The Funniest Halo Memes Celebrating The Show’s Release

Paramount+ has dropped the first episode of the highly-anticipated Halo TV series. Some form of an adaptation of the massive video game franchise has been in the works for over a decade. Yet, it’s never quite been able to find its base footing until now.

However, just because it finally exists doesn’t mean that longtime Halo fans are happy with it, because it seems the series is going to stray far from the source material. Fans don’t love that, and some of them react by crafting some burns and critiques in meme form.

The Way The Spartans Hold The Guns Is…Bizarre

Like the best memes of the Halo video game franchise, most of the best memes from the show focus on none other than Master Chief. And, while the meme may seem nitpicky, there is a legitimate point there.

Holding a weapon the way Chief does in the meme is more than guaranteed to rip a shoulder out of its socket, and while it does look memorably unique, that’s not necessarily a positive. The way meme-makers see it, it’s further proof of a lack of attention to detail or even general logic when it comes to combat prowess.

Cortonic The Hedgehog

Cortana doesn’t look too far off from the video game incarnation, but there’s a bit of uncanny valley going on. There’s also an element of the outright bizarre, where she doesn’t just look like a horrifying hybridization of man and machine, but rather like a particularly dead-eyed actor with a layer of complexion-removing digital skin.

As unsettling as fans find the TV series Cortana, they rightfully found the original design for Sonic the Hedgehog to be worse. The film’s creators eventually corrected the humanlike appearance, and it’s hard to imagine the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 2 going through if he still looked like he had one human parent and one who was a distant relative of a shrew. Hopefully, Halo can course correct to appease memeing fans as well.

So, Moving Past The Source Material?

The way fans see it, Halo isn’t one of Paramount+’s best original series, and this is mostly due to a lack of strict adherence to Bungie material.

Some Halo fans weren’t thrilled when 343 took over the property from Bungie after the release of Halo: Reach. So, the fact that the creators of the show aren’t paying attention to the core experience crafted by the (successor of the) original creator has rubbed gaming viewers the wrong way. When adapting a game it is admittedly better to focus on story than action, because action sequences are often interchangeable and utterly bland in comparison to genuine character building. Video game TV shows and films have yet to find the correct balance when it comes to translation, and while the Halo series focus on the characters and the world is a good start, it’s still ignoring the story that drew a massive fanbase to begin with.

That’s Not Halo

Plenty of actors have portrayed Master Chief, but fans have taken particular issue with how Pablo Schrieber sees the character and the overall purpose of the franchise narrative.

There’s never been a rule that the Halo franchise’s core icon couldn’t take off his helmet, granted, but it’s still established lore that the character does not remove his bullet-resistant headgear. Innumerable epic, years-spanning installments with the same central character have proven as much. Even still, when a property branches off into a new direction it’s fair to allow it some artistic license as it finds its own unique footing.

It’s All About How You Look At It

Most memes seem to focus on the transference of show-running from Bungie to 343. In fairness, the Halo Wars games have their fans, as does Halo Infinite, but the overall long-term response has been divided.

As far as this meme is concerned, though, the Halo series has been buried for a while. So, at this point, there’s no way to go but up. Apparently, some fans are just on board for the ride, regardless of where it leads.

Nice ‘Do

Although most of the criticisms of the show are a bit deeper, one issue fans have found with Paramount+’s new original series is mostly of the cosmetic variety.

Several characters in the series have particularly odd haircuts. To each their own, and few should care about hairstyle in the middle of an intergalactic war, but the meme-ers of the world specialize in nitpicking. Even still, it does occasionally appear as though a platoon of Billy Ray Cyrus lookalikes are taking on the Covenant, and it can prove distracting.

Give Me The Revised Old Over The New

Blur Studio has created some astonishing stuff. The title sequence from David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the “Heaven and Hell” sequence from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and the cinematic trailers for three Batman: Arkham games.

They also did the Halo 2 cutscenes for the excellent Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It seems that some viewers out there feel that the seemingly less important remastered cutscenes manage to transcend Paramount+’s big-budget series.

About The Author

Ben Hathaway
(299 Articles Published)

Ben Hathaway is a Senior Writer (Lists) for Screen Rant. A former Therapeutic Day Treatment counselor, Ben is now a career writer. When not working, he is writing and self-publishing (on Amazon) novels under the name Scott Gray. In his spare time, he’s reading on the porch or watching every film under the sun. Ben can be contacted at [email protected].

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