{"id":79893,"date":"2024-03-02T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/02\/halos-latest-episode-showed-us-the-best-a-spartan-could-be\/"},"modified":"2024-03-02T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T14:00:00","slug":"halos-latest-episode-showed-us-the-best-a-spartan-could-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/02\/halos-latest-episode-showed-us-the-best-a-spartan-could-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Halo\u2019s latest episode showed us the best a Spartan could be"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

When Halo <\/em>season 2<\/a> finally covered the fall of the planet Reach \u2014 a foundational, emotional moment in Halo<\/em> lore \u2014 I figured that I\u2019d write a few words of praise about it. But then I saw the episode after, \u201cAleria,\u201d and that episode, not \u201cReach,\u201d is the one that truly delivers a Halo<\/em> experience worthy of the games yet so wonderfully unlike them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Spoilers for <\/em>Halo season 2 to follow<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

One of the elements missing from Halo<\/em> season 1 was the camaraderie between Spartans<\/a>.\u00a0 The first half of Halo<\/em>\u2019s second season better developed and defined the relationships of Silver Team<\/a> (Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, Riz-028, Kai-125, and Vannak-134); specifically, Riz-028 (Natasha Culzac) and Vannak-134 (Bentley Kalu), who were all but neglected in season 1, really got moments to shine in season 2. Riz, after suffering a debilitating injury, struggles with keeping up with the physical and emotional demands of being a Spartan. Meanwhile, Vannak, after removing his emotion regulator chip, is cultivating a peaceful life for himself beyond his Mjolnir armor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It was touching and funny to see Vannak show off as an animal facts guy who likes to feed the local pigeons while Riz suffers a bit of embarrassment realizing the guy she\u2019s developed a crush on is in a committed relationship. But Halo<\/em> is also a story of war. And when it comes to the planet Reach, in the form of a devastating surprise attack, Riz, Vannak, and the rest of Team Silver are called into action \u2014 and some of them don\u2019t make it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

I expected the deaths of notable characters in the \u201cReach\u201d episode. It pained me a little bit to see Vannak go because viewers were given such precious little time with him. Captain Keyes\u2019 (Danny Sapani) death also surprised me since that character dies elsewhere in the games, and I didn\u2019t think the show would kill him off so soon. Ultimately, \u201cReach\u201d was a decent episode with bits of really good action but lacked the emotional weight an episode based on one of the <\/em>moments in Halo<\/em> lore should have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Spartan Riz-028, you will always be famous.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Adrienn Szabo \/ Paramount Plus<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

The next episode, \u201cAleria,\u201d picks up right where \u201cReach\u201d ended, with the remaining Spartans and Dr. Halsey surrounded by Covenant soldiers with no chance of escape. But then, as so often happens in this series, Halo<\/em> delivered hope<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

As everyone piled onto the ship, the Covenant kept getting closer. Riz, though injured and without her armor (nobody has any armor because plot) jumped off the ship with naught but pistols, ostensibly to keep the Covenant at bay to give the ship time to take off safely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

I started screaming, incensed that the show was about to kill yet another character I had come to care for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Riz returned carrying Vannak\u2019s body, and my indignant screams morphed into equally loud sobs. That wasn\u2019t her noble sacrifice suicide run. She just went back for her friend, her comrade, her brother.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In that moment, Riz-028 delivered the best portrayal of a Spartan seen outside the series\u2019 many games, while the show itself subverted my expectations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

I was ready to begrudgingly accept Riz\u2019s death as I had Vannak\u2019s and Keyes\u2019. After all, she\u2019s a Black character, as were Vannak and Keyes, while a previous heroic death in the \u201cReach\u201d episode featured yet another Black character. In a media climate where characters of color are often sacrificed as a way to raise stakes or heighten emotion without threatening a show\u2019s \u201cmore valuable\u201d white stars, Riz\u2019s death would\u2019ve fit right in. Furthermore, Riz is a Spartan \u2014 so long as she\u2019s not John-117, she\u2019s expendable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Astounding that the big hero moment in \u201cAleria\u201d didn\u2019t feature Master Chief at all.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Adrienn Szabo \/ Paramount Plus<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Afterward, as everyone regroups and recovers on the planet Aleria, Riz decides to stay behind as John swears vengeance on the military leaders responsible for abandoning Reach to its fate. John vehemently opposes this, attempting to guilt her by asking what she intends to do about their lost planet and comrades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to live,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

For Halo<\/em>, that\u2019s profound.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Spartans are always fighting. Always.<\/em> There\u2019s an in-universe military directive<\/a> that mandates Spartans never be declared \u201cKIA\u201d but \u201cmissing in action,\u201d not only to reinforce their mythos as the invincible soldier but a perpetual one as well \u2014 one who\u2019s always still out there, still fighting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

When they can\u2019t fight, like the Spartans who survived augmentation with permanent disabilities, they still serve in the military in some capacity. Even when there are no more battles to fight, Master Chief himself never puts down his gun, famously telling Cortana at the end of Halo 3<\/em> to wake him when he\u2019s needed again. And when we see Spartans die, it is always in service of the mission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But TV Halo,<\/em> for the first time in the series, dares to imagine something different for a Spartan: life<\/em>, one beyond fighting, serving, or death. And it was beautiful to see.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Halo season 2 finally covered the fall of the planet Reach \u2014 a foundational, emotional moment in Halo lore \u2014 I figured that I\u2019d write a few words of praise about it. But then I saw the episode after, \u201cAleria,\u201d and that episode, not \u201cReach,\u201d is the one that truly delivers a Halo experience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-79893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}