How is the Big Picture Planned Out?

[Kiloh Ekim]

Well, here's something I posted on the HBO forum and that I got an underwhelming response from. I looked it over and saw it might feel more at home here. Enjoy the brain-fart.

I'm thinking I understand what Bungie's planning to do with the storyline here. Based on what we've seen with the recent ARGs and the comics, I'm thinking they're explaining the cycle of time. If that wasn't obvious enough I think it's implying that it was the forerunner's plan all along.
Allow me to explain. The forerunner mail with the poem and the symbol explained more than Bungie may have thought. It says "History Winding Back On Itself". To me that seemed out of place, like it was implying something.

Knowing how the Halos work, unimpeded, it would continue destroying forever as long as containment was followed correctly every time. It would follow a pattern:

Life develops.
It evolves and creates technology.
It discovers the halos, releases the flood, and one way or another it almost (if not totally) is completely wiped out.
Rinse, repeat.

Now this can't be coincidence. How could it? The flood could have been destroyed even more easily than they can be contained (as Master Chief demonstrated in halo 1.) How cold have the forerunners have set up a pattern like this on accident. Which leads me to two conclusions after letting this thought repeatedly give me a headache:

The first is this: The forerunners made a mistake. A mistake that they didn't want any other race to make by reaching a state of technological advancement that they had achieved. A religious one or maybe simply one of gaining too much knowledge.

For example: they learn the meaning of life or the fate of the universe and simply can't stand it. So, they make the halo-flood system to make a loop of repeating time that keeps any race from reaching that level. Then they made the humans and designed so (as mentioned in Doctor Who) we will explore anywhere and do anything, simply because it's there. This will make it more and more probable that we will look before we leap and release the Flood.

The second is that they wanted to prevent any major cross species wars that is seen in every halo game. Something may have gone wrong with the rate of development of technology because of the forerunner ships causing the covenant being more powerful than the humans. This is the main inconsistency with this theory but can be explained by a number of things. Simply kill off everything before this happens. Let them live peacefully as they evolve and develop, kill, repeat.

One more thing that has been made clear to me by the mail is that the halo universe does have a fate. (I'm having trouble with posting links, 'cause my computer is crapping out.) The poem says "The Gears of the Universe Spin Further and Further Apart" and continues to talk more and more about expansion. Take a look a Wikipedia entries "The Ultimate Fate of the Universe" and "The Big Freeze". The latter explains how the Halo universe is going.

Now for any of you that can't understand this it means that the universe will eventually expand beyond what it's energy allows. I don't know if Bungie will explain this easily in the storyline but maybe Cortana, like Drundol, will finally find become rampant enough to unlock the secrets of the universe. The theory, in full, it would be too complex for most players.

Anyone have their own theories or notice any inconsistencies?

[Frogwart]

I like the theory, but I have a small problem with it.

If life develops far enough to find the Halos, release the Flood, and get wiped out by the Halos activating, the Forerunners (granting they made the Halos and found/captured or created(?) the Flood) set all other space-faring races up to fail over and over again in this scenario.

Why?

How would they know they were the most advanced, and therefore responsible for passing judgment on every race that would come after they (seem to) have disappeared?

If this is the case, I want some good answers from Halo 3 "before," as Jim Morrison once said, "the whole s---house goes up in flames."

[Kiloh Ekim]

How would they know they were the most advanced, and therefore responsible for passing judgment on every race that would come after they (seem to) have disappeared?

I got a simple anwser before I drop asleep for a few hours. Ignorance is bliss. If you knew everything, you would very soon hang youself as one would become wildly unhappy very fast. Living as a species that is devoloping would concern the majority of time spent existing anyway.

Here's something to think about. With all the violence happening in the world, wouldn't it be nice just to turn the clock of time back and live in a more simple time? Now imagine if out people were a thousand or two thousand more years older and things continued to get worse until then. This may have been the forerunners intent all along. Merciful genocide.

We're happy. We're bliss. Live with it.

[Frogwart]

If it's that simple, that's going to be a considerably larger letdown than Halo 2's ending.

[SKR]

Isn't that identical to the Matrix's storyline? I don't think Bungie would do that.

Following your theory, this pending activation would have to be the second time they were activated. That means that the loop was JUST created 100,000 years ago, and that it hasn't been happening over and over yet. That seems too unlikely to me.


GoO spoilers:::

The remaining Spartans that were left in Onyx's center would not "emerge" as a new civilization, starting from scratch. They would still have all of the knowledge and ideas they they had developed. They would come out, being the only ones alive, and continue to advance at relatively the same place they left off. Also, all of these "Shield Worlds" have a capacity for not just two people. They have enough room for an entire civilization. All of the USA could probably fit into the Onyx dyson sphere.

:::End Spoilers

I think the reason they left the Flood alive is simply because it is one of the only things in the universe that they don't understand and aren't able to completely control. By killing them all off, they are giving up on becoming even more advanced as well as not giving any future civilizations the chance to do the same.

[Jake]

They have enough room for an entire civilization. All of the USA could probably fit into the Onyx dyson sphere.

the way the book made it seem the whole planet could survive in it. but that would mean there are other shield worlds as well. if u look at the online comic it says a man observed mechines building something on earth. maybe the ark became the new final solution. The 100,000 year loop must've started with the building of the ark. but did the flood become the forerunner population control. and is AR the keeper of this cycle? sounds like rinse and repeat like at work

[Kiloh Ekim]

They would come out, being the only ones alive, and continue to advance at relatively the same place they left off. Also, all of these "Shield Worlds" have a capacity for not just two people. They have enough room for an entire civilization.

Now I haven't read the halo novels (they're still on my to-do list) but if the Dyson sphere didn't have some type of drawback, why didn't the forerunners emerge and recreate their civilization? My guess was that the survivors decided to abandon technology and live out their lives hunting and gathering. I mean, if you had seen the end of the world and somehow survived what would you do?

Btw, according to AR there were survivors. He said "that this time noone will be ready". He knows that the halos must be activated again and thinks that we won't be prepared when it does.

[SKR]

Now I haven't read the halo novels (they're still on my to-do list) but if the Dyson sphere didn't have some type of drawback, why didn't the forerunners emerge and recreate their civilization?

That is the mystery of the Halo franchise. They may have done it on purpose, but they may have not been able to make it. In the books again, Dr. Halsey suggests that something must've gone horribly wrong with their plan.

[Boston_Will]

Now I haven't read the halo novels (they're still on my to-do list) but if the Dyson sphere didn't have some type of drawback, why didn't the forerunners emerge and recreate their civilization?

That is the mystery of the Halo franchise. They may have done it on purpose, but they may have not been able to make it. In the books again, Dr. Halsey suggests that something must've gone horribly wrong with their plan.

Aye yes that is the big mystery, why didnt they survive, something obviously went terribly wrong. I have been thinking about this the past couple of days and came up with many different ideas. My favourite is that the Forerunner AI's thought it was best to kill off all the Forerunners, this theory came to me while watching I Robot. If you remember VIKI thought it was best for the robots/AI to look after the human race, even if this meant killing some humans. This was because of the first law of robotics:

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Because of war, disease and other nastiness present in the human race, VIKI thought it best to essentially Nanny the human race, thereby no wars would occur and humans would be safe from one another, as Sunny says 'Her logic is undeniable'(or something like that).

Bringing this back to the Halo universe, Guilty Spark and other monitors who are in charge of the Halo's and probably the ARK may have felt that logically it was best to kill off the Forerunner for the good of the galaxy. This would have been benificial for the galaxy as the AI constructs felt that when the Forerunners emerged from the Shield Worlds they would have started tampering with the Flood again, therefore making the possibilty of another outbreak higher and hence endangering all other life in the galaxy. This probability was so great that they thought it best to kill off all forerunner.

If all forerunner were destroyed then the rest of the life in the galaxy (protected somehow by the power of the ARK) would have a chance to evolve and live peacefully in the milky way not ever knowing about the Flood. Well until a life form stumbled upon it again --------> Yet probabilty wise this may have been lower.

Ah well you might say that thay need a reclaimer to set off the Halo's. However, it will only take one Recalimer to hit the self destruct button, there must have been at least one Reclaimer who thought that this 'logic was undeniable' and whoosh destroyed the Forerunner.

[ii otnemem ii]

Knowing how the Halos work, unimpeded, it would continue destroying forever as long as containment was followed correctly every time. It would follow a pattern:

Life develops.
It evolves and creates technology.
It discovers the halos, releases the flood, and one way or another it almost (if not totally) is completely wiped out.
Rinse, repeat.

Anyone have their own theories or notice any inconsistencies?

The most recent post from AR...:

"He has had millennia for reflection, but what image does he see?"

...made me think of this from the first game, when MC tries to insert the Index into the Core and Cortana stops him:

343 GUILTY SPARK (to MC): Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?
CORTANA: We need to go, right now.
(Sentinels float up behind 343 Guilty Spark)
343 GUILTY SPARK: Last time, you asked me, if it was my choice, would I do it? Having considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed.

...I have always believed in this "Circle of Life" theory, that you have so eloquently stated above. The machines just ID all humans as "Reclaimers", not telling or caring one from another. 343GS was confusing MC for another Reclaimer who had already activated the Halos. It follows that that is where the Forerunners went.
The other side to that theory to that is that the Forerunners could be a very proud race, and they designed the Halo system to keep it that way. Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Italians, Germans (guess you could add American's to that list, too, eh? ) -- all at one point thought they were the "best" race, so they built huge structures to honor themselves. The Halos could just be the failsafe to make sure that no other culture ever becomes more advanced than the Forerunners, because they destroy themselves. Kinda makes them seem like a narcissistic bunch, eh?