Anger, Sadness And Envy Episode 2: Crow's Nest (MP3)

I've got to say, your interpretation of what the story would have been is interesting, but I think you vested a little too much in it to be satisfied by what the truth is.

Of course, when you get your hands on Contact Harvest you'll learn a little bit more about Truth, and you'll understand he does know a lot more then everyone else. He knows the Humans are the Forerunner's "children" in that they inherited the Forerunner's goods. He also has shown active rebellion against an "Oracle" the Covenant have found before, showing that in some small parts he might not all be about going on the Great Journey. Certainly, he believes in it...almost all Covenant members do, if they did not they would not fight so fiercely. However, he is a manipulator through and through, and perhaps when he had been "transcended" he would have gone on a mission to remove all others in his way. He is deluded, but not foolish I suppose.

That's good to hear

I think you're very mistaken as far as your interpretation of Marty and Joe's discussion in the commentary.

From what I picked up, Michael Wincott's voice sounded like someone "you could possibly be friends with" as in when you play as the Arbiter in Halo 2 he doesn't sound completely overbearing, but rather like a respected General or something that cares about his subordinates "The hopes of all the Covenant rest on your shoulders, Chieftan..." The way Wincott's voice sounds and the way it is delivered, regardless of how "raspy" it is, sounds encouraging, and nothing like the delivery of ANY of Truth's lines in Halo 3. In Halo 3 on the other hand, now that Truth's betrayal of the Arbiter had come and gone, there was no reason to insert Wincott's touch of ambiguity into Truth's voice- in Halo 3, as voiced by Terrence Stamp, Truth is pure malevolence and evil.

Also, I thought that your discussion on the Crow's Nest "big brute encounter" was kinda blown out of proportion. Even on legendary, it can be surgically dealt with, with little frustration.

1. In the encounter previous, rip off a turret with full 200 ammo.
2. Open the door, drop the turret in the cup of the slotted military cover thing, and from that slot, shoot each one of the twelve bursts of your battle rifle at the Chieftan's head. Before he is able to turn on his invincibility, the last burst will enter his unhelmeted cranium.
3. Pick up the turret again, and move forward one row of cover, still on the bottom. As brutes come down to investigate one by one (every time), fill them full of lead and retreat to recharge your shields before the next one comes around the corner. If you take each one out with the turret, your shields will never go all the way down, but if by some fluke chance two of them can get shots/grenades off at you around a corner at once, use the architectural features of the raised portholes to evade them.
4. All but one or two brutes will be dead, the ones that didn't come to investigate will be easy pickings with your turret even when you leave cover if you barrage them well because even taking 2 one at a time on legendary with no cover with a turret, you will not die.
5. Take the invincibility and the hammer, and get ready to own the brutes/fuel rod chieftan in the ops center with no fear of death.

Your interpretation that Bungie rewarded the player for using the grav lifts by putting a close quarters weapon like the shotgun up there is unfounded, because there are two weapon racks on each side of the corridor on the BOTTOM, each with shotguns in them.

By the way, I've loved your site for years and it's great to hear this kind of discussion about Halo on your podcast.
I think your listener base will grow, but I honestly don't know why more people don't visit R.net anyways. Your site and the Halo Story Page are my two favorite Halo sites ever when they're updated regularly (which you have been doing to a great extent prior to and in the wake of Halo 3's release).

I went back and checked and have to say I support my original interpretation.

Play the clip over again; the commentary track only references Wincott, not Stamp, but it's clear they think they made Halo 2's Truth sound too evil. In fact, if you have the DVD that came with the special editions, play the commentary track with the 2nd subtitle track on-- it provides a transcript:

Staten: "I think one of the tactical errors we might have made, Marty, is in the world where we wanted to convince people that Truth wasn't the worst guy in the world..."
Marty: (laughs) How in the world was that ever something we thought would actually happen?"
Staten: "Don't get me wrong. Michael Wincott, genius performance. "
Marty: "Yes, but he's never going to make you feel like he was going to be, possibly be your friend."
Staten: (laughs)

I think that's pretty unambiguous.

For all of Stamp's bluster, look at the final confrontation with the Arbiter-- no threats, no harassment. He does accuse the Elites in general of betrayal, but for all we know, he might actually believe it. He sounds like he does. I'd never have thought that of Wincott's Truth.

Despite having betrayed him, Truth believes he is serving the Great Journey and that the Arbiter should appreciate that. I don't think he's "evil" at all and in the end I think that's where the conflict with him gets its moral aspect. He has to be stopped, but must be destroyed in order to achieve that because he can't be bargained with, because his beliefs do not allow him any room to compromise his goals.

Thanks for listening to the podcast and for your feedback!

I wholeheartedly disagree!

Wincott's performance was genius, it was wrong of Bungie to change the voice actor. Even the accent was different. It ruined the game for me and is the sole reason I refuse to purchase it.