- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: Psychosis
All very good points, but lets take some other things into account. Covenant worship forrunners. Covanant hate humans. Humans hate covenant. In the first book the spartans didnt have the super bad as MarkV they had those crappy (by comparison) little battle suit things like the ODST's wear. While on a mission MC steals a shield generator off a covenant body. Covenant armor and weaponry is derived from Forrunner technology. 343 is of forrunner origin being that he's been there on halo for 100k + years. Though not fully forrunner tech maybe the superior design over the covenant modifications to the forrunner tech makes 343 believe that MC is an improved forrunner, or maybe even a earlier version for that matter. For the matter of perfect engilish that 343 seems to spew forth, it would seem that a AI capible of controlling a planet killing war machine might just have the capacity to learn a trivial matter such as language. If you look back on the books, it was over a course of several days to even weeks before MC encountered 343 and with all the sensors and monitering equipment on Halo I'm sure that 343 simply listened in. I think also that while the covenant had superior numbers and better starships 343 being a logical computer weighed the options and saw the humans as more resiliant and chose MC and the other marine earlier as reclaimers. In reference to Giants I'd say this is more a metaphor for greatness, 343 wouldnt need all the "Human" sized doors to get around on small ducts and tubes which makes me believe that forrunners where at least human sized. The reason for the massive doors would be to get equipment around to the critical parts of the Halo sub-system. Anyways this whole situation is just a matter of perspective as of now no one will know for sure until more is given away in Halo2 and in the next set of novels. I think that the Prophets will at some point in Halo2 give some kind of background as the the forrunners in a situation such as MC holding a magnum to one of thier tiny skulls with 4 dead brutes lying on the floor beside him ^_^. Or its possible we're all reading a bit too much into this, but who cares its good fun
Nice post, but I think you need to flesh this point out more:
343 is of forrunner origin being that he's been there on halo for
100k + years.
There is a lot of evidence suggesting that Humans were on Halo 100k+
years ago. Eagle 117 brought up the anomaly of Rat Race having a
mining operation, and how difficult it would be for the Humans fighting
for their lives to setup a mining operation over the short period of time
that Halo takes place, and then there's the fact that 343 recognizes
117 himself, telling him that he would do the same. (as in setting off the
ring) And then there's the Human symbol on 343 himself, and the lack
of the same symbol, or any Human symbol, on the entire ring. With
all of this evidence, it's entirely possible for 343 to be a Human A.I.
left behind 101,217 years ago after the first outbreak of the Flood.
On the other hand, it's entirely possible for me to be wrong and 343
to be a Forerunner A.I., but in my opinion there is more evidence
leaning toward 343 being a Human creation so far. As you said
Psychosis, it's a matter of perspective =)
On a different note, I've been wondering what the Forerunner are
if they are not Human. After doing a bit of reading and thinking, I
think they're the S'pht. If you don't know what the S'pht are, take a
trip to the Marathon Story Page and read up. (what I'm writing is
almost pure guesswork, but it's fun!)
After the events of Marathon 2, Durandal leaves with his cyborg
S'pht "army" to intercept a rogue star that has been travelling thorugh
the galaxy for the last milennia. This rogue star is a common thread
in Bungie stories, including both Myth and Marathon. The legend has
it that in Myth, every thousand years the passing of a comet heralds
the arrival of a new hero. If you look at the Marathon timeline,
Many events that Durandal took part in are in thousand year
increments, beginning with the comet of 1811, (before Durandal)
and ending with Durandal's return to Earth in a Jjaro Dreadnought
called Manus Celer Dei. (the swift hand of God) The rogue star
that Durandal intercepted with his S'pht army may have had
loads of Jjaro technology that Durandal would be overjoyed to
find, but the details of what was on the rogue star may never be
known.
Anyway, Durandal and the S'pht begin to setup their plan for
escaping the closure of the universe with their new Jjaro toys.
Before I go any further, here's some things I'd like to point out
about the S'pht.
1.)They have a single consciousness
2.)They're about the size of a brain, probably a bit larger
3.)They have highly mutable genetic code
4.)Their sentience was brought upon them by Jjaro technology
(they're cyborgs essentially)
Okay, so now Durandal and the S'pht are hard at work making
Durandal's dream of eternity come true. While this is going
on, somehow the S'pht mutate. (explaining how would be
complete guesswork, and I'm guessing enough already)
They become the Flood. In response, Durandal builds the
Rings to study and contain them in order to bring them back
one day. The reason I think it never happened is because of
the possible mental link between Durandal and the Flood.
To say it plainly, Durandal is the Flood, the Forerunner,
and the S'pht. This makes 343 all the more mysterious
however, because you would think that he would be helping
Durandal ressurect the S'pht, (himself) but instead he
seems eager to starve the Flood to death.
What got me thinking in this direction is the physiology
of the Flood, and how similar it is to the S'pht.
1.) Both the Flood and S'pht have a singular conciousness.
2.) The Flood and the S'pht are about the same size and shape
in their "natural" form.
3.) The S'pht's genetic code appears to be easily changed. The
S'pht mutated from the F'lickta into the smaller, brain shaped
cyborgs, which is described as an absurd change in one of the
terminals. Absurd but probably true.
4.) The S'pht were not sentient beings before their assimilation
into cyborgs, and may not be considered sentient with Durandal
as their conciousness, making them immune to the pulse of
Halo.
There are also S'pht symbols all over Halo. If you look at
Waterloo Waterpark and the Forerunner symbols around Halo,
you'll see that they're very similar.