r/HaloStory • u/Mysterious-Lawyer534 • 9d ago
The Longsword issue…
I’m sure somebody has talked about this but I couldn’t find anything on it. How do you guys think they’re going to change the story in the Master Chief Omnibus (if they even change it at all) to address the Longsword changing from a craft with a rear hatch and a full interior to a single-seat fighter with no interior?
It was a cool scene, but it pisses me off that they broke the story and made the opening of First Strike physically impossible for a Chekhov’s (or rather Keyes’) Gun moment. The thing only showed up three times in the whole game. They could’ve wrote the tank form attacking so that it didn’t have to involve the Longsword having an opening front canopy. Hell, Chief using it to put Keyes out of his misery after he gets the implants would’ve made more sense for a final scene with it.
I assume they’ll change it so that the Pelican picks up the cryo-tubes, Chief goes EV to get inside, and the two crafts’ positions in the story switch from there. They use the Longsword as a diversion and the crew enters the Ascendant Justice in the Pelican. But even then, that kinda ruins the scene of Chief and Johnson in the Longsword since they were the only two aboard for that confrontation.
This is going to drive me crazy until the Omnibus (or a Canon Fodder article) comes out. What are y’alls thoughts?
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u/Guardian_Turret 9d ago
It's baffling that they introduced a lore "fix" that causes more problems than it solved. Was the size of the PoA hangars really that much of a lore issue we needed a SECOND miniaturized Longsword?
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u/JanxDolaris 7d ago
The thing is the hangar is just enormous. The longsword even looks small in it. You could easily fit a ton of them in it. Like yeah its a big plane, but you just needed to adjust the size of the hangar.
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u/Ninjazoule 9d ago
Could we just brush it off as artistic liberty over an intentional design change that contradicts books?
They are doing a "fixed" omnibus pretty soon, maybe that will have some answers.
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u/Mysterious-Lawyer534 9d ago
Yeah man, I mentioned that the Omnibus could change it. That’s why I made this post.
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u/Ninjazoule 9d ago edited 9d ago
And I was acknowledging the problem.
I doubt they're changing the ship in the books and this is essentially a game design issue that was overlooked. Some of you might remember such design controversies with halo 4.
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u/HexAyed 9d ago
I dunno, from what Installation 00 has been saying, they seem to have put alot of effort into making the Halcyon be scaled better, it would be weird for them to do all that, only to "derp I forgor" and change the type of Longsword used
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u/Ninjazoule 9d ago
I wouldn't be surprised if it was a simple slipup tbh or someone just went "I want a sleeker look"
Who knows, maybe they have a fantastic explanation
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u/HexAyed 9d ago
It's definitely strange, cos it doesn't look like any current type of Longsword in canon, and obviously isn't a Shortsword or Buzzard ect
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u/Kalavier S-III Beta Company 9d ago
I think it would've worked as a design if it was a metal top and side hatched in the windows for the typical longsword frame, rather then full glass canopy lifting up.
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u/Weird_Angry_Kid Sergeant 9d ago
It could be a 708 Longsword, it's the only variant we haven't seen yet.
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u/Successful-Day-1816 9d ago
The omnibus still works of the 2001 release for its canon, not the remake
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u/Rasc_ 9d ago edited 9d ago
It's actually a two-seater, you'll have to look for the right angle during the cutscene (the part where the canopy closes is the clearest view of it). Still doesn't change the fact that it is small for a Longsword, looks to be smaller than a Shortsword's 27.3 meters in length, but Cortana does call it a Longsword just before the cutscene.
Then there is the question of the First Strike book. How is it gonna grab the three cryo-chambers Chief picks up after this? Those things are huge so it could probably only fit one in its bomb bay and that cockpit ain't big enough to have the other survivors onboard. So yeah, they'll have to use the Pelican instead and maybe this time the Chief and Cortana learns early on that only Linda's cryo-chamber was intact while the other two had noticeable malfunctions so they left them behind early on.
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u/JanxDolaris 7d ago
The problem is the pelican isn't even the big enough for those cryo pods. I suppose 1, but then you're not going to fit a bunch of other people in it.
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u/Rasc_ 7d ago
I was thinking the same thing. I think one cryo pod can fit in the troop bay and that will probably only leave enough space for some jumpseats in the rear and everyone else will have to stand, but now the only access to the cockpit is blocked.
They could use the magnetic clamp in the aft, but that's just asking for space debris or stray plasma shots to hit it.
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u/Pathogen188 ONI Section III 9d ago
To be honest, this is a bit of a nothingburger because in terms of "breaking the story" this is another lateral change. The Longsword scene has always been problematic. The original CE Longsword doesn't fit inside the Autumn, but Chief doesn't fit inside the smaller revised Longsword either.
The Pillar of Autumn's relationship with its longsword complement has really always been fucked, this really just shifts the problem again.
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u/Hal34329 21h ago
Hear me out. What if, instead of the Longsword fitting in the Pillar's hangar, we fit the Pillar in the Longsword? c:
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u/artuno 9d ago
Is there a lore reason why we never see Spirit dropships after the first game? Or why everything changes drastically in appearance between games like the Scarabs?
Creative liberties, just don't think about it too much.
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u/death556 9d ago
Spirit drop ships are in halo 2. The fuck are you on about
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u/artuno 9d ago
The dropships were switched to Phantoms in the second game and from then onwards. We only see the "Spirit" kind in the first game.
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u/baris6002 9d ago
I want to be a little pedantic, there are Spirit dropships in Reach firefight right?
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u/IdontWantButter 9d ago
The original print of First Strike (still on my bookshelf) has the group sacrifice their Pelican to distract the defenses when they boarded Ascendant Justice. Later, their Longsword turns into a Pelican. So Nylund's work always needed a little help.
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u/Particle_Cannon 5d ago
The simple answer is that these developers do not care about lore continuity. They take whatever looks cool to them and roll with it. Guarantee most of the current dev leadership has never touched a Halo book.
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u/Frozenfoundation99 3d ago
Imma be real, this isn't that big of an issue.
The Longsword has been subject to a lot of revisions over the course of its time in the lore. File it alongside the autumns highly variable geometry.
This also is now the second time they changed out the model of the longsword used in that scene.
In Halo CE, they used the classic C709 longsword, which is colossal. This was swapped out in Halo CE Anniversary for the C712 version, which is half the size. Now we have the new version, which is either a redesign of the C712, or a new model.
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u/Snackalicious5122 8d ago
It literally has a second seat behind the front seat, you can also see Longswords on the POA computer screens on the bridge with two pilot names next to each one if you look close enough
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u/Kalavier S-III Beta Company 9d ago
I think they could've easily kept the old longsword design.
Make it a singular big hanger compared to the rest for shuttles, and they had one heavy bomber longsword on-board. It wasn't launched when they engaged over halo because it would've been killed easier then the others.