‘Halo’: What Happened to Madrigal & How Did Kwan Ha Survive?

‘Halo’ Season 2 just aired its first two episodes and we had a glimpse into what happened between the first and the second season. The events of season 2 take place six months give or take following Makee’s “death” and Master Chief’s separation from Cortana but as it turns out, pretty much all characters in the equation are worse off than they were when we last saw them. In this post we’re going to be focusing on Kwan Ha one of the most hated characters in Season 1, we could see that she was still basically a refugee on the Rubble and was once again running for her life, so what happened to Madrigal?

Kwan Ha managed to reclaim the planet but her victory was short-lived

Kwan Ha was one of the most annoying characters in the first season, but you have to admit that her character had spirit and her fight was righteous. Kwan Ha really didn’t seek vengeance in the traditional sense all she wanted to do was to reclaim the planet that was her birthright and that was taken from her. We know that Kwan’s arch-nemesis was Vinsher Grath, and Kwan did defeat him finding the most unlikely of allies in the former Spartan-turned pirate king Soren. The last of what we saw of Kwan Ha was that she was taking over her birthright although she still owed a bunch of Deuterium to Soren.

In the first episode however we’ve learned that Madrigal was glassed, and she was once again living with Soren at the rubble. So, what happened here?

Madrigal was glassed and most of its population was forced to move to the Rubble

It seems like Kwan’s victory was short-lived, as Madrigal was glassed by the Covenant sometime after the events of season 1. Madrigal was glassed alongside 8 other human colonies and the planet was lost forever and rendered uninhabitable which prompted all surviving people to speak refuge elsewhere. It is technically possible to recover Madrigal via terraforming efforts, but considering that Madrigal never joined forces with UNSC and was one of the most notable rebel planets, the chances of that happening are non-existent, yes even in the TV show. The rich reserves of hydrogen are not enough to justify spending so much resources on a planet that constantly defies UNSC.

Madrigal was also glassed on the games, well at least it was mentioned that it was glassed the only difference from the source material being that Madrigal was glassed much earlier by 2530. Considering that season 1 takes place around 2552, in the show Madrigal was glassed in the late 2552 or early 2553.

Why is Kwan a servant?

It seems like following the glassing of Madrigal Kwan Ha turned her sights on the Rubble once again. Soren did promise Master Chief that he would take care of the girl and besides she owed him a lot of money. It’s possible that Kwan was registered as an “indentured” servant but was actually no servant at all since Soren seemed to be quite fond of the girl. But the thing is Soren was betrayed and arrested and since a rival pirate family bought his household practically including his servants Kwan Ha now belongs to someone else and this is why she was running away and desperately trying to remove the chip from her ear.

What’s the point of having Kwan Ha in the show now that Madrigal is lost forever and her father’s dream died with the planet ? It’s quite possible that Kwan will have a different kind of purpose this season and that she will work toward freeing Soren.

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