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Had a whole bunch of submissions this interval. I get the feeling though, that we're starting to hit the more obscure thought processes. Still - always fun to have a Cortana hatin' theory to run to the presses with.
Interactive Civilian (mamoru@gmail.com) writes:
Just reading the story page, and zloty5@netscape.net had some insightful ideas about Miranda disprespecting the rules by giving Cortana the ability to destroy the In Amber Clad. It makes pretty good sense, except for one assumption that I believe to be false.
That assumption is that Cortana actually had the ability to cause the self-destruction of the In Amber Clad. I was of the opinion that Cortana was lying when she said that based on the cut-scene when she was telling the Master Chief that she would do just that if it seemed like Halo would be fired. As has been mentioned previously on the HSP, she appears to cross her fingers while she is saying this to the Master Chief. Add to that the fact that the instillation came very close to firing, something Cortana should easily have been aware of, and the In Amber Clad certainly was not set to self-destruct.
I would guess that Miranda Keyes did in fact observe protocol and had not given Cortana the ability to destroy the ship.
Cortana's motivation for lying to the Master Chief are yet another matter of speculation, and many decent theories seem to have been advanced, mainly centering on Cortana's possible rampancy. However, I believe that she did indeed lie to him for her own purposes.
Just a thought.
-Jillybean
James doesn't see the light much . . .
James Grisetti (htabountyhunter@yahoo.co.uk) writes:
I know how it can occassionally be awfully fun to
contrive more and more obscure references to the
number 117, or reasons for it being chosen
specifically for the Master Chief, and here I have
another possible origin. In the military, people like
to do things alphabetically, and they like to do
things by last name, whenever possible. Out of the
original 150 candidates, 117 is a very nice position
for someone with a last name that starts with 'S',
like Smith; John Smith. Just thought I should mention it.
Hey . . . John and Jane Smith . . . still finding cast for Halo . . .
Could be one sexy movie.
-Jillybean
I have to say, Cortana. Killing all sentient life if pretty cudgely to me.
(zloty5@netscape.net) writes:
I've been listening in on 343 Guilty Spark's conversation (Delusions and Grandeur) with the Arbiter and I had a little trouble with the lack of a transcript for that level [Yes, yes, we know - Ed.]. But there are certain facts that stand out from that conversation.
I've searched the Halo Story Transcripts. Nowhere does 343 Guilty Spark mention the Forerunner, except that once. And it's still a classic 343 conversation-twisted and ambiguous, with huge holes in it.
1. Inside the library in Halo 1, 343 tells Master Chief that the installation (04) was built specifically to study and contain the Flood. He later acknowledges its vast destructive power-the ability to destroy sentient life in a 25,000 light-year radius.
In Halo 2, 343 tells the Arbiter that the Halos are weapons of last resort, built by the Forerunner.
The Halos are not specifically weapons - "This isn't a cudgel, you barbarian!" - They're multifaceted facilities for Flood eradication. They're meant to get rid of the Flood by whatever method it takes. Killing all sentient life is merely the last resort. They're not weapons, why does 343 present only the ring's destructive aspect? What about the constructive aspects of the ring-their intent to eradicate the Flood with the minimum possible trouble?
The answer: The Chief is a Reclaimer, and the Arbiter is not. The Arbiter doesn't need to know most things about the ring-he's not authorized. Under pressure from the likes of Tartarus and Sarge and all the others present in that room, 343 gave a half-true answer instead of blabbing everything.
2. Three radii from the galactic center? Radii of what?? The blast radius of a single ring, of course! Seven rings put together can probably add up their blast and direct it inwards so that everything within a 75,000 light-year radius is destroyed. This radius includes that of the earth and perhaps the covenant homeworlds as well. There was a way to spare them- again, something a non-reclaimer need not know. 343 Guilty Spark would probably have told MC a lot more if he was in the Arbiter's place.
3. 343 implies that getting rid of all sentient life would render the Flood harmless. That's absurd. It's like saying that malaria/anopheles mosquitos will become harmless if all the humans on earth are nuked.
Following that theory, I would say you had more evidence to the human/Forerunner connection.
permalink | Halo Installations
-Jillybean
Yay! A postable Ark theory!
SubQuantum (subquantum@adelphia.net) writes:
I'd like to offer a new (if not unthought-of) theory about the Ark. Most of the thoughts on this page try to explain why the Ark is on Earth. I disagree. I believe that the Ark is a large structure that is buried on the planet Coral (or possibly the planet Coral itself - you can never tell with these Forerunner) and that it possibly contains vast volumes of life. I have a lot of evidence to promote this theory. Let's start by looking at the Conversations From The Universe booklet that was bundled with the Halo 2 Special Edition game disk.
There is a letter in it - a conversation from an archaeologist on Coral to (presumably) his wife.
"The object on Coral was discovered during routine quarrying. Explosives revealed the top of the object, blasting out a depth of around 30 meters. Surrounding rock and dirt were evaporated- but this object wasn't even scorched [. . .]We know that the eighty or so meters we've uncovered so far are likely the tip of the iceberg. There seems to be a complex of galleries and vaults beneath, but so far, its secrets remain sealed like a tomb."
This sounds a lot like an "Ark" in the biblical sense (yes, I'm bringing that up again) in that there are several rooms. Perhaps the Forerunner couldn't find it in their heart to totally eradicate all sentient life in the galaxy, so they put seeds of it here in this indestructible vault? The idea is not so far-fetched. Let us detour for a moment to the Library and it's infamous Index. Why, oh why, would they give them these names? The Library seems to be more of a security center holding this key to the "Gun pointed at the head of the universe." If you were going to build a massive weapon to which you could add limitless complexity, and you wanted it to be selective in what it destroyed (sentient life), how would you do it? Personally, I would catalog every life form that I wanted to destroy, and then store them far, far away from the computer that would read them, just as one wouldn't store rifles and ammo in the same cabinet. This is what I believe the Index and Library represent - The Index is a data storage device (evidenced by Cortana's ability to "have" it - she's a computer - she couldn't simply "take" the Index unless it was what was ON the index that mattered) and therefore the Library is a storage bin for all the genetic data relevant to the species Halo is meant to destroy. To fire Halo, the Control Room computer must first be given an index of life forms to eradicate, and then look up the patterns for those life forms in a Library.
How does this relate to the Ark? The Ark is a fall back point - a disembodied Library that instead of having an Index at it's core, has the controls to shutdown the Halo network (or disable it?) and potentially release it's inhabitants from whatever kind of stasis they are in. Alas, we still have not answered how Humans and Covenant became. We know that the Forerunners expected Humans, and that Truth knows something about us that we Humans do not. Note that 343GS calls the Covenant "The Meddlers" in Halo 2, and "The other species" in Halo 1 - clearly they are not connected with the Forerunner in any childlike way.
My only guesses past this are that Humans were potentially released from the Ark after Halo fired to 'reclaim' the role of the Forerunners - and then something happened and we were stranded on Earth (unless this was the intent) and the Covenant evolved separately. The Hierarchs and the Elites evolved on the same planet, and that is where the Covenant religion began. My theory on why Truth (who knows the truth, of course) heads to Earth? We can't take Mercy's statement with any credit - he was brainwashed by the Covenant as well (which is why Truth "kills" him through inaction, and why we constantly hear him mocking Mercy's wisdom and experience in his public speeches (though Mercy would never know)). I bet that Truth thinks that Earth and Humanity know where the Ark is - and he wants to get there to survive Halo. If you knew what was coming, wouldn't you want to survive it, along with your small group of extremely devout followers, to emerge in a totally uninhabited universe, free to rule as you please? As a god?
See - theory + logical thought process = posting!
-Jillybean
