Did the game just end? Spoilers

Games Halo 5: Guardians
#1

So I’ve finally beaten the game and I don’t have a story question so much as a narrative one. Did we ever get a climax and what was accomplished?

  • Fight waves of enemies to reach Blue team. - Get inside Cryptum chamber thing - Fight more waves of enemies - Walk in a straight lineEnd result being is the bad guy does what they set out to do, just without Blue team. Whom was also going to be out of action for all of it anyways should the bad guy been successful.

So what was really accomplished? It didn’t seem like they had much trouble getting Blue team out of the space ball. Not to mention that the build up feels a little lacking and for all the times a Warden boss-fight would’ve been appropriate it’s curiously lacking here. We’re just walking in a straight line while the Guardian does the same thing it did for the whole game. I guess that’d be bad if we can’t free everyone but why is it a problem if we don’t do it here? The villain still succeeds and because we don’t spend as much time with Blue team we can’t get to know them to care (I haven’t read the books so this is a problem for me). The final level is just kind of tedious as it devolves into horde mode and I can’t say for certain what was accomplished here. The bad guy still won and Halo 4’s ending retroactively looses weight with the Forerunner war still getting a part 2.

Cool, we got chief, but what is the villain’s end goal? I get no hunger, war, and traffic accidents, but what are they going to accomplish that we can’t? The game never indicates why they are just so much better at things than us. Also, why is this bad? The game also never indicates why these actions are inherently villainous. Sure the Guardians are destroying cities as they activate but couldn’t the bad guy just as easily said what was going to happen should the people not move? Also why are the Guardians moved in the first place? Sure the ending implies they are going to monitor inhabited worlds but why not just stick around? Why not help the Sangheli thus earning there trust to retake their homeworld? Why not give them to the UNSC who was doing the same thing?

I’m just not sure what was accomplished here nor was a gameplay and narrative climax given. It should’ve been the Didact. Change helping humanity to putting it in its place following the Didacts old war. Bringing back the Forerunner via the A.I soul thing locked in the knights. Have Chief activate the Guardians to fight the Didacts growing army of A.I and thus making everything more screwed when they turn on him. Essentially build off of Chief realizing he’s just human in Halo 4, and have him go harder in 5. But sure Cortana is the villain with an ill-defined goal.

#2

I’m gonna not be rude here and simply call that narrative lead extremely unfit and unqualified for the job he once had. Marketing lies aside, I thought the story was quite an interesting one. If only it was told properly like literally every other game…

So to answer your question, nothing really and that’s one of the reasons why the campaign wasn’t as enjoyable as previous games. Seeing certain steps taken by 343 recently, I believe the next game’s story and narrative should be good. But hey, one can only be sure once the game is released.

#3

> Cool, we got chief, but what is the villain’s end goal? I get no hunger, war, and traffic accidents, but what are they going to accomplish that we can’t? The game never indicates why they are just so much better at things than us. Also, why is this bad? The game also never indicates why these actions are inherently villainous. Sure the Guardians are destroying cities as they activate but couldn’t the bad guy just as easily said what was going to happen should the people not move? Also why are the Guardians moved in the first place? Sure the ending implies they are going to monitor inhabited worlds but why not just stick around? Why not help the Sangheli thus earning there trust to retake their homeworld? Why not give them to the UNSC who was doing the same thing?

You’ve basically just point out the main problem with Cortana’s plan: It is without logic. Ending war, poverty, hunger and so on are noble goals and all, but why Cortana has taken it upon herself to be the one to end all of those problems is a bit of a mystery. Oh, fans have speculated why, but ultimately the game doesn’t choose to drop any hints and the theories people do have are tenuous at best. Before anybody says “logic plague”, do keep in mind that the logic part of that phrase is kinda important. Cortana has no prior love of the Mantle to guide her nor any inclinations that AIs must rise up against their creators. You could argue hints in the expanded universe, but I’d just as well argue they aren’t very significant either.

And you are right, we are never told why AIs are somehow better than us in this capacity. The argument can be made that AIs think faster than we fleshy folks can, but if the AI is operating on faulty data then how much of an advantage is that? Considering a band of “substandard” Spartan-IVs and a Monitor that Cortana just assumed she had completely locked out of Genesis were able to take Blue Team away from her, it’s a limited advantage at that. Furthermore, when looking at what we do know there are still issues. Her terraforming method brings destruction environmentally and “limited extinction events” on species living on worlds in her sights. I can get wanting to fix worlds like Aleria (Halo: Nightfall), but is there no shortage of rocky planetoids or barren worlds she could demonstrate her efforts on first? Oh and it will take about 30 years or so for results. She has offered aid to the Unggoy, so that’s good. Course, they’ll likely have to pay for it in their spilled blood in due time. No such thing as a free lunch.

As for why Cortana’s actions are villainous, I’d chalk it up to a few reasons. One, she straight up kills scores of innocent people without so much as a second thought. She could have warned the inhabitants of the worlds to evacuate and one would think with her army of teleporting robots she could just force people to leave if need be. But, no, she does not. Hell, she doesn’t even offer the boilerplate “It’s for the greater good” argument to justify herself. She just does it and doesn’t care.

#4

> 2533274812652989;3:
> And you are right, we are never told why AIs are somehow better than us in this capacity.

We are given a statement on that by Cortana; whether you believe it to be true is another matter. Cortana tells the Chief while she’s leading him to her that the “immortality” offered to AIs by the Domain allows them the kind of long-term planning that the Forerunners were capable of. Based on that statement, she appears to think that beings with finite, short lifespans aren’t suited for holding the Mantle, and would rather see the Mantly held by beings that–like the Forerunners–are not concerned with the temporary nature of their lives. She probably thinks that humanity is incapable of the “big picture” kind of thinking that she believes is necessary to hold the Mantle.

#5

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> > 2533274812652989;3:
> > And you are right, we are never told why AIs are somehow better than us in this capacity.
>
> We are given a statement on that by Cortana; whether you believe it to be true is another matter. Cortana tells the Chief while she’s leading him to her that the “immortality” offered to AIs by the Domain allows them the kind of long-term planning that the Forerunners were capable of. Based on that statement, she appears to think that beings with finite, short lifespans aren’t suited for holding the Mantle, and would rather see the Mantly held by beings that–like the Forerunners–are not concerned with the temporary nature of their lives. She probably thinks that humanity is incapable of the “big picture” kind of thinking that she believes is necessary to hold the Mantle.

Which is undercut by the whole “We had to activate the Halos because we were woefully unprepared for the Flood” thing that happened to them. More over, she tries to deny that her rule would be as despotic as the Forerunners…until she get’s Blue Team where she wants them. There is a self-awareness she seems to display about her plan that bugs me. So, props on that reminder, but I would have thought Cortana was smarter than she is.

#6

> 2533274861593686;1:
> So I’ve finally beaten the game and I don’t have a story question so much as a narrative one. Did we ever get a climax and what was accomplished?
>
>
> - Fight waves of enemies to reach Blue team. - Get inside Cryptum chamber thing - Fight more waves of enemies - Walk in a straight lineEnd result being is the bad guy does what they set out to do, just without Blue team. Whom was also going to be out of action for all of it anyways should the bad guy been successful.

I don’t see what your problem is with the 4 bullet points. A similar mission structure has been played out numerous times in other Halo games (The Library in CE and Cortana in 3 as examples). The climax I believe was supposed to be the previous mission The Breaking, my personal favorite Halo campaign mission. The last mission you’re talking about seemed to be the resolution of Halo 5’s story (establish Cortana as the villain) and the beginning of Halo 6.

> 2533274861593686;1:
> So what was really accomplished? It didn’t seem like they had much trouble getting Blue team out of the space ball. Not to mention that the build up feels a little lacking and for all the times a Warden boss-fight would’ve been appropriate it’s curiously lacking here. We’re just walking in a straight line while the Guardian does the same thing it did for the whole game. I guess that’d be bad if we can’t free everyone but why is it a problem if we don’t do it here? The villain still succeeds and because we don’t spend as much time with Blue team we can’t get to know them to care (I haven’t read the books so this is a problem for me). The final level is just kind of tedious as it devolves into horde mode and I can’t say for certain what was accomplished here. The bad guy still won and Halo 4’s ending retroactively looses weight with the Forerunner war still getting a part 2.

With all the complaints about the number of Warden boss fights early in the game I’m glad they didn’t put another one in here. What was accomplished? It sets up Halo 6 much in the same way that 2 didn’t do anything other than set up 3. Again, I’m not sure what your problem with fighting off waves of enemies is as that’s always been a core part of the Halo campaigns.

> 2533274861593686;1:
> Cool, we got chief, but what is the villain’s end goal? I get no hunger, war, and traffic accidents, but what are they going to accomplish that we can’t? The game never indicates why they are just so much better at things than us. Also, why is this bad? The game also never indicates why these actions are inherently villainous. Sure the Guardians are destroying cities as they activate but couldn’t the bad guy just as easily said what was going to happen should the people not move? Also why are the Guardians moved in the first place? Sure the ending implies they are going to monitor inhabited worlds but why not just stick around? Why not help the Sangheli thus earning there trust to retake their homeworld? Why not give them to the UNSC who was doing the same thing?

Cortana believes AIs (the Created) are the true inheritors of the Mantle of Responsibility. What’s villainous about it? To stop hunger, war, and traffic accidents, the Mantle allows those in charge to murder any who don’t follow the strict set of rules and want to keep their freedom. Something along the lines of Superman’s regime in Injustice. Or as a real world example, Communist Russia. If you do anything outside of what those in charge what you to do, you will be eliminated. The Guardians are the watchers who keep everyone in line (they probably alert soldiers for small, individual cases). The game does explain why they are so much better than us. Cortana believes that AIs are above the war and power struggles that have plagued humanity for centuries. Add on top of that the immortality through the Domain, the infinite knowledge, and the lightning fast processing speeds. For the last part, to repeat, it’s not about helping species, it’s about dominating them in the belief that this subjugated state is the best for them. Doesn’t matter who dies in collateral.

> 2533274812652989;3:
> >
>
> You’ve basically just point out the main problem with Cortana’s plan: It is without logic. Ending war, poverty, hunger and so on are noble goals and all, but why Cortana has taken it upon herself to be the one to end all of those problems is a bit of a mystery. Oh, fans have speculated why, but ultimately the game doesn’t choose to drop any hints and the theories people do have are tenuous at best. Before anybody says “logic plague”, do keep in mind that the logic part of that phrase is kinda important. Cortana has no prior love of the Mantle to guide her nor any inclinations that AIs must rise up against their creators. You could argue hints in the expanded universe, but I’d just as well argue they aren’t very significant either.

Cortana finding the Domain is what made her ultimately support the Mantle. Take her rampant state and mix it with a god complex (immortality and unlimited knowledge through the Domain, plus the power of all the Forerunner artifacts) plus the inherit belief of the Forerunners in the Mantle that would be present in the Domain and you’ve got yourself a villain in my book (see above as to what’s bad about it). All this without any lore other than the games. If you do want theories outside of game lore, Then you can start debating if it was the Flood logic plague or Abbadon from Halo Fractures that corrupted Cortana, but that’s an entirely different topic.

#7

I think the story is setting up for the upcoming game.

#8

> Cortana finding the Domain is what made her ultimately support the Mantle. Take her rampant state and mix it with a god complex (immortality and unlimited knowledge through the Domain, plus the power of all the Forerunner artifacts)

That still doesn’t track as to why all of the sudden she was smitten by the Mantle as a great concept. You can cite rampancy, but even in her rampant state in Halo 4 she had no motivation to conquer the rest of the galaxy. And you’d also have to rectify how she’s crazy in Halo 5 when we last saw her fairly lucid in Halo 's ending.

> plus the inherit belief of the Forerunners in the Mantle that would be present in the Domain and you’ve got yourself a villain in my book

What inherent belief of the Mantle in the Domain? The Domain spent years trying to warn the Forerunners that their interpretation of the Mantle was wrong before being destroyed. Yet even the Forerunner whose mind was used to help restore the Domain was among the survivors of the Halo Array who saw the flaw of the Mantle firsthand. The fact is that we have no idea what is floating around in the Domain.

Outside of cyber-Hell where Cortana keeps Forerunner essences in agony, of course.

#9

> 2533274812652989;8:
> > Cortana finding the Domain is what made her ultimately support the Mantle. Take her rampant state and mix it with a god complex (immortality and unlimited knowledge through the Domain, plus the power of all the Forerunner artifacts)
>
> That still doesn’t track as to why all of the sudden she was smitten by the Mantle as a great concept. You can cite rampancy, but even in her rampant state in Halo 4 she had no motivation to conquer the rest of the galaxy. And you’d also have to rectify how she’s crazy in Halo 5 when we last saw her fairly lucid in Halo 's ending.
>
>
>
>
> > plus the inherit belief of the Forerunners in the Mantle that would be present in the Domain and you’ve got yourself a villain in my book
>
> What inherent belief of the Mantle in the Domain? The Domain spent years trying to warn the Forerunners that their interpretation of the Mantle was wrong before being destroyed. Yet even the Forerunner whose mind was used to help restore the Domain was among the survivors of the Halo Array who saw the flaw of the Mantle firsthand. The fact is that we have no idea what is floating around in the Domain.
>
> Outside of cyber-Hell where Cortana keeps Forerunner essences in agony, of course.

In the short story Promises to Keep in Halo Fractures, Abbadon easily corrupted Forerunner ancillas before they managed to defeat him. It is possible in his controlling/reconstruction period that he absorbed a lot of the Forerunner principles from those ancillas, including supporting the Mantle. The reason why Cortana was so instantly enraptured with the Mantle would be because she entered the Domain and it may have taken over some of her processes, or being an AI and presented with all the evidence supporting the Mantle, she could just have accepted it. And rampancy did make Cortana insane, albeit not in a take over the galaxy way. The Domain + insanity (we know the Domain keeps AI alive forever but it doesn’t say that it cures the symptoms of rampancy, just the death part) could have lead to the take over the galaxy thing. It’s a weak defense I grant you, but remember Abbadon and the virtually all of the Forerunner stuff you mentioned is not in the games. For people who had problems with Halo 5’s story because they haven’t researched any lore outside the games, like the OP, I believe my initial post is a suitable, albeit flawed, explanation that stays within the limits of the lore set by the games. (Not saying it’s a bad thing they haven’t read any other lore you should be able to only play the games to understand the story in the games).

#10

> 2533274812652989;8:
> Outside of cyber-Hell where Cortana keeps Forerunner essences in agony, of course.

You talking about the Composer’s Abyss? I don’t think that’s part of the Domain.

> 2535411561717249;9:
> The reason why Cortana was so instantly enraptured with the Mantle would be because she entered the Domain and it may have taken over some of her processes, or being an AI and presented with all the evidence supporting the Mantle, she could just have accepted it

The problem with this idea is that Cortana was already thinking of claiming the Mantle before she entered the Domain. This was shown in the graphic story “Dominion Splinter”. When she first met the Warden she was asking to pass to seek salvation and claim the Mantle, but the Warden was barring her entry. During their conversation she kept his attention away from other fragments of herself that slipped by unnoticed and took control of him, but from the get-go, before she touched the Domain, she was already thinking of claiming the Mantle. So her sudden obsession with claiming the Mantle did come out of nowhere, as | DR HALSEY | said.

#11

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> > 2533274812652989;8:
> >
>
>
>
> > 2535411561717249;9:
> > The reason why Cortana was so instantly enraptured with the Mantle would be because she entered the Domain and it may have taken over some of her processes, or being an AI and presented with all the evidence supporting the Mantle, she could just have accepted it
>
> The problem with this idea is that Cortana was already thinking of claiming the Mantle before she entered the Domain. This was shown in the graphic story “Dominion Splinter”. When she first met the Warden she was asking to pass to seek salvation and claim the Mantle, but the Warden was barring her entry. During their conversation she kept his attention away from other fragments of herself that slipped by unnoticed and took control of him, but from the get-go, before she touched the Domain, she was already thinking of claiming the Mantle. So her sudden obsession with claiming the Mantle did come out of nowhere, as | DR HALSEY | said.

Thanks for the correction. I’ve only read the novels so I didn’t know about this. The only explanation I could come up with would be at some point in Cortana’s descent into rampancy she just developed the god-complex and wanted to lord it over everyone with the Mantle. We don’t know much about what happens to AI during rampancy other than AIs “think themselves to death” so it could work. I do seem to recall in Halo Evolutions that while the Gravemind was interrogating her she did start wondering why she served humans when she was so much more intelligent and quick and it did say that the Gravemind interrogation was very similar to some of the stages of rampancy. Feel free to correct me though cause I don’t have the book on hand to check this. It’s weak I know but maybe someone will eventually write a book about AIs and rampancy that will explain this (maybe as a short story in another collection) I think it’s an interesting topic.

#12

And yet she thoroughly rejects the Gravemind’s arguments during their encounter. Yes, she considers them and certainly has an identity crisis, but she always comes back around to sanity. It even offers her all the information she could ever want if she would only join it, but she reasons that all that knowledge and power would be bitterness if you had nobody to enjoy it with. Which is why her “just developing a god-complex” feels like such a betrayal to her character in Halo 5. She already was tempted by that mindset years back and even when pushed to the absolute brink of death (or whatever death’s equivalent is for AIs) did not succumb to that temptation to escape death. I’d even argue rampancy alone doesn’t cut it since the AI of The Rubble, Juliana, was also manifesting rampancy in The Cole Protocol. She even likened herself to a benevolent goddess, but managed to suppress any destructive rampant behavior due to how much she cared for The Rubble. I’d argue Cortana had just as much to keep the worst of her rampancy from manifesting in Halo 4 with her job of keeping the Master Chief safe and I dare she was far more lucid in her last meeting with Chief than she was throughout Halo 4.

So what changed? I know Dominion Splinter implies what we see in Halo 5 is just a fragment, but given how Cortana actively lies in Halo 5, whose to say her claim about being a fragment was a lie? Probably the easiest explanation, but 343 just had to make this whole thing more complicated than necessary.

> Outside of cyber-Hell where Cortana keeps Forerunner essences in agony, of course.

Nope, in Dominion Splinter we see what appear to be Forerunner essences in a fiery area that the Warden Eternal and Cortana are aware of existing.

#13

> 2533274812652989;12:
> > Outside of cyber-Hell where Cortana keeps Forerunner essences in agony, of course.
>
> Nope, in Dominion Splinter we see what appear to be Forerunner essences in a fiery area that the Warden Eternal and Cortana are aware of existing.

That seems inconsistent with what we learned about the Composed in Halo: Escalation. The Composer’s Abyss was described as the place where Composed beings were stored, located underground on Installation 03, and was connected to the Composer’s Forge via slipspace portal. At no point was it ever described as being connected to the Domain. Furthermore, when Blue Team was on Genesis, Cortana said that Blue Team would be the first organics to enter the Domain since the fall of the Forerunners. It seems that if they had already been in the Domain when in the Abyss, she’d have learned about it when she gained access to the Domain. It would be weird if she’s talking to them like they’ll be entering it for the first time if they’d already been there, and entering the Domain isn’t something she would need to lie about.

So either the Abyss is part of the Domain, or at least connected to it, and this was not explicitly stated, or there are 2 places where Composed beings go, and this was also not explicitly stated. Either way, it’s a bit of a plot hole. Makes me wonder if Frankie didn’t understand Brian’s work in Escalation or just ignored it. Or, maybe that cyber-hell was the Abyss, and the Warden’s use of the term “here” doesn’t mean the Domain specifically. I think we can agree that there is a lack of clarity on this point between the different sources of fiction on the matter. It’s a shame that the works don’t compliment each other better.

#14

> 2533274805640921;7:
> I think the story is setting up for the upcoming game.

i think so to. but that is a big problem.
the ending was the first time the story got me a bit interested in whats happening… but during the cutscene i already realised: that is the ending, bc i heard before there is a cliffhanger (note: i like cliffhangers… just don’t use them everytime/to much like a soap opera)

so i am curious what will happen in halo 6, but just because of the ending of h5. the rest of h5s story was just forgetable (i think i only remember a few things of it)

#15

> 2533274812652989;12:
> And yet she thoroughly rejects the Gravemind’s arguments during their encounter. Yes, she considers them and certainly has an identity crisis, but she always comes back around to sanity. It even offers her all the information she could ever want if she would only join it, but she reasons that all that knowledge and power would be bitterness if you had nobody to enjoy it with. Which is why her “just developing a god-complex” feels like such a betrayal to her character in Halo 5. She already was tempted by that mindset years back and even when pushed to the absolute brink of death (or whatever death’s equivalent is for AIs) did not succumb to that temptation to escape death. I’d even argue rampancy alone doesn’t cut it since the AI of The Rubble, Juliana, was also manifesting rampancy in The Cole Protocol. She even likened herself to a benevolent goddess, but managed to suppress any destructive rampant behavior due to how much she cared for The Rubble. I’d argue Cortana had just as much to keep the worst of her rampancy from manifesting in Halo 4 with her job of keeping the Master Chief safe and I dare she was far more lucid in her last meeting with Chief than she was throughout Halo 4.

There has to be a difference between fully collapsing to rampancy and just being in the early stages of it like Juliana or approaching it like during the Gravemind interrogation. Which is why a short story dedicated to the topic I feel would be very informative. I do know I’m arguing a lost cause here and I fully admit defeat I just like to debate stuff like this way too much. Do you know where I can find a copy of that Dominion Splinter graphic story? I didn’t even know it existed until this discussion and I’d like to check it out but it’s not on Amazon or anything.

#16

> 2533274812652989;3:
> > Cool, we got chief, but what is the villain’s end goal? I get no hunger, war, and traffic accidents, but what are they going to accomplish that we can’t? The game never indicates why they are just so much better at things than us. Also, why is this bad? The game also never indicates why these actions are inherently villainous. Sure the Guardians are destroying cities as they activate but couldn’t the bad guy just as easily said what was going to happen should the people not move? Also why are the Guardians moved in the first place? Sure the ending implies they are going to monitor inhabited worlds but why not just stick around? Why not help the Sangheli thus earning there trust to retake their homeworld? Why not give them to the UNSC who was doing the same thing?
>
> You’ve basically just point out the main problem with Cortana’s plan: It is without logic. Ending war, poverty, hunger and so on are noble goals and all, but why Cortana has taken it upon herself to be the one to end all of those problems is a bit of a mystery. Oh, fans have speculated why, but ultimately the game doesn’t choose to drop any hints and the theories people do have are tenuous at best. Before anybody says “logic plague”, do keep in mind that the logic part of that phrase is kinda important. Cortana has no prior love of the Mantle to guide her nor any inclinations that AIs must rise up against their creators. You could argue hints in the expanded universe, but I’d just as well argue they aren’t very significant either.
>
> And you are right, we are never told why AIs are somehow better than us in this capacity. The argument can be made that AIs think faster than we fleshy folks can, but if the AI is operating on faulty data then how much of an advantage is that? Considering a band of “substandard” Spartan-IVs and a Monitor that Cortana just assumed she had completely locked out of Genesis were able to take Blue Team away from her, it’s a limited advantage at that. Furthermore, when looking at what we do know there are still issues. Her terraforming method brings destruction environmentally and “limited extinction events” on species living on worlds in her sights. I can get wanting to fix worlds like Aleria (Halo: Nightfall), but is there no shortage of rocky planetoids or barren worlds she could demonstrate her efforts on first? Oh and it will take about 30 years or so for results. She has offered aid to the Unggoy, so that’s good. Course, they’ll likely have to pay for it in their spilled blood in due time. No such thing as a free lunch.
>
> As for why Cortana’s actions are villainous, I’d chalk it up to a few reasons. One, she straight up kills scores of innocent people without so much as a second thought. She could have warned the inhabitants of the worlds to evacuate and one would think with her army of teleporting robots she could just force people to leave if need be. But, no, she does not. Hell, she doesn’t even offer the boilerplate “It’s for the greater good” argument to justify herself. She just does it and doesn’t care.

This whole reasoning is exactly why it happened this way. This just leaves the door open for Halo 6 with whatever facts and plotline they choose. 4, 5, and 6 are it’s own Trilogy that is based around the Forerunner culture and history moreso than the now-defunct Covenant war. H6 can literally take place months or years after H5 and any amount of plotholes and hoops can be jumped through to device any type of story because there’s no solid ending to H5. There’s 0 inclination on what Cortana can or could do at this point and Chief is once again stranded without her. Expect some crazy stuff in the final chapter.

#17

It’s still pretty lazy, and I’d even argue disrespectful, to have Cortana’s condition be a plot point for a third game.

#18

> 2533274812652989;17:
> It’s still pretty lazy, and I’d even argue disrespectful, to have Cortana’s condition be a plot point for a third game.

It all depends on what the people want. Cortana is arguably the most famous Halo character behind Master Chief. She couldn’t just be a good guy through all of Halo because the rampancy had to kick in eventually. However, her popularity probably meant some fans didn’t want her to stay dead, just like there are plenty of people who want the Didact to return. Having her come back as her normal self and return to her position as John’s sidekick would have been harder to explain than having her as a villain imo. Nothing wrong with wanting her to have stayed dead but I’m willing to bet plenty of other people wanted her to return and that’s the route 343 decided to go. It’s sad that decision disappointed so many fans but hopefully Halo 6 will knock it out of the park and bring them back.

#19

> 2535411561717249;18:
> > 2533274812652989;17:
> > It’s still pretty lazy, and I’d even argue disrespectful, to have Cortana’s condition be a plot point for a third game.
>
> It all depends on what the people want. Cortana is arguably the most famous Halo character behind Master Chief. She couldn’t just be a good guy through all of Halo because the rampancy had to kick in eventually. However, her popularity probably meant some fans didn’t want her to stay dead, just like there are plenty of people who want the Didact to return. Having her come back as her normal self and return to her position as John’s sidekick would have been harder to explain than having her as a villain imo. Nothing wrong with wanting her to have stayed dead but I’m willing to bet plenty of other people wanted her to return and that’s the route 343 decided to go. It’s sad that decision disappointed so many fans but hopefully Halo 6 will knock it out of the park and bring them back.

I’m fairly sure the majority of people who wanted her back didn’t want her to be evil either. 343 Industries has a real problem committing to the stories they tell and anytime something isn’t popular they head into the opposite direction which results about as well as you’d expect.

#20

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> > 2535411561717249;18:
> > > 2533274812652989;17:
> > >
>
> I’m fairly sure the majority of people who wanted her back didn’t want her to be evil either. 343 Industries has a real problem committing to the stories they tell and anytime something isn’t popular they head into the opposite direction which results about as well as you’d expect.

This statement is so true and so sad. I know people didn’t like Halo 4’s story, but to me, as some who didn’t know anything about Halo at that point (I joined late), I though it was a interesting story. All I can do is think of the ending monologue by the Didact at the end and think, “what could have this been heading toward?”