Halo Season 1 premiered in 2022, and since then, it’s had an impossible task to live up to viewers’ high expectations of the live adaptation of their beloved video game. At the same time, some fans were just happy to see the Master Chief and his mighty team of Spartans brought to life. That excitement, however, didn’t last, and immediately after the first season aired, Halo fans had tons of criticisms about the adaptation, from Master Chief constantly taking off his helmet to the poor CGI visuals.
Two years and a new season later, Paramount seems to have considered their fan’s criticisms and made several changes to certain aspects of the show. Halo Season 2 boasts a more concise plot, better visuals, and more focus on the characters that matter. While Halo Season 2 still has some issues, OG fans would love fixed, like John-117 not wearing the helmet for most of the show, this is a step in the right direction. Here is what Halo Season 2 did better than the first season.
Master Chief is Human After All
One of the significant criticisms of Halo Season 1 was how Master Chief felt detached from his human side, which was a considerable draw for game fans. In Halo Season 1, Master Chief hardly seemed compassionate to others’ problems, even when Kai-125 was going through a mental identity crisis. He only expresses emotions when he has a romantic relationship with Makee. And that felt awkward and out of place, too, probably because the John-117 actor (Pablo Schreiber) also didn’t like the idea of a romantic relationship between the two characters. So, in Halo Season 2, Master Chief goes through an awakening after losing Cortana and taking the corporal Talia Perez under his wing. She opens up to Master Chief, and viewers can see the depth of his emotions much more evident. Even when other Spartans die, and Kai is left behind, fans can see that John is distraught about losing the only family he has ever known. While video game fans loved playing through the shell that was Master Chief, they didn’t want to know who was under the helmet; the show’s writers needed to humanize him, and that’s what they did better in Season 2. He was human, after all, before becoming a Spartan.
Halo Season 2 has More Intriguing Story Arcs for Supporting Characters
One of the significant criticisms of Halo Season 1 was its inability to give quality supporting characters the limelight they deserve. Most of the first season was focused on the romance between Master Chief and Makee, which caused controversy among fans and the cast. Characters like Dr. Halsey and Captain Jacob Keyes deserved even more screen time because of their complex relationship and history with the Spartan program. Dr. Halsey is a fascinating character, and while she is mainly portrayed as a morally gray character, the second season does an excellent job of showing that she cares about those children. She does show remorse about what she and the UNSC did to those kids, although she admits that it was a necessity of the war with the covenant. There is some semblance of justice when she is infected by an alien parasite and put on ice by her daughter, but that could only be momentary.
In Halo Season 2, characters like Keyes meet their end, but their storylines are slightly better developed than in the first season. He meets an honorable death, saving civilians from the covenants in Reach, but he didn’t deserve to die so soon. Soren also gets more limelight when he fails to capture the elusive Dr.Halsey which leads to his son being kidnapped by UNSC— a fate he never wanted for his child. The characters feel more tangible, and the new characters like James Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) and Corporal Talia Perez (Christina Rodlo) introduced in Halo Season 2, get the story development they deserve.
The Halo Season 2 Plot Is Better
Although Paramount + wouldn’t follow the same plot from the video games and novels, basing Halo Season 2 on The Battle of Reach book was an excellent plot decision. The show’s writers reversed specific creative choices made in the first season, such as killing Master Chief and Makee, which was a good idea given its reception. Halo Season 2 starts with Cortana already removed from John’s mind and him fully recovering to his true self. This could be because of the change in the creative team between the seasons. Most of Halo Season 2’s plot focuses on what happens before and after the fall of Reach and the UNSC’s role in it.
The earlier episodes primarily focus on the military and bureaucracy of the UNSC and how they abandon civilians on Reach and save themselves. The plot excels when it follows the video game’s storyline, and that’s clear even among viewers unfamiliar with the lore. One of the highlights of Halo Season 2 was the introduction of the Arbiter, who goes against the Covenants’ wishes to help Makee. After the fall of Reach, it’s back to humans and the covenant fighting for the Halo, which leads to several deaths on both sides. The showdown between the Arbiter and Master Chief is worth the wait, especially after all the innocent lives The Arbiter took. The Flood’s (parasitic alien) introduction during the final episodes of Halo Season 2 signals that there is more humanity have to worry about aside from the Covenant.
The Darker Tone is More Interesting for Halo Fans
While Halo Season 1 depicts death and a lot of action, Halo Season 2 takes it a notch higher by making it grittier and darker. This fits the story if the Spartans are fighting to save humanity from a race of monster aliens bound to eradicate them. With such high stakes, the darker tone makes the fights, especially in episode 4, ‘Reach,’ feel realistic and dreadful. The buildings exploding, people dying, and the haunting feeling when the Covenant ships start bombing Reach make watching this series even more exciting. The death of Vannak-134 also shows how dark the show is willing to go to tell this sad story.
The fight scenes were more impressive and spell-binding compared to Halo Season 1. It’s not a first-person shooter perspective like in the video games, but it comes close to being as epic as what was in the games. Master Chief has most of the fight sequences with the aliens with and without his Spartan armor, and it’s scary to think that these aliens could kill him, given their strength, superior weapons, and sheer power. But John is a formidable opponent, and he shows it.
Halo Season 2 Has Better Visuals
Aside from the improved fight sequences, Halo Season 2 also boasts better visuals than the first season. Halo Season 1 felt like a low-budget series based on a video game, which shouldn’t be the case considering the first season series had a whooping budget of $90-200 million for nine episodes. That’s almost $10 million per episode. While Halo Season 2’s first few episodes were much more visually appealing for viewers, most of their budget is spent on the Fall of Reach episode and its big finale. But considering how difficult it is to pull off a sci-fi series of this magnitude with aliens who have superior technology, the second season makes the CGI scenes more realistic. Aside from changing Cortana’s appearance, much of everything else is visually stunning. The aliens also look more believable than in Halo Season 1, which did not feature as many close and personal shots of the Covenant aliens as in the second season. Here is everything you need to know about Halo Season 2!
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