Post-Bungie ONI is so competent and damn-near psychic that they know what the San’Shyuum have for breakfast, and yet so incompetent that they don’t even know what they’re spending their own money on. Parangosky was going all “You lied about the Flash Clones, Halsey,” and it’s like, no, she didn’t lie. Instead, the author made Parangosky retarded.
Also, there’s the hilarious juxtaposition of ONI moralizing about the awfulness of the SPARTAN-II program while also doing the Elites dirty at the same exact fucking time, Jesus Christ. Not only did Traviss use her OCs in her glorified Halo fanfic as her unbearably smug mouthpieces, she also had those same mouthpieces acting immorally and not even really commenting on it or feeling conflicted about it at all.
I haven’t read any of her Star Wars novels, but I’ve heard the horror stories, and how she has a tendency to depict Mandalorians as egalitarian and wholesome instead of the ruthless meritocrats they actually are.
Glasslands was so bad, I haven’t read a Halo novel in close to a decade.
Welcome to Karen Traviss' mental gymnastics. She's the same person who accuses the Jedi of being child-snatchers, yet glorifies the Mandalorians who snatch children and turn them into killing machines. Both Jango Fett and Kal Skirata were children when they were snapped up by Mandalorian soldiers who indoctrinated them into becoming Mandalorians. And yet Traviss has the gall to whine about how immoral it is that the Jedi were snatching up children. So basically, her making ONI hyper-competent on one end and incompetent on the other is just another show of her ineptitude when it comes to consistent logic: how can ONI be smart enough to manipulate the Sangheili, yet stupid enough not to know about the flash clones who replaced the Spartan-2 children or all the horrid shit that went on in the Spartan-2 Program? It reeks of amateur writing and forced characterization. At this point, it sounds more like ONI is blaming Halsey for things THEY approved of, which is akin to Adolf Hitler putting Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Eichmann on trial for the Holocaust. It really is that stupid.
Just as Traviss condemns the Jedi for snatching up kids but absolves the Mandalorians of any wrongs when they snatch kids, so too does the same logic apply to ONI. ONI condemning Dr. Halsey is righteous condemnation, whereas ONI starting a civil war against a Sangheili Arbiter who helped save humanity is justified because the Sangheili are somehow a threat to humanity and they need to be kept destabilized. Yeah, real moral. Condemn a woman who was trying her best to save lives in an unethical project ONI started, and justify ONI screwing over someone who helped save humanity. It's even worse than what she did to the Mandalorians. At worst, she turned them into whiny bitches who complained about the Jedi. At this point, Traviss unwittingly made ONI a faction of evil, manipulative bastards.
Eric Nylund really should have been given authority over the rest of the Halo books. Instead, Traviss' writing spilled over to the games, and we get Sangheili who make Tartarus look like British nobility from Victorian England.
I’ve seen that interview before. It’s just as appalling of a read now as it was back then. Karen Traviss is either deluded or dishonest, or both.
At this point, alarm bells should be going off in one’s head. Authors of prose are not journalists and should not see themselves as such. They are not commenting on worlds. They are creating them.
This is the exact opposite of what Karen Traviss does. Her characters are her hand puppets, with no will of their own whatsoever.
Translation: She writes existing characters extremely OOC and expects you to eat shit and die if you don’t like it.
Karen Traviss’s one-sided depiction of Halsey offers absolutely no room for interpretation whatsoever. Halsey is a cartoon villain, and not even a smart one. She took one of the smartest people in the series and turned her into Dr. Heinz fucking Doofenshmirtz.
Rewarding for Traviss, maybe. For the audience? Torture.
By making her into a such an exceptional mental case that there’s no way she could possibly function as a soldier. Lucy would break down and have retarded PTSD episodes or whatever from the littlest of things, and they still let her wear power armor instead of giving her a padded room.
Karen Traviss deludes herself and is dishonest. Simple as that.
Journalists only tell the story from one point of view. Authors have a God's-eye point of view. The job of a journalist is to sell a narrative, usually from one side's point of view. The job of an author is to create a narrative where both sides' point of view are articulated and logical. Party A runs a rebellion because they believe in freedom, Party B wants to stamp out rebellion because they support order and may have had bad memories of chaotic times. Traviss basically eschews that and makes a one-sided argument as to why A is good and B is bad, or vice versa.
Traviss' puppets are either used by her to espouse her views, or made to look bad so as to support her views. For example, in SW EU works, Jedi care about the lives of clone troopers and sympathize with their plight. In Traviss' hands, the Jedi barely care about the clones' suffering outside of the token Jedi who either leaves or condemns the Jedi Order as a whole. And when people call her out on this and tell her it's out of character, she gets pissy and doesn't take well to criticism, sometimes even saying that her detractors have Nazi-like thinking. Which is ironic, considering what she turned her ONI mouthpieces into-an organization scapegoating people for others' problems and making plans against a race they deem a threat. How ironic.
Halsey should be portrayed as a broken woman who mulls over the losses her Spartan-2s suffered. Instead, she's portrayed as a cartoon villain.
Lucy should be more of a strong reliable character, instead of someone who should be locked up in a hospital for people who need a safe space.
Don't forget the fact that being stranded with an Engineer for a few chapters, and subsequently Halsey threatening said Engineer (like the horrible devil woman Traviss wanted to make her out to be) was the catalyst that finally broke Lucy's PTSD-induced muteness and caused her to speak again for the first time in years.
Glasslands was a really painful read. And I'm someone who suffered through most of Traviss' Republic Commando novels as well.
EDIT to add this little addendum:
Parangosky seriously felt like Traviss' self-insert. I hope I'm not the only one who got that vibe from her.
It's ironic that Traviss is using Parangosky as her self-insert. Parangosky is probably the one who should be blamed for the unethical practices of the Spartan Program. She checked off on all that. And if she didn't know that horrible things were happening in the Spartan Program, then she sucks as a spymaster and doesn't deserve her post. Even that chubby grease-ball Darth Baras would be more worthy of being ONI chief when compared to her, because he at least uses his spies well and had them infiltrate friend or foe alike rather thoroughly.
Come on, this is revisionist history. You can love the game, but Halo Reach was not beloved, it was a very divisive game.
Halo Reach had tributes up the ass from Halo fans, who loved it and hailed it as Bungie's swan song game. Some aspects of the multiplayer were criticized, but most fans loved it and wanted more.
Speaking of moralizing...
Didn't Traviss have ONI flex about how the Spartan-III's were morally superior to the Sprtan-II program because the III's "volunteered" or some shit like that?
Because the consent of broken 4-6-year-old suicide mission cannon fodder war orphans is worth so much amirite?
Traviss's views on morality are fascinatingly odd.
That's why I can't accept ONI having any moral high ground against Halsey. Not only did they kidnap kids for the Spartan-2 Project, but they took in more kids and slated them to be cannon fodder who will most likely die one day, because basically, that's what the Spartan-3s are meant to be.
Let's not kid ourselves. This is the same woman who condemns the Jedi for snatching up kids as recruits while praising Mandalorians who also snatch up kids as recruits. Counting on her to have consistent morality is like counting on Johnny Bravo to stop flirting with girls. It's improbable, if not impossible.
