Forum:Characters/species always seem to change

Why is everyone always changing? Grunts, marines, spartans in general. Some are explained, I know. Different armor versions new gear and whatnot. But you cant update the past.

The first cg cutscene in halo 4 still annoys me. Yeah the Chief got a lazily explained armor change (cortana says a sentence about it when you wake up), but does that mean it's always looked like that, and everyone else?

Same thing for the elites, in that same cutscene. They all have always had the kinda predator style lower mandibles? I think the explanation is there are the more original sangehli(spelling?) and the more commonly seen covenant guys. Eh.

Jackles. There's a million of them what the hell

Marines are all about fashion. Is it common for any military to update the appearance of armor and such? I don't remember at the moment but I think they're at least similar from 4 to 5.

The grunts got changed about as much as the marines. 1 to 2, yeah alright. 2 has my favorite grunt design and body ragdoll physics. In 3 the masks must have given them athletes foot of the face. And 4, holy no. Then. Then. In the sinfully short and washed down fall of reach movie, it shows grunts with the newer nose masks.

I don't get headaches. I get eye aches. This gave me eye aches. I didn't realize I wrote all this. And that it would be a rant. I think it sounds like a rant.

Okay


 * Chief's armour: Yes and no.
 * Sangheili: They have always had a lower mandible.
 * Jackals: Huh?
 * Marines: They are in the aftermath of a large-scale war so yes they needed to update their appearance.
 * Grunts: Someone else can answer this.
 * Alertfiend - Warning, my comments may appear passive aggressive. (Converse) 03:31, 7 February 2016 (EST)


 * There are different ethnic groups among the Covenant species. Those in Halo 3 or Reach aren't the same as in Halo 4. Imrane-117 (talk) 09:49, 7 February 2016 (EST)

Not sure how replying works on here so here goes.

Yes and no?

I know Sangheili have always had lower mandibles, but in halo 4 they're more boney. Anyway that's explained I'm sure, remember reading an article on it here.

Actually thinking about it, I guess it makes sense for the marines to change from 3 to 4, four years went by.

I don't know/remember if there's an explained reason for grunt body appearance change besides simple character design.

Sigh. Again, actually thinking, my problem might be more with clothes/armor. The sangheili in the animated Reach looked like they do in halo 5 I think. I've only watched it once because dang. I almost crapped lego bricks when I saw new mark VI chief on reach and I thought they were saying the armor looked like that back then.

1.) The canonical explanation is that Cortana modified the Chief's suit while he was in cryosleep using the ship's nanobots to look like that. It's not a perfect explanation and "nanobots" has become a byword for ridiculous retcons, but no, the Chief's canon appearance in previous games has not changed.

2.) As mentioned, the Sangheili have always had a split mandible. The differences have always been more along the lines of their mass and armour - Halo Wars attracted criticism for bulking the Elites up to ridiculous levels, to make them look more powerful than a Spartan, and hunching them forward like Igor. And in Halo 4, they wore armour more inspired by insurgents wearing casual clothing - ditching the sleeves, a simpler, more functional helmet if they wore one. They also got a lot more knobbly.

3.)Different Jackals. The Jackals from past games were Ruuhtians, and the Halo 4/5 Jackals were Ibie'shans. Different places, different appearances, same species. Like the difference between a bulldog and a Doberman.

4.) Keep in mind, this is a military who spans lightyears, where fast slipspace technology has only entered service recently, and its premier pistol is a hundred years old. With the Reach and Halo 1 armour differing from the Halo 2 and 3 armour, you can probably argue that some units are using older gear because resources are going into more important things, like starships or weapons development. They all seem to work just as well. I don't believe we actually see Marines in Halo 5, but we do see Meridian private security, who use privatised versions of standard UNSC gear.

5.) See the above explanation for the Jackals. Canonically, they all exist as part of the same species, they're just different breeds.

The real-world answer is that art styles change, especially when a franchise changes hands to a group of people who want to leave their stamp on it. For all the bad designs 343 have given us, they've also given us some great stuff - the Infinity is a beautiful-looking ship, and I really like the Strident-class once they re-retconned the Halo 4 FUD to not be one. And I love the design of the new Scorpion tank as well - it looks weighty, gnarly, and powerful. And I even like the redesigns to the Covenant vehicle sandbox, though I wish for gods' sakes they'd bring back the plasma rifle. Even the Chief's new suit is growing on me - I still think the shoulder pauldrons are oversized, but the chestplate and helmet are pretty good, keeping the feel of the Halo 2/3 suits but returning to the bulky, tank-like feel of the original Mark V suit. --  Qura 'Morhek   The Autocrat     of Morheka   16:58, 9 February 2016 (EST)