: Guilty Spark flat out says "You ARE Forerunner." You can't point to
: in-game canon and completely ignore what guilty spark says to you in a
: cut-scene. If you are going to rank the canon, cut scenes that everyone
: sees would be above a text-filled terminal that has to be sought out.

Yes but the way I interpreted that when I first heard it was in the same way you might react to "You ARE Covenant." The Covenant are a conglomeration of species. By saying "you are Forerunner" it felt more like GS was associating the Chief with the Forerunner as a label, as a collection, as one under the umbrella of "Forerunner" identification, as if 'one of' the species classified as Forerunner. Granted, IIRC, there is only one Forerunner species. But Im' really pointing to the manner of interpreting "You Are".
I mean, also, did the Forerunners call themselves the Forerunner? To me FR really sounded more like a label than a species name, and so calling the Chief Forerunner made sense, without saying humanity and the Forerunner are the same species.
But again, that was how I interpreted it when the game was fresh :) lots has happened since then.