Sorry to break it to you media literacy bros but Halo 2 is actually about being the strongest super soldier in the whole universe and blowing shit up all while jamming out to Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin.
Yeah blind faith is why the story happens but ... Not every choice breaks worlds so a little faith still leads any hero but also any villain . There's my 2 cents. Enjoy my pain
I'm not sure how people got Halo as being anti religion. You put it so well. Its not about religion being bad its about people blindly following what they are told and using their religion to justify violence while ignoring the fact that what they are doing is wrong even when the being they consider gods are telling them they are wrong.
@vinnyholiday9739 move into Apologetics (most Christians don't know why Christianity is true) once I delved into asking why I have learned a lot about the different authors of thr Bible
Halo is deeply religious in its themes, I mean even in the names of the things, like the ARK, the flood, the halos. It also kind of gives context to those events by saying that in human history the biblical tales where actually just the ancient humanity as forerunners dealing with the flood. Halo is so well done and its a shame people often misunderstand it or write it off as nothing. Halo deserves more love.
This kind of production quality and analysis is comparable with large channels. You also speak with a clear voice which is underrated. Clearly this is a channel that has the ability to grow large in size and I'm excited to stumble upon it so early.
the issues that halo 2s development led to the cliffhanger ending which received a very different conclusion than intended in halo 3. The original ending revealing that the prophet of truth wasn't just another fanatic, but someone who knew how to manipulate the faith of others to benefit himself. Unfortunately the ending we got never gave a clear explanation for his actions, which I believe plays a big part in people misunderstanding what halo is criticising about religion
Yeah Truth motives are kinda what brings down the story. You could make a case he went too far down the Kool-Aid rabbit hole and really thought activating the rings would be their salvation. Then you read Contact Harvest and in it you find out he knew the great journey, forerunners, and Halo were all a big hoax
Just to further add on to the point at 5:38, Chief almost does die to save humanity. The gap between Halo 3 and 4 can be seen as the days where Jesus was in the tomb after crucifixion, but Chief doesn't actually die so it's another "almost" connection.
Not just that in the bible (also some part of the quran)it say there's going to be bunch of fake prophets and mesiah ( halo 1-3 ) and when jesus will comeback he will defeat them. There's alot of reference on chief being a "Messiah". Theres are other clues and references but I don't want to write about it cause it will become a block of text.
I thought it criticized theocracy, rather than belief in any religion. Edit: also, there have been atheist nations that also demand absolute fealty from their officials and citizens. China is a modern example, but there was also the USSR, Albania under Hoxha, Pot’s regime, and Cuba. Castro was even quoted as saying that he required elected officials to be atheists because he thought it would make them obey orders without questioning them.
Like, kinda but not really? It's about blindly following religious leaders and tenants without question or doubt. That can be applicable to both theocracy and fundamentalism as a whole. The Arbiter's storyline depicts the dangers of religious figures with power. Be that state power, the prophet's control over the covenent, or power over individuals, the influence the prophets have over the Arbiter himself. Everything the prophets espoused was ultimately wrong, and billions died because so many believed so radiclly in that falsehood without question. The Arbiter had to reject that influence over his mind and try to find truth by himself (as opposed to the truth told to him by Truth), in order to lead his people to bring down that state power. Also like, I don't really see why you edited your comment to go on a whole rant about non-religious dictatorships? Like, those are bad nobody is disagreeing with you it's just not specifically the topic of Halo 2's themes 😅
This is why I love the Covenant so much. They essentially are space Byzantines, Latin Crusaders, Islamic Caliphates, and Ottoman Janissaries combined into one alien faction.
This is part of the reason that Halo has been so addicting to me. I find it similar to Star Wars in the sense of how deep and vast the lore actually goes into real life topics and ideas. I only really got into Halo when I married my husband, but ever since then I haven’t been able to stop researching and contemplating about the lore.
I didn't realize I was watching someone with 100 subs and less than 500 views until the very end. Really good work. I really hope this blows up super soon.
I'm just going to say that you're going to make it someday. This video was shot, written, and produced so perfectly. The fact you went to an actual Church and filmed inside of their for this he's insane. Keep up the amazing work
I’m Jewish. It comforts me that if my people weren’t enslaved by the Egyptians we wouldn’t have Halo. My favourite game of all time. Sorry to my ancestors but ur sacrifice was worth it.
I once had a friend describe Halo 2 and The Covenant by asking me "You know what came between Halo and Halo 2? 9/11. And The Covenant are in a lot of ways like non religious religious extremists. Non religious because they aren't going by pure faith and their literal Prophets are flesh and blood telling them what to do directly."
Also you are right that the og Bungie devs knew their stuff. I think in a few old interviews they say that they've been to sunday school a few times. They knew what story they wanted to tell and delivered it perfectly
this video had really great production quality, i really enjoyed it. I liked also your story of becoming disillusioned with religion in college and then afterwards going to less fundamentalist interpretation of religion. I had a similar journey, except after i went back to religion i think went atheist and then i guess i would consider myself mostly atheist but like possibility of reincarantion, possibility of reincarnation as the same person and we do everything all over again etc, but not saying 100 percent on anything, i am accepting that i dont know and thats fine for me. But yeah you do you on that. And ironically Halo 2 was another part of what kinda showed this to me, this showed the impacts of religion, i was raised to be very "obedient" and to not think for myself and i had to learn to think for myself and realize many people in my life wanted different things for me then i did. I was very limited in what media i could watch or experience, and i had to look into media that the news or other places would not talk about that much, so i usually read books. But then halo came out and it was fun so me and my dad played it and then halo 2 came out and i saw the story as being so cool. Its interesting, how much media i find parents try to keep away from their children, but allowing children to experience media they do not enjoy or may have different beliefs then they do is important, as being incredibly sheltered can be very damaging to them.... I was a "Happy naive" child and i was bullied for not knowing things and how to act around "normal" kids. I learned eventually but i learned that a man should not be happy or show emotion and that if people see someone happy they will want to hurt them. I learned the only person in life i can rely on is myself. I am a lot more calm then i was then i was always stressed but now i have come to be able to accept the punches of life and flow better, to be more calm and even when things get crazy it works out.... its ironic even though i am an atheist one of my favorite things to think/feel was "this too shall pass". But yeah i really enjoy the story of halo 1-3 and reach, and the gameplay is cool but the story man was so cool and actually said something, instead of being all "look how righeous we are, the enemy is EVIL MONSTERS" when in reality it kinda seems that way at first but man so cool, like tartarus is such a cool character, man such an awesome series.
Came into this expecting to see the standard, Twitter-tier fare of an atheist using Halo 2 to bash religious people. I was pleasantly surprised. This video was very well done.
The fact that you don't have any views (currently) does not in any way reflect upon the quality of your content. I subbed to the channel 0:35 seconds into this video. Absolutely sick job, keep it up.
I’ve always seen that warning about religious fanaticism. Something, unfortunately, still very relevant today. Can happen to any religion if people go to far. Also get a lesson of not blindly believing everything you hear, or the news. Do your own research before you devote yourself to a belief.
This is a superbly made essay. The parallel from Paul to the Arbiter is an interesting one that I've never considered. I've been playing Halo 2 for nearly 20 years at this point and it's ideas like this that made it my favorite story in video games for so long. At least until I finally played Bioshock a few years ago. I bet you could do a killer video on the philosophies in that game!
@@themeaninginbetween The first one in particular is a hell of a story. It's more of a lack of religiosity and pure capitalism competing against anything socialist or religious. The voice acting is on another level with the audio diaries.
The common (there are variations) Constantine story is that he saw the Chi Rho and "In Hoc Signo Vinces." Chi Rho or XP is the abbreviation (via first two letters) of ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, Greek for Christos with X being the Greek C hence Chi and P being the Greek R, ergo Rho. Ofcourse the Latin translates to "in this sign, conquer."
I know religion can be a touchy subject for many - as evidenced by the astounding number of dislikes - but this was one of the most refreshing, well thought-out, and poignant videos on the subject of Halo I've seen in years. Thank you. Subscribed and looking forward to more.
@@edorasmarauder5761 As of this comment, 246 dislikes to 1.7k likes. More than an 1/8th dislikes. Also you can get a browser app to show youtube dislikes.
I’m so happy someone made this video. I did an entire project for this exact topic in college and it blew everyone out of the water. I got my professor hooked on Halo 🤯
Found your channel from the RvB video, just want to say these are some fantastic videos! You have a serious talent for writing and editing, excited to see what else you make!
I like the fact that the Human/Covenant war lore shows us the danger of fanaticism, something that historically has had a very hard impact in real life.
I think describing Halo's theme as "anti-fundamentalist" is a bit reductive. Of course it goes without saying that blind faith is central to Arbiter's character and the Covenant, but that is only part of the larger over-arching theme which is anti false prophecy. Bungie's Halo games are a somewhat direct allegory to the Book of Revelation, with the Prophets deceiving their alien subjects into rejecting God (or the Reclaimers in this case) and instead worshipping the rings which will bring about the end times, and also by incidentally releasing the flood in their defiance to God (or in this case by defying the Oracles when they try to tell them that Humans are Reclaimers as well as the true purpose of the Forerunner installations) which also brings about the end times. So it would be more apt to say that Halo 2 isn't really critiquing religion, but rather the rejection of true metaphysical religion by warning of false prophecy from a biblical context. By necessity this also requires critiquing fundamentalism since, after all, you would have to be blind in faith in order to literally defy God.
If anything the vid is too subtle. Halo doesn't have time or room to be deep. And the Covenant Religion is too stupid to have any nuance. Its entirely based on mistranslated and lies. It really is just "we are good and they are bad because they believe nonsense and the smart aliens stop believing". "Dead guys with fancy toasters really wanted to activate the rings so let's activate the rings which send us to heaven. Oops, the humans are the dead guys so.... um, the good humans ascended and the bad humans were left behind so its OK to kill them. And let's ignore Guilty Spark" Not one element can be salved or has anything of value. Nobody smart tries to save any element of it, and the people who believe are savage monkeys. Literally. Every single element of the Covenant is wiped out. Even Warhammer's demon worshipers and tech cultists have more nuance and things worth preserving.
No, it critiques Religion, there is the naturalistic truth to the World, that there were the Forerunners that existed millennia ago (who were atheistic) that can be understood by the Atheistic Humans, but is misunderstood by the covenant because of their insistence on their religions. It is fault of the Prophets once they figure out from the Monitors that Humans are the inheritors of the Forerunners and continue to perpuate the lie for power, but is also the fault of the Believers such as Arbiter and Tartarus for not questioning and continuing to believe. You can see this in how Tartarus and the Arbiter are constrasted, the Arbiter upon receiving information from the Overmind changes his view and breaks from his religion to save his people from religious discrimination and slavery/genocide, whereas Tartarus, continuing to believe in spite of overwhelming evidence, dooms his people to die due to his inability to divert from Religious dogma. Further, the Humans and the covenant are constrasted more in how the Humans willingness to understand technology and be adaptable gives them an advantage over the religious Covenant who are restricted by religious dogma and binding codes. An example of this is how the Human are willing to work with the Elites despite their atrocities and hatred committed against each other, which leads to the destruction of the Covenant fleet by the Human-Elite taskforce on the Ark and the Flood on earth. Whereas, the Covenant is unwilling to work with the Humans, who would be able to assist the Covenant with their latent access to Forerunner technology, as under their religious doctrine they need to be eliminated. This is only further exemplified by the contrast of Miranda Keyes and Thel Vadami (The Arbiter). When Miranda disobeys orders from Lord Hood and goes through the portal using her own critical thinking, they not only stop the firing of the Rings, but also inform earth of the Flood and of the Ark Portal, and when she returns, she is understood for her action. Such action would never be undertaken with the Covenant, as strict religious doctrine would mean that Commanders taking the initiative would risk being branded as an Arbiter or executed for their treason. Thus the Atheistic Humans have the advantage of adaptability and understanding, whereas the Covenant, due to their religious inclination, do not. These are problems unique to Religion, but authoritarian power structures in general, the reason why religion is bad, is because it requires these power structures to function, as it needs faith, or allegiance, unfounded and completely or mostly devoted, to work. You can see this in Catholicism with the Pope, Prodestantism with the Bible and Fathers, and Islam with the Quran and their various prophets and leaders. And just to add on, factionalism is another issue, as because of religious doctrine, other though cannot be allowed, so instead of the covenant allowing dissenters and opposing groups within their powerstructure, they annihilate and reject them, which ultimately leads to infighting and the Banished, which are described as causing much havoc for the covenant. Similar thing would be less likely to happen under the UNSC, as their willingness to understand and democractic tendencies not only account for, but benefit from a marketplace of ideas.
@@LotusReal hmmm, this is quite thorough. Regardless of my stance on the alignment of topic i will commend your knowledge on the games and your construction of this essay. Well done!
I looked at the subscriber count and likes for this video and I was shocked at how few. This video is insanely good, well edited, interesting and engaging. Stellar job!
quick note on master chief being a savior figure, he saved humanity got sent off into space for however many years then came back, that’s very similar to jesus’ story at the end
this is downright the best religious analysis of Halo 2 that I have ever seen. I was fully expecting another beat-down of my religion and another "don't blindly follow your faith, have faith in yourself!" or whatever. this is great. I love it. thank you for making this.
This is insane! I've been talking to people / trying to piece together all the archetypical stories and religious themes in Halo in depth -- this video is exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you!
Halo story is definitely a good one for everyone to hear. The comments on religious trust and faith are very enlightening. Before 343 took over, Bungie made it very clear that Humans were the Forerunners. In Halo 3 Spark even calls Cheif a Forerunner. It really recontextualize the whole story. The Covenant worship the Forerunners because of their awesome artifacts(technology) and a misstralated luminary text. That activating Halo will let them join their gods in for lack of better words, Heaven. So in the novel 'Contact Harvest' when the Covenant find all the Reclaimers(humans) on Harvest, they found their gods. They weren't devine being. They were humans. Obviously if this got out it would destory the whole Covenant. So what would a good politicians do? Start a war to prevent people or aliens from finding out the truth. Worked so well that it convinced Frank O'Connor that Forerunners were a different species. The Covenant was very dogmatic. Even in their technology. They never made any smart AI, only using Forerunner AI or creating dumb AI. Free thinking was not on their to-do list. Halo story is crazy once you realize how the Covenant was based on that lie and why they are so determined to kill every human. Because useally Covenant MO when finding a new species is to kill like 90% of the population, then go "hey were cool now. come join our club. " So when they go straight to just murder everyone, some Elites started to question why humans wouldn't be allowed into the Covenant rank. They fought well enough, and the same offer had existed for others. Once they figured out that only Forerunners stuff would work with Humans they would start to put the pieces together pretty quickly.
People will always see the story through their own lens. That’s one thing I love about halo. It was meant to cater to everyone no matter who they are. I see the arbiter’s story not as anti religion but one of a crisis of faith. Which resonates with me, because I’m not religious after leaving Mormonism. But for others it may affirm their faith. And I think that’s just fine. That’s what good stories do.
Can’t tell you how much of a breath of fresh air this is. So many Christians I know just rag on video games as a waste of time without taking a closer look at the subtleties that make them significant and the art. Halo has been one of my favorite franchises for its well thought out and developed settings and symbolism. Seeing all of this intertwined so closely with faith just encourages me bc media literacy matters and not to rag on on a specific group of people, but I don’t feel like many Christian creatives care about it at all.
For a newly made channel. This is an amazingly well done video. It was very interesting to see the perspective of a religious person and as a athiest previously christian. I must agree with your statement. I'm so used to seeing religious people and athiest call halo anti religion and either immediately hating it or loving it just because it criticizes blind worship that this video is such a breath of fresh air. I hope you get more success and make more bangers like these in the future. If I get into debate whether halo 2 is anti religious. I'll just send them this ;)
I really appreciate the amount of effort you put into this video essay, and the comparisons made between Christianity and the halo universe. I just can’t tell you how much I loved the way you highlighted the dangers of religious extremism by using the covenant and the prophets, I’m subscribing to your channel and I’ll share your video with my friends and the halo communities that I’m in!
Oo this video topic is right up my alley. I made a video myself on the topic of halo 2 & religion a month or two ago actually lol, this is making me want to do a follow up because I have even more to say now after watching this! I always find people coming to different conclusions analyzing the same game super fascinating & engaging tbh
" when you first witnessed halo , was your blinded , stunned, dumbfounded by his greatness" OG halo fans when they saw the duel wielding and online multiplayer add ons :" Only the strongest can survive!!!!
I would not say it critiques religion, more like add to it. Religion is man made designed to teach believers the correct direction in order to be saved. You can think of it if your parents taught you wrong information while growing up. Breaking those false beliefs is very hard. This is called a stronghold. Also the halo story lines is mostly written from the bible, reworded to fit the halo game. Like the line cortana says in in halo 3 " there will be no more pain, there would be no more suffering", that line was taken from the book of revelations.
6:20 whenever any actual criticism gets levied against the belief system most deserving of it, safety officers suggest otherwise. How sad. Couldn’t expect them to be adults who can be criticized without turning violent can we. Je suis Charlie
I read the title and immediately clicked. Halo 2 was the anvil on the camels back of my journey into losing my religion. I will never forget the somberness and silent rage that the Arbiter builds into his speech. “Tartarus, the Prophets have betrayed us.”
O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all
Excellent video. I’m looking forward to whatever comes next. The Arbiter’s story was so good. Stripped of pride he begins to see through the lies. Then his closest brush with death brings him face to face with the truth. Gotta love it.
Out of curiosity, was Mike Jones from InspiringPhilosophy a part in your reconstruction? Personally he helped me a lot in doing what he does best which is filtering academic topics into lay mans ears such as myself. Growing up I had Bible Belt fundamentalism shoved down my throat, (sounds like you can relate) and now I’m a theistic evolutionist. Btw if you have no idea who I’m talking about you’d love his yt channel.
Halo is definitely inspired by the bible (the end of humanity is literally called the flood) in many ways but definitely not in an anti religious way but it critiques how people would follow others blindly and get manipulated by others by twisting their religious beliefs for their own gain
Well I’m currently working on a Halo 3 video, but I’m definitely open to that in the near future! I was a reach kid, after all! That’s the first game I ever preordered and actually played when it launched. One of my favorites for sure!
As someone who hates religions, this made a whole lot of sense about fundamentalists. I think because message was presented using a game I played many times over so I could actually relate to what you're talking about. Huh, I guess maybe I don't hate all religion but just fundamentalists? And I guess I see religions as a power and control structure used by the people who place themselves at the top to oppress everyone else with their rules (that they don't even follow themselves often). Looking forward to the Halo 3 video. Hey ALSO, do one on Horizon Zero Dawn - would love to see you take on it's religious themes too.
Thanks man! And I’ve never played HZD before but I’m curious about the religious themes. I’ll have to check it out and give it a play through so I can make a video about it! Also I definitely see what you’re saying, and yeah I think a lot of the problems with religion come in when people throw themselves into blind faith, afraid to ask questions or be open to a change in understanding. Glad to know the video made an impact! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I would argue John did "die" and come back in terms of being stolen as a child and replaced with a doomed clone. Here his old life was sacrificed for him to become humanity's savior although I don't think this lore was a thing when h2 came out
Yeah Fall of Reach technically came out before Combat Evolved did. But you can go back to Reach Viadoc and see that Bungie did not care for the novels what so ever. "Fall of Reach is suppose to last for 6 hours? Nah well have it take place over a month. We have the most heart wrenching story to tell here "
The actual game Halo CE was in production way before the Fall of Reach was even a thing, so it really doesn't mean much that it came out a few weeks before the game.
Halo has many biblical references and messages of abrahamic faith. I can’t list them all but I will say one. In Halo 3 ODST, when you enter the data hive as the Rookie nearing the end of the campaign, you need to go to sub-level 9 to find Dare. This was a very subtle reference to the 9 circles of Hell, as stated by Late Night Gaming or HiddenXperia.
Human being forerunner = God making man in his image This is one that is no longer cannon but was canon in the bungie era. The forerunner made humanity by splicing their dna with our ancestors and making us into their own image.
@@EggEnjoyer Well, under new lore, the Precursors may have actually done that. But mostly the two species (human and Forerunner) are treated as long divided branches, on the same tree.
@@chrissonofpear1384 It’s inconsistent in the new lore. Some of the lore says that forerunners and humans are sister species. Some say they’re totally distinct. Either way, the bungie lore was much more consistent with the Christian imagery that was present throughout the franchise.
So glad to see many people come upon this, myself included. I wondered if you were a Christian given your Switchfoot hoodie in the Halo CE video, but it's just cool and refreshing to see someone talk so openly about their faith whilst talking about a secular video game that deals with religion, and drawing parallels with both. It's something I often wonder about - for example I'm a big Star Wars fan, and it's so fascinating to me to hear people talk about the Force, Jedi and Sith like it's a religion, yet never say what they actually believe. They keep their fandoms and personal beliefs separate, while Star Wars is encouraging someone to "find their bliss" as Campbell would say, which requires them to question life and go find something bigger than themselves/purpose, and usually you change your ideology or religion in the process. Speaking of recommendations, Star Wars is cool! Really happy with what you've done in this video. It's been a long time since I've played Halo 2 but I never really thought about the Arbiter's character arc the way you put it - very cool. Also never thought about Halo and what's in a name... I subscribed after seeing your Halo CE video but I'm just happy to see such an unexpected crossover of ideas blow up on TH-cam. Goodness I could give a ton of recommendations, but I'll leave you with True Detective Season 1. That is honestly the best TV anything I have ever seen. Wish you the best for the future of your channel!!
Great video, this has always been my favorite aspect of the Halo games. I wish the TV show delved more into this part of Halo. The pitfalls of religion as a means to gain power is so integral to the whole universe but it’s something the new main Halo stories don’t really cover. Maybe that’s for the best, maybe it really only works as a one-time thing in the OG trilogy, but I can’t help but get slightly annoyed when the new games and TV use religious words (like the Harbinger doing that “Reformation” thing in Infinite), but the actual religious significance/connections are as deep as a puddle. Just word references to things from religions because “ooh religious stuff so cool and mysterious😮”
This is so cool omg I didn’t grow up religious so a lot of the themes were pretty lost on me when I first played it but I going back through to really enjoy the story I LOVE having this perspective on it. Great work man your analysis is spot on 👍👍
I plan on it! There’s several other ideas I’ll be working on along side the halo videos, like other video games, movies, and tv shows, but I plan to continue coming back to halo because, like you said, they are so rich with meaning and metaphor!
I’m a Christian and I like Halo. Although, I’ve had doubts about Halo before because it seemed anti religious to me too, or the Arbiter’s story could make you doubt your own faith in real life. I used to feel that halo was a sinful game, and it was hard to give up because I liked the game. I don’t get those feelings anymore about Halo 2.
Martin O’Donnell became Catholic a couple of years ago, by the way. He’s posted some incredible liturgical music that he’s done since then. Listen to his Kyrie if you get the chance.
dont know how this ended up in my recomendations, but i will give youtube this one. this was a banger video. im going to continue my campaign aginst the covenant... + the didact in h4
This Man’s dedication and quality in videos is amazing investing with a Sub and I will be watching your videos are amazing keep it up, Maybe cover Bioshock series or Borderlands
I've been waiting for a video like this to show up.I've been thinking about what halo 2 had to say about blind faith for months now.Granted that seed of doubt lead to me becoming an atheist.The video itself is well crafted and just as well articulated.Absolutely fantastic job.
Sorry to break it to you media literacy bros but Halo 2 is actually about being the strongest super soldier in the whole universe and blowing shit up all while jamming out to Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin.
Haha yeah that would’ve been a much shorter video for sure 😂
Literally just stole this from twitter lol
@@b2superbattledroid977 yea pretty much, but we're friends so it's ok.
@@sab3re whay ah you gae?
Yeah blind faith is why the story happens but ... Not every choice breaks worlds so a little faith still leads any hero but also any villain . There's my 2 cents. Enjoy my pain
I'm not sure how people got Halo as being anti religion. You put it so well. Its not about religion being bad its about people blindly following what they are told and using their religion to justify violence while ignoring the fact that what they are doing is wrong even when the being they consider gods are telling them they are wrong.
Fact but it’s ducking halo
Well most religious folks would take any criticism of their religion as an attack on their religion. So they would consider this anti-religous.
@@vinnyholiday9739 dude I’m Mormon LDS and I love halo
@vinnyholiday9739 move into Apologetics (most Christians don't know why Christianity is true) once I delved into asking why I have learned a lot about the different authors of thr Bible
@witchkingangmar2731 ok and that doesn't prove anything.
Halo is deeply religious in its themes, I mean even in the names of the things, like the ARK, the flood, the halos. It also kind of gives context to those events by saying that in human history the biblical tales where actually just the ancient humanity as forerunners dealing with the flood.
Halo is so well done and its a shame people often misunderstand it or write it off as nothing. Halo deserves more love.
This kind of production quality and analysis is comparable with large channels. You also speak with a clear voice which is underrated. Clearly this is a channel that has the ability to grow large in size and I'm excited to stumble upon it so early.
The great journey awaits us!
I didn’t realise until this comment that his channel only had 388 subs. I assumed it was a couple thousand.
the issues that halo 2s development led to the cliffhanger ending which received a very different conclusion than intended in halo 3. The original ending revealing that the prophet of truth wasn't just another fanatic, but someone who knew how to manipulate the faith of others to benefit himself. Unfortunately the ending we got never gave a clear explanation for his actions, which I believe plays a big part in people misunderstanding what halo is criticising about religion
Yeah Truth motives are kinda what brings down the story. You could make a case he went too far down the Kool-Aid rabbit hole and really thought activating the rings would be their salvation. Then you read Contact Harvest and in it you find out he knew the great journey, forerunners, and Halo were all a big hoax
It's really interesting that you cited Matthew 25:52, since all of Bungie's Halo games take place in the year 2552.
Haha wow I definitely didn’t think of that! Nice catch
Just to further add on to the point at 5:38, Chief almost does die to save humanity. The gap between Halo 3 and 4 can be seen as the days where Jesus was in the tomb after crucifixion, but Chief doesn't actually die so it's another "almost" connection.
Yeah absolutely! That’s a great point
Not just that in the bible (also some part of the quran)it say there's going to be bunch of fake prophets and mesiah ( halo 1-3 ) and when jesus will comeback he will defeat them. There's alot of reference on chief being a "Messiah". Theres are other clues and references but I don't want to write about it cause it will become a block of text.
I thought it criticized theocracy, rather than belief in any religion.
Edit: also, there have been atheist nations that also demand absolute fealty from their officials and citizens. China is a modern example, but there was also the USSR, Albania under Hoxha, Pot’s regime, and Cuba. Castro was even quoted as saying that he required elected officials to be atheists because he thought it would make them obey orders without questioning them.
Yes.
Like, kinda but not really? It's about blindly following religious leaders and tenants without question or doubt. That can be applicable to both theocracy and fundamentalism as a whole. The Arbiter's storyline depicts the dangers of religious figures with power. Be that state power, the prophet's control over the covenent, or power over individuals, the influence the prophets have over the Arbiter himself. Everything the prophets espoused was ultimately wrong, and billions died because so many believed so radiclly in that falsehood without question. The Arbiter had to reject that influence over his mind and try to find truth by himself (as opposed to the truth told to him by Truth), in order to lead his people to bring down that state power.
Also like, I don't really see why you edited your comment to go on a whole rant about non-religious dictatorships? Like, those are bad nobody is disagreeing with you it's just not specifically the topic of Halo 2's themes 😅
@@lizardlegend42 the edit was just because I thought it of later ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@Moakmeister but what was the relevance? 😅
If that’s true then Castro was a moron, after all who is more conditioned to accept blind obedience than the religious.
Well, if this wasn't the strangest intersection of my interests.
This is why I love the Covenant so much. They essentially are space Byzantines, Latin Crusaders, Islamic Caliphates, and Ottoman Janissaries combined into one alien faction.
This is part of the reason that Halo has been so addicting to me. I find it similar to Star Wars in the sense of how deep and vast the lore actually goes into real life topics and ideas. I only really got into Halo when I married my husband, but ever since then I haven’t been able to stop researching and contemplating about the lore.
I didn't realize I was watching someone with 100 subs and less than 500 views until the very end. Really good work. I really hope this blows up super soon.
Did it just go up?
I'm just going to say that you're going to make it someday. This video was shot, written, and produced so perfectly. The fact you went to an actual Church and filmed inside of their for this he's insane. Keep up the amazing work
Thanks man! Means a lot! I’m just enjoying the process so far!
I’m Jewish. It comforts me that if my people weren’t enslaved by the Egyptians we wouldn’t have Halo. My favourite game of all time. Sorry to my ancestors but ur sacrifice was worth it.
I once had a friend describe Halo 2 and The Covenant by asking me "You know what came between Halo and Halo 2? 9/11. And The Covenant are in a lot of ways like non religious religious extremists. Non religious because they aren't going by pure faith and their literal Prophets are flesh and blood telling them what to do directly."
Also you are right that the og Bungie devs knew their stuff. I think in a few old interviews they say that they've been to sunday school a few times. They knew what story they wanted to tell and delivered it perfectly
this video had really great production quality, i really enjoyed it.
I liked also your story of becoming disillusioned with religion in college and then afterwards going to less fundamentalist interpretation of religion. I had a similar journey, except after i went back to religion i think went atheist and then i guess i would consider myself mostly atheist but like possibility of reincarantion, possibility of reincarnation as the same person and we do everything all over again etc, but not saying 100 percent on anything, i am accepting that i dont know and thats fine for me. But yeah you do you on that.
And ironically Halo 2 was another part of what kinda showed this to me, this showed the impacts of religion, i was raised to be very "obedient" and to not think for myself and i had to learn to think for myself and realize many people in my life wanted different things for me then i did. I was very limited in what media i could watch or experience, and i had to look into media that the news or other places would not talk about that much, so i usually read books. But then halo came out and it was fun so me and my dad played it and then halo 2 came out and i saw the story as being so cool.
Its interesting, how much media i find parents try to keep away from their children, but allowing children to experience media they do not enjoy or may have different beliefs then they do is important, as being incredibly sheltered can be very damaging to them.... I was a "Happy naive" child and i was bullied for not knowing things and how to act around "normal" kids. I learned eventually but i learned that a man should not be happy or show emotion and that if people see someone happy they will want to hurt them.
I learned the only person in life i can rely on is myself. I am a lot more calm then i was then i was always stressed but now i have come to be able to accept the punches of life and flow better, to be more calm and even when things get crazy it works out.... its ironic even though i am an atheist one of my favorite things to think/feel was "this too shall pass".
But yeah i really enjoy the story of halo 1-3 and reach, and the gameplay is cool but the story man was so cool and actually said something, instead of being all "look how righeous we are, the enemy is EVIL MONSTERS" when in reality it kinda seems that way at first but man so cool, like tartarus is such a cool character, man such an awesome series.
Bless the TH-cam algorithm for recommending me this masterpiece
By the rings
Came into this expecting to see the standard, Twitter-tier fare of an atheist using Halo 2 to bash religious people.
I was pleasantly surprised. This video was very well done.
The fact that you don't have any views (currently) does not in any way reflect upon the quality of your content. I subbed to the channel 0:35 seconds into this video. Absolutely sick job, keep it up.
back at it again with these amazing essays
also I love that you used halo 2 anniversary footage because that game's cutscenes are absolutely beautiful
I’ve always seen that warning about religious fanaticism. Something, unfortunately, still very relevant today. Can happen to any religion if people go to far. Also get a lesson of not blindly believing everything you hear, or the news. Do your own research before you devote yourself to a belief.
This is a superbly made essay. The parallel from Paul to the Arbiter is an interesting one that I've never considered. I've been playing Halo 2 for nearly 20 years at this point and it's ideas like this that made it my favorite story in video games for so long. At least until I finally played Bioshock a few years ago. I bet you could do a killer video on the philosophies in that game!
I’ll have to work my way through that series too! I’ve always loved the premise, but haven’t played through all of them yet!
@@themeaninginbetween The first one in particular is a hell of a story. It's more of a lack of religiosity and pure capitalism competing against anything socialist or religious. The voice acting is on another level with the audio diaries.
I imagine Halo 2 was strongly influenced by the fact that it (unlike Halo: CE) was made in the years immediately following 9/11 & the War on Terror.
YOU ONLY HAVE 200 SUBS??? Bro I thought I Missread that. The quality of this is wild. Keep it up!!
2 days ago he had 200, now he has 500. This man is going places
Absolutely stellar video.
Thanks man! That means a lot coming from you! I’ve watched your videos for a while. Would love to collaborate sometime if you’d be down!
@@themeaninginbetween If you have ideas, then sure! Just let me know
Absolutely! Is there somewhere more private I can reach out haha? Reddit or something?
@themeaninginbetween that works. My username is just frogarchist. I only have 2 comments and 1 karma lol but that's me
Perfect! DM has been sent!
lmao and people say that videogames were never political or deep.
Severely underrated channel, here's to hoping you pop-off.
The common (there are variations) Constantine story is that he saw the Chi Rho and "In Hoc Signo Vinces." Chi Rho or XP is the abbreviation (via first two letters) of ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, Greek for Christos with X being the Greek C hence Chi and P being the Greek R, ergo Rho.
Ofcourse the Latin translates to "in this sign, conquer."
I know religion can be a touchy subject for many - as evidenced by the astounding number of dislikes - but this was one of the most refreshing, well thought-out, and poignant videos on the subject of Halo I've seen in years. Thank you. Subscribed and looking forward to more.
How many dislikes does he have? I don’t see it.
@@edorasmarauder5761 As of this comment, 246 dislikes to 1.7k likes. More than an 1/8th dislikes.
Also you can get a browser app to show youtube dislikes.
just by looking at those 30 seconds of intro I already know its gonna be a masterpiece
I’m so happy someone made this video. I did an entire project for this exact topic in college and it blew everyone out of the water. I got my professor hooked on Halo 🤯
Found your channel from the RvB video, just want to say these are some fantastic videos! You have a serious talent for writing and editing, excited to see what else you make!
I like the fact that the Human/Covenant war lore shows us the danger of fanaticism, something that historically has had a very hard impact in real life.
I think describing Halo's theme as "anti-fundamentalist" is a bit reductive. Of course it goes without saying that blind faith is central to Arbiter's character and the Covenant, but that is only part of the larger over-arching theme which is anti false prophecy. Bungie's Halo games are a somewhat direct allegory to the Book of Revelation, with the Prophets deceiving their alien subjects into rejecting God (or the Reclaimers in this case) and instead worshipping the rings which will bring about the end times, and also by incidentally releasing the flood in their defiance to God (or in this case by defying the Oracles when they try to tell them that Humans are Reclaimers as well as the true purpose of the Forerunner installations) which also brings about the end times. So it would be more apt to say that Halo 2 isn't really critiquing religion, but rather the rejection of true metaphysical religion by warning of false prophecy from a biblical context. By necessity this also requires critiquing fundamentalism since, after all, you would have to be blind in faith in order to literally defy God.
Very insightful 👍
damn! This is good! Really good! good work!
If anything the vid is too subtle.
Halo doesn't have time or room to be deep. And the Covenant Religion is too stupid to have any nuance. Its entirely based on mistranslated and lies. It really is just "we are good and they are bad because they believe nonsense and the smart aliens stop believing".
"Dead guys with fancy toasters really wanted to activate the rings so let's activate the rings which send us to heaven. Oops, the humans are the dead guys so.... um, the good humans ascended and the bad humans were left behind so its OK to kill them. And let's ignore Guilty Spark"
Not one element can be salved or has anything of value. Nobody smart tries to save any element of it, and the people who believe are savage monkeys. Literally.
Every single element of the Covenant is wiped out.
Even Warhammer's demon worshipers and tech cultists have more nuance and things worth preserving.
No, it critiques Religion, there is the naturalistic truth to the World, that there were the Forerunners that existed millennia ago (who were atheistic) that can be understood by the Atheistic Humans, but is misunderstood by the covenant because of their insistence on their religions.
It is fault of the Prophets once they figure out from the Monitors that Humans are the inheritors of the Forerunners and continue to perpuate the lie for power, but is also the fault of the Believers such as Arbiter and Tartarus for not questioning and continuing to believe. You can see this in how Tartarus and the Arbiter are constrasted, the Arbiter upon receiving information from the Overmind changes his view and breaks from his religion to save his people from religious discrimination and slavery/genocide, whereas Tartarus, continuing to believe in spite of overwhelming evidence, dooms his people to die due to his inability to divert from Religious dogma.
Further, the Humans and the covenant are constrasted more in how the Humans willingness to understand technology and be adaptable gives them an advantage over the religious Covenant who are restricted by religious dogma and binding codes. An example of this is how the Human are willing to work with the Elites despite their atrocities and hatred committed against each other, which leads to the destruction of the Covenant fleet by the Human-Elite taskforce on the Ark and the Flood on earth. Whereas, the Covenant is unwilling to work with the Humans, who would be able to assist the Covenant with their latent access to Forerunner technology, as under their religious doctrine they need to be eliminated.
This is only further exemplified by the contrast of Miranda Keyes and Thel Vadami (The Arbiter). When Miranda disobeys orders from Lord Hood and goes through the portal using her own critical thinking, they not only stop the firing of the Rings, but also inform earth of the Flood and of the Ark Portal, and when she returns, she is understood for her action. Such action would never be undertaken with the Covenant, as strict religious doctrine would mean that Commanders taking the initiative would risk being branded as an Arbiter or executed for their treason. Thus the Atheistic Humans have the advantage of adaptability and understanding, whereas the Covenant, due to their religious inclination, do not.
These are problems unique to Religion, but authoritarian power structures in general, the reason why religion is bad, is because it requires these power structures to function, as it needs faith, or allegiance, unfounded and completely or mostly devoted, to work. You can see this in Catholicism with the Pope, Prodestantism with the Bible and Fathers, and Islam with the Quran and their various prophets and leaders.
And just to add on, factionalism is another issue, as because of religious doctrine, other though cannot be allowed, so instead of the covenant allowing dissenters and opposing groups within their powerstructure, they annihilate and reject them, which ultimately leads to infighting and the Banished, which are described as causing much havoc for the covenant. Similar thing would be less likely to happen under the UNSC, as their willingness to understand and democractic tendencies not only account for, but benefit from a marketplace of ideas.
@@LotusReal hmmm, this is quite thorough. Regardless of my stance on the alignment of topic i will commend your knowledge on the games and your construction of this essay. Well done!
I looked at the subscriber count and likes for this video and I was shocked at how few. This video is insanely good, well edited, interesting and engaging. Stellar job!
quick note on master chief being a savior figure, he saved humanity got sent off into space for however many years then came back, that’s very similar to jesus’ story at the end
I mean - wow that was unexpected! Such a high quilty video. Just brilliant, keep going!
this is downright the best religious analysis of Halo 2 that I have ever seen. I was fully expecting another beat-down of my religion and another "don't blindly follow your faith, have faith in yourself!" or whatever. this is great. I love it. thank you for making this.
The Arbiter is honestly one of Keith David's best voice roles, and he's an *incredible* voice actor.
Congrats on making my favorites Playlist. Well made and an often overlooked part of the halo universe and lore. Look forward to more content from you.
How has this not blown up?
This is insane! I've been talking to people / trying to piece together all the archetypical stories and religious themes in Halo in depth -- this video is exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you!
This has the potential to be the best halo channel I’ve ever seen.
Please post something about reach, I need more of your content
“White man has been here.”
“How can you tell?”
“20-ish minute media literacy about old video games.”
Kek
😂
I am so incredibly lucky to have found this video. This has been a topic circling in my head for ages and you articulated everything so well.
Halo story is definitely a good one for everyone to hear. The comments on religious trust and faith are very enlightening. Before 343 took over, Bungie made it very clear that Humans were the Forerunners. In Halo 3 Spark even calls Cheif a Forerunner. It really recontextualize the whole story. The Covenant worship the Forerunners because of their awesome artifacts(technology) and a misstralated luminary text. That activating Halo will let them join their gods in for lack of better words, Heaven. So in the novel 'Contact Harvest' when the Covenant find all the Reclaimers(humans) on Harvest, they found their gods. They weren't devine being. They were humans. Obviously if this got out it would destory the whole Covenant. So what would a good politicians do? Start a war to prevent people or aliens from finding out the truth. Worked so well that it convinced Frank O'Connor that Forerunners were a different species. The Covenant was very dogmatic. Even in their technology. They never made any smart AI, only using Forerunner AI or creating dumb AI. Free thinking was not on their to-do list.
Halo story is crazy once you realize how the Covenant was based on that lie and why they are so determined to kill every human. Because useally Covenant MO when finding a new species is to kill like 90% of the population, then go "hey were cool now. come join our club. " So when they go straight to just murder everyone, some Elites started to question why humans wouldn't be allowed into the Covenant rank. They fought well enough, and the same offer had existed for others. Once they figured out that only Forerunners stuff would work with Humans they would start to put the pieces together pretty quickly.
People will always see the story through their own lens. That’s one thing I love about halo. It was meant to cater to everyone no matter who they are. I see the arbiter’s story not as anti religion but one of a crisis of faith. Which resonates with me, because I’m not religious after leaving Mormonism. But for others it may affirm their faith. And I think that’s just fine. That’s what good stories do.
Can’t tell you how much of a breath of fresh air this is. So many Christians I know just rag on video games as a waste of time without taking a closer look at the subtleties that make them significant and the art.
Halo has been one of my favorite franchises for its well thought out and developed settings and symbolism. Seeing all of this intertwined so closely with faith just encourages me bc media literacy matters and not to rag on on a specific group of people, but I don’t feel like many Christian creatives care about it at all.
Dude Doesn't even have 300 subs yet. Your career will be watched with great interest
For a newly made channel. This is an amazingly well done video. It was very interesting to see the perspective of a religious person and as a athiest previously christian. I must agree with your statement. I'm so used to seeing religious people and athiest call halo anti religion and either immediately hating it or loving it just because it criticizes blind worship that this video is such a breath of fresh air. I hope you get more success and make more bangers like these in the future.
If I get into debate whether halo 2 is anti religious. I'll just send them this ;)
What an incredible video! So glad the algorithm showed this to me - keep up the great work!
I really appreciate the amount of effort you put into this video essay, and the comparisons made between Christianity and the halo universe. I just can’t tell you how much I loved the way you highlighted the dangers of religious extremism by using the covenant and the prophets,
I’m subscribing to your channel and I’ll share your video with my friends and the halo communities that I’m in!
Much appreciated, my friend! More to come soon!
I love how flexible this franchise is
You can tell alot of diferent types of stories with this basic premisse
Oo this video topic is right up my alley. I made a video myself on the topic of halo 2 & religion a month or two ago actually lol, this is making me want to do a follow up because I have even more to say now after watching this! I always find people coming to different conclusions analyzing the same game super fascinating & engaging tbh
" when you first witnessed halo , was your blinded , stunned, dumbfounded by his greatness"
OG halo fans when they saw the duel wielding and online multiplayer add ons :" Only the strongest can survive!!!!
This video is extremely well made, it surprises me how little views and traction it’s gotten, truly a gem in the rough. Here’s to making it big soon!🍻
Subbed, really enjoyed this. Hope this channel blows up for you, the amount of effort you’ve put in clearly deserves it!
I would not say it critiques religion, more like add to it.
Religion is man made designed to teach believers the correct direction in order to be saved. You can think of it if your parents taught you wrong information while growing up. Breaking those false beliefs is very hard. This is called a stronghold.
Also the halo story lines is mostly written from the bible, reworded to fit the halo game. Like the line cortana says in in halo 3 " there will be no more pain, there would be no more suffering", that line was taken from the book of revelations.
6:20 whenever any actual criticism gets levied against the belief system most deserving of it, safety officers suggest otherwise. How sad. Couldn’t expect them to be adults who can be criticized without turning violent can we. Je suis Charlie
Root beer
I haven’t grown up with halo, but I really like hearing about how it connects with philosophy and religion. Amazing work, keep it up!
I read the title and immediately clicked. Halo 2 was the anvil on the camels back of my journey into losing my religion. I will never forget the somberness and silent rage that the Arbiter builds into his speech. “Tartarus, the Prophets have betrayed us.”
O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all
A video game about aliens made you give up religion?
@@israelhammans7329 I am my own Fortress thank you very much
Excellent video. I’m looking forward to whatever comes next. The Arbiter’s story was so good. Stripped of pride he begins to see through the lies. Then his closest brush with death brings him face to face with the truth. Gotta love it.
Out of curiosity, was Mike Jones from InspiringPhilosophy a part in your reconstruction? Personally he helped me a lot in doing what he does best which is filtering academic topics into lay mans ears such as myself. Growing up I had Bible Belt fundamentalism shoved down my throat, (sounds like you can relate) and now I’m a theistic evolutionist. Btw if you have no idea who I’m talking about you’d love his yt channel.
Halo is definitely inspired by the bible (the end of humanity is literally called the flood) in many ways but definitely not in an anti religious way but it critiques how people would follow others blindly and get manipulated by others by twisting their religious beliefs for their own gain
Loved the video! You should make a Halo Reach themed video next (:
Well I’m currently working on a Halo 3 video, but I’m definitely open to that in the near future! I was a reach kid, after all! That’s the first game I ever preordered and actually played when it launched. One of my favorites for sure!
As someone who hates religions, this made a whole lot of sense about fundamentalists. I think because message was presented using a game I played many times over so I could actually relate to what you're talking about. Huh, I guess maybe I don't hate all religion but just fundamentalists? And I guess I see religions as a power and control structure used by the people who place themselves at the top to oppress everyone else with their rules (that they don't even follow themselves often). Looking forward to the Halo 3 video.
Hey ALSO, do one on Horizon Zero Dawn - would love to see you take on it's religious themes too.
Thanks man! And I’ve never played HZD before but I’m curious about the religious themes. I’ll have to check it out and give it a play through so I can make a video about it!
Also I definitely see what you’re saying, and yeah I think a lot of the problems with religion come in when people throw themselves into blind faith, afraid to ask questions or be open to a change in understanding. Glad to know the video made an impact! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
While I’ve only played halo reach and odst. You have completely drawn me into the halo franchise. Your videos are amazing! Cheers!
Oh man, yeah I love reach and odst but Halo 2 is by far my favorite of the series!
Great stuff
Great video man keep it up
I would argue John did "die" and come back in terms of being stolen as a child and replaced with a doomed clone. Here his old life was sacrificed for him to become humanity's savior although I don't think this lore was a thing when h2 came out
Yeah Fall of Reach technically came out before Combat Evolved did. But you can go back to Reach Viadoc and see that Bungie did not care for the novels what so ever. "Fall of Reach is suppose to last for 6 hours? Nah well have it take place over a month. We have the most heart wrenching story to tell here "
The actual game Halo CE was in production way before the Fall of Reach was even a thing, so it really doesn't mean much that it came out a few weeks before the game.
Dude, this channel is a gem. I'm so glad I stumbled upon this, the quality of this video was just perfect! Looking forward to your next Content!
You, dear sir, just got yourself your 222. Subscriber. Will watch your other videos soon and I'm stoked to see more!
Thanks man, I’m pumped to make more soon!
Halo has many biblical references and messages of abrahamic faith. I can’t list them all but I will say one. In Halo 3 ODST, when you enter the data hive as the Rookie nearing the end of the campaign, you need to go to sub-level 9 to find Dare. This was a very subtle reference to the 9 circles of Hell, as stated by Late Night Gaming or HiddenXperia.
Human being forerunner = God making man in his image
This is one that is no longer cannon but was canon in the bungie era. The forerunner made humanity by splicing their dna with our ancestors and making us into their own image.
@@EggEnjoyer Well, under new lore, the Precursors may have actually done that.
But mostly the two species (human and Forerunner) are treated as long divided branches, on the same tree.
@@chrissonofpear1384 It’s inconsistent in the new lore. Some of the lore says that forerunners and humans are sister species. Some say they’re totally distinct.
Either way, the bungie lore was much more consistent with the Christian imagery that was present throughout the franchise.
So glad to see many people come upon this, myself included. I wondered if you were a Christian given your Switchfoot hoodie in the Halo CE video, but it's just cool and refreshing to see someone talk so openly about their faith whilst talking about a secular video game that deals with religion, and drawing parallels with both. It's something I often wonder about - for example I'm a big Star Wars fan, and it's so fascinating to me to hear people talk about the Force, Jedi and Sith like it's a religion, yet never say what they actually believe. They keep their fandoms and personal beliefs separate, while Star Wars is encouraging someone to "find their bliss" as Campbell would say, which requires them to question life and go find something bigger than themselves/purpose, and usually you change your ideology or religion in the process. Speaking of recommendations, Star Wars is cool!
Really happy with what you've done in this video. It's been a long time since I've played Halo 2 but I never really thought about the Arbiter's character arc the way you put it - very cool. Also never thought about Halo and what's in a name... I subscribed after seeing your Halo CE video but I'm just happy to see such an unexpected crossover of ideas blow up on TH-cam.
Goodness I could give a ton of recommendations, but I'll leave you with True Detective Season 1. That is honestly the best TV anything I have ever seen.
Wish you the best for the future of your channel!!
Great video, this has always been my favorite aspect of the Halo games. I wish the TV show delved more into this part of Halo. The pitfalls of religion as a means to gain power is so integral to the whole universe but it’s something the new main Halo stories don’t really cover. Maybe that’s for the best, maybe it really only works as a one-time thing in the OG trilogy, but I can’t help but get slightly annoyed when the new games and TV use religious words (like the Harbinger doing that “Reformation” thing in Infinite), but the actual religious significance/connections are as deep as a puddle. Just word references to things from religions because “ooh religious stuff so cool and mysterious😮”
Nice dude, very interesting citations and concepts explained. Well done! Halo 2 still my favorite Halo!
Really enjoyed this video, always been fascinated with how religion was depicted in Halo
Damn, I was literally thinking about this subject a couple days ago. Crazy that something this recent just dropped in my algorithm!
The algorithm is going to bless you, my friend. Great video.
Now that was some quality content! If you keep making videos like this you'll grow quickly. Keep it up and good luck.
Since your on a Halo series, how about Bungie’s Marathon trilogy next? All three games are available for free through the Aleph One project
Great mix of shots over Jordan Peterson’s bit. Summed up the whole crux of the argument in one concise segment
what the fuck 570 subs and the production quality goes incredibly hard
This is so cool omg I didn’t grow up religious so a lot of the themes were pretty lost on me when I first played it but I going back through to really enjoy the story I LOVE having this perspective on it. Great work man your analysis is spot on 👍👍
Cap
@@sctv2127 lmao what?
@@optimistic_atlas are you that stupid or trolling?
Will you cover all the halos?
Every game has its messages and themes imo
I plan on it! There’s several other ideas I’ll be working on along side the halo videos, like other video games, movies, and tv shows, but I plan to continue coming back to halo because, like you said, they are so rich with meaning and metaphor!
I’m a Christian and I like Halo. Although, I’ve had doubts about Halo before because it seemed anti religious to me too, or the Arbiter’s story could make you doubt your own faith in real life. I used to feel that halo was a sinful game, and it was hard to give up because I liked the game. I don’t get those feelings anymore about Halo 2.
Absolutely beautiful work!
Martin O’Donnell became Catholic a couple of years ago, by the way. He’s posted some incredible liturgical music that he’s done since then. Listen to his Kyrie if you get the chance.
Yeah it’s beautiful! I actually had a podcast with Marty on the channel about his conversion to the Catholic Church!
dont know how this ended up in my recomendations, but i will give youtube this one. this was a banger video. im going to continue my campaign aginst the covenant... + the didact in h4
Omg dude, this is a great video. The production, music, script is *chef's kiss*. Subbed and excited for more!
Would love to hear more about your deconstruction and reconstruction story
I’ve actually been considering starting a podcast on another channel for longer topics like that if people would be interested!
This Man’s dedication and quality in videos is amazing investing with a Sub and I will be watching your videos are amazing keep it up, Maybe cover Bioshock series or Borderlands
Bach WTC Book 1 fugue #2 detected, opinion accepted
This video is amazing! I’m sure your channel will grow in size rapidly with how well these videos are
I've been waiting for a video like this to show up.I've been thinking about what halo 2 had to say about blind faith for months now.Granted that seed of doubt lead to me becoming an atheist.The video itself is well crafted and just as well articulated.Absolutely fantastic job.
That’s one of the most well done videos I’ve ever watched
Incredible video. This deserves way more views.
The Halo series has had many religious allegories (Flood, Ark, etc)