I don't think this is a new theory per se, but it is something I've been thinking about lately with the new info from D2.

What if the Speaker IS the traveler, or an Avatar of the Traveler.

First things first out of the way, our ghost says in the new tower that there have been many speakers, and there will be another. It's possible that there has really only been one speaker, but under different Avatars. Or the Traveler was finally able to position himself as speaker b/c it gave him some legitimacy and freedom to seek out the most powerful guardian without drawing suspicion.

now:

• The Traveler doesn't wake up until after the speaker dies.
  
• Our guardian is the only guardian chosen to have the vision and to get their light back.
  
• The speaker admits to Ghaul that he is just stalling (b/c he knows that the chosen one, us, needs more time)
  
• The Speaker says "i only speak for the Traveler, I never claimed that it spoke to me." This still works if the speaker is the traveler. He is saying that he speaks for himself.
  
• If the speaker is the traveler, why didn't he just kill Ghaul sooner? He knows what horrors lurk outside the galaxy (pyramid ships). while dormant, they cannot find him. He needs for the Chosen one (us) to come forward before he can risk it. He has to know that humanity is ready to fight a greater power.
  
• After Ghaul monologues to the speaker about why he should be chosen by the light, he asks the speaker "Now do you see why I would be chosen?" to which the speaker replies "I see now. I see all that you have done"
  
• In true Bungie fashion, the speaker is de-masked, yet his face is never shown.

Idle thought... Is the traveller itself the speaker's ghost?

Nah, most likely Bungie just didn't know what to do with him moving forward and so killed him off.

I don't think the Traveler would be the Speaker's ghost because if it were it would actually speak to him. As Schedonnardus posted, the Speaker never claims that it speaks to him. Our ghost speaks to us frequently.

I believe the Speaker in D1 had a Ghost floating nearby, didn't he?

Yeah, I could see this working. If the Speaker were just another Guardian... why hold him captive instead of killing him like the hundreds or thousands of others the Red Legion killed?

I fully expect when Frankie gets a hold of Destiny though, he will return and his face will be shown and it turns out he was an alien the whole time.

But Lukens's comments on the stranger kind of indicate you might be right. The story from the last game is getting dumped, pretty much.

Yeah, I could see this working. If the Speaker were just another Guardian... why hold him captive instead of killing him like the hundreds or thousands of others the Red Legion killed?

Because Ghaul had been studying the Traveler for years, and knew of the Speaker.

The Speaker was a priest, essentially, and judging from Ghost's dialogue, clearly not the only one (probably just the most prominent, since he was around before the walls were built).

He's a Warlock like any other (he even has/had a normal Ghost), but one who is very devout in his philosophy. His faith led Ghaul to confuse him as someone who literally communes with the Traveler, and so he captured him.

Anything more is reading a bit too much into things, I feel.

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Nah, most likely Bungie just didn't know what to do with him moving forward and so killed him off.

I think this was probably true as well. Also, I'm glad they did. I hated that prick.

I never understood the purpose of the Speaker. He didn't do anything! He even tells Ghaul that the Traveler doesn't speak to him...so what is his purpose?

I think that Bungie, all of us and Ghaul all thought the speaker was a significant component of the Traveler but after learning more about him realized he was just a zealot, and that was the main point of the Ghaul/Speaker story line, to expose the Speaker as just some random jabrony.

Consul recognized this immediately because of his age and wisdom. He let Ghaul do his thing but eventually got tired of it and ended the game. Ghaul eventually realized it too and killed Consul as the scapegoat for essentially destroying the ideology he had based his entire campaign on. Also, Ghaul be crazy...so...logic does not apply to his actions. He wanted to convince the Speaker he was worthy so the Speaker would bestow the Traveler to him. When he found out the Speaker was a fraud, he forcefully tried to take it.

If Guardians can be resurrected over and over and over by ghosts, who were created by the Traveler, then it only makes sense that the Traveler can bring back dead people too. If the Speaker was legit, then it makes sense to me that he shows back up again somewhere.

I never understood the purpose of the Speaker. He didn't do anything! He even tells Ghaul that the Traveler doesn't speak to him...so what is his purpose?

I think that Bungie, all of us and Ghaul all thought the speaker was a significant component of the Traveler but after learning more about him realized he was just a zealot, and that was the main point of the Ghaul/Speaker story line, to expose the Speaker as just some random jabrony.

Consul recognized this immediately because of his age and wisdom. He let Ghaul do his thing but eventually got tired of it and ended the game. Ghaul eventually realized it too and killed Consul as the scapegoat for essentially destroying the ideology he had based his entire campaign on. Also, Ghaul be crazy...so...logic does not apply to his actions. He wanted to convince the Speaker he was worthy so the Speaker would bestow the Traveler to him. When he found out the Speaker was a fraud, he forcefully tried to take it.

If Guardians can be resurrected over and over and over by ghosts, who were created by the Traveler, then it only makes sense that the Traveler can bring back dead people too. If the Speaker was legit, then it makes sense to me that he shows back up again somewhere.

This makes perfect sense and I hope the speaker was a fraud and never comes back. I hated that guy for exactly the reasons you laid out: He reeked of fraud. "I could tell you the stories... [but I won't]" "You saved the world from the black garden! [so here's a single mote of light]" "I never said the traveler spoke *to* me [but I heavily implied it in order to get my position of power and prestige]." Screw that guy.

He's a fraud, a flim flam man, a snake oil salesman!

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Nah, most likely Bungie just didn't know what to do with him moving forward and so killed him off.

i can see that being the case. I would hope that there is more to it than that though.

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The Speaker is dead? Falling a few feet to the ground after being released from his bindings killed him??? Or did I miss something?

Also young guys. I think Hulk Hogan started using it in the 80s mb, and it died out in the mid 2000s. Or is it still a common wrestling term?

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As a young guy (I'm 20), I know it as a thing Hulk Hogan and the like said, that sometimes other people say when they're trying to sound like them or they're just a Hulk Hogan kind of person.

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I always thought it came from Jobbers. Jobbers are the no-name wrestlers that are just there to lose. Then it eventually just morphed into jabroni. Maybe at some point there was a jobber whose actual wrestling name was Jabroni.

The Speaker apparently has some Veto powers, but I always assumed he was more of a caretaker, looking after the interests of the Traveler, while the Vanguard tended to look out for humanity first. You even see this in the D2 cinematics where Zavala says that the Traveler will have to look out for itself while they save the people.

The speaker has one mission in D1, which is to rescue the Traveler's shard "Nothing is more important now".

He exiled Osiris for looking for answers as opposed to working on helping people.

It seems the Speaker is there for guidance, and his responsibility is to represent the Traveler's interests like a legal guardian rather then an in game guardian.

Given the psudo worship of the Traveler, and Ghaul's own issues, Ghaul missed this point and expected that the Speaker was some sort of chosen priest. When the speaker says he see's all Ghaul has done, I took that as he understood what kind of person Ghaul is. The Traveler doesn't react when the speaker is killed. It only reacts as Ghaul starts siphoning light to empower himself. Taking the Light theoretically should have severe repercussions, much like giving Darkness does. By Taking the light the Traveler would feel it had been found again by the Darkness, cutting it with "million knives". Causing another pulse just like what it did during the collapse.

The Speaker is dead? Falling a few feet to the ground after being released from his bindings killed him??? Or did I miss something?

Yes, he's dead. There's a scannable room after the campaign where Ghost makes that pretty clear.

It definitely wasn't portrayed very well or made very clear in the cutscenes.

http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/Morpheus414/video/36930181