News Archive
We've had a lot of speculation on the "usefulness" of the Flood, but Allan Crossman makes a good point.
Allan Crossman (a.crossman@blueyonder.co.uk) writes:
It's pretty clear that the Forerunners thought that letting them escape the Halo was a bad idea - hence the containment protocols and Halo's final weapon. But why is it bad for the Flood to escape? Obviously not because the Flood are a hazard to sentient life, since the Forerunners were willing to eliminate all sentient life in the galaxy... so apart from the threat to sentient life, what's so bad about the Flood?
And when I say a lot, I really mean a lot of speculation has come in with theories on the potential use, misuse, and/or purpose of the Flood. Think about this, though: The Flood don't need to exist as a weapon of some kind, because the Halo itself provides a much more powerful and absolute solution. What, then, makes the Flood so special, that the extermination of all sentient life is called for in the event of their 'release'?
In other words, what would happen if the Halo didn't fire, and the Flood were allowed to spread across the galaxy?
-mnemesis
One reader felt the need to respond to a previous post, discussing the release of the Flood. He points specifically to this exchange between the MC and Cortana:
CORTANA:
This ring isn't a cudgel, you barbarian, it's something else... something much more important. The Covenant were right... this ring... it's Forerunner. Give me a second to access... yes, the Forerunner built this place, what they called a, "fortress world," in order to... no, that can't be. Oh, those Covenant fools...they must've known, there must have been signs!
MASTER CHIEF:
Slow down. You're losin' me.
CORTANA:
The Covenant found something, buried in this ring, something horrible, and now...they're afraid.
VORLONS301@aol.com (VORLONS301@aol.com) writes:
As you can see from this little snippet of the conversation in "Two betrayals," it was "those Covenant fools" that have "been persistant in accessing restricted areas." Before you say that Cortana does not specifically say that the Covenant released the Flood think about this, what else could she have been referring to?
What indeed? ;-)
-mnemesis
Our very own Space Duck, Astro, has a keen observation about the MC and how 343 GS sees him.
Astro the Space Duck (astro_tsd@mac.com) writes:
I am semi-perplexed by 343's comment about 'the *other* species', due to the fact that the Covenant isn't a species, whereas the humans are. But then humans aren't 'other', as opposed to the Master Chief, since he's basically human. This leads me to believe that 343 was thinking of Master Chief as being either too cyborgish (is that a word?) to be considered human, or of another race entirely, ie Forerunner. But then if he's Forerunner, 'other' is quite imprecise, as there are several other species on Halo. Quite intriguing.
...I think this would be a good time to point something out. Many people have used 343's apparent view that MC is Forerunner as evidence that Humans are Forerunner. Although I do not necessarily disagree with that end conclusion, I believe that specific evidence is entirely inaccurate. "Since 343 thinks MC is Forerunner, that must mean Forerunner=Humans." or at least that's what many people have said. Quite no. MC isn't human, he's a cyborg. This, to me, points to Forerunners being a race of cyborgs, or machines, or AIs, etc. Basically, Forerunners would be a race that is at least mechanical in nature, rather than organic.
It's been observed that 343 might be judging us based on our outward appearance, but that's not the only "mechanical" aspect to the MC. There's always that ceramic-enhanced skeletal structure, and the superconducting neural enhancements, and...
;-)
-mnemesis
In an HBO forum post, ferrex, a designer extrordina're at Bungie, reveals some specific info about the workings of the Flood:
"The useful parts of the host organism are kept alive and functional by the Flood organism, which gradually replaces the functions of systems which it can improve upon.
And unfortunately for the host, the nervous system is considered a useful system."
Next time you go blasting away at those poor hapless souls, you might think about this...
...for a second or two. ;-)
Btw, if there are any of you out there who have any thoughts about the Flood, or any other Halo-related ruminations, send 'em in! (I know, I know. I've gotten terribly sloppy about updates. :-( Take heart, though! Your submissions are always kept and considered, it's just that acting on those considerations has been difficult, lately...)
-mnemesis