellowship of the Ring when Aragorn is next to Arwen Evenstar. The other subtleties fit the term. It is literally only slight motions and some words or tunes trailed off in thought. Most of it is indicative of nothing more than what it indicates. However, when put together the implication is obvious. Now, where is this in Halo? Well, there are some fairly obvious parts, like in Lord of the Rings and far less obvious parts. I'll do the obvious parts right at the beginning of Fall of Reach. "The cover of Dr. Halsey's tube hummed open. Mist rippled out as she sat up, coughing. Her pale skin made her look like a ghost in the fog. Matted locks of dark hair clung to her neck. She didn't look much older than him, and she was lovely - not beautiful, but definitely a striking woman. For a civillian, anyway.
Now, how does this prove anything? It doesn't. However, it quickly establishes a relationship on terms everyone can understand. Two people of different walks meet in strange circumstance all alone and they are naked to boot. This is clearly an attempt to build on a relationship, especially when coupled with later examples. "Lieutenant Keyes shot the doctor an admiring glance. He was impressed - few people could put a shipboard AI through its paces so rigorously as to cause a detectable pause."
Yet another seemingly meaningless reference, but this serves an important purpose. This means he can appreciate her for more than her body. That adds significantly to the implication. This means the attraction is not simply hormonal. When the attraction is only hormonal any value you add to it is meaningless. "An awkward thirty minutes passed. Dr. Halsey was content reports on the navigational screens, and kept her back to him."
This paragraph only sets the mood. An awkward environment simply creates a feeling of embarrassment, but between a man and woman of the same age this is indicative of some sexual interaction, as is to say, a standing relationship based on mutual attraction and no willingness to act on it. Of course, Dr. Halsey's behavior shows she's uncomfortable with it or may even find his behavior repulsive. "He reached for his pipe, but then checked the motion. She would probably think it a silly habit."
This is glaringly obvious. This indicates he is trying to impress her or cares what she thinks of him, despite the fact he nevers cares at any other time with others except for fear of looking non-regulation. Such fears wouldn't exist in this case. "He glanced up. There was a strange look in her eyes. Pity? That caught him off guard and he looked away again. But he felt better than he had since OCS. Someone trusted him again."
The importance here is that it gives him something emotional to attract to her with. A lot of people fall in love with someone for being the comforting voice. When someone can comfort you when you felt before uncomforted, is a very major step for building a relationship. "Lieutenant Keyes looked extremely uncomfortable in civillian clothes. He wore a loose gray suit, a white shirt, and no tie. Dr. Halsey found his sudden awkwardness charming.
This is a very important area as well. It starts out by showing how Dr. Halsey can find an emotional attatchment to him. In some feminine way his serious behavior came to her as attractive and cute. The next important aspect is how she begins talking to him. She's having an observational conversation. Her observation is particularly important. She's commenting on the colony's quaint rural appearance. Such a discussion between a man and a woman is almost always linked to some deeper feeling. Dr. Halsey then goes on to try and relax Captain Keyes by being more intimant. Naturally, this fits in with their cover story, but the point is that she is clearly taken a gesture to calm him. This first part is the most obvious and full of implications, however later events add on to this. "She wished she still had Lieutenant Keyes. He had proven himself a capable assistant during the last month."
This small reference is making one interesting point. She had gone from seemingly frowning upon him, to ignoring him, to comforting him, and then to respecting him in only a month. This can be described as little more than a sexual relationship under the circumstances. However, she also expresses the wish to have him back. Yet her only reason for not letting him stay seems to be that he was figuring it out. Certainly had he stayed it wouldn’t have been a secret anymore. Sounds more like she was trying to protect him from what was going on. That certainly shows some affection. In fact, before she seemed to consider him little more than excess baggage and didn’t seem to take much of an interest in whether he found out. “That had sparked his interest because of its author. He had never forgotten his first assignment with Dr. Catherine Halsey . . . nor the names of any of the children they had observed.”
Now the important part is the fact he says it was his first assignment. This would imply three things: 1. He’s saying it was his first assignment period after graduating.
The first would seemingly be likely, but the sentence implies one of the other two. He first makes note of the assignment being with Dr. Halsey, despite the fact it was not her name that was on it. The slight pause implies that when first saw it, the second thing he recognized was the name, and that he actually thought of Dr. Halsey before Fhajad. This matters because it means Dr. Halsey is closer to his recollection, than the Spartans. Even though, by all rights, the Spartans should be the first he thinks of as their existence has long been acknowledged and undoubtedly is whispered about at times. More importantly, is that if it was that he was referring to his first assignment with Dr. Halsey and not just his first assignment, it would either mean he had seen her several times after being reassigned to the Magellan or that he found the part where they observed John to be the most memorable. Neither is necessarily wrong, either. It’s obvious he has a little more appreciation for Master Chief, than the other Spartans. “‘We met a very long time ago. Dr. Halsey and I - ’ He stopped. ‘Hell. I’m not allowed to talk about it.’”
The importance here is that he so readily prepares to tell Master Chief something he isn’t supposed to talk about. He realizes mid-sentence that he shouldn’t. This indicates he didn’t think about it before he said anything. For a man like Keyes, who thinks through everything, this lapse can only be explained by some emotional reason. Either seeing John inspires this or simply being reminded of his assignment with Dr. Halsey. Given the nature of the situation, it seems more likely it was thinking of Dr. Halsey that brought this back. “‘Irritated, sir?’ John asked, genuinely puzzled. He would have thought the UNSC top brass would be elated by the victory, despite its cost. ‘But we won.’
Yet again he so quickly brings up Dr. Halsey. This makes it kind of hard to believe he only spent a month with her or that nothing happened in that month. He also seems to know Dr. Halsey’s role to the Spartans. While he undoubtedly knew she was in charge of the project, there’s no reason he’d know how active she would be in it. “Cortana framed her fingers around the man’s face. ‘He’s so serious,’ she murmured. ‘Thoughtful eyes, though. Attractive in a primitive animal sort of way, don’t you think, Doctor?’
Now, this just adds on to what happens at the beginning. The way Cortana describes Master Chief is very much akin to Captain Keyes. So, as Cortana’s thoughts echo Dr. Halsey’s, one would assume she would have similar interests. The fact Dr. Halsey chose Captain Keyes for the assignment is proof enough of that. “The Spartans stood at attention and saluted. Keyes returned their salute. ‘At ease,’ he said. He escorted Dr. Halsey to the center stage.”
Now here may seem the least important, but it’s actually the most telling. Captain Keyes is escorting her only a few dozen feet to the center of the stage. This is completely unnecessary and, given Dr. Halsey’s personality, really unlikely. The fact that Keyes is described as escorting her in such a situation can only be indicative. Escorting in this case would imply some form of physical contact. This should help people reading this to understand: Accompany suggests going with another on an equal basis: She went to Europe accompanied by her colleague. Conduct implies guidance of others: The usher conducted us to our seats. Escort stresses protective guidance: The party chairperson escorted the candidate through the crowd. Chaperon specifies adult supervision of young persons: My mom helped chaperon the prom.
Accompany would have been a far more appropriate term were this trying to depict simple respect. The use of the word escort seems to imply protectiveness that would, under the circumstances, imply some deeper affection. In a way this is shown through some of Keyes’ behavior during Dr. Halsey’s statement and Dr. Halsey giving glittering praise to Keyes. Now, First Strike made some of the more subtle implications. In fact, there’s only one written implication and two that are unwritten. “‘I see,’ Dr. Halsey replied. ‘And Captain Keyes? John?’”
Now this is interesting. John is clearly acknowledged as Dr. Halsey’s favorite Spartan. In fact she seems to consider John, more than any other Spartan, her child. Yet John is not the first person she asks about. Meaning the person she was most concerned about was Captain Keyes. Usually the only person a woman would worry about before worrying about her children would be her lover or husband. This just drives home the amount of concern Dr. Halsey has for Captain Keyes, which is rather unnatural for her. “‘I volunteered to be the fail-safe option,’ she told Kelly. ‘In the lower levels of these caverns are enough high explosives to level the facility – in case we were overrun by the enemy. I’m here to make sure no one gets access to our technology.’”
This brings up a pretty odd question. Why did Dr. Halsey volunteer to be the fail-safe option? Not that she’s a coward or anything of that sort. It just seems to be out of character for her to volunteer to either kill herself or let the Covenant kill her eventually. I can only think she volunteered for personal reasons. The only thing is, what personal reasons would she have? Well, there seems to be little purpose for her. She would undoubtedly think that, with Reach falling, if Keyes and the Spartans hadn’t started their mission they would be pulled back to Reach and likely die in the battle. Even if they survived, she would likely have little hope for their success. More importantly, she would have little hope for Keyes’ success. When the second-strongest military installation in human-controlled space is falling, one wouldn’t likely put faith in anything anymore. However, had Keyes and the Spartans been likely to survive, she would have probably tried to escape. Since it seems she worries more about Keyes, it’s likely that would be one of the chief reasons. “Her eyes focused past him as she struggled to find the words to match her conflicting emotions. ‘For a long time I had thought that we had to sacrifice a few for the good of the entire human race.’ She took a deep breath and let it go with a heavy sigh. ‘I have killed and maimed and caused a great deal of suffering to many people – all in the name of self-preservation.’ Her steely blue gaze found him. ‘But now I’m not sure that philosophy has worked out too well. I should have been trying to save every single human life – no matter what it cost.’”
There are two things important about this section. The first thing is her behavior. She’s described as having “conflicting emotions” and her reaction after saying she thought that “we had to sacrifice a few for the good of the entire human race” indicates that she is likely thinking of some of the few she sacrificed for the “greater good”. The second is not what she says, but when she says it. Her changed perspective and behavior comes after leaving Reach. In other words, she only begins to behave the way she does after learning the events on Halo. Reach falling around her, the knowledge that many of her Spartans were probably dead, and her seemingly inevitable doom are clearly not an influence. The events that happened on Halo clearly brought home the failure of her philosophy. So the question is, why? The deaths of the Marines would certainly have no bearing or the story of Sergeant Johnson, as she never met him before. So what’s left? The only thing left would be the death of Captain Keyes. One has to keep in mind that, more or less, Dr. Halsey is the reason he died. She gave him the mission, knowing he may end up dying, hoping to stop the Covenant. So, naturally, she’d blame herself for his death and lose faith in her philosophy. Now, given that we can safely say Dr. Halsey and Captain Keyes had a closer-than-usual relationship, it would seem likely that her guilt for his death would lead her to her actions. This just provides further evidence of the depth of their relationship. Of course, all of this would be kind of useless if it’s clearly stated one of them was married to someone else and only had children with them. However, nothing of children or marriage is said of Dr. Halsey. There are only three small points where any indication is made that Captain Keyes might have a relationship with someone else. “His fear vanished in a flood of emotion as he felt the warmth of the first woman he’d ever kissed . . .”
“The image of a smiling woman,”
These two snippets refer to a woman or women, but of course these don’t really provide a case for him being married or in a relationship in another woman. One or both of these women could easily be Dr. Halsey, two different women with no importance at all, or the smiling woman could easily be a relative. However, one of the more subtle points could easily be the most damaging: “The gentle sound of wind chimes, the smell of newly baked bread.”
Now, this can be damaging because both provide images of home. These two memories may be subtly telling the reader that Keyes was married. Wind chimes are something that will be identified with a home and newly baked bread is something would be identified with a women, often a mother or wife. Of course, this only provides minor subtleties that may or may not substantiate Keyes having a wife or, more importantly, not having a relationship with Dr. Halsey. However, only two characters are ever mentioned to be married and there are no subtle hints with them. This refers to Colonel Ackerson and Sam Marcus. Both were acknowledged to be married and this was openly made apparent. Neither are the most major characters, yet they are said to be married. Given that most major characters mentioned are not the kind to likely be married, it would be reasonable to conclude that acknowledging Keyes being married and having a daughter by some unnamed woman wouldn’t be restricted. As such it makes more sense that there was an effort to keep the issue of Keyes’ wife or lover, by whom he had a child, secret. If the mother was a meaningless character, there’d be little reason for this. Regardless of how people in the military talk of family, it seems odd that one of the most important characters wouldn’t be said to be married. Why would Keyes being married and having a daughter be of concern? Certainly not many would jump to assume that would ever be a factor like Miranda was. It seems more likely that Dr. Halsey would be the mother in order to keep it secret. I’m guessing that might be a factor later on. This also would be kept fairly secret just because it would distract from the actual story. Plus, being a child of Keyes and Halsey would certainly be a red flag to people that Miranda would play a major part. Now, in Halo 2 there are, not really hints, but indicators that Miranda is Keyes and Halsey’s child. The first is the circumstances of Miranda’s acceptance of the award for Captain Keyes posthumously. Traditionally, the entire family is present. More importantly, the award would likely be given to the oldest child. So why is it only Miranda is present to accept the award? Where’s Keyes’ wife or his other kids? Are we supposed to assume that he got married and only had one child and a girl at that? Or are we supposed to assume the rest of the family is dead or just can’t be called to the Cairo? Regardless of circumstances, this wouldn’t make much sense all together. Miranda was clearly chosen to accept the award, which would make little sense unless she was the only living child. While tradition demands one thing, the regulations don’t. Regulation on posthumous awards simply states that the President decides who accepts the award. In other words, the leader of the nation or, in this case, interstellar empire will pick the recipient. So, why pick Miranda? If a son was also alive and especially if he were a naval officer as well, he’d likely be the one to receive the award. Since Miranda accepts it leads us to believe there is no son. We’re especially led to believe this as no brother appears to be present at the ceremony. In order for Keyes to be Miranda’s father he would have at least had to have been married for 30+ years. For some reason we’re to assume that Keyes was married to a woman for 30+ years and only had one child. I’d say that if Miranda didn’t belong to Halsey and Keyes that would mean Keyes was married, yet no evidence is there. The second thing that indicates a relationship is Miranda’s appearance. Most human characters minor or otherwise, have a distinct look in the game, from facial appearance to eye color and to hair color. So Miranda’s appearance would be given even more choice. Rather interesting that they chose to give Miranda dark hair, blue eyes, and the general physical appearance Cortana has as well. Cortana’s bodily image is constructed loosely after Dr. Halsey’s and so the similarity in body structure can’t be ignored. Having such clear traits belonging to Dr. Halsey is kind of odd. If they were trying to ignore the implication there, Miranda would have no such traits. Of course, this doesn’t explain some questions about the relationship. Many questions involve Miranda having to know, somehow, who her parents actually are. This never indicated to be true. It’s only made apparent that Miranda knew who her father was at the beginning of Halo 2. The important thing to remember is the timeline. Master Chief’s arrival at Earth would be about 36 or 35 days before the events of Halo 2. Without doubt a briefing would be rather immediate. An unimaginable amount of knowledge garnered on the Covenant since Reach and a whole lot of engineers. News of Captain Keyes’ death would be quickly spread. Who’s to say it wasn’t then that she learned Captain Keyes was her father or maybe just after Sigma Octanus? She could have then been told or got curious and had a genetic test. I would personally say it was Sigma Octanus and that would give her plenty of time to get a genetic test, change her name and so forth. She could easily have never known him and would then have the interest she did. This could also explain the close relationship between Master Chief and Miranda Keyes. After all, if she didn’t know Captain Keyes, then Master Chief would certainly be a person to ask. Most people who would know him enough to say anything about him would probably be dead or somewhere else. Even if she knew her father was Captain Keyes long before this wouldn’t exclude the possibility that she hadn’t always known. The point is that we have no reason to assume anyone actually knew of the relationship at any point in time. In fact, Miranda may still not know who her mother was. There’s even a chance Captain Keyes didn’t know and simply found out Miranda was his kid or maybe never found out. There’s no reason to believe either actually raised Miranda. It would be easy to assume Dr. Halsey just sent Miranda to some relatives or friends on Earth, perhaps her parents. This allows for Dr. Halsey to have a substantial amount of time during the Halo timeline in which to bear a child, give birth, and even raise her a few years. Dr. Halsey could have sent Miranda to Earth to be raised and live, in fact, she could have easily been born there. Her reasoning for this would be pretty simple; she wouldn’t want certain people to know of this. Certainly Colonel Ackerson would use this against her. They might not approve of her mission to find the Covenant home planet if it came out that the same person she was suggesting to captain the ship for the mission was the same one that knocked her up. Regardless of reputation they may not approve of what would appear to be favoritism. There are other ways Colonel Ackerson or others with reason would use this against her. It wouldn’t exactly be hard to drop someone from the navy or make someone’s economic situation less-than-favorable when you’re a person like Ackerson. Dr. Halsey would certainly not want to endanger either Captain Keyes or Miranda so she would try and go about the relationship as quietly as possible. Imagine Padme and Anakin without all the Dawson’s-Creek romantic drama action. Under these guises it would not be entirely unbelievable to see a long persisting relationship between Keyes and Dr. Halsey, even up to the end of Fall of Reach. Dr. Halsey could go on a “mission” that just happened to take her to a ship Keyes was on. She could take leave for meeting with “family” or “old friends” to visit Miranda. Granted, this wouldn’t exactly be secretive if she did it frequently, but it would be a lot harder to know what she was doing if she went about it right. So Dr. Halsey being the mother, let alone having a persistent relationship or even being married to Captain Keyes cannot be entirely left out or maybe not even be seriously questioned. Lacking knowledge of any alternative parent, having little reason to believe Keyes had any relationship with any other woman, given all the openings in the story, and the many undertones suggesting a long relationship, it’s very likely Dr. Halsey and Keyes had a very deep relationship and actually had Miranda together. Then again, maybe I’m just speculating too much.
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