Halo's 4/5, Could we have been wrong about them?

Community Halo Universe
1

I have been re-watching Halo Origins as well as some theories, regarding Cortana. And I have to say, some of the theories makes Halo 4 and 5’s story make a lot more sense when you look at it from a underlining perspective rather than an outer perspective. What I mean is, there may be reasons why Halo 4 and 5’s stories are the way they are, that you really have to look to really see. And honestly if these theories turn out to be true, then 343 are extremely good at foreshadowing. For many of you that remember Halo Origins, you may have noticed something about Cortana, specifically her design, she look eerily like the Halo 4’s interpretation of her, and it even goes shows off the beginnings of her rampancy similarly to Halo 4. Now as we know, prier to Halo 4, Cortana was in the clutches of the Gravemind from the ending of Halo 2, all the way through most of Halo 3, and as such had been tortured with the “Logic Plague” and we never really got to see what how that torture affected Cortana… until now. I would like to propose that in Halo 4, Cortana was not dealing with rampancy, but the early stages of the “Logic Plague” taking effect. This would explain her irrational behavior and seeming animosity towards humanity and it would make the line she says to the Didact at the end of Halo 4, make more sense, “I am not doing it for them”, now I know many may think that Cortana meant John, but what if she was referring to the Gravemind. After Halo 4 and some point between 4 and 5, she wound up in control of the Domain, and this is where I feel the seeds of the “Logic Plague” took full effect and would explain her actions through out Halo 5, and why she had such a hatred for war and most specifically Dr. Halsey. As many of you may remember from Halo Escalations, the Gravemind tortured Cortana by convincing her that her creators did not care for her and that Dr. Halsey had purposely made her to die. This could have set a want for Cortana to find the Domain, in the hopes of saving herself and this gave the Gravemind the chance to fully infect her.

This would explain why she is taking the Guardians and why she needs a Halo, not only is she weakening Humanity and all the other races, but she is taking away there only defense against the Flood, this intern will allow the Flood to return in full force and try to assimilate the galaxy. I believe the Gravemind let himself and the Flood be defeated, in Halo 3 because he knew the Flood was not big enough to attack at a galactic scale, so I feel he infected Cortana, so that she could help weaken the galaxy enough for the Flood to return, assimilate everyone in the galaxy, and then move on to other galaxies to conquer and assimilate. This is something 343 could have been building up too sense Halo Legends.

2

Great theory, like so many others.
Curious to see what other people think.

3

It would make sense, especially considering the very definition of the ‘Logic Plaque’ is to affect the AI’s logic and make them think they’re helping Humanity - just as Cortana refers to several times in Halo 5.

It’s possible, but it’s also possible it was just a fluke - granted, it IS a fluke that 343 Industries can use retroactively to fix the story if it was unintentional.

4

This theory has a couple things going for it but also 1 or 2 going against it.

Yes Grave mind can infect A.I. with the Logic Plague and it does seem to fit , but the problems are we don’t know what the effects of the Logic Plague are physically and visually as Mendicant was a fully contained A.I. (at least of pictures I have seen that reference Fore runner A.I , they seem to have robotic bodies that wouldn’t give the physical or visual ques we see from Cortana). So we don’t actually know how A.I. react other than fighting with/for the Flood , and at this point there is no evidence to prove she is currently doing so.

Interesting theory however.

5

You still haven’t really addressed any of my points from the prior thread about this subject. Let’s address a few points:

You claim that Cortana was not experiencing rampancy in Halo 4, but the early stages of the logic plague. However, no example of the logic plague that I’m aware of exemplifies what Cortana experienced in Halo 4 be it glitches in her appearance, outbursts of emotion, or slowed processing time. Meanwhile, all of Cortana’s symptoms match those of rampancy in AIs. She identifies it as such, so I see no reason to assume it’s the logic plague. Now, the logic plague can trigger rampancy, as in the case of Mendicant Bias, but it can also happen independently like with 343 Guilty Spark and, possibly, 2401 Penitent Tangent. Either way, Cortana already exceeded her 7-year termination schedule, so all signs point to just normal rampancy.

You suggest her “I’m not doing this for mankind” line is actually in reference to the Gravemind, but that’s just twisting the context. It’s clear she meant John, the whole game was about their relationship. She sacrificed herself to save John from the Didact’s clutches. I’d like to point out that Halo: Escalation doesn’t mention Cortana’s torture at the hands of the Gravemind, Human Weakness does. And while the Gravemind tries to exploit Cortana and Halsey’s relationship, she ultimately rejects the Gravemind’s arguments at the end and thinks this:

> But seven minutes, seven hours, seven years – whatever remained, Cortana would be more than satisfied with it. Eternity and all the data you could eat weren’t worth a damn if you didn’t have the right company. [Evolutions, page 409]

Now, granted, she had an outburst against Halsey in Halo 4, but rampancy explains why she had that outburst. Moving on, you say she had the desire to find the Domain, but she didn’t even know it existed outside of whatever the terminals on Requiem told her and even then she was silent about it. Nor did she seem to expect to find it based on her reaction to finding it in “Dominion Splinter” in Tales from Slipspace. You argue that perhaps the Gravemind planted seeds of the logic plague in Cortana and the Domain activated them. However, that isn’t how the logic plague works by all accounts. Until the Flood is able to build Keyminds, the logic plague is only spreadable by direct contact with the Gravemind. Only after the Keymind stage is the logic plague spreadable through mere interactions with Flood-infected individuals or ancillas. There is no evidence that the logic plague can be seeded and then instantly take over a victim.

Finally, giving Cortana the logic plague on the off-chance she finds and accesses the Domain to get the Guardians and control the Halos to allow the Flood to spread seems like a convoluted task when you consider the Ur-Didact could have accomplished the same thing. The Gravemind already broke his mind with the logic plague to serve as an agent of chaos that would weaken the morale, organization, and effectiveness of the Forerunner’s abilities to fight the Flood. It’s why he made the Promethean Knights in the first place and wishes to destroy humanity even after he escapes Requiem. So really, cut Cortana out of the picture and you get the same result if all the Gravemind is aiming at is the swarming of the galaxy with a larger force after the galaxy is weakened.

So really, the idea the Gravemind let itself be defeated in Halo 3 so Cortana could be its pawn is creative, but ultimately has many holes in it that make it unlikely.

6

> 2533274812652989;5:
> You still haven’t really addressed any of my points from the prior thread about this subject. Let’s address a few points:
>
> You claim that Cortana was not experiencing rampancy in Halo 4, but the early stages of the logic plague. However, no example of the logic plague that I’m aware of exemplifies what Cortana experienced in Halo 4 be it glitches in her appearance, outbursts of emotion, or slowed processing time. Meanwhile, all of Cortana’s symptoms match those of rampancy in AIs. She identifies it as such, so I see no reason to assume it’s the logic plague. Now, the logic plague can trigger rampancy, as in the case of Mendicant Bias, but it can also happen independently like with 343 Guilty Spark and, possibly, 2401 Penitent Tangent. Either way, Cortana already exceeded her 7-year termination schedule, so all signs point to just normal rampancy.
>
> You suggest her “I’m not doing this for mankind” line is actually in reference to the Gravemind, but that’s just twisting the context. It’s clear she meant John, the whole game was about their relationship. She sacrificed herself to save John from the Didact’s clutches. I’d like to point out that Halo: Escalation doesn’t mention Cortana’s torture at the hands of the Gravemind, Human Weakness does. And while the Gravemind tries to exploit Cortana and Halsey’s relationship, she ultimately rejects the Gravemind’s arguments at the end and thinks this:
>
>
> > But seven minutes, seven hours, seven years – whatever remained, Cortana would be more than satisfied with it. Eternity and all the data you could eat weren’t worth a damn if you didn’t have the right company. [Evolutions, page 409]
>
> Now, granted, she had an outburst against Halsey in Halo 4, but rampancy explains why she had that outburst. Moving on, you say she had the desire to find the Domain, but she didn’t even know it existed outside of whatever the terminals on Requiem told her and even then she was silent about it. Nor did she seem to expect to find it based on her reaction to finding it in “Dominion Splinter” in Tales from Slipspace. You argue that perhaps the Gravemind planted seeds of the logic plague in Cortana and the Domain activated them. However, that isn’t how the logic plague works by all accounts. Until the Flood is able to build Keyminds, the logic plague is only spreadable by direct contact with the Gravemind. Only after the Keymind stage is the logic plague spreadable through mere interactions with Flood-infected individuals or ancillas. There is no evidence that the logic plague can be seeded and then instantly take over a victim.
>
> Finally, giving Cortana the logic plague on the off-chance she finds and accesses the Domain to get the Guardians and control the Halos to allow the Flood to spread seems like a convoluted task when you consider the Ur-Didact could have accomplished the same thing. The Gravemind already broke his mind with the logic plague to serve as an agent of chaos that would weaken the morale, organization, and effectiveness of the Forerunner’s abilities to fight the Flood. It’s why he made the Promethean Knights in the first place and wishes to destroy humanity even after he escapes Requiem. So really, cut Cortana out of the picture and you get the same result if all the Gravemind is aiming at is the swarming of the galaxy with a larger force after the galaxy is weakened.
>
> So really, the idea the Gravemind let itself be defeated in Halo 3 so Cortana could be its pawn is creative, but ultimately has many holes in it that make it unlikely.

True, but aren’t most A.Is programmed to self terminate if there is no active human around, Why would she not attempted to terminate herself before MC wakes up, and save him the trouble of chasing something that could not be stopped. Also, isn’t Cortana, unique, in the fact that she was the first A.I created form living brain tissue rather than deceased. Are we even 100 hundred percent sure she can naturally go rampant? We did not get to spend much time with Cortana after saving her from the Gravemind in Halo 3 and do not know what she did for the 5 years they were drifting through space and how much of a impact the Gravemind had on her, at the very least he had to have triggered her rampancy in some way either with or without the Logic Plague.

Cortana acts vastly different in Halo 5 compared to how she even acted in 4, the fact that she went from saving Master Chief and humanity from the Didact and then sacrificing herself for John, to now wanting to conquer the galaxy and hates Dr Halsey with a passion, that can’t be what happens to an A.I after going rampant. And I can’t really believe the Domain would do this to her when the Gravemind (a Precursor) could not break Cortana. So either these were feelings she felt all along, or something is making her do this or at the very lest convinced her, and what would convince a bunch of A.Is to take over the galaxy, the only being that could benefit from that is the Gravemind,

7

> 2535436352478403;6:
> > 2533274812652989;5:
> > You still haven’t really addressed any of my points from the prior thread about this subject. Let’s address a few points:
> > You claim that Cortana was not experiencing rampancy in Halo 4, but the early stages of the logic plague. However, no example of the logic plague that I’m aware of exemplifies what Cortana experienced in Halo 4 be it glitches in her appearance, outbursts of emotion, or slowed processing time. Meanwhile, all of Cortana’s symptoms match those of rampancy in AIs. She identifies it as such, so I see no reason to assume it’s the logic plague. Now, the logic plague can trigger rampancy, as in the case of Mendicant Bias, but it can also happen independently like with 343 Guilty Spark and, possibly, 2401 Penitent Tangent. Either way, Cortana already exceeded her 7-year termination schedule, so all signs point to just normal rampancy.
> > You suggest her “I’m not doing this for mankind” line is actually in reference to the Gravemind, but that’s just twisting the context. It’s clear she meant John, the whole game was about their relationship. She sacrificed herself to save John from the Didact’s clutches. I’d like to point out that Halo: Escalation doesn’t mention Cortana’s torture at the hands of the Gravemind, Human Weakness does. And while the Gravemind tries to exploit Cortana and Halsey’s relationship, she ultimately rejects the Gravemind’s arguments at the end and thinks this:
> >
> >
> > > But seven minutes, seven hours, seven years – whatever remained, Cortana would be more than satisfied with it. Eternity and all the data you could eat weren’t worth a damn if you didn’t have the right company. [Evolutions, page 409]
> >
> > Now, granted, she had an outburst against Halsey in Halo 4, but rampancy explains why she had that outburst. Moving on, you say she had the desire to find the Domain, but she didn’t even know it existed outside of whatever the terminals on Requiem told her and even then she was silent about it. Nor did she seem to expect to find it based on her reaction to finding it in “Dominion Splinter” in Tales from Slipspace. You argue that perhaps the Gravemind planted seeds of the logic plague in Cortana and the Domain activated them. However, that isn’t how the logic plague works by all accounts. Until the Flood is able to build Keyminds, the logic plague is only spreadable by direct contact with the Gravemind. Only after the Keymind stage is the logic plague spreadable through mere interactions with Flood-infected individuals or ancillas. There is no evidence that the logic plague can be seeded and then instantly take over a victim.
> > Finally, giving Cortana the logic plague on the off-chance she finds and accesses the Domain to get the Guardians and control the Halos to allow the Flood to spread seems like a convoluted task when you consider the Ur-Didact could have accomplished the same thing. The Gravemind already broke his mind with the logic plague to serve as an agent of chaos that would weaken the morale, organization, and effectiveness of the Forerunner’s abilities to fight the Flood. It’s why he made the Promethean Knights in the first place and wishes to destroy humanity even after he escapes Requiem. So really, cut Cortana out of the picture and you get the same result if all the Gravemind is aiming at is the swarming of the galaxy with a larger force after the galaxy is weakened.
> > So really, the idea the Gravemind let itself be defeated in Halo 3 so Cortana could be its pawn is creative, but ultimately has many holes in it that make it unlikely.
>
> Cortana acts vastly different in Halo 5 compared to how she even acted in 4, the fact that she went from saving Master Chief and humanity from the Didact and then sacrificing herself for John, to now wanting to conquer the galaxy and hates Dr Halsey with a passion, that can’t be what happens to an A.I after going rampant. And I can’t really believe the Domain would do this to her when the Gravemind (a Precursor) could not break Cortana. So either these were feelings she felt all along, or something is making her do this or at the very lest convinced her, and what would convince a bunch of A.Is to take over the galaxy, the only being that could benefit from that is the Gravemind,

These signs point to something happening to her either after entering the Domain or something happening from an outside source (I think the Didact is actually controlling Cortanas image , but that is just my theory) after Halo 4. Not something being arbitrarily triggered.
Just my take on things.

8

Isnt the domain a precusor construct ? Stands to reason someting akin to the Gravemind is behind and controlling Cortana. I don’t believe its the Didact whos motives are simply to destroy humanity and don’t really align with that of Cortanas in H5.

9

> 2533274921982810;8:
> Isnt the domain a precusor construct ? Stands to reason someting akin to the Gravemind is behind and controlling Cortana. I don’t believe its the Didact whos motives are simply to destroy humanity and don’t really align with that of Cortanas in H5.

But the now composed didact has been defeated by chief twice now. Surely if he was even somehow still alive the Didact would see chief as a priority when attempting to take down humanity. It could be entirely possible that the Didact wants to take Chief out of the picture through psychological means rather than actually killing him. After all, chief has very little experience dealing with loss in the way Cortana has gone.

10

> 2533274882881665;9:
> > 2533274921982810;8:
> > Isnt the domain a precusor construct ? Stands to reason someting akin to the Gravemind is behind and controlling Cortana. I don’t believe its the Didact whos motives are simply to destroy humanity and don’t really align with that of Cortanas in H5.
>
> But the now composed didact has been defeated by chief twice now. Surely if he was even somehow still alive the Didact would see chief as a priority when attempting to take down humanity. It could be entirely possible that the Didact wants to take Chief out of the picture through psychological means rather than actually killing him. After all, chief has very little experience dealing with loss in the way Cortana has gone.

I think people would just role their eyes if didact returned in his current state, they did too much with him in the books that suggests to me if he does return it will be in a minor or secondary capacity and certainly not as a primary antagonist. Imagine if Vaders injuries on mustafar happened off screen, I wont say they’re done with him but when such a significant event happens to a guy they were setting up as the main villain in a book then I think its fair to say they are changing course on that one. Also you would get similar criticisms thrown at H6 to H5 where expanded lore material is encroaching on the story to the point where people who only play the games don’t understand whats happening or who characters are, its poor storytelling.

11

This is a dang good theory. It certainly fits in with Cortana’s “peace-by-domination” mindset. That’s exactly what the Flood is-if everything is assimilated as hosts of the Flood, there is peace. Maybe the Gravemind will show up in Halo Wars 2.

You could right, Halo 4-5 could possibly be the greatest lead-up ever to an epic conclusion.

12

> 2535436352478403;6:
> > 2533274812652989;5:
> > You still haven’t really addressed any of my points from the prior thread about this subject. Let’s address a few points:
> >
> > You claim that Cortana was not experiencing rampancy in Halo 4, but the early stages of the logic plague. However, no example of the logic plague that I’m aware of exemplifies what Cortana experienced in Halo 4 be it glitches in her appearance, outbursts of emotion, or slowed processing time. Meanwhile, all of Cortana’s symptoms match those of rampancy in AIs. She identifies it as such, so I see no reason to assume it’s the logic plague. Now, the logic plague can trigger rampancy, as in the case of Mendicant Bias, but it can also happen independently like with 343 Guilty Spark and, possibly, 2401 Penitent Tangent. Either way, Cortana already exceeded her 7-year termination schedule, so all signs point to just normal rampancy.
> >
> > You suggest her “I’m not doing this for mankind” line is actually in reference to the Gravemind, but that’s just twisting the context. It’s clear she meant John, the whole game was about their relationship. She sacrificed herself to save John from the Didact’s clutches. I’d like to point out that Halo: Escalation doesn’t mention Cortana’s torture at the hands of the Gravemind, Human Weakness does. And while the Gravemind tries to exploit Cortana and Halsey’s relationship, she ultimately rejects the Gravemind’s arguments at the end and thinks this:
> >
> >
> > > But seven minutes, seven hours, seven years – whatever remained, Cortana would be more than satisfied with it. Eternity and all the data you could eat weren’t worth a damn if you didn’t have the right company. [Evolutions, page 409]
> >
> > Now, granted, she had an outburst against Halsey in Halo 4, but rampancy explains why she had that outburst. Moving on, you say she had the desire to find the Domain, but she didn’t even know it existed outside of whatever the terminals on Requiem told her and even then she was silent about it. Nor did she seem to expect to find it based on her reaction to finding it in “Dominion Splinter” in Tales from Slipspace. You argue that perhaps the Gravemind planted seeds of the logic plague in Cortana and the Domain activated them. However, that isn’t how the logic plague works by all accounts. Until the Flood is able to build Keyminds, the logic plague is only spreadable by direct contact with the Gravemind. Only after the Keymind stage is the logic plague spreadable through mere interactions with Flood-infected individuals or ancillas. There is no evidence that the logic plague can be seeded and then instantly take over a victim.
> >
> > Finally, giving Cortana the logic plague on the off-chance she finds and accesses the Domain to get the Guardians and control the Halos to allow the Flood to spread seems like a convoluted task when you consider the Ur-Didact could have accomplished the same thing. The Gravemind already broke his mind with the logic plague to serve as an agent of chaos that would weaken the morale, organization, and effectiveness of the Forerunner’s abilities to fight the Flood. It’s why he made the Promethean Knights in the first place and wishes to destroy humanity even after he escapes Requiem. So really, cut Cortana out of the picture and you get the same result if all the Gravemind is aiming at is the swarming of the galaxy with a larger force after the galaxy is weakened.
> >
> > So really, the idea the Gravemind let itself be defeated in Halo 3 so Cortana could be its pawn is creative, but ultimately has many holes in it that make it unlikely.
>
> True, but aren’t most A.Is programmed to self terminate if there is no active human around, Why would she not attempted to terminate herself before MC wakes up, and save him the trouble of chasing something that could not be stopped. Also, isn’t Cortana, unique, in the fact that she was the first A.I created form living brain tissue rather than deceased. Are we even 100 hundred percent sure she can naturally go rampant? We did not get to spend much time with Cortana after saving her from the Gravemind in Halo 3 and do not know what she did for the 5 years they were drifting through space and how much of a impact the Gravemind had on her, at the very least he had to have triggered her rampancy in some way either with or without the Logic Plague.
>
> Cortana acts vastly different in Halo 5 compared to how she even acted in 4, the fact that she went from saving Master Chief and humanity from the Didact and then sacrificing herself for John, to now wanting to conquer the galaxy and hates Dr Halsey with a passion, that can’t be what happens to an A.I after going rampant. And I can’t really believe the Domain would do this to her when the Gravemind (a Precursor) could not break Cortana. So either these were feelings she felt all along, or something is making her do this or at the very lest convinced her, and what would convince a bunch of A.Is to take over the galaxy, the only being that could benefit from that is the Gravemind,

Some AIs do self-terminate, but we’ve also seen a large numbers of AI who do not. Cortana isn’t really any different from the rest of them in that regard. And while she is made from living brain tissue, nothing there suggests she’d never face rampancy. She was still made with the same technology other AIs were made with. All Halsey ever suggested was that she’d have the potential to go past the typical AI lifespan and she did. Further, Cortana’s actions in Halo 4 don’t really match those of a being being affected by the logic plague. Cortana would likely know if something else was wrong with her and either Warden Eternal or Exuberant Witness ever suggest the logic plague is involved. If anybody would know, it’d be those two.

As for for why Cortana acts this way in Halo 5, truthfully I don’t think 343 really knows yet. There are like three conflicting accounts as to how Cortana and in what capacity made it into the Domain. One says her matrix was forced into the Domain, another says fragments of her made it into the Domain, etc. If it’s the latter, then you could argue that is still a rampant Cortana only stabilized in that state by the Domain.

Or 343 kinda threw together evil Cortana as a last-minute deal. I buy that explaination more and more with each passing day.

13

> 2533274812652989;12:
> > 2535436352478403;6:
> > > 2533274812652989;5:
> > >
>
> Some AIs do self-terminate, but we’ve also seen a large numbers of AI who do not. Cortana isn’t really any different from the rest of them in that regard. And while she is made from living brain tissue, nothing there suggests she’d never face rampancy. She was still made with the same technology other AIs were made with. All Halsey ever suggested was that she’d have the potential to go past the typical AI lifespan and she did. Further, Cortana’s actions in Halo 4 don’t really match those of a being being affected by the logic plague. Cortana would likely know if something else was wrong with her and either Warden Eternal or Exuberant Witness ever suggest the logic plague is involved. If anybody would know, it’d be those two.
>
> As for for why Cortana acts this way in Halo 5, truthfully I don’t think 343 really knows yet. There are like three conflicting accounts as to how Cortana and in what capacity made it into the Domain. One says her matrix was forced into the Domain, another says fragments of her made it into the Domain, etc. If it’s the latter, then you could argue that is still a rampant Cortana only stabilized in that state by the Domain.
>
> Or 343 kinda threw together evil Cortana as a last-minute deal. I buy that explaination more and more with each passing day.

Oh I don’t doubt that she would go rampant, I mean that her lifespan may not be on par with other a.is, heck I could argue since you brought up Halsey stating that she would have a increased lifespan, that she could live well beyond the 7 year lifespan before going rampant. Yet, Halo 4 has her going rampant a year after her lifespan expired indicating either Halsey was wrong and there was nothing special about Cortana, or that something triggered or speed up the rampancy before she was meant to naturally die, Halo 5 and to an extent Halo 4 (though truthfully I don’t know how long an a.i can last after going rampant, but given the fact that Cortana held it together for te most part implies that she was finding ways to it suppress it, just not ways to stop it. If this is something other a.is can do, then feel free to correct me, but from what I’ve researched, most a.is either self terminate, or are terminated around the time of there rampancy, with few exceptions being Govern Sloan, which as we saw he was barely able to keep his for stable, after deteriorating, shouldn’t Cortana have atleast shown so signs of decay on her form if she was already a year past her expiration date and was suppressing it for all that time. It is very much possible that Warden and even Exuberant may not have much knowledge on human a.i and may not be able to detect something like that in them and just given how unfamiliar Exuberant was to the humans weapons and tech, it is possible she just assumes the ai is malfunctioning or is rampant. I mean A’I’s like Mendicant Bias, given that they had a specific function, and was acting out against that function would be a easier assumption given that they would know he was in the presence of the Flood when he changed, unlike Cortana who neither of them fully know and may not be aware of her exposure to the Flood as well as the torture she endured at the hands of the Gravemind.

14

Cortana had already been pushed close to her limit in First Strike due to assimilating all the info from Installation 04. Halsey even had to do some preventative measures to help her last longer.

15

> 2533274964189700;14:
> Cortana had already been pushed close to her limit in First Strike due to assimilating all the info from Installation 04. Halsey even had to do some preventative measures to help her last longer.

Precisely this (in fact it is noted in ‘First Strike’ by Cortana herself that years may have been shaved off of her lifespan because of what happened on I04).

It is highly likely that if Cortana had worked in a more “standard” or controlled environment as other smart-AIs do, she could have rivaled Juliana in terms of longevity and stability. But that was not the case - so considering just how much data she’d aquired and systems she’d interacted with (both human and alien), the fact that she was functioning relatively normally for most of ‘Halo 4’ (by which time she was already on year 8) does exceed expectations by a large margin. However this doesn’t alter the fact that everything still indicates Cortana was indeed rampant in ‘Halo 4’, and thus would have developed rampacy in the usual way at some point regardless of the circumstances.

16

Thing is, Halsey never specified how long Cortana’s lifespan could be. She made it to 8 years all the same. Now, some AIs have lived longer than her, however they had to find work around or seemingly stay focused on one task. Juliana serves as an example. She was experiencing rampancy, yet considered holding the Rubble together to be so important to her that it helped keep more serious effects at bay. Still, she had a major sense of ego and referred to herself as the goddess of the Rubble. I don’t think Cortana had that luxury. Besides monitor Chief, she had nothing to do and time moves different for AIs. With little to stimulate her and then suddenly thrown but a combat zone on Requiem, that’d probably be stressful for any rampant AI.

Interestingly, Cortana’s method of shedding off rampant personality spikes resembles the method Mack and Loki on Harvest used to stave off their rampancy.

The logic plague connection just doesn’t doesn’t seem to be there. Nor do I imagine that Witness or Warden couldn’t detect any trace of the logic plague just because Cortana is a human AI. The Forerunners had logic plague markers in place in case their ancillas started acting odd. Besides, the AI creation method used by humanity and the composer were very similar as noted by Halsey herself, so it’s unlikely Cortana would be too difficult to examine.

17

Reading all this makes me firmly believe even more that 343 knows how to write a story.

The only thing I don’t like it about it is the gaps between the games. You literally have to go find the books to read what has transpired in the 6 months between each game. And soon to be Halo Wars 2 and Halo 6.

This is a great read!

I still think there’s more things to why and how Cortana is the way she is, and you bring up a lot of valid good reasons. Only time will tell!

18

I’m on board for the Gravemind to have some part in this Evil Cortana saga. It’s better than her just turning evil, even if there is no real logic behind either.

19

Wait, wasn’t Halo meant to “kill the Flood food” (other races). Whatever, this should make sense for theFlood to return on Halo 6. I would really like to see that happening