Transcript
Speaker: Yeah, it's worth it to do, goddammit.
Speaker: It's worth to do it.
Speaker: And you know what is always worth to do?
Speaker: What's that?
Speaker: Hey there, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixel It.
Speaker: My name is Kevin.
Speaker: Alongside with me, as always, is Phil.
Speaker: And today, we're finishing off Halo, the Flood, by William C. Dietz.
Speaker: Last episode on this book, because this is one of those books that starts off well enough.
Speaker: Actually, it started off at like a here.
Speaker: And if you're just listening, my hand's in the middle of the screen.
Speaker: And it actually went up a bit to like a here.
Speaker: And then since then, it's like it tripped and has been sliding downhill steadily.
Speaker: And we get into these last few chapters.
Speaker: And for as exciting as these levels are in the game, they are the opposite in book four.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it's getting a little tedious to be completely frank.
Speaker: Not not.
Speaker: And we were discussing this before.
Speaker: It doesn't feel like the author's fault most of the time.
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: The author's working with what he's got in front of him.
Speaker: And as we've pointed out before, it's the most fun when
Speaker: he's allowed to create something whole cloth in the universe.
Speaker: And that continues.
Speaker: I'm happy to report all the way to the end, all the way to the end.
Speaker: It's clear that when he's making shit, he's having a good time.
Speaker: He's having a grand old time with McKay and yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And all these other characters, he is loving it.
Speaker: And then we get to Master Chief and Cortana and it's like, oh, this is a bit of a bummer, isn't it?
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: This is the primus strategy guide for Halo Combat Evolved.
Speaker: So it's such a strange situation.
Speaker: But, you know, it's funny because, you know, we talked about continuing on with the Resident Evil series and some of these other ones.
Speaker: And it feels like.
Speaker: more of those books exist than the books based on an actual game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because let's face it, there are like a hundred Halo books out there.
Speaker: Oh, there's so many.
Speaker: And what, six games?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, we got, was it one, two, three, four, five, and infinite, I want to say?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A few more if you count ODST.
Speaker: And Reach.
Speaker: And Reach, yeah.
Speaker: And Reach and ODST.
Speaker: And I think ODST is an expansion of three.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, there's so many.
Speaker: I mean, the Halo book novel universe has expanded beyond the scope of the games.
Speaker: Obviously, they try to fill in the gaps as much as possible with the books.
Speaker: But the books that are specifically, I don't want to say all of them, but this book that is based specifically on the game is...
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which, you know, it's you got to start someplace in terms of the actual game adaptations, because, of course, we didn't really adapt the game with fall of reach.
Speaker: So you got to start someplace and, you know,
Speaker: It's all right.
Speaker: It's all right.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: So, but it does open the door for lots of fun stuff.
Speaker: It does.
Speaker: Might come out later.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, you know, so, but we'll, we'll get into that.
Speaker: We'll get, we'll get into that.
Speaker: Um, and actually since we last recorded, I want to say, uh, it's been a couple of weeks since we last recorded a minute.
Speaker: It's been a minute.
Speaker: I think between this recording session and last recording session, the trailer dropped for the Halo television series.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: For those of you who don't know, we record these about a month ahead of time that they're getting put out.
Speaker: But for us, yeah, it was just, I think, a week or so ago that the trailer dropped.
Speaker: for the Halo television series.
Speaker: And needless to say, people were upset that Cortana was not totally blue in the trailer because... And nude.
Speaker: And nude-ish.
Speaker: Just, I don't know, man.
Speaker: Like...
Speaker: Like it looks, it looked like, it was like, oh yeah, this is, you know, this is about Halo.
Speaker: This is Halo-ish.
Speaker: This feels like Halo.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: You know, it's, it's Halo.
Speaker: And if you think it, Halo is more than that, then I think you're probably misremembering Halo.
Speaker: It's the game with the funny grunt aliens.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think,
Speaker: I think what we get into when it comes to a lot of the weird ass complaints that came with that trailer is essentially what you and I kind of argue for and against, uh, in this show is that if you are just translating something beat for beat moment for moment, colorful color, pixel for pixel in your adaptation, then what the fuck is the point of the adaptation?
Speaker: What, yeah, what are you doing?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Everything from story points to design.
Speaker: You have to play with it.
Speaker: If you're going to cover a song and make it sound exactly like Blur's song 2, then why don't I just listen to Blur's song 2?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like, you know, if you're if you're Madonna, of course you're going to adapt American Pie and change the lyrics and cut out some verses because, you know, otherwise I'm just going to go listen to the Don McLean version.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I probably will never do again in my life because I don't want to.
Speaker: I think what Kevin is getting at that we can all agree with is that American Pie is a bad song and you should not listen to it.
Speaker: It's a saccharine song.
Speaker: About an era of music that was like 12 years long.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's how long the song feels.
Speaker: And that's how long the song feels.
Speaker: But anyway, back to Halo.
Speaker: And is Don McLean still alive?
Speaker: I can't remember.
Speaker: I think he died recently.
Speaker: Oh, OK.
Speaker: Rip.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: No, he's still alive.
Speaker: He's still alive.
Speaker: Unrip.
Speaker: He's 76.
Speaker: Unrip.
Speaker: He's only 76.
Speaker: Dude sounded like he was 76 when he made American Pie.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He looks about the same.
Speaker: He's singing about Big Bopper in that song.
Speaker: and Buddy Holly and Buddy Holly and people who died in that plane yeah it was the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly and Richie Valens I want to say if I'm pulling my that my music trivia out of the back of my head that's the day the music died Valens did La Bamba right yeah yeah he did okay then yeah
Speaker: It was a good song.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We used to have a guy at our karaoke bar who would every night, almost every night, it felt like he'd get off his shift, his little Mexican dude.
Speaker: And he would put that in when there were inevitably, when there was like 15 minutes left till the bar closed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he would sing it at the top of his lungs and everyone fucking loved him for it.
Speaker: So that is amazing.
Speaker: Anybody else, you come in 15 minutes before closing and you want to sing your song, we're going to tell you to go fuck yourself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That guy, we were like, yep, get him up there.
Speaker: So you didn't have like a sweaty guy in a white suit plantation owner roll in there and try to sing Big Bopper's Chantilly Lace?
Speaker: We did not.
Speaker: Well, you know what?
Speaker: Not as frequently as you'd think.
Speaker: Let me put it up.
Speaker: A Chantilly at least and a pretty.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That song.
Speaker: That song.
Speaker: Now here's a question.
Speaker: Here's a question.
Speaker: You guys, you guys listening, let us know.
Speaker: Would you, would you want a bonus episode or series of bonus episodes where we talked about the Halo TV show?
Speaker: Yeah, let us know in the comments.
Speaker: Or the Uncharted movie.
Speaker: Or, yeah, any movie adaptations, movie and television adaptations of video games.
Speaker: Let us know in the comments below.
Speaker: There are no comments just on podcasts, so just tweet at us.
Speaker: Find us and, yeah, shout at us.
Speaker: We'll probably put up a poll or something on Twitter, too, just to make it official.
Speaker: But if you're not going to listen, we're not going to put all the work in.
Speaker: We're not going to put them out.
Speaker: no not gonna do it not oh the resident evil movie that came out a couple months ago oh yeah there's a lot of there's a lot of things there's stuff happening gotta get get cracking speaking of getting cracking chapter 11. uh so remember that scene from the game where halo teleport where halo teleports master chief teleports what's
Speaker: We're Halo.
Speaker: Halo, the main character of Halo, teleports in and says, I'm Halo and I am here to chew bubblegum and kick some ass.
Speaker: And I am all out of ass.
Speaker: It's Lieutenant Halo.
Speaker: Lieutenant Halo.
Speaker: He's here to kick some ass.
Speaker: Lieutenant John Halo.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He teleports in upside down and in the game, it's like, that's why like anybody, when you get, when you take the like adaptations way too seriously with Halo, the Halo, the video game has a literal moment where Cortana teleports Master Chief into a room upside down and it's played for a pratfall at the emotional, like in the emotional climax of the game.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: It is it is the no, you said it best, the emotional climax of the game.
Speaker: And we've got this fucking Laurel and Hardy bit.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Good God.
Speaker: So yeah, womp womp, I guess.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: I love it in the game.
Speaker: It's great.
Speaker: But, you know, that's just a shout out to the Cortana's not blue enough boys out there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Let's not take ourselves that seriously, gentlemen.
Speaker: Our hobby is sitting in front of a screen and pretending to be a Marine.
Speaker: Not even actually being one.
Speaker: Let's all settle down.
Speaker: Let's simmer down.
Speaker: So he falls in literally and not like the military way of falling in.
Speaker: And
Speaker: He hears basically shit has hit the fan.
Speaker: The Covenant has lost any semblance of control over the situation.
Speaker: They're getting attacked and flooded from all angles.
Speaker: Literally.
Speaker: Literally by the flood.
Speaker: And basically he starts hearing Keyes' voice over the comm system.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And Keyes is telling him not to...
Speaker: Basically, don't don't do it.
Speaker: Don't just say me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The gist.
Speaker: I mean, the covenant is basically terrified.
Speaker: The flood is going to completely take over the truth and reconciliation and use it to escape Halo and spread somewhere else.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And keys at this point is, you know, he he's pretty sure that's kind of a lost cause and doesn't want.
Speaker: to risk the loss of the entire Spartan project right there, uh, for his sake.
Speaker: And, and naturally, uh, master chief and Cortana, uh, think this over and ignore him.
Speaker: Ignore the shit out of him.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Uh, and we get a brief cut to inside of keys, his head.
Speaker: And basically he's only surviving by repeating his name, rank, and serial number.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which is, that was a thing that you saw a lot in TV and movies and stuff back in the eighties and nineties.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, that was, that was something that I, someone found out about that, that when you're taken prisoner, uh, the only info you're supposed to give.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I feel like that spread like wildfire throughout Hollywood.
Speaker: Oh man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Hollywood movies and add up and anything written about military since then.
Speaker: Love that shit.
Speaker: Name rank and serial number.
Speaker: Yeah, they ate it up.
Speaker: And so I think we're getting a... Dietz is taking a note from that 20-year-old book.
Speaker: But yeah, so they get into a fight with Flood and basically plunge into a giant pool of liquid coolant.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's outside of the ship through a hole in the ship.
Speaker: And anyone who's played the game remembers this.
Speaker: You go into the ship to go out of the ship to go into the ship.
Speaker: And it's a lot of fun and a really weird setting for the game.
Speaker: And in the book, it kind of just feels confusing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's it's I don't know.
Speaker: I'm not sure if it's a matter of setting being the issue or a matter of the writing just isn't clear enough about what's happening.
Speaker: I know what's happening because that's what's that's the game like.
Speaker: But it just it's a really weird scene to read.
Speaker: But he does.
Speaker: You do exactly what the in the book.
Speaker: It's exactly what you do in the game.
Speaker: It's you drop out.
Speaker: You're in the coolant.
Speaker: You fight through until you get back to the gravity lift.
Speaker: for the truth and reconciliation.
Speaker: And then Master Chief rides that gravity lift back up in.
Speaker: And from here on out, it gets very beat for beat for what you if you've played the game, you've read the rest of this book.
Speaker: For the most part.
Speaker: We have some additional scenes in here that are non-Master Chief related.
Speaker: We're down to what?
Speaker: How many pages?
Speaker: 50 pages at this point?
Speaker: No, even less than that.
Speaker: I think it's 50.
Speaker: 50-ish.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we get little snippets of things.
Speaker: And at the end of this, like he's finding the gravity lift back into the ship.
Speaker: And this is a moment that I mentioned before, where he sees this group of covenant essentially taking a last stand against the flood.
Speaker: And it literally says that he feels a kinship with them, which I thought was really interesting because we've talked about how in the fall of reach, we obviously it's mostly in the head of Master Chief.
Speaker: That's the right thing.
Speaker: And we're missing out on that, you know, the world revolving around Master Chief here.
Speaker: We don't quite have that.
Speaker: So I thought that was nice because it was it was finally a moment of of Master Chief.
Speaker: Actually, it was the Master Chief.
Speaker: I feel like I remembered from the right, right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It wasn't it wasn't so cut and dry.
Speaker: It wasn't so Captain America.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, you know, these I know how that feels.
Speaker: He was sympathizing with it.
Speaker: He was sympathizing.
Speaker: And I think that's any time they do any time they fold in something that reduces the other ring of the covenant.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: It makes the story a little bit more interesting.
Speaker: Because to me, just like the the the name, like a force known as the Covenant, which in its completely unknowable alien race that just kills and destroys.
Speaker: It's not a super compelling antagonist.
Speaker: Especially not in a book.
Speaker: Especially not in a book.
Speaker: In a game, you can make the faceless interesting because you are literally the one pulling the trigger to fight them.
Speaker: But in a book, it's going to get really samey really fast, as it has already in this book.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they're and they're still trying to see it from their point of view.
Speaker: But the battle scenes are very samey, very.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just imagine, like, if you had the most recent Doom game and you took that and you turned that into a novel.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let's just say, let's just say, for example, you took that and you turn that into a novel where you have this Doom Slayer who is basically there's a lot of there's a lot of weird and interesting lore behind those two new game games with like angels and demons and what have you.
Speaker: I don't even remember it, but it gets really weird.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But the plot of the Doom game, if you just tried to put that, the first one, Doom 2016 into a novel, what would you write?
Speaker: Because Doom, the Doom Slayer says nothing.
Speaker: And there's only a few moments where you have speaking lines from Dr. Hayden.
Speaker: Dr. Samuel Hayden or Satan.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Or the other, the big bad lady who gets turned into a giant spider.
Speaker: It's true, though.
Speaker: Like, in order, oh, excuse me.
Speaker: Excuse me.
Speaker: In order, see, this is why I'm drinking the sparkling water with caffeine in it.
Speaker: Oh, you got a little zip.
Speaker: It's going to kick in as soon as we're done with the episode.
Speaker: not gonna be able to go to sleep no man um i'm nearly 40 years old i shouldn't be doing this uh but but yeah uh let's here let's workshop that a minute because i feel like if you're gonna make a doom book nowadays doom guy cannot be the protagonist no he's gotta be like this background kind of character yeah i feel like i feel like you could make a really cool anthology of like doom stories where there are all these like
Speaker: scientists and workers and just like what was the series they did for Star Wars like was it called from a different point of view or something like that oh I didn't I don't think I read that it's this it's hold on I'm going to look this up okay because it was this it was this anthology of stories um
Speaker: From a certain point of view.
Speaker: And it's this, they've got it for Star Wars and for Empire at very least.
Speaker: They might have for Jedi, I'm not sure.
Speaker: But the whole idea is that they take that story that we all know a billion times over and they tell different pieces of it from unexpected POVs.
Speaker: And I feel like you could do that with Doom.
Speaker: Like that could be a good book where you've got workers and even like cultists and, you know,
Speaker: hellbound creatures and shit like that but you couldn't tell it from you're right you couldn't tell it from the point of view of Doomguy yeah you could do that maybe for a graphic novel where something very extremely visual you could I think and you know it's just really an excuse to draw some rad and gory art you know
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Which, look, let's face it, people.
Speaker: We don't have time for that.
Speaker: We're adults.
Speaker: We're adults.
Speaker: And I would like that.
Speaker: I would love that.
Speaker: I would love that.
Speaker: But, you know, that being said, yeah, I agree.
Speaker: You know, it's almost like for a while they were tossing about for the MCU or they were tossing about this TV series called Damage Control, which is literally just about the people who clean up after superheroes.
Speaker: So that's like a point of view in some of these stories where you don't have a real interesting protagonist where you can tell the story from a point of view of somebody who has to clean up after them.
Speaker: Oh, you see, that would be fun.
Speaker: That would be fun.
Speaker: That could be fun.
Speaker: There's a video game like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But we're not talking about Doom.
Speaker: We're talking about Halo.
Speaker: We're talking about Halo.
Speaker: So Lieutenant Halo.
Speaker: Lieutenant Halo fights against the Halo monster.
Speaker: The Halo monster.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, we're actually back with McKay.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: What is McKay doing?
Speaker: McKay is like watching basically sees the flood.
Speaker: Basically, this whole section is McKay witnessing the flood.
Speaker: using like they're they've got they've taken over covenant bodies and they're using the covenant plasma weapons in an attempt to cut through that great that's the only thing that's keeping them and here's the thing they describe it as a great but uh i i i guess like it's more than you know when i hear great i'm thinking like the thing that's holding my my uh
Speaker: air conditioning filter and you in place, you know, I guess it's more than that because they, they have a whole group of covenant, you know, uh, hypnot, hypnotized, but like zombified, unified covenant guys with plasma weapons, trying to blow open this great and it's taking some doing.
Speaker: So I guess it's a little more reinforced
Speaker: and all that.
Speaker: And this is the start of McKay's plan to basically stop that from happening.
Speaker: She's putting together a team that will basically slow down the flood onslaught down below by sealing the tunnels off.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But before we get to that, we get back to our favorite character and his stupid boss.
Speaker: Stupid fucking boss.
Speaker: Stupid fucking boss.
Speaker: We got Yayaap.
Speaker: and zuka so good they're back they're inside the pillar of autumn um and yeah he's uh zammi has now taken uh he's committed identity fraud right right that was his whole plan get somebody social that's so fucking funny
Speaker: So he just commits identity fraud and now they're they're back inside the Pillar of Autumn and they're just they're just working on like they're just back in there.
Speaker: But unfortunately, the flood has started to attack the Pillar of Autumn while they're doing going around and doing their their their rounds.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And and Yaya happens upon a group of jackals.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Are yeah.
Speaker: Loading up.
Speaker: They've got these cargo loaders that are supposed to get on there and he's trying to get them to stop to be safe.
Speaker: To actually check the cargo as it's coming into the ship.
Speaker: And the jackals are like, that's dumb.
Speaker: And he's like, no, just do it.
Speaker: And they're like, fine.
Speaker: So they're checking the cargo and it's like, this one's clear.
Speaker: This one's clear.
Speaker: And they're looking at Yaya like if these are all clear and we waste our time, we're going to eat you.
Speaker: They don't necessarily say that, but that's the subtext.
Speaker: I think it's implied.
Speaker: It's implied.
Speaker: And then finally they get to a case and they, one of the jackals opens one up and whoops, there's flood monsters all up in the cargo.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: Who'd have thunk it?
Speaker: So, uh, they, way to go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Way to go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, you know, he, he puts his finger in the hole in the dam for, uh,
Speaker: the time being like the hero we didn't know that we needed like just coming through here uh but yeah but so they're the flood everyone's everyone's fucked right now like everyone is being attacked on all sides by the flood and this is just kind of another demonstration of that right yeah um and uh basically what ends up what ends up happening is the um the jackals make him an honorary jackal
Speaker: You're cool with us, chief.
Speaker: Things are looking up for Yaya.
Speaker: Yeah, he's working his way up.
Speaker: It's kind of amazing.
Speaker: Like, he doesn't even fucking need.
Speaker: He doesn't even fucking need his old boss's, you know, shitty job.
Speaker: He's doing fine on his own, making friends and making friends, influencing people.
Speaker: You know, he is Dale Carnegie his way right to the top.
Speaker: You say a jackal's name and it's it's it's their favorite word.
Speaker: It's their favorite word.
Speaker: A jackal's name is their favorite is their favorite word.
Speaker: I love this opening sentence because it sounds like it should be read by the dude who does the voiceover for Darkest Dungeon.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Do it.
Speaker: You have a lower voice than I do.
Speaker: You gotta do it.
Speaker: A full company of heavily armed Marines waited as torches cut through the metal grating.
Speaker: Sparks fell into the Stygian blackness below, and each man or woman considered what awaited them.
Speaker: Very nice.
Speaker: Very nice.
Speaker: You remember our estate.
Speaker: God, now we have to play that game again.
Speaker: I backed I backed the darkest dungeon board game and I'm dying because they're sending like they're late, obviously, which is fine, but they're sending all these pictures of all the beautiful minis and I can't wait to paint them.
Speaker: And I'm dying inside, Kevin, because I'm almost done with the HeroQuest minis.
Speaker: Oh, so they're they're paintable minis.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: Any mini is a paintable mini, Kevin.
Speaker: You just got to want it.
Speaker: You just got to want it.
Speaker: Even if it already has.
Speaker: Even if it already has paint on it, you can always repaint it, baby.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And you should.
Speaker: Let's face facts.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: This is the line.
Speaker: You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial.
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: That line lives Renfri in my head.
Speaker: It's a good line.
Speaker: It's such a good line.
Speaker: Everything said by Wayne June.
Speaker: Wayne June.
Speaker: Yeah, that's his name.
Speaker: Oh, it's so good.
Speaker: Would they survive or leave their bones in the bottom of the hole?
Speaker: There was no way to know.
Speaker: It's so good.
Speaker: See, yeah, if we could get Wayne June to just narrate all of the books that we already- You use a word like Stygian and I'm in Wayne June mode.
Speaker: Use a word, Stygian, Eldritch.
Speaker: Stygian and Eldritch.
Speaker: And, oh, what's the word that means just before the flood?
Speaker: Oh, antediluvian.
Speaker: Antediluvian.
Speaker: Stygian, Antediluvian and Eldritch.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: You've hit the trifecta.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: That's all you need.
Speaker: Oh, gosh.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: And Antediluvian would have no meaning here, but it's.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You'd get some kind of lore nerd coming out of the woodwork and be like, OK, well, that clearly refers to it.
Speaker: And you're like, got it.
Speaker: Got it.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: We're fine.
Speaker: Everything's fine.
Speaker: Everything's fine here.
Speaker: How are you?
Speaker: How are you?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So, yeah, we've cut back to the Marines that basically we get a little more information.
Speaker: The deal is that they have got to.
Speaker: Oh, wait, Mike skipping ahead.
Speaker: No, I am skipping out.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: They are looking down into the hole.
Speaker: Yes, they're looking down in the hole and Silva is starting to recognize that McKay is about ready to snap.
Speaker: She is like, Silva, we're going to start seeing a new side of Silva, which is kind of surprising to me, and I'll ask you about it as we get further into it.
Speaker: But McKay, he sees that she's seen so many Marines die.
Speaker: She is on her way to just like
Speaker: the thickest PTSD burger you've ever seen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, with all the trimmings.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And he, he knows that.
Speaker: And so he, he's basically determined that she needs hope.
Speaker: She needs something to fight for.
Speaker: And, uh, and so he kind of gives her this speech about how they're going to be going home after all of this.
Speaker: And he tells her master chief's plans and says that, uh, and tells her that he's planning on stealing the truth and reconciliation.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: You know, that they can they can take over this alien ship and ride it back to Earth.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like heroes.
Speaker: And it kind of has the opposite effect intended because McKay hears a lot of glory in what he's talking about.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We do see a lot of this.
Speaker: Silva suddenly becomes this real glory hound.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Did I miss something?
Speaker: I don't remember him being like that.
Speaker: It really, it's a bit of a sudden shift in tone.
Speaker: I feel like there's a deleted chapter or section somewhere in here where that would have tied earlier Silva to later Silva together a little bit more nicely.
Speaker: But it did feel a little out of left field where he was like starting to do the the whole pomp and circumstance and glory stuff.
Speaker: And we're going to see a lot of that kind of thing, too, as it goes on.
Speaker: And it's it's weird.
Speaker: I don't I remember I know Silva is like really proud of the Marines.
Speaker: I know him as a.
Speaker: you know, kind of a little defensive on the Marines versus the, you know, the Majolnir project, uh, but I don't, but I never got any hints that he was a glory hound.
Speaker: So this kind of, this heel turn kind of, um, yeah, I don't know if I bought it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's a little.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a little weird.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So and that's that's when we get to what I was talking about before.
Speaker: Basically, the gist of what they have to do is they got to seal these four holes underground that lead to alpha based in order to stop the flood from getting to them.
Speaker: And
Speaker: And so they use this.
Speaker: It's really kind of primitive.
Speaker: It's hilarious.
Speaker: We use this winch pulley system, basically with a bunch of Marines on top of this kind of crank elevator sort of set up.
Speaker: They make for themselves and they sit a bunch of Marines on top of it and lower themselves down, trying to stay out of the range of the flood, which is right underneath them.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And, you know, they get they get a few casualties, but pretty quickly they realize all they need to do is throw down
Speaker: A bunch of grenades blow it up and they're good to go.
Speaker: But everything and they get everybody back up and the shaft is sealed.
Speaker: And they're and they're like McKay's like, well, that'll hold them for like a day.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: it's yeah he even he knows he's like yeah okay yeah sure fine this will probably work well great uh then master chief uh we got cut back to master chief and he is inside the ship now shit's chaos um he's they're in the they're in a um
Speaker: They go into a shuttle bay and he gets another voice of of of Captain Keyes into his head saying, I gave you an order, soldier.
Speaker: Now pull out.
Speaker: And then you cut to that same thought from the key from Mickey from story by Robert McKee from Keyes.
Speaker: from Gies's point of view, um, where he is, um, he is, have, it's basically his final moments of being able to hold off, uh, whatever is in his brain.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And then we cut back again to Master Chief and he is just he is just hacking his way.
Speaker: He could use a chainsaw right about now.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, if you want to get back to Doom again, like he could really it would be really nice to have a chainsaw, a chain blade, chain axe, anything with a chain.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It'd be a good start.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he's just firing through and basically Cortana is urging him on like, Captain's vitals are fading.
Speaker: We got to keep moving.
Speaker: And they get to the... And in the game, it's kind of like a stunning moment because... And it feels a little stunning in the book too.
Speaker: You get to the...
Speaker: the command deck and there's basically just this giant fleshy blob uh yeah on the command deck uh near the navigation station and it's like ah there's this thing and then you realize that it's keys yes yes they see it they start the first thing he's like when master chief sees it it's he recognizes it as like a new form of flood yeah
Speaker: You know, like it's like, oh, no, that's actually my old boss.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they never say I don't think they ever say it outright, but I am assuming that this form of the flood specifically because of Keyes's position as a captain is a type of flood that would control a ship.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's like that would be like the navigational form or whatever.
Speaker: That makes sense.
Speaker: That was my little headcanon anyway.
Speaker: I think I interpreted it as because he was so stubborn every time like like one layer of flood was trying to steal his thoughts and memories.
Speaker: And then it's like dipping a candle.
Speaker: Like, like it was just building up and building up because it needed as much of its communal power.
Speaker: Making him more blobby and thingy every time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because it took all that flood power to, to get into his brain basically.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But, but, but actually I think I like your idea better.
Speaker: Like the idea that.
Speaker: Because, you know, the Flood's got all these different biomorph shapes for different roles.
Speaker: And if they're able to captain a ship, I mean, they would have their own form for that, too.
Speaker: So that actually that makes I think that makes more sense.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the and then by the way, Keyes is dead.
Speaker: Keyes is dead.
Speaker: Keyes is lost in all this.
Speaker: Keyes is dead.
Speaker: There's nothing left of Keyes but for the chip that that Master Chief needs.
Speaker: So what does he do?
Speaker: Does he just gently remove it?
Speaker: No, he punches his his he punches his hand through Keyes's face into the brain and pulls the chip out.
Speaker: It's so unnecessary.
Speaker: It's so like in the, if you play the anniversary edition, so in the, in the original version, it's like, ew, but in the anniversary edition, it's like even more because it's like clearly keys his face and then Master Chief goes,
Speaker: It is pretty.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: It is pretty goddamn gruesome in the it is extra gruesome.
Speaker: He's just like, yeah, into the gray matter.
Speaker: And, you know, gets he gets the he gets the gets the chip, gets the chip, gets the chip, gets the chip, and it makes it, you know, fights.
Speaker: Yeah, fights more flood.
Speaker: And then they make a point of
Speaker: in his head, pointing out that Master Chief is basically just numb at this point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which, you know what?
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: Welcome to the party, John.
Speaker: Everybody else has been numb for a few days, and you're just getting numb.
Speaker: Okay, buddy.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Just now.
Speaker: Okay, sure.
Speaker: For long story short, they find a banshee and escape in the banshee.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They find a banshee and off they go.
Speaker: And he's flying around with the banshee.
Speaker: And then there's there's a it's another bit that's kind of played for laughs in the game where Master Chief crashes the Banshee on Banshee onto the side of the Pillar of Autumn and like jumps out.
Speaker: And and Cortana is is kind of grumbly about that.
Speaker: But from here on out, Chief is basically just running through the Pillar of Autumn, much in the same way that you do in the game.
Speaker: He is running through, he gets up to the bridge,
Speaker: And wouldn't you know it, there is, there's Mr. 343 Guilty Spark to really ruin the parade.
Speaker: He's back.
Speaker: He's flown all, well I guess he teleports, he could just teleport there.
Speaker: I guess he can teleport, yeah, sure.
Speaker: Yeah, sure.
Speaker: Why not?
Speaker: Fuck it.
Speaker: So, yeah, there's like basically he gets there.
Speaker: The the switch on the bridge that would have allowed them to set the detonation timer has been deactivated by Guilty Spark.
Speaker: So now Chief and Cortana have to go down to the engine room in order to manually do it manually and make it happen.
Speaker: What's the what's the tool that they're going to use to manually shut down these these shields?
Speaker: Kevin, do you recall?
Speaker: uh a well-placed grenade perhaps grenade well we just gotta get down there and shut it shut it down throw a grenade in there we're a couple of surgeons in here don't you worry
Speaker: Surgery with a shotgun.
Speaker: Yeah, we're going to use every part of the buffalo.
Speaker: Don't you worry.
Speaker: You got you got grenades, frag, plasma, rockets, whatever you got.
Speaker: Variety is the spice of life, my friends.
Speaker: So now there's Sentinels in the whole mess and they're they're chasing after Chief and well, Cortana.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nature of that.
Speaker: You feel worse for Cortana than for Chief because she really doesn't have any say.
Speaker: No, she's just along for the ride in many ways.
Speaker: I did kind of feel bad for her because it's literally, I think the first time in the history of Cortana so far where she kind of outright does not know what to do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's like, don't look at me.
Speaker: Don't look at me.
Speaker: And meanwhile, Master Silva's like, we were about to start our assaults on the Covenant ship, the truth, and reconciliation.
Speaker: And they have a very specific plan, and they are going to take it.
Speaker: And they got 236 leathernecks, and they got 76 naval personnel, and they got plasma rifles, and they are lined up raring to go, and this is Silva's coup de grace.
Speaker: This is his...
Speaker: This is his piece de resistance.
Speaker: This is the thing that gets him promoted to to Colonel.
Speaker: You know, this is what he wants to do.
Speaker: He's thinking of ticker tape parades when they get home.
Speaker: He's thinking he is thinking way too far into the future.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and Wesley points out that there is flood on board the truth and reconciliation.
Speaker: It's too dangerous for the sake of earth.
Speaker: And, and, and Silva points out, well, that's, we're going to kill them.
Speaker: We're killing them right now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the ones that we don't kill, we want to, we want to study them anyway, which
Speaker: Has he not seen or read any Xenomorph fiction?
Speaker: Clearly not.
Speaker: I mean, it's never how it works.
Speaker: The, the alien franchise does exist within the halo universe.
Speaker: There's no, there's nothing that says it doesn't.
Speaker: So this is why you need culture people.
Speaker: This is why you need to pay attention.
Speaker: Stop looking at wet eggs.
Speaker: People just stop, just stop.
Speaker: And certainly don't lean forward in.
Speaker: Do not.
Speaker: Swinting your eyes.
Speaker: Stare at the eggs.
Speaker: Don't even stare at chicken eggs.
Speaker: You know, you take them out, you crack them open, like make it a quick transaction.
Speaker: Don't linger.
Speaker: Just be safe.
Speaker: Just be safe.
Speaker: Because if you start staring at that and that thing starts hatching, you're going to lose your mind.
Speaker: You're going to.
Speaker: Yeah, it's you're gone.
Speaker: You're gone.
Speaker: Whatever.
Speaker: One way.
Speaker: Whatever comes out.
Speaker: You're not.
Speaker: You're either eaten or snapped in the brain.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We do get a moment.
Speaker: This is a good line where, you know, Wellesley is debating the whole situation with Silva.
Speaker: Wellesley considered taking the debate one step further by pointing out that Silva's ambitions might well have clouded his judgment, but knew it would be a waste of time.
Speaker: That's your final decision.
Speaker: Yes, it is.
Speaker: Then God help you.
Speaker: The AI replied gravely, because if your plan fails, no one else will have the power to do so.
Speaker: Which is damn shots fired.
Speaker: Wellesley damn Wellesley.
Speaker: But that brings me back to my point before it just this still feels like a very abrupt turn for Silva.
Speaker: You know what this is?
Speaker: This is a this is a Daenerys turn.
Speaker: This is oh, yeah, this is a Daenerys turn.
Speaker: Basically, I already I already forced that out of my head.
Speaker: Yeah, but basically it's like we have this character that's one way, but for the sake of plot to be better if they were this way instead.
Speaker: And it's you know, you you hear George R.R.
Speaker: Martin later say like, yeah, I went to HBO and Benny Offenweiss and I was like, hey, you know, this needs this show should be like three more seasons and much longer seasons than you're giving it in order to do what's planned.
Speaker: And they're like, nah, it's fine.
Speaker: And it wasn't.
Speaker: We're producers.
Speaker: I think we know what we're talking about.
Speaker: I think we know what we're talking about.
Speaker: And what they were talking about was they were just wanted to wrap Game of Thrones up so they could move on to Star Wars.
Speaker: And then they didn't.
Speaker: They lost the Star Wars thing because of how bad Game of Thrones was.
Speaker: And, you know, sometimes there is justice in the world.
Speaker: Sometimes.
Speaker: Sometimes.
Speaker: But yeah, so we've got so Silva is lining himself up for a real nasty fall from grace here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And everyone seems to know it but him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, he's really patting himself on the back at this point.
Speaker: So then we... Come back to the Pillar of Autumn.
Speaker: We're back on the Pillar of Autumn.
Speaker: And let's see.
Speaker: Oh, we got our elite friend is just dealing with stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he they know that Master Chief is on board.
Speaker: So it's it's kind of it's like basically there's the flood that that is in one part of the ship and the covenant is still on the ship.
Speaker: Like dealing with the flood.
Speaker: But now they know that this human is and also not just the Master Chief, but Guilty Spark is on board.
Speaker: And then there's these Sentinels now that they have to contend with.
Speaker: So it's like four different, like just four different enemies.
Speaker: There's so many factions fighting each other.
Speaker: There's the Sentinels.
Speaker: There's the Covenant.
Speaker: There's the Flood.
Speaker: And then there's Master Chief, which even though he's one person, he's a faction unto himself.
Speaker: I mean, let's face facts.
Speaker: Yeah, that is absolutely true.
Speaker: And then basically Zama me Danny Zuko volunteers for the mission to hunt down Master Chief on board the ship and and kill him.
Speaker: Which I don't know.
Speaker: He kind of volunteers in the sense of the word.
Speaker: He just basically goes, yeah, I'm going to take him out and leaves.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they're like, yeah, fine.
Speaker: He's literally saying over his shoulder.
Speaker: As you walk in here.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm going to take care of it as he leaves.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He'll be like, yeah, that's fine, whatever.
Speaker: We're going to take care of the flying robots.
Speaker: That seems fair.
Speaker: That seems fair.
Speaker: The flying robots that can cut through us like butter.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Well, we'll go with those ones.
Speaker: You you go off and do whatever it is you do.
Speaker: We jump back to Master Chief and he is he is making his way, making his way downtown.
Speaker: He's making his way down to the the engine room.
Speaker: And he has to cut through the cryo chamber and all that stuff.
Speaker: There's hunters.
Speaker: There's sentinels.
Speaker: All the gang is there.
Speaker: Yeah, there's just there's some weapons porn mixed in there.
Speaker: True.
Speaker: And he has this brief moment where, like, he's he's seeing these hunters and he seems concerned that he doesn't have a rocket.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: or anything like that with them.
Speaker: And it's like, when the fuck has that stopped you?
Speaker: When has it stopped you?
Speaker: You have literally just unloaded a clip in their back every now and then it works like a lot armored your way through plenty of hunters.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Let's not let's not.
Speaker: What do you what are you chewing on?
Speaker: Stop it.
Speaker: You is the dog chewing on something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's a dog.
Speaker: They chew things.
Speaker: He's a dog.
Speaker: They chew things.
Speaker: I like plastic.
Speaker: Our cats like plastic.
Speaker: Yeah, he likes anything that was at one point in the trash can.
Speaker: Ah, yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: That's a very specific.
Speaker: It's a very specific bouquet for his canine nose is is is the is the trash.
Speaker: Trash wine is is is what he is, what we call it when we get some some a lot of those juices that just stuff and they kind of just moisten together.
Speaker: Just fermented enough.
Speaker: Just fermented enough.
Speaker: And then they get sucked up into like a paper towel that gets thrown in there.
Speaker: So there's just this damp paper towel of like marinara and bubbly water and whatever.
Speaker: Just splooged in there.
Speaker: And then at some point, he'll try to get into the trash can.
Speaker: Or when I'm changing the trash bag, if I put it down for a second, he'll dive in.
Speaker: And and try to get that.
Speaker: And then he consumes it.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: And he doesn't consume in one spot.
Speaker: He consumes it all over the house.
Speaker: So there's just pieces and shreddings of of of paper towel that has absorbed various food products that have been sitting in the trash can.
Speaker: You just gotta really find out if this is going to taste better in a different room.
Speaker: Because if you don't, then you feel like you've missed out on something.
Speaker: You really haven't put in the effort, is his thought process.
Speaker: But we do call him a trash dog.
Speaker: I mean, he earned the nickname honestly.
Speaker: He's like, you trash puppy.
Speaker: What the fuck?
Speaker: Representing our family out there.
Speaker: We get a Cortana point of view chapter inside the head of Master Chief.
Speaker: Well, it's actually both Cortana and Master Chief.
Speaker: The point of view kind of switches back and forth.
Speaker: It feels like it does.
Speaker: It pops back and forth, which I'll allow it because they're both in the same brain, more or less.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That's only fair.
Speaker: it's only fair it's only rain you can share a second you can share a section um but they they get into the engine room and um and guilty spark is is floating around um and you know alert you know we gotta we gotta shit's going down in the engine room sentinels uh come on get in here so like the sentinels are in the flood are flooding in and um
Speaker: Yeah, and basically a face hugger tries to eat his face.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, and like tries to...
Speaker: it jumps and basically almost takes him out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then, by the way, the Marines take the truth, truth and reconciliation with ease.
Speaker: They get in there.
Speaker: They clear out the covenant.
Speaker: They got the ship.
Speaker: It's their ship now.
Speaker: And Silva is pleased as punch.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: because they basically eliminate the elites.
Speaker: But basically the last line of the section is the humans had taken the ship, but they had taken something else as well, something that could kill every single one of them.
Speaker: And that is Jenkins.
Speaker: They brought Jenkins on board the ship with them because that sounds like a great idea.
Speaker: Which is just so smart.
Speaker: Yeah, and he's like,
Speaker: He literally can smell the flood coming and that kind of thing.
Speaker: And I don't know, man.
Speaker: I don't know if Jenkins is exactly shown that he's trustworthy enough to bring on.
Speaker: He broke his arm off and tried to use the exposed bone to stab McKay at one point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But other than that, I don't feel like I trust him very much.
Speaker: My God.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know what they're thinking with this one.
Speaker: Like it, it, it's look, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta, you know, go out on a limb here and really try.
Speaker: We're really desperate, but I don't know if I'm going to be this desperate to bring up zombie along with me to the party.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So basically Zamami and Yayap are in go into the communications center and basically Zamami is like just sit here and listen to the radio you know while daddy takes care of a few things.
Speaker: Right because he still needs Yayap to like handle his communications basically.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And Yayap sits down and he's like
Speaker: Yeah, this is probably not going to go well.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Once again, Yaya proves to be the smartest guy in the world.
Speaker: Meanwhile, in the engine room, Master Chief, you know, things are things are wrapping up quickly now.
Speaker: Master Chief fights off the infection form that tried to eat his face.
Speaker: Luckily, he has a helmet on and that is not a problem.
Speaker: And that's something that I would recommend for anybody who is interested in looking at wet eggs.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Face stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he he basically he he does the thing that you do in the game.
Speaker: You go up to the switch, you throw the switch, the the shields, the shield retracts for the part of the engine.
Speaker: You throw a grenade or launch a rocket, depending on what you have.
Speaker: When the things are open, it blows up.
Speaker: And then you got to do that three more times.
Speaker: It's a rinse and repeat scenario.
Speaker: um and this section ends with one down and three to go so because it's going to be the same thing as before we're gonna we're gonna deal with that level of padding again um uh and so the truth and reconciliation we're back on the truth and reconciliation um and now it's it's silva is uh
Speaker: He's really happy with himself.
Speaker: He's trying to get away from Halo ASAP.
Speaker: Like like he doesn't he's not they're clearly not like really doing a ton of like, I don't know, checking for shit like they're just he's just ready to go.
Speaker: He's just ready to roll.
Speaker: And let's see.
Speaker: And we get a little kind of throwaway thing that they've captured what they call a prophet.
Speaker: One of the lead covenants, psychic bugs, so to speak.
Speaker: And then we get this moment
Speaker: between McKay and this naval officer.
Speaker: And as we pointed out before, the naval officers are kind of like they're being really closely guarded because they have specific skills that nobody else can do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like flying a ship.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So this naval officer points out to McKay this access point that leads that links to the control room
Speaker: to the engine that links the control room to the engines.
Speaker: And basically she's, she points out to McKay that, you know, this area, this needs a guard.
Speaker: Uh, this needs to be guarded because it could screw everything up.
Speaker: If they, if, if it gets damaged or blown up, it will, it will ignite the whole ship.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The power plants will run wild.
Speaker: If, if you break this cable right here,
Speaker: foreshadowing foreshadowing and um yeah and uh then mckay says oh what is that gun up on the mantelpiece yeah check off i hardly know the man uh and tov check off uh anton check off leans in and goes ah
Speaker: You like this?
Speaker: Uh, so the flood attacks the engine room and it's enough to basically make Jenkins just lose his ship.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Um, so basically it, it, it, it makes it clear, uh, to everyone that the ship is still infected with flood, but silver really
Speaker: doesn't care.
Speaker: He's insistent.
Speaker: He basically has the engine, the ship push off, and basically the vibration of the ship pushing off causes the flood to attack.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: It follows the vibrations.
Speaker: So basically, yeah.
Speaker: So and in this moment, McKay basically makes the call that that Silva would never make.
Speaker: It's a big call to make.
Speaker: But having just been told that, oh, if you do this thing here, it's going to blow up the whole ship.
Speaker: knowing that the flood is attacking the ship and knowing that if a single flood got back to Earth, it would destroy Earth.
Speaker: She severs the thing and basically...
Speaker: So, so what ends up happening?
Speaker: So last couple paragraphs here.
Speaker: Silva was too many decks removed to feel the explosion or to hear the muffled thump, but was able to witness the result firsthand.
Speaker: Someone yelled, the controls are gone.
Speaker: The deck tilted as the truth and reconciliation did a nose over.
Speaker: And Wellesley made one last comment.
Speaker: You taught her well, Major.
Speaker: Of that, you can be proud.
Speaker: The bow, then the bow struck.
Speaker: A series of explosions rippled the length of the hull and the ship, as well as those aboard her, ceased to exist.
Speaker: And that's a wrap on McKay, Silva, Wellesley, Jenkins, literally every Marine and Naval officer left on Halo.
Speaker: They're gone.
Speaker: Oof.
Speaker: Oof.
Speaker: Which here's the thing we all under, you know, as a reader, you look at it and go, okay, bless you.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: You understand why McKay does what she does, but I can't help but feel if I was a soldier or a naval officer or whatever aboard the ship.
Speaker: What's happening?
Speaker: And then you die.
Speaker: You couldn't even try to get some of us off here.
Speaker: You couldn't have just, you couldn't have just killed Silva and then like instructed us to leave.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: But now she kills everybody.
Speaker: No, everyone does.
Speaker: Everyone dies.
Speaker: Even though there's like other ships on the, on the truth and reconciliation that they could have taken to get off.
Speaker: Um, that's, that's them.
Speaker: They are gone.
Speaker: They are gone.
Speaker: Gone.
Speaker: So basically, YAYAP is giving is now back back elsewhere.
Speaker: YAYAP is giving Zammamy some some recommendations on where to go.
Speaker: And I love this.
Speaker: You sure Zammamy decided demanded and YAYAP is like, I don't know.
Speaker: I'm sure.
Speaker: Fine.
Speaker: Fuck it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Fine.
Speaker: Go that way.
Speaker: Good work.
Speaker: YAYAP.
Speaker: We're on our way.
Speaker: He's like, yeah, yeah, it's like be careful, commander.
Speaker: And then and I love this.
Speaker: Shortly thereafter, he loaded a day's worth of food plus a tank of methane onto a ghost, steered the vehicle away from the Pillar of Autumn and immediately found what he was searching for.
Speaker: A sense of peace for the first time in many, many days.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Was happy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Quit his job.
Speaker: Quit his job.
Speaker: It's like, you know what?
Speaker: I think I'm going to leave.
Speaker: I don't want to be here anymore.
Speaker: He's out.
Speaker: He figures they're all going to die anyway.
Speaker: So he's like, this is my, we're all going to die.
Speaker: No one's coming away from this alive.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And so I'm not going to die under the thumb of this fucking dude.
Speaker: I'm out.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I'm out.
Speaker: And then Master Chief basically, thankfully, we cut away.
Speaker: I think they.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So the final grenade goes off.
Speaker: Okay, yeah, they cut out two, three, and four, thankfully.
Speaker: Unlike the other time when Master Chief had to do something similar in the book, we actually did compress a little bit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: um so uh basically uh so there's that moment when you're escaping and that you take an elevator and there's all these like um it comes down and there's like these grunts and elites like standing on the platform right before you get out um and that's where they decide to like fit in the idea that's that's the confrontation between master chief and zamami um
Speaker: So basically they have this back and forth and it kind of cuts back and forth really quickly, uh, between the two points of view.
Speaker: Um, and then, um, all right.
Speaker: What, what exactly happens?
Speaker: Does the elevator fall or something?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The elevator drops.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, uh, yeah, he's attacked by Zuka in a shade gun and the elevator drops and, uh,
Speaker: And Zuka falls to his death.
Speaker: It's the most underwhelming.
Speaker: It's very underwhelming.
Speaker: Basically, Cortana kills them by taking over the elevator controls or something like that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Zuka, who we've been following, like he's the covenant character we've been following this whole time, just dies, like in a paragraph, like just, and he falls and he's dead.
Speaker: Waited for his first glimpse of paradise.
Speaker: Man, oh man, I gotta tell you, like,
Speaker: pitiful.
Speaker: You know, you're expecting some face-off or something like that, but I figure the author is like, we are so close to being done.
Speaker: Let's just finish this.
Speaker: Let's finish the book.
Speaker: Although it might, you could interpret it as kind of like a sly wink
Speaker: Um, to the reader, to anybody who's played the game where, you know, the scene is just a flood of no pun intended, but like a flood of covenant, uh, that you're just killing.
Speaker: And the idea that one of the faceless
Speaker: It's this important character.
Speaker: Yeah, it's this character who has had it out for you, who has been grinding an axe for you for so long.
Speaker: And when it comes to killing him, it's like M. Bison.
Speaker: For me, it was a Tuesday.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It means nothing.
Speaker: you know, I hope that's what it is.
Speaker: I'm going to give, I'm going to give, let's give him that.
Speaker: Let's give him that benefit of the doubt because that, because that could be, that could be really hilarious if that's the case.
Speaker: So, um, so basically, uh, with all character, all side characters dead, um, almost, almost dead.
Speaker: Um, we just have the, we have the run at the end where you get a countdown timer and you drive that warthog, um,
Speaker: uh which is which this is probably the most alarmingly like the game is so much better moment yeah where is that last scene i'll tell you what it's you know if you want to be a stickler you could argue that it doesn't represent the best of
Speaker: halo at the end like the final moments are you driving a warthog which feels kind of weird yeah but it's so much fun it is fun it is a it is a moment it's it's you you got to count down timer you got to get off the ship uh you get to where you think you're going to get picked up and then everybody's favorite foe hammer bites the dust
Speaker: Oh, it's so sad.
Speaker: It's so sad.
Speaker: After all that, Pho hammers down.
Speaker: Her ship crashes.
Speaker: And so they really, I'll give Dietz this.
Speaker: It is pretty, it is a relatively tight writing of it.
Speaker: It's not like it takes the full time to,
Speaker: Right in the game.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It doesn't take a full 15 minutes to read.
Speaker: He gets he gets out.
Speaker: Foe hammer crashes and he gets it.
Speaker: It's that final moment he's running.
Speaker: There's the flood behind him.
Speaker: He runs up the ramp.
Speaker: He kills a few more and the ship takes close the ramp and the ship takes up and blast through the atmosphere and he's off.
Speaker: And we get we get a final moment.
Speaker: Final moment with our best friends.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, he's yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Is is is do it.
Speaker: It's just rife for spinoffs and one shots.
Speaker: No, I don't.
Speaker: I don't.
Speaker: I don't buy it at all.
Speaker: No, the cruiser blows up.
Speaker: It takes out the chunk of Halo.
Speaker: One chunk of Halo flies off and hits another chunk of Halo and Halo is is no more.
Speaker: And and Chief in his final moments on the ship are in the final page of the ship.
Speaker: Just remembers he's thinking of McKay and he asked Cortana, did anybody else make it?
Speaker: And Cortana is like, nah.
Speaker: No, she actually she's a little bit more poetic.
Speaker: She said she said just Dustin echoes.
Speaker: That's all that's left.
Speaker: And then the Spartan winced McKay, Fohammer, Keys and all the rest of them dead, just like the children he'd been raised with, just like a part of himself.
Speaker: So, yeah, so we get we get another moment where Master Chief, everybody that he's fought alongside except for him is dead.
Speaker: Cortana or Cortana immediately goes into like, well, we had to do it.
Speaker: We we had to do right.
Speaker: She's immediately.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: She's immediately like really like.
Speaker: But I mean, like we can both agree that we did the right thing.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It feels a little, she doth protest too much.
Speaker: And Master Chief is basically Robert Shaw and is like, well, anyway, we delivered the bomb.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We're just getting started.
Speaker: And we're just getting started.
Speaker: And that is the end of Halo the Flood.
Speaker: What'd you think of it?
Speaker: Flood.
Speaker: Where's it?
Speaker: Where's it ranking?
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: I mean, as we spoke last year with the first Halo, that one ranked pretty high.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: Halo, the Fall of Reach is a damn good book.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: And, and, and it, and it's such a, so this was a really hard act to follow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So maybe I, I, I, I didn't like this book nearly as much, not even close.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Uh, to the fall of rage.
Speaker: It had great moments.
Speaker: Um, and like, like I said before, like the, the stuff that Dietz,
Speaker: came up with that didn't have anything to do with the original game.
Speaker: Basically, we're watching what happens, the limitations you have when you are adapting a video game and you try to play it too close to the source material.
Speaker: It can be very dull.
Speaker: And but when
Speaker: Dietz was allowed to have fun and stretch his legs with Silva and McKay and and and yeah, yeah, and Zuka and the Covenant in general.
Speaker: Yeah, that was really, really interesting.
Speaker: And I think if the rest of the book had felt like those moments, then it absolutely would have matched the fall of region.
Speaker: No question.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But because, you know, it didn't, we get some unfortunate comparisons to Mega Man 2.
Speaker: We do.
Speaker: It's unfortunate at the end.
Speaker: I didn't expect, I didn't expect to be making that kind of comparison.
Speaker: No, it's a little too.
Speaker: But there it is.
Speaker: Yeah, it's not.
Speaker: And we've seen the first book we read on this show was Resident Evil, The Umbrella Conspiracy.
Speaker: And we've seen that you can take a game
Speaker: and adapt it for a book and still kind of make it you know fun and interesting to read like umbrella conspiracy cheesy as hell but oh sure in line with the source material um and also was was kind of fun to read um this felt a little bit like a slog to get through at times especially when it gets into beat for beat what happens in the game um
Speaker: Yes, without question.
Speaker: And it just kind of because I'll be honest, Master Chief's head is not that interesting to be inside of as we were talking earlier in our not at this point.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: And then we're just talking earlier in our Doomguy comparison.
Speaker: It's kind of right.
Speaker: There's not there's not a lot going on there.
Speaker: There's you.
Speaker: just like having occasional misgivings does not a character make.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's kind of where I landed on it.
Speaker: I don't know where it is in the grand scheme of things in my in the book rankings.
Speaker: I keep my head off to think about that.
Speaker: I probably won't update those.
Speaker: I probably won't rank them again until we get to our one year and we get back around to Resident Evil.
Speaker: I think that makes sense.
Speaker: I think that gives us some time to refresh the rankings.
Speaker: I'm going to, let me look up Halo novels here.
Speaker: Sure, see what's up next.
Speaker: Uh, just so we can see what the next one is and if it's going to be Halo two adapting.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So the next one, we get back to Eric Nyland, who I'm a fan of Eric Nyland.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And it's called first strike.
Speaker: Uh, let's see what this one is.
Speaker: Alright, so Halo has been destroyed, the threat is posed, and the threat it posed to sentient life neutralized, but victory has come at a terrible cost.
Speaker: Thousands of valiant soldiers fell in battle.
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: It doesn't, I can't tell just from this if it's based on two.
Speaker: It doesn't say outright.
Speaker: If it was based on Halo two.
Speaker: So that's interesting.
Speaker: Um, but my God, there are a lot of these books.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There are, my God, there are 29, 29 books.
Speaker: My God, it's full of stars.
Speaker: Um, yeah.
Speaker: Including, including, um, what's called the forerunner saga, which is a trilogy.
Speaker: of books by a gentleman named Greg Bear and the Halo Kilo 5 trilogy, which is a trilogy of books by Karen Travis.
Speaker: Yeah, this is this is a it goes deep.
Speaker: It goes deep.
Speaker: It goes deep.
Speaker: We'll definitely be revisiting.
Speaker: We'll be revisiting.
Speaker: I would like to read Eric Nyland again.
Speaker: Me too.
Speaker: That would be interesting.
Speaker: He did a heck of a job with the other Halo book.
Speaker: So a heck of a good job, Eric.
Speaker: Good job, Eric.
Speaker: Good job.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So coming up next.
Speaker: And good job, William Dietz.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it was that's the thing.
Speaker: We came down pretty hard on it at the end, but it is fine.
Speaker: You know, it's it's a fine book if you're looking to read an adaptation of Halo Combat Evolved.
Speaker: Which why would you do?
Speaker: Here it is.
Speaker: No, yeah, I think this is a solid effort.
Speaker: I think this falls into like the B, B minus.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I would say it's not the, it's clearly, hopefully, not the strongest book in the rest of the series.
Speaker: Hopefully.
Speaker: No, I doubt.
Speaker: But it is good enough and intriguing enough that I am looking forward to continuing along with the franchise as we go.
Speaker: Yeah, me too.
Speaker: Me too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So coming up next, we have a we're going to have a guest episode.
Speaker: We're going to be talking about Ninja Gaiden and we have Aaron Hess from Oops All Monsters is going to be friend of the pod.
Speaker: He's going to be on the show and that's going to be a couple episodes talking about the Worlds of Power Ninja Gaiden book created by FX9.
Speaker: Oh, and you thought we were done.
Speaker: You thought we were done.
Speaker: No, this well, this well is not dry.
Speaker: Not even close, as it turns out.
Speaker: There's a bunch of them.
Speaker: There really are.
Speaker: Not just Worlds of Power.
Speaker: There's like Sega stuff, too, that we found.
Speaker: We have discovered a treasure trove of video game novelizations that we didn't even know existed.
Speaker: And let me put it this way.
Speaker: You guys are either in for the time of your lives or a nightmare to end all nightmares.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're not even sure which it is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We don't know how we're going to feel about it as we do it, but we're going to do it anyway because we love you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, we love you.
Speaker: And we're on this ride, too.
Speaker: And fuck it.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: And then after after we do Ninja Gaiden, we got we got a little sword and sorcery coming up to look forward to Diablo Legacy of Blood.
Speaker: And thank God we were talking about this like we were going over all of the stuff we've done.
Speaker: And don't get me wrong.
Speaker: Video games are a very sci-fi heavy kind of medium.
Speaker: But my God, I'm just so excited we're going to read some good old fashioned sword and sorcery.
Speaker: Yeah, it should be fun.
Speaker: And if this is good, we might continue.
Speaker: There's another one that's got a huge series.
Speaker: Yeah, there's a huge series of Diablo books, so we'll probably be getting into that.
Speaker: here and there over the time that we are doing this wonderful show for you lovely people.
Speaker: So thanks so much for listening to us.
Speaker: If you can, follow us on Twitter if you aren't already.
Speaker: Share us on your social media of choice.
Speaker: And remember, you know, share share us with your friends.
Speaker: Tell us, tell us, tell your friends about us and and help us grow with with some word of mouth, please, please.
Speaker: I think that would be that would be lovely and I would appreciate it.
Speaker: It would be nice of you.
Speaker: It'd be nice.
Speaker: So that'll do it for tonight's episode.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Thank you very much, everybody.
Speaker: Have a good night.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Bye.
