[quote]1. They make forerunner ruling structure as evil. While it may not be the best for humans (you know individualism and all that) it's still a decent system and didn't seem as evil in the books (or atleast this was never mentioned in books)[/quote] [i]"The Didact made clear the Mantle of Responsibility was an imperial peace. Step out of line, and be punished."[/i] This is how it's always been. The Librarian in the Halo 3 Terminals talks about how the Forerunners used the Mantle as justification to strip down the others' species capacity for self defense. IE, the extinction of humanity before settling on de-evolution, the quarantine of the San'Shyuum and the later genocide of one of their worlds for rising up [quote]2. AIs access to the domain? Something about that seems odd... I wouldn't think they would even be able to[/quote]There are a few instances of Forerunner ancillas having access to the Domain in the Forerunner Saga. IE, Mendiacnt Bias exhausted the Domain [quote]3. How dare they compare Locke to the accident humans. That's like, no. Ancient humans should have been much more advanced and shouldn't even be compared yet.[/quote]How dare Exuberant Witness make the comparison that like our past form, we are ferocious and excellent fighters? [quote]4. I remember in the flood 343 suggested upgrading to a much stronger "combat skin" yet in halo 5 same defense as original halo. This is why I can't see them being compared to ancient humans (tenacity yea ) but they shouldn't be able to touch a warden[/quote]The line was actually said in Halo CE and because The Flood is just CE in book form, it had the line in there as well. That's irrelevant though. Spark comments in Halo CE that the Master Chief's MJOLNIR MK V measures as a Class 2 Combat Skin on the Forerunner Combat Skin rating system, and that he should upgrade to at least a Class 12. MJOLNIR GEN 2 only weighs 2/3 as much as MK V and VI, and has more efficient and powerful systems (shields, armor, power, software, ad-hoc mods [armor abilities, armor mods]); additionally, recent lore mentions MK V as being obsolete). Truthfully, we don't know anything about the Combat Skin class system. What does the rating system use as a basis for saying X armor isn't as good as Y armor? Disregarding those unknowns, the fact that MK V even rates on the Combat Skin scale is astounding. That means the armor is advanced enough that a Warrior-Servant or Builder Security would use similar tech in combat. The Warden's form wasn't built for durability, it was designed to be mass produced and output incredible firepower. Look at his combat form. All it is is armor, energy fields, hard light, and an energy core. At the same time, his armor is entirely invulnerable to ballistic and basic energy weapons from the front or any armored section. If he is defeated (which is certainly something the creator of his combat form expected), he has a few million more bodies to replace any fallen ones. Additionally, Warden Eternal even mentions in combat with him how frail he is when you deal damage to him. [i]"Curse this form!"[/i] [quote]5. The existence of guardians seems totally wrong. If the forerunners had said weapons, why did the Sam' shum (spelling idk) rebellion get quelled by builder security? Couldn't they have used guardians?[/quote]Exuberant Witness mentions that the Guardians were used to police troublesome systems. The San'Shyuum, up until their open rebellion, were very peaceful and enjoyed a relative beneficial relationship with the Forerunners given their current status at the time. Not to mention their civilization was stripped down and quarantined to only two words not much would be needed to keep them in check. It was also quelled by Builder Security because the Master Builder was after the cure to the Flood and was getting desperate. [quote]6. How does a guardian even prevent crime? If one creature does one thing bad the whole planet is punished? Seems a bit ineffective and crude for a forerunner construct.[/quote]You're thinking of Guardians the wrong way. They don't police societies, they police civilizations. Meaning they don't prevent crime, they prevent conflict on a large scale (IE war, insurrection, rebellion). If someone in France kills a guy, the UN doesn't bother with that, France does. [quote]7. When cortana addressed all the races, one was mentioned that I never heard... Is that in that recent halo book? That last one is the only one I've missed so far[/quote][url=https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/universe/characters/axl]Yonhet.[/url] They were introduced in Halo: Nightfall and belong to the Covenant fringe.

They are not. Near extinction, yes, but not extinct.

[quote]6. How does a guardian even prevent crime? If one creature does one thing bad the whole planet is punished? Seems a bit ineffective and crude for a forerunner construct.[/quote] I don't think they're there to stop personal crime. More like keeping entire civilizations (like the covenant) from waging war across the galaxy.