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Re: Team Halsey
By:DHalo
Date: 6/5/15 5:54 pm
In Response To: Team Halsey (Kal)

: I've never read any of the Halo novels, so my knowledge of the Halo story
: comes from the games and a few other sources (Halo wiki, Forward Unto
: Dawn, Hunt the Truth, etc.).

: That said, I've noticed that opinions on Halsey seem to fall into two camps:
: Those who read the Halo books as they came out seem to think very highly
: of her and very poorly of anyone who goes after her (other characters like
: Palmer, authors like Karen Travis). At the same time, people who didn't
: read the books tend to think of Halsey as more of a monster than a savior.
: I'm decidedly in the latter camp.

: For me, it all comes down to the circumstances under which the Spartan
: program was created. At the time, there were no Covenant, no Halo rings.
: Human were fighting humans, with ignored colonists on one side and a
: galactic empire on the other. It's a story not unlike the American
: revolution.

: Given what we know about ONI and the outer colonies, I'm prepared to discount
: any stories we hear about Innie war crimes. They smack of UEG propaganda
: invented to ensure galactic dominiance.

: So why did Halsey go through with the Spartan program? It's almost
: explainable (but not excusable) if she believed in the cause. One could
: make an argument to justify her actions if she sincerely believed that the
: outer colonies were controlled by a hostile army looking to eradicate
: peaceful worlds, and the UEG was justified in using any means necessary to
: stop them.

: But Halsey's not an idiot. She doesn't strike me as a true believer.

: I have to conclude that she did all this -- kidnapping children, growing
: dozens of humans for the express purpose of having them die horrible and
: terrified deaths, human experimentation, deadly augmentation on children
: -- because she could. Because she had free reign and wanted to see what
: would happen.

: Halsey is no better than a Nazi doctor.

: Am I missing anything? Any key part of the story? Is there anything else from
: the pre-Covie days that puts Halsey's actions in a new light? Or is she
: really a horrible monster?

: Are there any Halsey defenders left? People who think her pre-Covie actions
: were justified, even moral?

In additional to other examples above, Contact Harvest does open with some actual Insurrectionist fighting. So it did exist and was a threat to at least some extent.

And though it is even more questionable than justifying the Spartans by their value during the post-creation Covenant War, there is something else to consider. We also have reason to believe that the creation of the Spartans was a pre-destined event, set in motion by the Librarian and made to carry itself through the gene pool until the right moment. It really throws one's perspective on such an event out of whack; technically one could argue that Halsey can't be blamed because she just happened to be the human vector to carry out an ancient Forerunner's plan.

The entire debacle has more shades of grey than a steamy adult novel.


Messages In This Thread

Team HalseyKal6/5/15 9:51 am
     Re: Team HalseyHarmanimus6/5/15 10:46 am
           Re: Team Halseyasa6/5/15 12:12 pm
           Re: Team HalseyAlexis6/9/15 5:53 am
                 Re: Team Halseythebruce06/9/15 9:20 am
                 Re: Team Halseydavidfuchs6/9/15 12:54 pm
                       Re: Team HalseyArchilen6/9/15 1:44 pm
     The Carver FindingsPostmortem6/5/15 12:18 pm
           Re: The Carver FindingsGrizzlei6/5/15 1:11 pm
                 Why not give peace a chance?Kal6/5/15 2:09 pm
                       Re: Why not give peace a chance?Dielectric6/5/15 2:29 pm
                       Re: Why not give peace a chance?Grizzlei6/5/15 4:23 pm
                       Re: Why not give peace a chance?Stephen L. (SoundEffect)6/6/15 5:06 pm
                 Re: The Carver FindingsStephen L. (SoundEffect)6/6/15 5:08 pm
     Re: Team HalseyDielectric6/5/15 1:40 pm
           Re: Team HalseyKal6/5/15 2:11 pm
                 Re: Team Halseypadraig086/5/15 2:20 pm
                       Re: Team HalseyKal6/5/15 2:31 pm
                             Damn Tories! *NM*Grizzlei6/5/15 4:24 pm
                       Re: Team HalseyGrizzlei6/5/15 4:50 pm
           Re: Team HalseyGrizzlei6/5/15 4:41 pm
           Re: Team HalseyArithmomaniac6/6/15 11:51 pm
                 Re: Team Halseyzofinda6/7/15 9:39 am
     Re: Team HalseyDHalo6/5/15 5:54 pm
           The AssemblyHarmanimus6/5/15 6:58 pm
                 Re: The AssemblyGeneral Vagueness6/5/15 7:24 pm
                       Re: The AssemblyGrizzlei6/5/15 7:59 pm
                             are they even canon anymore?Bounce-A-Gon6/5/15 8:55 pm
                                   Re: are they even canon anymore?Grizzlei6/5/15 9:11 pm
                                         Re: are they even canon anymore?Bounce-A-Gon6/5/15 10:38 pm
                                               Re: are they even canon anymore?Quirel6/6/15 12:06 am
                                                     Re: are they even canon anymore?zofinda6/7/15 9:10 am
                                   Re: are they even canon anymore?Arithmomaniac6/6/15 11:56 pm
                             Re: The AssemblyArithmomaniac6/7/15 12:02 am
     Re: Team HalseyGeneral Vagueness6/5/15 7:10 pm

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