: Those questions were already asked many times in The Fall of Reach, First
: Strike, Ghosts of Onyx, and the Halsey journal. What Halo didn't need was
: beat the fans over with the head with how evil Halsey is, which Traviss
: did.

I think it was glossed over in The Fall of Reach and First Strike. Shining a different, but very good light on the topic in Ghosts of Onyx. As for the Halsey Journal, I don't know. All I'm saying that it wasn't fully explored as a central topic until the introduction of Glasslands. I personally enjoyed the new perspective on the universe that didn't attempt to plainly glorify or justify what ONI did where fresh, external minds concluded what they will about the topic.

By not reading or acknowledging the Kilo-Five Trilogy, you're just looking at that footage of the Master Chief rescuing Sekibo thinking he's the good guy as always. What you're not doing is avoiding the fabrication that same video which made it appear like the Master Chief is there to kill absolutely everyone. Sure, it might be an effort to discredit someone, but it's good to understand why they wanted to and to what lengths they'll go to in order to achieve that.

One of the best things they could have done was how Catherine Halsey interacted with everyone in Spartan Ops. You see that Glasslands-like hate in the eyes of Sarah Palmer. You feel that lazy contempt from the likes of Tom Lasky, Paul DeMarco, and Anthony Madsen. What's most important in order to contrast is how Gabriel Thorne engages with Halsey. They interact each other with the same sort of contemplation as older works like The Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx did for the topic. It's all about perspectives and I enjoy that there's more than one out there with a take on the universe worth having discussion about.