- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: pilesofnoodles
Ok, here's the deal. I was just playing Halo for PC when I noticed that in the level "The Library," Guilty Spark says a lot of really interesting things that may point to time travel in Halo 3. Now this is simply an addition onto the theory, not the very first mention of it, so bear with me. Guilty Spark describes the Facility as a place where the Forerunners studied and contained the Flood, then says, "Perhaps we will have a chance to tour the facility later." Now, this is a very strange thing to say. If Guilty Spark recognizes the Chief as a human, then when is later? They are on their way to destroy ALL sentient life, so why would Spark say that unless he recognized the Chief as either a machine, or some other non-sentient being.
When Spark also says that "Their survival as a race was dependent upon it." He refers to the creation of a place to contain the Flood. The Flood are clearly able to sustain themselves without containment, as has been seen. So that leaves the Forerunners as the only other option. Why would containment of the Flood be vital to a race's survival unless they are in fact sentient beings? This now proves that the Forerunners are NOT machines, but in fact biological beings.
Two things have been proven. First, that Guilty Spark recognizes Chief as a robot of some sort, due to his invitation to view the Library after Halo is activated, something that would be possible only for a machine. Secondly, the Forerunners MUST be biological, or they would have no reason to contain the Flood.
This, in turn, proves that Guilty Spark does NOT recognize the Master Chief as a Forerunner, but a completely different being entirely.
Now, on to my time-travel theory. When Guilty Spark describes the ineffectiveness of the Chief's armor, he describes it as a class two and recommends that he at least upgrade to a slightly higher class next time he combats the Flood. This is awkward, because up until their meeting, Guilty Spark can't have had any contact with the MJOLNIR armor (or could he?). In Halo 2, Master Chief meets the monitor of Insallation 05 briefly while he is in the clutches of Gravemind. BOTH Guilty Spark and Penitent Tangent recognize the Chief as a "Reclaimer." Keep in mind that Tangent says "a" Reclaimer, not "the" Reclaimer. Judging by the fact that Penitent Tangent seems to know as much about the "Reclaimer" as Spark, it is not impossible that the monitors of all seven Halos share their information.
Therefore, is it not possible that the armor that Chief was wearing in Halo 2 is the next upgradable step of which Spark speaks? In Halo 3, from the looks of the trailer, Chief appears to have an upgraded set of armor, maybe the one that Spark thinks the Chief should have thought to bring in the first Halo.
And so, I wonder, is it not a possibility that the Master Chief used the power of the crystal found in "First Strike" to travel back to somehow alter the past? Maybe when he met Spark, it was well before the adventure that ocurred in Halo 1. Perhaps the Chief assumed a false identity, the "Reclaimer," to keep Spark from thinking he was a human. It makes sense that the Chief would not remember in Halo 1, because the past that he traveled to happened AFTER Halo 1, from the Chief's point of view. Maybe the remaining Spartans did this WITH the Chief, hence the idea of multiple "Reclaimers." Heh, maybe "Reclaimer" means something after all. A group of soldiers traveling back in time to reclaim their past.
I was originally going to keep this to myself, but I felt I couldn't contain my excitement any longer and NEEDED to post this. Thanks for reading, and I would love to hear some feedback.
The monitors recognize any HUMAN as a reclaimer. The MC is referred to as a reclaimer, Miranda is referred to as a reclaimer, and 343GS points out that there was a marine that preceeded MC as a reclaimer who failed -- another human. Tartarus forces Miranda to insert the index and MC had to do it in Halo:CE. Clearly, humans are either forerunners or some later generation/version/evolution of forerunners because only humans (none of the covenant and not "robots") are recognized as reclaimers.
EDIT:
My theory is that the the ark will fire into space and trigger the rings, killing all sentient life except for that on Earth. Somehow, Earth is just outside of every ring's firing range, so people on Earth live (and that's how the forerunners fired Halo the first time and preserved their species). If that's the case, then it would be cool if MC had to then kill all of the Covenant that had been on Earth and survived the Halo blasts.
[Edited on 5/12/2006]