:
: I hate how 343i that implied that 343 GS says "You are Forerunner"
: because "he's crazy!" with their rewrite of the Forerunner lore.
: Yeah, 343 GS isn't quite right, but we also know he doesn't lie... he only
: chooses not to say things.

: All of H1 up until Two Betrayals, 343 GS talks about killing the Flood with
: the Ring. When Cortana calls him out on Halo's real purpose, he doesn't
: act surprised or upset. Just goes, "Well... yeah."

: "When did you know?"
: "Just now... but I had my hopes"

: It's been a common theme for him. The "YOU ARE FORERUNNER" line
: would be completely out of place of his character and would not make any
: sense. At least, not with how I've come to understand his character.

: Slightly off-topic, but something that's been bugging me for years. :p

I'm wondering what exactly was the benefit of having ancient humans and Forerunners be separate, storytelling-wise? They must've justified this decision to themselves somehow because it was definitely not the natural conclusion one might come to from pre-343 fiction.

All I can think of is that they wanted to have a Forerunner villain in Halo 4, and they wanted him to look like an alien, so they contrived the whole story about ancient humans. And because they wanted humans to be somehow special they contrived the idea that they fought the Flood and the Forerunners just ruined the whole thing.

This is a poor excuse, of course. They could've made the Didact work with the pre-343 version of the Forerunners because the bit about ancient humans is just background fluff as far as the game's story is concerned, which makes their introduction all the more baffling. Not that the Halo 4 Didact was ever necessary, though, at least in the form he's presented.