Halo has recently ventured to adapt to media formats outside of the traditional first-person shooter outlet, whether it be on the silver screen as a web-series in the cases of Halo: Nightfall and Forward Unto Dawn, or, inside the pages of a comic book in tales such as Halo: Escalation. Unfortunately, whether deserved or not, these attempts often lure monumental critique, or worse, minimal discussion, virtually none reaching the heights of Halo’s playable best, and leaving a sizable segment of fans pondering if Halo can see feasible success beyond a controller.

Despite the franchise’s kryptonite seeming to manifest as television, often plastered as simple mediocrity, one of its most victorious projects was ironically Halo Legends, a shockingly poignant transition of Halo‘s central concepts and ingenuity to a digestible, animated format. Despite Legends‘ critical and fan approval, however, we’ve yet to see any discussion of a continued series, whether intentionally or otherwise, a missed opportunity and a direction that I deeply hope this piece plays a part in course-correcting.

This article, and future expansions of its material, will revolve around an endeavor I’ve sought since the culmination of the first Legends episodes, a yearning for some of Halo‘s most creative narratives and a shrewd capitalization of a brand new era of television formatting. There has never been a more opportune time for Halo Legends to receive a sequel, and I can only fantasize that, paired with the success of Showtime’s Halo series, Legends II can make its debut on the drawing board as a continuation of something spectacular.

Spartan Kojo Agu, known predominantly among fans and in-canon as “Romeo”, is often overshadowed compared to his fellow Alpha-Nine compatriots. Possessing a sleazy veneer, Romeo is time and time again proven as a competent soldier, but despite this, his often inappropriate behavior relegates him to a secondary position in any narratives surrounding his team. Due to these highly obnoxious character quirks, Romeo is often locked out of the potential of any sort of isolated quest. The key to Romeo’s character is that his chauvinism is predominantly irritating, and his realistic portrayal of uber-machismo evolves to be rapidly agonizing the longer he lingers. The challenge of properly writing him in a solo spotlight stems from transforming such a source of brotherly misery into a compelling protagonist, and abiding by the composition of his character without aggravating the audience.

Therein lies the point of Home. Set in the aftermath of the tragic events of New Blood, and subsequently, Romeo’s induction into the Spartan program, the ex-ODST is recommissioned for a high-priority assassination run in the Sedran outskirts. Catching the attention of a desperate superior officer, Romeo’s aptitude with anti-matériel weaponry is put to the test in the tedious vein of covert ops. Though his inclination toward ill-advised remarks presents a concern to his superiors, he is matched with fledgling Spartan-IV Freya Villanueva, under the impression that her resolute shell would keep the former shock trooper in check. The locale of Sedra’s springtime glamour would act as a familiar backdrop, first seen in Halo: Nightfall under a similar premise. Home would thoroughly mirror The Babysitter from the original series, a fairly analogous premise with an implicit focus on the oft-unclear definition of heroism and its ties to selfishness. Below is a summation of the episode’s premise, a vague descriptor for broader narrative beats.

The unexpected demise of The Rookie left Alpha-Nine splintered, each soldier struggling to cope with the veracity of war’s unsavory costs. For marksman Kojo Agu, this manifested in the form of continued service alongside the remnants of his unspoken family. Still defiant in the face of desperate times, all found themselves “awarded” with the once-unachievable honour of becoming Spartans. Now reallocated to Sedra, the ex-ODST better identified as “Romeo” finds himself thrust into the feral wilderness of an unoccupied expanse. Sparse data has prompted UNSC intervention on the Outer Colony world, enlisting the expert sniper to curtail colonial risks. The situation reaches a head on his marathon hunt as tensions flare with fellow Spartan Freya Villanueva, antithetical in every essence to her compatriot. Her stoic recreation of the inflexibility of the Spartan-II branch leaves Romeo agitated, brashly rejecting her false imitation of “lightning-in-a-bottle” glory. Baring the weight of an all-too familiar responsibility, Freya finds herself apprehensive for the first time in her military career.

Home‘s direct objective would be to acknowledge the challenge behind transmogrifying Romeo’s machismo into Grecian heroism and counter predictable narrative methods of this progression. The Spartan-IVs, by design, signify a set of characteristics far less noble than their orphaned precursors, and Romeo is the optimum vehicle to display the juxtaposition in this namesake. He is a Spartan by name, and a Spartan by armour, but the mythical charm of a rigid and heavily censored super-soldier cut-out does not apply to him. Finding herself at the opposite end of the aisle, Freya Villanueva’s central objective is to qualify for the impossible mold left in the footsteps of the Spartan-IIs. Her fanatical recreation of their nostalgic and unforgettable heroism has left her unrelentingly bent on manufacturing that same tortured image, an insecurity which our heroine has to confront alongside Romeo.



“I hate this quiet. Almost makes me miss the sound of Covvie cruisers over my head.”

Sedra’s vivid forests would garner a comfortable familiarity in the Halo universe, homely, while also starkly alien. Peppered with infinite fields of golden flora, the populated swathe functions as an important contrast to the tension between Home’s protagonists. Immersed in a flourishing environment among quaint fauna inhabitants, Freya and Romeo quarrel with the definition of an artificial super-soldier, surrounded by the greatest earthly parallel to their manufactured nature.

There was an innate comfort radiating from the rich verdant of Sedra’s outskirts, steeped in winding turns and endless springtime. Its humid, sunbaked veneer was a far cry from the crisp grid patterns and artificially controlled temperatures of War Games training simulators, which could never truly replicate the sweltering claustrophobia of endless natural dominion. The bustling forest hide was home to a diverse ecosystem, untouched by lackluster local efforts and off-world ventures. It was the penultimate safety net for brash asylum seekers and hasty interstellar black market transactions, said transactions swiftly followed by well-shrouded graves at the first notice of a red flag. The embers of friction in this vivacious vista stirred as the two Spartans quickly found themselves at odds. Freya’s deliberate and calculated stillness left the humid air vacant for Romeo’s perpetual and unending spew of thoughts. At first, she remained steadfast and composed, unperturbed by the repeated attempts to incite a reaction from an otherwise wound together individual. It is only through Romeo’s revelation that he is aware of Freya’s otherwise shrouded roots which provoked an immediate and intense backlash, unchained riposte begetting a broken woman.

Freya Villanueva’s dubious ties are admitted in an arena of wilderness, a hushed acceptance between the entrenched woman and the natural world. Her deep veneration of the Spartan program stemmed from glints of drifting seconds, seemingly a world apart on Sedra. She could precisely count each ear-splitting round bursting from her liberator’s MA5K, brandished with the insignias of alien scourges they had silenced. Unsheathing her darkened skin from the warmth of her helmet, she could faintly observe the timid mannerisms of a little Arcadian girl, hairs raised by the frigid gasps of unfortunate ghosts. Romeo’s aggravation toward her noteworthy influence, her fabricated acceptance into the Spartan program, is shadowed in the loss of the Rookie, a dubious but well-intended postmortem care for an unknowing friend.

R: “Y’know, it’s not every day you meet someone who not only bought the UNSC’s highest honours, but pretends everyone else is less important because they couldn’t afford it.”



F: “What is your goal with this pestering? I’ve served in the Army practically my entire life. I fought on Tribute while they were burning it to the goddamn ground!”



R: “The fact of the matter is you didn’t earn it. What about the other candidates you pushed out because you wanted to be a Spartan so bad? What about the ones who aren’t here right now to call you out on that fact?”



F: “It wasn’t my decision to reject them! That isn’t on me!”



R: “That’s what this is all about, ma’am. Decisions. You made the choice to get up this morning and walk around in that over-sized metal garbage can. You made the choice to pretend you have about as much attachment as the shit on mess hall floors. You ever read about the Spartans? How they started off? How they didn’t get that choice to go out there and kill themselves?”



F: “Suddenly an ex-ODST cares about Spartans?”



R: “I just care about hypocrisy.”

“It is a great irony, that the nature of war always reveals the true nature of those who fight.”

The Home narrative is predominantly dialog driven, a healthy character study of Romeo’s coping mechanisms and the perceptions of heroism in the Halo universe. Though Kojo Agu serves as the audience lens through which to cast judgment on Freya’s misdeeds, the intention is to depose storytelling expectations and pivot in on the heart and soul of a Spartan-IV. Freya is externally a more traditional heroine, though she shrouds many of her flaws under lock and key, something that has not fully been unraveled by her target’s final croak. Romeo, and by extension, the viewer, receive bare glimpses of the fractured character which exists beneath the emblematic Mark IV harness. The inhumane tortures endured in the Spartan-II program ripple across generations, and Freya herself is proof of this conclusion.

A fraction in time, the scope of Romeo’s SRS99-S5 AM stabilizes on what is revealed to be a human target, absent of the alien presence alluded to throughout the narrative. In a single strike, the blinding wake of a muzzle flash exhibits a familiar emotion. There is a new, unseen fissure in the hardened armour of Arcadia’s lost little girl, a scar that lies neglected.

Exploring these concepts has been a forlorn dream of mine for years, and a continuation of this endeavor lies in the near future. Halo Legends II is by no means expected, nor a feasibly realistic scenario at this very moment. I fully understand the variety of hurdles faced in such an undertaking and the lack of audible cause to even face such challenges. However, as it stands, I see a significant void in Halo’s roster of lore outlets, a space which begs to be occupied by talented storytellers and animators. Opportunity is not and has never been a lengthy visitor, and there is no time greater than the present to capitalize on Halo‘s forgotten channel.

Utmost gratitude to my faithful patrons: Joshua Ezzell and ArdentPrayer.

If you’d like to keep up to date with the latest on my articles, you can follow me on Twitter and communicate with me directly there. If you enjoy my work and would like to see more in the future, head over to my Patreon and chip in, that way you can directly influence what topics I write about and get personalized rewards!