: Halsey
: never so much as makes an appearance, and there wasn't even the
: possibility of them ever finding her. It's so clear that the writers never
: intended it that's unbelievable that they'd start the game out with
: Halsey. She's basically the premise of the entire story and the first
: thing we see in the game, but she's then immediately dropped as any sort
: of possibility or plot point beyond Chief and Cortana going on and on
: about her.

Just because she served as the introduction doesn't mean she needs to show up for the main campaign. I never thought they'd find her. The Chief thinking she could fix Cortana was just him grasping at straws, along with the unusual amount of optimism he usually has.

: Yes. But that entire bit with the Master Chief is again
: completely dropped, but this time from Halsey's side of the story! Sure,
: there's a season 2. Or a Halo 5. Whatever. But for Halo 4's plot and
: purposes, the entire premise with Halsey and Chief has been completely
: dropped and thrown in for no reason because it has gone nowhere. The
: impact is thus never truly felt. They don't so much as see Halsey, and she
: doesn't so much as see them.

In this respect, I'm pretty sure 343 is writing with the Reclaimer Trilogy in mind. Leaving a plot thread like this open is fine with me. Plenty of other things (TV shows, movies, other games) have themes/problems pop up in one installment that are then expanded on in the next one. Now you obviously wanted the Chief and Halsey to meet in Halo 4. But, after everything that's happened in the campaign and Spartan Ops, I think their next encounter will be far more interesting than whatever would have happened in Halo 4.

: The next question is, do they turn Halsey into a petty idiot bent on revenge,
: completely warping and changing her character from what we've known her as
: after all she's been through and done just because she lost an arm and a
: single Spartan went out to kill her (who already showed plenty of
: hostility and contempt to begin with).

Well, she's petty a lot in earlier media.

And I'm pretty sure she's surmised that it was on ONI's orders. What's the difference if a single Spartan or the entirety of Infinity came after her? They're trying to kill her, and her only recourse would be the Covenant remnant or the Insurrection. What was left of her life was just pulled out from under her. If she didn't change from that, it wouldn't be believable. And I'm fine with characters changing over time, as long as the change is believable. And I believe in Halsey (new political slogan right there).

: Tl;dr, the handling of Halsey in relation to Master Chief/Cortana was
: completely botched and lessened the entire impact and point of the story
: and half of its dialogue (between Chief and Cortana) since the writers
: clearly never intended for it to even be a possibility for Halsey to
: appear.

And to me that just adds to the futility of the Chief's goal, in a good way.