‘Halo 3′ takes over Earth
Relevance extends beyond Xbox controller
The explosive popularity of the three “Halo” games has beget its share of spin-offs —novels, comic books, action figures and a rumored in-the-works-movie with Peter Jackson.
But the videogame might be a lot closer to Core Humanities than the “Halo” gamers realize.
The plot of “Halo” references sources from science fiction movies to Christianity.
The videogames center around Master Chief, one of the few remaining humans left to protect earth. He and an artificial intelligence, Cortana, fight alien forces, The Covenant. The Covenant are religious zealots, who believe martyrdom is the ultimate honor and that when they activate the doomsday rings called Halos, they will go on a “great journey.”
The leaders of The Covenant are called Prophets and they call Master Chief “the Demon.” Covenant, demon, prophet and halo itself are all words that reference Christianity.
“The truly groundbreaking thing about Halo is that the enemy, The Covenant, are religious fanatics,” said Christopher Coake, an English professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Coake is also a frequent gamer, who beat the first two Halo games.
“‘Halo’ calls into question ideas of the afterlife, martyrdom, suicide bombing,” Coake said. “Things we hear about in the news today.”
Though Coake is quick to point out this doesn’t make “Halo” an easy analogy for the war in Iraq. Coake drew parallels to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. Although Tolkien didn’t intend to parallel WWII, his experiences fighting in it did influence his writing.
“I can’t imagine living in a world with war without having it influence the literature you’re writing,” he said.
During “Halo 2,” one of the Covenant, the Arbiter, defects and fights alongside Master Chief.
The Arbiter, whose name means a person with power to settle a dispute, is out to redeem himself.
“You see that a lot in literature,” Coake said. “The Arbiter might as well be Jason Bourne, a soldier who has cause to think about the war he’s fighting in.”
On the other hand, Coake said Master Chief is kept with as little personality as possible.
“He doesn’t question orders,” Coake said. “He’s like Bruce Willis in ‘Die Hard,’ without the doubt.”
Also, Master Chief and the Arbiter stumble upon the release of the Flood, another race of aliens out to destroy as much as possible. Flood is another word that references Christianity.
“‘Halo’ harkens to a tradition of war films and science fiction movies,” Coake said. “Where the single soldier is greater than the movements of generals and armies.”
David Fenimore, an English professor, said the focus on the individual in a lawless landscape is prevalent in western culture.
The idea of heroes in environments pre- or post-civilization runs from “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” up to “Mad Max.”
“That part is woven into our narrative of Western civilization,” Fenimore said. “The fascination of what is the next stage going to be of civilization. What’s the end going to be like?”
Fenimore said modern narratives are not generally used as morality lessons anymore, like the mythology of ancient Greece and Rome were, but they still perform similar functions of escapism.
“It’s sort of that imaginary place,” Fenimore said. “This is the origin of literature. People are imagining life with their stories about the gods and demons, a world where the kids aren’t sick and you don’t have to get up and toil every day. Videogames take that one step further. You not only participate. You’re directing it.”
This entry was posted
on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Arts & Entertainment.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
