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Re: I disagree on many points
Posted By: scarab	Date: 5/12/11 3:05 a.m.
: //===== : On a general, systemic note: One of the advantages of a consistent universe : is that the storyteller can take advantage of speculation and wonder to : support the narrative more effectively than one that is inconsistent. If : continuity is dropped, and narratively-reliable details can be : overwritten, speculation becomes futile, and a useful tool is lost. : Note that this is a tool that is very extensively used in the original Halo : trilogy, most notably in the first and second games. And regardless of the : expanded universe, from a games-only standpoint, the Haloverse kept this : ability right up until Reach came out. : //===== I so agree. How much speculation have we seen based on Halo Cryptum? There was some soon after the book was released but very little after. Why is that? One reason, for me, is that Halo 3 stated that Earth was an unknown, was discovered very late during the Flood war, and was a mystery to the Forerunners. But in the book, its the home world of that troublesome and somewhat infamous race that the Forerunners had a war with before they encountered the Flood. That is a massive difference. It pretty much scuppers any Humans are Forerunners speculation. I saw one get out clause in which it was mentioned that Humans and Forerunners had some sort of deep genetic similarity (or whatever the words were). But, because of the retcons with Earth and Humans, I have lost the sense that the fiction is predictable therefore there is no point in speculating. We are too much at the mercy of the author. IF he decides that Humans are Forerunners then thats what they will be. IF he decides otherwise then they wont be. Its arbitrary and therefore not worth speculating about. All we can do is wait until all the novels have been published then see what the decision was. THEN we can decide whether we liked the story or not. Our role has become a passive one, we are not involved and therefore the purpose of our story speculation forum has become void. : //===== : Suggesting that retcons are irrelevant is ridiculous in a fictitious universe : where some level of continuity is assumed such that certain major stories : in the universe use thematic implications from other major events in that : universe; if one story needs for a given event to be a sudden, painful, : shocking thing with certain implications, and it winds up nearly being the : opposite in a new story, then it has a negative effect on the older story, : since a piece is now effectively missing or subverted. The only way to : salvage what does work is to ignore what doesn't, though that's : unfortunately much more difficult when "what doesn't" isn't some : distant reboot but rather something on the same immediate line, sold as : being importantly and immediately tied into the relevant material. Its harder to keep something in your head when you have to 'remember' which parts 'happened' and which parts didn't. Keeping the story straight It used to matter because, it appeared, that every aspect of the story mattered. If you forgot a point or failed to see its significance then your understanding of the story was diminished. You could still enjoy the story but you might miss stuff that objectively mattered. Once you start saying, 'that bit didn't matter' and when you have major changes to the story then there is no story left. Its just a collection of cool and not-so-cool stuff. There is a trade off: if the story is predictable then fans can get involved and speculate but authors are constrained in what they can do - if it is unpredictable then there is no point in speculating, just wait and see what happens. I'm using the word predictable in the sense that things are consistent and not in the sense that everything must be revealed before its shown or must be blatantly obvious. The authors can still have surprises but they have to be fair surprises; they can't just 'surprise' us with the revelation that the Flood is actually Prophets in zombie suits and that all the events so far are a, 100,000+ year old, cunning plan between Prophets and Humans to take over the galaxy. Give us a fair chance to work out what will happen and we will speculate. Make things arbitrary and we wont bother.

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