The forerunners...stupid?

[Avateur]

Well, that still begs the question of what exactly the Ark is. Looking at it biblicly, one can assume that it acts as a Shield World does in the sense that it will protect you from the firing of the rings, protect you from the Flood, etc. Looking at it from the Shield World perspective, it's a gateway to a completely alternate dimension with what could be considered its own solar system practically. That or it's a weapon meant to set off the major weapon, acting as just another Halo Installation, just one the size of a planet (or just the big object that it is, assuming Earth isn't like Onyx).

Why use it as a way to activate every Halo? The comic made it unclear as to whether the Ark was built before or after the Forerunner were terminated by themselves. Did they all activate the 7 Halos in unison, or did they get their Ark built and have some protocol initiated by N'Chala or some other chosen human? Which also begs the question of when Onyx was built, or when any of the Halos were built. Were these things made pre-Flood, during-Flood, or post-Forerunner? If they activated all 7 Halos together and then left blueprints behind for their robots to follow just incase something crazy happened again in the future, that'd make sense but still seem odd.

Why, did the forerunners put so much effort into building a weapon that would wipe out the Flood's resources instead of putting a bit more thought into creating a weapon that would wipe out the parasite itself?...

Exactly! Why study and contain the Flood? Master Chief's shotguns work well on those suckers. I'm sure the Forerunner had equally capable weaponry, and killing them one by one couldn't have been very hard if they were confined to certain spaces all together at once. Either the Forerunner truly were very stupid, or boy did they mess up with their own containment protocols. The monitors are all about containment, but it seems like "every last option" that they exhaust are minimal at best at containment. In all the time it must have taken to build Halos, Shield Worlds, and an Ark, how did they not manage to find a way to exterminate the Flood instead of themselves?

I hope this "Iris" thing gives us some insight into the thoughts of the allegedly most advanced race in the galaxy's history, because right now a lot of their stuff seems pretty flawed. I'd personally like my opinions to be wrong about the Forerunner. I'd like to think that they had some idea of what they were doing.

[DocOctavius]

Actually in Halo 2 it is apparent that the Halos are older than the flood problem. They were just refitted with the firing mechanisms and subsequently fired after "exhausting every other strategic option"

Since when? It doesn't say anything about the Halos being around before the Flood- there were artifacts that were very old located on Delta Halo, but they could have been moved there. It still seems like the Halos were built to study and contain the flood, like 343 GS said.

As for the Forerunner being stupid for not trying something else, they DID try EVERYTHING else. Everyone should finish reading ALL the books and finish playing ALL the games, and THEN go read the WHOLE h.b.o. story page and THEN... read more. Then come discuss what's left...

edit: In response to the post above: obviously the actual Flood organism is much more resilient than just the individual combat forms you encounter in the game. Most people think it's actually a microscopic spore (like the crap floating in the air at the end of Halo 2), and apparently that spore is a bitch to clean off of your kitchen counter. If they could have just shot them with bullets, they wouldn't bother building a Halo. Give Bungie a bit more credit on the logic tip guys.

[Avateur]

Having done all of that reading, I believe my post above yours still asks questions unanswered. There's still a lot of unanswered questions regarding the Forerunner and their creations, as well as what exactly "every last option" means. That's apparently what the purpose of Iris is, to give us a back-history on the Forerunner or Flood or something along those lines (or at least that's how it's looking right now. This could end up heading in a totally random tangent for all I know).

For the moment, even with the books and story page and games, the Forerunner appear to have done something incredibly stupid, or maybe having rushed their "options" instead of attempting to figure out one that humans might magically figure out in HALO 3.

EDIT: To your edit, haha, very good point. Forgot to consider the spores, and I do give Bungie credit, but with all of the questions left unanswered (that will hopefully get answered in some way or another), I can't help but think that Bungie might be showing that the Forerunner aren't as perfect and amazing as the Covenant/Humans think them to be.

[Plasmoe]

Having done all of that reading, I believe my post above yours still asks questions unanswered. There's still a lot of unanswered questions regarding the Forerunner and their creations, as well as what exactly "every last option" means. That's apparently what the purpose of Iris is, to give us a back-history on the Forerunner or Flood or something along those lines (or at least that's how it's looking right now. This could end up heading in a totally random tangent for all I know).

For the moment, even with the books and story page and games, the Forerunner appear to have done something incredibly stupid, or maybe having rushed their "options" instead of attempting to figure out one that humans might magically figure out in HALO 3.

EDIT: To your edit, haha, very good point. Forgot to consider the spores, and I do give Bungie credit, but with all of the questions left unanswered (that will hopefully get answered in some way or another), I can't help but think that Bungie might be showing that the Forerunner aren't as perfect and amazing as the Covenant/Humans think them to be.

Don't forget that when asked, Joseph Staten never said that Forerunners were dead.

[Avateur]

But of course. Part of me thinks they're living off in their Dyson Sphere(s?) somewhere, or that they'll pop out of the Ark in HALO 3. Or we'll get to meet them during this whole Iris experience, which would be highly interesting.

[Roaringram]

alright so just a quick question... i'm still a tad bit fuzzy on the details... if the halos destroy all living things, then wouldn't they have destroyed humanity if fired 100,000 years, unless the ark is some kind of protection device thing? do i have the gist of it, or am i just way off?


and just throwing this out there, but prehaps the forerunners were human?

[Avateur]

All of this has been speculated before, but no one is exactly sure what has allowed humanity to survive. Iris is making it seem like the Forerunner and humans are not related, but at the same time it's still quite the possibility. We're just going to have to keep watching as this thing progresses and hope that these questions get answered.

[Roaringram]

so pretty much everything is speculation?

[Avateur]

When it comes to the Forerunner, the vast majority is speculation. The books, the Halo Story Page, and the games do answer plenty, and Iris has given us even more insight into what happened in the past regarding the Forerunner and what they've done on Earth, but the questions of how the Ark works, how Earth/humans were protected/may be protected, and where the Forerunner went or who's related to them are all a mystery (for the most part).

The Prophets claim that they're descendents of the Forerunner, but there's not much confirmation to that beyond what the Prophets say. Iris or HALO 3 will presumably answer a lot of these questions for us. Check out the four HALO novels and the Halo Story Page to get more info on all of this. As you'll notice throughout the hours upon hours worth of reading at the HSP, the vast majority of it in there is rampant speculation, most of which will be proven correct or incorrect when HALO 3 comes out.

[Mosex]

I thought there was only 3 books?

Which is the forth? And why oh why didnt that cow from the book store tell me there were 4 instead of 3?

Now there is a question. Speculate all you want. But only she knows the answer! And i will get it from her!