[HATED] Adaptations done intentionally without help from the source

[u/Chill0000]

Halo TV show: Before the show came out, the writers were praising their decision to not look to the games for inspiration when making the show

God Of War TV show: Chris Judge, the actor of Kratos in the games from 2018-Now, spoke up about his dislike on the show not hiring anyone who worked on any of the previous games. One of the original creators of Kratos also spoke up about them not having faith in the adaptation.

Supergirl 2026 film: the director for the film not only said he decided to not read Woman Of Tomorrow, the comic the film is adapting, because he wanted to do his own thing, he also didn’t look at comic art for inspiration to design Lobo and instead used an AI image generator to design Lobo’s look for the film

[u/outofmaxx]

I will probably never get over my hate for that Halo TV show, as a big ole Halo fan it pissed me off so bad when he took his helmet off, and from there on it's just not even about Halo, it becomes extremely shitty expanse plus hey look some of the mars people look like sanghili

[u/TheBacklogGamer → u/outofmaxx]

He takes his helmet off during non-combat situations all the time. He takes it off as soon as the threat is over in the first game. He takes it off between missions too, you just don't see it. It'd be silly to hide his face the entire time...

[u/Kahliden → u/TheBacklogGamer]

You just don’t get it 

[u/TheBacklogGamer → u/Kahliden]

No, I think you don't. 

You really expected to have a show, with Chief as the main character, therefore getting most of the screen time, having his face conveniently obscured for every non-combat scene like some gag from Home Improvement? No. It's absurd. 

[u/Kahliden → u/TheBacklogGamer]

Yes. Literally everyone did. It’s a big part of Chief’s character in the source material. It’s not absurd, it’s the reasonable thing to do. 

Even if the helmet came off in a couple scenes, they shouldn’t have shown us his face. 

[u/TheBacklogGamer → u/Kahliden]

You say "it's a big part of his character in the source material." It's not though. There is no lore, in the source material that states he always wears his helmet, even outside of combat. In combat, yes. Outside of combat, no. Even in the source material, he takes off the helmet. The games cut stuff short, but there is a lot of time in between missions. And guess what, he takes off the helmet during those periods. For a game, it makes sense we never see the helmet off. That's fine. But in the lore, it's off all the time.

Example, slipspace travel is not instant. While we, the viewer, see them jump into slipspace and come out on the other side, there are days, often weeks, in between. Do you think Chief is walking around in full armor during that period? No.

The events of Halo take place over days. He returns to mission command and while there, guess what he does with his helmet? And like I said, at the end of the god damn game, when all is said and done, what's the first thing he does? Takes the helmet off.

For a show, there's constraints. There's budget, there's contracts. Master Chief was the main charactrer. He gets the most screentime. Period. They wanted to tell the story leading up to finding the ring, as the fall of Reach is compelling stuff. They did not have the budget for the show to be constantly combat situation, so it was a lot of build up and downtime. ie, he's going to be out of armor a lot. He's in 60% of the scenes, maybe more. It would have undercut the serious nature of the show to have his face conveniently obscured during those scenes. It's insane to even consider it.

The LORE of the games do not have any reason for him to be in armor/helmet on, all the time, unlike things like Dredd and The Mandalorian. It's just that from our perspective, to keep the game going, we don't get those out of combat situations, and we get quick briefings at level start to catch up to speed before the mission starts. But I assure you, he was out of the armor and helmet off during time on the Halo ring during the first game.

[u/outofmaxx → u/TheBacklogGamer]

Well he wore it during the opening of Halo 2, and it would've been cool if they just shot it so you could never see his face, or you could base the episodes around a mission and have each episode end with him taking his helmet off or something like that

[u/TheBacklogGamer → u/outofmaxx]

Well he wore it during the opening of Halo 2

Because that was a ceremony and it was for show. That was him in uniform so to speak. Like, I don't deny that he feels more at home and comfortable in the armor and helmet on.

and it would've been cool if they just shot it so you could never see his face

So here's the thing about that. He's the main character and top billed actor. That means he gets the majority of the screen time. These were fairly long episodes, so you want 20+ minutes, per episode, of just his face always conveniently obscured?

The show has a budget and it was never going to be completely combat situations all the time. There was going to be significant downtime, with the occasional action scene. That's how shows and movies work. These downtime scenes were going to be the bulk of the show, and it would have been absurd to run a "Home Improvement" level gag where no matter what angle he was in, something blocked his face.

I get it, it's how you know the character, but in the lore, in the books, he's out of the suit plenty, even on the ring in the first game. Those are the scenes we'd get with a show, and was always going to be the case.

For something like the Mandalorian or Dredd, there were in-universe reasons why they were always in armor. It was built into the character. Not so with Master Chief. From a gameplay perspective, it's what we were shown, but there was a lot in between missions that we didn't see.

For example, slipspace travel days days, often weeks. We see it happen almost instantly in the game. But there's a lot of downtime between going in and coming out of slipspace. That sort of downtime we would have seen during a show, hell I bet we'd get an entire episode of just them in transit building up tension and giving character moments.

I get it. I do. But realistically, with Chief as a main character, him being helmet on/suit on all the time, was never going to be a thing with a serious take on the show.

And to be clear, there are many countless reasons to dislike the show. Ultimately, it's not great. Arguably ok as its own sci-fi show, but not as a Halo show. But the helmet thing is not one of them. Also, I made a post about it elsewhere in this thread, but OP is wrong about the creators avoiding the source material. That was a massive misquote. The truth is actually more infuriating imo, but I just hate misinformation.