{"id":312,"date":"2015-09-24T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/?p=312"},"modified":"2015-11-09T19:21:19","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T19:21:19","slug":"halo-2-a-war-of-religious-ideologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/?p=312","title":{"rendered":"Halo 2: A War of Religious Ideologies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like the War on Terror, Halo2 is about protecting home and holding on to Christian ideals in the face of alien invaders.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Amanda Barwick<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Religion and violence\u2014two concepts that seem to be at different ends of the moral spectrum. Growing up, I was a happy, uncomplaining churchgoer. But also, starting at the age of eight (practically nine), I began enthusiastically playingBungie\u2019s new release, <\/span>Halo: Combat Evolved <\/span><\/i>and its sequels of the subsequent decade. These two activities, attending church and regularly playing violent videogames, would seemingly produce two completely different people, one righteous and one violent, but I\u2019ve found that, strangely, they complement each other. An analysis of history would encourage this complement between religion and violence, as almost every human conflict over the course of history has been in the name of one or more parties\u2019 religious beliefs. <\/span><\/p>\n

Halo: Combat Evolved <\/span><\/i>was released on November 15, 2001, almost exactly two months after the 9\/11 attacks in New York. <\/span>Halo 2<\/span><\/i>, released November 9, 2004, was conceptualized, created, and released entirely in a post-9\/11 environment of heightened military activity, intensified patriotism, and increased awareness and persecution of Middle Eastern religions such as Islam. Pres. George W. Bush\u2019s address after the attacks in New York and Washington D.C. set the tone for the attitude toward this religiously motivated attack and how America\u2014a deeply Christian and religious country itself\u2014would respond: \u201cAmerica was targeted for attack because we\u2019re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining\u2026. America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world and we stand together to win the war against terrorism.\u201d It was made clear from the beginning that this war would be one of ideals and values, not one of economy or even politics (though clearly these played a role as well). <\/span>Halo 2<\/span><\/i> reflects the American values of exceptionalism, heroism, and Christianity that were intensified during the post-9\/11 period and even though it is highly militaristic, pits religious values against religious values. Like the War on Terror, <\/span>Halo2 <\/span><\/i>is about protecting home and holding on to Christian ideals in the face of alien invaders. <\/span><\/p>\n

As a young person, 11 or 12 years old, my interpretation of these games were simplistic and largely emotion-based. I readily soaked up the patriotic songs, assemblies, and speakers we had at my school following the 9\/11 attacks and was swept away in the concussive heroism and plain awesomeness of the <\/span>Halo <\/span><\/i>game. I never remember feeling that this heroic violence violated any of my religious beliefs. I viewed its violence much like how I saw the violence in the <\/span>Lord of the Rings <\/span><\/i>films and even in the Book of Mormon. The game\u2019s plot, design, and music all encourage the image of righteous violence with their overt and covert themes of American Christianity and foreign Islam. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, it is too simplistic to say that <\/span>Halo 2 <\/span><\/i>is a recreation of America versus Iraq or Pakistan\u2014the plot takes a much more complex approach that further supports the idea that religion and violence are co-motivated and affecting. In order to understand the complexities, a quick overview of the game\u2019s backstory is required. The Master Chief is the last of a class of soldiers called Spartans\u2014genetically and surgically altered super-soldiers conditioned for intense combat and cool decision making. They wear high-tech armor that enhances their strength and also provides a close fitting energy shield for additional protection. The Covenant is the theocratic-militaristic coalition of aliens led by three Prophets\u2014Regret, Truth, and Mercy. The dominant species of alien in the Covenant are the Elites, upright aliens with mandible-like mouths. Other species include Grunts, Hunters, and Brutes, all of which were conquered and assimilated into the Covenant. Another species, the Flood, are parasitic creatures that kill their hosts and animate their bodies;, their sole purpose being to consume all life. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Halo, which gives the game its namesake, is a ring-like structure designed by ancient Forerunners as a weapon to destroy all sentient life in case the Flood couldn\u2019t be stopped. So while the Covenant is humanity\u2019s enemy, the Flood threaten both humans and aliens. <\/span><\/p>\n

Halo 2 <\/span><\/i>is unique from other first-person shooters in that you play half the game as the so-called enemy. In the opening scene, we see Sergeant Johnson and Master Chief receiving medals for their victory in destroying the Halo (the aforementioned ring-like structure designed by ancient Forerunners to wipe life from the galaxy) from the previous game. This award ceremony is crosscut between a tribunal for Thel \u2018Vadamee, the Elite officer in charge of hunting down the Master Chief in the previous game. Here, he is stripped of his armor and rank and is branded with an iron as a coward and heretic. Other aliens jeer at him and call for his death as he is dragged to the branding block. The juxtaposition of the Chief\u2019s glory and Thel \u2018Vadamee\u2019s failure is stark, building sympathy for the disgraced Elite and even a little guilt at having won the previous game and sent him to this fate. \u00a0Crosscutting between the two different ceremonies emphasizes that war produces both a victor and a loser, both of which have strong ideological motivations and consequences for engaging in war. After the tribunal, Thel \u2018Vadamee is dragged to a meeting with the Prophets, who want control of the rings because they believe they are sacred and that activating them will begin their Great Journey to salvation. Here he becomes their Arbiter, a sacrificial soldier and tool for the Prophets, in order to redeem himself and to die an honorable death. <\/span><\/p>\n

At first, playing as the Arbiter was confusing, because previously I had been conditioned to blindly shoot anything that wasn\u2019t human. But in the first level playing as the Arbiter, you quickly learn to distinguish your ally aliens from the heretic aliens you are sent to silence by order of the Prophets. The only distinction between them is a change of armor. This design of the game emphasizes its procedural rhetoric\u2014that enemies aren\u2019t determined by race but by the ideals they believe in. Repeatedly playing through these procedures encourages judgment not based solely on appearance, but on religious and ideological affiliation. Critic Gerald Voorhees states that \u201cby alternatingly positioning the player as characters on opposite sides of the game’s central conflict, <\/span>H2<\/span><\/i> [<\/span>Halo 2<\/span><\/i>]encourages players to accept, reject or entertain ambivalence about America’s War on Terror.\u201d The Covenant also gain voices in this game, a huge departure from the animalistic grunts, yells, and garbled English from the first game, additionally encouraging sympathy for foreign plights and beliefs. The incorporation of religion into the Covenant\u2019s motivation and its complex relationship with the humans in the game\u2014alternating between enemy, ally, and friend\u2014tie the game\u2019s plot back to the real-world circumstances of terrorism and the battle of beliefs between America and her enemies. <\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually Master Chief and the Arbiter are both captured by the Gravemind, the hive-mind center of the Flood on that ring, who reveals the ring\u2019s true destructive purpose to the Arbiter. The Gravemind examines the two characters, first the Chief, then the Arbiter, stating, \u201cThis one is machine and nerve and has its mind concluded. This one is but flesh and faith and is the more deluded.\u201d His analysis of the two enemies reveals that both are \u201coperating on black-and-white assumptions that are untenable in a complex world\u201d (Annandale). He then sends Master Chief and the Arbiter to different locations to stop the Covenant from activating the ring, as it is in all their interests not to die. However, Master Chief soon discovers that he was sent as merely a distraction so the Gravemind could send the Flood to infest human ships and spread the infection. <\/span>With this twist in the narrative, the<\/span> Flood become the <\/span>humans\u2019<\/span> and the <\/span>Elites\u2019<\/span> common enemy, <\/span>as<\/span> an even greater threat than the Covenant. By presenting the Master Chief and the Arbiter as equal heroes both guided by sympathetic beliefs, \u201c<\/span>Halo 2 <\/span><\/i>questions not a specific ideology, but ideological dogmatism of any stripe\u201d (Annandale). Their conflict is then made into a clash of ideologies, not politics or economics. <\/span><\/p>\n

By way of establishing the metaphor of the Covenant with extreme Islamic beliefs, the cutscene before the first level playing as the Arbiter shows the Elites <\/span>chanting<\/span> ritualistically after leaving the Covenant Holy City to hunt down a heretic leader: <\/span><\/p>\n

Elite Leader: When we joined the Covenant, we took an oath\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Elite soldiers: \u2026according to our station. All without exception.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elite Leader: On the blood of our fathers, on the blood of our sons we swore to uphold <\/span><\/p>\n

the Covenant\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Elite soldiers: \u2026even to our dying breath!<\/span><\/p>\n

Elite Leader: Those who would break this oath are heretics, worthy of neither pity nor <\/span><\/p>\n

mercy. Even now, they use our Lord\u2019s creations to broadcast their lies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elite soldiers: We shall grind them into dust!<\/span><\/p>\n

Elite leader: And continue our march to glorious salvation!<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 2001, I was shocked twice by the idea that violence could be carried out in the name of religion, in the name of God\u2014once by the terrorists of 9\/11, and once by the introduction of the Covenant enemy in the first <\/span>Halo<\/span><\/i>. However, I now realize that both sides, both in the real and virtual worlds, fought in the name of religion, both covertly as part of their culture and overtly. The United States and the humans in <\/span>Halo 2 <\/span><\/i>also get caught up in religious fervor of a different kind\u2014hero worship and stubborn elitism.<\/span><\/p>\n

To further explore the metaphor of humans being Christian Americans, let\u2019s look at Master Chief\u2019s design as an avatar character. Though he has more character than he did in <\/span>Halo: Combat Evolved<\/span><\/i>, Master Chief is still the strong, silent (except for the macho one-liners) American hero. He embodies American exceptionalism in several different ways: he is the only surviving member of the Spartans, a class of super-soldiers that never die, merely go missing in action; he is a special weapon kept in cryo-sleep until the cause is dire enough; his armor is unique because he is the only one strong enough to wear it; and he is given special permissions by the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) to engage in risky missions. One of the many examples of the Master Chief\u2019s exceptionalism is in the cutscene just after the first level \u201cReturn to Sender\u201d when a gigantic bomb the Covenant planted on the ship has been secured and deactivated seconds before detonation. Captain Keyes of a fellow cruiser asks Lord Hood of the UNSC for permission to attack, and Cortana, an AI and the Chief\u2019s companion, comments:<\/span><\/p>\n

Keyes: Pyro, this is In Amber Clad, the carrier\u2019s shield is down. I\u2019m in position and ready <\/span><\/p>\n

for immediate assault.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lord Hood: Negative, Commander. Not against a ship that size. Not on your own.<\/span><\/p>\n

Master Chief: Sir, permission to leave the station.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lord Hood: For what purpose, Master Chief?<\/span><\/p>\n

Master Chief: To give the Covenant back their bomb.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lord Hood: [pause] Permission granted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cortana: I know what you\u2019re thinking, and it\u2019s crazy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Master Chief: So? Stay here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cortana: Unfortunately for us both, I like crazy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Master Chief then drags the bomb to an airlock which he plans to open, launching himself and the bomb toward the Covenant carrier and detonating the bomb. Just before he opens the bay door, Cortana asks, \u201cJust one question. What if you miss?\u201d to which Master Chief replies, \u201cI won\u2019t.\u201d Flying through crossfire and explosions, he delivers it to the carrier\u2019s core, activates the detonator, and rides the explosion back to his cruiser, all without the aid of a jet pack or rockets. If this isn\u2019t an example of the guns-out, heroic action, exceptionalist American attitude, I don\u2019t know what is. Christianity ties into this attitude as well, as it values one man\u2019s ability and sacrifice to save all others. While circumstances make the Arbiter special, the Master Chief is innately talented, born special to be viable for the Spartan program and unique in being the only one to survive. The Master Chief is a Christ-type that plays into American values of individualism and sacrifice for a worthy cause.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, all the humans prove to be unique, as they are the only ones able to activate the ring. As descendants of the Forerunners (the ancient race that built the rings as a last resort against the spread of the Flood), humans are the ones destined to activate the rings because their genetics trigger the device, even though the Covenant are the ones who see the rings as sacred. The design of the game, though it creates sympathy for the Covenant (especially the Elites), places the heroism on humans and their very existence. Voorhees also comments that \u201cjust as official discourses of the War on Terror produce the belief that the conflict is winnable by drawing from the ideological m\u00e9lange of American exceptionalism and Christian fundamentalism, <\/span>H2<\/span><\/i> assures players that the game is winnable by positioning them as one of only two remarkable characters uniquely capable of addressing the woes that assail the galaxy.\u201d Even though the feat of saving the galaxy (or ridding the world of terrorism) seems impossible, you never doubt Master Chief\u2019s (or America\u2019s) ability to make it happen because of his unwavering self-confidence and capability. Players are encouraged to envision themselves as the Master Chief because his face is never revealed, creating a void of anonymity for the player to fill.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a young player, I never doubted that I could achieve the goals of the game and save all sentient life in the galaxy, just as I never doubted that the U.S. government and armed forces could eradicate terrorism and bring those responsible for the 9\/11 attacks to justice. Admittedly, a game <\/span>is <\/span><\/i>designed to be winnable, but as a kid I had played my fair share of unwinnable levels and bosses. But being Master Chief with all his confidence, capability, and macho one-liners, I had more confidence in myself. In an interview with IGN, game designer Jason Jones explains how \u201cevery player-facing verb needs to be a power fantasy in some way\u201d (McCaffrey). In a culture that hero-worships soldiers, especially now that such a moral, religious cause was being fought for, I transferred my admiration for the military onto Master Chief, the ultimate soldier. In fact, until about 8<\/span>th<\/span> grade, I seriously considered joining the military. The lure of being a hero and fighting actively for a good cause and a great country, combined with being virtually immersed in the heightened military environment of <\/span>Halo 2<\/span><\/i>and the patriotic atmosphere of my public schools, made joining the military (wisely only mentioned once to my mother) my secret daydream. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another large part of the game experience for me has always been the score of <\/span>Halo 2<\/span><\/i>. The musical themes in the <\/span>Halo <\/span><\/i>games have always been a huge marketing and gameplay staple and also play a prominent role in blending the religion and violence of the story together. The main theme of the game uses a Gregorian chant, invoking an ancient, ritualistic atmosphere to the alien technology and races encountered in the game. Strong drums are also used throughout, meant to represent drums of war and to color the Covenant as a tribal people and to emphasize the native history of America for Master Chief. The more religious, hymn-like music is always used when Halo or the Covenant are present, and the electric guitar motif is used mainly for the Master Chief. The electric guitar segments hearken back to the rock religiously listened to during the Vietnam War through the 1960\u2019s, as rock music itself could be considered a cult or religion because it dictates a certain lifestyle and attitude of life. Americans strongly identify with rock and roll and its we-don\u2019t-care, powerhouse attitude. The addition of the electric guitar riffs was new for <\/span>Halo 2<\/span><\/i> and keeps with the strong American identification <\/span>that<\/span> Master Chief and humanity have in the game. <\/span><\/p>\n

Halo 2 <\/span><\/i>was conceptualized, designed, created, and released in a post-9\/11 culture rich in patriotism, <\/span>xenophobia<\/span>, and military hero-worship. America dusted off its traditional Christian values and the War on Terrorism, and subsequently the plot of <\/span>Halo 2<\/span><\/i>, was a conflict of good and evil, decentralized and centralized religion, and ideology. However, while the game strongly identifies with America\u2019s stance at the time, it also encourages sympathy for the Covenant, a race ruled and motivated by other causes. It isn\u2019t simply a recreation of the American-Iraqi or any other Middle Eastern conflict\u2014its complex plot, design, and characters encourage players to consider both sides of the conflict and <\/span>to<\/span> unite against a greater enemy, complete annihilation. Religion and violence go hand in hand in <\/span>Halo 2<\/span><\/i>, supported by the faith-driven military coalition of the Covenant and the Christian exceptionalism of Master Chief, as well as the contrasting yet complementary hymn-like and rock themed score. My own experience playing the game, especially when it first came out and I was a young churchgoer, strongly identifies with the ideological conflict in the game and its subsequent argument that religion demands to be fought for.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n

Annandale, David. \u201cAvatars of Destruction: Cheerleading and Deconstructing the \u2018War on <\/span><\/p>\n

Terror\u2019 in Video Games.\u201d <\/span>Reframing 9\/11: Film, Popular Culture and the \u201cWar on Terror<\/span><\/i>.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/i> New York: Bloomsbury, 2010. 97\u2013106. Print. <\/span><\/p>\n

Halo 2<\/span><\/i>. Bungie Studios. 9 Nov. 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCaffrey, Ryan. \u201cHalo and Destiny Creator Breaks 11-year Silence, Talks Design Philosophy.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

IGN<\/span><\/i>. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cText of Bush\u2019s address\u201d <\/span>CNN <\/span><\/i>11 Sept. 2001. Web. 9 Oct. 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

Voorhees, Gerald. \u201cPlay and Possibility in the Rhetoric of the War on Terror: The Structure of <\/span><\/p>\n

Agency in Halo 2.\u201d <\/span>Game Studies <\/span><\/i>14.1 (2014). Web. 9 Oct. 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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