: So, I don't really have a problem with this in general (Halsey = boogey man),
: but it kinda bugs me that it's the banner 343 and the Haloverse has chosen
: to fly into the future. Especially because it pretty much contradicts the
: fact that Halsey was very much a sympathetic character in all the
: pre-Evolutions books. Yea, she was still an ice queen at times and was out
: for herself (and by extension her spartans), but for the most part she
: felt bad for what she did to the Spartans. Now it seems to be the entire
: narrative universe has realized she is so terrible, like all at once.
: Before it kinda was just ONI, and I'm not surprised they would take it
: public to quash Halsey, who by all accounts was a bit too rogue to be
: controlled under ONI, but now everyone hates Halsey thematically and ONI
: is in the right?....hmmm.

: I kept trying to see ONI as trying to dispose of Halsey and the S-II's now
: that the war is over and their control secured, and using this political
: statement to burn down her name and reputation, but (much like Palmer in
: SpOps*) my hopes for some deeper statement was traded in for a "no,
: she's the bad guy now."

I remember a few years ago reading something where Frankie responded to the Halsey criticism with 'when you see where her arc goes, it will make sense' or something like that. I'm presuming that hasn't happened yet? Like Revenant said, it feels too forced all at once, which makes me think she's going to 'redeem' herself in the next game or Spartan Ops or something. Kind of like forcing Cortana off so we had a goal to care about for the next couple of games. The writer's hand (or perhaps it's a franchise story team's hand) seems too apparent in these situations to me.

: *On the Palmer thing, I kept waiting for Spartan Ops to eventually let the
: player know that Palmer was pretty much a straight up nazi. Hingeheads,
: Eggheads, shoot first mentality, Spartans becoming their own division in
: the UNSC, no attempt to understand what is going on on the mysterious
: science planet, extreme prejudice toward Halsey from the beginning, etc. I
: kept waiting for a reveal or a self-realization from herself that she is
: wild military fascist, but nope the game let's you know she's the one
: you're supposed to like.

I know what you're talking about. Specifically, towards the end of Spartan Ops, the third or second to last episode, it really felt like she was going to have an emotional breakdown and start murdering people, and I actually got excited for such a slow-cooked development... But then the season wrapped up.

Perhaps, like Halsey, they're trying to extend these arcs into a longer story, and it's just hard for us to sit through the long downtime between acts?

: I don't know I just can't wrap my head around how this turn around happened
: and wasn't apart of some bigger more consistent play. It's like if
: tomorrow, the Arbiter said the Prophets were right and his journey through
: halo 2/3 was misguided (could still happen.)

: So, ok. Halsey is bad guy and John's mom I guess. So there's some future
: stuff there, and maybe john can say some nice things or decide he doesn't
: like her either. who knows, I'm cool with it.

: Maybe I should be more worried they actually took the mecha-hitler of Halo
: and her more good. I don't know anymore.

Yeah, I remember thinking during Glasslands, "Assuredly, Parangofsky's going to become a villain of sorts and Halsey, or somebody else, will have to overcome her flaws to prevent another war from happening, right...?" But after these books and Halo 4, there seems to be very few humans to root for anymore (other than Lasky). I literally have wise-cracking G.I.Joes associated with the Bungie-era UNSC symbol, and dicks associated with the new one. I need simple heroes in my Halo, I have brooding, anti-heros in every other game! :P