By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.
Posted by: Spartan999
Posted by: ajw34307
Try reading the end of the book where the Prisoner makes his speech.
"We meet again, young one. I am the last of those who gave you breath and shape and form, millions of years ago. I am the last of those your kind rose up against and ruthlessly destroyed. I am the last Precursor. And our answer is at hand."First of all, you could try using a less condescending tone and you might come off as less of a prick.
I won't put you under false pretenses, I am a prick, I can gladly accept that.
I see no indication in that quote that the Flood was manufactured by the Precursors as a weapon against the Forerunners.
"And our answer is at hand."
Their answer is the Flood, designed for the purpose of destroying the Forerunners in return for them killing their creators.
Posted by: ajw34307
No.
Humanity discovered a cure for the Flood during the time they were at war with them, this cure was destroyed by humanity before the Forerunners devolved them.
How is that a no? Your statement has nothing to do with what I said.
As I understand it, the Flood was nothing more than a disease that caused mutation, like super rabies or something. Fairly easy to get rid of if you are willing to make the sacrifice.I'm pretty certain this is true. The cure they found was to sacrifice a third of their population by introducing destructive genes and placing them in the path of the flood. Like I said, easy to get rid of if you are willing to make the sacrifice.
I was addressing your claim that the Flood infection was "fairly easy to get rid of". No, it wasn't.
But it wasn't until the Prisoner was released by the test firing of the Halo at Charum Hakkor and escaped to, presumably, where ever the remnants of the Flood went, that the Flood became the intergalactic parasite that we know of today.This is where the theory about the Prisoner and the Gravemind being the same thing comes into play. After escaping, the Prisoner ran across the remnants of the Flood. Rather than be infected like a victim, it 'took control' in a way, becoming the Gravemind. This fundamentally changed the Flood. For support of this, I offer a quote from the last page:
Somewhere in the humans' awakened memory lay our last hope of defeating the flood, which was even now raveging world after world, system afeter system-more hideous by far than it had ever been a thousand years before.
More sophisticated, more devious. More vital. And soon to acquire a new Master, if we did not act quickly-if we did not locate the lost installation and the former captive.
It's obvious that the Precursors, or at least the Prisoner, knew something about the Flood that was so horrifying that the Humans who inquired about it committed suicide rather than live with the knowledge. But the Flood being a biological weapon hardly seems suicide worthy. Yes, the Prisoner was familiar with the Flood, but is the Flood a creation of the Precursors? There is, as of yet, no evidence of that.
I think it's blindingly obvious that the Flood were created by the Precursors, and that the Gravemind and the Prisoner are the same person. Lines like "I am a monument to all your sins" fit perfectly with this as an explanation, since humanity inherited the Mantle the Forerunners stole from the Precursors "a father's sins (Forerunners) pass to his son (humans)".
Posted by: ajw34307
Try reading the end of the book...
You obviously aren't around this place much.
No.
Is this the way you talk to all strangers, or are you just having a bad day?
A bit of both.
[Edited on 03.11.2011 3:34 PM PST]