In Response To: Halo Wars canonical issues *SP* (Avateur)
: Having just read through Ascendant Justice's take on Halo Wars, I got to
: thinking about some things they wrote and some things they didn't mention.
: Any attempt at answering some questions would be appreciated. Spoilers lie
: ahead, so turn back now if you haven't played through the game.
: To begin with, Anders is shown teaching in "Halo Wars: Genesis"
: about the planet Onyx. I might be remembering incorrectly, but wasn't Onyx
: a classified world that was even removed from the UNSC database due to
: ONI's researching into the Forerunner artifacts and Zone 67? I'm pretty
: sure ONI "erased" Onyx from the galaxy's knowledge in the early
: 2500s, so I don't see how Anders could have been mentioning it.
You're absolutely right. I think it was 2511 it was 'off the map' so to speak. I raised this and other issues on Acendant Justice in the user comments to their article. Onyx should not have been mentioned.
: Next, AJ wrote: "Captain Cutter, under the advisement of Spartan-042,
: Forge and Serina, left their engagement on Arcadia and pursued the
: Covenant vessel into unknown space."
: How would that have been possible considering what we already know about
: slipspace travel? In Halo 2, unless I'm horribly wrong (and I might be, so
: someone let me know), Miranda needed permission to follow Regret right
: then and there because if they didn't hitch a ride along with him, they
: wouldn't know where Regret went or be able to follow him. In the games and
: the novels, after having drilled in our heads that even in 2552 the
: Covenant have always been faster at traveling through slipspace, we would
: not have been able to find him. What takes us weeks may take the Covenant
: days, right? So in 2531, after the Covenant already made their jump,
: apparently we had no problem catching up to them (regardless of whatever
: signal Anders was transmitting, which is still sketchy)?
From what I've been able to calculate from the little bit of data we have is that typically, Covenant ships are almost 4 times faster than the UNSC.
: So, how is it that it took the Covenant days or possibly weeks to get Anders
: to activate the ships and do anything else they wanted? They didn't,
: because it's almost implied that we can warp from one place to another
: whenever we want and be there almost instantly, ready to pick up Anders
: when she escapes via teleportation device.
My other issue with the depiction of Slipspace in HW:Genesis is it looks like a freaky pinkish nebula when everything else we've been told is that it is an inky void devoid of anything visible. Simply stark black. Cutter even comments about how Slipspace make the outer hull somewhat colorful. Huh? :(
: Moving on, the Flood are a huge problem in the game, seemingly put there for
: no reason other than to make a "complete Halo game." Fine,
: whatever.
: But you expect me to believe that a planet with that much Flood covering the
: surface that has had the Flood on said surface for who knows how long
: (maybe when the Covenant showed up, maybe far longer) is only just now
: developing a proto-Gravemind the moment I show up in time to kill it?
: Also, where's the altering of the atmosphere? I saw how quick the Flood
: appeared to get a proto-Gravemind going in H1 with only a few resources,
: and I saw how quickly they began to alter High Charity in H2 (not to
: mention they already had a Gravemind).
: Taken beyond this, and considering that the Flood pretty much have no place
: in this game at all, doesn't this wreck the entire story of the game and
: the canon as a whole, making Halo Wars nothing more than a really loosely
: linked game to the overall universe? They may have done a lot
: "right" with the story, but having this much wrong in such key
: areas pretty much boils it down to fanfiction, with too many plot holes
: and inconsistencies. Of course, this is just my own opinion thrown in at
: the end, but it does make me wonder if this game "truly" fits
: anywhere in the Halo Universe, or at least the one Bungie imagined.
: Thanks for reading.
Overall, I don't think there's THAT much wrong with it and some bending of interpretations can make it fit a little better. It is clear that those crafting the story weren't as steeped in all available Halo lore, just some of the stronger points it seems.
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