: Agreed. Opening a brand new game with a brand new direction with Halsey being
: spoken to about Master Chief only to have that point completely dropped
: not just for the remainder of the game but also for Spartan Ops means that
: they've already failed in setting the tone for Halo 4.

...Either you're being sarcastic, you didn't get my point, or I didn't make my point clear. Or I'm just confused.

: Disagreed. I think that last Bulletin where they pretty much said that
: they're winging who knows how much of this, and it takes Frankie coming
: into the room and talking about flying things into the sun (awesome idea
: btw, I felt it worked quite well) to save the day. I don't think they
: really have all that much in mind as they like pretending they do.
: Granted, I could be completely wrong, but that last Bulletin really was
: the last bit I needed in my own confidence of how poor their writing
: abilities are over there.

They obviously have some parts planned out, I'm sure. I feel like they have a Point A (beginning of Halo 4) and a Point B (end of Halo 6). But there's an infinite number of ways to reach Point B, and you can't hammer out every single plot point.

And letting the plot develop as you work on it (aka "winging it") is an acceptable writing process (my writing professor tells us to do it all the time). It can make things more creative than having the plot ironed out completely from the start. You said yourself that you liked Requiem being driven into the sun.

: Also, I absolutely did not want Halsey and Chief to meet in Halo 4, but
: there's not so much an ounce of hope given to it. I thought maybe Halsey
: would be somewhere on Infinity. Nope. Maybe a different ship. Maybe at
: Earth. Something somewhere going off and them being like, Chief, Halsey is
: there! But Didact! Oh no! Wtf do we do?! For all we know she wasn't even
: on Earth up to this point (while looking strictly at the game itself).
: And they tried really, really hard to convince you that Del Rio,
: Didact, and saving humanity were going to get in the way of saving
: Cortana, but it's just never really felt. Nothing got in their way because
: Halsey was never going to be an option or even a real possibility. Just
: like the rest of the game, no real impact, nothing really at stake.

I guess I really just don't understand what you wanted out of Halsey then. I thought that they planned to see Halsey as soon as they got off Requiem and dealt with the Didact. And Cortana obviously can't wait that long. It was presented as a hopeless situation from the start. Anybody with a modicum of Halo knowledge knew there was no side-stepping the lifespan of an AI. Like I said, the Chief was grasping at straws, especially not knowing Halsey's situation at the time. That's why I wasn't disappointed at the lack of "hope" of meeting her, because it was presented as a hopeless situation, I feel.

: It's clear the writers never intended there to be a payoff for Cortana and
: Chief.

I'm confused by what you mean by this (granted, I did pull it out of the middle of your post :P).

: But I do agree with you about potential next encounters. I hope season two of
: Spartan Ops doesn't require me to pay for it, and if it does I hope it's
: reasonable, because I want it. Spartan Ops has many flaws, but I truly did
: enjoy it and can't wait for me. I can't really say the same about Halo 5.
: They can do a lot here, and they can ideally learn from all of these
: mistakes. To be frank, though, I don't have much faith in their ability to
: get the writing right. I'm not holding my breath one bit. Can't wait to
: see more Halsey and the Dinos, though!

Well, there was a significant jump in quality between the first and second halves of Spartan Ops. I have hope that Season 2 will show another significant jump.

As for payment, I doubt it'll be free. But I can't see it being more than fifteen dollars. Maybe even ten dollars. Those cutscenes can't be cheap.

: Yeah, but she's not as lame as the Dino King in H4 who just wants revenge on
: humanity because he so mad (I know it's much deeper than that, but I'm
: making a point).

What point is that, if you know it's deeper? :)

: A single Spartan named Palmer, who is just about
: universally hated, and some ONI people, decide it's time to kill Halsey.
: Halsey be shot. Halsey loses arm. It's time for revenge! Okay, yes, it's
: believable. The question is, does 343 go the ridiculous route and make her
: revenge all about humanity? It'd be believable if she wants to screw ONI
: over, or screw Palmer over (personally I'd like to take the kill shot
: myself in-game, but why would 343 ever let me do that to their precious
: terrible character?). Time will tell what they do with her, and hopefully
: they get it right.

I doubt she wants revenge on all of humanity. Just Osmin, ONI, MAYBE the UNSC as a whole.

: Again, that Bulletin kind of makes me wonder, because
: none of this appears very well thought out in advance at this point.

See point about writing above.

: I can't agree on the grounds that there was no futility to the Chief's goal.
: The goal was impossible, and not impossible from a story standpoint where
: Cortana and Chief were just really hoping and trying and maybe this would
: work, but because 343 dropped the ball in its execution of Halsey. They
: went and teased her out at the start of the game, first thing, and almost
: set up this expectation that some way, some how she'd appear and maybe
: they'd just be out of reach. She's then entirely absent until Spartan Ops,
: and once the story goes full circle and she finds out about Master Chief,
: we never hear of it again. Poor writing, poor execution. Not futile.
: Literally impossible because the writers never intended it to be real. Or
: in my opinion, a waste of time and exposition.

Again, I gotta disagree. I never got the feeling that Halsey HAD to appear, or that the Chief HAD to meet her.