Overall Thoughts
I don’t hate it.
That basically sums up my over-arching thoughts on the TV series.
Makee & The Arbiter
No. Honestly, no. I didn’t get her character in season 1, and season 2 didn’t change that at all. The Covenant make more sense in the game without her. You have the Elites leading the charge against Master Chief and humanity. The story doesn’t need her...at all.
The Arbiter being killed by the Chief does not line up with the story from the games either, but can probably be forgiven. The lore around the Arbiter could allow another Elite to take his place anyway. I also don’t know how far Paramount is going to take the Halo TV series. It might not last long enough to bring about Thel 'Vadam becoming the Arbiter like the beginning of Halo 2.
The Fall of Reach
Before the video game Halo: Reach came out, the book talked about it. But it was supposed to be a massive battle between the Covenant and humanity. Humanity had put their base on Reach and it was the center of their power. The TV series kind of matched it being the base of humanity, but passed on the battle, making it more of an evacuation than anything else. It was disappointing to not have any kind of massive fleet battle, even something more toned down. It kind of felt like they didn’t really truly acknowledge the scope of the loss.
The Introduction of the Flood
This is kind of the biggest bummer for me. One of the best levels of Halo was 343 Guilty Spark where the Flood are first introduced. Bungie spent a lot of time on that level and it was a great introduction of one of the toughest enemies in the game. It was creepy, and it was a neat twist in the game.
I didn’t make the following video, and did miss several of the details mentioned, but I feel like the TV series missed a golden opportunity to include the Covenant as part of the Flood reveal.
Landing on the Ring Itself
Master Chief, Makee, and the Arbiter are the ones who first land on what is presumed to be Installation 04, the first Halo Ring. The ring and its environment are beautiful and a great match to the game. At the end of the show, it looks like you have both the human fleet and the Covenant fleet setting down to land troops.
I think I like the game’s landing better where you have a lone human ship, The Pillar of Autumn (crash) landing on the ring with the Covenant hot on their tail. It sort of sets it up as Master Chief and the remnants of a ship’s force versus one of the most dangerous Covenant armies led by Thel ‘Vadam. It also makes the idea of Halo as a weapon more powerful in my opinion by introducing the thought of desperation on the side of the humans.
Acknowledging Differences
I’ll just finish with this. I recognize that this is a TV series and that there are going to be some differences between the TV series and the game. I mean bringing the fall of Reach in makes sense for the series. And if they matched the series to the game, you wouldn’t have seen John until season 3 as he wasn’t in Halo: Reach. So even that aside, I recognize that changes are going to happen.
You can call me a curmudgeon, but I’m just not sure the level of changes, the introduction of Makee & Kwan Ha, and all the other changes make the series as enjoyable as I had hoped.
Even so, I am hoping that Season 3 gets made and we finally see some action on the Halo installation.