Halo 4’s story has a lot of problems, many of which I’ve gone into great detail many times over. However, there is one thing about the story that I do think is an example of 343 Industries truly showing how well they can write a good story. That example would be the relationship between Master Chief and Cortana in Halo 4. Let me share why.
First off, consider the ways Cortana and Chief have interacted in the past and what that says about their relationship. In the first two games, Cortana relays information to Chief and delivers friendly banter. Chief doesn’t say much outside of his one liners, but still manages to show that the two do have something of a relationship. I think we all remember the friendly back and forth the two had in Halo: CE when Cortana asked how well Chief slept or when she reacted angrily to Chief almost firing the Halo in ignorance. Heck, her “Don’t make a girl a promise” line in Halo 2 is still pretty powerful. The books delve much deeper into this relationship between man and machine with Chief struggling to decide if he could really sacrifice Cortana is the moment every occurred and noticing when she was performing poorly. Likewise, Cortana constantly worried about protecting Chief and grew mad at herself if she felt like she was performing poorly. The short story, “Human Weakness”, even showed that Chief was a soft spot for her when the Gravemind refered to him as John. Halo 3 came closest to showing their book-based relationships, especially when both Cortana and Chief were reunited on the Flood-infested ruins of High Charity.
Halo 4 matches the book-based relationship and exceeds it. With rampancy swiftly descending on Cortana, we see her performance begin to degrade. Her manner of behavior is that of denial. Early on she does have hope that she can be saved when she supports the notion that Dr. Halsey can fix her, but then she becomes more depressed as the story goes on and becomes prone to intense anger and irrationality. Finally, at the conclusion of the story she accepts her fate and does what she can to save the one she was made to protect, John. She uses the last of her power to save him and then fades away asking for John to come out of his shell of a machine and be human.
On the other end of the relationship is Chief and how he struggles to overcome Cortana’s death. He is the first one to believe Halsey can fix Cortana and uses that as his guiding light. Each time Cortana starts to act up, he does his best to comfort her. Chief is completely out of his element in this instance, Cortana is not some piece of military hardware like a gun that can be fixed by a throughout cleaning, she is an artificial construct with deeply human emotions. Emotion, however, is something Chief has struggled to grasp. Yet for all of his comforting and hope, Chief fails to save Cortana. Losing it not a concept he is used to and losing those close to him has always taken a huge toll on his psyche. Even behind that helmet of his, I knew he was reaching a breaking point and Cortana’s demise snapped it.
Thankfully, 343 Industries did not use this relationship for cheap emotional hits. We got to see them grow and develop since the beginning of the franchise and come to an emotional crescendo. Everything that occurred between Chief and Cortana had a purpose, a hopefully lasting purpose for the rest of the series. In a way, Cortana has always been more human than Chief and it is with her demise and sacrifice that Chief can become human himself. A human Chief is precisely the kind of character I think Halo needs moving forward. Does that mean Cortana is gone forever? Maybe not. That said, I hope she is gone long enough for Chief to be less of a machine and solider and more of a human being. I like to think the ending with his armor being taken off and his helmet removed symbolizes that.
In conclusion, I only have one think I can say to 343 Industries for taking the characters of Cortana and Chief to the next level.
Thank you.
