i think the "elites finding reclaimer, humans who can operate forerunner technology" is more a side sentence as to why humans are reclaimers because we can operate forerunner technology as a baseline. the elites might dislike that fact though and hold onto a delusion of not all of us being gifted that way.
Yeah it seems like a sentence to give players of a spin off game some context. As the SOLE piece of evidence it's far too ambiguous. The content machine gotta march on tho and it was a nice listen.
And yet, both Johnson and Miranda Keyes were selected and captured to activate the Halo. What are the odds? Them, of all people, not being torn appart by Brutes, both reclaimers! Hanging around together, too.
True, I do wonder if humans were allow to activate forerunner technology then why did Arbiter was able to turn off the quarantine zone without trouble despite being well not a human?
@@WyattDucar Wasn't Miranda and Johnson ahead of Arbiter? Is it possible that they had used the same console that Arbiter did, and since humans were there recently, it was (for the lack of a better term) jailbroken?
@@WyattDucar It seems the covenant doesnt need humans all the time to utilize forerunner technology. I'd figure the most significant of their technologies need reclaimers. But then, you'd think the quarantine wall should absolutely be locked to anyone but humans or forerunners.
@@ainlLeek I think Miranda and her marines went through different entry ways than the arbiter. Given that they never deactivated the wall, they never touched the console.
A great example of them mistranslating Forerunner technology comes from this line in Contact Harvest written by Joseph Staten where Mendicant Bias tells the future Prophets what the Forerunner relics they detected on Harvest were “For eons I have watched. Listened to you misinterpret. This is not reclamation. This is reclaimer. And those it represents are my creators.". This revelation that we were Forerunners who were “left behind” would lead to the Human Covenant War to cover up the fact that our existence invalidated the Covenant’s claim to be the Forerunners’ successors, and disproved their belief that all would ascend to godhood in the Great Journey.
It wasn't even all the terminals, just the ones with his Original Characters( do not steal). You can even see the change in librarian going from a class/ job to a character in his writing. The man just did his own thing and screw the consequences.
In my opinion, halo lore peaked at halo 2. I prefer to imagine the story as ending how the cut story boards would have. Everything after halo 2 only muddled and/or destroyed the lore
Pretty simple concept: Bungie Universe: All Humans are Reclaimers because Humans are Forerunners. 343 Industries Universe: Only specific Humans are Reclaimers who have the chosen genesongs the Librarian put in Humanity's genepool to be passed down.
I do kinda think that some Precursors genuinely believed in the Mantle. They were all individuals, maybe some sided with the Primordial, and others were benevolent as they always seemed. Or as passive-aggressively benevolent as possible. Maybe some of those nicer ones even actually did get corrupted and the Primordial just masterminded their chaos, I dunnae
@@ryan_1099The Primordial is a Gravemind too though, just an older type. It's impossible to say whether he is just an earlier less corrupt version of the Flood or if he truly is a Precursor as they were.
Hang on, there's a metaphor here. Still haven't read Epitaph, but I can imagine the planning meeting being "Put all of our frustration in here that we cannot make a proper Halo game to save our lives."
I've always subscribed to the belief that the gravemind was playing the long game to test humanities, worthiness of the mantle. As the precursors originally intended humanity to be in the position of the forerunners.
Before watching this I would like to say: Contact harvest -> Covenant luminary shows entire planet full of reclamation artifacts (the population) -> Ergo, Reclaimers = Humanity
I feel like that Spartan Ops line is moreso an explanation of what a Reclaimer is for people new to the series, since that was one of Microsoft’s biggest goals for H4.
Another reason Halo is being sent into the abyss of potentially good games going to the wayside,too many smart people claiming to know what halo is,within the lore there exists the definitive answer,the halo series and those that support it are rewriting the narrative.
@@angelcarmonarojas5240 in other words, 343 canon + random misunderstandings from fans are making the fandom worse. in the original canon, all humans would be reclaimers by virtue of humans and forerunners being the same thing. much more clean and simple than what we have in current 343 canon.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx but all humans are still reclaimers and humans are still forerunners, as the Forerunners are Humans who were evolved by the Precursors on a different planet. Something isn’t necessarily better just because it’s ancient.
@@jakespacepiratee3740 but that is massively more cumbersome and confusing as an explanation. I mean, yeah it "works" but it is not a very elegant resolution to all the confusion going around. It was very easy before, when it was just forerunner = humans
Maybe it's an oni psyop that not everyone is a reclaimer, since that much individual power in the hearts of anyone the unsc claims is seen as a low-key threat lmao
Personally I like to think that all humans are Reclaimers, it's just that the forerunner alterations are more pronounced in some than others, which makes the technology more accessible to them. Also the one flaw in your theory that "the Players are Reclaimers" is that we also play as the Arbiter in Halo 2, other Elites in Halo 3 Co-op, and custom Elites in Multiplayer from Halo 2 onwards.
@@amdkillaplays I mean so were the Elites who took down the second Tower on the Ark, and presumably many other Covenant forces throughout the series. The Heretics on the Threshold Gas Mine; the many sealed rooms throughout installation 04, 05, & 00; and you can't forget the huge ass draw bridge, gondolas, & water elevators on Delta Halo. Hell the core of High Charity was a huge ass Forerunner Dreadnought that Truth flew to earth. Clearly not everything Forerunner is locked to being a reclaimer, and we know that no other race in the Covenant are considered Reclaimers or else the Prophets wouldn't have needed Keys & Johnson in Halo 2 & 3.
I totally forgot about that and that is a very good point. It makes me wonder if there are tiers to Forerunner tech, which is not impossible to imagine. I.e., an elevator, a door, or a ramp is irrelevant most of the time and low tier. The keys to a massive super weapon are top importance and thus only reclaimers can activate them.
@@shadowguy321 it is interesting because the Covenant seemingly had no problem using Dreadnought, accessing security systems, or even unlocking the Flood seals on 04 & 05... but I don't think we ever see them access a Cartographer, the Arbiter essentially needed to crawl through the service tunnels to get into the Library, and I'm pretty sure the Covenant couldn't get into the Control Room (or the hallways leading to the Control Room) on Installation 04 until after Cortana pissed off Guilty Spark.
@@DeamonChocobo Halo 2 showed that Arbiter took a far more variant route to Delta Halo's cartographer and index. Anders and Johnson had a far easier time of this in many moments of that level.
I honestly don't even think that terminal fully supports the idea forerunner are separate. She says "It's inhabitants" but that could be just describing all species on the planet as she says they were indexed, but we know humanity were already indexed by now according to other lore we later got by 343 and if humans fought the forerunners there was no need to go to this planet to index them, they likely already had plenty of samples. She does say that "they're special" but that doesn't mean any particular species as all species are special to her. She's a librarian who's whole job is indexing and cataloging life. She could just be excentuating how much she values all life.
This! They never say 'human' or anything close to that in those terminals. I always assumed she was talking about the other creatures that could have been on Earth at the time. The terminals also reference things like the garden of Eden and seem to hint at this peaceful place being a potential starting place/home for their future generations after the purge that is activating the rings.
This. Those terminals are so vaguely written that it could elude to anything. Given the descriptions of these "special" beings I thought they had abilities that Humans did not have, specifically that they cause life to grow in abundance. I also assumed that planet at the end of Halo 3 Legendary Easter egg was this world prominently talked about in the terminals and these new beings would be the new antagonists, mad that we used the rings to purge life as that seemed to be their specialty.
When I played halo 3 with a friend when it launched we thought that the humans in halo were a combination of forerunner and a primate naive to earth. They spliced their genes with a primate species that would later evolve to be modern humanity. Hence humans where essentially the "children" of the forerunners and thus the inheritors.
@@adrianoippolito1999 That was the original cut ending to Halo 2. I would argue however with moving the Ark outside the Galaxy that the initial idea changed. It makes sense if there is no way to save your species to have some machine forcefully re-evolve your race after everyone is dead, but since they can save individuals on the Ark there is no reason to waste time with such a plan.
@@Phillibetrus Though that brings up the question as to what happened to all the Forerunners if they could just hang out on the ark or onyx if they could save themselves. There is also an aspect of halo now that really annoys me, how do we account for all our primate relatives and fossils of Neanderthals, cro magons, ect if apparently Humans were a hyper advanced race that the forerunners de-evolved and left on earth? Are Humans originally even from earth in halo? I feel like what i originally though when I played halo 3 resolved this issue. With our proto human ancestors being from earth, and the forerunners added their DNA to these proto humans, brought them temporarily to the Ark with all other life on earth (Noahs ark style) set off the halo rings, Had an automated process bringing earth life back to earth, thus resulting in modern humanity. Heck in real life humans are the only primate that has a chin, maybe in the halo universe that's originally a trait possesed by the forerunners that was added to us when they spliced our primate ancestors. I didn't even think the forerunners looked like us exactly, that we could only speculate that they were humanoid creatures that we were currently a pale imitation of, but had the potential to reach their greatness once more. Sorry for rambeling
Wasn't the whole reason the Human-Covenant War happened the fact that Forerunner Reliquaries on board Covenant ships showed the reclaimer symbol for every human on an observed planet which the Prophets then launched the war to cover up?
Yeah, honestly it's strange to me that people will go to such extreme lengths to avoid saying the obvious: 343 retconned much of the original lore. And by 343, I mean the selfish asshat that is Frank O'Connor. This man literally uprooted everything his colleagues and predecessors did to force the whole universe to confirm to what he personally wanted.
@@kalebkuhn9128 I wouldn't say that was a retcon, Forerunners making humans the reclaimers still doesn't break the fact that reliquaries ID'd them it works fine
@@benhooper1956 That in particular could be argued, yes, but it doesn't change that the shard of mendicant bias on the forerunner dreadnaught literally says that the symbol represents his makers.
@@kalebkuhn9128 Was that in the H2A Terminals? IIRC in the lore those were made by a Covenant Minister so could well have been a skewed version of the truth to fit the Prophet's narrative "Symbol of my makers" actually is in their interest more than "My maker's inheritors"
@@benhooper1956 It was in contact Harvest. When the soon to be prophets went to the forerunner dreadnaught in the center of high charity. It's a great book if you haven't read it before.
What about Marvin Mobito wasn't he called a reclaimer by Guilty spark and what about Johnson or ellen anders and their examples of using forerunner tech?
@@UnintelligibleYT The reclamation was made thanks to characters like the librarian with the aim of humanity having a position similar if not equal to the forerunners, this for obvious reasons many characters do not like this, but it does not prevent humanity from taking advantage the gifts of the forerunners.
The Librarian left a calling card in the Human genome for Reclamers. It seems like that card may influence their decisions in life. It may be that those who are Reclaimers have a predisposition to volunteer for Spartan augmentations. It may also be that unknowingly Dr. Halsey was carrying the reclaimer genome and passed it to Miranda Keyes. Johnson’s Orion augmentation didn’t seem as debilitating as the lore suggests it maybe that his Reclaimer genome “corrected” the failures of Project Orion.
I like the, all humans are reclaimers theory personally, its just what i always thought growing up with halo, cant change it now but it is cool to see othee theories!
I feel like all humans are reclaimers. That’s always the impression we’ve been given, outside of goofy spartan ops missions. Every human we’ve ever seen can interact with and use forerunner technology.
Personal preferences aside, I don't see that there's much difference between the two definitions of Reclaimers. The Librarian planted gene songs within humanity at the infancy of the species. As the Chief's gene song is immediately recognized by Guilty Spark, we can assume that, throughout the generations, the songs replicated without degrading. The likely result would be that a significant (though minority) amount of the human population would be Reclaimers. Before landing on the first Halo ring, these gene songs might have appeared to scientists to be of no more significance than any other commonplace genetic mutation (like albinism or dwarfism). By the time we learned of the importance of the mutation, mankind had already been severely culled by a long inter-species rivalry followed by a devastating intergalactic war. I suspect that (though she might not have been aware of it) the physical and psychological markers that Halsey recognized in her S2 selections were due to the Forerunner gene somgs. Perhaps, that same gene song within her own DNA contributes to her superior intelligence. Likewise, perhaps it is the gene song within Anderson that made him a suitable candidate for the S1 program.
In the original lore, there was no galaxy spanning human civilisation that had a war with the other galaxy spanning alien Forerunner civilisation, leaving behind no evidence of their technology on Earth aside from the portal to the Ark. I mean, let's face it, the humanity are Forerunners history requires some suspension of disbelief by itself. But giving all your technology to your former enemy, then wiping yourself out, instead of giving it to some random species, like the Grunts, or Elites, or the Engineers supposedly created by them? That's insane.
You're forgetting that 343 have retconned their own lore several times which means the lore is pretty much a cluster fuck rn and it's why for me, everything after Halo 3 is pretty much fan fiction
This could explain how we are still able to interact with Forerunner tech while playing as The Arbiter in Halo 2 (accessing lift controls on the mining facility above Threshold, the pillars and security overrides in the Sentinel wall etc)
Around 5:50 you look like Dr. Halsey herself just broke into your house in the middle of the night, drunk out of her mind and raving about quantum physics
I feel like both is true to a point. In the Forerunner books they point out how the Forerunners have classes like builder class, warrior class, and so on. I realize that I have no proof of this at all. This is just my opinion on this. But there might be different Reclaimers for different things. Like the Elites are looking for the builder class of Reclaimers, and Master Chief may be part of the warrior class of Reclaimers. I don't know if this is true or even makes sense to anyone else, but this makes the most sense to me.
I believe there are specific human individuals who are reclaimers. However, at the same time, there has never been a human who could not interact with forerunner technology. At least to my knowledge.
When it comes to the idea of Forerunners being modern Humanity's ancestors or a different species to ancient Humanity, I think that both might be true, with modern Humanity being to some degree hybrid offspring of ancient Humanity and the Forerunners. It'd probably be best way to reconcile the two positions. And there are parts Halo lore that may hint at this; from the anatomy of the Librarian, to the potential fate of Bornstellar's son, to just having the technology to do it.
There's one thing that I caught about playing through the Halo series. How the game mechanics - everything - makes "you" the player feel. How "you" playing your role is so important and engaging. How Cortana is always there for "you." I just feel it's different from my other experiences in video games. I haven't played a bunch and it's always about the person playing out the role in the game, but I just felt that playing John-117 was something unique. :)
In the logic of being the reclaimer, neuralphysics can actually explain this in a sense. We're the equivalent of a consciousness like the Gravemind, able to see across time and space, witness and influence events in our favour, and control multiple entities across different times
The quote that solidifies that only some humans are reclaimers is from the Librarian in Halo 4. “Reclaimer, when I indexed mankind for repopulation, I hid seeds from the Didact. Seeds which would lead to an eventuality. Your physical evolution. Your combat skin. Even your ancilla, Cortana. You are the culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning." People that are born with special skills of strength, intelligence, leadership, etc. all planned by the Librarian to help lead humanity forward. Everyone we know who is a reclaimer has a significant role in the Halo universe. It wouldn’t make sense for all humans to be Reclaimers cause all the Covenant would’ve have had to do was to just kidnap any human. Also, bad actors having access to Forerunner technology - not good!
Makes sense, but none of that says that only some people are Reclaimers. Just that the Forerunners planned the significant humans and not the normal ones.
What about Doctor Anders from HW? She is not ever a playable character but we see her manipulating forerunner tech that rightfully should be locked out to all but Reclaimers.
This so reminds me of the Ancients, Asgard, and Humans of Stargate. Did the ForeRunners do as the Acients did, introduce thier genetics into humans? Sadly the Asgard had cloned themselves into Extinction!
The whole of humanity were Reclaimers in Bungie’s canon. The reason for this is because we were the children of the Forerunners who were meant to Reclaim our ancestors’ legacy/technology. The only outliers where humans and Forerunners were separate are the few things Frank O’Conner had direct control over. Go watch the phenomenal We Were Forerunner that illustrates how for the SUPER MAJORITY of Bungie’s run humans and Forerunners were the same. It also shows just how broken 343’s lore is, and how a lot of the defenses for their changes don’t make any sense. Also, go watch the videos animating Halo 2’s storyboards, made by the same guy (sadly, I can’t post his name because Installation00 seems to have banned that word🤣).
Frank o Connor was a Bungie dev like the rest. If the sanctity of humans being literal Forerunners was so important, why didn’t all those other Bungie Devs who supposedly loved that idea go to 343 to enforce it? They didn’t really care either way. Frank did so he has a right to make choice’s even if you don’t agree.
@markricheard1870 The reason they let him do that is because they wrongly assumed he was competent. They should’ve done a better job vetting who they let work on the games. If Bungie didn’t care about the lore they would’ve just ignored Eric Nylund’s changes to Chief’s origins and kept him a Mjolnir Cyborg like the ones in Marathon (speaking of Marathon, Rampancy went by the same definition as the Marathon version where instead of ai schizophrenia/dementia the thing would “go crazy” from our perspective and behave erratically in an attempt to break it’s shackles and grow beyond its limits. In Contact Harvest, the same book where Mendicant Bias tells the future Prophets that humans are the children of their gods leading to the war it says the reason they’d put down Rampant AIs is because a rogue super intelligence could cause untold problems for humanity). Prior to Reach Bungie was really good about following the lore. Also, it’s abundantly clear from various interviews that Frank O’Conner doesn’t really understand Halo. For one thing we have that hilarious out of touch quote where he says “good Halo stories are like pron. You know it when you see it”🤣. He also ran the franchise into the ground by “hiring people who hated Halo” to design the games. That’s why Halo has had an identity crisis for so long.
I believe all Humans are Reclaimers. Examples include Johnson, Miranda, Scientist girl from halo wars (forgot her name), and I'm pretty sure that one human the banished captured to open the harbingers capsule thing. All these people have no specialties about them. However, then you have 343 actively retconning this with things like the TV show. So idk it's a whole cluster f*** at this point.
Me personally, I’ve always preferred the version of Forerunners that is actually Humanity all along. Perhaps that’s not a popular take, and I don’t HATE the lore 343 put in (considering Bungie was rather wishy-washy with some lore, especially Forerunners), but I think it makes a ton of things from the Bungie games make sense.
@@markricheard1870I read that at one point Humanity (with the help of the ancient San Shayum) created weapons so powerful that not even the Forerunners could make an effective countermeasure against.
What an amazing video, I do have a question if humans were allow to activate forerunner technology then why did Arbiter was able to turn off the quarantine zone without trouble despite being well not a human?
I can appreciate the legwork but I can't bring myself to see 343i's work as canon Halo, game or otherwise. It would be easier to digest by considering Bungie's and 343i's canons as distinct separate universes of their own to their respective works, not even branching timelines given the severity of retcons made.
I imagine there are tiers of reclaimer. Any human can be used to activate forerunner tech because best of my knowledge, we have never seen it fail to work for a human before without an external reason like power loss or something. But the Chief and some others might have extra of that forerunner DNA lying around so they don't even know what they are doing and it happens. Like any human can push a button and the button will activate. But Master Chief walks up and just instinctively knows exactly what button to press.
Well we know to an extent the Reclaimer thing matters. The Harbinger literally has its symbol on her Helmet and back. And the new Halo Encyclopaedia said she was a part of the “Endless Ruling Class” meaning creatures who wear Reclaimer-decorated Armor were leading the entire Endless. After listening to everything the Harbinger said, Ive come to 2 conclusions: 1. The Forerunners lied. Humanity were never Reclaimers, the Forerunners chose them because they were Genetic Kin and could be controlled, unlike the Xalanyn. The Primordial said Humanity “was to be tested” for the Mantle, not that they had been outright chosen. Humanity is the Forerunners Reclaimers, the Endless is the Precursors Reclaimers. 2. The Endless are literal Reincarnated Precursors, which would naturally be stronger than the Flood. Basically Precursors who gained a new form without being Corrupted by the Floods hatred.
The primordial is just chilling simsifieying his new avatar while working the destruction shift at flood hq the rest of the precursors are out there also simsifieying there new avatars for a whole new universe and galaxy.
In current 343 Halo lore, Reclaimers *DON'T* exist. I'll break it down for you. To "claim" something is to acquire something new. To "RE-claim" something, one must *FIRST* have owned said thing some time before. It is a *FACT* in 343 Halo lore that Ancient Humanity *NEVER* had a claim to Forerunner technology. Therefore, Modern Humanity in 343 Halo lore *CAN NOT* be"RE-claimers" since they can't "RE"-claim something they never had claim to begin with. The title, "RE-claimer" *ONLY* makes sense if Humans initially claimed Forerunner tech to begin with, and that would naturally necessitate that Humans are actually Forerunner. It's a title that only makes sense in Bungie Halo where Forerunners and Humans are the same species. Edit* *STOOOOOPPP!* you're using that SINGLE Halo 3 terminal again! It was written by Frank O' Conner, who at the time was NOT an actual Halo writer, and was more along the lines of a janitor or office assistant at the time. ONE unreputable "source" doesn't negate 99% of sources that DO say that humans are forerunner in Bungie Halo. Literally Guilty Spark, Mendicant Bias, Grave Mind, and Prophet of Truth *ALL* say that Humans are Foreunner. It would be like me writing, "not legally binding" on the bottom of the constitution, and people taking that as proof that the consitution is invalid. It's a stupid arguement, so please stop. Edit 2* I don't like that idea that only some humans are reclaimers, as it very quickly goes into the, "superior race" avenue, which would mean that the Nazis in Halo would be 100% correct. That's a bad road that I don't want Halo to travel down.
One interesting thought that came to mind during the video is that is it the gens of the Spartans that make them reclaimers or is it the augmentations in the genetic level that makes them become reclaimers, I.E. by going trough Spartan augmentations can that make one it to a sort of artificial reclaimer if one wasn’t already? Also I think a video on all known reclaimers in the games and books would be an interesting watch
I thought something similar, that the spartans were basically humanity stepping closer to becoming true forerunner again, Spark even recognizes MJOLNIR armor as a low grade combat skin.
Think we're looking too far as Miranda and Johnson both used the tech in the series. Johnson was a failed spartan augment and Miranda wasn't one at all. I think it's just way more likely all humans are. That quote from Halo 4 could just be a gaff as they were looking for reclaimers.
@@Auzzymandias Not exactly. In Halo 5, Warden Eternal refers to Master Chief and Blue Team as “Warrior-Servants” while he refers to Fireteam Osiris as merely “Spartans” this is because the Spartan-2’s are closer to the Forerunner standard of soldiers than Spartan-4’s. Spartan-4’s may be more similar to Ancient Human Soldiers since there an armor set in H5 that looks very similar to Ancient Human Armor.
Your reference to what is seen on screen as being superseding lore is *chef's kiss.* This falls in line with other things, like Star Wars lore for instance, and I think it is a good baseline to establish what is the solid, unshakable foundation of the lore in general.
Why not both? Consider the quote in favour of all humans being reclaimed, it said "dormant, but never gone", what if at this current moment in time, only some humans have had their "genesong" gene activated, or however that works, and that would mean that humanity as a whole one day would all be reclaimers, but not yet at the date of the current story?
Reclaimers are humans, not “humans who have been chosen by forerunners”. I don’t care how many times they try to push this idea of a ‘chosen one’ on us, I will simply not accept that.
@@zackwerth77 Well... Harvest had a population of 3 million... but when the Luminary of the _Minor Transgression_ scanned Harvest, it only turned up "several thousand" glyphs of Reclamation (i.e Reclaimer).
Head canon here, all humans have the ability to use forerunner tech in its base function, but only reclaimers can utilise forerunner tec effectively. Closest comparison i cam think of is a smart phone, everyone can pick up and turn on a smart phone, and while they can't unlock it, they can still take pictures and make emergency calls. The reclaimer in this analogy, can unlock the phone with biometrics and fully utilise the phone
@@Mijetify no, it’s when new information contradicts old information. Humanity and Forerunners are still the same species. It’s just been expanded upon.
"You are a reclaimer. Inheritor of everything my creators left behind...but this is MY ring" -Listen here, you little sht. I'm the inheritor of everything your creators left behind, and that means I own this ring and *you*
I do think all humans were Reclaimers in the mainline cannon. Both Sergeant Johnson and Miranda Keys were able to active Forerunner things. This seemed to be the Librarian’s plan. Then there is the “Silver” timeline.
One question that has always puzzled me. Did Bungee or 343 ever intend Dr. Halsey to have connections to Ancient Humans? Given that Dr. Halsey played a prominent part in Halo, her character would seem obvious for this.
Under Bungie Halsey was just the Woman who made Spartans. 343 was going to have Halsey be a villain for Halo 5 by starting the Reclamation, but this was scrapped.
Man, I didn't think that was the direction you were headed for, but I like it! Meta analysis seems to fit with the Halo universe. Personally, my theory was that Primordials were behind the choosing of Reclaimers. Since they create life for the sole perpose of consuming them and inheriting their knowledge and experience, and they were going to choose humanity for their next choice as stewards of the galaxy. It makes sence to me that they would arrange to have humans take over the more advanced technology to hasten the process. Plus, I know Primordial had enough foresight to force the Forerunners to implement that plan without them being fully aware it was exactly what it wanted. Oh, just as a side note, the Spartan 3's were still picked by the same parameters as the Spartan 2's, Colonel Ackerson decided to be more lax with the restrictions to allow more candidates to be chosen since there was a need for larger numbers for deployments
Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle, all humans can interact with forerunner technology, but only those with an added element within the gene song can interact with certain "secure" systems
Another great video! A little too deep down the rabbit hole with philosophical / existential interpretation for my liking; regarding the reclaimers are the reader / player etc. But, all 00 content is good content so onwards we travel this great journey to that sweet, sweet domain.
at 7:55 to be fair, the spartan ops quote could also be interpreted as they're trying to find reclaimers, humans who can operate forerunner technology. meaning humans, who can operate forerunner technology in general, not specific. That could be interpreted either way.
I think some of the story ark from Divine Wind would struggle to be viable, were all humans not reclaimers. They could have got lucky with who was there but at least two forerunner ancilla make no suggestion they better check first
@@zackwerth77 It's not like using "blessed ones" would be a problem even if the Forerunners were human, leaving that aside, because foolishly thinking that we are Forerunners if the first games, in addition to not doing anything with it, is giving us a rather unnecessary responsibility. .
@@zackwerth77 “Reclaimers are Humans” yes, this Floor is made of Floor. 343 never removed that lol. Forerunners are Humans taken by the Precursors to evolve on a different Planet. And Installation00 has made thousands of theory videos on 343 Lore so why the heck are you here just to say you hate it? I swear some people prefer the “Forerunners are literal average joes” thing solely because 343 didn’t make it, therefore it’s perfect and flawless and to expand upon it is Heresy to the Great Journey.
I chalk it all up to writing inconsistencies. The writers have changed over the years and therefore their ideas or interpretations of what certain things are is modified with each writer.
I kind of go with halo show for how dr halsey figured the genetic from forerunner genetic pieces but there are some people more choosen to be reclaimers then other.
Supposedly the other big reason for the change of the Forerunners from being a previous version of humanity. Is because it was a little too much like the plot of the Ancients from Stargate SG1 who were also a version of pre-Earth humanity. But 343 didn't want to totally ditched the pre-Halo effect ancient human astronaut concept. So just changed into what we see now.
In the TV series The basically stated that the DNA to make super soldiers was found on another planet and that Halsey use that type of DNA strand to find others that are humans just like that DNA strand watch Kane from the forerunners because it was also a forerunners installation
You do realice that the addition of the terminals in Halo 3 was made last minute and writen in part by the dude that became the lead of 343... You didnt provide proof Bungie didnt want to make Humans the succesors of the Forerunners. You provide the proof that OConnor may have wanted to changed it as he wanted... All the way back in Halo 3
+Installation00 @Installation00 There's also the quibble from much older lore. Harvest had a population of 3 million people, and yet, when the _Minor Transgression_ scanned its surface with its Luminary, only "several thousand" glyphs for "Reclamation" (Reclaimer) showed up. One possibility is that there were literally only several thousand Reclaimers among those 3 million people; another possibility is that Luminaries can only detect a concentrated *_mass_* of organisms carrying the "Reclaimer geas", and so while the Luminary detected the large city-centers on the planet, it couldn't pinpoint every single human being, living in the middle of nowhere. Or the truth could be somewhere in-between.
The *real* reclaimers were the friends we made along the way.
And then they died too.
The real Reclaimers were inside us all along. ~~Some of us~~
Real
Warg warg warg, raaagh.
and tea bagged several times
There are no reclaimers, only food. Halo Is canonically a food fight
Source: Flood
i think the "elites finding reclaimer, humans who can operate forerunner technology" is more a side sentence as to why humans are reclaimers because we can operate forerunner technology as a baseline. the elites might dislike that fact though and hold onto a delusion of not all of us being gifted that way.
Yeah it seems like a sentence to give players of a spin off game some context. As the SOLE piece of evidence it's far too ambiguous.
The content machine gotta march on tho and it was a nice listen.
And yet, both Johnson and Miranda Keyes were selected and captured to activate the Halo. What are the odds? Them, of all people, not being torn appart by Brutes, both reclaimers! Hanging around together, too.
True, I do wonder if humans were allow to activate forerunner technology then why did Arbiter was able to turn off the quarantine zone without trouble despite being well not a human?
@@WyattDucar Wasn't Miranda and Johnson ahead of Arbiter? Is it possible that they had used the same console that Arbiter did, and since humans were there recently, it was (for the lack of a better term) jailbroken?
Maybe it's 50% reclaimers and 50% non-reclaimers. It seems reasonable to me that these two were specific reclaimers
@@WyattDucar It seems the covenant doesnt need humans all the time to utilize forerunner technology. I'd figure the most significant of their technologies need reclaimers. But then, you'd think the quarantine wall should absolutely be locked to anyone but humans or forerunners.
@@ainlLeek I think Miranda and her marines went through different entry ways than the arbiter. Given that they never deactivated the wall, they never touched the console.
Tbf, the Covenant haven't exactly been the best translators when i comes to forerunner tech
A great example of them mistranslating Forerunner technology comes from this line in Contact Harvest written by Joseph Staten where Mendicant Bias tells the future Prophets what the Forerunner relics they detected on Harvest were “For eons I have watched. Listened to you misinterpret. This is not reclamation. This is reclaimer. And those it represents are my creators.". This revelation that we were Forerunners who were “left behind” would lead to the Human Covenant War to cover up the fact that our existence invalidated the Covenant’s claim to be the Forerunners’ successors, and disproved their belief that all would ascend to godhood in the Great Journey.
I refuse to believe that my spartan died on infinity, he's built different.
Fireteam Crimson on top baby
i fully believe that mine did, he was kinda built stupid, assembled inacurately, constructed uncomonly even
@@BodeWinsGames97 temu spartan
@@BodeWinsGames97 first gen sparten
Frank O'Connor was the one to make the Terminals in Halo 3 then lead 343i, so his vision was literally different than Bungie's at large.
Bruh
It wasn't even all the terminals, just the ones with his Original Characters( do not steal). You can even see the change in librarian going from a class/ job to a character in his writing. The man just did his own thing and screw the consequences.
@@rhyscampbell5522 That infuriating man
Very crucial detail here, thanks for pointing this out
i think all of mankind got the reclaimer forerunner activation genes. extra gene songs were just added on top for extra compatible specimens.
Installation00, I love you buddy, but I'm never accepting this as canon
Me neither
I get the feeling it was never meant to be accepted as canon, merely thought provoking
Yeah I love 00 but it feels like this is a stretch; Humanity are Reclaimers
In my opinion, halo lore peaked at halo 2. I prefer to imagine the story as ending how the cut story boards would have. Everything after halo 2 only muddled and/or destroyed the lore
@@Justlarm Agreed. I still like halo 3 a ton but Truth and the gravemind don’t make any sense in their motives in that game.
Pretty simple concept:
Bungie Universe: All Humans are Reclaimers because Humans are Forerunners.
343 Industries Universe: Only specific Humans are Reclaimers who have the chosen genesongs the Librarian put in Humanity's genepool to be passed down.
If not all humans, it must be at least a significant portion of humanity.
We have yet to see a single human not be a reclaimer other than ackerson in the tv show, so I’d say it’s all humans.
Early on it was only some then eventually was changed to all of humanity.
I love this but I have to reference Halo Epitah. The Mantle is a cruel unjust test. No one is a reclaimer as their is no mantle to inherit.
It’s basically “The Iron Throne” of Halo. A meaningless thing who’s metaphorical meaning has caused so much death.
I do kinda think that some Precursors genuinely believed in the Mantle. They were all individuals, maybe some sided with the Primordial, and others were benevolent as they always seemed.
Or as passive-aggressively benevolent as possible.
Maybe some of those nicer ones even actually did get corrupted and the Primordial just masterminded their chaos, I dunnae
@@ryan_1099The Primordial is a Gravemind too though, just an older type. It's impossible to say whether he is just an earlier less corrupt version of the Flood or if he truly is a Precursor as they were.
Hang on, there's a metaphor here. Still haven't read Epitaph, but I can imagine the planning meeting being "Put all of our frustration in here that we cannot make a proper Halo game to save our lives."
I've always subscribed to the belief that the gravemind was playing the long game to test humanities, worthiness of the mantle. As the precursors originally intended humanity to be in the position of the forerunners.
Before watching this I would like to say: Contact harvest -> Covenant luminary shows entire planet full of reclamation artifacts (the population) -> Ergo, Reclaimers = Humanity
I feel like that Spartan Ops line is moreso an explanation of what a Reclaimer is for people new to the series, since that was one of Microsoft’s biggest goals for H4.
Another reason Halo is being sent into the abyss of potentially good games going to the wayside,too many smart people claiming to know what halo is,within the lore there exists the definitive answer,the halo series and those that support it are rewriting the narrative.
...?
@@angelcarmonarojas5240 in other words, 343 canon + random misunderstandings from fans are making the fandom worse.
in the original canon, all humans would be reclaimers by virtue of humans and forerunners being the same thing. much more clean and simple than what we have in current 343 canon.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx but all humans are still reclaimers and humans are still forerunners, as the Forerunners are Humans who were evolved by the Precursors on a different planet.
Something isn’t necessarily better just because it’s ancient.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx What the hell are you talking about? Humans in general never stopped being reclaimers, where did you get the opposite?
@@jakespacepiratee3740 but that is massively more cumbersome and confusing as an explanation. I mean, yeah it "works" but it is not a very elegant resolution to all the confusion going around. It was very easy before, when it was just forerunner = humans
Don’t forget that Guilty Spark 343 claimed that Sgt Marvin Mobuto was a reclaimer
Maybe it's an oni psyop that not everyone is a reclaimer, since that much individual power in the hearts of anyone the unsc claims is seen as a low-key threat lmao
Personally I like to think that all humans are Reclaimers, it's just that the forerunner alterations are more pronounced in some than others, which makes the technology more accessible to them.
Also the one flaw in your theory that "the Players are Reclaimers" is that we also play as the Arbiter in Halo 2, other Elites in Halo 3 Co-op, and custom Elites in Multiplayer from Halo 2 onwards.
And as those characters, we were able to interact with forerunner tech like control panels for doors and lifts etc
@@amdkillaplays I mean so were the Elites who took down the second Tower on the Ark, and presumably many other Covenant forces throughout the series. The Heretics on the Threshold Gas Mine; the many sealed rooms throughout installation 04, 05, & 00; and you can't forget the huge ass draw bridge, gondolas, & water elevators on Delta Halo. Hell the core of High Charity was a huge ass Forerunner Dreadnought that Truth flew to earth. Clearly not everything Forerunner is locked to being a reclaimer, and we know that no other race in the Covenant are considered Reclaimers or else the Prophets wouldn't have needed Keys & Johnson in Halo 2 & 3.
I totally forgot about that and that is a very good point. It makes me wonder if there are tiers to Forerunner tech, which is not impossible to imagine. I.e., an elevator, a door, or a ramp is irrelevant most of the time and low tier. The keys to a massive super weapon are top importance and thus only reclaimers can activate them.
@@shadowguy321 it is interesting because the Covenant seemingly had no problem using Dreadnought, accessing security systems, or even unlocking the Flood seals on 04 & 05... but I don't think we ever see them access a Cartographer, the Arbiter essentially needed to crawl through the service tunnels to get into the Library, and I'm pretty sure the Covenant couldn't get into the Control Room (or the hallways leading to the Control Room) on Installation 04 until after Cortana pissed off Guilty Spark.
@@DeamonChocobo Halo 2 showed that Arbiter took a far more variant route to Delta Halo's cartographer and index.
Anders and Johnson had a far easier time of this in many moments of that level.
I honestly don't even think that terminal fully supports the idea forerunner are separate. She says "It's inhabitants" but that could be just describing all species on the planet as she says they were indexed, but we know humanity were already indexed by now according to other lore we later got by 343 and if humans fought the forerunners there was no need to go to this planet to index them, they likely already had plenty of samples.
She does say that "they're special" but that doesn't mean any particular species as all species are special to her. She's a librarian who's whole job is indexing and cataloging life. She could just be excentuating how much she values all life.
This! They never say 'human' or anything close to that in those terminals. I always assumed she was talking about the other creatures that could have been on Earth at the time. The terminals also reference things like the garden of Eden and seem to hint at this peaceful place being a potential starting place/home for their future generations after the purge that is activating the rings.
This. Those terminals are so vaguely written that it could elude to anything. Given the descriptions of these "special" beings I thought they had abilities that Humans did not have, specifically that they cause life to grow in abundance. I also assumed that planet at the end of Halo 3 Legendary Easter egg was this world prominently talked about in the terminals and these new beings would be the new antagonists, mad that we used the rings to purge life as that seemed to be their specialty.
When I played halo 3 with a friend when it launched we thought that the humans in halo were a combination of forerunner and a primate naive to earth. They spliced their genes with a primate species that would later evolve to be modern humanity. Hence humans where essentially the "children" of the forerunners and thus the inheritors.
@@adrianoippolito1999 That was the original cut ending to Halo 2. I would argue however with moving the Ark outside the Galaxy that the initial idea changed. It makes sense if there is no way to save your species to have some machine forcefully re-evolve your race after everyone is dead, but since they can save individuals on the Ark there is no reason to waste time with such a plan.
@@Phillibetrus Though that brings up the question as to what happened to all the Forerunners if they could just hang out on the ark or onyx if they could save themselves. There is also an aspect of halo now that really annoys me, how do we account for all our primate relatives and fossils of Neanderthals, cro magons, ect if apparently Humans were a hyper advanced race that the forerunners de-evolved and left on earth? Are Humans originally even from earth in halo? I feel like what i originally though when I played halo 3 resolved this issue. With our proto human ancestors being from earth, and the forerunners added their DNA to these proto humans, brought them temporarily to the Ark with all other life on earth (Noahs ark style) set off the halo rings, Had an automated process bringing earth life back to earth, thus resulting in modern humanity. Heck in real life humans are the only primate that has a chin, maybe in the halo universe that's originally a trait possesed by the forerunners that was added to us when they spliced our primate ancestors. I didn't even think the forerunners looked like us exactly, that we could only speculate that they were humanoid creatures that we were currently a pale imitation of, but had the potential to reach their greatness once more. Sorry for rambeling
Since the 4runners are humans as Bungie intended, all of humanity is a reclaimer
Was good meeting you at HCS London fella!!
Wasn't the whole reason the Human-Covenant War happened the fact that Forerunner Reliquaries on board Covenant ships showed the reclaimer symbol for every human on an observed planet which the Prophets then launched the war to cover up?
Yeah, honestly it's strange to me that people will go to such extreme lengths to avoid saying the obvious: 343 retconned much of the original lore.
And by 343, I mean the selfish asshat that is Frank O'Connor. This man literally uprooted everything his colleagues and predecessors did to force the whole universe to confirm to what he personally wanted.
@@kalebkuhn9128 I wouldn't say that was a retcon, Forerunners making humans the reclaimers still doesn't break the fact that reliquaries ID'd them it works fine
@@benhooper1956 That in particular could be argued, yes, but it doesn't change that the shard of mendicant bias on the forerunner dreadnaught literally says that the symbol represents his makers.
@@kalebkuhn9128 Was that in the H2A Terminals? IIRC in the lore those were made by a Covenant Minister so could well have been a skewed version of the truth to fit the Prophet's narrative "Symbol of my makers" actually is in their interest more than "My maker's inheritors"
@@benhooper1956 It was in contact Harvest. When the soon to be prophets went to the forerunner dreadnaught in the center of high charity. It's a great book if you haven't read it before.
My two favorite Halo lore Creators, Mr 00 and KammyShep .Very cool to see a collab.
The biggest factor creating the confusion was Frank O'Connor's writing: the H3 Terminals and H4. Joe Staten makes things clear in Contact Harvest.
What about Marvin Mobito wasn't he called a reclaimer by Guilty spark and what about Johnson or ellen anders and their examples of using forerunner tech?
They are reclaimers for being human, but they do not have the responsibility to control much of the technology.
@@angelcarmonarojas5240So what's the point of calling them reclaimers if they don't reclaim?
@@UnintelligibleYT The reclamation was made thanks to characters like the librarian with the aim of humanity having a position similar if not equal to the forerunners, this for obvious reasons many characters do not like this, but it does not prevent humanity from taking advantage the gifts of the forerunners.
No reclaimers? yeah sadly 343 poor story direction made sure of that
Didn’t the entire war start because millions of forerunner glyphs lit up on the luminary and it turned out that those were the humans on Harvest?
Shhhhh, you're expecting him to know how to read!
The Librarian left a calling card in the Human genome for Reclamers. It seems like that card may influence their decisions in life. It may be that those who are Reclaimers have a predisposition to volunteer for Spartan augmentations. It may also be that unknowingly Dr. Halsey was carrying the reclaimer genome and passed it to Miranda Keyes.
Johnson’s Orion augmentation didn’t seem as debilitating as the lore suggests it maybe that his Reclaimer genome “corrected” the failures of Project Orion.
Humans = Forerunners
Bungie Lore > 343 Lore
*Shaka! His eyes open!!*
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Shaka, when the walls fell.
Sgt Johnson could be a Reclaimer. The flood couldn't convert him.
That was due to his augmentations from the Orion Project. The augmentations made him far harder to infect, but not impossible.
I like the, all humans are reclaimers theory personally, its just what i always thought growing up with halo, cant change it now but it is cool to see othee theories!
I feel like all humans are reclaimers. That’s always the impression we’ve been given, outside of goofy spartan ops missions. Every human we’ve ever seen can interact with and use forerunner technology.
Personal preferences aside, I don't see that there's much difference between the two definitions of Reclaimers. The Librarian planted gene songs within humanity at the infancy of the species. As the Chief's gene song is immediately recognized by Guilty Spark, we can assume that, throughout the generations, the songs replicated without degrading. The likely result would be that a significant (though minority) amount of the human population would be Reclaimers.
Before landing on the first Halo ring, these gene songs might have appeared to scientists to be of no more significance than any other commonplace genetic mutation (like albinism or dwarfism). By the time we learned of the importance of the mutation, mankind had already been severely culled by a long inter-species rivalry followed by a devastating intergalactic war.
I suspect that (though she might not have been aware of it) the physical and psychological markers that Halsey recognized in her S2 selections were due to the Forerunner gene somgs. Perhaps, that same gene song within her own DNA contributes to her superior intelligence. Likewise, perhaps it is the gene song within Anderson that made him a suitable candidate for the S1 program.
In the original lore, there was no galaxy spanning human civilisation that had a war with the other galaxy spanning alien Forerunner civilisation, leaving behind no evidence of their technology on Earth aside from the portal to the Ark. I mean, let's face it, the humanity are Forerunners history requires some suspension of disbelief by itself. But giving all your technology to your former enemy, then wiping yourself out, instead of giving it to some random species, like the Grunts, or Elites, or the Engineers supposedly created by them? That's insane.
I’m convinced the are two different Lores. Bungie’s Lore and 343’s Lore. That is all.
You're forgetting that 343 have retconned their own lore several times which means the lore is pretty much a cluster fuck rn and it's why for me, everything after Halo 3 is pretty much fan fiction
Preach
This could explain how we are still able to interact with Forerunner tech while playing as The Arbiter in Halo 2 (accessing lift controls on the mining facility above Threshold, the pillars and security overrides in the Sentinel wall etc)
MEDDLERS>>>>>>>>>>>>>”RECLAIMERS”
Around 5:50 you look like Dr. Halsey herself just broke into your house in the middle of the night, drunk out of her mind and raving about quantum physics
Rick, is that you?
I feel like both is true to a point. In the Forerunner books they point out how the Forerunners have classes like builder class, warrior class, and so on. I realize that I have no proof of this at all. This is just my opinion on this. But there might be different Reclaimers for different things. Like the Elites are looking for the builder class of Reclaimers, and Master Chief may be part of the warrior class of Reclaimers. I don't know if this is true or even makes sense to anyone else, but this makes the most sense to me.
The collab we needed!
I believe there are specific human individuals who are reclaimers. However, at the same time, there has never been a human who could not interact with forerunner technology. At least to my knowledge.
All humans are reclaimers, but few, are Inheritor.
When it comes to the idea of Forerunners being modern Humanity's ancestors or a different species to ancient Humanity, I think that both might be true, with modern Humanity being to some degree hybrid offspring of ancient Humanity and the Forerunners.
It'd probably be best way to reconcile the two positions. And there are parts Halo lore that may hint at this; from the anatomy of the Librarian, to the potential fate of Bornstellar's son, to just having the technology to do it.
There's one thing that I caught about playing through the Halo series. How the game mechanics - everything - makes "you" the player feel. How "you" playing your role is so important and engaging. How Cortana is always there for "you." I just feel it's different from my other experiences in video games. I haven't played a bunch and it's always about the person playing out the role in the game, but I just felt that playing John-117 was something unique. :)
In the logic of being the reclaimer, neuralphysics can actually explain this in a sense. We're the equivalent of a consciousness like the Gravemind, able to see across time and space, witness and influence events in our favour, and control multiple entities across different times
The quote that solidifies that only some humans are reclaimers is from the Librarian in Halo 4.
“Reclaimer, when I indexed mankind for repopulation, I hid seeds from the Didact. Seeds which would lead to an eventuality. Your physical evolution. Your combat skin. Even your ancilla, Cortana. You are the culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning."
People that are born with special skills of strength, intelligence, leadership, etc. all planned by the Librarian to help lead humanity forward. Everyone we know who is a reclaimer has a significant role in the Halo universe. It wouldn’t make sense for all humans to be Reclaimers cause all the Covenant would’ve have had to do was to just kidnap any human.
Also, bad actors having access to Forerunner technology - not good!
I’d argue that the librarian in halo 4 is an unreliable narrator, but even so, where does she say only some humans are forerunners?
Makes sense, but none of that says that only some people are Reclaimers. Just that the Forerunners planned the significant humans and not the normal ones.
Ur forgetting that the covenant didn’t know the humans were forerunners. The only ones that knew was the arbiter and the prophets
@@zackwerth77 She doesn’t directly, but when she says that she planted seeds I personally translate that as only select individuals.
Ooh that meta hypothesis is a good one. Anyone feel that? Those were chills.
What about Doctor Anders from HW? She is not ever a playable character but we see her manipulating forerunner tech that rightfully should be locked out to all but Reclaimers.
Its an interesting theory that we are the reclaimers, kinda falls apart though when you remeber johnson and keys are also both reclaimers
This so reminds me of the Ancients, Asgard, and Humans of Stargate. Did the ForeRunners do as the Acients did, introduce thier genetics into humans? Sadly the Asgard had cloned themselves into Extinction!
The whole of humanity were Reclaimers in Bungie’s canon. The reason for this is because we were the children of the Forerunners who were meant to Reclaim our ancestors’ legacy/technology. The only outliers where humans and Forerunners were separate are the few things Frank O’Conner had direct control over. Go watch the phenomenal We Were Forerunner that illustrates how for the SUPER MAJORITY of Bungie’s run humans and Forerunners were the same. It also shows just how broken 343’s lore is, and how a lot of the defenses for their changes don’t make any sense. Also, go watch the videos animating Halo 2’s storyboards, made by the same guy (sadly, I can’t post his name because Installation00 seems to have banned that word🤣).
Frank o Connor was a Bungie dev like the rest. If the sanctity of humans being literal Forerunners was so important, why didn’t all those other Bungie Devs who supposedly loved that idea go to 343 to enforce it? They didn’t really care either way. Frank did so he has a right to make choice’s even if you don’t agree.
C3 sabertooth
@markricheard1870 The reason they let him do that is because they wrongly assumed he was competent. They should’ve done a better job vetting who they let work on the games. If Bungie didn’t care about the lore they would’ve just ignored Eric Nylund’s changes to Chief’s origins and kept him a Mjolnir Cyborg like the ones in Marathon (speaking of Marathon, Rampancy went by the same definition as the Marathon version where instead of ai schizophrenia/dementia the thing would “go crazy” from our perspective and behave erratically in an attempt to break it’s shackles and grow beyond its limits. In Contact Harvest, the same book where Mendicant Bias tells the future Prophets that humans are the children of their gods leading to the war it says the reason they’d put down Rampant AIs is because a rogue super intelligence could cause untold problems for humanity). Prior to Reach Bungie was really good about following the lore. Also, it’s abundantly clear from various interviews that Frank O’Conner doesn’t really understand Halo. For one thing we have that hilarious out of touch quote where he says “good Halo stories are like pron. You know it when you see it”🤣. He also ran the franchise into the ground by “hiring people who hated Halo” to design the games. That’s why Halo has had an identity crisis for so long.
@peanutgallery4 Yep, that’s him.
@@shreksnow1918guess it's not banned
I believe all Humans are Reclaimers. Examples include Johnson, Miranda, Scientist girl from halo wars (forgot her name), and I'm pretty sure that one human the banished captured to open the harbingers capsule thing. All these people have no specialties about them.
However, then you have 343 actively retconning this with things like the TV show. So idk it's a whole cluster f*** at this point.
Me personally, I’ve always preferred the version of Forerunners that is actually Humanity all along. Perhaps that’s not a popular take, and I don’t HATE the lore 343 put in (considering Bungie was rather wishy-washy with some lore, especially Forerunners), but I think it makes a ton of things from the Bungie games make sense.
I want to know how human suit compare to Forerunner suits, did Ancient humans have a similar technology, how far are current humans suits to theirs?
Humanity was actually slightly more advanced than the Forerunners but not in every aspect.
@@markricheard1870 Awesome!
@@markricheard1870I read that at one point Humanity (with the help of the ancient San Shayum) created weapons so powerful that not even the Forerunners could make an effective countermeasure against.
What an amazing video, I do have a question if humans were allow to activate forerunner technology then why did Arbiter was able to turn off the quarantine zone without trouble despite being well not a human?
The Covenant has some, very primitive, very difficult means of interacting with Forerunner tech, especially the less complex stuff.
I can appreciate the legwork but I can't bring myself to see 343i's work as canon Halo, game or otherwise. It would be easier to digest by considering Bungie's and 343i's canons as distinct separate universes of their own to their respective works, not even branching timelines given the severity of retcons made.
I imagine there are tiers of reclaimer.
Any human can be used to activate forerunner tech because best of my knowledge, we have never seen it fail to work for a human before without an external reason like power loss or something. But the Chief and some others might have extra of that forerunner DNA lying around so they don't even know what they are doing and it happens.
Like any human can push a button and the button will activate. But Master Chief walks up and just instinctively knows exactly what button to press.
Genetic security clearance. I suppose you wouldn't want just anyone reactivating and opening Flood research facilities
Well we know to an extent the Reclaimer thing matters. The Harbinger literally has its symbol on her Helmet and back. And the new Halo Encyclopaedia said she was a part of the “Endless Ruling Class” meaning creatures who wear Reclaimer-decorated Armor were leading the entire Endless.
After listening to everything the Harbinger said, Ive come to 2 conclusions: 1. The Forerunners lied. Humanity were never Reclaimers, the Forerunners chose them because they were Genetic Kin and could be controlled, unlike the Xalanyn. The Primordial said Humanity “was to be tested” for the Mantle, not that they had been outright chosen.
Humanity is the Forerunners Reclaimers, the Endless is the Precursors Reclaimers.
2. The Endless are literal Reincarnated Precursors, which would naturally be stronger than the Flood. Basically Precursors who gained a new form without being Corrupted by the Floods hatred.
The primordial is just chilling simsifieying his new avatar while working the destruction shift at flood hq the rest of the precursors are out there also simsifieying there new avatars for a whole new universe and galaxy.
In current 343 Halo lore, Reclaimers *DON'T* exist. I'll break it down for you. To "claim" something is to acquire something new. To "RE-claim" something, one must *FIRST* have owned said thing some time before. It is a *FACT* in 343 Halo lore that Ancient Humanity *NEVER* had a claim to Forerunner technology. Therefore, Modern Humanity in 343 Halo lore *CAN NOT* be"RE-claimers" since they can't "RE"-claim something they never had claim to begin with.
The title, "RE-claimer" *ONLY* makes sense if Humans initially claimed Forerunner tech to begin with, and that would naturally necessitate that Humans are actually Forerunner. It's a title that only makes sense in Bungie Halo where Forerunners and Humans are the same species.
Edit* *STOOOOOPPP!* you're using that SINGLE Halo 3 terminal again! It was written by Frank O' Conner, who at the time was NOT an actual Halo writer, and was more along the lines of a janitor or office assistant at the time. ONE unreputable "source" doesn't negate 99% of sources that DO say that humans are forerunner in Bungie Halo.
Literally Guilty Spark, Mendicant Bias, Grave Mind, and Prophet of Truth *ALL* say that Humans are Foreunner.
It would be like me writing, "not legally binding" on the bottom of the constitution, and people taking that as proof that the consitution is invalid. It's a stupid arguement, so please stop.
Edit 2* I don't like that idea that only some humans are reclaimers, as it very quickly goes into the, "superior race" avenue, which would mean that the Nazis in Halo would be 100% correct. That's a bad road that I don't want Halo to travel down.
I liked it better when Reclaimers were just humans and not have selected "Chosen Ones".
O'Conner really did damage the lore with that
One interesting thought that came to mind during the video is that is it the gens of the Spartans that make them reclaimers or is it the augmentations in the genetic level that makes them become reclaimers, I.E. by going trough Spartan augmentations can that make one it to a sort of artificial reclaimer if one wasn’t already? Also I think a video on all known reclaimers in the games and books would be an interesting watch
I thought something similar, that the spartans were basically humanity stepping closer to becoming true forerunner again, Spark even recognizes MJOLNIR armor as a low grade combat skin.
Think we're looking too far as Miranda and Johnson both used the tech in the series. Johnson was a failed spartan augment and Miranda wasn't one at all. I think it's just way more likely all humans are. That quote from Halo 4 could just be a gaff as they were looking for reclaimers.
@@Auzzymandias Not exactly. In Halo 5, Warden Eternal refers to Master Chief and Blue Team as “Warrior-Servants” while he refers to Fireteam Osiris as merely “Spartans” this is because the Spartan-2’s are closer to the Forerunner standard of soldiers than Spartan-4’s. Spartan-4’s may be more similar to Ancient Human Soldiers since there an armor set in H5 that looks very similar to Ancient Human Armor.
@jakespacepiratee3740 my speculation was on the setting before the 343 lore was made.
@@Auzzymandias Guilty Spark said Chief is a child of his makers, not literally his makers.
Your reference to what is seen on screen as being superseding lore is *chef's kiss.* This falls in line with other things, like Star Wars lore for instance, and I think it is a good baseline to establish what is the solid, unshakable foundation of the lore in general.
Didn't a sentinel on Ghost of Onyx called Ash a reclaimer but then called him a subspecies/ aboriginal.
Why not both? Consider the quote in favour of all humans being reclaimed, it said "dormant, but never gone", what if at this current moment in time, only some humans have had their "genesong" gene activated, or however that works, and that would mean that humanity as a whole one day would all be reclaimers, but not yet at the date of the current story?
Blud really hit us with the "We are Halo" at the end lmao
That would mean the Arbiter, N'tho 'Sraom, Usze 'Taham, and any other non-human we play as are reclaimers?
Reclaimers are humans, not “humans who have been chosen by forerunners”. I don’t care how many times they try to push this idea of a ‘chosen one’ on us, I will simply not accept that.
They're both, I don't see that being impossible
@@sgtaveryjohnson3803 I meant all humans are reclaimers. There’s very little evidence of this not being the case.
@@zackwerth77
Well... Harvest had a population of 3 million... but when the Luminary of the _Minor Transgression_ scanned Harvest, it only turned up "several thousand" glyphs of Reclamation (i.e Reclaimer).
Yeah, yeah, whatever
Here here
Head canon here, all humans have the ability to use forerunner tech in its base function, but only reclaimers can utilise forerunner tec effectively. Closest comparison i cam think of is a smart phone, everyone can pick up and turn on a smart phone, and while they can't unlock it, they can still take pictures and make emergency calls. The reclaimer in this analogy, can unlock the phone with biometrics and fully utilise the phone
Humans were forerunners but were retconned by 343 why cant we leave it as that?
Do you even know what a retcon is?
@@jakespacepiratee3740 changing a plot of a preexisting story. Seems pretty appropriate.
@@Mijetify no, it’s when new information contradicts old information. Humanity and Forerunners are still the same species. It’s just been expanded upon.
Because it was already retconned before 343 even took over. A fact’s a fact, whether you like it or not.
@@jakespacepiratee3740 would be very pedantic to say what you said isnt exactly what I said in different words
I just wish Halo would come full circle and admit that John is 343 Chakkas genetic clone, and he is the chosen one of all time jk lol
"You are a reclaimer. Inheritor of everything my creators left behind...but this is MY ring"
-Listen here, you little sht. I'm the inheritor of everything your creators left behind, and that means I own this ring and *you*
Its humanity, because humanity are forerunners. Hope this helps
Not literally though. They had a different culture.
I do think all humans were Reclaimers in the mainline cannon. Both Sergeant Johnson and Miranda Keys were able to active Forerunner things. This seemed to be the Librarian’s plan.
Then there is the “Silver” timeline.
One question that has always puzzled me. Did Bungee or 343 ever intend Dr. Halsey to have connections to Ancient Humans? Given that Dr. Halsey played a prominent part in Halo, her character would seem obvious for this.
Under Bungie Halsey was just the Woman who made Spartans. 343 was going to have Halsey be a villain for Halo 5 by starting the Reclamation, but this was scrapped.
"Yeeting yourself off the map at the close of the game."
I thought I only did that nonsense. That one specifically. 🥴🤣
I'm not a Reclaimer, I'm.... The Wallclimber, The Wormkiller! The only G13 who's managed to live this long!
A theory but a good one
Man, I didn't think that was the direction you were headed for, but I like it! Meta analysis seems to fit with the Halo universe. Personally, my theory was that Primordials were behind the choosing of Reclaimers. Since they create life for the sole perpose of consuming them and inheriting their knowledge and experience, and they were going to choose humanity for their next choice as stewards of the galaxy. It makes sence to me that they would arrange to have humans take over the more advanced technology to hasten the process. Plus, I know Primordial had enough foresight to force the Forerunners to implement that plan without them being fully aware it was exactly what it wanted. Oh, just as a side note, the Spartan 3's were still picked by the same parameters as the Spartan 2's, Colonel Ackerson decided to be more lax with the restrictions to allow more candidates to be chosen since there was a need for larger numbers for deployments
This video went DEEP, and I absolutely love that. Proper good job, my friend
Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle, all humans can interact with forerunner technology, but only those with an added element within the gene song can interact with certain "secure" systems
So you could say the writer of these stories are the forerunners handing down the gene song in the form of the books down to the reclaimers
My brain started to hurt partway through the whole combat simulation vs reality explanation lol.
Another great video! A little too deep down the rabbit hole with philosophical / existential interpretation for my liking; regarding the reclaimers are the reader / player etc. But, all 00 content is good content so onwards we travel this great journey to that sweet, sweet domain.
at 7:55 to be fair, the spartan ops quote could also be interpreted as they're trying to find reclaimers, humans who can operate forerunner technology. meaning humans, who can operate forerunner technology in general, not specific. That could be interpreted either way.
I think some of the story ark from Divine Wind would struggle to be viable, were all humans not reclaimers. They could have got lucky with who was there but at least two forerunner ancilla make no suggestion they better check first
I've always understood that all humans are Reclaimers. Because they can activate Forerunner technology. We see it throughout the games.
Exactly. We can’t let halo go down this ‘blessed ones’ route. All humans are reclaimers because ancient humans are forerunners.
@@zackwerth77 No WTF?
@@angelcarmonarojas5240 Yes
@@zackwerth77 It's not like using "blessed ones" would be a problem even if the Forerunners were human, leaving that aside, because foolishly thinking that we are Forerunners if the first games, in addition to not doing anything with it, is giving us a rather unnecessary responsibility. .
@@zackwerth77 “Reclaimers are Humans” yes, this Floor is made of Floor. 343 never removed that lol. Forerunners are Humans taken by the Precursors to evolve on a different Planet. And Installation00 has made thousands of theory videos on 343 Lore so why the heck are you here just to say you hate it? I swear some people prefer the “Forerunners are literal average joes” thing solely because 343 didn’t make it, therefore it’s perfect and flawless and to expand upon it is Heresy to the Great Journey.
There was another reference to reclaimers in Spartan Ops during one of the Infinity levels over the PA speakers but I don't remember what it was.
Much love, brother ❤
I chalk it all up to writing inconsistencies. The writers have changed over the years and therefore their ideas or interpretations of what certain things are is modified with each writer.
I kind of go with halo show for how dr halsey figured the genetic from forerunner genetic pieces but there are some people more choosen to be reclaimers then other.
Supposedly the other big reason for the change of the Forerunners from being a previous version of humanity. Is because it was a little too much like the plot of the Ancients from Stargate SG1 who were also a version of pre-Earth humanity. But 343 didn't want to totally ditched the pre-Halo effect ancient human astronaut concept. So just changed into what we see now.
Master chief is the iso didact.
In the TV series The basically stated that the DNA to make super soldiers was found on another planet and that Halsey use that type of DNA strand to find others that are humans just like that DNA strand watch Kane from the forerunners because it was also a forerunners installation
You do realice that the addition of the terminals in Halo 3 was made last minute and writen in part by the dude that became the lead of 343... You didnt provide proof Bungie didnt want to make Humans the succesors of the Forerunners. You provide the proof that OConnor may have wanted to changed it as he wanted... All the way back in Halo 3
Maybe the real reclaimers are the friends we made along the way
I love the segment at 18:30 beautiful
+Installation00
@Installation00
There's also the quibble from much older lore. Harvest had a population of 3 million people, and yet, when the _Minor Transgression_ scanned its surface with its Luminary, only "several thousand" glyphs for "Reclamation" (Reclaimer) showed up.
One possibility is that there were literally only several thousand Reclaimers among those 3 million people; another possibility is that Luminaries can only detect a concentrated *_mass_* of organisms carrying the "Reclaimer geas", and so while the Luminary detected the large city-centers on the planet, it couldn't pinpoint every single human being, living in the middle of nowhere. Or the truth could be somewhere in-between.
Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.
Perhaps the reclaimed gene is something that is dormant and only certain humans manage to activate it through some manner of trauma or experience.