The Halo series has one of the most sprawling universes in all of gaming. When the first game came out for Xbox’s flagship franchise, it gave gamers feelings of wonder that were reminiscent of Star Wars and Star Trek fans. These feelings though were immediately replaced by terror once the Flood was introduced.
The Flood are parasitic organisms that came out of nowhere and scared just about everyone with their ability to infect people and turn them into abominations. Overtime though, a lot of lore has been introduced in both the Halo games and books to further expand the game’s universe. This has led to some things not making much sense and the Flood is no exception to this. Here are a few things about them that lack sense.
10 Their Origins
Millions of years before the events of Combat Evolved, a war was waged between two species. Those being the Precursors and their creations, the Forerunners. The Forerunners managed to either push back or kill just about all Precursors.
Some Precursors though were reduced to a dust form and became corrupted over time. The Precursors, blinded by rage, embraced this dust which created the Flood. In other words, the Flood was formed by people being sore losers which is pretty anticlimactic.
9 A Tendency To Crash Ships
Despite needing them to go from place to place, the Flood sure have a tendency to crash their best means of transportation. While it does make sense crashing onto High Charity in Halo 2’s campaign to take the Covenant by surprise, but other times though not so much.
In Halo 3 for instance, they crash land a Covenant cruiser in order to spread on Earth. They could have easily just dropped off a bunch Flood in one place then done the same in another to be more effective but nope. That would be too inconvenient for the plot.
8 Leave A Perfectly Good Pelican Behind
Speaking of plot convenience, at the end of the infamous Cortana level in Halo 3, Master Chief and Arbiter make their escape off of the Flood-infested High Charity in a perfectly good Pelican that was lying around.
For whatever reason this Pelican was not used to spread aboard the ark while there were probably others that were. Plus this is the only ship in the vicinity so it can be assumed that others were launched. So why was this one left behind with a bunch of weapons too no less?
7 The Gravemind Somehow Remembers Meeting The Forerunners Despite Just Being Born
The Gravemind is essentially the boss in charge of the Flood that commands them. Without him, they are not as effective or organized. Yet despite being born fairly recently, it somehow remembers meeting the Forerunners.
Granted there was a Gravemind during the time of the Forerunners but it has been established that they are two separate beings. So how does the current one remember them? There still remains a definitive answer even from the new stuff 343 Industries has added to the series lore-wise.
6 Carriers Are Really Easy To Kill
Flood carriers are these weird bloated things that carry around the small Flood infected forms to do some infecting. When shot at enough they will explode sending more of the smaller Flood flying.
But for such an advanced form of parasite, is there not a better way of using these carriers? They seem pretty important to spreading. But for some reason they blow up pretty easily and are not stronger either for some reason.
5 Flood Spores Only Infect People Sometimes
Flood spores, whenever used, are clouds of gas that can infect anyone that breathes it in even while using a basic gas mask. For plot convenience though, these spores only infect people some of the time.
An example is when Arbiter is at the Threshold Gas Mine in Halo 2. There are countless Flood spores in that level that Arbiter encounters without any kind of protection. Despite this though, the guy is perfectly fine. So are spores useless or not?
4 Can Somehow Infect Even A.I
Hundreds of thousands of years before Combat Evolved, during the Forerunners war with the Flood. The Gravemind of the time managed to “convince” an AI, 032 Mendicant Bias, to join the flood. The Forerunners would theorize that it somehow the flood infect Bliss with a virus.
Yes, somehow an organic and physical parasite managed to infect a digital being that made it go rampant and defect. What?
3 Don’t Reanimate Master Chief If He Dies
Master Chief is essentially super-soldier with more strength and endurance than that of the average human. Yet for some reason, whenever the player dies at the hands of the Flood they just let him be.
One would think that a soldier like Chief would be the perfect addition to their ranks but nope. Even if they are playing mind games by just leaving his body as a warning. Wouldn’t it be more effective if they used his body as a message that the Flood can infect anyone?
2 They Don’t Kill Or Infect Cortana When They Have The Chance
Towards the end of Halo 2, Master Chief reluctantly leaves Cortana behind at her urging on High Charity. This leaves her at the mercy of the Flood but more specifically, the Gravemind.
After trying to get information out of her, they for some reason let her live and don’t infect her for whatever. Instead they just leave her imprisoned. While it could be a way of playing mind games, it is the thing that ultimately spells defeat for the Flood in the original Halo trilogy as Cortana was the key to destroying the ark and the new installation.
1 Chose Not To End Humanity More Than 1,100,000 Years Ago
Ancient humans were an advanced species, almost as much as the Forerunners, capable of space travel and had multiple planets to their name. They would have their own war with the Flood which would cause humanity to glass a Forerunner planet in order to stop them. This though instead causes the two to go to war, which would end up sending humanity back to the stone age.
Despite being aware of all this, the Flood just leaves humanity be. They could have taken advantage of the conflict, much like they would do with humans and the Covenant but nope. They just leave them be, which conveniently spells their own doom since doing so would ensure Master Chief would never have been born. Guess even the Flood lacks proper sense sometimes.
