Comments on: Floodgate

By: Grant.94

Grant.94 — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:36:37 +0000

Wonderful overview, but one mistake you made was that you continually referred to the Elite Carrier that houses Forward unto Dawn as a cruiser, which is a smaller covenant vessel

By: John Ransom

John Ransom — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:42:03 +0000

What I think is most interesting here, is that I think we all want to be part of this, and see ourselves as BA as the chief, but at the same time, don’t want to face to horrors of the flood!

By: bluecow22334

bluecow22334 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:35:28 +0000

ive come up with a theory as to how the flood originated. It probaly starts out as a liquid, in which microscopic bacteria starts to develop into a flood spore, then an infection form which then infects anything big enough to sustain it, such as a human or brute or elite, grunt, jackal possibly even engineers then the combat form then turns into a carrier form due to the liquid expandind, inside the carrier form spores develop which then turn into infection forms.

Then a gravemind form develops from the combanation of dead biomass, such as a human hand and a elite head. This continues to combine taking in all the infected victims info and memory, turning it into a proto-gravemind, alowing it to communicate with other flood forms, this proto gravemind then sucks in more biomass until it reaches gravemind in which it has complete control of all flood.

thats y gravemind was able to rebuild himself on the second instalation 04

By: freeman

freeman — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:02:27 +0000

Ok, a question. I agree with post 70 – It makes sense for Gravemind to already know the location of the Ark through genetic memory of the previous Gravemind, who was told this info by Mendicant. If the that’s true, why didn’t Grave just book it to the Ark the second he got his hands on a Slipspace-capable ship – In Amber Clad? Hunger for the hosts on Charity? Or was his ass too small to fit on In Amber Clad?

By: Gabriel Palazzi

Gabriel Palazzi — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:59:05 +0000

Most Earth life are able to be infected. But like TheAsterisk! said, most of them would be running around like a… something… Actually, they are combined to make Graveminds, Proto-Graveminds, Carrier Forms, etc, etc. Especially Carriers, they just could be making up the top part of it while a apparatus with legs could be at the bottom, enabling the Flood body to move. An example would be that in Halo 3, it was said that Jackals lack sufficient calcium for them to be infected by the Flood. And Grunts were too weak for it too. Surprisingly, in Halo Wars, there were infected Jackals and Grunts as our enemies. However, the fact remained that Hunters cannot be infected because each of their worms have their own nervous system. Well, that’s what you get when you let Ensemble Studios make a Halo game.

One more thing. Do you know about the relationship between Hunters and Scarabs? Can you guess? No? Well, it’s…

The Lekgolo worms of the Hunter are in the wiring of the Scarab and can be seen at the power core of a Halo 3 Scarab. The hunters release them into the system of the Scarab! Cool, huh?!?!

And you think that’s cool? I know all this and I’m only 11 years old!

By: Chistian Bethel

Chistian Bethel — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:02:50 +0000

didn’t you guys say that a sentient life form has to be a certain size to be infected?

By: Christian Bethel

Christian Bethel — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:00:57 +0000

I see, cocopjojo. My apologies. But still, keep up the good work! We should brainstorm more often!

By: Christian Bethel

Christian Bethel — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:59:09 +0000

You know, Cocopjojo. It’s just that when I post a comment, It takes eons for someone to respond. You should see my comment on the Sierra 117 Addendum!

By: TheAsterisk!

TheAsterisk! — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:06:43 +0000

Self-correction for post #77:
Johnson WAS in ORION. Sorry ’bout my poor proofreading. I meant to say we have few solid ideas as to how it may have affected him physiologically.

By: TheAsterisk!

TheAsterisk! — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:01:12 +0000

Regarding sentience:
Sentience is simply defined as “self-awareness,” true, but the tests for sentience are much more complicated. As far as I know, only three terrestrial species, humans, chimpanzees and oragutangs, have yet been proven sentient. So far, even the cetaceans don’t seem smart enough to pass as sentient. One must not only be aware of oneself, but be able to pick oneself out from a group of one’s peers. Sentient animals are usually aware of their own mortality once mentally mature, too, but not always. This is all surprisingly difficult to do for most animals. Sentience requires atypically high intelligence, and the rat wouldn’t do at all for the Flood if their hosts must truly be sentient.
As a general note, don’t use generalized dictionaries to define psychological or bioloical states, as has been done above. The definitions that have been given were all colloquial rather than the academic definition used to define a given species mental faculties. The colloquial definition boils down to no more than being able to respond to stimuli, in which case oak trees are endagered by the Flood. Only the academic definition, which is defined by tests for sentience much more than diction, makes sense when dealing with the flood.
Of course, it’s possible that only sentient hosts are of use to them for their planning and coordination, but that lesser animals may be infected but end up just scrambling about madly with no purpose.

Regarding Johnson’s immunity:
Yes, Halsey said that it was because of radiation that his nervous system was all screwed up, but those records could easily have been falsified. Much of his past is unknown and so left up to speculation and rumor. He may or may not have irradiated himself with plasma grenades and he may or may not have been a participant in ORION. None of these events were actually observed firsthand in games or in narration, but rather reported years later by characters’ dialogue, so I’d place very little faith in those ideas. Characters are fallible and are capable of lying.

Regarding Spark’s dialogue:
Firstly, that monitor is insane. Why would anyone trust anything it says so wholly? Secondly, the Forerunner could have viewed humanity as its children, its responsibility, no matter the species, like we were really smart pets or something. Parentalism seems pretty popular as a policy in the Halo continuity, even just between the UNSC and humans. That would also explain humans being labelled as Forerunner relics or treasures by the monitor aboard the keyship rather than actually being labelled as Forerunner. Thirdly, Sparky is insane, remember?

All this talk of the Flood reminded me of something my brother insists on doing while battling them. Whenever a character says, “the Flood,” replace it with “the Children” (or something like that). It’s far funnier than one might imagine, and it works well in all the games.