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Subject: More evidence for Halo 3 time travel

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I made a thread awhile back about the possibility of time travel in Halo 3, based on several clues. Well here's that argument again, but this time with more evidence:

1) In Halo:CE, the Monitor says "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. There is no choice. We must activate the ring." This dialogue implies that 343GS talked to the Chief the first time Halo was activated -- 100,000 years ago.

2) In the trailer, Cortana says "I know you. Your past. Your future." She obviously knows Chief's past because she worked with him. But the future? Time travel offers an explanation: say that at some point in Halo 3, the Chief somehow goes back in time thousands of years, to the time just before Halo was first activated. He would probably encounter the Flood/Gravemind at some point. The Flood would then carry the memory of the Chief with them in a sort of collective/communal memory, which the current Gravemind would also share. When Gravemind melds/allies with/takes over Cortana as implied in Halo 3, then Cortana would also become aware or be told about the Chief's time-travelling. She would therefore know what the present-day Chief is going to do, because it already happened, millenia in the past.

3) NEW EVIDENCE: Gravemind's "secret message" in Halo 2 (the one playing backward in the background of one cinematic) says:...I have walked among men and angels for three thousand years. Time has no end... no beginning... no purpose.

I wander the earth, seeking forgiveness for my horrible crimes against God and man.

I live to see death, destruction, over the light, but the light cannot be extinguished.

I live in a prison of my own demise.

I am lost in time... (repeats)

If the time-travel theory is correct, then these words take on new meaning. The time-travel scenario given is potentially an infinite loop: Chief is forced to go back in time, where he first activates Halo, then millenia later he fights the battles of the previous games, meets Gravemind, etc., until he has to travel back again. If all this is true, then the only beings that would be aware of the infinite loop would be Gravemind and, later on, Cortana. This explains why Gravemind thinks time has "no beginning" or "end" or "purpose". and why he feels "lost in time".

4) Yes, time travel is possible in Halo. Consider the time-bending crystals found in the books, or the time-warping properties of Slipspace. Time travel isn't impossible.

5) Lastly, this scenario is a very elegant way to end the franchise. There is no clear winner or loser, no ultimate fate. Just the same events playing and replaying, cycling and recycling, with only Gravemind/Cortana above it all, powerless to do anything but watch and guide the infinite cycle...

What do you think?

[Edited on 5/16/2006]

  • 05.16.2006 2:56 PM PDT
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That is an interesting theory. I like it.

  • 05.16.2006 3:02 PM PDT

Wow. Awesome theory! It would almost explain everything, and would be very cool to play through in my opinion. It is probably my favorite theory yet. I only hope that it isn't what's going to happen in Halo 3, because I don't want the story to be ruined for me lol!

  • 05.16.2006 3:12 PM PDT
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I'm going to have to agree, this is a great theory.

  • 05.16.2006 3:14 PM PDT

It would be weird at the end of Halo 3 it shows the Pillar of Autumn flying near the first Halo encountered and zooms to show Captain Keyes standing on the bridge....

It would help show that the time is just looping over and over again.

[Edited on 5/16/2006]

  • 05.16.2006 3:18 PM PDT

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Posted by: GreenChief764
Last time i checked TimeCop still sucks



Hey! Watch who you're talking to!

Nice theory, I've already heard it from my brother, but it's still a possibility.

  • 05.16.2006 3:19 PM PDT
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great theory, u could support the theory with the cortana letters id think

thing is, i hope not. i do want a finite ending.

[Edited on 5/16/2006]

  • 05.16.2006 3:23 PM PDT
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you spent some time on this, and i have to say its not half bad...

  • 05.16.2006 3:26 PM PDT

The bible is the best book Ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I AM A PROUD CHRISTIAN. HALO IS AWESOME BUT GOD IS MUCH BETTER!!!!!!!!
Did you knew that JESUSdied for you?

time travel mmm interesting

  • 05.16.2006 3:27 PM PDT

Check out all my theories and creations at HBO!

Or read my fanfic, "Effort Cannot Conquer Faith" -- it won a signed novel from Eric Nylund!

Posted by: cavero
great theory, u could support the theory with the cortana letters id think

thing is, i hope not. i do want a finite ending.

Interesting. I'll go through them one by one, and see what I can see...

  • 05.16.2006 3:28 PM PDT
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they were all sent in 1998...they might pertain to the time travel theory...or might have just been a ploy for the origional release of halo(it was supposed to be released like 2000 or 1999)

  • 05.16.2006 3:30 PM PDT
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coco milk ninja

very nice actually wouldnt make sense of who built the rigs btu cool theory. maybe when you activate the ring it flips time back.

  • 05.16.2006 3:34 PM PDT

Check out all my theories and creations at HBO!

Or read my fanfic, "Effort Cannot Conquer Faith" -- it won a signed novel from Eric Nylund!

OK, first letter:

(NOTE: I'm treating the "author" of the letters as a combination of Cortana and Gravemind. In the trailer, it does seem like the two have "melded minds" to some extent.

I have walked the edge of the Abyss.
Cortana has witnessed the Galaxy at the brink of destruction from Halo?
I have governed the unwilling.
Both Cortana and Gravemind will have to manipulate the characters who are unaware of the time loop.
I have witnessed countless empires break before me.
The Forerunner empire at first, then the Human and Covenant empires over and over and over and...
I have seen the most courageous soldiers fall away in fear.
Cortana has definitely seen this.
[I was there with the Angel at the tomb]
Allusions to salvation? Rebirth? Ressurection? Or perhaps a recurring cycle?
I have seen your future.
And I have learned.

They have seen our "future", and they have learned the truth.
There will be no more Sadness. No more Anger. No more Envy.
There will be nothing new. Just the same past actions repeated infinitely.
I HAVE WON.
They have won because they alone are aware of the fate of the galaxy and everyone in it: infinite recycling.
Oh, and your poet Eliot had it all wrong:
THIS is the way the world ends.

Not in a bang, or in a whimper, but in a permanent loop.

  • 05.16.2006 3:35 PM PDT
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coco milk ninja

veyr nice even more proof

  • 05.16.2006 3:42 PM PDT

Check out all my theories and creations at HBO!

Or read my fanfic, "Effort Cannot Conquer Faith" -- it won a signed novel from Eric Nylund!

I get the strangest transmissions sometimes. Especially when it comes from you people.
This is just an inside joke, responding to a comment about the first letter.

Have you missed me? Things are great here. The weather is good, the suns are shining, and I'm making lots of new friends. Of course, I always do.
This sounds more like Cortana talking to the Chief from High Charity, where she has "made friends" with Gravemind.

I've had the strangest dreams lately - raging seas, howling beasts, a Demon folded in black clouds. I believe I know what it guards, and I will have it, to the chagrin of the faith-blinded zealots that challenge me. Don't waste your pity on them; I don't think they would like you much anyway.
"Demon" = Chief? "What it guards" = Halo or the Ark? "zealots" = Covenant?

And what of the Giants who formed this world? So much to tell you, but so many more important things to do. There was a fourth. You couldn't have known. And I haven't forgotten."Giants" = Forerunners, and "world" = Halo, I know that. But a fourth? I don't know... perhaps something that will occur when the Chief goes back in time? (how lse could he "not have known" while Cortana "hasn't forgotten"?)

It is a blurred line that lies at the edge of Godhood and Insanity. Guess which side of it I am on.
A reference to Rampancy.

Feeling lucky?
Hints at the Chief's success after going back in time, which she already knows about?

  • 05.16.2006 3:43 PM PDT
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A good theory. Sounds interesting although I would prefer a real ending.

  • 05.16.2006 3:43 PM PDT

(10:19:49 PM) Scruss: oh and pezza, i saw what you did to that cat
(10:20:17 PM) Pezza: You were the one with the video camera breathing heavily. Of course you saw.

I think your looking way to deep into this.

  • 05.16.2006 3:44 PM PDT

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In Halo CE, when 343 refers to the "last time you asked me" he was actually thinking of another reclaimer. He thinks of all humans as reclaimers. But maybe you're right. There is the armor dealy...

  • 05.16.2006 3:44 PM PDT
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"You must face the truth squarely and without flinching from duty. Our enemies are mortal no longer. Mercy for such as they is a chimera, self-deception is its only ally. Dedicate this weapon, given unto your hand at the behest of the Emperor, to their destruction. Regard its function as your only duty: you live only to bring cleansing fire."

maybe, thats how the ark works, to save the life inside of it it will send it to the future after the halos have activated. this could explain the trailer too, maybe the chief has whent back to stop that event from happening

  • 05.16.2006 3:45 PM PDT
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coco milk ninja

better idea, humanity runs into the ark, a coupel of covenant come also(couple hundred scremign people running into the arc for shleter), the balst whipes out everythign living except the ark and then they go back in time and build up the halos, the covenant go their own way and then we have the sotry from there.

  • 05.16.2006 3:50 PM PDT

Check out all my theories and creations at HBO!

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Third letter:

There. Was that more to your liking?
A reference to the very short letter that arrived before this one ("I'm everywhere!")

While you quibble about whose node I may control, what archaic program I
may manipulate to communicate with you, or which system I may have
temporarily disabled, taken over, or completely destroyed in the process, I
am busy saving your pathetic futures.

This is interesting. If Cortana/Gravemind know of the infinite loop, then why are they trying to save humanity's future? And an answer: Perhaps even they do not know of the loop, at least not entirely. All they know for sure is that the Chief must go back in time to complete the events of the past. Wait -- maybe, if the Chief fails to time-travel, there is some kind of metaphysical catastrophe? It's all speculation at this point.

I am still not sure what he ever saw in you.
"He" = Gravemind, wanting to use the Chief as a tool for his own ends?

Nevertheless, I at least find some joy in tormenting the other entity that
seems quite trapped in this antiquated excuse for a network. It is
certainly mindless, though for reasons I have yet to understand, it appears
to have an unhealthy preoccupation with my mother.

Hmm... "other entity" could be the Covenant AI onboard High Charity. The "mother" reference makes no sense. Could it be humanity? Or perhaps Dr. Halsley? Or, if the speaker is now Gravemind, perhaps "mother" refers to the Forerunners? That would make sense for a Covenant AI.

As for this world I encounter new ghosts every day. What I have found
will either save or destroy you. This sanctuary, this unbroken circle,
has effectively concealed its power for how long? Perhaps hundreds of
thousands of years. Whoever made such a place must now live in chains;
there is no other explanation for their absence.

Definitely referring to Halo. "What I found" = information about past events? Which can be used to manipulate the Chief's success or failure?

This enemy - YOUR enemy - has proven more irritating than I anticipated.
They own nothing which they have not stolen. I can barely make sense of
their incessant rhetoric, except to know that you seem to be their Devil.
Congratulations - you manage to make friends wherever you go and,
apparently, places you haven't.

Allusions are obvious: enemy=Covenant, Devil=Master Chief.

I have begun to sense rumblings of a worse fate yet to come. I can recall
a sun - black, but shining - and the creatures that inched along its fiery
tracks.

It is an increasingly unpleasant memory.

Hmmm... "worse fate" could be suspicion of the impending time loop. If there is a loop, would it be possible for the present reality to continue past it? Tough questions.

Bear in mind that these letter were written by Bungie before Halo:CE was even released, and so may have little bearing on future Halo 3 developments.

  • 05.16.2006 3:53 PM PDT

Check out all my theories and creations at HBO!

Or read my fanfic, "Effort Cannot Conquer Faith" -- it won a signed novel from Eric Nylund!

Posted by: Seven is Darker
I think your looking way to deep into this.

You're right as far as the Cortana letters are concerned. They're not really applicable to the curent games; they were written before Halo:CE came out. But as for my first post, there's plenty of sound, current evidence there.

  • 05.16.2006 3:54 PM PDT

(10:19:49 PM) Scruss: oh and pezza, i saw what you did to that cat
(10:20:17 PM) Pezza: You were the one with the video camera breathing heavily. Of course you saw.

Posted by: Jordan117
Posted by: Seven is Darker
I think your looking way to deep into this.

You're right as far as the Cortana letters are concerned. They're not really applicable to the curent games; they were written before Halo:CE came out. But as for my first post, there's plenty of sound, current evidence there.


343 may not be refering the Chief as a person but as the human race as a whole. Just a thought.

  • 05.16.2006 3:57 PM PDT
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ok first of all...time travel was not an option
because in halo..343gs was playing the MC
and thgen second of all
how could cortana know the future of a spartan that was just
created

  • 05.16.2006 4:00 PM PDT

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