Kwan Ha

Kwan Ha is a shrewd, audacious girl from the planet Madrigal during the Human-Covenant War.

Childhood
Kwan Ha grew up on the Outer Colony of Madrigal where her parents were both Insurrectionists. During a conference of several high-ranking Insurrectionists, Kwan Ha's mother was assassinated by Spartan Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, something that Kwan personally witnessed. Kwan developed ambitions of leaving Madrigal and finding a new life elsewhere.

Losing her home
In 2552, Kwan and her friends snuck out of her father's outpost and into the nearby woods where Kwan found them some nuts that could be used to make drugs. Kwan became distracted by flashing lights nearby coming from a cave system with a Covenant Phantom parked on top. Kwan tried to warn her friends, but they came under attack by Sangheili and only Kwan survived. Fleeing, Kwan fired a flare to warn the outpost that they were under attack.

Kwan managed to return to the outpost where her father dismissed her claims that the attackers weren't UNSC and had Kwan hide with the other children against her will. As the Covenant attacked, Kwan secretly climbed out of the bunker, worried about her family and friends, narrowly avoiding a Sangheili that found and slaughtered everyone inside. The Spartans of Silver Team arrived, but to the surprise of Kwan and the Insurrectionist defenders, the Spartans joined forces with them in fighting against the Covenant. Making her way through the battlefield, Kwan narrowly escaped death several times, including once when Kai-125 sniped a Sangheili that had her cornered. The Spartans managed to eliminate the Covenant attackers, but only Kwan and her father survived. A surviving Sangheili Major attempted to kill Kwan, but her father rushed to her rescue and was killed before John-117 took the Sangheili out.

In the aftermath, Kwan followed the Spartans back to the cave system where the Covenant had parked their ship. A surviving cloaked Sangheili rushed out, throwing Kwan to the ground and knocking her out, but leaving the girl with only minor injuries.

Meeting John-117
After sending the other Spartans back to Reach in the Covenant Phantom, John-117 recovered a Forerunner artifact that the Covenant had been after and took it and the unconscious Kwan Ah with him aboard his team's Condor. When Kwan woke up, Miranda Keyes spoke to her through a hologram and attempted to enlist the girl's help in promoting the Spartans across the galaxy. Grieving and angry at the timing, Kwan refused to help and instead threatened to spread disinformation and help to further discredit the program across the colonies.

Eventually, John joined Kwan and even fed her, but he evaded her questions about his running diagnostics on his suit, the Forerunner artifact and his refusal to remove his helmet. Kwan eventually revealed that she had met him before when John had killed her mother and she gave him her side of the story, pointing out the inconsistencies in the UNSC's reasoning for the assassination. John received an order from UNSC command ordering him to assassinate Kwan whom they had determined to be a risk, but he instead cut his ship's camera feed and went rogue. In response, the oxygen to the ship was cut and the oxygen in John's suit was lowered so as to render him unconscious. Despite this, John managed to remain awake and override the air flow controls, restoring oxygen to the ship. Vice Admiral Margaret Parangosky ordered a full squadron of Marines and Pelicans to meet the approaching Condor and for Kwan to be shot on sight and John to be shot too if he tried to stop them.

When Kwan awakened, she believed that John had attempted to kill her despite his protests and grabbed his battle rifle. Telling her that the bullets wouldn't even penetrate the outer plating of his armor, John removed his helmet to talk to Kwan face to face and convinced Kwan of his sincerity, admitting that he didn't know why he was going rogue and helping her. Allowing Kwan to keep his rifle, John enlisted her help to disable the ship's AI autopilot with Kwan resorting to shooting out the controls when she couldn't get them disconnected. However, the UNSC hit the Condor with an electromagnetic pulse, sending it crashing the rest of the short way to the ground and briefly knocking Kwan out again. As the Marines prepared to breach the ship, John touched the alien artifact, causing it to light up with symbols and send out a pulse that knocked out power to the base and restored power to the Condor, much to John and Kwan's surprise. With power restored and the autopilot disabled, John and Kwan quickly strapped in and fled from Reach before the UNSC could fully recover.

John took Kwan to the Rubble to meet his old friend Soren who revealed that Vinsher Grath had placed a bounty upon her head, making Kwan wanted by both the UNSC and her own people. Soren also revealed that Vinsher had started to execute her father's loyalists as he strove to establish a UNSC friendly government, much to Kwan's disgust. John and Kwan spent the night with Soren's family where Kwan watched drone footage of Vinsher's executions and bonded with Soren's wife and son.

The next day, Soren took John and Kwan to meet Reth, a human mystic who had been taken aboard a Covenant ship and lived to tell the tale. Reth took an interest in Kwan and seemingly recognized her name before John and Soren questioned him about the Forerunner artifact. Reth revealed that such artifacts were what the Covenant had based their whole religion upon and that John was a "Blessed One," although one that was different than the Blessed One that the Covenant had. Reth forced John to activate the artifact, sending out an energy pulse that caused everyone pain and made the symbols reappear. Reth revealed that the ring that the artifact showed was what the Covenant were after and that it was a weapon that could bring about the end of life as they knew it. Reth urged John to destroy the artifact and then to destroy himself.

John decided to return to the UNSC with the artifact instead and seek out their help in stopping the Covenant from finding what they were after. Much to Kwan's shock and dismay, John chose to leave her on the Rubble in the care of Soren for her own safety. Shortly after John's departure, Kwan furiously watched a news broadcast where Vinsher announced a historic deal between Madrigal and the UNSC.

Return to Madrigal
As Madrigal submitted more and more to UNSC control under Vinsher Grath, Kwan sought to return to her home planet and link up with those still loyal to her father so as to rejoin the fight. However, Soren refused to help her and sent Kwan back to his home where Kessler pointed out Hesiod, Metisette and Madrigal in the sky, although she was unable to see the latter. Laera tried to convince Kwan to move on with her life, using her own experiences, but Kwan refused to give up on her planet. Kwan attempted to steal Soren's favorite ship using what John had shown her on the Condor, but she was caught by Soren. Kwan promised to pay Soren in deuterium money if he took her to her father's generals and Soren agreed, warning Kwan that he would get paid either from the generals or from the bounty on her head.

Production notes
Kwan Ha in Halo: The Television Series is portrayed by Korean-Australian actress Yerin Ha. Like Yerin Ha, Kwan Ha is of Korean descent. Yerin Ha was discovered during a worldwide casting search and is known for her stage work in Australia. Casting notices for the show obtained by The Hollywood Reporter and publicized on November 1, 2018 had mentioned a character named Jenny who was reportedly to be played by a woman of Asian descent between the ages of eighteen and twenty years old. It's possible that that "Jenny" was a code name or a working name for Kwan Ha.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Television Series
 * Contact
 * Unbound
 * Emergence
 * Homecoming