Killer Orca

the Ice War on Europa...

Unironically, yes, yes it is.

Given the nature of the Spartan IIs and IIIs in the Halo franchise I have to wonder if any of the child soldiers developed dissociative disorders or dissociative tendencies

The Gamma Company S-IIIs were all intentionally made paranoid schizophrenics (to the point they have to take military grade chemical stabalization cocktails called "smoothers") to make them harder to kill in combat. The trade off is that they can keep fighting and killing well past the point a normal human (or even another Spartan in truth) would have stopped. Such as having their entire torso evaporated by a needler supercombine, or getting shot or nearly evaporated, or having multiple limbs broken. Beyond the Gammas, members of both Alpha and Beta company showed signs of sociopathy, psychopathy, and deep seated cognative dissassociation. Ex; Roland and Jonah, both of Beta Company, from the Headhunters short story. Perfect example is Emile, who the UNSC literally could not send on missions involving the Insurrection because of the things he would do to those caught in his sights. This is the same government that saw what happened on Far Isle and said "fuck it, SECOND SUN", mind you.

It's probably outdated and ableist psychology, but how does schizophrenia make them stronger 😭😭

We would rapidly get the same complaints that Destiny has more than likely, because people actively complained that the lore in Destiny 1 was all in collectables and you had to piece it together.

Given the nature of the Spartan IIs and IIIs in the Halo franchise I have to wonder if any of the child soldiers developed dissociative disorders or dissociative tendencies

The Gamma Company S-IIIs were all intentionally made paranoid schizophrenics (to the point they have to take military grade chemical stabalization cocktails called "smoothers") to make them harder to kill in combat. The trade off is that they can keep fighting and killing well past the point a normal human (or even another Spartan in truth) would have stopped. Such as having their entire torso evaporated by a needler supercombine, or getting shot or nearly evaporated, or having multiple limbs broken. Beyond the Gammas, members of both Alpha and Beta company showed signs of sociopathy, psychopathy, and deep seated cognative dissassociation. Ex; Roland and Jonah, both of Beta Company, from the Headhunters short story. Perfect example is Emile, who the UNSC literally could not send on missions involving the Insurrection because of the things he would do to those caught in his sights. This is the same government that saw what happened on Far Isle and said "fuck it, SECOND SUN", mind you.

Okay done. There's a lot I'm unclear about in the plot of Infinite. When they say the UNSC is destroyed do they mean, like, the entire thing or just in this area. Is the Zeta Halo literally the only remaining holdout for the UNSC in existence or are we all gonna go back to Earth and get given medals after this? I need to know the stakes are here. Is this one of those things I need to have played Halo Wars 2 to understand?

Specifically, the Banished managed to take the 4-ish kilometer area around the former site (and then later rebuilt site) of the Silent Auditorium. Essentially just the island area you're in and the few others that are nearby. They don't even hold the entire ring, just this important section; they dont have the forces to control the entire 10,000 kilometer long instillation. Nor could they actively take hold of the important components of the Instillation, all they have managed to do is free a possible ally (possibly not, as the Endless have very little interest in working with the Banished outside of their own ends) and deprive humanity (temporarily) of their largest ship. Everything they did in 6 months, Chief undid in less than two days, as well as singlehandedly murdering most of the command and control for the entire fleet in the area, as well as their existing leader. To see what else is going on in the rest of the galaxy, read the books Rubicon Protocol, Empty Throne, and Edge of Dawn, in that order.

The funniest thing about Halo Infinite to me is that Escharum's beef with John is entirely one-sided. All these people keep monologing at him and he doesn't even know who they are.

Escharum, over the coms in the House of Reckoning: "Yesssss, Spartan, come. Fight me. Prove your worth!" John, still feeling the aches of being asleep in space for 6 months, running on combat drugs, underlying training, and WAY TO MUCH GODDAMN TRAUMA, casually slamming a fresh Skewer round into the launcher while also distangling the weapon from its now dead previous owner: "I was going to go kick your ass even BEFORE you kidnapped my pilot asshole, you don't need to keep goading me."

that xkcd comic but it's oh of course everyone gets interested in things and then learns as much about it as possible, all side material of their favs, and starts amassing notes. Surely we've all replayed the games several times in fits of fervor followed by the comics, etc. like yeah the Cortana Tales from Slipspace comic, of course we've all seen it, poured over, sat with it, and then dug up the storyboards for H4 and 5. right?

It's easy to forget that most Halo fans have only read maybe 6-10 novels. You know. Definitely the average amount.

There are around 45 now I think, I'd have to look up the exact number.

38 novels and ~10 comics. Plus the two movies, and the animated shorts.

Fun fact! They do exist in canon, they just work like normal PPCs. The Manticore uses one.

THE MECH CLAWWWWWW

Even a Locust is a terrifying opponent if you're a trooper on ground or in a tank.

that xkcd comic but it's oh of course everyone gets interested in things and then learns as much about it as possible, all side material of their favs, and starts amassing notes. Surely we've all replayed the games several times in fits of fervor followed by the comics, etc. like yeah the Cortana Tales from Slipspace comic, of course we've all seen it, poured over, sat with it, and then dug up the storyboards for H4 and 5. right?

It's easy to forget that most Halo fans have only read maybe 6-10 novels. You know. Definitely the average amount.

"They never explained this, this should have been in the games!" "It was in the comics though, the anthology they released a year before the game came out." "Theres comics?!"

If she doesn't tell you, declare a Trial of Possession for it instead. If she says no, you know what to reply with.

The right arm of the free world at work.

Anyone know what the green bit on the end of the barrel is for?

Because both sides use basically the same gear so if you see an AK or something pointing at you, you gotta be ready to tell if its friendly or not?

The right arm of the free world at work.

Anyone know what the green bit on the end of the barrel is for?

my actual vampire hot take is that if you're going to be a 'vegetarian' vampire (a vampire that only drinks the blood of animals) you MUST have hunter education. i'm so sick of people being like oh well predator animals are mean and scary because they kill cute 'harmless' animals like NO they're crucial for the environment and if you're going to hunt animals for blood you still need to stick to regular people hunting guidelines and only hunt things that are in season and abide by your areas bag limits

vampire that did a detailed study about whether vampires can get prion diseases and concluded they can't and preferentially hunts animals with chronic wasting disease. and then incinerates the corpses.

vampire who is a woke predation abolitionist and so exclusively hunts predators, leaving primarily herbivorous and scavenging animals alone

grace barely ever swearing even in his own internal monologue means that for all we know rocky said fuck constantly and he just didn't tell us about it

Rocky is a tatted-up engineer alone on a mission with a lab scientist/teacher. I'd bet every other word was profanity.

Eridian profanity must be FASCINATING.