After a long road, the Halo TV series has finally debuted on Paramount+. The reception to the series has been a bit more mixed than you would hope considering how beloved the source material is. With an adaptation of this video game series that has been in production in some form for about 10 years, audiences were hoping it would be a slam dunk.

Like every video game adaptation, Halo takes significant liberties with the source material. Some of the changes are less drastic than others, but the series has been dubbed "The Silver Timeline" by many, due to the number of changes made.

Silver Team Instead of Blue Team

Master Chied with the silver team walking around in Halo TV series

Master Chief had a team before the Fall of Reach called Blue Team. They were initially thought to be dead but were found and played an important role in many books and the game Halo 5: Guardians. Blue Team was made up of three other Spartans, whom Master Chief knew as a child, named Linda, Fred, and Kelly.

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In the series, Master Chief leads Silver Team. Silver Team consists of Riz-028, Kai-125, and Vannak-134. Much like Blue Team, the three of them are very loyal to Master Chief, but they don't share the same comradery as the aforementioned Blue Team.

Only A Few Can Access Forerunner Tech

Master Chief activating the Keystone

In the expansive lore of Halo, the Forerunners were a highly advanced species who built the Halo rings in order to stop their mortal enemies, the Flood, from wiping out all life in the galaxy. The Forerunners had the Mantle of Responsibility, which they passed down to the humans. In the games, every single human can access Forerunner technology. The covenant can't, and they wish to steal the Mantle for themselves.

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In Halo the series, only a few humans have the gene necessary to access Forerunner technology. Master Chief is one of these special humans, which creates a significant change from the games. Instead of the entire human race being important, only a few of them are.

Makee

Makee from the Halo TV series

Makee is a completely new character for the series. She was abducted from a waste disposal colony as a child by the covenant because she has the special ability to access Forerunner technology. The Covenant indoctrinated her and began to worship her as a messiah, even calling her "blessed one". This was an unexpected twist for players of the Halo video games.

At this point in the show, it's unclear if they intend to betray her, but creating a human that works with the covenant is a strange change. Since she and Master Chief are two of the only humans who can access Forerunner technology, perhaps she is being set up as a sympathetic ally for Master Chief.

Kwan Ha

Kwan Ha from the Halo Tv series in a Pelican

Another new character for the franchise is Kwan. She was introduced in the first episode as a young girl on Madrigal where she and her friends were attacked by Covenant forces. Her father and other soldiers in her village tried to fight them off. When the Spartans arrived to help, it was too late and only Kwan was left alive.

After traveling with Master Chief she was dropped off with Soren, a member of the Spartan program before he escaped. Soren and she went back to Madrigal to help the resistance on the planet fight back against their new tyrannical ruler. Sadly there was no resistance but it is discovered that she can also use Forerunner tech by opening a portal to Halo.

The UNSC Are Bad

Master Chief interrogates Halsey in the Halo show.

The UNSC is the military in the world of the Halo video game series. Almost every secondary character introduced is an officer in the UNSC. This was the process of kidnapping children at a young age and training them to become super soldiers. the process worked and turned the tide of the human-covenant war. In this way, the Halo show is true to the games.

The major difference is that the entire top brass of the UNSC, including Captain Keyes, are all portrayed as shady bad people who are worried they're going to be found out. Even though the games and subsequent books acknowledge how messed up the Spartan-II program was. It's odd to make Chief, and the audience, distrustful of every military figure.

Amanda Keyes

Miranda Keyes In Halo Episode 3

Amanda Keyes was introduced in Halo 2 as the commander in the UNSC Navy and commanded two ships, In Amber Clad and Foward Unto Dawn. She was Jacob Keyes, Master Chief's commander from the first game, and Catherine Halsey's daughter and helped Chief in both the second and third games before being killed by the Prophet of Truth.

The Halo show kind of misses the mark and changes her to a xeno-specialized scientist, but she's still Jacob and Halsey's daughter. Halsey seems to be actively sabotaging her when it comes to her work, but she has learned much about the Covenant through their weapons and biology.

Emotional Regulator

the emotional regulator pellet from the Halo tv series

Throughout the games, Master Chief is a man who has little dialogue. But some of the things he says can be quite funny, especially in the first game. Sometimes he's profound, and sometimes he talks about his regrets, especially with what happened with Cortana. But he was never emotionless. Even with the few words, he did say, there was always emotion.

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The series created the idea that all Spartans have a pellet implanted in their back called an Emotional Regulator. This allowed them to not experience any sort of emotion and walk around no different than robots. Master Chief removed his pellet but other Spartans still walk around like uncaring androids.

Master Chief

The games portray the Master Chief as a confident, sometimes cocky, soldier who says some cool one-liners and kills a lot of aliens. The most recent trilogy of games has expanded the character with his relationship to Cortana however. Master Chief is sure of himself and never lets emotions get in the way of the mission. Master Chief has many great quotes in the Halo games, some funny, some profound.

The show keeps the skilled Master Chief from the games, but adds a lot of new layers to his personality. After he removes his pellet, he's quick to anger and almost kills Halsey. He's untrusting of the military and constantly trying to find out where he came from. Also, he removes his helmet a lot.

Cortana

Cortana in the Halo series

Cortana is the AI at the heart of the games. Initially introduced as the AI to the Foward Unto Dawn, it was revealed that Cortana had picked Master Chief to be her partner. They became very close and had to say goodbye when she was dying. Unfortunately, her story doesn't end well, but for much of the games, she was Master Chief's most trusted friend.

In the series, Cortana is the first AI created by Dr. Halsey, and there is seemingly no other AI in the fleet. Instead of being implanted in Chief's suit, she's in his brain stem and her purpose is to shut him down should he get out of control. While she seems conflicted, so far, her allegiance is to Dr. Halsey and not Master Chief.

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