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Minister Dunn relates the truth as he would like people to see it.
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Every work of fiction with sufficient content carries within it the political views of the author, whether as a straight political commentary with an intended message, or as a simple story unintentionally affected by the author’s viewpoints. Everybody thinks about the world in a particular way, and these viewpoints are naturally expressed in the formulation of a story. It can be questioned if there is a political message in the Halo series, but I believe the subject is worth some analysis. After all, there are contemporary political issues portrayed in the story, and even if no statement is intended (unlikely, in my opinion) it still bears some looking into to see what the creators said when they told their story. It is at times nearly impossible to separate creator bias from literary depiction, and so I shall deal with both at the same time.
First of all, the humans are all living under the rule of the same government, or at least only the legitimate ones are. The countries of the world have all been absorbed into the United Nations, which became the Unified Earth Government. The UEG, despite being a conglomeration of numerous countries, is essentially American...
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Halo's AIs are often intelligent beings similar to humans. As such, we tend to anthropomorphize them to some degree, and it's often unclear how similar they really are to humans and how much they are computer programs that can't be considered in the same way as we would human people. One of the uncertain issues is the aspect of gender. Can an AI have a gender? If so, how is it defined?
First of all, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what gender is, as the word is often incorrectly used interchangeably with “sex.” A sex is a biological distinction referring to physical characteristics corresponding to specific roles in the practice of sexual reproduction, generally separated into the two categories male and female though some variances can occur. Sex is determined through genes present in sex chromosomes, which alter the formation of primary sex characteristics (sex organs). Secondary sex characteristics, which are distinctive traits unrelated to the reproductive system (i.e. fat distribution, ect.), are formed through levels of sex hormones estrogen and testosterone.
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A blood-violet hall of death.
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The Covenant have a set of military aesthetics quite alien to us. The UNSC is the main faction with which the player identifies, and so represents what is essentially our (or at least American) perception of how a strong military force should look. The UNSC has the standard set of aesthetics familiar to us: olive drab camouflage, tight quarters, everything existing for the sole purpose of functionality without room for much else. The Covenant, on the other hand, make room for spiritual aesthetics and comfortable empty space, in addition using a wide variety of colors we would tend to consider inferior or silly due to their association with femininity or childishness – definitely not considered cool in our sexist and ageist culture. Because the Halo series depicts these underused colors being used by the powerful Covenant, for a rare moment the colors achieve a status of coolness not often seen.
[i]The Chief peered down the corridor. The bulkheads were violet. Or was that lavender? Strange patterns marbled the material, like the oily sheen of a beetle’s carapace. Whatever it was, he didn’t care for it, especially on a military vessel, but who knew? Maybe the...
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