I don’t know how many of y’all remember the hidden audio that was found by piecing together a QR code from fragments in 2019’s “Discover Hope” trailer, but it hints that Cortana (or possibly the Weapon) has found a part of herself that she previously didn’t know existed. I wonder if this means Cortana and the Weapon are somehow going to ‘become one’ in Infinite. I’ve got no idea how that would work, but I can’t think of anything else the audio file could be hinting at.
Its a widely spread theory people have been sharing online.
I’m not sure if its something I like the sound of as I’d much rather see these characters remain distinct separate entities and for cortana to have to pay for the atrocities she has committed.
I also feel it is a disservice to the character of the weapon to introduce her for her to just be absorbed.
But it is certainly a possibility.
> 2535411919953126;2:
> I also feel it is a disservice to the character of the weapon to introduce her for her to just be absorbed.
Yeah, I feel the same way. I really like what we’ve seen from the Weapon so far, and would hate to see her become Cortana without at least some development.
> 2535411993815954;1:
> I don’t know how many of y’all remember the hidden audio that was found by piecing together a QR code from fragments in 2019’s “Discover Hope” trailer, but it hints that Cortana (or possibly the Weapon) has found a part of herself that she previously didn’t know existed. I wonder if this means Cortana and the Weapon are somehow going to ‘become one’ in Infinite. I’ve got no idea how that would work, but I can’t think of anything else the audio file could be hinting at.
I definitely think they will interact at some point in the campaign, but I don’t think they’ll merge tbh.
Look at it from an out of universe perspective. 343 have dug themselves into a hole with Cortana as a character, killing her off in 4 and bringing her back to life as well as making her the primary antagonist in 5. “The Weapon” is an excuse to bring back the lightheartedness that Cortana once imbued. I doubt they want to keep calling Master Chiefs AI sidekick “The Weapon”. At one point or another, she is going to be called Cortana. Whether she is merged with the original Cortana or not.
> 2535411919953126;2:
> Its a widely spread theory people have been sharing online.
> I’m not sure if its something I like the sound of as I’d much rather see these characters remain distinct separate entities and for cortana to have to pay for the atrocities she has committed.
> I also feel it is a disservice to the character of the weapon to introduce her for her to just be absorbed.
> But it is certainly a possibility.
she cant go to AI prison, she either dies or merges. Dying holds less weight given H5s existence. Best case scenario, they merge but the weapons identity remains intact while obtaining some of cortanas memories (not her personality).
I’d say that the Weapon eventually becomes Cortana over time. Maybe not the same Cortana that we knew through the first 5 games, but at least she would have the same personality that we could grow to appreciate if developed right, story wise.
> 2535411919953126;2:
> I’m not sure if its something I like the sound of as I’d much rather see these characters remain distinct separate entities and for cortana to have to pay for the atrocities she has committed.
Neither do I, but I have the bad feeling that this is going to be exactly what happens: The weapon will “absorb” Cortana and gain all her memories and personality, but because it’s technically not Cortana, they can’t hold her accountable for the events of the last game. So from then on everybody will just pretend like nothing happened instead. That is most likely 343’s way of undoing a prior story so they can keep going without actually resolving the conflict, just like they did with Halsey.
> 2533274840624875;6:
> > 2535411919953126;2:
> > Its a widely spread theory people have been sharing online.
> > I’m not sure if its something I like the sound of as I’d much rather see these characters remain distinct separate entities and for cortana to have to pay for the atrocities she has committed.
> > I also feel it is a disservice to the character of the weapon to introduce her for her to just be absorbed.
> > But it is certainly a possibility.
>
> she cant go to AI prison, she either dies or merges. Dying holds less weight given H5s existence. Best case scenario, they merge but the weapons identity remains intact while obtaining some of cortanas memories (not her personality).
Haha, no she can literally go to AI prison wouldn’t be the first te in the fictions. Executing her would also carry weight halo 5 wont undermine it. It only undermines 4.
CelestisHalsey is different that was all in EU, her arc in game has never been downright evil. Spartan ops included. And seeing as Reed is gone and the standard of writing in EU has greatly improved since I’m hoping 343i is better equipped to handle narrative arcs than it was in the past.
JaydensapplesThey can still kill her off, halo 4 always felt like an ambiguous death. Having her properly decommissioned would still be an ending. The weapin could pick any name it doesn’t have to be corrana.
While I’m not denying any of that could happen. I am hoping that 343i commit to cortanas arc and actually give weight to their arcs this time. They can’t expect us to care if they abandon threads a fourth time.
I’m still annoyed by the janus key story and the cop out nature of escalations personally, essentially made halsey a god for that arc to resolve.
It would be interesting if The Weapon absorbed Cortana or Cortana somehow absorbed The Weapon. Would maybe come off a little cheesy depending on how it plays out. I think The Weapon is already basically Cortana 2.0 considering she looks a bit like Cortana. More than that though is the fact that she states her purpose is to imitate Cortana in order to gain access to the Installation and lock her down so Chief can retrieve Cortana. This probably means that The Weapon would need to be built fairly similarly to Cortana herself in order to imitate her successfully. The Weapon may even be basically a new Cortana model made from Halsey’s brain tissue or whatever. Perhaps the reason The Weapon didn’t successfully delete herself after the “alleged” success of Cortana’s deletion is because somehow Cortana merged with The Weapon already and is using her as a Trojan Horse of some kind in order to accomplish something? Or maybe The Weapon found a good fragment of Cortana still living inside the Prometheans Network and they merged together and stopped The Weapon’s deletion protocol? There are many options of what could happen but it’s pretty exciting to think about. The only way we’ll know is when the game comes out though.
This whole thing seems like history repeating itself. We have a rogue AI dominating the galaxy with a near-invincible army, and another AI created for the sole purpose of defeating said rogue AI. It’s Mendicant Bias vs Offensive Bias all over again.
If The Weapon is anything like Offensive Bias, she’s most likely less complex than her counterpart, having been made with the sole purpose of defeating said counterpart through brute force rather than careful tactics and manipulation. As such, I’m not sure she could simply “absorb” Cortana, or vice-versa. It’d probably be like a 90s computer trying to run Crysis, or a fully-updated modern computer trying to run Doom off a disk from 1995. Both are technically possible, but external adjustments would need to be made for either situation.
> 2535411993815954;3:
> > 2535411919953126;2:
> > I also feel it is a disservice to the character of the weapon to introduce her for her to just be absorbed.
>
> Yeah, I feel the same way. I really like what we’ve seen from the Weapon so far, and would hate to see her become Cortana without at least some development.
Have you seen Wanda vision. They kind of hit this note
Id rather they stay separate characters.
> 2533274792076659;12:
> Have you seen Wanda vision. They kind of hit this note
Yes! I was actually going to mention WandaVision when I was making this post, but I didn’t know how many people would understand the reference. 
That scene where the two Visions debate is so good. I love how the Westview Vision ‘unlocks’ the memories of the original Vision. It’d be very cool to see something like that in Halo Infinite.
> 2535411919953126;9:
> > 2533274840624875;6:
> > > 2535411919953126;2:
> > > Its a widely spread theory people have been sharing online.
> > > I’m not sure if its something I like the sound of as I’d much rather see these characters remain distinct separate entities and for cortana to have to pay for the atrocities she has committed.
> > > I also feel it is a disservice to the character of the weapon to introduce her for her to just be absorbed.
> > > But it is certainly a possibility.
> >
> > she cant go to AI prison, she either dies or merges. Dying holds less weight given H5s existence. Best case scenario, they merge but the weapons identity remains intact while obtaining some of cortanas memories (not her personality).
>
> Haha, no she can literally go to AI prison wouldn’t be the first te in the fictions. Executing her would also carry weight halo 5 wont undermine it. It only undermines 4.
>
> CelestisHalsey is different that was all in EU, her arc in game has never been downright evil. Spartan ops included. And seeing as Reed is gone and the standard of writing in EU has greatly improved since I’m hoping 343i is better equipped to handle narrative arcs than it was in the past.
>
> JaydensApplesThey can still kill her off, halo 4 always felt like an ambiguous death. Having her properly decommissioned would still be an ending. The weapin could pick any name it doesn’t have to be corrana.
>
> While I’m not denying any of that could happen. I am hoping that 343i commit to cortanas arc and actually give weight to their arcs this time. They can’t expect us to care if they abandon threads a fourth time.
> I’m still annoyed by the janus key story and the cop out nature of escalations personally, essentially made halsey a god for that arc to resolve.
Cortana’s death would be unfulfilling and lack the impact it should have. Once Character dies once and our emotional energy is expended on said death, their death a second time will ultimately have less impact. H5 undermines H4’s death which ultimately harms Cortana’s death in infinite. It goes from “nooo cortana” to, good now we can move on from that. Its also the easiest and least interesting route they could go.
If they go the route of her death, the only way to adequately do so is after rebuilding a connection with said character. Given new players are jumping in, they would need to spend considerable time making old and new players care about Cortana again. If they go that route, I would expect most of the Cortana story arc to be a sub-arc and slowly reintroduces those feelings. Then in a later story expansion, that build-up is paid off with her eventual death by Chief’s hands. In other words, do not expect any Cortana arc to be resolved in the initial campaign. If they do, it just would show their poor planning and make me sad they went the easy route.
I’d rather they not merge the two. I think there’s an interesting plot in Chief confronting and defeating Cortana alongside his new AI. A lot of emotional story beats to explore there.
But Cortana’s dialogue at the end of the Discover Hope trailers makes me think that’s the way they’re going. 
> 2533274840624875;15:
> > 2535411919953126;9:
> > > 2533274840624875;6:
> > > > 2535411919953126;2:
> > > > Its a widely spread theory people have been sharing online.
> > > > I’m not sure if its something I like the sound of as I’d much rather see these characters remain distinct separate entities and for cortana to have to pay for the atrocities she has committed.
> > > > I also feel it is a disservice to the character of the weapon to introduce her for her to just be absorbed.
> > > > But it is certainly a possibility.
>
> Cortana’s death would be unfulfilling and lack the impact it should have. Once Character dies once and our emotional energy is expended on said death, their death a second time will ultimately have less impact. H5 undermines H4’s death which ultimately harms Cortana’s death in infinite. It goes from “nooo cortana” to, good now we can move on from that. Its also the easiest and least interesting route they could go.
>
> If they go the route of her death, the only way to adequately do so is after rebuilding a connection with said character. Given new players are jumping in, they would need to spend considerable time making old and new players care about Cortana again. If they go that route, I would expect most of the Cortana story arc to be a sub-arc and slowly reintroduces those feelings. Then in a later story expansion, that build-up is paid off with her eventual death by Chief’s hands. In other words, do not expect any Cortana arc to be resolved in the initial campaign. If they do, it just would show their poor planning and make me sad they went the easy route.
Well I disagree.
- Most people did not believe she died in halo 4. From the day the game released we had people saying she wasn’t decommissioned she simply tore herself into fragments. Many including myself took the ambiguity of her final scenes to mean she would return via the domain. And those theories held true.
- We aren’t saying goodbye to a friend the emotional response isn’t “nooo cortana.” Rather it is poor John for having to see her become a monster and put an end to her. The emotional response is entirely different from that of 4. We did it we killed the the monster she had become. If anything dragging it out to artificially make us care again would be an even weaker route in my mind and just goes back to 343i struggling to commit to narrative threads.
- Her decommissioning and unequivocal end is as good a place as I can think of to begin a new chapter for the franchise at large. In many ways her turn is the ultimate symbol of John’s luck turning hes made his own mission objectives in the past and it saved humanity but this time it enslaved them. Should 343i go as far as to remove her, halsey and blue team entirely from the mythos being the only bigger step. In 5 we lost but lived to fight if infinite lets us win the created-biological war with John killing the person he is closest to that to me can still be extremely powerful if executed well.
Honestly attempting to redeem her would be the true undermining not her death.
If that’s the route they choose ill feel betrayed by the fiction more than I ever have been up to this point and probably check out entirely from the overarching story.
Cortana as she is now is an excellent tool to create a shift in the dynamics as a whole with our greatest ally now the face of evils possibly the “Harbinger” character like castor or atriox may even change sides.
The marketing is all about banished despite the repeated claims that this game continues the created arc so there’s got to be a surprise waiting for us on zeta halo and it clearly has important ties to cortana.
> 2535430146562796;16:
> I think there’s an interesting plot in Chief confronting and defeating Cortana alongside his new AI. A lot of emotional story beats to explore there.
I think that’d be really interesting too! It’d be a very bittersweet way of saying goodbye to the original Cortana, but could also open up a bunch of possibilities for the future of the Weapon.
> 2535411993815954;1:
> I don’t know how many of y’all remember the hidden audio that was found by piecing together a QR code from fragments in 2019’s “Discover Hope” trailer, but it hints that Cortana (or possibly the Weapon) has found a part of herself that she previously didn’t know existed. I wonder if this means Cortana and the Weapon are somehow going to ‘become one’ in Infinite. I’ve got no idea how that would work, but I can’t think of anything else the audio file could be hinting at.
Please no, it sounds like a way to skimp Cortana of her actions from Guardians, and flick of the Created as a easy solvable nuance now that the only thing of interest is gone.
> 2533274840624875;6:
> > 2535411919953126;2:
> > ~snip
>
> she cant go to AI prison, she either dies or merges. Dying holds less weight given H5s existence. Best case scenario, they merge but the weapons identity remains intact while obtaining some of cortanas memories (not her personality).
Yes she can, that what happened to Mendicant Bias.
> 2533274866022405;10:
> Or maybe The Weapon found a good fragment of Cortana still living inside the Prometheans Network and they merged together and stopped The Weapon’s deletion protocol?
How would Cortana not see that, when she and Warden has explicit control of the Prometheans?
> 2533274892901745;11:
> This whole thing seems like history repeating itself. We have a rogue AI dominating the galaxy with a near-invincible army, and another AI created for the sole purpose of defeating said rogue AI. It’s Mendicant Bias vs Offensive Bias all over again.
>
> If The Weapon is anything like Offensive Bias, she’s most likely less complex than her counterpart, having been made with the sole purpose of defeating said counterpart through brute force rather than careful tactics and manipulation. As such, I’m not sure she could simply “absorb” Cortana, or vice-versa. It’d probably be like a 90s computer trying to run Crysis, or a fully-updated modern computer trying to run Doom off a disk from 1995. Both are technically possible, but external adjustments would need to be made for either situation.
This I find hard to believe, Cortana as she is now shouldn’t fit in the chip Chief has, or allow her being to be fully taken out of the Domain. Not even the Warden would be so brazen.
> 2535420172144544;19:
> > 2535411993815954;1:
> > I don’t know how many of y’all remember the hidden audio that was found by piecing together a QR code from fragments in 2019’s “Discover Hope” trailer, but it hints that Cortana (or possibly the Weapon) has found a part of herself that she previously didn’t know existed. I wonder if this means Cortana and the Weapon are somehow going to ‘become one’ in Infinite. I’ve got no idea how that would work, but I can’t think of anything else the audio file could be hinting at.
>
> Please no, it sounds like a way to skip Cortana of her actions from Guardians, and flick of the Created as a easy solvable nuance now that the only thing of interest is gone.
>
>
> > 2533274840624875;6:
> > > 2535411919953126;2:
> > > ~snip
> >
> > she cant go to AI prison, she either dies or merges. Dying holds less weight given H5s existence. Best case scenario, they merge but the weapons identity remains intact while obtaining some of cortanas memories (not her personality).
>
> Yes she can, that what happened to Mendicant Bias.
They basically dug a hole and put it in it. Ya think thats a good alternative for a character who actually has presence in the players experiance? Ya, def not