Wait, but Cheat is our glorious leader, so wouldn't he be Truth in this scenario?

Quote from: Mr. Admirals on December 05, 2014, 01:59:57 PM

Quote from: Elegiac on December 05, 2014, 01:50:57 PM

Quote from: Mad Max on December 05, 2014, 01:50:19 PM

Quote from: Elegiac on December 05, 2014, 01:49:32 PM

No wonder he's going to die.

This is why I didn't want this in the the Flood.

Fuck off, asshole.

Deal with it, dumbass.

I'm not one to call people out, but shit Elegiac, Mad Max was looking for support, not mindless insult.

This is a person you're dealing with, and if you're incapable of holding back your inappropriate comments for one thread because a computer screen is between you and Mad Max, then I am deeply, deeply concerned for your ability to have a complex empathetic relationship with anyone.

Shut up Newfish. I've watched people talk so much shit here.

I've got good karma to burn.

I just realized that what you're doing is no different than what the WBC does.

Just because you see shitty people doing shitty things doesn't make it anymore logical to add to the shitfest.

I actually had the exact same reaction when my friend with cancer died. Can't say I really believe in a christian god anymore as a result.

We're here if you need us Mad Max. Godspeed to your Uncle.

I use the mobile site quite a bit, but I keep getting redirected to the App Store to a game called 'Shadow Kings'.

Quote from: Mr. Admirals on December 04, 2014, 03:07:07 PM

Since we're talking about Calculus, if someone has the time to explain Riemann Sums and Riemann Integration, I will be forever in your debt. I can't do them for my life.

Well a Riemann integral is just a definite integral. Which if you've taken calc ii you've spent the entire semester doing. Any problems in particular?

A Riemann sum is basically the basis of the definite integral, if its limit as delta x approaches 0 exists. Where exactly are you seeing trouble?

I'm only finishing up Calc I.

So, we learned the Fundamental Property of Calculus, or whatever it's called, but we are still required to know the long way to prove we understand what's going on.

I understand the basics of setting it up with figuring out delta x and what-not, but I can't seem to ever get it right.

Since we're talking about Calculus, if someone has the time to explain Riemann Sums and Riemann Integration, I will be forever in your debt. I can't do them for my life.

Halo 3's trailers for sure. I remember thinking it was the culmination of the series, nothing bigger would come after it.

Heh. No way did I envision myself sitting in college waiting for Halo 5.

Also, my 12 year old mind saw Halo 3 as the greatest shooter ever. How the tables have turned...

I approve OP.

What in the hell....

Of course it's cancer. Shit.

Quote from: IcyWind on December 03, 2014, 10:05:05 AM

Quote from: The First Noelle on December 03, 2014, 09:57:54 AM

What those tards say does not matter. TCW, Rebels, and new movies are not canon, that are part of a non-canon alternate timeline. The EU is canon, deal with it.

Which part, the time Palpatine comes back three times?

There is a lot of shit in the EU to go over and sift through what is canon and what is not, I am not going to waste my time going over it. Disney cannot just erase the EU though.

Yes they can, and here's how they did it:

Step 1. Acquire rights to Star Wars
Step 2. Evaluate creative options
Step 3.
Step 4. Declare EU non-canon

I forgot how stupid that line is...

I feel like some people have hardware problems... The game does have bugs, yes. But they are easily navigate-able and are being fixed.

Reach has the second best multiplayer in the series, it sucks that 343 seems to be taking the series in a fucktarded direction.

Back to an arena shooter with consistent mechanics?

And yet I said nothing about the plot. What I did say is that what Thom did was more impactful to the viewer. Deciding to nuke himself with absolutely no hesitation to destroy a ship he couldn't otherwise destroy had more of an impact on me than Cortana's rampancy.

Then a simple misunderstanding as I said.

I just can't see any reason for you to decide to argue a subject based entirely on subjective opinion.

In a debate, you do not argue fact, that would be a logical fallacy, instead, you argue opinions, using facts to support them

If you feel your opinion is not debatable, you need only not reply and we can be finished.

All I said was that I found Thom to be an interesting character, so when I got 'BUT WASN'T CORTANA MORE INTERESTING IN HALO 4?' as a response, I was rather taken aback.

Actually, you said he was, and I quote, "A more interesting character than anybody in either trilogy. Or all of Halo, for that matter."

My response was just one of the more compelling characters. If you don't like my example of Cortana, I'd be more happy to use a different character. Just say the word.

True, but it'd preserve a character they could still wring more interesting plots out of. I'd prefer that over killing her just to build a bit of emotional value.

There is over a decade of lore pointing to her demise at her seven year life-span.

That was mostly just for emphasis.

Emphasis? The word was used completely incorrectly. It's not even a hyperbole.

More critical to the plot =/= more critical to the story. The latter is more important to the lore as a whole; the former is more important to the immediate events.

That is, the plot is the game in question, the story is the franchise as a whole.

I see now. My mistake.

I don't think they threw her character away at all. All logical paths pointed to her demise. No attempts made by the UNSC to solve the rampancy issue have been effective. She is suffering extreme trauma from being tortured by the Gravemind, and the weight of the Forerunner knowledge she's consumed is crushing her.

And weren't you saying a character who triumphs over their problems is interesting?

Her demise was an inevitability. It's same as saying a human character not dying from old age. Her triumph was maintaining herself long enough to complete the mission, and go out on her own terms, not as a dementia-ridden mess.

Hence why she was arguably Halo's real protagonist, not John. The series was always more about Cortana's development,

She was only in half of the Bungie Trilogy.

while John carries her from place to place, like a reverse satellite character. It's a literary technique - the main character is deliberately left less interesting as the other characters so their personality quirks shine all the brighter.

Here's the thing though, Chief is not Cortana's mule. Neither can complete the objective without the other. They're both dependent on one another.

I understand that killing her allows John to develop more, I just don't agree with it. There was a lot of potential for Cortana. How would she have reacted to the Librarian? To Mendicant Bias? How about the John's 'evolution' midway through Halo 4? She never commented on that, IIRC. We could have seen how she and Halsey would react to one another now after Cortana's image of her was shattered in 'Human Weakness'.

See, that's the thing. We never saw her reaction to the Librarian because she's not the protagonist. And nothing in the lore hinted at or implied she would meet Mendicant Bias. It's just wishful thinking. A what-if scenario. There are may characters who would have a great reaction to see for meeting Mendicant Bias.

Killing her threw all of those potential stories straight out the window. It wasn't like Johnson's death - he was basically just Chief's sidekick, so there's not really a lot of stories you could get out of him by Halo 3 - but Cortana still had a lot of possibilities.

...

Did you just really marginalize and trivialize Johnson's role in Halo into being Chief's sidekick? You not wanting to hear more about Johnson =/= lack of stories to be told. I hope you understand that...

They could have done that without killing her off, you know. Like handing her over to Halsey to see what she can do, while John goes off and does something else for a while. It'd give him some time fighting without his closest ally, and the conflict between Cortana and Halsey could reap some drama as well.

1. Halsey would never, EVER be allowed possession of the UNSC's most powerful AI while incarcerated.

2. As soon as Chief and Cortana get paired up again, Chief would sink back into his shell. Making his "development" meaningless.

I never described it as manly, though.

You did though.

"I'll take a few seconds of Thom doing something badass and establishing what kind of man he was than Cortana throwing a fit and dying just so 343 can show they're not fucking around."

And it's mostly how he had the stones to turn and walk away after throwing the nuke that interests me.

You mean attempting to escape the coming inferno? Watch the trailer again, he sprints away.

A) he was the reliable one of the team.

Any Spartan is. And in regards to one of your earlier posts, apparently Kat is incompetent for being incapacitated by getting her arm blown off by a Banshee.

B) he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty if it means winning.

He didn't do anything morally questionable though... I'm afraid you'll have to explain if I'm not understanding.

C) he isn't afraid to kill himself, either, if need be.

Yeah, but that's not really a special trait. All Spartans are that way because they're indoctrinated that completing the mission comes first.

'My first thought was 'who is this mysterious soldier, who has absolutely no shits to give about his impending demise? The fact that he's never given any real personality beyond that is what piques my interest. And it's not like he needs any other characterization - that would just ruin the moment.

You do realize you're basically saying you like him because:

1. He does something generic.

2. We no nothing about him.

Thus, we could replace Thom with practically anyone who we know nothing about and you would feel the same way.

So, yes, he isn't a complex character like Cortana, but then, he doesn't have to be a complex character to be interesting. They could have a set of prequel novels filled with nothing but Thom being Halo's Commissar Yarrick and I'd buy the hell out of them.

So you're saying if the hypothetical books didn't fulfill your fantasy of Thom being like Yarrick you would be disappointed.

Sounds a lot like you've got a serious case of headcanon...

And yet the former was more interesting to me. The latter had the potential to be interesting, but, well, all it had was the potential.

Because it's much easier to capture someone's attention for 60 seconds as opposed to 8 - 10 hours.

Mm. The Didact is the main threat, and most of the conflict revolves around him and the Prometheans, so I'd call that the main conflict. That said, the twin plots merge toward the end of the game.

Fair enough.

Chief and Cortana could have hitched a ride on Infinity to make it to Earth and try whatever they think could save her. But, Cortana and Chief know they can't do that. Their relationship must suffer as Cortana ever so slowly begins to crumble apart because they know they need to defend Earth when no one else can or will.

But in practice this amounts to her glitching occasionally but still functioning as the game's exposition fairy. It sounds good on paper, but it wasn't so interesting when I got to the game itself.

Glitching occasionally? You do realize her little "glitches" nearly cost the Chief his life on a few occasions, cost the lives of hundreds of humans, and nearly resulted in the digital enslavement of the human race.

Again, good on paper, not so good in practice. Deep, emotional plots only work well when they audience reacts in the way the storyteller wants them to react.

I'm not saying it was emotionally satisfying for me, I'm saying that the connections and conflicts, and how they concluded just satisfied me on many levels.

Thom's commercial was made so the audience would feel a sense of awe and wonder at what he did. And it accomplished that. I reacted in the way they intended for me to react.

If genericism induces awe and wonder for you, I'm concerned for your ability to be engaged in entertaining material.

Cortana's plot was made so the audience would feel a sense of sadness and loss. And I didn't feel a thing. I did not react in the way they intended for me to react.

And maybe that's because you don't have anything to relate to in regards to Cortana's demise? Maybe, dare I say, it's because you were never emotionally attached to her in the first place?

The thing you don't seem to get is the scale of the story being told has no bearing on how interesting it is. Even a little half-minute clip can be more impactful (to the viewer) than a multi-hour plot.

But it does though. Otherwise we wouldn't have come up with the concept of an "attention span".

Yeah, but in practice she still just pulled some shit at the last second and yadda yadda yadda.

If you want to trivialize it like that, then sure.

I know what she did in the last level, but it still just amounted to her disappearing for a while and spouting some technobabble before John put a grenade on the Didact and ended the game.

Wait, you consider

"In that case, you won't mind if we return the favor."

and

"I'm not doing this for mankind."

to be techno babble?

Also, you continue to trivialize what happened for your own benefit to a disturbing level.

Not really. Kat was already surrounded by other soldiers - it's not too farfetched for Thom to run up and take the bomb from her.

But only he had the Jetpack. A dues ex machina.

Cortana replicating and using her computer PMS to stall the Didact, on the other hand, is a deus ex machina. A last minute bit used to write the protagonists out of the mess they're in.

See, this is why I brought up sexism before. You're equating the AI equivalent of dementia to be PMS. Are you fucking serious?

And how is that a deus ex machina? The Didact acknowledges the trouble he's having trying to stop Cortana because of how unnaturally affluent she is with Forerunner systems.

So did John at the end of Halo 1, but nobody ever talks about that.

Actually, the remaining human presence was escaping on board the Truth and Reconcilliation before it was destroyed by a grenade detonating a fuel line near the ship's engines.

Seriously, he could have accomplished the exact same thing by flying up to the lift, chucking it into the grav lift, and then ordering everyone to retreat so no one was killed or injured in the ensuing explosion.

There was a song playing over the whole thing and nobody said anything at all. Maybe he did and we just didn't hear it.

Occam's razor, man.

No, a story where plot armor is nonexistent. It'd have to have much more character-building than Reach did, certainly, but I think it could be done well.

That's impossible because someone is dictating what is happening. There is always plot-armor in stories.

They killed Cortana, and...who else? Characters that matter? If they killed off the Didact at the end of Halo 4, I'd be impressed. Maybe if they killed Halsey, sure. How about Thel? 'Mdama?

Well, DeMarco, Ash, Olivia, Mark, Vladimir, Margaret, Roma, Otto, and Victor were all killed off recently. Lord Hood was critically injured and is now in a wheelchair, and the Didact was composed by the Master Chief.

There were still people inquiring what happened back when the game first came out. If the audience is clueless, the scene was not clear enough.

It definitely could have been done better, I agree, but a lot of people honestly don't try hard enough to understand what's going on.



NOTE: My apologies for any grammatical, editing, and spelling errors. Too lazy to go to go through and fix them right now. =p

Quote from: Mr. Admirals on November 29, 2014, 11:29:34 AM

Quote from: The Waifu Master on November 29, 2014, 10:34:54 AM

Quote from: Assassin 11D7 on November 29, 2014, 12:21:17 AM

Quote from: The Waifu Master on November 28, 2014, 11:54:23 PM

Quote from: A Cheese Potato on November 28, 2014, 11:53:52 PM

Quote from: The Waifu Master on November 28, 2014, 11:24:49 PM

I- is that a black clone?

Not all the Storm Troopers are Clone Troopers

This is news to me.

Shouldn't be.

Why not?
It's canon that all clone troopers are clones of Jango Fett.
Any EU that says that other people joined as Stormtroopers is non-canon.
So it can be assumed that they're all still clones.

Most people forget that only the lore that takes place post Episode VI is non-canon.

uh no. Disney said anything that wasn't mentioned in the movies or cartoon series from the EU is axed. As such, Republic Commando is canon since they're in the Cartoon series for a short while.

Really? I could have sworn it was only post-EIV stuff.

Got a link that corroborates your statement?