I was reading this on another thread which speaks of the same thing this one does, and the other one is more in depth, so I figured I’d put some of what they said. Anyways, the thread is called “Precursors and the Flood *Spoilers” or something like that.
Masaker13666;540087 wrote:
Mr Sanders117;539946 wrote:
Well, again, the book leaves alot for interpretation, and this is simply how I have interpreted the events. I believe it is the most logical conclusion, but that is fueled by my own perceptions. I do not believe a Gravemind ever has the possibility of changing its shape or mass, but rather it just adds to it. But it can have extensions, if you will. Again, like Regret in H2 and 2401. The Primordial was an individual Precursor who, once free, started assimilating victims onto his Whole while on Installation 07, and he was creating Graveminds to further extend his power. I will always hold to the belief that, until proven wrong with concrete factual evidence, that the Precursors became highly advanced Flood, and are now synonymous with them. The Precursors became Graveminds, they assimilate, but are not like the creature we met in Halo 2, who was a Gravemind organized by the Flood itself. It’s an odd, vicious cycle.
I agree with your play on it, but part of what I meant would be that only one Precursor, the one administering the test would bond with the Flood, like a super Gravemind. And in turn would then create other lower graveminds like sattelite dishes, to diperse his signal to the other Flood, and tell them what and what not to infect. I still feel like the Precursors were more than just assimilating other species into the Flood. Which would explain why there is just that one Gravemind that looks like the Primordial. It would be kind of like a Forerunner Mutation. A single Precursor volunteers to administer this Test, the next part would get tricky. Either they have Graveminds for him to bond with on the Precursor homeworld, or they send out the Flood with the initial job of creating a Proto Gravemind, then the “Proffersor” comes in, absorbs that Gravemind, and begins the full testing.
One thing I like when adding this idea to what the Precursor looked like, Is that if he is assimilating different species into one whole. How many different species were put to this test before they got to the Humans and Forerunners? I still feel like this book is leading one to believe that ALL Precursor are Flood. I feel like if a species are deemed worthy of the Mantle, the Precursors accept them to their ranks. Like a U.N of sorts. And they are in charge of their own Galaxy. The Flood is simply a way for them to see what extent the species will go to to survive. I have also found the irony in the Primordial turning MB against his creators and then destroying themselves. It actually helps if you think that the Mantle is protector of life, becuase the Flood were never really at the brink of destroying the Forerunners completely, they had depleted their ranks, but the Forerunners resorted to destroying their own cities. To keep the flood from taking more hosts. It would seem there were still plenty of Forerunners left, and it did not seem the Flood were infecting anything else other than Forerunners, But yet the Forerunners chose to destroy everything. But again, also ammusingly, themselves.
And this is why I still feel the Mantle is a protector title, the Flood never destroyed a single race as far as we can tell. They stopped attacking Humans, if it was by choice, it is because they forced Humans to the brink, and they never sacrificed another species. And then the Flood went after Forerunners, but again, they never destroyed them, the Forerunners destroyed themselves.
Exactly! That’s it exactly! I believe the Primordial chose to stop the initial attack on humanity for two reasons; one, because the Forerunners became involved. And two, The Primordial, being a Precursor, saw that humanity banded together, and sacrificed only themselves to stop the Flood outbreak, if that is not a testament to Guardianship, i don’t know what is. This is what the Primordial meant by “long study”. Through those 10,000 years, he observed humanity and Forerunner. And the decision was made that Humanity, when they are ripe, would finally be tested on their own merits.
Now, I feel like we’re on the same page, and I completely misunderstood what you meant by “the Professor” before, but I can totally wrap my head around that logic. It makes perfect sense. After all, a primordial is the earliest stage of development, this is clearly what he was. The Professor, henceforth be known, would administer the Flood Super Cell and evolve into one of the Transsentient beings, and that was the purpose of the “Lower Gravemind” units. Satellite dishes! I love it! I still hold to the belief the the Precursors were one race, like the Forerunners, but now, like maybe less than a handful remain, and they have evolved into a “Transsentient Mind”. Brilliant reasoning there! I have to gather my thoughts on this.