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Writing up a piece on mental health and it's got me feeling a lot about Halo 4 again, so... thread.
Halo 4 is a story that's fascinated with prisons - not just literal prisons, but those of the mind and body.
Halo 4 is a story that's fascinated with prisons - not just literal prisons, but those of the mind and body.
Abducted at the age of 6 and conscripted into the Spartan-II program, the Chief was forged into a supersoldier. H4 begins by asking whether this hero was only possible to create through the process of breaking the person he used to be, through his disconnect with humanity.
The first shot in the game is of the 6 year old John-117 in a pod with his fellow Spartans, shaped like a MJOLNIR helmet.
The armour that protects him is also a kind of prison he’s trapped within.
At the end of the game, for the very first time we see him released from it.
The armour that protects him is also a kind of prison he’s trapped within.
At the end of the game, for the very first time we see him released from it.
AIs have a lifespan of 7 years before they experience rampancy, a debilitating degenerative process where they think themselves to death.
Cortana has been adrift in space for years with nothing to do but think, trapped within the prison of her own mind, fighting against herself.
Cortana has been adrift in space for years with nothing to do but think, trapped within the prison of her own mind, fighting against herself.
She's the most 'human' character of the story, yet she cannot tell if the warmth of Requiem's star feels real, cannot even touch the person she's closest to. The existence of a mind that exists as photons and data is presented as its own prison.
At the end of the game, in her final moments, she is released from this prison and gets the fulfilment she's always desired before bowing out on her own terms - not succumbing to the worst of what fate has prescribed for her.
(Yes, we're ignoring Halo 5 here.)
(Yes, we're ignoring Halo 5 here.)
This is paralleled with the Didact and Librarian
He's in a literal prison, experiencing what Cortana did over 100,000 years, stewing in silence and madness.
She's the ghost of a dead woman trying to fulfil a desperate plan that keeps going wrong.
For them, there is no release.
He's in a literal prison, experiencing what Cortana did over 100,000 years, stewing in silence and madness.
She's the ghost of a dead woman trying to fulfil a desperate plan that keeps going wrong.
For them, there is no release.
The setting itself is a kind of prison as well: the same cycle of conflict persists between the UNSC and the Covenant. The Covenant client species were culturally imprisoned by the Prophets' hegemonic rule, which is actually something Halo 5 pays off by bringing their final end.
All this is to say, this game is very fucking good. I think that's the most succinct way to put it.
Very fucking good.
Very fucking good.
Oh, and the Prometheans.
"Your mistake," Halsey says at the start of the game, "is seeing Spartans as military hardware."
That's what the Prometheans are. People as military hardware. Soldiers as machines.
Mass-produced supersoldiers, souls – humanity – trapped within armour.
"Your mistake," Halsey says at the start of the game, "is seeing Spartans as military hardware."
That's what the Prometheans are. People as military hardware. Soldiers as machines.
Mass-produced supersoldiers, souls – humanity – trapped within armour.
