Log5_Transcript General Discussion

[Baratos]

The fact that it had a picture of Pangea suggests that the Forerunners were dealing with the Flood about 200 million years ago and discovered the Earth at that time. I say 200 instead of 250 (when Pangea was fully formed) because you can tell the continents had begun to split at the time the picture was taken. The creatures on the surface obivously impressed them.

I think the Forerunners ended up fighting the Flood for so long because neither group had discovered Slipspace at that point. It would have taken hundreds of years for the Flood to move from one system to another, and about 100,000 years for warnings of Flood from one side of the galaxy to reach the other side.

[j41m3z]

W3rd.

One other thing I wanted to start bringing up: apparently Earth in "an anomalous world". Are we anomalous because we have no Flood? Are we actually creative, unlike those stinking imitating Prophets? Or is it still something else?

That's the anomaly I think. We were evolving fast. Maybe they thought that if they reset/destroyed everything and gave humans time to evolve and then find all the Forerunner technology and Flood Research then we could stop the Flood. But I think the release of the Flood by the Covenant made everything go faster. Humans weren't meant to find the Forerunner stuff yet. We weren't ready yet. Maybe another couple hundred or a thousand years and we could have used the Forerunner technology and research to stop the Flood.

Good thought, the Covenant certainly wouldn't have developed nearly as fast had they not been graced with near-unreal Forerunner tech. Perhaps the Forerunner didn't see the Covenant coming; they're not as much an enemy to me anymore, so much as a bumbling empire deluded by corruption, backstabbing and zealotry.

Remember the Covenant imitate. So maybe event though they were sentient the Forerunner didn't think that they would be able to surpass the research the Forerunner had done. The Prophets might have only imitated how the Forerunner had tried to fight the Flood instead of improving and discovering new methods.

[Zartael]

I dunno, I don't think you can have a galactic-spanning-super-awesome-empire-able-to-make-Halo-weapons without some faster-than-light ships. Plus a million year conflict would get boring quick.

[j41m3z]

Plans within plans within plans. Maybe the Covenant was planned, maybe everything is as the Forerunners foresaw, and the Covenant War was the only way that we'd have the tools to finish the fight. We have joined forces with the best in the Covenant. And we developed awesome technology too, though it would have been nice if the Forerunners had just given it to us...

I don't think the Forerunner could have predicted Civil War or ideology. Not unless they programmed it into them. And if that was the case why not just program them finding the Humans instead.

[Echelon Three]

But Delta Halo was out of control, we didn't have time no matter what the Covenant did. Heck, if it wasn't for them the Cole Protocol wouldn't have been ordered and the Flood could have found us faster (though absorbing the humans could likely still do this...)

I don't buy the idea that we are somehow protected genetically, we see all throughout how quickly marines can get consumed. And we likely developed so fast because the Forerunners fiddled with us. Maybe thats why the DNA in server 4 was different from what we know- the DNA shown was the 'original' DNA and what we have today has all the slight changes the Forerunners made to us (on a planet wide scale).

True, Delta Halo had been chaotic for God knows how long--at least long enough for a Gravemind to form...though we don't necessarily have a timeline on that. Besides, what with all the Covenant and humans gunning through the Wall and the Library to get the Index...there's plenty of biomass to go around for a xenocidal parasite.

Also, I like the DNA idea; genetic steroids. Mmm...I agree that humanity certainly isn't immune to the Flood, we've seen plenty of instances of it firsthand. In fact, bungie debunked Johnson's immunity of Boren's syndrome in First Strike as non-canon. They really want humanity to not be immune to the Flood...

[Echelon Three]

Remember the Covenant imitate. So maybe even though they were sentient the Forerunner didn't think that they would be able to surpass the research the Forerunner had done. The Prophets might have only imitated how the Forerunner had tried to fight the Flood instead of improving and discovering new methods.

Or worse, they don't read the signs and let it out of its cage.

[kudo43]

I was thinking it all over... I have an interesting albeit far fetched theory...
[spoiler]What if the forerunners were physic. I mean they were able to communicate with each other without words or anything (think of an internet of consciousness). Assuming we also have a benign psychic traits what if we were able to block out their thoughts (we have a firewall)... This would make sense because the flood did not come to earth and absorb us. Rather, the Gravemind could not sense our input into the collective unconscious of the universe, and thus the planet appeared to serve no use to him. "The invisible bridges between us all" reminds me of the force. Something that binds us together mentally. What if we have this ability to hide our collective consciousness from the flood through this "firewall." That unlike them, our minds could resist infection from this being, that we couldn't be contaminated remotely. Also it would make sense that the forerunners had to eliminate themselves completely for the plan to work (because if they existed the Gravemind would continually be able to find them through the collective unconscious... The ark I think serves two purposes.

The first I believe is a shield of sorts, something that would prevent our destruction when the halos were fired. They knew that they couldn't kill the Gravemind with the halos, it was too powerful (too amorphous), but they could limit its progress, and at the same time, cover their tracks (to us, a species that could in theory, defeat them). The second purpose I propose, is that it is the weapon the forerunners built. In one of the Episodes, the video said something like, "it gave us a way to fight it." What if because of their weakness to the flood, they couldnt use it, because the Gravemind would become aware of the plan and send his armies to crush the creation of such an object. But what if you instead send robots (something that has no physic traits) to a world that the flood doesn't care about. Build the weapon there, with a species that can use it without being detected. Then to prevent the info from reaching the flood, they used the halos as a diversionary tactic, hoping, praying that we would remember the site and destroy the flood. Reclaimers are humans because we are meant to reclaim the galaxy and restore order imo... We're meant to use the Ark to "finish the fight."

I dunno... longshot... but it might explain some things... Why worlds fell so quickly for them (if people could be infected remotely... think hackers on an internet full of computers with no firewall)... also why the gravemind was able to speak to them remotely... why they were able to find out there was a Gravemind in the first place...[/spoiler]

Well, that's my shot in the dark. Thoughts? Opinions?

[kudo43]

Btw... physic = psychic just in case you were wondering... (it's late)...

[monctezuma]

But Delta Halo .... us (on a planet wide scale).

True, Delta Halo had been chaotic for God knows how long--at least long enough for a Gravemind to form......

It has a center, a mind
It spokes to us


I think gravemind existed way before Delta Halo was built. I don't think it formed there. Gravemind can move. I don't know how this is possible considering it's size, but you see him once on Delta Halo then next thing you know, he is on board High Charity.

As for the theory of us beeing a genetic treasure for forrerunner, to those who say the times doesn't match:

I made a quick research on wiki and it looks like the first very original form of hominoid apperead during the Miocene era (23.03 to 5.332 million years before year 0) and during the Miocene, continents were drifting and earth wasn't like was it is now.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miocene

[grenadier]

This was probably talked about a long time ago, but do you remember in the original halo game when 343 guilty spark said something to the effect that he recognized the MC, that he was similar in appearence to the original reclaimer. How does that fit into all this?