Well, the good news is, I'm still alive

[Impossible]

A couple of bones in my leg, near my ankle, are broken. It hurts.

[Telephalsion]

How long will the recovery time be?

[Forerunner]

Look on the bright side, most of us would be willing to suffer constant pain in exchange for an excuse to sit around gaming anyday, I know I would.

Actually, I still have to keep up with all my work. It's just infinitely harder to do work lying on my back, so in fact it's worse, and even moreso because I'm in pain and feel like shit... And still have to work. I haven't even started catching up yet.

Ohh, my bad. That must suck ass. You'd think life would cut you a break.
Bright side... well... at least it wasn't a bus.

[Shindy]

does impossible have a family? or dont u have any reserve money...

btw forerunner is your sig a poem?

[Forerunner]

Yes. It's related to Halo.
An extract from a poem called "the Hollow Men".

[Teenr0cker]

Preeeetty sure Impy still lives at home with family. Are you graduating High School soon Impy?


About that sig...
I'm pretty sure T.S. Elliot wrote that poem with mankind in mind, not just one person. I know it's related to Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad because I read that this year. We also browsed Shakespear's Julius Caesar, but only a smidge, and it was for a different allusion. It's basically a poem that says what a lot of literature I've had to read has said these past few years: "Mankind Sucks. Society Sucks. Society makes mankind suck even more." Blah blah blah....how does dancing around the prickly pear or whatever have to do with you being my sword and shield? Or did you make up the first 3 lines?

[Greatchickenman]

No, T.S Elliot obviously wrote the poem specifically for halo

[Sling]

How is it in any way related to halo?

[Strayed Wanderer]

Can we stop pretending Forerunner ever says anything not-stupid?

[dyyhpys]

Watch the Halo 3 trailer, Cortana says it.
I thought it was written for halo 3 especially.

[Forerunner]

No, the poem existed before Halo. It's theorised that one of the Bungie staff that works on Halo knew about the poem before starting it, and decided to incorporate it into the game.
I think (educated guess, not 100% sure) that the first 3 lines are actually out of the poem. Whereas the last line, although similar to a line in the original poem, is slightly edited when Cortana says it.
This is confirmed in one of the books, where someone (it was either Cortana or Dr. Hasely, Cortana's creator) refers to the poem, and says something along the lines of: "your poet <T.S Elliot> was right but I think 'this is how the world ends'".
In the actual poem I believe it says 'Is this how the world ends'.


How does it relate to Halo? Well:
- "I have defied Gods and Demons"
Is refering to how the Humans are fighting the Covenant who wage a holy war (god, duh) against them. The Master Chief is often refered to as a Demon, but most believe that it is actually refering to the Flood.

- "I am your shield, I am your sword"
Is refering to Cortana herself. In the books she swears to protect him from everything, whether it is the Covenant or Humanity. And throughout the series (books and games) she helps him fight by providing info, and generally making him better, read 'The Fall of Reach" if you want to know how.

- "I know you; your past, your future"
She knows everything about his past, even things he doesn't know. And as for his future: it is believed that her connection with the Gravemind, access to Covenant and Human information, and because she is a 'smart' (naturally inquisitive) AI, she possibly can predict events and stuff because of how stuff has happend before.

- "This is the way the world ends."
Throughout Halo, humanity has been on the brink of extinction because of the covenant and flood threat. And in the trailer you can see a huge structure being activated, most believe it is probably the 'Ark'. Which is the only remaining way to activate the Halos. If they are activated using the Ark, then the universe will be completely wiped of sentient life.


Of course this is just everything I know off the top of my head, accumulated from checking out Wikipedia, the Halo books, the Bungie and other Halo websites, and from my general knowledge of the games. And it's not as of Bungie has been very forthcoming about it all because of Halo 3. But I've done my research and I love Halo, so you can be sure this is all pretty accurate.

[EmperorJeramyu]

Just to put some actual facts into this debate, T.S. Eliot (one of the most famous poets in history) published The Hollow Men (one of T.S. Eliot's most famous works, so it's not an astounding thing for people to know about) in 1925. So unless they were playing an early early version of Halo on their moving picture boxes, I somehow doubt it was written for Halo. T.S. Eliot also died in like 1965, so... yeah.

It's not like incorporating historical works of prose into other works is anything new. It's generally called an "allusion" or in some cases it can be a "metaphor". So let's not start fellating Halo's writers quite yet, because people have been doing that shit since a loooong time ago.

[Strayed Wanderer]

I often get called a Halo Fanboy for just owning an XBox, but seriously... Forerunner is just a delusional Halo Fanboy.

[Greatchickenman]

I'm pretty sure that Forerunner knew it was written years ago. He was simply trying to decipher why the poem was used in Halo.

[Forerunner]

GCM and Jera are right, as usual.

I'm just saying, no the poem was definitely not written with Halo specifically in mind.
However, yes it is used in Halo, and yes it is actually related to Halo.
And yes I am a delusional halo fanboy, but at least I'm not the kind of fanboy who goes around spouting unfounded hate and stupidity before forming educated opinions.