Halo 4 Ending Discussion (Massive Spoilers)

Games Other Halo
1

So, Cortana’s ‘death’ is what’s on everybody’s mind. How did you guys feel about it? I felt like it was the best way to give her what was almost a ‘hero’s death’. She saved chief, and we know what she did was for him, and him alone - because Chief had already saved humanity.

The Didact is not dead! I don’t see how anyone could believe that, to be perfectly honest. He fell into a slipspace portal… He’s drifting somewhere in space, but he’s definitely alive, and seeking revenge. I think the Librarian will play a key role in the next game, and it’ll be interesting to see what she did with Cortana, and Chief, when she altered him, and ‘filled in’ Cortana, with information regarding the Didact.

So, with that finished, I’m wondering if you think Cortana will be back in the next game - and if so, how? Here are a few of the possibilities I’ve come up with - because to be perfectly honest, I don’t think she’s dead by any means.

  1. Is Cortana Metastable? The final stage of Rampancy. This would mean that she may not need a chip? Her chip was fried at the end of the game, we clearly see it dissipate into nothing - yet she’s alive in that “alternate reality” of sorts, that she keeps Chief in.

  2. What did the Librarian do to her? Could she have told Cortana that what she had to do, to save chief? If the Librarian told her this, she would have certainly done whatever she could to save him. If so, do you think the Librarian somehow made Cortana Metastable? So that she couldn’t technically ‘die’, and she can live on without the normal restraints of an AI?

  3. Before Cortana saves Chief, she can’t interact with him physically, yet, at the end of the game, she touches Chief, and he can clearly feel her hand. She also exhibits the personality traits of a human, at this point in the game, very emotional. So again, this would make Cortana metastable, surely? Metastability is when the AI becomes person-like, almost ‘human’ - but we haven’t seen much of that in the extended universe (Books, comics, etc). If this was the case, Cortana really isn’t dead, and I would think they’re going to bring her back in Halo 5.

All of the above would lead to Cortana living on, and possibly returning in the fifth game. Maybe the Librarian needed Chief to believe that Cortana was ‘dead’? In order for him to become stronger, and continue on his own, making him less reliant on Artificial Intelligence. Then 343 could easily bring Cortana back into the game, with a much stronger Master Chief - his independence, combined with the alterations to his body could make him the perfect soldier, for taking down the forerunner threat.

Either way, I think she’ll be back in game 5, but I think it’ll be after a long sequence of events, where Chief is noticeably depressed, and far more human. As 343 said, Halo 5 is supposed to be a much ‘darker’ game - but if Halo 6 isn’t dark, then what could that mean for the Cortana situation? Chief surely wouldn’t have ‘got over’ it by then, so perhaps she returns at the climax of the 5th game - and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was completely different - either physically person-like, or as some stronger form of AI.

And as for Halsey - we forget that Halsey’s brain was cloned to create Cortana - and although 343 could easily recreate Cortana THIS way, it simply wouldn’t work, it isn’t the same Cortana, as she said in one of the final missions, it’d just be a copy. BUT I still believe Halsey will have something to do with the Cortana situation - after all, she is a Computerised version of herself…

tl;dr - The Didact is alive, and Cortana will be back in game 5, no matter how you look at it.

Thoughts? Gogogo!

2

Well…I agree. You pretty much said it all.

3

how was cortana able to touch chief ?

4

> how was cortana able to touch chief ?

She /was/ the hardlight bridge, which in turn became the hardlight ‘shell’ that she saved John from the nuke with. Since she /was/ the hardlight, she was able to physically interact with him- and earlier, on the bridge- the Didact.

5

> how was cortana able to touch chief ?

Well, I read another thread, and somebody else believes that Cortana was able to touch chief, by manipulating the Hardlight Bridge. This would make sense, but she’d be touching him without ‘feeling’ him, as such, and it felt as if she actually felt him… Either way, if she was touching him, through use of the hardlight bridge, the rest of the composer had been destroyed, so she wouldn’t have a network to move through - so how was she still active, and ‘alive’ at this point?

6

I truly hope she is alive in a way you describe OP.

I will be quite annoyed if in the begging of a new trilogy one of my favorite characters in Halo is killed off.

7

> > how was cortana able to touch chief ?
>
> Well, I read another thread, and somebody else believes that Cortana was able to touch chief, by manipulating the Hardlight Bridge. This would make sense, but she’d be touching him without ‘feeling’ him, as such, and it felt as if she actually felt him… Either way, if she was touching him, through use of the hardlight bridge, the rest of the composer had been destroyed, so she wouldn’t have a network to move through - so how was she still active, and ‘alive’ at this point?

The bridge probably had enough ‘sustaining’ power to keep semiactive for a very, very limited duration of time. Think back to the hardlight bridges in the CE level where you encounter the flood- their consoles are obviously damaged, but the bridges are trying to sustain themselves regardless. There have also been instances in the Forerunner Saga Books that demonstrate how some Forerunner technology is self-sustaining to an extent.

8

It will not be me John…
T.T

Ahem…the didact survives as proven by the post credits cutscene. Cortana probably survived too at this point and we might find more out in the following Spartan ops episodes

9

> > > how was cortana able to touch chief ?
> >
> > Well, I read another thread, and somebody else believes that Cortana was able to touch chief, by manipulating the Hardlight Bridge. This would make sense, but she’d be touching him without ‘feeling’ him, as such, and it felt as if she actually felt him… Either way, if she was touching him, through use of the hardlight bridge, the rest of the composer had been destroyed, so she wouldn’t have a network to move through - so how was she still active, and ‘alive’ at this point?
>
> The bridge probably had enough ‘sustaining’ power to keep semiactive for a very, very limited duration of time. Think back to the hardlight bridges in the CE level where you encounter the flood- their consoles are obviously damaged, but the bridges are trying to sustain themselves regardless. There have also been instances in the Forerunner Saga Books that demonstrate how some Forerunner technology is self-sustaining to an extent.

Well, I have to agree with your logic, but I still think Cortana’s alive, whether it be her own doing, or that of the Librarian. I just can’t see the campaign moving forward without that Chief-Cortana interaction :smiley: And I’m yet to read the Greg Bear books, just reading “The Thursday War” at the moment, but I hear they’re fantastic.

10

Not exactly far-fetched. I’m still a bit pissed off about the ending because of how they did it though. It felt very cheesy and cheap, too ‘‘epic’’ for its own good. A much more subdued ending would have greatly benefited the game. And PLEASE, take that movie feel off the cinematics, Reach managed to do that over Halo 3, let’s not regress, this is a video game not a film. Take advantage of the medium or somethin.

11

I don’t think the loss of Cortana will make him stronger. The Chief has always been strong, Cortana just made him more human.

And the re-introduction of Cortana will be very emotional as well.

Halo isn’t Halo without the Chief and Cortana. Unless the Chief isn’t in the game that is.

12

> Not exactly far-fetched. I’m still a bit pissed off about the ending because of how they did it though. It felt very cheesy and cheap, too ‘‘epic’’ for its own good. A much more subdued ending would have greatly benefited the game. And PLEASE, take that movie feel off the cinematics, Reach managed to do that over Halo 3, let’s not regress, this is a video game not a film. Take advantage of the medium or somethin.

I disagree I like the cinematic feel and the epicness

13

> Not exactly far-fetched. I’m still a bit pissed off about the ending because of how they did it though. It felt very cheesy and cheap, too ‘‘epic’’ for its own good. A much more subdued ending would have greatly benefited the game. And PLEASE, take that movie feel off the cinematics, Reach managed to do that over Halo 3, let’s not regress, this is a video game not a film. Take advantage of the medium or somethin.

Yeah, I must say, I would have much preferred a ‘happy’ ending, with Chief and Cortana escaping and some way of saving Cortana, preferably before it cut to black :smiley:

Buuuut, we all wanted that, and I think 343 shocked us into thinking she’s dead, for the next game to seem even better.

I LOVED the cinematics, personally, and even though they made the game a liiiittle dramatic, it gave the narrative some more ‘body’. Realism is what they were looking for, and I think they did really well with the cutscenes :smiley:

14

As I see it Cortana has to be alive. For me she is just as big a part of Halo as the Chief. It’s like Holmes and Watson, you can’t have one without the other. They probably had her ‘die’ to push Chief over the edge. He’s lost Cortana before but the other times he knew it was possible to get her back, without this hope I don’t know what the Chief will do. Whether it be in the 5th or 6th game I have no clue, but she will be back. John promised Cortana that he would get her help, you know him when he makes a promise he keeps it.

15

> As I see it Cortana has to be alive. For me she is just as big a part of Halo as the Chief. It’s like Holmes and Watson, you can’t have one without the other. They probably had her ‘die’ to push Chief over the edge. He’s lost Cortana before but the other times he knew it was possible to get her back, without this hope I don’t know what the Chief will do. Whether it be in the 5th or 6th game I have no clue, but she will be back.

My thoughts exactly! I think there’ll be some kind of emotional struggle for the Chief, in the 5th game - and I think there’ll definitely be a few scenes on earth, cinematics, or otherwise. The planet was attacked, and Chief lost the UNSC’s top AI - there’s got to be outrage/strife on earth.

Yes, she’ll be back, I just think they’ll do it towards the close of the 5th game :smiley:

16

She better not be dead. She was is by far my favorite character, realistically think about it; They put so much work into re imagining her character (and did a damn fine job :wink: ), and she is obviously a huge role.

Would 343 really have put so much into making it seem like she’s dying unless they had plans for her returning, because all the lead up makes it all the more dramatic, emotional and unexpected. Plus if she is dead in honesty I’m surprised they dared even consider killing her of completely.

As gladiator said above - " John promised Cortana that he would get her help, you know him when he makes a promise he keeps it. "

Me at the ending - http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md3jjnaCb41r1zs3i.gif

17

I also recall the Librarian doing something to Cortana like she made John invincible to the composer. There’s definitely more to it. My first thoughts were that the Librarian told her that she couldn’t tell John in order to save him from something. There’s no possibility that they put so much effort into her character and just threw her away in the first game. She’s also the last person John truly cares about so for him to develop further as a character he needs her back at some point.

18

> She better not be dead. She was is by far my favorite character, realistically think about it; They put so much work into re imagining her character (and did a damn fine job :wink: ), and she is obviously a huge role. Would 343 really have put so much into making it seem like she’s dying unless they had plans for her returning, because all the lead up makes all the more dramatic, emotional and unexpected. Plus if she is dead in honesty I’m surprised they dared even consider killing her of completely.
>
> Me at the ending - http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md3jjnaCb41r1zs3i.gif

Yup, exactly. If she is really dead, I dunno how they’re going to make the 5th game work out. I really can’t imagine Halo without Cortana, it just isn’t right. But by killing it off, they prevented a lame, cliched ending, and they can now bring her back in the 5th game without that issue.

Yeah, if she’s dead, I’m gonna be really surprised.

19

> I also recall the Librarian doing something to Cortana like she made John invincible to the composer. There’s definitely more to it. My first thoughts were that the Librarian told her that she couldn’t tell John in order to save him from something. There’s no possibility that they put so much effort into her character and just threw her away in the first game. She’s also the last person John truly cares about so for him to develop further as a character he needs her back at some point.

Exactly, I’m SURE the librarian told Cortana something about HOW, or WHY she had to do what she did. I don’t understand why they would allow Cortana to be taken by the Librarian, if there wasn’t something to it. Oddly enough, following the alterations made to Chief, Cortana is right in front of you, waiting to be picked up - I’m hoping the Librarian ‘backed up’ Cortana, or did something to save her :smiley:

20

> > Not exactly far-fetched. I’m still a bit pissed off about the ending because of how they did it though. It felt very cheesy and cheap, too ‘‘epic’’ for its own good. A much more subdued ending would have greatly benefited the game. And PLEASE, take that movie feel off the cinematics, Reach managed to do that over Halo 3, let’s not regress, this is a video game not a film. Take advantage of the medium or somethin.
>
> I disagree I like the cinematic feel and the epicness

Don’t get me wrong, I love epic stuff, but I don’t need the feel to be shoved down my throat. What I need, is to myself feel the epicness. I guess it’s not a big difference, but it is for me. It’s the difference between experiencing something killer and something that sucks (with everything in between).