S1E11: The Halo Universe Explained - Part 1

A galactic superweapon that “saves” the universe by erasing it. A fallen world where a last stand buys one AI’s escape. And a faceless hero that lets anyone step into the armor. We go deep into Halo’s myth, mayhem, and meaning—why the lore slaps, why the gameplay still sings, and why Master Chief became more than a character.

We start with the old bones of the universe: Precursors, Forerunners, and the accident that birthed the Flood. That context reframes the Halo Array as a terrible calculus, not a shiny relic. Then we jump to the human side: messy politics, a Spartan program built on stolen childhoods, and Reach as the beating heart of UNSC power. Inside that crisis, Dr. Halsey forges Cortana from her own mind, and the mission sharpens—get her out. From there, we crash into Combat Evolved’s ringworld mystery, meet a too-polite monitor, and face the moment when Cortana reveals the truth about the rings. The solution isn’t to wield the weapon; it’s to destroy it.

Halo 2 dials everything up: Covenant theology, Arbiter shame, and the audacious “give the Covenant back their bomb” moment over Earth. We pair that with ODST’s nocturnal mood—rain, sax, neon—and a scavenger-hunt structure that lets smaller stories breathe. Along the way we ask why Halo still feels different from other shooters: clean combat loops, music that marks your memory, and a sandbox built for stories you tell with friends. Most of all, we sit with Master Chief’s blank visor as quiet representation—an avatar anyone can own—and the women across the series who are written as capable without the lecture.

If Halo etched itself into your DNA, you’ll find the beats that made you stay: ringworld awe, Reach heartbreak, ODST calm, Halo 2 swagger. Hit play, then tell us your favorite mission, track, or moment. Follow, share with a fellow Spartan, and leave a review so Part Two finds you first.

Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open And Name Confusion
• 2:00 Guessing Game Reveals Halo
• 6:40 Franchise Scope And Canon Rules
• 10:45 Ancient Lore: Precursors And Flood
• 17:30 The Covenant’s Religion And Rise
• 20:45 Human Civil War And Spartan Programs
• 27:00 Reach Falls And Cortana’s Origin
• 33:20 Halo CE: Ringworld And The Truth
• 41:30 Halo 2: Earth Assault And The Bomb
• 48:20 ODST: Streets, Clues, And Atmosphere
• 53:50 Why Halo Endures Over Other Shooters
• 57:40 Master Chief As Universal Avatar
• 1:06:20 Representation Without Fanfare
• 1:13:30 Strong Women Across Halo And Beyond

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

Before we begin today's episode, we would like to share a quick disclaimer. The views, opinions, and statements expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast are their own personal views and are provided in their own capacity. All content is editorial, opinion-based, and intended for entertainment purposes only. Listener discretion is advised. Yay.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30

The Black Curtain Club?

SPEAKER_00: 1:32

This is no longer the Black Curtain Club.

SPEAKER_02: 1:35

It's the first episode already.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39

That's and that's the whole mystery.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 1:43

Why are we back to the back of the Black Curtain Club?

SPEAKER_03: 1:47

Little space Ruptor. Anyhow. That'll make sense in about a minute or two. Welcome back to another episode of The Silly Goose Society and not the Black Curtain Club. We're going to play a little bit of a game here before we kick the shittendig off. I'm going to name a bunch of things and I want to see if you can guess what they all have in common. Sound cool? Oh, by the way, this is Kyle and my co-host Ann.

SPEAKER_00: 2:14

Hi.

SPEAKER_03: 2:16

I forgot I never introduced us, any of the And I will I will say I I'm I'm just here.

SPEAKER_00: 2:27

I have really no idea what we're doing, what we're talking about, and this is all a mystery.

SPEAKER_03: 2:33

So that makes three of us, so operatic borderline cathedral music. Giant alien things in blue armor that was totally ripped off for the movie Avatar. Almost everything was ripped off with the movie Avatar. And the James Cameron one, not the last never mind. Extinction and war on a galactic level. Genocide. The most badass super soldier ever with an even more badass fucking theme song. A lot of memories that shape me to the man I am today. Any idea what all those have in common?

SPEAKER_00: 3:23

Um something that you're really like geeked out about and probably stiff as a board about.

SPEAKER_03: 3:32

Can neither conform nor deny either of them. Conform? Conform? We'll neither conform to confirm or deny both of those or either of those. Any of those? God, we are off the fucking rails. Halo, goddammit, the Halo franchise. My favorite. Oh God, one of my absolute favorite and nostalgic um video games and franchises of absolute all time. I think it was the very first um rated M for mature video game I ever played, which is really funny because you go back and you play the first one and you're like, this is mature. It's just really funny to see like if what was the last time you saw like a rated R movie from way back when I was like, really? This was R? I digress.

SPEAKER_00: 4:28

Yeah, that's when that's probably around the time when all the it was some politician's wife got it all up in her panties about violence and ratings and all that.

SPEAKER_03: 4:42

I mean, there is blood and like guts in the game, but like compared to some other games that are like teen, it ain't that bad. Yeah. It's it's really not that bad. I think there was more swearing in the first one, too. In the very, very first game, I think there was more swearing, but doesn't matter. Anywho, aren't you just like so excited for this?

SPEAKER_00: 5:05

Oh, I am tingling with excitement.

SPEAKER_03: 5:07

Wow, I don't think I've ever physically smelled sarcasm through like technology. Like I can actually smell it.

SPEAKER_00: 5:21

No, I I know that this is something that is very, very near and dear to your heart. I know that this means a lot to you, this game. Like it has been a part of your DNA for so long. So I'm excited for you to be able to like I love it. I love it when friends have like a passion for something and they just get like a moment to geek out about it and just get so excited about it. I love it. I just love sitting back and like letting them glow. You know what I mean? And I think this is that's how you want to word that. Yeah. I think that's how you want to word that. I think this is this is what you're you're having your little glow moment, and I I think it's gonna be cute. Oh, you said glow with a G? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 6:14

Oh, I really think I heard blow with a B. I was like, really? That's the I was like, just sit back and watch that blow. And I'm like, that's how you want to word that. Okay. And the fact that you just completely glassed over, like I was like, oh, okay, I I definitely misheard something. And we'll leave it. We'll just leave it. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00: 6:37

We are off the rails today.

SPEAKER_03: 6:40

Oh, Christ. Anywho, without further ado, my absolute best to try to remotely talk about Halo in like under an hour. Uh we'll kind of well honestly there's way too much to there's way too much to even try to talk about everything, everything. So I guess for like just for like safety's sake for all this, I'm only gonna talk about let's let's face it, like the only like part of the franchise and that matters. And I say the we know the only ones that matters. I'm kind of saying this for any of the the Halo fans that we have out there. I'm gonna cover a little bit to kind of like explain some of the shit we'll talk about during games one, two, uh, uh Reach one, two, uh, ODST, and then three. So it's just five games.

SPEAKER_00: 7:39

And is that how it it throughout their whole history, they've just had five games?

SPEAKER_03: 7:46

No, there's all right, depends who you talk to. So there's Halo 1, 2, 3, 4, Reach, ODST, Halo Wars 1, Halo Wars 2, uh, and I think there's nine games total.

SPEAKER_00: 8:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 8:04

Uh nine and a half if you count Spartanoff. Spartanoff's is kind of one of those um like joystick arcade games. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00: 8:13

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 8:14

So that one's like a half game. The Halo Wars games are like uh your Command and Conquer or your Total War games that the RTS ones were like you you build the base and the armies and you go and attack shit.

SPEAKER_00: 8:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 8:25

Those ones were fun because I loved Command and Conquer. Those ones were those ones. And then there's Halo's one, two, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:31

And there's And when did they first come out?

SPEAKER_03: 8:33

99, I wanna say.

SPEAKER_00: 8:36

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03: 8:36

99, 2000. I think the very first Halo, Combat Evolve, came out then. And uh, like I said, it was mature. I was a wee lad, wasn't led to play it, didn't have it. Um, but my cousins did. And I remember going over to my cousin's um house and playing it and like as they say, the rest is history from there. It's just cause because it was another for me, it's another video game that really it deserves its place in video game history for what it did for multiplayer. And it's some very any gamer worth their waiting shit knows and loves and played this game and has the exact same memories that I do. It was incredibly influential to a lot of your modern gamers. Very, very important.

SPEAKER_00: 9:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 9:32

So fucking deal with it. Anyway, so like alright, so and then as as everything kind of came out, yeah, there was like the books and comics and a bunch of other stuff that just expanded it all. And then for some stuff, this guy they didn't get like really hard nose about it, like um, like they did with um like Marvel and Star Wars, where like, okay, that stuff didn't happen and this stuff is canon. They just kind of pick and choose some stuff, what has been made quote unquote canon. Anything that happens in the games, anything that's mentioned in the games, however that goes, that is the 100% for sure canon storyline of Halo.

SPEAKER_00: 10:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 10:19

It does get kind of annoying because then there's like prequel games that have, you know, there's like kind of some prequel games, and then they they they bring some stuff from then to then to kind of mix plot holes like, well, where was that alien faction? Where were those things in the first game and the second game, but now they're in the third game, and now all of a sudden we have this weapon that we didn't why didn't we never mind. I try not to think like they create plot holes and it's a little annoying, but you just gotta kind of go with it.

SPEAKER_00: 10:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 10:46

Either way. So, like an insanely fucking long time ago. Like I think it's anywhere from like one to two hundred thousand years. There were these um hella mega ancient beings called uh known as the precursors. Uh they were one with the universe, with the cos the cosmos, cosmics, and so on and so forth, and just like the fabrics of reality. They could shape shift, they could none of the actual na our natural laws of physics and what makes sense mattered to them. Because they're giant aliens and they're made up anyway. So why would it all matter to them? They could literally turn into anything they wanted. Does does not matter, what the fuck. Um and they just kind of just did their thing. They just kind of drifted through space and they did this, that, and the other thing, used their fun technology, and they could just create life. Uh so when they finally got to the Milky Way galaxy, they created any and all lives that are in the Milky Way galaxy. Um but the three most important ones are the Forerunners, um, another race known as the Sunshine, but we're just gonna refer to them as the Prophets because that's just what the only like later it'll make more sense why. Just because fuck trying to say Sunshine a hundred times. It sucks.

SPEAKER_01: 12:07

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 12:07

Um, and humans, ancient, ancient humans. Okay. Uh so they kind of had they had this belief, they had this system, they kind of had like their own like laws and rules, and one of them was called the mantle of responsibility. So they just kind of went around and just like created species in galaxies galaxy. And what the mantle of responsibility was was whichever of their um species that they created, they had to protect all the other species from anything else. They had to take care of everything from the cosmos to each other and so on and so forth. They were like kind of like the watchers. Whoever evolves the fastest and be and has the most purity to them, like you can't just be like the strongest and like the most elite. Okay. Like you have to still be like a decent species. Um and this is this is what I find to be the funniest thing. Um, apparently, ancient humans, uh humans themselves were the best species. They were they were intended to hold the mantle of responsibility. Yeah, try to think of that. Try to think of us being the most advanced and morally straight species there is.

SPEAKER_00: 13:21

Oh, nice. Okay. We we we are the moral guys. We are the ones, right? Oh lord.

SPEAKER_03: 13:28

Okay, so the four so uh the forerunners were they evolved much, much faster than the prophets and the humans. Um, and because of that, they kind of became cunts, just to put it plainly. They got incre they got incredibly egotistical. They're like, well, we're the shit. Like, oh, you guys can't fly yet? Well, bitch, we're flying in space, and you're still like like, you know? Um and now don't get me wrong, it we already have interstellar travel, like ancient humans. We like these are like this is like the ancient civilizations that quote unquote built the pyramids. Like, we're already hella advanced at this point.

SPEAKER_00: 14:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 14:06

But they're even like twice as advanced as we are, and so on and so forth. So as the precursors are kind of making their rounds, they're coming back to the galaxy. Uh they see just how big for the bridge is that the forerunners are getting and that they're just gonna take the mantle for themselves, like they're just gonna make themselves the rulers of the galaxy. The precursors had this awesome idea, goes, let's just fucking kill them all. Like let's literally just say, all right, let's just wipe them out and start again. Well. So an intergalactic genocide happened. And they wiped out all but like a hundred precursors. I mean, we're talking like millions and millions, uh trillions probably, of this species existed. There's like a hundred left. And all those hundred, like, they fucking scattered. Obviously. So just a kind of um because they could shape shift, they all a lot of them had this idea, okay, let's just turn it to space dust and just kind of float around on these like abandoned ships and vessels and whatnot. Uh but space farts floating around in space and like cosmic radiation gets a little raunchy, and that the so so the actual like dust that they turned into uh turned into a I guess I should put it very simple about it. Um a space parasite that turns you into an alien zombie.

SPEAKER_00: 15:58

Nice.

SPEAKER_03: 15:58

Fast way, known as the flood.

SPEAKER_00: 16:01

Known as the flood.

SPEAKER_03: 16:02

As of the flood, that's what that's what they're called, and they are the some of the most grotesque aliens you'll ever see. Um so now those things are running right up through the galaxy. The only way to stop them it is to is to kill it is to starve it, and the way to starve it is to kill what it eats, which is any sentient being. Any sentient living life. Does not matter. Uh, forerunners and all their genius, they decided, okay, let's build these weapons. The Halo Array to do exactly that. So that's so they built these things called the Ark, which created the Halo rings. They created 12 at first and it's positioned all throughout the galaxy. One of them has an it cre generates enough power. Like I said, it's like a super Death Star, but it's a ring. It destroys any and all sentient life in its pretty much in the galaxy. So think of let's say they got one floating around by like let's say the moon was a halo ring. It'd kill everything past Pluto. Every sentient life form in the Milky Way galaxy would be wiped out. All you need is one.

SPEAKER_00: 17:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 17:14

They built twelve.

SPEAKER_00: 17:15

Oh.

SPEAKER_03: 17:16

But they were really difficult to move. So they built a smaller arc that made six smaller rings which were twice as powerful. And to protect themselves, they created these little like they created their own shield worlds. So they kind of created their own inside-out Death Stars, as to where like the Death Star was the ball and everything was like interior. You know, they created like a shell around the world. So it was like the hollow and everything lived inside. So if you were in one of those or on the halo rings, you were safe. If you weren't, you were fucked.

SPEAKER_00: 17:50

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03: 17:51

Yeah. Uh so while some of the forerunners were um what the hell? Uh so there was a bit of a civil war that happened between the forerunners because one figured that they need to just keep you know, killing the shit out of everything and keeping the mantle for themselves. There was a split between literally like the there's like a husband and wife that are in charge of all of them. He's become like a dictator. She still is trying to be like peaceful, whatever. Civil war starts with the two of them. They split. Um we have now they have now de-evolved humanity to like Neanderthals. So we are now officially where our humanity starts when the Civil War happens. Because there was, like I said, throughout all the Civil War, the humans said it with the other people, and then the forerunners had the technology to literally turn them back into cavemen. That's all the kind of fun shit. So the wife, known as the librarian, she pretty much took she kicked his ass, threw him in their own prison, hid everything away, scattered all the shit so like they can't become, you know, space Hitler. Well, some of his followers, when they were running, you know, taking some of their ships and running, those ships crash-landed on a couple of the other planets, specifically the prophet's homeworld. The prophets see it, like, what the hell is this? This fell from the sky. We need to worship this thing, and everything inside is gods, because what else do you do? Um, and that happened a bunch of a shit ton of other planets too, on a bunch of different, like it's a bunch of different worlds, a bunch of different galaxies, these ships all crash-landed. All of the forerunners inside were either dead or died. So there wasn't anyone to like kind of explain. But all of those Oh, which was so the prophets kind of went on like a campaign, like, hey, these things are from like gods and they need to be worshipped as such. You should join our super holy space religion. And like seven other races joined into them, which has now formed the covenant. And what their main belief is, is that exactly that the forerunners were some super obviously some very super powerful Ancient beings from before. They need to be worshipped as such to bring them to salvation, known as when you activate the rings, it brings you to salvation, heaven, the holy land, what they call the great journey.

SPEAKER_00: 20:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 20:19

The covenant is very important. That's your mean bad guys for like six and a half of the seven games.

SPEAKER_00: 20:25

Okay, so the covenant is bad.

SPEAKER_03: 20:27

Covenant, no good. Just like real life. The very religious ones, not so good.

SPEAKER_00: 20:34

Right. Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_03: 20:35

The ones hellbent on eternal damnation and conquest, not so good. Gotcha. Jump ahead to the year 2530 something or other. Uh there is, we've now colonized a bunch of other planets and we've discovered a whole bunch of other planets in our solar system. So now, you know, there's Earth. We've discovered the planet Reach.

unknown: 21:01

That one's kind of important.

SPEAKER_03: 21:02

We've discovered the planet um harvest.

SPEAKER_00: 21:07

That one's also really important.

SPEAKER_03: 21:09

And a couple of others that aren't so important. So because megacorporations have pretty much fucked with like the world um government and mega corporations have kind of taken over. So it's like Amazon and the United States has like taken over the world essentially, and everything is like totally screwed up. And now they're trying to dictate everything on all the other planets that's happening. And just like in just like we've seen in history before, it doesn't exactly go well. Like people on Pluto don't want to be ruled the same way. They're doing shit on the road. And also um, neither thing, these are all humans, by the way. Just because they're on a different planet doesn't mean they're all aliens and whatnot. We're all talking humanity, period.

SPEAKER_00: 21:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 21:54

Yeah, there's this, it's not like Star Wars is like there's humans. Pretty much all the aliens are bad in Halo. There's very, very few good aliens.

SPEAKER_00: 22:02

So anything that doesn't look like a human is bad.

SPEAKER_03: 22:05

In Halo? Yeah. Yep. Anything that's not a human. Uh so there's now massive um civil war happening between the uh there's an interplanet civil war that's happening between all the planets of humanity. Um to quell this riot, the UNSC, which is like the United Nations Space Corps, so like the military of humanity. They had this awesome idea to make super soldiers, like everyone's trying to do. So they started the Spartan program. Spartan ones, your, you know, they're designed to be harder, faster, harder, better, faster, stronger, smarter. The works. It didn't necessarily kind of go as well. The augmentations they were doing wasn't really taking. It was insanely expensive and dangerous. There was a lot of frowny faces when their loved ones were turning into abominations or just dying. And the ones who succeeded, it wasn't the best. So the most genius human in at least in Halo's human history, Dr. Halsey, um, she found the way to make the Spartan program work. There was a way that you could just kind of tell that some you can always tell that someone else is a little gifted. They're a little bit faster than the others, a little bit smarter than the others, they're a little something else than the others, right? Well, by the year 25, 30, whatever the shit, there's a way to actually, you know, kind of see people's gene, you know, check like genes and whatever, because like it's all humanity under one massive government. So you think our government's intrusive now? Like they have your blood set, they know your genes, they're studying your this, they're studying your that, and they're going around. So they figured the easiest thing to do, which totally wasn't a war crime at all, whatsoever, in any way, um, they're going to locate these children. Children. Like kids, like six years old. Like kids.

SPEAKER_00: 24:10

Where have I seen this before?

SPEAKER_03: 24:13

Honestly? The joke you're trying to make is much better than this. They're going to find the kids. In the middle of the night, they're going to abduct the children.

SPEAKER_00: 24:27

Oh, nice. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 24:33

They then replace the children with exact clones of them that they purposefully have modified to die within one to two years. A brain hemorrhage here, heart failure there, so that now no one's gonna go looking for this dead child that they've abducted. So now they are completely nameless. They turned those children into weapons. The Spartan twos were all kidnapped children that were then replaced.

SPEAKER_02: 25:06

I swear to God, this is all.

SPEAKER_00: 25:08

And the aliens are the bad guys.

SPEAKER_02: 25:10

And the aliens are the bad guys.

SPEAKER_03: 25:11

The aliens are the bad guys. And remember, remind, this all came from the mind of the smartest woman that literally ever. There is no fighting. There's no opinion. It is quote unquote proven in this universe that she is the smartest being that ever walked. In the universe. And this was the best she could come up with. Clone the make the clones break. Steal kids.

SPEAKER_00: 25:41

I mean, I guess that's one way to cover your tracks.

SPEAKER_03: 25:43

I mean it was wildly successful. The Halo, uh, the Spartan 2 program was wildly successful. One in particular, John 117, aka the Master Chief. Okay. Now let's get to the games.

SPEAKER_02: 26:02

Oh.

SPEAKER_00: 26:04

So I question real quick. Do do this do the Spartan two people, kids, well, that eventually they grow up to be adults and they go fight. Do they ever find out or do they know about their history, or is that like all wiped?

SPEAKER_03: 26:22

Not in the game. It's all wiped. They're they're they don't really have memory from before that's taken care of and whatever. So they brainwash them, they do with all that, so they actually do the memories are erased. So they only know they only know being a Spartan. They are Okay. Yeah, they're they are, and they're at there's actually I forget if it's mentioned in the books or whatever, but in the show, which I don't know if we'll ever talk about the show. But um, there is like an actual like implant that's given to them that makes them like um what's the word? Uh just uh docile and obedient and suppresses their emotions and their feelings and their second guessings. They literally they just follow orders and shoot. That's all the sparkins are expected to do. It's follow orders and shoot. Simple as that.

SPEAKER_00: 27:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 27:17

So this all of this was what became the hub was the planet Reach. Like, think of any and all of like the good things that have ever happened in humanity, they it it was Reach. Like this was the, you know, this is think of the Library of Alexandria, but like planet size. All the tech was there, all of the everything was there, all of the it's the shit, right? This is this was the home of the Spartan program. All the Spartan programs were birthed from Reach. Um so you're just there doing your thing, this, that, and the other thing, and whatever the hell's going on. They're getting ready to send the Spartans out. Remember, the Spartans were founded to squash the insurrection that was happening, to end the Civil War. So the government was creating these super soldiers to fight rebels who just wanted independence. So think of the British developing the Navy SEALs to go fight the colonists in the United States during the American Revolution. Like that's what they were fucking doing. Like, um, but along the way with all this happening, another one of like the big hub planets, think of like New York City kind of a thing. It's an important, it's it's a kind of important one. There's a lot of traffic there, also the kind of fun shit. Um the covenant just kind of found humanity on harvest. And so they kind of call the ceasefire in the civil war the enemy of my enemy kind of shit. And they sent the Spartans to go fight the covenant on the planet Harvest, thus beginning the human covenant war. Well, one thing leads to another from Harvest. Uh we uh though we have the Spartans, we are wildly outgunned by the Covenant. Like insanely. It is the equivalent to the colonials from the Revolutionary War fighting the modern-day Navy SEALs. Wildly outgunned.

SPEAKER_00: 29:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 29:17

So we speed up the process and we make the Spartan threes um more volunteers, better armor, harder, better, faster, stronger than the Spartan twos, which are the elite of the elite. Master Chief is in cry of sleep, by the way, at this point. Um so Reach is now being invaded by the largest Covenant fleet imaginable because they assumed that Reach was the human humanity's homeworld. Um so that's where you start. So like I said, this is in the timeline, this is where this game falls. If it was like a third or fourth game made. Uh, you you play as a Spartan and noble team. Uh your your jobs are pretty much just you're just mobilized to defend reach. That's what it is. That's what the basis of this game is is repel the common from taking the planet. They can't take the planet because it's a very fucking important planet. And then you know, it's just how it's just like, okay, so there's this missing going on, you gotta go find out what the hell they're really looking for because they're they're they're doing something different. They're acting different on this planet than they are. They're not just destroying and moving on to the next one. They're digging, they're looking, they're searching, and you don't know what the hell they're looking for. So fast forward to getting your ass handed to you about four and a half missions straight. Yeah, it's very few missions end on a high note. Like read it everything you do, you're you're losing. You're yeah, you complete the mission and you're still alive, but like you're losing. You've lost the city. That you this team member died, that team member died, so on and so forth. Later on in the game, you find out that what they've been looking for is Dr. Halsey's secret lab that she has like under like the main base that they're assaulting, where she is developing um the most advanced AI in um in history. She has uh ChatGPT 2.0.

SPEAKER_00: 31:20

Nice L L J K.

SPEAKER_03: 31:22

Uh Cortana. Cortana is an exact replica of her brain. So the AI she created is her exact thought process that she then hooked up to the AI and the grid that humanity has now. So to help kind of explain that, you know, when you technically, if you plug something into the wall, you're now on the grid, you're now using energy. Well, that goes to the power lines to your house, that goes to the power lines to, you know, the street, to your city, to the main thing, to the power source. Just try to think of that. Follow the track of that, right? So think of how the internet works. The internet works, you know, Wi-Fi and signals and stuff and things, right? So if when you connect to your phone, your phone is to the Wi-Fi, which goes from there, it bounces off the satellite and it goes to here and it goes around the world, so on and so forth. And then all the information can be shared within a moment's notice, right?

SPEAKER_00: 32:18

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 32:18

Humanity's expanded throughout not just the universe, but the fucking galaxy. She has the knowledge of the fucking galaxy in its entire inception since the Big Bang up to this point. Oh wow. Is in this one. So, needless to say, this fucking app is a little goddamn important. Anything that's ever happened in the universe is in this AI. Anything that is potentially could happen is in this AI. It's a little fucking important. Final task throughout this game is to just get that to Commander Keys. And just get that thing the fuck off of Reach and as far as way. Because at this point you've accepted that Reach is lost. Uh, spoiler alert for the end of the game, one of the most amazing, you know, last stands in history. No, and so on and so forth. Yeah, Reach falls, you die. That's the end. That's that's it was slated to happen in the books and whatever. Reach falls on to the next. Well, you you hand off the AI to Captain Keys. Captain Key's like, all right, let's get the fuck out of here. And you fly off into the ship, the Pillar of Autumn. Which brings us to the first game.

SPEAKER_00: 33:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 33:31

First game, guess what? Just like what happens in Star Wars and New Hope. The uh human ship is being chased by a uh I think it's just one. I think just one covenant ship decides to kind of chase you. So now that you're there, alright, wake them up. The motherfucking master chief. And that's where it begins. And then literally says they wake you up out of cryo sleep and you're like, hey, bro, I know you were napping, but like these big ugly squid-faced motherfuckers are like trying to kill us. You want to go do that first? And you were like, I need a weapon. That's a joke that happens at the second game. Um yeah, so then you just repel them and kick all their asses, all that kind of fun stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 34:16

And then now And so in the game, I'm sorry, in the games, do you play as Master Chief or Master Chief, yep.

SPEAKER_03: 34:24

So it's so in Reach, you play as a different. That was the very first game you didn't play as the Master Chief. But in the Halo games, uh Halo's one, two, three, and the other ones and so far, yeah, you play as the Master Chief.

SPEAKER_00: 34:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 34:36

Spoiler alert for future games. Um so yeah, you pretty much exactly that. When you defend your ship, ship's got a crash land, escape pods, and you just said, all right, where the hell do we go? We can't land on that planet. I don't know. How about this giant fucking ring that's just kind of here? Humanity has no idea what the fuck this giant ring is. We've never seen it before. They were just kind of making like hyperspace jumps to get the hell away, and they just ended up next to this giant floating ring. So, like, okay, let's go. And that's where you land. Yeah. Now, when I say ring, it's not like actually like on the outside you look at it and it looks like it's metal and mechanical, and there's like light sources and also that kind of fun stuff. But then you get to like the interior of the ring, you look, and it's like someone literally cut a ring out of the earth and then just like flipped it inside out. Like there, there's vegetation, there's life forms, there's there's water, there's um, there's climate, there's everything. Like take it, take a slice of the world and flip it inside out. So like the dirt would be on like the space side, and like all of the life would be on the inside.

SPEAKER_00: 35:40

Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_03: 35:41

That's what these things are. And um interesting. Yes, then you just then you just play them, you're like, all right, where the hell are we? We don't know, but we gotta get the fuck out of here. And it's just kind of one thing kind of leads through another thing. It's like, okay, these guys get captured, now you gotta go save them, now you go to that one and this and the other thing, so on and so forth. So as you're doing that, so now you're going to the interiors, and you're like, dude, what the fuck is this place? This is this place seems like super advanced, and like even for like the aliens that were fighting, this doesn't look like their technology. What the hell is this stuff? Uh then you're looking for something on the interiors there. I believe this is the point where you're looking for these. Yes, you're looking for the silent cartographer. They have great names for cool shit in this game. I don't know, but I just love silent cartographer. I think that's fucking great. Well, along the way, yeah. You see this giant glowing, talking, annoying fucking ball. And he was like, he's he's all like super proper and shit. Splendid! I shall alleviate the problems at once. He's kind of like C3PO and Olaf had a child.

SPEAKER_00: 36:42

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03: 36:43

Like he's that like proper and douchey, and he's also that annoying and up your ass. So he was like, This is a weapon. He's like, this is a weapon. He goes, Yeah, this giant flooding ring. He goes, Yeah, yeah, it's a weapon. He goes, like, oh, cool. So we can use the weapon against the enemy. Yeah, absolutely. Cool, let's go do that. So now you listen to the ball, and you get to the control room in the silent cartographer, and it's there. And Matthew Chief's like, doot, do, do, do, do, let's just push this button. Cortana, the the super AI, your little super hot smoke show holog hologram girlfriend. Um She's not really your girlfriend. She's like It's like um It's like Tony and Jarvis.

SPEAKER_00: 37:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 37:26

That's literally Tony and Jarvis. So he's in his Iron Man suit. Jarvis, I need you to do this, that and the other thing, right? Cortana, do this, that, and the other thing. But she's a little chip that's in his helmet that he could take in and out and whatever, which is weird because then you go to all the different alien chips and they just happen to have like the USB that you can literally insert this chip into. But we don't talk about that.

SPEAKER_00: 37:46

Well, it's nice that the whole universe is has uh universal like technology like that. Like we can't even get on board in this day and age with charger cables.

SPEAKER_03: 38:01

Yeah, which is really funny because like I said, this is the Covenant and all that they came from it. They're not even from the Milky Way galaxy, they're from a very different galaxy, but somehow they have the same fucking chip plug-in that you use in your helmet.

SPEAKER_00: 38:17

Very convenient.

SPEAKER_03: 38:18

We're not talking about that. We just don't talk about that. They that that was brought up like on like Reddit, like a couple years ago. And then like in later games, Cortana just kind of passes through your hand, which kind of makes a bit more like sense. Like, okay, it's just she's just technology, and technology's you know, Wi-Fi's invisible. So they're just they're just kind of going with that. I was like, all right, they don't really explain, but it happens. I digress. So literally right as you're about to hit the launch button. Cortana, like, she like, what the fuck are you doing? And you're like, what the fuck? What the fuck am I doing? And she was like, Do you have any idea what this thing is? You're like, yeah, the ball guy told us it's a weapon. Did you tell him how bad of a weapon? Well, he didn't ask. That's when you find out that the halos will destroy anything living in the fucking galaxy.

SPEAKER_00: 39:13

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_03: 39:14

And he was just like, What the fuck, man? He goes, like, what? Like, technically I didn't lie to you. It is a weapon to fight against the enemy. You don't have an enemy if they're all dead, kind of a thing. And it's a little awkward, and then now, okay, now, well, we can't let the covenant get a hold of it. He goes, like, well, what's the covenant doing here? Well, they want this because they think it's from their gods. Oh, so we don't want them to have this. Cool. We need to blow this fucker up. Um, so you're like, okay, we need to do this one. Oh, yeah. While all this is happening, like your captain got captured and you have to go save him, and that's when you first encounter the flood. The mutants on the alien guys. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're really, really gross, obnoxious guys. And then you're like, dude, what's The hell are these fucking gross things that are turning us all into these goddamn things? That's the little floating ball guys, just like that's that's the enemy. You think these squid guys are bad? They ain't shit. That's the fucking Girl Scouts compared to these assholes. These assholes will literally just that you have no idea. He goes, Like, these things exist because of these fucking things. Do you see why we have to do this? And he was just like, yes, but no, I'm still gonna blow this ring up. So then the last mission, yeah, you blow the ring up and you fly away. Woo! It's funny because like the game doesn't end on like a cliffhanger or like it would lead into a second one.

SPEAKER_00: 40:36

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 40:37

It just kind of it kind of just ends. The only cliffhanger is is like, I think we're just getting started. Like that's it. Like as he takes off his helmet. Like that's you don't know. Like to your knowledge, you just stopped the covenant. Yeah, because you blew because there was only that one ship that you you blew up the thing they wanted, you kicked all their asses, you know, and it they just but yeah, they spawned an entire franchise that only got so much better. And that maybe the first one was just so fucking good. Well, the second one we brought back, and it's like, yay, you're claimed a hero, you've saved humanity. And so I love it because this one they kind of show both sides of the coin. Like they expand the covenant. This is where you really learn so much more about the covenant in this one. Halo 2 is the m uh arguably the most nostalgic video game I have like in the world, have played, will play, will always play. It you want to talk about a game that genuinely flipped the the gaming industry uh upside down. It absolutely just it blew everybody away, that fucking game, and just all of it just expanded from there. From the story for the the the actual game itself, the way it played, mechanics, what it did for multiplayer also. It's just it's completely, like I said, it rewrote gaming. So, but but with the story, they're showing you the two sides of the coin in the very like opening monologue. You're being proclaimed as a hero, and you're being celebrated, you're getting all these medals and these accolades, and there's all these people cheering for you, and yadday's about the kind of fun chip. Then they flip over to the covenant. Technique, you know, you you've never met this guy in the game. They just introduced him here. Voice by Keith David, by the way. Um he failed miserably. Like his his fleet got destroyed, he couldn't get that one. They destroyed the sacred rings. Like, think of like to them, think of I swear to God, if like conquered and then destroyed Jerusalem. Like that's how these that's how the covenant saw them just being on like Halo and then destroying it. Think of like literally destroying Jerusalem to the ground, like how Christianity and Catholicism would see it. Neither Needless to say they're a little pissed at this guy for failing to stop humanity. So he's being like, it is great shame. He's literally being stripped of his ranks and is this. He's now a prisoner. He's being branded with the giant mark of shame and the counsels that he should be executed, made example of, and like all this other stuff. You know, same thing back to it. They're just back and forth with it. Well, one of the prophets, like so. So now in charge of the coven is the last three remaining people of the prophet race. Okay one of them says, I'm gonna go fuck the humans up because I know where the gateway to the Ark is. It's on Earth. That ship specifically landed on Earth. Because uh, and so so he takes a fleet to go and attack Earth, and he was like, What the hell is this? They weren't expecting humanity to be there, needless let alone the gigantic defense force that we had. They sent like a squad to do what an army was supposed to do. And they're like, What the hell? So, like, yeah, so so yeah, they're fighting humanity, but they're getting their asses kicked, so that they make just enough a hole in the defenses so they can start invading Earth and then kind of set up a get one of the carriers on there so they can actually start, like I said, like invading and setting up shops, set up a rally point for the rest of the invasion, for the rest of the covenant to show up. Because Earth is, like I said, is where this portal to the Ark is. And the Ark is like actual Jesus itself, importance to them. Like, because that's where the halos can be made, created. The great journey starts at the Ark.

SPEAKER_00: 44:38

Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_03: 44:41

So we get the greatest cutscene of all time because they're starting to they have we have these like defense space stations all around the earth, and they have this really cool giant bomb that the covenant brings with them. And so you get there, you diffuse it in time, and then you you contact like the head of the military, and you're like, sir, permission to leave the station. He was like, to do what? To give the covenant back the bomb. Permission granted. So you open up, so you open up these fucking doors. All all meanwhile, the entire time of this game, like Cortana's just you guys are just having conversations, and it's just like fantastic. Because like there's all you know, there's just that fun, cute back and forth that happens. And she was like, wait a minute, I got a question. What if you miss? I won't. You open the fucking thing, the doors open, you are now it now sucks the bomb out. You grab onto the bomb, as you know, flying through space as this massive battle is happening. It looks like the beginning of Star Wars Episode 3. Like there's just ships and explosions and booms and war and death all around you. And you're just holding on to this planetary destroying bomb, just flying through space. Perfectly miraculously, some of your ships actually blow a hole in one of the Covenant Capitol ships. And that hole goes directly to the core. You then rearm the bomb, push off of it, fly out of the ship, blow that ship up, you land on one of your ships, and you're like, all right, let's get to the planet and go kick some ass. It's the greatest cutscene ever in video games. It's the fucking best, man. You land on the ship and like your sergeant just goes, for a brick, he flew pretty good. It's terrible. It's awesome. Anyway, yeah, then you start kicking ass on Earth, and once you start kicking, once the covenant realized they're getting an ass is kicked, we gotta run away again. They now open up one of their hyperdrive portals right there in the middle of the city. As that's going on, the events of Halo ODST are happening. Uh ODST is they're not Spartans, but they are the closest thing you can be to a Spartan without actually being a Spartan.

SPEAKER_00: 46:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 46:49

They're the last level of like the military evolution. These are your super duper special forces. And pretty much they're just being dropped in here. Your team is being tasked with something. Okay. The Covenant could have gone anywhere on the fucking planet. They came here specifically. Find out why. So you're just like a covert team that's dropped in that's gotta just keep fighting the bad guys, and you gotta find out why they're here. You get lost. It's some of the most relaxing like ambiance music. The whole game, it just takes place as it's like raining and it's dark, and you're so you're just kind of walking around the streets with like hearing the rain happening and this like really peaceful music playing. I mean, yeah, you're fighting off aliens while you're doing it. It was they really switched the way that it was the first very loose open world game.

SPEAKER_00: 47:36

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03: 47:37

Cause like you play as you play as the rook. You know, the you know, the the rookie, you crash land, when you wake up, it's like, okay, you gotta go to the rally point. So you get to this one point, okay, search for clues, and you find this one thing, and like as you're looking at this clue, it's like your commander's helmet. And then it does like 12 hours later. So it does a lot of that flashback stuff, like as you're doing like the story.

SPEAKER_01: 48:00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03: 48:01

It's really cool the way that they set it up. And uh then you then you go back and you play as your commander in that mission, and like you see kind of what happened there and why that helmet ended up there and also the kind of bullshit. And then it was like, Oh, we gotta go meet to the rally point here. So then you then it the next bit, it flops back to the rookie, it's nighttime, it's raining, it's cool, it's peaceful. Now you gotta go find this other thing to this other area and the other clue, and then same thing, you jump back and forth until the last like mission or two is when you regroup with your team, and it's all quote unquote real time then, and you move on.

SPEAKER_01: 48:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 48:31

But that's all happening while a whole bunch of other shit from Halo 2 is happening. Is it because it's right in that city that happens, and they go genocing out of there, and then you kind of and then exactly that. By the end of that one, you find out the reasoning why they're there on that planet. You find out why they came to that area of the planet specifically is what that is. It was just kind of like a little additive because that game was released after Halo 3. Okay, but it takes place during Halo 2, so that's where a little bit of that um what is it, plot hole kind of happens for me. And it's kind of annoying. But it's uh but the story itself still progresses very, very well. And like I said, it's a it's a great game. Very, very fantastic.

SPEAKER_00: 49:14

Um now, if you were if you when you go back to play these games, which game do you gravitate toward playing all the time? Like what game do you want to go back and play all the time?

SPEAKER_03: 49:30

Two. Hands down. Two. Two is this it's like nine and a half times out of ten, I'm playing two. But every now and then I was like, okay, maybe I wanna every now and then I'll kind of do like what a lot of people do with like Star Wars or like whatever their favorite thing is. They'll just start from the beginning and they'll play through. They'll play it in release order. So they'll play like Halos one, two, three, and then ODST and then Reach and also the shit. Um I'll play them like in order. I'll do like Reach and then one and then two. I'll play those first couple missions of two, and then I'll play ODST, and then I'll go back and finish out two, and then I'll play three, and so on.

SPEAKER_00: 50:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 50:06

Because that's like how like for the timing of it.

SPEAKER_00: 50:08

So it's and why do you think like you you gravitate toward this specific game? Because there's a lot of like, you know, like military op kind of first-person shooter games that are out there, you know, there's like a ton of them. What is it do you think about Halo that sets it apart for you specifically?

SPEAKER_03: 50:35

Maybe the I think it's has a lot to do with the nostalgia factor. I think I think a lot of it is that one. But then if I even with even the more modern ones, the ones that have come out within the modern age of the fuckery that is like some of our first-person shooters, like Call of Duty and whatnot.

SPEAKER_00: 50:54

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 50:55

Um even though you can change your skins to be like hot pink and whatever, I'm not running around, you know, my my character I can't make my character look like John Wick. I can't make my character look like fucking Beavis and Butthead and K-pop demon hunter characters in they're all Spartans. They're all the Spartan in in multiplayer and all that other bullshit. So it's still it still has itself intact. It hasn't like sold out. Like Call of Duty and some of the other franchises have. At its base, it still is what it is. Yeah, there's some tomfoolery dumb shit that happens in that game, but it it it's all that some of that tomfoolery fuckery has always been there. They didn't add that bullshit.

SPEAKER_00: 51:50

Right. And it and I know that Master Chief means a lot to you, right? I mean, you have you have a tattoo, you know, of him. What is it about that character uh specifically that that means enough or so much to you that you know you you have it permanently on your skin? What what is it about him specifically that draws you to that character?

SPEAKER_03: 52:18

It's getting I think it's still just that nostalgia thing. It's just that it's been something I've been doing so long.

SPEAKER_00: 52:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 52:25

And and I've always just like I said, just it's it's always just been my favorite throughout that. But on a deeper scale, another reason why I I love, you know, you just kind of see stuff more, and you you know, then you're older and you can understand some kind of shit like it. Right. And you don't realize it until you're older. A at least in my life, to what I know, to my knowledge. Um, the Master Chief was one of the very first characters that could have been anybody. Because in the games, in the books, and all that other kind of fun stuff, it wasn't until the show that they actually gave like an actual face to the Master Chief.

SPEAKER_00: 53:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 53:04

You never saw his face. He always had his helmet on. You never that was the it was the way. Yeah, yeah. You never saw his face. He could have been anybody. He could have been anybody. He could have been black, he could have been white, he could have been Hispanic, he could have been Asian, he could have been ugly as fuck, he could have been fine as hell. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00: 53:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 53:24

That character was written and designed. He could have been anybody whatsoever. It wasn't just so so I know it may seem, you know, to some people who are dumbasses, it may seem stupid that they don't think that's like inspiring to a child that like, oh, it's just a it's just a movie character. Yeah, but to kids, these are like these aren't they're not just characters, like they're fucking super heroes. These are their goddamn heroes. And the fact that, you know, a young, you know, a young child that isn't white can't see themselves and can re can can kind of relate, it goes, like, well, we don't know if, like I said, he's of these other descents or these other cultures or whatever the hell it is. All we know is that he is the baddest motherfucker in the galaxy. And how awesome would it be if he was, you know, I he was he looked like me. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00: 54:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 54:17

Uh at least to my knowledge in my life, he was the very first character that anybody could have been. Anyone could have been the Master Chief. Um, people will still just like, oh, but it couldn't have been a woman spells. Well, they they switched that in later games, just give them a second. So for now, modern days, they'll like now read now it I still don't know, but in the re the quote unquote redoing retelling because it's coming to PlayStation finally with their merge journals, all the kind of fun shit. I heard that there's rumors that you can actually choose whether or not um before you even start the game, you know, if you choose your character kind of a thing, like, oh, you want to play as a man or a woman kind of a thing, you can change whether Master Chief is a male or female.

SPEAKER_00: 54:56

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03: 54:57

And then, you know, so then they'll have like a generic like female voice. Um feminine voice. Um through through your play of the game. So yeah, technically now Master Chief could literally be anybody, could look like anybody. Um which I think is really cool because there's not a whole lot of there's not a whole lot of characters like that where there's that mystery where they can be, they can be anyone, that they can be inspiring to anyone and everyone.

SPEAKER_00: 55:27

Right, right. Yeah, and I can see where that would make that game I I can see where, you know, somebody that's young in their teens, you know, or or early tweens or whatever, playing that game and and you get sucked into the storyline, and you know, it's a character that like you could see yourself being that character, you know, like I can see where that would be kind of an inspirational thing to a to to a to a young person.

SPEAKER_03: 56:01

Yeah, like I just I don't know if you if you have to end up cutting this apart, you gotta cut this apart. But um because I don't know how political or whatever the hell or dicey it'll get. I've never like experienced that. Um what the hell? I've never kind of experienced that I don't have a character because I'm a white dude.

SPEAKER_00: 56:33

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 56:34

Every superhero is a white dude. You know what I mean? Yeah. So every hero, period, was a white dude. I never had that. But then like same thing, just like a little bit later now in these years, and now we're all adults, you know, and a bunch of my friends, you know, like you know, they had the same, you know, the a bunch of my friends of you know from different um cultures, backgrounds, races, so on and so forth. They talk about shit that like had massive impacts on them.

unknown: 56:59

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 56:59

And how it like how much they genuinely like love that. Like I've never like thought, thought about that. I've never had to experience that because like I said, it's because I was everybody. Everyone was me. Um, and in and in my head, it was just like I never saw it as like, oh, I'm inspired by this dude because he's a white dude. Like, I'm inspired by this dude because he's just he's you know, he's Captain America, he's doing the right thing, he's fighting the bad guys. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00: 57:22

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 57:23

And that's for like, you know, then like not too long ago, talking with one of my friends, he goes, Yeah, don't get me wrong, I looked up to him, I looked up to him too, you know, you know, these these characters because um, you know, exactly because he was the good he was the good guy doing the good things and doing bad stuff for the bad guys. Yeah, he goes, like, but when fucking static shock came out, and there's the good guy doing the good things, and he looks exactly fucking like me. Right, he's like, you have no idea how much that genuinely like that's why I was fucking obsessed with static shock. He goes, because like as he goes, like, and you yeah, I never talked about it in school because I don't know, we just didn't talk about also the kind of fun stuff. He goes, like, because I wasn't like upset about it. He goes even he said he goes, like, I didn't even realize until like later, but like, yeah, he goes, like, when you can see a hero who you feel looks just like you or you can relate to so much, it means so much more, and it's so much more impactful to you. And like another one of my really good friends too, he says like some of his his favorite movies um are of recent years. Uh watch with the um with uh like um Coco and Encanto and things like that one because they're capturing Latin American culture unbelievably in some of these movies. He goes, Yeah, growing up, there's yeah, there's the prince and you know, the prince and the princess and the knight in shining armor and so on and so forth. He goes, Yes, you can make the argument these happened in white countries. Well, they didn't make a movie about Latin American countries, African countries, and so on and so forth. He goes, like, he goes, the accuracy they're getting my culture with is unbelievable. He goes, like, I'm emotional as fuck. Because like they did such a good job with that. And so it's it's like it's one of those things I never noticed. So something so small you don't know makes such a massive impact in later lives. So I always thought that was another cool thing about it.

SPEAKER_00: 59:08

Yeah, no, and I I and I do think I think this is an important thing to talk about and you know, to leave into the episode is that in all things, representation matters, you know, and and it matters because the world, you know, not even just talking about the United States, but the world is melting pot. And people need to have inspiration and feel included and feel like they have something to look up to. And how many superheroes and characters and like you said, princesses and princes do we do we have to look up to? And I can't even imagine. You know, how a person from another, you know, race or culture, you know, I I don't know how that feels, but I also know that it's really important for representation to be there. So I, you know, I applaud I applaud Halo in the fact that, you know, Master Chief in the beginning just was this blank slate, you know, almost, that anybody could could could be a Master Chief. And I think that was a that was a really important thing for the game, whether it was intended or not. I think that's a really cool thing that has come out of it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:46

Oh, many percent.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:48

Literally anyone could feel like playing that game because it wasn't, it's you know, it's not about, you know, the what a person looks like. It's the character within. And that character, those characteristics and that hero aspect can be literally found in anyone, no matter what you look like.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:12

Exactly. Which is I haven't seen anyone confirming or denying if that's exactly why they did it. I I would laugh a little bit if like they did it. It was like, no, it's because it's just easier to generate a normal face rather than like an actual like just a little bit. Yeah, it was like if it was like, oh, because we were lazy, we ran out of money. I would love that because I've seen, I have seen, I'm telling you, interview after interview and questions after questions about like uh about these other people, like uh with with all these other different gamers. Like what's like um what you call the uh oh god, it it's it's killing me right now. But both, not not not one of them, but both of the um what the both of the voice actors from Kratos from the God of War games because you know they had the one from the original run and then the one they rebooted a couple years back, both of them. Um they said that yeah, one of the one of the big things was was Halo for that reason alone. So because like we didn't know if he if he was black, we didn't know if we didn't know if he was white, if he was black, if he was purple, if he was green, we don't fucking know. He was like so I so exactly goes like so it inspired me so much more to like play other video games, so on and so forth than something. So it's like so there's all these other people in the industry who have said that they were inspired by that, whether it was intentional or not.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:31

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:31

I would just find it really funny if it was just like no, because we were like lazy. Yeah, like it's because massive inspiring, like, yeah, that's exactly what we did, and we did that on purpose because uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:42

Like I mean while they're just like cool, cool story, bro, but it was really just the budget.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:50

It was really just budget because we're just assholes and we ran out of money, you know what I mean? Right. Oh, I would hate it. I would hate that. But I but I also think I would love it a little bit more too. And also at that, I guess now I don't know, I guess keeping on that on that tangent and so on and so forth. I've kind of there's certain things about, you know, I guess going to like the inclusion thing and whatever it goes like. I'm always interested to see people's reactions when uh you know, when it when it comes to inclusion and characters being like this and being like that and so on and so forth. Mainly because it was like, would you rather it be like I don't know how this is gonna sound right now, like, but would you rather it be like forced into your face and like pay attention, we're give more as like we're acknowledging you and this is you, you're a part of this, and so on and so forth. Or do you just keep it just natural and you don't address it? You just make it like it's fucking normal. I'm I I'm always very interested when it comes to that because like I said, I have no room to speak here whatsoever. And I don't mean this in any type of um any type of a um Well, I I think I don't know how I mean this or whatever.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:08

I think you know I can I can speak on it a little bit as a woman that like I think it's for me, I appreciate it when it's just presented like it's normal. Because I don't need like I don't need the women's lib stuff th shoved down my face. I don't mean, I don't need it to be so obvious. You know, like like there are there are smart, capable, powerful women and just write a smart, capable, powerful woman. It doesn't need to come with all this fanfare of you know whatever kind of you know flag they want to fly about it. Just just write write the character, write a character that is just normal, you know. Um and so yeah, I always appreciate it like and and I will say like for instance, um, and I know it's a little bit of a tangent, like the the women Ghostbuster movie, I hated it. I hated it. I hated it so much because I felt like that's exactly what they were doing. They were making such this, like shoving it down my throat that and it going so far off the story that you know, and I'm like, okay, yeah, fine. When but don't make it, it's not like they just made it into this, like, I don't know, weird women lib empowerment kind of bullshit. And I'm just like, just write a good movie and put women in it. You don't need to to like make a fanfare about it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:59

I don't know exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:00

That's exactly how I view it. I I just would rather things just be put in there as like this is normal because at the end of the day, it is normal. It is normal to have, like I said, capable, smart women. And it is absolutely normal to have smart, capable um people of any color, creed, race, religion. It is it is absolutely it's it is normal and it should be normal for the for that representation to be in things in general. And I'll get out of my soapbox.

SPEAKER_03: 1:06:40

No, no, you're good. No, no, I was just I would I'm I'm happy you said it first because like that's what like because I always kind of said if there was a couple of things, at least in more recent years, um, that I I I felt kind of quote unquote handled, because it's uh I don't know, it sounds fucked up saying that it needs to be handled properly or whatever, but like I would say it was just like two things that I felt were they were done properly. One was in not necessarily the best movie ever, but either of them. Fuck. That's what I think is what's up besetting. Anywho, um in Lightyear. The Buzz Lightyear movie that they did. Mm-hmm. Yeah. His like best friend. Yeah, she she was a lesbian. And it's just like, oh, they literally just talked about it as if it was like, hey, how's your husband? Yeah. Like that's they they kept it, he kept it so normal and like and which I think was beautiful. There wasn't none of this, like I loved how they handled that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:36

And same in the internals when there was the character who was, oh, whatch you call it, you know, there was the character he had a husband, you know, so and so forth. He was just like, all right, I gotta go save the world. Be careful, I love you. Kiss, left.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:46

There was none of this big reveal, a whole they didn't they didn't force it to make it like a like like like a pillar because it wasn't pertinent to the story.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:57

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:57

And I feel that's what it is. Like I said, no, it is incredibly important that everyone is involved in that. Like, like, like you said, it is it it it it is complete, there's you know, the just because just because someone, you know, looks at your eye, like just because you're a woman, just because you're what just because you're anything else that isn't a white dude you can do just all the same shit. There's there's no difference between them. So it needs to, I think that's the thing, is it is to make it as now don't get me wrong, I love when they make cute little jabs here and there. Like uh like cute little like think of like half the lines from almost any other line from uh what's it called? Um one of the one of the best and baddest bitches, um, Ellen Ripley.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:43

Just they were just like, you know, oh what's in the uh in the second one, and they're just kind of like, oh no, you can't do that because you're uh but just oh it goes like what? Civilian kind of a thing or this or whatever. And then so you know uh in the second one, Bill Paxton says, Vasquez, you ever been mistaken for a man? No, have you? Like little shit like that. You know? I fucking love that. Uh even Jurassic Park. When um when uh whatcha call it? Um Dr. Uh Savage, she's gonna run off to go like do things. It's the old guy, the guy who's busted, or the woman who's completely fine and in one the younger woman who's in one piece. He goes, Well, you can't go, you're uh just listen, say the sexism later, all right? I'm gonna go fucking save your ass. Like I love that little huge du-da. Right. It's just a little fuck you, I'm a woman, I can do it. And she went and she did it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:39

Like, and and that was in see, and that's exactly what I'm talking about. They just they wrote a character who was strong and capable and smart. And Dr. Sadler was exactly that. Ellen Ripley is exactly that. She is a strong, smart, capable woman. And and just writing strong characters is what we need. We don't need to see any more of like the, you know, the woman who can't run 20 feet without stumbling, you know, because the bad guy's after. And it's like, oh, you know, I can't. I hate that trope. Um, no, but that's so good because it is empowering, but it's not like in your face empowering. It's like, oh, okay, yeah, absolutely. Dr. Sadler, she's gonna go save the day because she can. And you believe that she can because they've written her that way.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:35

Exactly. Like a million percent. That's that's fun shit. I love that shit.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:42

And they kind of kept doing that a little bit, and it's just slightly back to it because we're way out of time now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They did that in later, they did that in later games though, too. They they when they did um, like I said, in uh in In Reach, one of your commanding officers, she's the intelligence. They they had a woman. Not only that, not only she was a woman, but she also was, I guess, technically handicapped as well, too. She only had one arm. She had she had two, but one was robotic.

SPEAKER_00: 1:11:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:11:06

So, yeah, so they had double trope with her. Um, I'm sorry. What? She was kind of a bitch. I'm just gonna say it. She was kind of a snooty bitch. Okay, but, but, but, but she was a strong, capable woman. Was she the smartest one in the crew? Yes. But you didn't have to keep reminding us you were the smartest one in the crew. That's a good thing. Oh, yeah. That's that's all I she was kind of bitchy about it. That's it. Don't get me wrong. I I'm not saying you didn't have to be such a bitch. And then say the and then later, I think one of my honest technical. I don't think so. Let's go. Um and then later in uh I think it's Halo 4, she makes her first appearance. Like Halo, I don't know, around where it starts getting really crazy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:11:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:00

Um, they introduce another the Spartan Fours, actually. And the most elite of the Spartan Fours is um Spar um Sarah Palmer. So shocker, a woman with the name like Sarah. Yeah. Well, the same thing, she's not as she's not as bitchy as the other lady. Um but she's arguably just she's arguably just as badass as Chief.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:26

Just as badass. Um and not as homicidal because she's not a Spartan two.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:32

Oh, real quick, I f I feel like I need to mention another uh, it just popped in. Oh, the edge of is it edge of tomorrow? No, that's not the right one.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:41

Yeah, yeah, with Emily Blunt.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:42

Emily Emily Blunt. Love that character.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:46

Okay, so next episode we're gonna call it Bad Bitches, and we're just gonna do that one. We're just gonna talk about all inclusion characters, and I would just say, actually, that would be a really fun one to do. It's like because unfortunately Hollywood sucks ass and they pulled the plug on it. But when Stallone was doing all of his expendable movies, yeah, between three and four, he was supposed to do the movie Expendables.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:07

Aw.

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:08

That was gonna be the same, it was gonna be the same movie, but all women.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:12

Nice.

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:13

I was just like, oh my god, and so then there's like we'll we'll put the cherry on this one and we'll just kind of just shit about that one like we typically do. But we'll come back to that one because that anyhow. Well, now that we're back in UNSC space, um, anyone who's actually uh fan of the franchise knows that I got fucknowhere with the actual extra. I I thought it was could cut it down to just that one and do the main three and then the little couple extra ones, but you know, it's me. So, you know what that means. You send the bitches get a part two, because if you think I'm just leaving Halo there, you're fucking wrong. So at some point or another, maybe sometime, we're gonna finish this fucker and you'll get Halo part two.

SPEAKER_00: 1:14:04

Sounds good to me.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:05

It better, because I don't know what the fuck else we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_00: 1:14:09

Well, thanks for listening to this part one of Halo. Uh, we appreciate you sticking through. Um, if you are a fan of the game, drop us the line and tell us what you think uh is the best part. Why did it inspire you? Why do you love the game? Why do you love Master Chief? Um, be sure to follow us on social medias, um, interact with us on Instagram, and we will see you next time for part two of Halo. So for now, bye. Hawking,