The long-awaited Halo series on Paramount+ has concluded and the network announced that season 2 has already been greenlit. However, the show's inaugural season had some issues. At times painfully dull, at others wildly hilarious, and in some instances, downright jaw-dropping, season 1 of Halo left fans wondering, what the hell happened?
Fortunately, the fanbase gathered together during season 1's run and lampooned the show, forming a sense of community over their shared disbelief. From articles written in major publications to YouTube reaction videos, fans couldn't stop poking fun at the series. But it was on Reddit where the critiques really came to life.
Halo Needs More Halo
As all fans of Halo know, Halo is about the Halo ringworld...hence the title. However, the writers behind the Paramount+ series clearly weren't aware of this. During season 1, there are only two brief glimpses of the Halo ringworld, both of which appear during a weird dreamlike telepathic connection that Master Chief somehow has with Makee.
Obviously, fans were confused and annoyed with the lack of an actual Halo in Halo. Reddit user apidman even said, "It's a mistake to adapt Halo and not include the Halo Ring because...It's the series namesake. It's what made Halo unique."
Include More Covenant
User ThatKiwiBloke posted a hilarious meme of 'Hide the Pain Harold' to Reddit with the caption, "when you're 4 episodes in and the showrunners still haven't explained who/what the Covenant are to new fans." For some reason, Halo's first season got bogged down with tons of characters...all of whom were not the Covenant, despite the fact that the Covenant are the main antagonists in the early games.
Other fans were equally as annoyed by the lack of the Covenant. User WorriedLandscape965 agreed with Bloke and replied, "Not only not explained who they are or their motivation. But have barely shown them at all in nearly 4 hours of runtime. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if new viewers thought the covenant were just a minor threat that posed no real danger to humanity."
Get Rid of Kwan Ha
Many fans had problems with Halo for a variety of reasons, but one complaint that was universal amongst all viewers was Kwan Ha. Her storyline isn't canon, nor is she a character from prior Halo lore. She's a teenage girl who is always running from a bad guy on her desert planet. The plotline is incredibly dull, generic, useless, and entirely unwanted.
Reddit user Inaerius said "She delivers practically nothing to the plot and is literally sidestepping the show," while user Rejuvinatez said, "If you check out the ratings. The best episodes have been the ones where Kwan wasn't in the episode. Give us more Miranda Keyes moments. Us gamers never heard of Kwan."
Stop Changing the Lore
Makee was one of season 1's most prominent characters, and there's only one problem. She was never part of Halo lore. Nor were Kwan Ha, Vishner Grath, the weird desert witches, and a boatload of other characters in the show. Fans are tired of Halo becoming convoluted with changing narratives and new characters that were never part of the Halo universe.
When speaking about the character Makee and the show's departure from canon, Reddit user guava_eternal even said "I think out of all the canon vs show criticisms- this is the most glaring departure and makes me wonder how they’re justifying the (Covenant's) Crusade against the infidel humans if a human is their hierarch mouthpiece."
Focus More on Master Chief
With all of these side characters and the intense focus on Kwan Ha, the Halo series has a surprising lack of Halo's main character, Master Chief. Instead of the story revolving around him, he seems to just be wandering through aimlessly as the events simply happen around him. Fans want a better Master Chief. One with agency and who is likable and reliable, like the character from the games.
Redditor hereforthetigbits even said, "It just feels like blatant character assassination to present a beloved character and make him so unlikeable."
Stop the Absurdity
The Halo series also became known for being wild, ridiculous, and totally off-the-rails. In the games, Master Chief is a stoic figure who never reveals his face. He's human but has the iron will of a machine. In the show, however, Master Chief quickly took off his helmet (leaving viewers shocked). This was followed by Master Chief getting full-blown naked (causing the internet to have a heart attack), and that was followed by Master Chief losing his virginity and having sex with Makee, the human Covenant spy (which practically broke the internet).
Reddit user HardlightCereal even mocked the show, posting, "Ah yes, let's take the canonically asexual character and make him have sex with a prisoner of war in his custody."
Stop Mimicking Other Shows
Fans couldn't help but notice that Halo felt oddly similar to The Mandalorian, especially in the first few episodes. As nkannen mentions on Reddit, "Masked protagonist is given a mission to bring in a kid to his boss. After he realizes what they plan to do with the kid he decides to take the kid on the run in his ship after escaping the military with the help of his “family” of other masked soldiers. I would not be surprised if the next few episodes are Chief doing random jobs for people in exchange for money or information."
Kwan Ha's subplot never seemed to get better either. What started off feeling like a Mando copycat turned into an incredibly boring story about a character nobody cared about. Redditor CahoticIzual even called it "the pumpkin spice latte of sci fi." In order for the series to succeed, they need to work on making the show more genuinely Halo.
Draw More Inspiration from the Games
Many of these complaints all add up to one thing: Take more inspiration from the Halo games. While the show has technically addressed this already by saying it's on the "Silver Timeline", many fans of Halo are fans of the games...not the lore created in books and other media.
Reddit user Pajama Boy even said they could no longer watch the series, claiming, "For the first time in the almost 20 years I've been playing Halo this show made me question if the franchise I love was always this cheesy and I think it's honestly just best to stop now before my perception of Halo is hurt any further. The alternate timeline argument means nothing to me, if it makes me feel embarrassed to be a fan then I want no part of it." That comment has since been upvoted more than 3.4k times.
Include More Action
Considering that Halo is based on a first-person-shooter video game, the show was surprisingly filled with tons of heavy drama and conflict...and not enough action. And a lot of the action in the show came in the Kwan Ha storyline, which nobody liked.
Redditor Contanrofaz summed the issue perfectly by saying, "It seems as though characters have evolved into their own personal dramas pretty quickly. The action of the first episode seems to have taken a backseat to the drama of the other episodes." To resonate with gamers, the show needs to remember what Halo is.
Fix the Problems From Season 1
To be truly great, season 2 will need to fix a lot of the problems from season 1. For example, fans want less Kwan Ha, but at the same time, fans also want to know why they were watching her storyline to begin with. Master Chief and the other Spartans need to become more rounded characters, but their oddness in season 1 needs to be justified. There need to be more Covenant storylines, but their absence in season 1 needs explanation, and so on.
Reddit user Krissyjump wrote a great and detailed post about the show's issues, stating (among other things) that, "The show can be entertaining at times but those moments are too far and few between to make up for its deficits. Even if you ignore the complete and utter incompetence by nearly every character there's an even worse lack of nuance to how they're handled that robs them of their humanity."