Go to strms.net/hellofresh_hiddenxperia, use my code POGXPERIAFREE, and receive one free breakfast item per box while subscription is active #ad Do you think there are entire galaxies out there infected by the Flood...?
I do believe there are some Flood out there in the galaxy continuing spreading. Imagine if 343i waited all this time for the right moment for the next campaign where The Weapon tells us she detected something… above them. As you or the Master Chief look up and in horror seeing your greatest nightmare you thought you finished it before… is now staring right at you. A familiar roar you don’t want to hear ever again…. The Flood return. Oh man I wanted something like that to happen.
The flood evermind, a galaxy consumed. All FTL travel is cut off universally, and the foood becomes able to calculate for everything. It has grown around solar systems, making Dyson spheres, and connecting to the planets. Flesh moves as the planets orbit, and planets are repurposed. Gas giants are used to create energy and it's moons as factories for combat forms and ships. Planets like mars and earth become the same. Gas planets smaller than earth become ship docks. Earth, assuming it's the place sapient life come from in this model, is turned into the food source... Genetic growth is turned up, thru the roof. The flood breed new hosts to infect and feed themselves as well as converting biomass to being powered, not fueled by food. So the sun powers them at times. This flood form is basically the flood if they were on stellaris, and this is them taking a solar system, planets we can't use they can. And also they mine asteroids. And floof biomass can travel thru tubes like space elevators... As all the planets are now connected by one kilometers long throbbing mass... Mah dic- the flood evermind core
Well considering the size it got in the forerunner war. It already had the capability to corrupt and infect spacetime itself at the end of the war. If the Flood ever fully consumes just one galaxy it will be powerful enough for multi-universal travel as well as going to separate timelines in the spacetime continuum I guess and infecting as well. Basically impossible to stop and utterly horrific to a unfathomable degree if it ever gets to that stage. Now more than one galaxy? GG your gonna be tortured for eternity. Even if you reduce your body to ash and dust the Flood will be still be able to infect you, your “essence” and stuff. Because it can now ignore you killing yourself to avoid it due to bending spacetime. It’s well let’s say I’m happy it’s fictional. Not even Cthulhu or any of those horrors scare me as much.
It’s only scary because you’re afraid. Afraid to lose whatever it is that is dear to you. But with the flood, it is perfection. There’s no wars over stupid shit that doesn’t matter. Think Islam. You believe in the wrong version of the same god we believe in so we’re gonna do some stupid shit. All is one. All are equal. No murders. No drugs. No idiots. Perfection.
I remember telling my Dad about Halo lore, probably like 5 years ago now, and he pointed out the Biblical themes that I had somehow missed entirely. The Flood was sent by God (The Precursors) to punish mankind (The Forerunners) for hubris (Taking the mantle of responsibility). However, Noah made an ark (The Forerunner's Arks) and and brought two of every animal (Genetic codes) to repopulate the Earth (Galaxy) Everyone probably knows this, it just blew 14 year old me's mind.
Actually halo isn't quite so 1:1 allegorical. You're picking and choosing anyway by glossing over the humans and forerunners being separate. Like LOTR, halo avoided being too on the nose and simply used certain motifs. The Arbiter, prophets and great journey borrow Islamic motifs. And originally the flood was the result of humanity's sins and that matches better than the corrupted Frankieverse lore where the flood are the forerunner pets who ate space cocaine
@@cosmictreason2242I'm not saying the plot itself was meant to be a 1:1 Biblical recreation, but that the forerunners were meant to mirror Human Hubris in the Bible, in a way. The Flood exist *because* The Forerunner tried to take the Mantle of Responsibility (Similar to how Man took the Apple from Eden). They played God for a while, but got too confident and used their power for evil, they eradicated the Ancient Humans thinking they were objectively correct in this, which ended up solidifying their eventual demise.
@@cosmictreason2242 The two things you mention in your last comment are not contradictory to each other. The Flood is the result of humanity's sins, and the pets who became infected by the white powder found on the derelict spacecraft were how ancient humanity first encountered the Flood.
This. Could also do a Dead Space take and have infinity's sister ship found at the edge of the galaxy after an exploratory trip to the triangulum galaxy and found nothing but infection.
Or something like newly infested colony and they send a squad of ODST's to investigate why that small yet important colony at the edge of the galaxy has gone silent. Something like Aliens type game with ODST's.
A Flood Outbreak on a planet were Human/Covenant forces where fighting and have to ally up to survive. Could have Human and Covenant races/classes and gameplay could be kind of like Darktide. 4 player Co-Op survival. Halo Universe is ripe for a horror/survival game based off of them.
Tyrands breed right? They dont convert their fallen victims? A conversing species always wins bc as long you have numbers they have numbers. Converting is the best technique for any life form. Just look at the most horrible thing on earth right now - cancer.
@@JakubWielkiMistrz I wonder if the tyranids found a flood infected universe, tried to infect it and was infected and turned into a hybrid version of the flood and the tryanids.
@@normaaliihminen722 I remember some video talking about halo 3s arbiter being an imposter lmao Dudes faculties are not all there, he isnt nearly as sharp as halo 2s arbiter in terms of writing.
@@halinaqi2194i mean in Halo 2 he also does not recognize Flood Smell and even ask to Ship Master (cant remember his names the white elites with two mandibles cut) whats that smell, bro got amnesia
@@ViquelOoste i mean, you are right but atleast in the game it doesn't feel off since game-only players, arbiter didn't confront the flood until halo 2. So to game only fans, it doesn't seem odd that he doesn't recognize flood blood stains and stench lol
My best guess in why the Flood from other galaxies don’t show up is due to the fact that it could put the odds in the Precursors favor which for a test would be cheating, could be that since those galaxies are entirely consumed that galaxy’s test is over which means that the Flood has to make do on its own with this one and build up its own force.
Or as a test the consumed galaxies reset and new life is formed but we never see those outcomes. Or in our galaxy's case the flood is an unfortunate glitch in how the precursors usually operate on galactic tests.
I think personally, and something that’s more terrifying for me- The flood has already consumed practically everything in the Universe. It’s all one big gravemind now, and the only reason the Milky Way hasn’t been consumed is both because of the Halo Array- And the fact that if it consumed us, it would no longer have a purpose. It’s very likely keeping us alive just so it can have a purpose
Flood galaxies is one of the only reasons why I would ever approve of flood samples kept inside secure installations. Even if we can’t find a cure, at the very least, we would be able to identify new weaknesses.
This kinda Reminds me of Dead Space, as it has a similar concept going on and directly addresses the 'great silence' (the lack of sentient life out in space) by showing that the infection has spread to such a degree that entire planets have become living spacecrafts for the Necromorphs.
I love the idea that the Flood is out there biding it's time and the only that's stopping them from infecting the Milky Way is the Halo array. Kinda like how the Wall was stopping the White Walkers from invading Westeros in Game of Thrones. Makes you wonder what the potential ramifications could be of say, destroying a certain Halo ring 🤔
I do think there are still plenty of unaffected galaxies too though, we saw Spark get sent by the Librarian to help the Precursor seeds begin anew in a faraway Galaxy which is likely going to be left alone seeing as it was supposed to be an optimistic send-off
It makes me think of how there are horrifying rogue AI's in Cyberpunk that are constantly running rampant in the Net, and the only thing keeping augmented humanity safe from what is quite possibly the closest thing to Hell in Cyberpunk is another AI that acts as an extremely advanced firewall, known as Blackwall. The worst, part? Nothing says that Blackwall itself couldn't possibly go rogue at some point...
I wonder if the flood managed to achieve the trans galactic stage during the end of the forerunner flood war, would be terrifying if they escaped the Milky Way right before the Halo array was fired
Honestly given how lntelligent they are and the fact that they DID leave the galaxy during that period, it'd be a pretty big over site not to send a couple of ships towards neighboring galaxies and I'm pretty sure the books state the flood showed up in never before seen ships implying they did just that
Currently we don't even know what they did when they retreated during the Human-Flood war. That amount of time could've been used to expand to other galaxies while the Forerunner-Human war was still on-going
it was to go to other galaxies. the story is currently being worked on, and was intended to be a surprise initially, but everyone guessed it. the never meant to keep the stuff about trans galactic in the lore. oversights happen
In lore it's only divulged that the parasite expanded into human and forerunner space but it never talks about expansion to other galaxies so if they inherited the knowledge from ancient species there's no doubt in my mind that the grave mind at the time knew other galaxies existed and all it would take to expand upon those regions by sending single ships to spread as the Halo 3 gravemind used high charity to get to the ark (and high charity's slip space travel was rudimentary in comparison to ancient humans and forerunners)
We as humans know that other galaxies exist simply to our telescopes, it's obvious a grave mind has taken thousands of souls with intelligence equivalent or even higher then ours, although the formation of the grave mind on delta halo must come from feral and non intelligent species as a halo ring doesn't really have the chance to create beings with intelligence, that and also the grave mind if I remember correctly was formed roughly 10000 years after the forerunner flood war, basically 90000 years before humanity stumbled upon delta halo, consuming all that's living and they could have a grave mind within days, but since they're not intelligent they don't have ships the flood still have massive intelligence. I find it crazy that the grave mind didn't start building ships
Loving the frequent content, Experia! Also, small update on my Halo book journey. My Dad bought me contact harvest in 2007. I was so young that when I read the book it just made me want to play halo 3. So I never got passed the prologue. Well now I am halfway through and it is EASILY a masterpiece and makes me loathe the fact that Marty didn’t kill somebody else.
the flood is the scariest space faring thing in all of movies, tv shows and videogames. i dont even think the star wars universe, even with their canonically OP weapons, would find a war with the flood easy. they would have to wipe out the flood completely within the first few hours of contact. despite the star wars galaxy using energy based weaponry, which is a known weakness to the infected forms, the flood will surely be prepared for the disadvantage.
Tyranids are a Warhammer 40k hive mind that devours all biomass and converts it to themselves. They even recycle their own dead back into more of themselves. They have an ability called the shadow in the warp which basically drives psychic-sensitive people insane in their presence, and shuts down interstellar communication when they're in the area, so nobody can call for help. Your whole system just goes silent, psykers go mad, and then death rains from the skies. If they can't beat you in head on combat (rare) they deploy psychic infiltrators known as genestealers. Genestealers brainwash people into breeding with them allowing them to covertly build up a rebel population of half humans on your planets in secret. Later generations of genestealers are four armed monstrosities that can rip a supersoldier in half. When they have either effectively infiltrated the planetary government or started an uprising, they signal the nearest Tyranid fleet to assault the planet from space, and everyone (including the genestealer cult) are consumed when they arrive. The most terrifying part though, is that the Tyranids are invading from multiple directions on opposite sides of the galaxy. They have effectively surrounded us, and when you look into the sky, you look into the great devourer's maw, whether you know it or not.
@@HouseOnFireHelp Honestly unless we NLF the Nids they become dinner. Which is a distressing thought. The Nids would likely be able to resist and make it tedious but in the end the sheer horror that is the Flood is to much. We know at least some toxins and bioweapons effect the Nids. The Flood are worse then any toxin or bioweapon could ever really be.
I really hope the Saturn devouring his son ending means that we get either the flood back next main halo but seems pretty unlikely with endless and banished 3 enemy types might mean all of them are spread a bit thin. What everyone really wants is halo 3 ODST 2 Flood Boogaloo
There are so many things they could do with the ending of that story. I really hope we actually get to *see* the outbreak there at some point too, the story was cool but I'd rather actually see something like that happen in real time
The Banished is the new “Covenant” and the Endless are taking the vacant spot of the Forerunner war machines. They aren’t related in any way, but I hope the Flood fester and grow. We need the Flood back and IF WE SEE AN M RATING ON THE NEXT HALO I WILL FREAK OUT. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
@@HiddenXperia 100% agree. Would love to either play through the eyes of (can’t remember his name) the main character we follow at site 22 who sees the Spartans and then we play as his combat form for a bit or being the last Spartan to fall to the flood in that fireteam. Start a game by making you a super soldier badass and then go “this is how bad the flood really are you don’t stand a chance” the halo universe in terms of lore is definitely playing on legendary maybe even LASO
As dumb as it sounds, and UNLIKELY as it is, imagine a COMPLETE departure from traditional halo gameplay. A tarkov/stalker esque survival horror ODST game (in terms of combat, and inventory). Animated healing, having to scrounge for ammunition, equipment, repairing weapons etc. trying to survive and escape* a flood infected city. Also I just use tarkov to mean extremely detailed in terms of Meding, armor, ammo, weapons, etc. I know tarkov wouldn’t translate to console 1:1 or to halo. Playing as a human in halo should be even more of a departure from main line games than odst was imo.
The Endless seem to share some sort of connections with the Flood/Precursors so idk, I think it's possible they could return. Personally I'd like them to wait a bit longer. Wrap up the Endless/Banished story and then for "Halo 8" give us the return of the Prophets and the Flood as a kind of "Covenant War 2"
I like to think that of the endless amounts of research that the Forerunners did, they left a single research station in a place nobody could find, and its entire purpose is to miniaturize the Halo technology. Imagine firing a gun like a sentinal beam, but it has a tiny ring floating around it that actually shoots out Halo beams.
Hopefully won't be as powerful so someone doesn't just firing it in a random direction and end up killing everything in that general direction for thousands of light years! 😂💀💀💀💀
There is one hope. Reaching the Transgalactic stage might hit a stalling point for the flood. Galaxies that they're attempting to consume would have a chance to repel foot hold they're trying to establish. It's like when China tried to invade Japan multiple times, because it was far enough away they couldn't send large forces, essentially letting the defenders rally and repel any incoming forces. Thus, single advanced galaxies could keep themselves safe if they remain ever vigilant.
If the flood decide to be crazy they use all the forces with all the ships they have which I'm sure is a lot given it's a galaxy that's infected, we'd probably have a hard time surviving thar
It would require another empire on their lievel, or the coordination of all other star empires. Impossible, especially when their technology is probably far behind the forerunner remanants left to them.
No, it wouldn't require us to have an overpowering level of tech. The British got their butts kicked by the Zulu. It requires an aggressive and cooperative mindset. If the beachhead can be stopped they'll never get in. But that can be hard, yes.@@xxhowisuxx
My little fan theory is that in the 10,000 year gap, the Gravemind and some pure forms were sitting around getting high and playing games while the rest of the flood sat around in a storage container like pizza rolls in a freezer
I agree with this loop theory to a certain extent, but I don't know if it applies to our current galaxy, due to the existence of the Halo array and the Precursors' clear discontent with the Forerunners, not just the crazy and twisted Primordial but the others as well they show fear and hatred for what the Foruners did to them as shown in Halo Outcasts, so I don't know if the idea we had of them being above the concept of life and death and simply accepting being destroyed counts, if this was a system they applied in other galaxies then clearly something went very wrong in the Milky Way, perhaps the extermination of the Precursors, the creation of the Array or even the transfer of consciousness from the Primordial to the Flood.
I hope we see a return to the fundamental parts of Halo lore... Halo Infinites campaign really concerned me when they randomly invented a whole new enemy, when there's so much good stuff in the lore already that they could be focusing on 😩
This seems to be a trend in game story crafting for some years now. Forget the lore in the sequals, need to play to stereotypes or just recreate the same damm game. Metal Gear, Prototype, Devil May Cry and now Halo. They all made sequels that ignore, repeat, recycle, or retconn lore rather than even risk building on it.
I swear I'll never get tired of listening to your delightful voice re-hash the flood's evolutionary cycle, no matter how many times I hear it in these videos. Keep that sweet sweet lore coming.
To be fair, the Flood doesn't even need FTL to spread to other stars or galaxies. It just needs patience and a good hibernation spore in a comet or whatever flung in whichever direction that would wake up when it approaches a star.
Make a video theorizing how the flood can be ultimately defeated. I think it’s pretty safe to say they’ll come back in a big way eventually, and if they have other galaxies under control then they seem unstoppable.
tbh, the Halo Array IS the way to defeat them, ultimately. You'd have to build one to cover each infected galaxy, or a handful of arrays that can be moved from galaxy to galaxy. Long process but if the flood are already in a galaxy then life there is basically gone.
To my mind... the Precursors are still out there somewhere, not the Flood. My guess is that they would have set the Milky Way and most other galaxies as 'walled gardens', as there's no indication that the Forerunners were trans-galactic in scope. So it seems likely to me that the Precursors are just out there, watching, waiting for their children to find a way to join them. The Precursors are lovecraftian entities, so who knows... maybe The Flood is just a stage in their development cycle?
The precursors turned into soil following the precursor genocide which the forerunners carried out. Some of those precursor soil got corrupted and the flood are essentially corrupted precursors
This is by far my favourite HiddenXperia video, this topic is something I've been theorising about and creating fan-fiction on since I was at least 9 years old and this serves as a massive pinch on that nostalgia nerve while also discussing theories I've never considered SO much fun
This is the concept I tried to explain 6 years ago. The fact that it is likely that the flood knew of the Halo array and made a strategic retreat outside of their range, to other galaxies, consuming everything in their wake.
The horror of the flood never really hit me until the "transuniversal" stage. The thought of a fictional adversary being so powerful it breaks the 4th wall and spreads to different universes and timelines. This begs the question, CAN THE FLOOD TIME TRAVEL???
The Flood can literally infect the fabric of reality if they get powerful enough, I have no doubt that beyond the Transgalactic stage, they would absolutely have the means to time travel, which is an incredibly terrifying thought!
I just want another halo like 2 and 3…. A simple, yet complex story being told up front and behind closed doors. Halo needs shock value to come back after infinite.
@@cosmictreason2242 keep reach and ODST. Though the idea of the banished is nice for halo wars 2 it makes no sense that the covenant couldnt put down the banished but could easily take down heretics and humanity. Especially makes no sense they purged their best admirals and generals while dealing with a crippling rebellion from the race they're using to replace the current generals and admirals. Also makes no sense that the banished still exist they had to contract mercenary ship captains because they dont have enough men and ships to handle humanity. They also dont have a covenant to fight against anymore. That was the whole reason they rose up was hatred of the covenant and prophets.
halo is in the same position as star wars, the story has lost its way after halo 4 or 5, and everything has lost its importance and weight. master chief should just be left alone and new stories should be told instead. why cant we play as a marine, or covenant, or a ship commander, or a pirate, or even the flood forerunner wars or ancient humans. there's so much content to work with but instead we're rehashing a time thats passed over and over and over. star wars has done the exact same shit, old characters have had their arcs ruined and have been run into the ground, all due to incompetent new management. i'd like to believe this would change for both franchises but it probably won't. it'll take the franchises death to bring them back. star wars has a decent backlog of really good stuff at least, but halo is so riddled with untapped potential, the lore and aesthetics are so fucking cool, but wasted by corporate greed and cost cutting.
Speaking of The Flood, since you've done a Halo What If video already, What if The Flood reached High Charity at the *beginning* of Halo 2? As in, when Thel/The Arbiter attempted to quell the parasite on Delta Halo, some Flood are able to sneak their way onto one of his ships, then bum rush High Charity while Thel is being punished for his failure on Installation 04. Could High Charity quell an outbreak without a schism distracting them, or will The Flood take over The Covenant?
If they know that it's happening yes, if the flood are sneaky making sure to hit the covenant at their weakest then by all means high charity would fall even with the millions of troops stationed to it
A good idea into what a flood galaxy might be like, look no further than the Dead Space game, specifically Dead Space 2 and 3 where it reveals how hyper intillegent the Necromorphs actually are. Now The Flood would be very similar in scale and intelligence
I sure would love to find out that the reason one of the Markanian galaxies experiences constant galaxy wide sterilizing gammy-ray bursts is that some super advanced alien species decided they rather not have any part of this Flood shenanigans and just rigged something akin to a Halo ring set to rapid fire mode to keep their neighborhood clean of invaders by meddling with slipspace travel in a way where anything that wants to get to them has to go through that little firewall fence they set up first at sub-light speed. Honestly, if (big if) species can somehow fence off slipspace incursions/ slipspace travel can be limited/distance is enough to where Flood needs to hibernate in order to make it, most galaxies would probably be perfectly fine as long as nobody is stupid enough to send organics to investigate unknown derelict alien craft when even simple exploratory drones armed with cameras can tell it's full of nasty stuff/they are good enough at blowing them up before they get within range of any inhabitable planets. The Flood, short of managing to make planet fall where all bets are off, is very dependent on there being a lot of very stupid people in charge to get going. I'm looking at you, "super advanced ancient humanity", who decided to use clearly biohazard mystery powder found in a derelict spacecraft as dog food rather than keeping it locked up under heavy-duty biohazard measures for study. Stupendous stupidity in the face of the unknown is a sure fire way to muck everything up.
I wonder if that whole fiasco with ancient humans messing with the mystery powder was ancient humanity failing the Mantle Test. The Precursors were ready to test humanity of their worthiness of bearing the Mantle. As we know, the test involved a moral component to see if an advanced civilization would use their superior power to lead and guide other less-developed, less advanced civilizations or if it would just abuse that power to subjugate and oppress them. But perhaps there was more to the test. Perhaps there was also an intelligence test component to the overall Mantle test, a section of the test to see if an advanced civilization was intelligent enough (i.e. wise enough) to be worthy of leading other civilizations and thus, be worthy of bearing the Mantle. Humanity may have been worthy in first regard, but failed the other section by being foolish enough to not have better survival instinct. (So, if the Mantle test was like the SAT, ancient humanity passed the verbal section, but failed the math section, and thus failed the overall test.) But the Precursors did not give up on humanity, because of the way humanity failed. Humanity may not have passed the test, but they at least didn't appear to have the wrong attitude like the Forerunners did, which would explain why the Precursors have more patience with humanity and are willing to work with them, as opposed to the Forerunners. If this was like school, humanity was the student who struggled, but wanted to learn and had a humble, teachable attitude, so all that had to be fixed was to get them to understand the material so that they could eventually pass a test. But the Forerunners were like the student who not only did not understand the material, but also had a bad attitude of being arrogant and thinking they knew better than the instructor. Rather than accept their failing grade and studying harder to try again, they instead sought to forcibly extract a passing grade. So the Precursors are done with the Forerunners and are just like "you are beyond working with, and unteachable, so you have permanent disqualification." But when it came to the humans, the Precursors were more like "well, good try but no. But you didn't completely bomb and you seem teachable, so perhaps there is still potential in you. You can take the test again in the future, and then if you improve enough, you may pass." So the mystery powder in the spacecraft may have been a proverbial "Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden" sort of test for humanity. It was something that brought about their downfall, but in a way that laid out a path with a fork in the road. Either humanity would learn to overcome their past foolishness and improve themselves, ultimately becoming better versions of themselves that would one day become worthy of bearing the Mantle. Or, they would fail to be able to adapt and overcome well enough to fix their own eff up, and then die off as a consequence. (If the latter scenario happens, then the Precursors would then just move on to test the species that was the next on their list of candidates for Mantle worthiness).
Evidence that the flood spread to other galaxies. The cold storage lore, only reason a species likely from another galaxy would break into a ring, specifically a flood storage facility would be to study the enemy and get whatever information that had been found in the past to defeat them.
The flood always amps up the stakes whenever they arrive so im not as sure that it would work without nerfing them, the halo trilogy already kinda nerfed them or i guess just conformed things to suit a video game
Always so fun listening to your takes on the flood. Something about the way you explain them that makes them sound insanely brutal (which they are). Btw, was just going to comment "Did you bulk up" and then you immediately said you just a bulking phase lol. Looking good my guy.
The facts that im now 25 and still absolutely love watching halo stuff says alot about how well the first games were. Glad halo infinite reignited my flame for it even tho it was never really gone. I absolutely love the halo series and I hope they improve from halo infinite too a even better game with more flood.
Honestly I would love a game where it’s like ODST but it’s like a squad game where you and your friends or AI allies, go to different locations to either collect data rescue other UNSC/ONI personnel or just go in and purge the flood but it could have ideas taken from a multitude of different games from left 4 dead to Helldivers 2. I honestly think this game would sell good and bring halo horror back.
What if a some of the escaped Precursors fought the flood, disguised at what they became or disapproving of what they do. Would they try to create new life to defeat the flood, like The Old Ones from 40k? Would they handle it themselves? Would they aid sentient beings against the Flood? It's just a cool thought.
Probably would fight them since SPOILERS FOR THE HALO POINT OF LIGHT BOOK The 2 precursors in that book didn't agree with the claim of all precursors choosing to become the flood so they definitely would try to destroy the flood if they could.
something i find so incredibly inconsequential, but also highly important is that the "flood ships" as mentioned in the interstellar stage seem to know how to enter the atmosphere of a planet its been sent to, and accordingly take the path of ideal descent until it reaches the full atmosphere, at which point it goes into what I'd describe as terminal trajectory. i find it so interesting as no doubt the data on atmospheric entry would have been absorbed by the gravemind that has access to it, but would use it in such a crude way as to predict the optimal entry path through the atmosphere of a given "target" planet
I think the idea of the cycle of tests is probably spot on, however I believe that means that while it would confirm the floods transgalactic presence it would mean that those galaxies of flood would likely not attack the Milky Way, after all you finals instructor wouldn't bring in a second instructor to play bad cop and accuse you of cheating even with no evidence. Our galaxy would be considered to be in the middle of our test and any intervention in that manner would render the results completely null. Given the precursors immense knowledge and neural physics technology it makes no sense to me why they would 'corrupt' even as non-sentient dust, they would have countermeasures for this, which indicates that 'the flood' is simply some form of theatrical performance by the precursors, if they are to play god they must also play satan and they are doing so effectively.
-a form of theatrics on the part of the precursors, if they can grind themselves to dust they can surely shapeshift into and assimilate others into horrors beyond our imagination, if they are to play god they must also play satan.
I’ve been convinced of the flood being extra-galactic for many years, at least since the forerunners trilogy books which cemented the idea. I’m surprised you didn’t mention it here as it’s the single biggest piece of evidence for me. The flood didn’t originate from this galaxy. They weren’t born here. They weren’t created here. They came from outside the galaxy. That ship with weird dust that was put into pets and whatnot originated from outside the galaxy. The precursor’s became the flood and they themselves could travel galaxies. Why would all of them be in the Milky Way or that other galaxy from the books? It makes no sense. If they’re being hunted down, they run, right? Surely some died here, but some escaped to galaxies far and wide. I’d go so far as to say that it’s far more of a reach to claim that the flood aren’t in other galaxies than to claim that they are. Just put a bunch of flood onto a ship and yeet it out into space. Eventually it’ll drift to another galaxy and eventually the flood will grow there too. Now how much of the universe they control is up for debate but they’re out there for sure.
This theory is quite similar to the one about the Tyranids in 40k. It's also theorized that the milky way in 40k is completely surrounded by Tyranid infested galaxies because Tyranids have been sending hive fleets from every direction towards the milky way. Pretty horrific ngl.
Mate you've hyped me up for what would probably be the last halo game then. Playing as a human as the entire galaxy is getting devoured around you, and finding out it's your job to stop it all. Kinda feel like that could be the ODST flood horror game we've all wanted.
A game about the flood returning to the setting from other galaxies and testing humanity would be so insane. I would pay hundreds of euros for that. Thank you for this amazing video once again!
@TheHan464646 Tyranids are basically a telepathic hive mind that devours everything, scours planets dry, and flies away. The catch is, not only are they invading the galaxy from all sides (implying that they are in several other galaxies surrounding us), but they were actually asleep. As in, ran out of prey completely and went into deep hibernation for nobody knows how long. So they went on a rampage from galaxy to galaxy countless eons ago until they actually couldn't find any biological organisms left *anywhere,* and then hibernated until we accidentally sent a signal into deep space that they could see. So they're destroying everything, they own basically every single galaxy in our proximity, and they may not even be fully awake yet. Their apocalyptic invasions could potentially be the hive mind equivalent of a sleepy guy trying to find the button to turn the alarm off without getting up. And they're kind of winning.
I prefer to think that the flood stay in the Gravemind phase quite a while, and only in the last hour of the Forerunner war did they gain a keymind and start riding mariokart rainbow road into the Greater Ark and access the rest of the Precursor tech.
I like how these videos are still narrated as if Halo is real life and just hasnt happened yet. To be fair, there is technically some sort of miniscule chance that all of the events in Halo will play out identically in real life, in the exact time frame as the games
After playing Hive mode on Gears 5 I would love a Halo version where you fight your way to the centre of a flood hive, deploy something like a small nuke and race back to the entrance for extraction by pelican … something along those lines would be amazing
Actually, for the firing of the omega halo, I don't think it would have necessarily actually killed the flood. The target of the rings is the food source, not them. I think that means that the galaxy isn't necessarily free of the flood, it's just that they don't have a proper food source. We see them surviving in the halo rings for a long time without food, at least from my understanding when no forerunners were running it they didn't have food.
I think this is already confirmed considering the gravemind states “"I have beaten fleets of thousands! Consumed a galaxy of flesh and mind and bone!” Also I don’t think the gravemind has ever lied but always twisted the truth. He is cryptic but I don’t think he would just lie about information. I’m just guessing of a whim cause all the things the gravemind have said have been true to some extent.
You can really see the relation between the Flood and the Necromorphs, but the Necromorphs have Brethren Moons so does the Flood have something similar? Also if we did survive the test does that mean the Flood would leave Humanity alone?
The closest to Brethren Moons would be the Keyminds... graveminds who have assimilated all life in a planet, and grown so large, that they overwhelm an entire planet, terraforming it with their biomass. Even then, the flood can actually take control of star roads, which would be like extremely colosal whips or tentacles, originally meant as celestial roads, but can be used for offensive capabilities.
The theory I have held for a while now, although very similar to your one explained at 18:08, goes a step furthur. The Precursors believe that everything experianced both good and bad is 'flavour' for the living universe, so they want to make as much of both as possible, the best way to do this is to not take over a whole galaxy then move ontop the next, but to control all galaxies at once, and in each and every galaxy have the cycle of: seed life, infect with flood, destroy all life, reseed life, forever and ever over and over. The Precursors themselves want to be part of the cycle of joy and suffering, life and death, when the Forunners killed them all it was not some great victory, but the Precursors plan. They knew that some day one of their creations would strike back, because that is what they wanted, it is what they wanted the last million times it happened. The primordial once told some humans the truth, a truth so vile that all who heard it killed themselves. And what could be worse than telling someone 'We created your entire species for the sole purpse to suffer and die. This galaxy, and a million galaxies like this, have been trying to escape the cycle for billions of years, and so far none have managed it'. The theory that birth, joy, suffering, death on repeat forever as a grand plan of eternal food for the universe just fits the evenidence too closely... ya know now that I think about it the Precursors are kind of assholes.
Its also possible that there are beings more powerful than the Forerunners or equal to them in the universe who have beaten the Flood in certain galaxies. Also, other Halo similar like weapons could have been made by other beings to combat the Flood in other galaxies.
honestly maybe the defeat of the flood for all time could give humanity locked knowledge that would make them the next precursors. perhaps the precursors also were tested and beat the ones that came before them and now also test other species to see if they are worthy of becoming the next precursors
Omg hearing your impression of an American accent made my freaking week dude 😂😂😂 thank you for making awesome videos!! Really helped me through the seasonal blues!
The peak true potential of the Flood is something that would definitely be a terrifying force in powerscaling and variable terms due to how expotential they are in potency, adaption, hyper awareness and perceptions, permanent memory, problem solving skills, how secure their abilities are which don't regress that much and eventually reality warping through neural physics. Their cohesion and rapid processing of knowledge and thoughts is also rapidly their most dangerous traits. As well as their soul absorption as they have done when the Forerunners were trying to revive a infected host into a uninfected body. They are a scourge and horde that devour most unpredictable verses such Warhammer 40k, Supreme Commander, and the Culture really easily. The Gravemind is a overmind which far surpasses the Tyranids or the Zerg especially in tactics and strageies and creative ruthless plans and being extremely resourceful. But there are a few verses and factions which may prove a challenge even to them. Some verses with their own astronomical cosmic horrors such as the the Three Body Problem, Xeelee Sequence, Doctor Who, Manifold, Stellaris Ancient Cache of Technologies, and the Voruteut from the SCP Mythos. In these realms there exist forces which can wipe out dimensions and universes really quickly and whose transcendent physiology and cosmological existence may actually prove to be a challenging dilemma for maintaining the Flood's infestation in the long term. Good luck trying to infect some 9th dimensional aliens in Three Body Problem. It's probably going to be difficult to overcome even with Neural physics you going to need to weaponize Slipspace to cause harm to them. And the Domain though it's usefulness and flexibility may have rivals with these factions such as the Anti Xeelee in the Xeelee Sequence. The Voruteut is another monsterous cosmic horror horde entirely. As they have no existence and are called non existence beings who eat realities to satiate themselves from being dragged back to hellish non existence that is the Voru. That is something I don't think the Flood will ever be capable to infect.
14:20 Well, seeing as the primordial is the main mind behind the gravemind with access to everyone’s else’s memories, they receded for 10,000 years to give the forerunners the idea that humanity found a cure for the flood, only for the forerunners to devolve and extinguish them before they realized. Running their face in shit that the forerunners were again, by precursor standards, unworthy to hold the Mantle of Responsibility. Which is why the flood is so vengeful of the forerunners, but heed warnings to us like a creator daddy that we shouldn’t play with the halo rings and now the flood are “contained” on the halo rings, but I think because they’re coordinated and the gravemind has control of the flood and was fighting on Delta Halo since the firings of the array originally, they’re actually acting as the holders of the mantle… guarding the weapon that eradicates all life in the galaxy. The flood are precursors in mind, but since we can’t comprehend neural physics, or not supposed to, we don’t see the flood as a precursor that has changed its form again even after the primordial told prehistoric humans the true nature of the flood that were the precursors, which resulted in any human who knew the truth to off themselves. They definitely sat around for 10,000 years… the flood are not intergalactic in Halo, they can be, but they are not. They are the same precursors that nurtured the galaxy, just in another form that’s not some squid faced fuck like in infinite. The flood are precursors, that’s what 343 wants to retcon because they lack creativity to continue that story. The flood and the precursors are the same. They’ve exacted their revenge on the forerunners and now use their new form as the test for advanced species to see whether they are worthy of holding the Mantle of responsibility, which is destined to fall to humanity as they intended 10,000,000 years ago when the forerunners failed their test for being too aggressive and arrogant. That’s the angle we should be taking, exploring how humanity is worthy of taking the mantle and being responsible to nurture all life in the galaxy as the precursors desired so they can move to another galaxy and grant life there. That’s what the precursors do. The precursors are our version of a living breathing god, and god isn’t always nice and indeed operate in ways that seem morally ambiguous to us.
Homeworld: Cataclysm had a techno-biological entity called "The Beast" that came in on an experimental FTL starship that jumped between galaxies. It picked up "The Beast" in transit, got infected and became essentially Patient Zero. A tiny sample was put onto a distress beacon and ejected out into the galaxy which some mining ship picked up and in order to contain The Beast had to jettison their entire lower hangar bay. That then turned into a spaceship and would go about infecting other ships in the process. It could have compromised the whole galaxy too as the solution to destroying infected ships would be to plasma burn everything which killed a lot of the ship and did damage... Anyway now I'm gonna make that in my headcanon, the Homeworld galaxy is another one of those galaxies The Flood tried to infest but thankfully were mostly stopped thanks to a bunch of space miners and a Siege Cannon.
Honestly retconning the Forerunners as having gone to war with ancient Humans rather then being ancient Humans was one of the worst choices in retconning in media.
It's also likely that other galaxies came to the same conclusion of the forerunners and deleted life in their galaxy. And reseeded their galaxy. Maybe the lengoloworms took over other galaxies too. Becoming hyper intelligent themselves. Now that's a horror game I want. Planets covered in worms and worm forms. Maybe they even take over being using them as a skeleton. Would be pretty graphic.
I always found the flood, particularly more intimidating than regular zombies. There is just something about a competent intelligent enemy that can truly make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Installation 00 has a video talking about the Primordial's horrific secret talking about how the Precursors are the Flood as intended and how they consume things for the Living Universe to experience the sweetness of suffering and struggle in their very perverted philosophy. How the Living Universe is the creature that is the Precursors and the Flood at the same time.
Hidden, just a question. If a gravemind, met another gravemind from another galaxy , do you think they would merge, co-lead or infight for superiority? If thats the case, if ONI managed to somehow modify or "control" a gravemind... how would that work?
My fav theory is just that, the flood as taken over majority, if not all galaxies out there. While thinking the only thing stopping the Flood from coming here, is the damage the Halo would do to their ranks. Throwing all the mass it needs to take over our galaxy is just not worth it, while it has so many juicy galaxies waiting for it out there, that most likely doesn't have a defence mechanism like the Halo's to defend it. So having just a small sample/number of the Flood there, slowly bringing down the defences of our Galaxy is more logical and efficient.
The biggest question I feel like, is would the flood even want to invade other galaxies? The Precursors already inhabited other galaxies (surviving hermits, and the reseeding done by the Librarian) and the Flood, while a corrupt variant of Precursors, was more or less a big middle finger to the Forerunners for disrupting the mantle of responsibility (and poetic justice because the Forerunner's upset led to the start of the Flood which corrected the upset by forcing the Forerunner's hand into destroying all the life they were trying to save) The Flood is shown in ancient times to be more than just a hungry beast and acts in ways that benefit that whole middle finger theory ( as ypu mentioned: initiating the Human/Forerunner war to weaken the Forerunners and get humans out of the way, then decimating the Forerunners in the Forerunner/Flood war to the point that the Halo arrays were needed and completely went against the Forerunner's definition of the Mantle as a sick way of forcing them to follow the Mantle in a more Precursor definition) The overall question I suppose, would be the motive of the Flood. If the motive is simply to propagate and consume then that makes sense theyd want to spread. But if their motive is indeed just to set things right and reset the galaxy for things to fix themselves and test the Humans or maybe allow the Endless to take up the Mantle as Installation00 theorizes in his video, then taking over other galaxies doesnt make much sense to forward their agenda seeing as the whole "protect everything" definition of the Mantle was the Forerunner definition and was NOT how the Precursor's saw things which is partly why the Forerunners failed the test. The Precursor definition of the Mantle was about balance. It included suffering and death as part of the "sweetness" given up to the living universe. True sucession of the Mantle would be allowing things to suffer snd die as well as live and thrive, not to go to extremes to prevent death or darkness. The Flood serving as a test doesnt make much sense to that end unless the test is if humanity is willing to accept the Flood as a thing that is-- or to sacrifice themselves to it as the Precursors embraced their deaths
to take away some of the scary, it's likely that once the precursors/flood have fully take over a galaxy, they would pack up and leave it entirely to allow another civilization to rise for them to test.
The concept of the Flood taking over the entire universe and subjecting every conscious being to endless horror is a terrifying exploration of existential dread. It’s not just about physical domination, but the obliteration of individuality, hope, and even the possibility of peace. Imagine an eternity where your thoughts, memories, and self-awareness are trapped within the Keyminds, unable to resist, defy, or adapt. It’s a fate worse than death-an unending nightmare of suffering without purpose, resolution, or escape. Perhaps, with neural physics, even entropy itself would be denied. So it would truly be endless too 💀
Pretty sure The Precursors seeded other galaxies, not all turned into the parasite as well, many fled to previous ones where their prime species was able to hold the Mantle true.
![Prey: How an ending no one picked contextualizes eldritch horror [Fixed Audio]](/img/n.gif)
Go to strms.net/hellofresh_hiddenxperia, use my code POGXPERIAFREE, and receive one free breakfast item per box while subscription is active #ad
Do you think there are entire galaxies out there infected by the Flood...?
No thanks🥄✅️©️
nah
maybe.
Also I can't wait to see you do another What if Video. What ifs are one of my favorite things to watch.
I do believe there are some Flood out there in the galaxy continuing spreading. Imagine if 343i waited all this time for the right moment for the next campaign where The Weapon tells us she detected something… above them. As you or the Master Chief look up and in horror seeing your greatest nightmare you thought you finished it before… is now staring right at you. A familiar roar you don’t want to hear ever again…. The Flood return. Oh man I wanted something like that to happen.
The flood evermind, a galaxy consumed. All FTL travel is cut off universally, and the foood becomes able to calculate for everything. It has grown around solar systems, making Dyson spheres, and connecting to the planets. Flesh moves as the planets orbit, and planets are repurposed. Gas giants are used to create energy and it's moons as factories for combat forms and ships. Planets like mars and earth become the same. Gas planets smaller than earth become ship docks. Earth, assuming it's the place sapient life come from in this model, is turned into the food source... Genetic growth is turned up, thru the roof. The flood breed new hosts to infect and feed themselves as well as converting biomass to being powered, not fueled by food. So the sun powers them at times. This flood form is basically the flood if they were on stellaris, and this is them taking a solar system, planets we can't use they can. And also they mine asteroids. And floof biomass can travel thru tubes like space elevators... As all the planets are now connected by one kilometers long throbbing mass... Mah dic- the flood evermind core
Yeah the Transgalactic Stage for the flood is definitely a scary thought. Surrounded by consumed galaxies
Well luckily it would probably take centuries for the ships to reach the Milky Way, so there’s some breathing room at least
Well considering the size it got in the forerunner war. It already had the capability to corrupt and infect spacetime itself at the end of the war.
If the Flood ever fully consumes just one galaxy it will be powerful enough for multi-universal travel as well as going to separate timelines in the spacetime continuum I guess and infecting as well.
Basically impossible to stop and utterly horrific to a unfathomable degree if it ever gets to that stage. Now more than one galaxy? GG your gonna be tortured for eternity. Even if you reduce your body to ash and dust the Flood will be still be able to infect you, your “essence” and stuff. Because it can now ignore you killing yourself to avoid it due to bending spacetime.
It’s well let’s say I’m happy it’s fictional. Not even Cthulhu or any of those horrors scare me as much.
No shot, I just watched one of your videos right before this one.
Fuck! It's the tyranids all over again.
It’s only scary because you’re afraid. Afraid to lose whatever it is that is dear to you. But with the flood, it is perfection. There’s no wars over stupid shit that doesn’t matter. Think Islam. You believe in the wrong version of the same god we believe in so we’re gonna do some stupid shit. All is one. All are equal. No murders. No drugs. No idiots. Perfection.
I remember telling my Dad about Halo lore, probably like 5 years ago now, and he pointed out the Biblical themes that I had somehow missed entirely.
The Flood was sent by God (The Precursors) to punish mankind (The Forerunners) for hubris (Taking the mantle of responsibility). However, Noah made an ark (The Forerunner's Arks) and and brought two of every animal (Genetic codes) to repopulate the Earth (Galaxy)
Everyone probably knows this, it just blew 14 year old me's mind.
Actually halo isn't quite so 1:1 allegorical. You're picking and choosing anyway by glossing over the humans and forerunners being separate. Like LOTR, halo avoided being too on the nose and simply used certain motifs. The Arbiter, prophets and great journey borrow Islamic motifs. And originally the flood was the result of humanity's sins and that matches better than the corrupted Frankieverse lore where the flood are the forerunner pets who ate space cocaine
@@cosmictreason2242I'm not saying the plot itself was meant to be a 1:1 Biblical recreation, but that the forerunners were meant to mirror Human Hubris in the Bible, in a way. The Flood exist *because* The Forerunner tried to take the Mantle of Responsibility (Similar to how Man took the Apple from Eden). They played God for a while, but got too confident and used their power for evil, they eradicated the Ancient Humans thinking they were objectively correct in this, which ended up solidifying their eventual demise.
That’s very interesting! It’s nice to see biblical parallels in this way
The flood is also the biblical flood.
@@cosmictreason2242 The two things you mention in your last comment are not contradictory to each other. The Flood is the result of humanity's sins, and the pets who became infected by the white powder found on the derelict spacecraft were how ancient humanity first encountered the Flood.
Not gonna lie, having a game based around ONi researching a flood consumed galaxy or something would make a cool horror spin off
This. Could also do a Dead Space take and have infinity's sister ship found at the edge of the galaxy after an exploratory trip to the triangulum galaxy and found nothing but infection.
You could maybe transport/build a halo array in that galaxy and fire it
Or something like newly infested colony and they send a squad of ODST's to investigate why that small yet important colony at the edge of the galaxy has gone silent. Something like Aliens type game with ODST's.
Dude that sounds incredible
Buy our 50 dollar Spartan armour
A Flood Outbreak on a planet were Human/Covenant forces where fighting and have to ally up to survive. Could have Human and Covenant races/classes and gameplay could be kind of like Darktide. 4 player Co-Op survival. Halo Universe is ripe for a horror/survival game based off of them.
*Tyranid galaxies:*
~Finally, a worthy opponent! Out battle will be legendary!
Tyrands breed right? They dont convert their fallen victims? A conversing species always wins bc as long you have numbers they have numbers. Converting is the best technique for any life form. Just look at the most horrible thing on earth right now - cancer.
I think tyranids were sent by the old ones for revenge against the necrons
Weren't the Tyranids running from something much scarier?
@@AssassinIsAfk
Well, connect the dots now
@@JakubWielkiMistrz I wonder if the tyranids found a flood infected universe, tried to infect it and was infected and turned into a hybrid version of the flood and the tryanids.
Arbiter: “what is it? More brutes?”
Chief: “don’t play fucking dumb we literally spoke to a gravemind together you know the flood when you see it”
I remember seeing one video which theorizes that Arbiter is lacking Perception skill altogether.
Arbiter: "I was just grasping the last sliver of hope that I was wrong, but thanks for the straight talk."
@@normaaliihminen722 I remember some video talking about halo 3s arbiter being an imposter lmao
Dudes faculties are not all there, he isnt nearly as sharp as halo 2s arbiter in terms of writing.
@@halinaqi2194i mean in Halo 2 he also does not recognize Flood Smell and even ask to Ship Master (cant remember his names the white elites with two mandibles cut) whats that smell, bro got amnesia
@@ViquelOoste i mean, you are right but atleast in the game it doesn't feel off since game-only players, arbiter didn't confront the flood until halo 2. So to game only fans, it doesn't seem odd that he doesn't recognize flood blood stains and stench lol
My best guess in why the Flood from other galaxies don’t show up is due to the fact that it could put the odds in the Precursors favor which for a test would be cheating, could be that since those galaxies are entirely consumed that galaxy’s test is over which means that the Flood has to make do on its own with this one and build up its own force.
Xperia explained it in the videp
Also sounds too much like Tyranids.
shhhhhhhh no one cares@@zerrodefex
Or as a test the consumed galaxies reset and new life is formed but we never see those outcomes. Or in our galaxy's case the flood is an unfortunate glitch in how the precursors usually operate on galactic tests.
I think personally, and something that’s more terrifying for me-
The flood has already consumed practically everything in the Universe. It’s all one big gravemind now, and the only reason the Milky Way hasn’t been consumed is both because of the Halo Array- And the fact that if it consumed us, it would no longer have a purpose. It’s very likely keeping us alive just so it can have a purpose
Flood galaxies is one of the only reasons why I would ever approve of flood samples kept inside secure installations. Even if we can’t find a cure, at the very least, we would be able to identify new weaknesses.
FIRE: am i a joke to you
Heat force and rot
Go go gadget concealed carry nova bomb
I bet this comment is going to get 117 likes
@@ceciliacole5098 "if i can't have her, no one will!"
This kinda Reminds me of Dead Space, as it has a similar concept going on and directly addresses the 'great silence' (the lack of sentient life out in space) by showing that the infection has spread to such a degree that entire planets have become living spacecrafts for the Necromorphs.
I love the idea that the Flood is out there biding it's time and the only that's stopping them from infecting the Milky Way is the Halo array. Kinda like how the Wall was stopping the White Walkers from invading Westeros in Game of Thrones.
Makes you wonder what the potential ramifications could be of say, destroying a certain Halo ring 🤔
I do think there are still plenty of unaffected galaxies too though, we saw Spark get sent by the Librarian to help the Precursor seeds begin anew in a faraway Galaxy which is likely going to be left alone seeing as it was supposed to be an optimistic send-off
@@Rev_GooseEither that or they both see blighted and darkened Galaxies surrounding us.
Yessss I love that analogy, I didn't think of that until now but it's really similar
It makes me think of how there are horrifying rogue AI's in Cyberpunk that are constantly running rampant in the Net, and the only thing keeping augmented humanity safe from what is quite possibly the closest thing to Hell in Cyberpunk is another AI that acts as an extremely advanced firewall, known as Blackwall. The worst, part? Nothing says that Blackwall itself couldn't possibly go rogue at some point...
@@HiddenXperiaanother thing to consider other than destroying a halo ring, but also damaging the Ark and lastly deactivation of the halos
The Flood consume the entire Universe, where everything is dead:
*Dead Universe*
*Dead Space*
Fuck me, the Necromorphs is the Flood
@@hgtrftfrTell that to the OG H.P Lovecraft.
The Flood is very much alive.
The only thing deader than dead space universe, it is the ip :p
I wonder if the flood managed to achieve the trans galactic stage during the end of the forerunner flood war, would be terrifying if they escaped the Milky Way right before the Halo array was fired
Honestly given how lntelligent they are and the fact that they DID leave the galaxy during that period, it'd be a pretty big over site not to send a couple of ships towards neighboring galaxies and I'm pretty sure the books state the flood showed up in never before seen ships implying they did just that
Currently we don't even know what they did when they retreated during the Human-Flood war. That amount of time could've been used to expand to other galaxies while the Forerunner-Human war was still on-going
it was to go to other galaxies. the story is currently being worked on, and was intended to be a surprise initially, but everyone guessed it. the never meant to keep the stuff about trans galactic in the lore. oversights happen
In lore it's only divulged that the parasite expanded into human and forerunner space but it never talks about expansion to other galaxies so if they inherited the knowledge from ancient species there's no doubt in my mind that the grave mind at the time knew other galaxies existed and all it would take to expand upon those regions by sending single ships to spread as the Halo 3 gravemind used high charity to get to the ark (and high charity's slip space travel was rudimentary in comparison to ancient humans and forerunners)
We as humans know that other galaxies exist simply to our telescopes, it's obvious a grave mind has taken thousands of souls with intelligence equivalent or even higher then ours, although the formation of the grave mind on delta halo must come from feral and non intelligent species as a halo ring doesn't really have the chance to create beings with intelligence, that and also the grave mind if I remember correctly was formed roughly 10000 years after the forerunner flood war, basically 90000 years before humanity stumbled upon delta halo, consuming all that's living and they could have a grave mind within days, but since they're not intelligent they don't have ships the flood still have massive intelligence. I find it crazy that the grave mind didn't start building ships
Loving the frequent content, Experia! Also, small update on my Halo book journey. My Dad bought me contact harvest in 2007. I was so young that when I read the book it just made me want to play halo 3. So I never got passed the prologue. Well now I am halfway through and it is EASILY a masterpiece and makes me loathe the fact that Marty didn’t kill somebody else.
Ayyyyyy nice! Contact Harvest is my favourite/2nd favourite Bungie-era book and probs my fav of all time behind the Forerunner Trilogy
the flood is the scariest space faring thing in all of movies, tv shows and videogames. i dont even think the star wars universe, even with their canonically OP weapons, would find a war with the flood easy. they would have to wipe out the flood completely within the first few hours of contact. despite the star wars galaxy using energy based weaponry, which is a known weakness to the infected forms, the flood will surely be prepared for the disadvantage.
Just curious, ever heard of the tyranids?
@@ryanalving3785cant say i have
@@ryanalving3785god forbid the Tyranids meet the flood and decide to cooperate or merge since they can’t beat each other.
Tyranids are a Warhammer 40k hive mind that devours all biomass and converts it to themselves. They even recycle their own dead back into more of themselves.
They have an ability called the shadow in the warp which basically drives psychic-sensitive people insane in their presence, and shuts down interstellar communication when they're in the area, so nobody can call for help. Your whole system just goes silent, psykers go mad, and then death rains from the skies.
If they can't beat you in head on combat (rare) they deploy psychic infiltrators known as genestealers. Genestealers brainwash people into breeding with them allowing them to covertly build up a rebel population of half humans on your planets in secret. Later generations of genestealers are four armed monstrosities that can rip a supersoldier in half. When they have either effectively infiltrated the planetary government or started an uprising, they signal the nearest Tyranid fleet to assault the planet from space, and everyone (including the genestealer cult) are consumed when they arrive.
The most terrifying part though, is that the Tyranids are invading from multiple directions on opposite sides of the galaxy. They have effectively surrounded us, and when you look into the sky, you look into the great devourer's maw, whether you know it or not.
@@HouseOnFireHelp Honestly unless we NLF the Nids they become dinner. Which is a distressing thought. The Nids would likely be able to resist and make it tedious but in the end the sheer horror that is the Flood is to much.
We know at least some toxins and bioweapons effect the Nids. The Flood are worse then any toxin or bioweapon could ever really be.
I really hope the Saturn devouring his son ending means that we get either the flood back next main halo but seems pretty unlikely with endless and banished 3 enemy types might mean all of them are spread a bit thin. What everyone really wants is halo 3 ODST 2 Flood Boogaloo
There are so many things they could do with the ending of that story. I really hope we actually get to *see* the outbreak there at some point too, the story was cool but I'd rather actually see something like that happen in real time
The Banished is the new “Covenant” and the Endless are taking the vacant spot of the Forerunner war machines. They aren’t related in any way, but I hope the Flood fester and grow. We need the Flood back and IF WE SEE AN M RATING ON THE NEXT HALO I WILL FREAK OUT. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
@@HiddenXperia 100% agree. Would love to either play through the eyes of (can’t remember his name) the main character we follow at site 22 who sees the Spartans and then we play as his combat form for a bit or being the last Spartan to fall to the flood in that fireteam. Start a game by making you a super soldier badass and then go “this is how bad the flood really are you don’t stand a chance” the halo universe in terms of lore is definitely playing on legendary maybe even LASO
As dumb as it sounds, and UNLIKELY as it is, imagine a COMPLETE departure from traditional halo gameplay. A tarkov/stalker esque survival horror ODST game (in terms of combat, and inventory). Animated healing, having to scrounge for ammunition, equipment, repairing weapons etc. trying to survive and escape* a flood infected city.
Also I just use tarkov to mean extremely detailed in terms of Meding, armor, ammo, weapons, etc. I know tarkov wouldn’t translate to console 1:1 or to halo. Playing as a human in halo should be even more of a departure from main line games than odst was imo.
The Endless seem to share some sort of connections with the Flood/Precursors so idk, I think it's possible they could return.
Personally I'd like them to wait a bit longer. Wrap up the Endless/Banished story and then for "Halo 8" give us the return of the Prophets and the Flood as a kind of "Covenant War 2"
I like to think that of the endless amounts of research that the Forerunners did, they left a single research station in a place nobody could find, and its entire purpose is to miniaturize the Halo technology. Imagine firing a gun like a sentinal beam, but it has a tiny ring floating around it that actually shoots out Halo beams.
Hopefully won't be as powerful so someone doesn't just firing it in a random direction and end up killing everything in that general direction for thousands of light years! 😂💀💀💀💀
Halos don't kill flood. They destroy everything at the resonant frequency of neurons with neutrino bombardment
That would be awesome.
If you know how the halos work, then you would die after you fired it lol
@@joshuacollins9316 If you knew how the Halos work and what the word "research" means, you'd realize that your comment is literally meaningless.
This man has given me more love for halo day by day thank you much man.
Listen, if you needed someone to bring in the AMERICAN accent and patriotism during the start of the ad, you should have just asked 😎
Roanoke are you a hidden xperia fan
Papa Roanoke blesses our comment section. Praise be!
(also you should do a series on the flood when you finish your necromorph one)
I love ur videos and pray that you do more general Halo biology.
Funny seeing you here 😂
There is one hope. Reaching the Transgalactic stage might hit a stalling point for the flood. Galaxies that they're attempting to consume would have a chance to repel foot hold they're trying to establish. It's like when China tried to invade Japan multiple times, because it was far enough away they couldn't send large forces, essentially letting the defenders rally and repel any incoming forces.
Thus, single advanced galaxies could keep themselves safe if they remain ever vigilant.
If the flood decide to be crazy they use all the forces with all the ships they have which I'm sure is a lot given it's a galaxy that's infected, we'd probably have a hard time surviving thar
Yeah. Though that would require a rapid response from any civilisations in those galaxies.
Unless they use the precursor artifacts in their possession, which allow them to warp reality if I remember correctly.
It would require another empire on their lievel, or the coordination of all other star empires. Impossible, especially when their technology is probably far behind the forerunner remanants left to them.
No, it wouldn't require us to have an overpowering level of tech. The British got their butts kicked by the Zulu. It requires an aggressive and cooperative mindset. If the beachhead can be stopped they'll never get in. But that can be hard, yes.@@xxhowisuxx
It's 2024 and I still can't get enough Flood lore. Thanks for keeping it interesting as always
Crazy that it’s been 17 years since they were in a game
@c_rock3512 Only the FPS games though because of Awakening the Nightmare. Not of huge fan of what they did with the lore there, though
@@SpartanK4102 not the same feeling dealing with flood in an rts.
My little fan theory is that in the 10,000 year gap, the Gravemind and some pure forms were sitting around getting high and playing games while the rest of the flood sat around in a storage container like pizza rolls in a freezer
That image is great thanks for the BASED analogy lol
I agree with this loop theory to a certain extent, but I don't know if it applies to our current galaxy, due to the existence of the Halo array and the Precursors' clear discontent with the Forerunners, not just the crazy and twisted Primordial but the others as well they show fear and hatred for what the Foruners did to them as shown in Halo Outcasts, so I don't know if the idea we had of them being above the concept of life and death and simply accepting being destroyed counts, if this was a system they applied in other galaxies then clearly something went very wrong in the Milky Way, perhaps the extermination of the Precursors, the creation of the Array or even the transfer of consciousness from the Primordial to the Flood.
Longest run on sentence mankind has ever seen
@@esfbse8347 lol
Tyranid wars in Warhammer 40,000 really nails the fear of being surrounded.
I hope we see a return to the fundamental parts of Halo lore... Halo Infinites campaign really concerned me when they randomly invented a whole new enemy, when there's so much good stuff in the lore already that they could be focusing on 😩
This seems to be a trend in game story crafting for some years now. Forget the lore in the sequals, need to play to stereotypes or just recreate the same damm game. Metal Gear, Prototype, Devil May Cry and now Halo. They all made sequels that ignore, repeat, recycle, or retconn lore rather than even risk building on it.
I swear I'll never get tired of listening to your delightful voice re-hash the flood's evolutionary cycle, no matter how many times I hear it in these videos. Keep that sweet sweet lore coming.
To be fair, the Flood doesn't even need FTL to spread to other stars or galaxies. It just needs patience and a good hibernation spore in a comet or whatever flung in whichever direction that would wake up when it approaches a star.
Make a video theorizing how the flood can be ultimately defeated. I think it’s pretty safe to say they’ll come back in a big way eventually, and if they have other galaxies under control then they seem unstoppable.
tbh, the Halo Array IS the way to defeat them, ultimately. You'd have to build one to cover each infected galaxy, or a handful of arrays that can be moved from galaxy to galaxy. Long process but if the flood are already in a galaxy then life there is basically gone.
"this is not your grave, but you are welcome in it"
Perhaps the flood is the answer to the fermi paradox
@@miscuser5534 that was dead space
@@thekillerpill23the Fermi Paradox is a real thing not the invention of a video game
@@GaMeRfReAkLIVE re-read the comment and my answer slowly.
Specifically "Perhaps the flood is the answer"
Hope that helps you.
@@thekillerpill23ahhh i see, my bad lol
To my mind... the Precursors are still out there somewhere, not the Flood. My guess is that they would have set the Milky Way and most other galaxies as 'walled gardens', as there's no indication that the Forerunners were trans-galactic in scope. So it seems likely to me that the Precursors are just out there, watching, waiting for their children to find a way to join them. The Precursors are lovecraftian entities, so who knows... maybe The Flood is just a stage in their development cycle?
The precursors turned into soil following the precursor genocide which the forerunners carried out. Some of those precursor soil got corrupted and the flood are essentially corrupted precursors
This is by far my favourite HiddenXperia video, this topic is something I've been theorising about and creating fan-fiction on since I was at least 9 years old and this serves as a massive pinch on that nostalgia nerve while also discussing theories I've never considered
SO much fun
I have had this same theory. Imagine a trilogy based on humans and every other species fighting together against the flood
This is the concept I tried to explain 6 years ago. The fact that it is likely that the flood knew of the Halo array and made a strategic retreat outside of their range, to other galaxies, consuming everything in their wake.
The horror of the flood never really hit me until the "transuniversal" stage. The thought of a fictional adversary being so powerful it breaks the 4th wall and spreads to different universes and timelines. This begs the question, CAN THE FLOOD TIME TRAVEL???
Hey, the Endless are supposed to be able to manipulate time right?
@@dsdy1205but they cannot be infected
The Flood can literally infect the fabric of reality if they get powerful enough, I have no doubt that beyond the Transgalactic stage, they would absolutely have the means to time travel, which is an incredibly terrifying thought!
I just want another halo like 2 and 3…. A simple, yet complex story being told up front and behind closed doors. Halo needs shock value to come back after infinite.
Everything after halo 3 needs to be retconned and start over
Uhuh. At that point just let halo die @@cosmictreason2242
@@k9vendettathewolfofmordor529 it's already dead. Only cutting off the dead stuff will save it
@@cosmictreason2242 keep reach and ODST. Though the idea of the banished is nice for halo wars 2 it makes no sense that the covenant couldnt put down the banished but could easily take down heretics and humanity. Especially makes no sense they purged their best admirals and generals while dealing with a crippling rebellion from the race they're using to replace the current generals and admirals.
Also makes no sense that the banished still exist they had to contract mercenary ship captains because they dont have enough men and ships to handle humanity. They also dont have a covenant to fight against anymore. That was the whole reason they rose up was hatred of the covenant and prophets.
halo is in the same position as star wars, the story has lost its way after halo 4 or 5, and everything has lost its importance and weight. master chief should just be left alone and new stories should be told instead. why cant we play as a marine, or covenant, or a ship commander, or a pirate, or even the flood forerunner wars or ancient humans. there's so much content to work with but instead we're rehashing a time thats passed over and over and over. star wars has done the exact same shit, old characters have had their arcs ruined and have been run into the ground, all due to incompetent new management. i'd like to believe this would change for both franchises but it probably won't. it'll take the franchises death to bring them back. star wars has a decent backlog of really good stuff at least, but halo is so riddled with untapped potential, the lore and aesthetics are so fucking cool, but wasted by corporate greed and cost cutting.
I'd love a game set thousands of years down the halo time line where the flood returns to "test" humanity.
Would be epic if humanity got an A minus after the flood kick our shit in and coach us on how to be better.
Speaking of The Flood, since you've done a Halo What If video already, What if The Flood reached High Charity at the *beginning* of Halo 2?
As in, when Thel/The Arbiter attempted to quell the parasite on Delta Halo, some Flood are able to sneak their way onto one of his ships, then bum rush High Charity while Thel is being punished for his failure on Installation 04. Could High Charity quell an outbreak without a schism distracting them, or will The Flood take over The Covenant?
If they know that it's happening yes, if the flood are sneaky making sure to hit the covenant at their weakest then by all means high charity would fall even with the millions of troops stationed to it
Probably needs a keymind
I can already think of how this whole concept can birth some os the best storytelling ever, so many ideas I could right books about it
A good idea into what a flood galaxy might be like, look no further than the Dead Space game, specifically Dead Space 2 and 3 where it reveals how hyper intillegent the Necromorphs actually are. Now The Flood would be very similar in scale and intelligence
I sure would love to find out that the reason one of the Markanian galaxies experiences constant galaxy wide sterilizing gammy-ray bursts is that some super advanced alien species decided they rather not have any part of this Flood shenanigans and just rigged something akin to a Halo ring set to rapid fire mode to keep their neighborhood clean of invaders by meddling with slipspace travel in a way where anything that wants to get to them has to go through that little firewall fence they set up first at sub-light speed.
Honestly, if (big if) species can somehow fence off slipspace incursions/ slipspace travel can be limited/distance is enough to where Flood needs to hibernate in order to make it, most galaxies would probably be perfectly fine as long as nobody is stupid enough to send organics to investigate unknown derelict alien craft when even simple exploratory drones armed with cameras can tell it's full of nasty stuff/they are good enough at blowing them up before they get within range of any inhabitable planets. The Flood, short of managing to make planet fall where all bets are off, is very dependent on there being a lot of very stupid people in charge to get going. I'm looking at you, "super advanced ancient humanity", who decided to use clearly biohazard mystery powder found in a derelict spacecraft as dog food rather than keeping it locked up under heavy-duty biohazard measures for study. Stupendous stupidity in the face of the unknown is a sure fire way to muck everything up.
I wonder if that whole fiasco with ancient humans messing with the mystery powder was ancient humanity failing the Mantle Test. The Precursors were ready to test humanity of their worthiness of bearing the Mantle. As we know, the test involved a moral component to see if an advanced civilization would use their superior power to lead and guide other less-developed, less advanced civilizations or if it would just abuse that power to subjugate and oppress them. But perhaps there was more to the test. Perhaps there was also an intelligence test component to the overall Mantle test, a section of the test to see if an advanced civilization was intelligent enough (i.e. wise enough) to be worthy of leading other civilizations and thus, be worthy of bearing the Mantle. Humanity may have been worthy in first regard, but failed the other section by being foolish enough to not have better survival instinct. (So, if the Mantle test was like the SAT, ancient humanity passed the verbal section, but failed the math section, and thus failed the overall test.)
But the Precursors did not give up on humanity, because of the way humanity failed. Humanity may not have passed the test, but they at least didn't appear to have the wrong attitude like the Forerunners did, which would explain why the Precursors have more patience with humanity and are willing to work with them, as opposed to the Forerunners. If this was like school, humanity was the student who struggled, but wanted to learn and had a humble, teachable attitude, so all that had to be fixed was to get them to understand the material so that they could eventually pass a test. But the Forerunners were like the student who not only did not understand the material, but also had a bad attitude of being arrogant and thinking they knew better than the instructor. Rather than accept their failing grade and studying harder to try again, they instead sought to forcibly extract a passing grade. So the Precursors are done with the Forerunners and are just like "you are beyond working with, and unteachable, so you have permanent disqualification." But when it came to the humans, the Precursors were more like "well, good try but no. But you didn't completely bomb and you seem teachable, so perhaps there is still potential in you. You can take the test again in the future, and then if you improve enough, you may pass."
So the mystery powder in the spacecraft may have been a proverbial "Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden" sort of test for humanity. It was something that brought about their downfall, but in a way that laid out a path with a fork in the road. Either humanity would learn to overcome their past foolishness and improve themselves, ultimately becoming better versions of themselves that would one day become worthy of bearing the Mantle. Or, they would fail to be able to adapt and overcome well enough to fix their own eff up, and then die off as a consequence. (If the latter scenario happens, then the Precursors would then just move on to test the species that was the next on their list of candidates for Mantle worthiness).
Evidence that the flood spread to other galaxies.
The cold storage lore, only reason a species likely from another galaxy would break into a ring, specifically a flood storage facility would be to study the enemy and get whatever information that had been found in the past to defeat them.
2:37 I cackled too hard when he said "biomass gains."
We need a flood horror survival type game
Like a state of decay but halo
There’s dead space
The flood always amps up the stakes whenever they arrive so im not as sure that it would work without nerfing them, the halo trilogy already kinda nerfed them or i guess just conformed things to suit a video game
Branching Sickness is a fan-made Halo game in development and it's about marines fighting against the flood
@@mr.t-rex3113i was thinking like drad space honestly
Always so fun listening to your takes on the flood. Something about the way you explain them that makes them sound insanely brutal (which they are). Btw, was just going to comment "Did you bulk up" and then you immediately said you just a bulking phase lol. Looking good my guy.
The facts that im now 25 and still absolutely love watching halo stuff says alot about how well the first games were. Glad halo infinite reignited my flame for it even tho it was never really gone. I absolutely love the halo series and I hope they improve from halo infinite too a even better game with more flood.
I'm 57 and loved Halo since day one of 2001.
@@MrHurst-lb1rn that's really amazing. I still remember playing it when I was 4 on the Xbox it just hits right every time. And still slaps the games.
Honestly I would love a game where it’s like ODST but it’s like a squad game where you and your friends or AI allies, go to different locations to either collect data rescue other UNSC/ONI personnel or just go in and purge the flood but it could have ideas taken from a multitude of different games from left 4 dead to Helldivers 2. I honestly think this game would sell good and bring halo horror back.
What if a some of the escaped Precursors fought the flood, disguised at what they became or disapproving of what they do. Would they try to create new life to defeat the flood, like The Old Ones from 40k? Would they handle it themselves? Would they aid sentient beings against the Flood? It's just a cool thought.
Probably would fight them since SPOILERS FOR THE HALO POINT OF LIGHT BOOK
The 2 precursors in that book didn't agree with the claim of all precursors choosing to become the flood so they definitely would try to destroy the flood if they could.
something i find so incredibly inconsequential, but also highly important is that the "flood ships" as mentioned in the interstellar stage seem to know how to enter the atmosphere of a planet its been sent to, and accordingly take the path of ideal descent until it reaches the full atmosphere, at which point it goes into what I'd describe as terminal trajectory.
i find it so interesting as no doubt the data on atmospheric entry would have been absorbed by the gravemind that has access to it, but would use it in such a crude way as to predict the optimal entry path through the atmosphere of a given "target" planet
I think the idea of the cycle of tests is probably spot on, however I believe that means that while it would confirm the floods transgalactic presence it would mean that those galaxies of flood would likely not attack the Milky Way, after all you finals instructor wouldn't bring in a second instructor to play bad cop and accuse you of cheating even with no evidence. Our galaxy would be considered to be in the middle of our test and any intervention in that manner would render the results completely null. Given the precursors immense knowledge and neural physics technology it makes no sense to me why they would 'corrupt' even as non-sentient dust, they would have countermeasures for this, which indicates that 'the flood' is simply some form of theatrical performance by the precursors, if they are to play god they must also play satan and they are doing so effectively.
-a form of theatrics on the part of the precursors, if they can grind themselves to dust they can surely shapeshift into and assimilate others into horrors beyond our imagination, if they are to play god they must also play satan.
I’ve been convinced of the flood being extra-galactic for many years, at least since the forerunners trilogy books which cemented the idea. I’m surprised you didn’t mention it here as it’s the single biggest piece of evidence for me. The flood didn’t originate from this galaxy. They weren’t born here. They weren’t created here. They came from outside the galaxy. That ship with weird dust that was put into pets and whatnot originated from outside the galaxy. The precursor’s became the flood and they themselves could travel galaxies. Why would all of them be in the Milky Way or that other galaxy from the books? It makes no sense. If they’re being hunted down, they run, right? Surely some died here, but some escaped to galaxies far and wide. I’d go so far as to say that it’s far more of a reach to claim that the flood aren’t in other galaxies than to claim that they are. Just put a bunch of flood onto a ship and yeet it out into space. Eventually it’ll drift to another galaxy and eventually the flood will grow there too. Now how much of the universe they control is up for debate but they’re out there for sure.
I remembered when KEYMINDS were pretty much galaxy spanning graveminds, and now they're dumbed down to special ground units...
This theory is quite similar to the one about the Tyranids in 40k. It's also theorized that the milky way in 40k is completely surrounded by Tyranid infested galaxies because Tyranids have been sending hive fleets from every direction towards the milky way. Pretty horrific ngl.
Pretty sure that kind of theory exists with every fictional universe with a scifi swarm hivemind type biomass eater race.
Mate you've hyped me up for what would probably be the last halo game then. Playing as a human as the entire galaxy is getting devoured around you, and finding out it's your job to stop it all. Kinda feel like that could be the ODST flood horror game we've all wanted.
A game about the flood returning to the setting from other galaxies and testing humanity would be so insane. I would pay hundreds of euros for that. Thank you for this amazing video once again!
Imagine a flood game or story taking place during the early transgalactic stage or before the flood depart for another galaxy, pure horror
For an interesting view of this sort of idea, I recommend looking into the tyranids from Warhammer 40k
@ryanalving3785 I've always been slightly interested in WH40k because of its loyal fanbase and hennry cavills love for it, but this now intruiges me
@TheHan464646
Tyranids are basically a telepathic hive mind that devours everything, scours planets dry, and flies away.
The catch is, not only are they invading the galaxy from all sides (implying that they are in several other galaxies surrounding us), but they were actually asleep.
As in, ran out of prey completely and went into deep hibernation for nobody knows how long. So they went on a rampage from galaxy to galaxy countless eons ago until they actually couldn't find any biological organisms left *anywhere,* and then hibernated until we accidentally sent a signal into deep space that they could see.
So they're destroying everything, they own basically every single galaxy in our proximity, and they may not even be fully awake yet. Their apocalyptic invasions could potentially be the hive mind equivalent of a sleepy guy trying to find the button to turn the alarm off without getting up. And they're kind of winning.
I prefer to think that the flood stay in the Gravemind phase quite a while, and only in the last hour of the Forerunner war did they gain a keymind and start riding mariokart rainbow road into the Greater Ark and access the rest of the Precursor tech.
I like how these videos are still narrated as if Halo is real life and just hasnt happened yet. To be fair, there is technically some sort of miniscule chance that all of the events in Halo will play out identically in real life, in the exact time frame as the games
After playing Hive mode on Gears 5 I would love a Halo version where you fight your way to the centre of a flood hive, deploy something like a small nuke and race back to the entrance for extraction by pelican … something along those lines would be amazing
We really need a “The Flood invades your favorite universes/games/fictional stories. How well do they fair?” type of videos and fanfics.
A good candidate would be star wars.
Actually, for the firing of the omega halo, I don't think it would have necessarily actually killed the flood. The target of the rings is the food source, not them. I think that means that the galaxy isn't necessarily free of the flood, it's just that they don't have a proper food source. We see them surviving in the halo rings for a long time without food, at least from my understanding when no forerunners were running it they didn't have food.
I think this is already confirmed considering the gravemind states “"I have beaten fleets of thousands! Consumed a galaxy of flesh and mind and bone!”
Also I don’t think the gravemind has ever lied but always twisted the truth. He is cryptic but I don’t think he would just lie about information. I’m just guessing of a whim cause all the things the gravemind have said have been true to some extent.
“That’s bone” - The Gravemind after infecting Patrick Bateman.
It's kinda like Dead Space markers they assimilate all organic life in the universe
This is too spooky for the Halo Files.
Xperia, you must know this, that your channel and the way you present it, has that feeling of coming home again. Keep it up, amigo!
You can really see the relation between the Flood and the Necromorphs, but the Necromorphs have Brethren Moons so does the Flood have something similar?
Also if we did survive the test does that mean the Flood would leave Humanity alone?
The closest to Brethren Moons would be the Keyminds... graveminds who have assimilated all life in a planet, and grown so large, that they overwhelm an entire planet, terraforming it with their biomass. Even then, the flood can actually take control of star roads, which would be like extremely colosal whips or tentacles, originally meant as celestial roads, but can be used for offensive capabilities.
The theory I have held for a while now, although very similar to your one explained at 18:08, goes a step furthur.
The Precursors believe that everything experianced both good and bad is 'flavour' for the living universe, so they want to make as much of both as possible, the best way to do this is to not take over a whole galaxy then move ontop the next, but to control all galaxies at once, and in each and every galaxy have the cycle of: seed life, infect with flood, destroy all life, reseed life, forever and ever over and over.
The Precursors themselves want to be part of the cycle of joy and suffering, life and death, when the Forunners killed them all it was not some great victory, but the Precursors plan. They knew that some day one of their creations would strike back, because that is what they wanted, it is what they wanted the last million times it happened.
The primordial once told some humans the truth, a truth so vile that all who heard it killed themselves. And what could be worse than telling someone 'We created your entire species for the sole purpse to suffer and die. This galaxy, and a million galaxies like this, have been trying to escape the cycle for billions of years, and so far none have managed it'.
The theory that birth, joy, suffering, death on repeat forever as a grand plan of eternal food for the universe just fits the evenidence too closely... ya know now that I think about it the Precursors are kind of assholes.
Its also possible that there are beings more powerful than the Forerunners or equal to them in the universe who have beaten the Flood in certain galaxies. Also, other Halo similar like weapons could have been made by other beings to combat the Flood in other galaxies.
I like that this is an answer to the fermi paradox on a galactic scale
Was the flood on Etran Harborage also under control by the delta halo Gravemind?
Considering that the Flood on Alpha Halo were in a feral state, likely not.
honestly maybe the defeat of the flood for all time could give humanity locked knowledge that would make them the next precursors. perhaps the precursors also were tested and beat the ones that came before them and now also test other species to see if they are worthy of becoming the next precursors
Omg hearing your impression of an American accent made my freaking week dude 😂😂😂 thank you for making awesome videos!! Really helped me through the seasonal blues!
Ayyyy glad I could help partna'!
We pronounce our R's here.
This guy is really Flooding us with Knowelge...
...I'll see myself out 😂
The peak true potential of the Flood is something that would definitely be a terrifying force in powerscaling and variable terms due to how expotential they are in potency, adaption, hyper awareness and perceptions, permanent memory, problem solving skills, how secure their abilities are which don't regress that much and eventually reality warping through neural physics. Their cohesion and rapid processing of knowledge and thoughts is also rapidly their most dangerous traits. As well as their soul absorption as they have done when the Forerunners were trying to revive a infected host into a uninfected body.
They are a scourge and horde that devour most unpredictable verses such Warhammer 40k, Supreme Commander, and the Culture really easily. The Gravemind is a overmind which far surpasses the Tyranids or the Zerg especially in tactics and strageies and creative ruthless plans and being extremely resourceful.
But there are a few verses and factions which may prove a challenge even to them. Some verses with their own astronomical cosmic horrors such as the the Three Body Problem, Xeelee Sequence, Doctor Who, Manifold, Stellaris Ancient Cache of Technologies, and the Voruteut from the SCP Mythos.
In these realms there exist forces which can wipe out dimensions and universes really quickly and whose transcendent physiology and cosmological existence may actually prove to be a challenging dilemma for maintaining the Flood's infestation in the long term.
Good luck trying to infect some 9th dimensional aliens in Three Body Problem. It's probably going to be difficult to overcome even with Neural physics you going to need to weaponize Slipspace to cause harm to them. And the Domain though it's usefulness and flexibility may have rivals with these factions such as the Anti Xeelee in the Xeelee Sequence.
The Voruteut is another monsterous cosmic horror horde entirely. As they have no existence and are called non existence beings who eat realities to satiate themselves from being dragged back to hellish non existence that is the Voru. That is something I don't think the Flood will ever be capable to infect.
Imagine the halo franchise ending with humanity teaming up with all former enemies to prevent the flood from taking over the galaxy
So it's hell essentially
14:20 Well, seeing as the primordial is the main mind behind the gravemind with access to everyone’s else’s memories, they receded for 10,000 years to give the forerunners the idea that humanity found a cure for the flood, only for the forerunners to devolve and extinguish them before they realized. Running their face in shit that the forerunners were again, by precursor standards, unworthy to hold the Mantle of Responsibility. Which is why the flood is so vengeful of the forerunners, but heed warnings to us like a creator daddy that we shouldn’t play with the halo rings and now the flood are “contained” on the halo rings, but I think because they’re coordinated and the gravemind has control of the flood and was fighting on Delta Halo since the firings of the array originally, they’re actually acting as the holders of the mantle… guarding the weapon that eradicates all life in the galaxy. The flood are precursors in mind, but since we can’t comprehend neural physics, or not supposed to, we don’t see the flood as a precursor that has changed its form again even after the primordial told prehistoric humans the true nature of the flood that were the precursors, which resulted in any human who knew the truth to off themselves. They definitely sat around for 10,000 years… the flood are not intergalactic in Halo, they can be, but they are not. They are the same precursors that nurtured the galaxy, just in another form that’s not some squid faced fuck like in infinite. The flood are precursors, that’s what 343 wants to retcon because they lack creativity to continue that story. The flood and the precursors are the same. They’ve exacted their revenge on the forerunners and now use their new form as the test for advanced species to see whether they are worthy of holding the Mantle of responsibility, which is destined to fall to humanity as they intended 10,000,000 years ago when the forerunners failed their test for being too aggressive and arrogant. That’s the angle we should be taking, exploring how humanity is worthy of taking the mantle and being responsible to nurture all life in the galaxy as the precursors desired so they can move to another galaxy and grant life there. That’s what the precursors do. The precursors are our version of a living breathing god, and god isn’t always nice and indeed operate in ways that seem morally ambiguous to us.
Shit, xperia actually looks like he slept. Nice.
This feels like 2018 again with the Flood Lore videos! Been loving these videos!
Wake up babe, peak just dropped.
Homeworld: Cataclysm had a techno-biological entity called "The Beast" that came in on an experimental FTL starship that jumped between galaxies. It picked up "The Beast" in transit, got infected and became essentially Patient Zero.
A tiny sample was put onto a distress beacon and ejected out into the galaxy which some mining ship picked up and in order to contain The Beast had to jettison their entire lower hangar bay.
That then turned into a spaceship and would go about infecting other ships in the process.
It could have compromised the whole galaxy too as the solution to destroying infected ships would be to plasma burn everything which killed a lot of the ship and did damage...
Anyway now I'm gonna make that in my headcanon, the Homeworld galaxy is another one of those galaxies The Flood tried to infest but thankfully were mostly stopped thanks to a bunch of space miners and a Siege Cannon.
ad skip 2:32
Honestly retconning the Forerunners as having gone to war with ancient Humans rather then being ancient Humans was one of the worst choices in retconning in media.
It's also likely that other galaxies came to the same conclusion of the forerunners and deleted life in their galaxy. And reseeded their galaxy. Maybe the lengoloworms took over other galaxies too. Becoming hyper intelligent themselves. Now that's a horror game I want. Planets covered in worms and worm forms. Maybe they even take over being using them as a skeleton. Would be pretty graphic.
I love the idea of buying off the Galaxy-devouring monsters with food-by-mail subscriptions!
Post-bulk physique might be the best physique.
I'd agree if my shirts still fit me lmao
HIddenXperia is passionately talking about the Flood consistently again, nature is healing
I hope 343 sees this vid.
Not like they'll do anything with it how they are now
I always found the flood, particularly more intimidating than regular zombies. There is just something about a competent intelligent enemy that can truly make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
it is horrifying for us yes but for the flood, they are basically the perfect lifeform capable of transcending anything and everything
Ok Xperia i just gotta say I know it was an ad but the working out is really paying off dude your getting stacked my man keep up the journey
Installation 00 has a video talking about the Primordial's horrific secret talking about how the Precursors are the Flood as intended and how they consume things for the Living Universe to experience the sweetness of suffering and struggle in their very perverted philosophy. How the Living Universe is the creature that is the Precursors and the Flood at the same time.
Thanks for making a childhood monster even more terrifying
Hidden, just a question.
If a gravemind, met another gravemind from another galaxy , do you think they would merge, co-lead or infight for superiority?
If thats the case, if ONI managed to somehow modify or "control" a gravemind... how would that work?
My fav theory is just that, the flood as taken over majority, if not all galaxies out there.
While thinking the only thing stopping the Flood from coming here, is the damage the Halo would do to their ranks.
Throwing all the mass it needs to take over our galaxy is just not worth it, while it has so many juicy galaxies waiting for it out there, that most likely doesn't have a defence mechanism like the Halo's to defend it. So having just a small sample/number of the Flood there, slowly bringing down the defences of our Galaxy is more logical and efficient.
The biggest question I feel like, is would the flood even want to invade other galaxies?
The Precursors already inhabited other galaxies (surviving hermits, and the reseeding done by the Librarian) and the Flood, while a corrupt variant of Precursors, was more or less a big middle finger to the Forerunners for disrupting the mantle of responsibility (and poetic justice because the Forerunner's upset led to the start of the Flood which corrected the upset by forcing the Forerunner's hand into destroying all the life they were trying to save)
The Flood is shown in ancient times to be more than just a hungry beast and acts in ways that benefit that whole middle finger theory ( as ypu mentioned: initiating the Human/Forerunner war to weaken the Forerunners and get humans out of the way, then decimating the Forerunners in the Forerunner/Flood war to the point that the Halo arrays were needed and completely went against the Forerunner's definition of the Mantle as a sick way of forcing them to follow the Mantle in a more Precursor definition)
The overall question I suppose, would be the motive of the Flood. If the motive is simply to propagate and consume then that makes sense theyd want to spread. But if their motive is indeed just to set things right and reset the galaxy for things to fix themselves and test the Humans or maybe allow the Endless to take up the Mantle as Installation00 theorizes in his video, then taking over other galaxies doesnt make much sense to forward their agenda seeing as the whole "protect everything" definition of the Mantle was the Forerunner definition and was NOT how the Precursor's saw things which is partly why the Forerunners failed the test.
The Precursor definition of the Mantle was about balance. It included suffering and death as part of the "sweetness" given up to the living universe. True sucession of the Mantle would be allowing things to suffer snd die as well as live and thrive, not to go to extremes to prevent death or darkness. The Flood serving as a test doesnt make much sense to that end unless the test is if humanity is willing to accept the Flood as a thing that is-- or to sacrifice themselves to it as the Precursors embraced their deaths
to take away some of the scary, it's likely that once the precursors/flood have fully take over a galaxy, they would pack up and leave it entirely to allow another civilization to rise for them to test.
The concept of the Flood taking over the entire universe and subjecting every conscious being to endless horror is a terrifying exploration of existential dread. It’s not just about physical domination, but the obliteration of individuality, hope, and even the possibility of peace. Imagine an eternity where your thoughts, memories, and self-awareness are trapped within the Keyminds, unable to resist, defy, or adapt. It’s a fate worse than death-an unending nightmare of suffering without purpose, resolution, or escape. Perhaps, with neural physics, even entropy itself would be denied. So it would truly be endless too 💀
Pretty sure The Precursors seeded other galaxies, not all turned into the parasite as well, many fled to previous ones where their prime species was able to hold the Mantle true.
So, they Flood the Galaxy w/ a mass of Interstellar character devlopmen. Gotta love, and fear, that hunger.
Love the video Xperia! Keep it up Bro!
I love creepy halo stuff thanks for the awesome content dude👍