A serious discussion of Halo

[LordDagon]

I have recently read the books by Karen Traviss and seen the spartan ops videos by 343 studios, and I have to say I do not like the direction they are going with the whole persecute Halsey angle. To start with, Dr. Halsey started the project with the full financial and resource backing of the UNSC, so if some admiral up the line saw the procedure and the plans for kidnapping the children and had a problem with it, she would not have gotten the go ahead to start. To compound the problem, the staffing required to house, teach and train 120 ish children-to-be-spartans requires just as many chefs, officers, doctors, etc, etc. This was a massive undertaking that spanned a decade, no one spend that kind of time and money on a project during a war only to hang the scientists responsible on charges of war crimes, especially if the result was a resounding success. It would be the equivalent to condemning the scientist of the Manhattan project of mass murder.

Moving on, the attitude of the average soldier (specifically that spartan 4 on infinity) towards Halsey is completely without basis. The soldiers of the UNSC pretty much though the spartan II's were salvation on the battle field, anyone who heard of their battle record would have immediately had great respect for not only that individual, but also the mentor/creator of that individual. The only other series I have seen that ostracizes the 'hero' or his family is Ender's game, where humanity's savoir is labeled a genocidal bastard a few years after the war.

Now, I can see where they might be going with this. I can see the parallels they are making between the librarian and Halsey, between the chief and the didact, except the roles are reversed, where Halsey betrays humanity and the chief upholds it rather than the didact betraying the forerunners and the librarian upholding it. Maybe Halsey uses Jul M'damee to get back with John, maybe they make it all work in the end with Halsey being good guy greg, but I feel as if they needed a twist and just decided to make Halsey a scapegoat without really thinking it through logically first.

[MeltedLazerz]

while it does seem a little extreme, there are still aspects of it that make sense.

for one, the project was top-secret at first and only a select few members of ONI (outside those needed to run the project) actually knew about it. Even once the project went public, no one really knew where or how the spartans got there, simply that they were badass supersoldiers.

in addition, while the soldiers on the field during the events of pre-halo 1 to halo 3 basically worshipped the spartans, at this point no one knew that they were kidnapped as kids and forced through training usually reserved for the most experienced fighters. However, after the events of halo 3 all the information regarding the project was released, then the public view of the project (and thus its mastermind) changed drastically.

finally, since the project was a branch of the already-secretive ONI, it's not like the top UNSC brass had a very clear idea of what was going on (at least that's the impression I received) while the project was in its infant stages. Once the details were released then those in charge of justice may have been more informed and thus decided to prosecute Halsey

so while the reaction does seem rather intense and extreme, it's certainly not without reason.