Podtacular 371: Weapon Tuning Complete

May 30th, 2013

Hosts: Dust Storm & Brent Gamer


Question of the Week

What would you like to see the Halo TV series cover in the Halo Universe?

@PurpleHays24

Something like Game of Thrones does, several different stories in the Halo universe that all take place at the same time.

@HaloFanForLife

The UNSC war against Insurrectionists. No aliens, a rare glimpse of Spartans. And a very HUMAN war. Younger Halsey...maybe.

@InsaneCakes

The run-up to the green-lighting of the Spartan-II project, so you can see how desperate the UNSC is getting to allow it. :P

@SomthingMachine

This will probably sound funny, but not Master Chief. I think HTV should show different stories while the games follow MC #imo

@WaGwanDen

Origins of the Flood, if they don't then I hope they put it into the one of the next games.

Andrew Gagnon

Diverse areas of the universe not yet beaten to death, but with continuity of regular cast to tie it together.

Christopher Tonarely

The Return of the Spirit of Fire. XD

Ian Sheppard

I want to see accuracy in fact to Nylund's novels

Jason Hammer

Contact Harvest, Ghosts of Onyx, or The Fall of Reach.

Josh Laidlaw

The beginning of the Human-Covenant War covering key figures of the Human and Covenant factions. For example, it would be interesting to see the leaders of the UNSC and ONI's response to the new Covenant threat and the bureaucratic chaos that ensued.

Christopher Leon

How about the Halo 5 cover. Not only this but the characters in this also showing the worlds between The Elites, n the other planets from which are from covenant n UNSC. But also fall of reach.


Submissions

TriscuitCracker

Hello Podtac, excellent show on the XBOX One reveal with the community. Microsoft did some things right and some crucial things wrong of course, but I am super excited for the Halo TV series. I think they shouldn't make it exclusive to Xbox Live however, they should get Halo on as many TV sets as possible. Ideas for a show:

1. Follow a group of Marines on the surface of Halo ALA Band of Brothers as they attempt to simultaneously fend off the Covenant and discover the secrets of the Halo ring. Master Chief will occasionally cameo or they'll witness him doing something amazing. Has military aspects, shooting and camaraderie, plus a great sense of wondrous discovery and every now and then you get to see MC kick ass.

2. The story of a young Master Chief and the other Spartan II's as they deal with Insurrectionists, how they deal with human opponents morally and physically and have flashbacks as to how they were created and the implications of their kidnapping and molding into the super soldiers they are. Season 1 could end with the Covenant invasion.

3. The Arbiter's story. And also the Covenant's. This is the least likely show obviously but it would be neat to see exactly how the Covenant works on a day to day basis and how they trade, interact, fall in love, how they see the humans, their Forerunner religion, battles with other species who don't want to join, etc.

4. Red Vs Blue Season 11 show with MC, Arbiter, Truth, Tartarus, Cortana, and a Grunt set in Blood Gulch with Red v Blue trying to get them all to take sides. Seriously, I'd watch it.

PensHALO

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your Podcasts. I try not to miss a live Podcast because I can tell how much you enjoy it even with more serious things like the Gamasutra article and how much passion you have for Halo, both the game and universe.

I wanted to respond to the question of the week about what you would like to see in Halo TV. Because the Halo universe is so vast and spans such a long time, I would like to see them approach it like novelettes or short stories. No one arc would be longer than 3-5 episodes. You could see the short story 'Dirt' come to life and then see an arc about what the Arbiter is now doing.

I would also like to see some of the items hinted at in the games and novels. What were the circumstances that led to Halsey and Keyes to enter a relationship that ended up with Miranda's birth? How did Palmer and Lasky meet? What happened to the Rookie after the Battle of New Mombasa? How did Buck and Dare end up together and the circumstances of their separation? (That one is just a wish to see Nathan Fillion and Tricia Helfer back in Halo) Or how do the Spartan II’s view the Spartan IV’s?

I was thinking to tie all of the stories together you would start each episode on Cairo Station, maybe by the stations AI, to introduce us to whatever character whose perspective we would be 'seeing' the story arc through. These would not need to be one of the main characters, but I think there has to be a recognizable character from the Halo Universe to keep people drawn into the story arc. Another thing that would be interesting would be during the intro scene of one story scene to see one of the others in the background of the main scene.

Thanks for taking my submission and I hope I didn't ramble too much. Keep up the good work!

Riceman 64

Hey Podtacular,
I think the newly announced Halo TV show could cover bridge the gap between Halo 4 and Halo 5. With Halo 4 Microsoft had the Forward Unto Dawn web series, so knowing Microsoft wanting bigger and bigger things for one of it's core franchises, Halo. I can see the TV series being focused on the impact of the death of Cortana on the Master Chief emotionally and as a soldier; also how he would recover and what he would do next in the Halo universe. This show as a Halo content filler and bridge between two major games in the franchise would keep my Halo fiction needs kept at bay for a while. I hope the show takes off really well and goes onto other seasons. Thanks Podtacular for reading this and keep up the awesome work.

Rommel S

Hey Podtac, I've been gone for a while due to the weather finally taking a turn for the good. I still listen to the shows at my leisure, too busy to listen live on Thursday nights though, and after hearing last Thursdays show I had to respond to the question of the week.

For the Halo TV series to be successful I think it has to be centered around the Spartan II's. I say this because Spartan II's, more accurately MC 117, is what made Halo. All the other extended fiction and lore pertaining to ODST's, Spartan III's, Spartan IV's, insurrectionist, etc. are great. But Halo CE and the book The Fall of Reach had the Spartan II's as the main protagonists and that is why they were an instant hit in my opinion. For everyone that's played Halo CE and or read The Fall of Reach, (this counts for people that played H2 or H3 as well, then gone back to the 2 original pieces of fiction), they were hooked at that point because of the Spartans and the MC. The extended fiction was just a welcomed addition from there on out.

Now, if we take someone who has never played a Halo game or read a Halo novel, and knows nothing about Halo's story, I just don't see a TV show about anything other than the Spartan II's leaving them wanting more. I think the series needs to start out with the abduction of the children, (the Spartan II candidates), and the initial reasons why they were needed. Then, build the story up through their training, the first contact with the Covenant, and then finally expand into the extended fiction.

Keep the series in the timeframe of the Spartan II program indoctrination and the Fall of Reach, but always keep the S II's as the focal point. This leaves a 20+ yr timeframe of lore with only re-telling the small part of the the children and training just to get the show up and running for the new comers. We know from the book Ghost of Onyx that the II's went on missions against insurrectionist in this timeline. We saw in the Baby Sitter episode from Legends that the Spartan II's were assigned to missions with ODST's.

Finally the most obvious is the fight against the covenant. We would only be missing the flood and Forerunners. But their stories really don't come into play until and after Halo CE anyway. So, other than missing that, the majority would get to see what they want, Spartans, ODST's, Innies, and Covenant.

Spartan lz

So I've been listening to the last few podcasts and I thought I would include my thoughts for Halo 5, weapon changes or upgrades and bring backs....

Visor mode needs to be brought back from ODST. The Incineration Cannon should shootout rainbows like in Halo Wars. Scarab skull.

Take out plasma overcharge for the Mantis.

Give us the 357 from the walking dead.

Allow the shotgun and in loadouts (since we have the Bolt shot).

I like the idea of active cameo not being available in our loads outs.

As far as what I would like to see in the Halo TV series, I would like to see a Band of Brothers style series with the guys from ODST... And how or if they become Spartans. Or maybe a Sgt. Johnson series (First Halo Books) Fall of Reach and First Strike.

Finally I would like 343 to explain or being back the Spartan 3's... I know they want to leave their mark on the franchise but I would be nice to fill in the huge gap.