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As we all know, Cortana was left with a suspicious and vague “death” after the events on the Composer. Though there has been much speculation as to her outcome, there is no way to tell what fate she found. Many people have concluded that such an event has lead to the indefinite end of Cortana, while others speculate that this is only the beginning of a very dark, but intriguing plot. As much as I’d love to take the easy way out and say “Yep. She’s super dead!” I can’t help but ponder as to what really happened to her. The way she left us seemed so… out of place, and the events leading up to the ending left us with so many unanswered questions.
But I want to give people some peace. How? By telling them that I wholly believe that Cortana is indeed alive, and we will see her again soon. That’s the most straight up way to state my thesis, and I hope many others feel the same too.
What you will find below is a list of in game quotes that I believe serve as a clever foreshadow to Cortana’s future. Also in the paragraphs to come, you will find scenes from the game that are also suspicious and oddly connected to Cortana.
Bear with me as I go a little into the background of this all. Trust me, my support for Cortana’s survival shall come.
We were told by 343 that the new trilogy will be focusing on character development of Master Chief. In the past three major installments, John-117 has been portrayed as this “BA” space marine that can fight against all odds and save the day. We never have time to dwell into his character because he is too busy saving the galaxy and plowing through numerous enemies. But now, with the next three installments, we are finally able to get a closer look at the Master Chief, and how he is as a human. Wait, there’s that key word. *HUMAN.*Through-out all of Halo 4, we are given lines of dialogue that portray John’s struggle between what he really is — machine or human. But John is not the only one who is struggling with this concept. Cortana is too.
This is what leads me to believe that the theme of the upcoming games is the line between machine and human. What is synthetic and what is organic. The mysterious interviewer of Dr. Halsey during the Prologue already states that Spartans such as John already display sociopathic tendencies and are viewed as military hardware rather than as humans. Given this and the other various hints towards this theme, it is within reason to assume that upcoming events in the Halo series will focus on John, and Cortana finding that line between humanity and machinery.
For those of you who are curious as to what lines draw attention to this theme. Here you are:
“Your mistake is seeing Spartans as military hardware.” - Dr. Halsey
“Before this is all over… promise me you’ll figure out which one of us is the machine.” - Cortana
“You say that like soldiers and humanity are two different things. Soldiers aren’t machines. We’re just people.” - Latsky.
“She said that to me once. About being a machine.” - Master Chief.
So I am sure you have all understand the point about the theme, so let’s move on to the part where Cortana gets involved. You know how I mentioned above that both Cortana and John are struggling to find the line between synthetic and organic? Well, Cortana yearns to find the human side of things. Let’s begin the real speculation:
Warning: Major Speculation Below!
Cortana wants to be human. I never noticed it on my first play-through, but after my second, I began to notice dialogue that hinted towards her longing to be human. Let’s run through a few.
“…But for all that, I’ll never actually know if it looks real… If it feels real.”
During this scene we have Cortana explaining only a few of the “48,000” reasons why the star she is looking at isn’t real. These reasons are calculated so fast they are beyond human ability, but yet, Cortana wants to know what it truly looks like and what it feels like — human capability. (Except burning from touching the star. Whatever, yo.) I can’t believe I missed this on my first play-through, but it pretty must just throws Cortana’s longing for humanity in your face.
Of course, she is limited as an AI. Although she capable of hyper-intelligence, she lacks the senses that a human has. And sometimes, I feel as if she is jealous due to her limitations. This leads me to the quote below:
“IMPRISON HIM? LIKE HE IMPRISONED HIS PROMETHEANS? LIKE DR. HALSEY IMPRISONED ME?”
Once again, we’re seeing this idea that Cortana is angry because of her limitations as an AI and wants to be free — like a human. Many would argue that this quote is due to her rampancy, but rampancy or not, she is expressing her “emotions” or thoughts about her state. And clearly, she is not satisfied with her imprisonment as an AI, and wants to find that element that makes her human. But how could an AI ever be human?
The Composer
Yep. We’ve all seen this theory before! Because of that fact that the composer can turn organic flesh into AI, it can also turn AI into human flesh. To be honest, this is correct. The Librarian even stated it herself, even though she also stated that the reverse process created abominations… but still, it’s possible.
So how does this theme, Cortana’s longing for humanity, and the composer prove her survival? Well here is where it all ties together:
The game is all about character development. We all want to see Master Chief finally show some heart and grow emotionally through-out the new trilogy. But the only time we ever see John show affection is when he is showing it to Cortana. Without Cortana, Master Chief is a borderlining sociopath and we’re left with a Spartan who is literally nothing but a husk. How can you build a character emotionally when he is a lifeless piece of hardware? You can’t. That is why the story NEEDS Cortana.
With Cortana longing for humanity, and John longing for Cortana so he can find his human side as well, 343 could never kill her off as this would slam the door shut on his character development. Halo 4 was the beginning the the trilogy, so it needed to create questions that will eventually be answered. Why would they start this idea of Cortana wanting to be human if they were just going to kill her off in the first game? Why would Cortana be kinapped by the Librarian for a few minutes for shizzles and giggles? Why would the Librarian specifically mention Cortana as “unique” “more than coincidence” if she was only going to die in the end? Why would the Composer have this function to turn AI’s into organic flesh if the only AI we ever cared about is dead?
The answer is simple. She lived, and she’ll return. 343 gave us all the questions, and now we have to find the answers. Speculation galore, indeed. But there’s too many hints to simply say “she died.”
Please, feel free to add your speculation to this thread! I want it to be a massive discussion regarding her role in Halo 4. Please, keep this alive and get thinking!
