Talk: Halo 3: Ascension

Grammar

Just a minor thing, I noticed that the tense of the sentences in the "Summary" box switches between the past tense and the present progressive. Recommend this be standardized. --ED_(talk)^(shockfront) 21:54, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, it's like "after this happened, these things are now occuring." While I think the summary could be refined a bit, the switching tenses don't seem like much of an issue. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 01:00, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

How's that? --Dragonclaws^(talk) 01:06, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Cool

I think you've done a nice job and i recon changing it mabye a bit hard because there is so much. Instead you could set up all of the pages, which were created before Halo 3 and put them together under the page of Halo 3 ulturnate universes?

Supreme Councillor Parkster ^{Holo-Com My Empire}

Yeah, I agree about the revising. I don't think it's possible because I built up this whole mythology about the Covenant and this guy Prorok, Ascension, and the Gravemind that totally contradict Halo 3/Contact Harvest's revelations, so I'm just going to have it finish the way I planned and be an alternate reality. I haven't yet put up any chapters made after Halo 3 because it's a lot of work and I'm lazy. What's this alternate universe page? --Dragonclaws^(talk) 21:17, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Keep up the good work

Even though it contradicts Halo canon, it's still a great story in its own respect. One of my favorites on the wikia Parp555-My Head Asploded! Stuff that <insert name here> has done for me 14:15, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I intend to. I have the ending all figured out, I just need to figure out how to get all my guys there. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 07:15, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Wow I just realized how large this story is. It is less a short story and more a novel. Can't wait to see what the ending will be like. Hate the fact that 'Vodumee went flood, though. Got any more science fiction on the web, because, as a reader of much science fiction, your writing style is awesome Parp555-My Head Asploded! Stuff that <insert name here> has done for me

Yeah, my ideas turned out to be a bit too big for a short story. The chapter "Zealous Missionary" originally encompassed both of the two chapters that follow it, but I realized it was really long and should be split up. 'Vadumee going Flood was to emphasize the "deal with the devil" pact they've got with the Gravemind, also illustrating the inherent mortality of each of them. Ascension is my first major fanfic, so I'm afraid you won't find anything else by me out there. The next chapter's in the works, though. Thanks for the compliments. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 18:05, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

I haven't read this yet, but I intend to one day. Right now, I'm too wrapped up in..... life. --The Lord of Monster Island _{Ultimate Monster Lord} ^{The Lord of Grunts} _{Just another SPARTAN} ^{MCPO James Davis} _{Alternate Reality Halo} ^{I here your cries} _{May your works be honorable} 20:01, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, when you get to it, please leave me a comment and tell me what you think. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 18:09, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Latest chapter is Amazing. Can't wait til teh end Parp555-My Head Asploded! Stuff that <insert name here> has done for me 17:15, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

thats one BIG ARTICLE!!! congrtz on your award :)--Gruntijackal 19:21, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I haven't even posted the last chapter yet, which is currently over 9,000 words in length. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 01:17, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Your kidding DC? SPARTAN-G024^{(The Unsung Hero)} 20:54, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

No. No he's not. Not with this thing. --//Out of the Darkness// //Into the Light// 20:59, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

That's insane. That's gonna take me even longer to read D: SPARTAN-G024^{(The Unsung Hero)} 21:00, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

I kid you not. :) I wrote a bit more and it's at almost 11,000 words and it's still only about half-way through. I may have to split it up. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 07:46, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

It's now at 16,000 and still unfinished. I'm totally gonna have to split it up. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 08:22, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Just finished reading the new part. Very interesting stuff, except that I believe that the "Big Crunch" theory has been, for the most part, discarded, and that a new theory exists in which all matter in the universe eventually breaks down in to photons.--Maslab 04:33, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Ah. Well... That is a current theory, true, but... That is before the discovery of Slipspace, after all. Shaw-Fujikawa theory turns the whole universe upside down. Yes. That. *beat* And also Kurzweil is kind of fringe. (I wasn't aware of the state of the theory. Just suspend your disbelief.) --Dragonclaws^(talk) 04:03, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Ready and willing. --Maslab 05:29, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Amazing

It seems nothing short of impossible that someone could write a fan fiction this long and keep it at such a high caliber. The most that I have ever written is 53 pages. This is over 400.

Hmm... Have you ever considered becoming an author? I bet you would be good at it. lololo'lolololol 'I r Blade bane!

400 pages? My, my, my.... I assume that's in a Word document, yes? I'm attempting to write a novel, and it currently has the same number of chapters but is merely a 1/4 as long. --//Out of the Darkness// //Into the Light// 15:49, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

It is written in Word. It's not quite at 400 pages, though. Even with all the unfinished material, it's only at 388 pages. Thanks for the complements. I would like to professionally author something at some point, but I can only see myself publishing on the internet for the foreseeable future. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 04:37, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Biblical references

I think you're right. There are a lot of biblical references in Halo, what with the Flood and the Ark. I don't know if you noticed this but the Gravemind did say (In the level Cortana, I think) that "The father's sins pass to the sun." Which, to my understanding, is a close quote from the Bible. I like the references. -- Maslab: I have become everything we once were 20:32, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, there are a lot of references. Often times, at least prior to the release of Halo 3, fans get together and debate how Halo could be based on biblical passages or make reference to them based on "John 117". Miranda Keyes' fever-induced ramblings about biblical prophecies are kind of a parody of the fans. Kind of a self-parody given that I took place in those debates. Did you notice that the Revelations quotes are acted out later in the story? --Dragonclaws^(talk) 07:32, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Maslab — I am assuming direct control.I am the harbinger of your destiny.Preserve <insert name here>'s body if possible.Releasing control. TALK • CONTRIBUTIONS — Friday, April 19 2024 (Pacific Standard Time) I never read the bible, so no, I didn't notice.

Well, I haven't read the bible all the way through, but Guilty Spark does produce some quotes on Keyes' request. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 06:58, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Hey, Hope is the final or you will continue to write?--Flood12345 14:49, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

No, there's another chapter in the works. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 06:58, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Okay, the latest chapter Transsentience should be the last chapter, but I might make an epilogue. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 07:01, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Awesome

I have just read Transsentience and it is awesome, very awesome. I'm currently thinking what is the place that the Oracle say to build Earth Heaven (or that). I wish that I write like you, because my works are not very good and one knows about Darkness. - Flood12345 17:05, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Lordofmonsterisland — There are... no strings... on me... TALK • CONTRIBUTIONS — US Central Time Zone Suggestion: start by learning to write/speak better

Flood12345: The Monitor wasn't responding to Hood's thoughts about building Heaven on Earth. He can't read minds. He was responding to Hood's earlier statement about wanting to hide Ascension. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 22:38, April 3, 2010 (UTC)

Ebon Shadowshot — The test results are in, you are a horrible person. We wasn't even testing for that TALK • CONTRIBUTIONS — Friday, April 19 2024 (English Standard Time) This story, is, awesome!

Preparing To Read

Lordofmonsterisland — There are... no strings... on me... TALK • CONTRIBUTIONS — US Central Time Zone So, I've been preparing to read this thing, and to do that I decided I'd need to copy it all into a word document so I could read it when I'm not on the internet.... my goodness! I've only copied down to Belief, and it's almost 200 pages long in unedited format!!

*checks document* 356 pages, I believe. I may have different formatting or unposted material, though. I was always very careful to hit "save" and not "print" so as to not waste oodles of paper. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 03:44, February 26, 2010 (UTC)

Lordofmonsterisland — There are... no strings... on me... TALK • CONTRIBUTIONS — US Central Time Zone Final count on the number of pages (in the format I used) is 180

Lordofmonsterisland — There are... no strings... on me... TALK • CONTRIBUTIONS — US Central Time Zone Interesting reading so far: I'm down to the start of the chapter Revolution, I believe. The dream scene with Miranda was rather interesting, though at the start I was thinking you were going to go sacrilegious and make the Noah bit really be tied in. Nice to see all these trailer/game parallels within the story too, they add a nice touch

The whole thing's pretty sacrilegious. But, yeah, Noah's Ark is just a scene of randomness to reintroduce Miranda. Glad you think it's interesting. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 02:52, March 9, 2010 (UTC)

Lordofmonsterisland — There are... no strings... on me... TALK • CONTRIBUTIONS — US Central Time Zone Well, I've finished it, so here's my thoughts. Overall, AMAZING. Far better than Halo 3 was, for sure. However, there are some parts of the story that would like to point out in detail. The integration of I Love Bees towards the end was pretty cool, even when I haven't seen/heard/read the ILB storyline. It was a nice touch, overall Just because this is me, I love the Godzilla references. I could've swore there was a direct quotation in one of the last four chapters, but I can't remember what it was, and I can't find it again either. Still, I loved those Dadgummit, they made the Arbiter put that old armor back on even when it wasn't working? My goodness Wait, I think I missed it: what happened to 'Lafatee? Is he still alive, or did he die? I can't remember The whole fight at the end between Johnson and Jitji was beyond cool. Nice explanation of what happened to Johnson too John kinda takes the back seat in this whole thing and lets the Arbiter run the show, doesn't he? Really, that was disappointing to me, the lack of Chief-oriented action, as he's kinda the heart of Halo. For him, stuff just seemed to kinda happen; like, the Mk VII - it's just "BAM!, I got it, this is awesome, let's go kick some more butt now" Poor Consus. I really was getting to like him, and then Jitji's rebels killed him very anticlimactically. Not that being overrun by small, blood thirsty devils isn't an interesting way to die, it's just that he'd finally become High Chieftain and then he died. Poor Consus. Sharquoi! We get Sharquoi! I enjoyed them, even if they were only there briefly As mentioned before, the very oddity of Miranda's dream made me laugh... still, the sacrilege disturbs me a little, but I still laughed Yay, Ackerson's in permanent comatose! Hurray! I hated that man Frankly, I was sad to see Rtas 'Vadum's very undramatic position and death in the story. So much for honoring that character Truth seemed so.... weak, somehow. Hardly an evil mastermind. His persona seems to come off radically different than in Halo 2 or 3, yet somehow it's the same too. Weird. The additions of the preview trailers and Believe were pretty cool I feel really sorry for victims of the Flood now: to die, not exist, then exist without control be absolutely TERRIFYING The whole idea of becoming an AI that resides in Ascension seems like a rather interesting and unexpected twist That line from Rani's thinking, about the Bible ideals being real places.... wonder if there's a Hell Installation? Perhaps where the Forerunners converted the Flood into parasites? Hmm... wonder if Gravemind made up "The Source" just to fool Jitji into believing in one god and causing trouble? Oh great, an invincible, annoying AI with a god-complex. Here I was hoping he'd die Honestly, while the finale was great (especially considering a sequel in the distant future), it lets you down a little. Gravemind isn't killed, instead we have a Matrix-style truce, and in addition, several plotlines are left dangling and a new character (a very interesting new character, no less) is introduced at the next-to-last section. Still, it was amazing and quite a good story OK, so there's my review of it. If I had a scale of 1 to 5, I'd rate this a 4.7, with the 0.3 taken off for minor bumps, confusions and a slight let-down at the end

Thanks for the good review!

1. Yes, I love I Love Bees.
2. I like to make references to pop culture, and I'm a Godzilla fan. I believe the quote you mean is at the end of Crises, where Kader is watching the Gravemind climb up New Tokyo. He thinks, "Has to be at least two kilometers… maybe more. [Gravemind shows his reach] Ooh! Way more." It's a reference to the American remake where Matthew Broderick's character is counting the eggs. The whole aspect of a giant monster threatening Tokyo is inspired by Godzilla.
3. I thought it was clear that the armor was fixed, just not upgraded.
4. I think he just stepped down and let the Arbiter take control. Alive, but powerless.
5. Thanks. I wrote out exactly what would happen in that fight prior to writing the scene.
6. Yeah, I honestly don't like him as a character that well. I find the UNSC hard to write, and especially Spartans. That's why there's so many aliens and rebels as characters, and so few UNSC characters. John was hard to write, and I like the Arbiter better, and so I didn't have as much of John in the story as I should have. The thing with HighCom is that I was trying to squeeze too much into a single chapter when I should have split it up.
7. I like Consus too. I killed him off because it seemed a good idea to have main characters die, and because it emphasizes just how hard it is for the Arbiter to maintain control. Jitji dies soon after him, and I toyed with the idea of having Johnson and the Arbiter die as well.
8. A lot of Ascension was written as a prediction for Halo 3. I thought there were going to be Sharquoi and that they would be Drinol.
9. To explain that scene a bit, I came up with it after waking from a random dream. At the time, I was using an alarm clock that used songs from my iPod, and the song that woke me up was The Prophet's Song, by Queen, about Noah warning people about the flood. I started thinking about a random dream scene involving Noah, and ooh, he could be holding an assault rifle and swearing...
10. He makes a good villain.
11. Rtas 'Vadum is a good character, but I had 'Setfethee fulfilling the function 'Vadum could. It seemed a good idea to make him a redshirt.
12. I guess I made the same mistake as in the Transformers sequel where the big baddy has a worse boss and thus loses his established coolness as he enters a subordinate role.
13. A lot of the story was conceived during the anticipation of Halo 3, and the story was altered to work with every new piece of info that came out.
14. That was supposed to be a special case, where the preservation of the body in the Arbiter mausoleum made conditions such that Rukt was revived and stayed conscious, and not an example of every Flood victim.
15. Good, that was the big twist of the story.
16. I... actually didn't think about that. I was just focused on Heaven: Ultimate Goal, and I didn't even think about Hell. That may have to factor into the sequel.
17. The Source exists to some degree, though Jitji may not have the fullest understanding of what memories he observed.
18. The Gravemind? Well, to give Bungie credit, I never thought of firing a Halo ring outside of the galaxy. Without being able to sneak a peek into the Halo Bible, I decided I'd find my own solution to the Gravemind, and that was to make him not want to consume Earth by offering a better existence.
19. Yeah, Ascension was my first major fanfic, and it accordingly has its flaws. The Lekgolo storyline just went nowhere (originally, they were to meet up with the other Lekgolo, be declared treasonous, and executed). I agree Morlock was introduced far too late. He and Lazarus were to feature in the epilogue, but then the epilogue turned into a sequel.

--Dragonclaws^(talk) 17:39, March 29, 2010 (UTC)

Lordofmonsterisland — There are... no strings... on me... TALK • CONTRIBUTIONS — US Central Time Zone #I didn't realize that was a reference, though I see it now. The quote I was thinking of was something else, though I can't recall it. Maybe I'll remember some time, or find it again.... Oh, so it is working? That's good. I missed it somehow (probably just because it's such a huge story) I seem to remember 'Lafatee getting knocked out during or immediately after the Consus-Arbiter transmission I can understand the problem with the HIGHCOM sequence. It can be difficult as a writer to find a satisfactory place to end a chapter Oh, so Jitji is dead? OK, I thought he was still alive.... oh wait, I forgot about the cleansing fires of death... Still, even with 'Setfethee, who's a good character, I'm still a little let down by Rtas's death Maybe, but I'm actually of the opinion that the Fallen and Megatron's relation works better, as the main baddie (Megs) survives the 'worse' baddie's demise, whereas Truth dies before Justice Oh, I see: so, in other cases the brain would be too decomposed for the body's original occupant to resurrect? I would love to see a Hell Installation. Or perhaps it's the Flood homeworld... in any case, it'd be interesting. Actually, I was referring, not to Gravemind, but 343 Guilty Spark with the invincible AI statement, though I'm well-aware of Gravemind's current status. I'm quite amazed that a robot that small can survive such things like that: they just don't make them like they used to, do they? Yes, I'm very much looking forward to the sequel. Learn about our rogue Spartan friend, a "Flood AI", and other interesting facets of the Ascensionverse