Just wanted to put in my philosophical two cents on Halo 4’s campaign, and throw this out there: I’ve been thinking of about the themes and characterization of Halo 4, and it’s place in the Halo universe. And I’ve come across this mindful thought that makes me look at the character and story in a different light.
The story is ultimately a character study of the Chief and Cortana. A man is who behaves like a machine, and a machine who behaves like a human. Two polar opposites, yet completely attracted to one another.
Chief:
For three games we play as an unstoppable killing machine, hellbent on destroying both Covenant and Flood. For three games this killing machine saves the universe and Earth, ultimately sacrificing himself by stranding him and his AI sidekick.
Through the eyes of his peers, he’s seen as nothing but ‘machine and metal’, as the Gravemind so eloquently put it. His humanity is never given room to shine, because previously he was never supposed to show it.
With Halo 4, that was changed for thematic purposes. We’re seen how far the Chief can go as a machine, now we must see how far he can go as a human.
Cortana:
Deep down, Cortana has always been the heart and soul of Halo. As a machine, she shows the best humanity can be, without ever truely being human.
She’s the Chief’s moral compass, accurately making the right choices and correcting the wrong ones. Even when the Chief appears to be making the majority wrong decision, or is about to, Cortana corrects him because she knows what’s always been right.
In Halo 4, the roles are reversed. With Cortana’s lifecycle peaking at 8 years, and rampancy purging her purity, she’s exposed as the machine she’s always been. Now the Chief must play the role of human and help her make the right decisions, with hopes of saving her.
This role reversal was pivotal, as it provides the most crucial aspect of Halo 4: it’s about a machine breaking down, failing to make correct moral human decisions, and a man who must stop being a machine and reveal his humanity in order to make the correct moral decisions to save her.