So I played through the first three games again over the week, and honestly I found Halo 2… lacking a bit. I don’t know why, maybe because when I first played it I didn’t follow the story because I was nine? But it seems to be aggrandised by the community when it’s story, to me, just seemed to be good. I found Halo 3’s story to be far better. But, I digress. I was left with a couple of questions after playing the games, so I’ll just list them below.
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How did Regret find Earth? I always thought that Regret found Earth after Guilty Spark was captured and interrogated by the Covenant, but that happens after the Covenant leave Earth. Did I miss a point in the game where this was explained?
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How did Regret find Halo? On top of finding Earth, Regret then found Instillation 05. Again, how? 343GS wasn’t around to give him information on that, either.
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Where is the human-Forerunner connection? I always assumed that it was heavily hinted at throughout the series that humanity were the inheritors of the Forerunner ecumene, but besides two lines in CE (in the spoiler below) that only just hints at something being a little off, there’s nothing there, is there? And in Halo 2, again not much. And it honestly annoyed me a little bit how nonchalant characters were about Forerunner stuff. Like when in High Charity, Cortana notices the massive Forerunner Dreadnought that powers the capital, and just says “Huh, the Covenant are pretty good at using Forerunner tech.” Did it matter to nobody that the exact same class of ship was on Earth? It was really only with 343GS’s line in Halo 3 “You ARE Forerunner!” that was willing to actually look into that avenue in the narrative. And really, rather than me being like “oh, of course!”, my reaction was more along the lines of “Wait, we are?”. I understand I’m rambling a tad here, but it seems that what seems to be the most pivotal part of the series is only addressed in detail in Contact Harvest where we see the Prophets see what humans are and name them demons.
(“The installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood. Their survival as a race was dependent upon it. I am grateful to see that some of them survived to reproduce.” & "Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done? Last time, you asked me, if it was my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed.)4. Who is “Their”? In the Forerunner terminal on The Ark, the Didact and Librarian are talking about the losing war with the Flood, and they reference another presence. I assume that now with 343’s creation of the Precursors, the Forerunners are likely talking about them. But this was written before the Precursors even existed as a concept, so who were they?
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Why does nobody seem fussed about Earth being under attack? The expanded universe stuff and Halo Reach gave us an idea that humanity was on the brink of extinction and was definitely going to lose. You’d think in that case that even if “Earth is all we have left” people would be a little more shaken about a Covenant presence on Earth? In Halo 2, everyone seems positively aglow with the thought of cooking the Covenant again, as if they’re fighting on some backwater like Harvest or Madrigal. Lord Hood’s remarks about Earth being all that’s left and how humanity’s last stand was here and now actually seem kind of jarring and shoved in compared to the overall tone and narrative of the games. It just seems to lack urgency.
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In halo 3, how is Chief having Cortana visions and why? Did part of her get left behind, enough to scrape together cryptic (and not that helpful) messages? And in any case, why? Is she very very very subtly hinting at the human-Forerunner connection, but not enough to give away 343GS’s reveal at the end of Halo 3?
Sorry that this seems rather rambling and disjointed, it’s just a collection of questions I had after paying probably too much attention to the campaign, which leads to other details slipping my mind. But to anyone patient enough to read my ramblings and answer my questions, thanks 
1: He found out Earth’s location through the luminary. A device that pointed the Covenant in the direction of forunner tech. They discovered that the portal to the ark was on Earth through the Luminary, however they had no idea that humans were on Earth, (at least truth didn’t) so that’s why they came in such small numbers. Lord Hood states “The fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size” And Cortana stated “I don’t think they expected us… not you and me, but humanity on Earth…”
2: It’s not all that clear how he discovered it (at least to my knowledge). Possibly made a random jump and ended up the like how there Autumn ended up at 04. Or he somehow procured it’s location from something he found on Earth, but that’s a longshot.
3: I think there was a change up in the human forerunner connection between Bungie and 343 but a common belief is that the Master Chief is the Iso didact. There is a great video by Halo Canon on YouTube called “The Master Chief’s Geas” if you want to know more. Basically it makes what spark said to chief have a bit more clarity.
4:Could be ancient humans but I can’t be to sure.
5: Outside of the games it was certainly a big deal, but in game we get only John’s perspective of how the war is. But I agree, it is at times underwhelming how calm everyone seems to be considering that humanity’s last military stronghold is under attack. But I think their confidence in going toe to toe with the covenant on Earth was simply because there was that many of them. Like said, there were far more covenant on Reach and since Earth was a military stronghold so they were equipped for a fight. However things got more desperate with the flood and covenant reinforcements but they were in such a rush to get to the Ark they didn’t take the time to glass Earth. Still maybe another spinoff game set during the battle of Earth could immerse players in the sense of hopelessness you’d expect to find in that conflict.
6: Now this is something I’ve wondered for a long time but I may have an answer. In Cortana’s short story in Halo Evolutions (Human weakness), a lot of her quotes to John are things she says towards the grave mind. So perhaps through her distress and agony she is sending out momentary messages that are received by the chip in chiefs helmet. We know that it is a neural lace so that might be what causes the visions as well. We know that she is able to warn Earth of an incoming attack so it’s definitely possible she could have been sending messages to the chief. Now what I want to know is, how was the grave mind able to communicate to Chief this way as well? Maybe he hijacked his way through Cortana’s signal but I can’t be sure.
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> 1: He found out Earth’s location through the luminary. A device that pointed the Covenant in the direction of forunner tech. They discovered that the portal to the ark was on Earth through the Luminary, however they had no idea that humans were on Earth, (at least truth didn’t) so that’s why they came in such small numbers. Lord Hood states “The fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size” And Cortana stated “I don’t think they expected us… not you and me, but humanity on Earth…”
Damn, people complaining to 343 for explaining too much story in the expanded media and not in the game when the actual instigating incident that propels Halo 2’s story isn’t even in Halo 2? You’d think Bungie would explain that in the game. It also doesn’t seem to make sense that the Luminary only picked up the Ark portal on Earth after twenty-seven years of war with humans, or thousands of years of Covenant history.
Lol, right? It definitely has some plot holes. Though in the terminal they say “it was not so forthcoming” so I guess they had to do some convincing. It’s terminal 14 in H2A and it is called beholden if you want to watch it on YouTube.
I think they found some sort of super luminary.
But yes, the original trilogy (and books) seems to get alot of slack by people for its writing. It feels like alot of the fanbase actually began to analyse what they were playing around Reach’s time. I mean, similar to the luminary, we didn’t even get a proper explanation of why there was even a war until a book after halo 3.
That being said, I think the roots of the ‘too much expanded media’ thing, at least in h4, comes from the fact alot of h4 stuff appears to contradict what we’ve seen/been told before, with no explanation. By h2 we knew humanity was in a long bloody war, and was losing. The covenant finding earth was an eventuality and the trailers had us prepared for it pretty heavily. Thus, while it is a glaring detail to miss, its not an unexpected thing to happen. Suddenly fighting elites again, surviving forerunners, ancient humanity being a thing and not forerunners. These things all sort of make you take a moment and wonder if you’d missed something. It’s like if the elites hadn’t been betrayed/rebelled in h2, and then in h3 we suddenly fought brutes and elites were our allies.
‘too much expanded media’ seems to have become sort of a meme, or an excuse, by h5 though. As beyond blue team there’s nothing in h5 that needs the books to explain. It pretty much spends its time shoveling the EU under the rug.
Also to note on #5, as previous users said, the fleet that arrived was small due to a power play between the Prophets. So, we were managing that well, all things considered as the rest of the Covenant Fleet hadn’t arrived yet. Either way, the portal opens to the Ark, and by that time, we are ‘allied’ with the Sangheili. The ships all have a bigger priority, anyway… Rush through the portal to stop the firing of the Halo Array. That’s how I justify the calmness you mention… I find it passable.
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> 4. Who is “Their”? In the Forerunner terminal on The Ark, the Didact and Librarian are talking about the losing war with the Flood, and they reference another presence. I assume that now with 343’s creation of the Precursors, the Forerunners are likely talking about them. But this was written before the Precursors even existed as a concept, so who were they?
Yes, it is the Precursors. It’s actually fairly unclear just how much of the Forerunner’s “Saga” was ploted out prior to Halo 4. Most seem to assume that 343i made it all up from the get-go. Yet in Halo 3 we see this rudimentary introduction of the Precursors, the Mantle, a War Sphinx, Mendicant Bias and his crime against the Forerunners, and even Requiem. So I think there was more that was planned out than most acknowledge, and that 343i picked up the story from there.
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> 5: Outside of the games it was certainly a big deal, but in game we get only John’s perspective of how the war is. But I agree, it is at times underwhelming how calm everyone seems to be considering that humanity’s last military stronghold is under attack. But I think their confidence in going toe to toe with the covenant on Earth was simply because there was that many of them. Like said, there were far more covenant on Reach and since Earth was a military stronghold so they were equipped for a fight. However things got more desperate with the flood and covenant reinforcements but they were in such a rush to get to the Ark they didn’t take the time to glass Earth. Still maybe another spinoff game set during the battle of Earth could immerse players in the sense of hopelessness you’d expect to find in that conflict.
But being under attack on your home turf, even against a small force, is just as bad. Look at Britain in WWII, when the Battle of Britain was under way and the potential German invasion of the island was looming, the phrase “Keep Calm and Carry One” wasn’t because there weren’t that many enemy aircraft and we had the home field advantage, it was a message to carry on in spite of potential catastrophe, because we were now under direct attack, instead of fighting on the mainland. Bungie probably should have glanced at some British history during WWII for a better idea for the tone to set in a fortress besieged by a relentless enemy.
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> > 2533274849069111;1:
> > 4. Who is “Their”? In the Forerunner terminal on The Ark, the Didact and Librarian are talking about the losing war with the Flood, and they reference another presence. I assume that now with 343’s creation of the Precursors, the Forerunners are likely talking about them. But this was written before the Precursors even existed as a concept, so who were they?
>
> Yes, it is the Precursors. It’s actually fairly unclear just how much of the Forerunner’s “Saga” was ploted out prior to Halo 4. Most seem to assume that 343i made it all up from the get-go. Yet in Halo 3 we see this rudimentary introduction of the Precursors, the Mantle, a War Sphinx, Mendicant Bias and his crime against the Forerunners, and even Requiem. So I think there was more that was planned out than most acknowledge, and that 343i picked up the story from there.
While I agree that it’s probably the Precursors, it is possible it’s referring Ancient Humanity. The Forerunners thought we had found a cute for the Flood, yet it was the Flood ploy to retreat (granted, this is debatable based on what we know as there is room for taking either side). But either way, it could be referring to following in Humanity’s footsteps by pushing the Flood back.
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> Damn, people complaining to 343 for explaining too much story in the expanded media and not in the game when the actual instigating incident that propels Halo 2’s story isn’t even in Halo 2? You’d think Bungie would explain that in the game. It also doesn’t seem to make sense that the Luminary only picked up the Ark portal on Earth after twenty-seven years of war with humans, or thousands of years of Covenant history.
Definitely won’t argue with you there, granted I don’t think this is an excuse for 343 to not expose their narrative better in their games, but it’s absolutely fair to say Bungie didn’t do much better. We didn’t properly find out the REAL, COMPLETE reasons for the war until Contact Harvest in 2007, when Halo was already 6 years old. I have the benefit of being a newer fan who only got involved after a lot of this stuff got explained, but it would have driven me bonkers at the time to have not known.
And just to clarify regarding the Human-Forerunner connection, I don’t have sources handy but the Spark dialogue definitely made a lot more sense back at the time because as of Combat Evolved, Bungie was toying with the notion of saying the Forerunners were ancient humans, one and the same. That never became canon though. By the time Halo 3 rolled around, they were already leaning in the direction they eventually went down, of the Forerunners being a separate (but closely genetically related) species, as a couple of others have said. At this point now, we just chalk the Spark dialogue up to his being Rampant/generally nuts.
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> While I agree that it’s probably the Precursors, it is possible it’s referring Ancient Humanity. The Forerunners thought we had found a cute for the Flood,
That’s not known until Halo 4. When we’ve already been told about the Precursors. Up until that point, during Halo 3, it was assumed that humanity was the “children” of the Forerunners. It makes no sense for that reference to mean Ancient Humanity.
What’s more, we know that the Forerunners deified the Precursors. This would be the only reason to capitalize “Their”. It was believed that the Precursors had passed the Mantle to the Forerunners, and then passed away from the Galaxy. The Mantle charged them with defense and nurishment of all the Galaxy, and in fulfilling this duty, they would ascend to godhood as well, passing the Mantle to their prodigies.
However, given what has changed and clarified, I must wonder just how much of the terminals are 100% valid.
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> > While I agree that it’s probably the Precursors, it is possible it’s referring Ancient Humanity. The Forerunners thought we had found a cute for the Flood,
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> That’s not known until Halo 4. When we’ve already been told about the Precursors. Up until that point, during Halo 3, it was assumed that humanity was the “children” of the Forerunners. It makes no sense for that reference to mean Ancient Humanity.
>
> What’s more, we know that the Forerunners deified the Precursors. This would be the only reason to capitalize “Their”. It was believed that the Precursors had passed the Mantle to the Forerunners, and then passed away from the Galaxy. The Mantle charged them with defense and nurishment of all the Galaxy, and in fulfilling this duty, they would ascend to godhood as well, passing the Mantle to their prodigies.
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> However, given what has changed and clarified, I must wonder just how much of the terminals are 100% valid.
I thought they were all still valid
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> > While I agree that it’s probably the Precursors, it is possible it’s referring Ancient Humanity. The Forerunners thought we had found a cute for the Flood,
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> That’s not known until Halo 4. When we’ve already been told about the Precursors. Up until that point, during Halo 3, it was assumed that humanity was the “children” of the Forerunners. It makes no sense for that reference to mean Ancient Humanity.
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> What’s more, we know that the Forerunners deified the Precursors. This would be the only reason to capitalize “Their”. It was believed that the Precursors had passed the Mantle to the Forerunners, and then passed away from the Galaxy. The Mantle charged them with defense and nurishment of all the Galaxy, and in fulfilling this duty, they would ascend to godhood as well, passing the Mantle to their prodigies.
>
> However, given what has changed and clarified, I must wonder just how much of the terminals are 100% valid.
I understand your point, but I honestly don’t believe it can be 100% determined it means the Precursors. There are some absolute grey areas in deciphering these terminals and exactly what Bungie had planned out for the franchise. 343i could have developed this (which I do believe their overall narrative for Halo is better than that of Bungie’s), but Bungie could have had a similar plan all along. If you point to 343GS’ quotes that allude to Humans being Forerunner, etc… these can still be justified with the head theory. All in all, it’s just not able to be clear cut to me.
I absolutely think that it can. Given what we know, there is no chance that the Forerunners would ever aspire to follow in Humanity’s footsteps. Especially since at this time, the Primordial has told the Iso-Didact that there is no cure for the Flood. Neither would the Forerunners, even the Iso-Didact, capitalize humanity with such reverence.
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> Especially since at this time, the Primordial has told the Iso-Didact that there is no cure for the Flood.
I personally think the Primordial is full of crap. You find a cure for the Flood and the Flood says “No you didn’t”. Are we really just supposed to take their word for it? That’d be like Darth Vader calling the Rebels and saying “that flaw in the reactor you think you can exploit isn’t really there.” Would you expect the Rebels to go “oh dang” ane cancel their bombing run? The Flood’s reaction to the cure doesn’t add up. They said it’s fake and then the Primordial studies humans on I07 closely, discovering that some humans do resist the Flood. Why study them at all if you know for certain it’s fake? Mendicant Bias was legitimately perplexed by this. Then the Librarian lied and said she found the cure and was going to Earth to get it. The Flood then showed up in force, blotting out the sky with their ships. They sure are interested in a cure they totally know doesn’t exist.
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> > Especially since at this time, the Primordial has told the Iso-Didact that there is no cure for the Flood.
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> I personally think the Primordial is full of crap.
I’m about 50/50. “Cure” is somewhat of a misapplication of tersm, as the Flood isn’t truly a virus. The Flood spores are intelligent to a degree. So it wouldn’t so much be a cure, but a means to eradicate the Flood Super Cell. But then again, there may be no way to eradicate the cell. The Forerunner’s study of it may have been wailing against the inevitable.
However, that the Forerunner’s may have thought he was full of it doesn’t matter to what’s quoted. The IsoDidact believed the Primordial, and also didn’t regard humanity with a great deal of respect. So he wouldn’t name them as “Their”, capitalized, and he wouldn’t be eager to follow in their footsteps. While they regarded Humanity as a worthy foe, the Forerunners were also dogmatically critical of Humanity’s handling of the Flood right up to the very end. Even the Librarian.
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> > > Especially since at this time, the Primordial has told the Iso-Didact that there is no cure for the Flood.
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> > I personally think the Primordial is full of crap.
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> I’m about 50/50. “Cure” is somewhat of a misapplication of tersm, as the Flood isn’t truly a virus. The Flood spores are intelligent to a degree. So it wouldn’t so much be a cure, but a means to eradicate the Flood Super Cell. But then again, there may be no way to eradicate the cell. The Forerunner’s study of it may have been wailing against the inevitable.
Interesting idea. Do you reckon humanity could have used its own form of Logic Plague on the Flood to hamper it? Fire with fire and all that…
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> > > > Especially since at this time, the Primordial has told the Iso-Didact that there is no cure for the Flood.
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> > > I personally think the Primordial is full of crap.
> >
> > I’m about 50/50. “Cure” is somewhat of a misapplication of tersm, as the Flood isn’t truly a virus. The Flood spores are intelligent to a degree. So it wouldn’t so much be a cure, but a means to eradicate the Flood Super Cell. But then again, there may be no way to eradicate the cell. The Forerunner’s study of it may have been wailing against the inevitable.
>
> Interesting idea. Do you reckon humanity could have used its own form of Logic Plague on the Flood to hamper it? Fire with fire and all that…
According to Halo Cryptum the humans had altered their own genetics and potentially became immune. Geneticly modified humans were purposely given to the Flood and then they started to die off. It’s interesting that the Flood claims to have voluntarily retreated, but not before consuming these modified humans. It’s one of the reasons I think the Flood is full of it. They may have been correct when they said they retreated, but I think they retreated because their ability to infect became ineffective. This is why the Primordial studied humans on I07 and found humans still resistant to Flood infection. It’s why the Flood showed up at Earth in force when the Librarian said she found it the cure.
Finally, I believe Johnson’s immunity has something to do with it. The infection form didn’t just fail to infect him on I04, it died when it tried. His body contained dead and noninfectious Flood DNA afterwards which does seem to indicate the cells can die. It also sounds similar, IMO, to the Librarian’s description of dying Flood in ancient human space.