- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I hope this hasn't been posted before, and if so, then please forgive me.
While reading over another thread on the forums, I thought of a somewhat interesting idea surround who/what the "Reclaimers" are. Some people think Reclaimers simply means humans; others think it means Forerunners - which leads into thoeries about the humans being Forerunners, etc. However, what if it was a small combination of the two, in a sense?
Here's my idea: What if being a "Reclaimer" simply means a reincarnated Forerunner? The Forerunners seem to be primarily scientific beings, but what if, through religious or scientific means, they believed in reincarnation? Personally, I think this would answer a few questions from the games:
1. The Master Chief "knows" how to use Forerunner holo-panels (i.e. while activating light bridges and maps).
If the Forerunners "reincarnated" into other beings, then they would already have knowledge of how Forerunner technology works. While this may not be a complete knowledge, it might be enough for them to do daily activities - light knowing which buttons on a panel do what. Since I doubt they would understand, at first, why they know this information, they wouldn't think too much about it.
2. 343 Guilty Spark refers to the Master Chief as a "Reclaimer".
Now, if the monitors had some way of identifying who, exactly, was a reincarnated Forerunner - whether through a lifeform's genetic data, a certain brainwave pattern, some other, strange way - then it would make sense that 343 GS would call the MC a "Reclaimer" if he passed the "Reincarnated Forerunner Test".
3. 343 Guilty Spark asks the Master Chief: "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."
If, as stated above, there was some way for the monitor to know whether a lifeform was a reincarnated Forerunner, then it would be possible that there are individual "asnwers" to the "Reincarnated Forerunner Test". Fore example, if the test involved a specific piece of a lifeform's genetic data, then there could be two parts to that piece: the first part identifies the lifeform as a reincarnated Forerunner, and the second part identifies which Forerunner was reincarnated. This could mean that 343GS identifies the MC as the same Forerunner who asked him that question in it's previous life, and why "considerable time" has passed since then - that Forerunner was reincarnated into different lifeforms over many thousands of years, until it ended up in the lifeform we know as the Master Chief.
Now, I'm not going for a specific "Human = Forerunner" argument here - notice how I always said "lifeform" when referring to the reincarnated body. If my theory is true, then for all we know, Forerunner don't have to reincarnate in a human form. Let me restate this: This is NOT a Human = Forerunner theory.
Any thoughts or questions on this are appreciated.