To cross post something I made on Spacebattles Forums.
> So I’m reading through Halo: Evolutions Vol II and I’m currently up to Human Weakness, the only Traviss Halo story worth giving a damn about (and it’s quite interesting so far), and I’m currently wondering: just how damaged is Cortana from a psychological standpoint?
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> One of the things portrayed in the short story (I haven’t finished it yet so bear that in mind) is an A.I’s desire to accumulate knowledge, and how rampancy is caused by that trait. We know that Cortana has found a wealth of knowledge on Alpha Halo, with First Strike mentioning how it cut her lifespan in half (though Halo 4 sorta contradicts this). Soon after that she was interrogated by the Gravemind, forced to experience the lives of organic beings the Gravemind had consumed, experiencing death, suffocation, fear, isolation. None of this would be good for any human being, let alone an A.I who had to put up for this for months. This becomes exponentially worse when you consider that a second for a human is an eternity for an A.I. And soon after that, she spends 4 years, 7 months and 10 days in what is effectively solitary confinement with only the comatose Chief, her experiences with the Gravemind and the accumulated knowledge found on Alpha Halo to keep her company. Then she reaches the 8th year of her life in Halo 4, she finally starts to deteriorate, experiencing her own mortality… Wow, this is just depressing to just think about.
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> I still believe Cortana should’ve stayed dead. Halo 4 was a great send off to her character and it finally gave her the peace she had fought so hard to achieve. However, with these things that I have mentioned above, it does give us something (read: not a lot, but something) explaining the actions Cortana has done over the course of Halo 5.
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> On a different note: am I the only one who noticed a similarity between Cortana and the Didact, notably their experiences with the Gravemind, and soon after suffered “an eternity” in isolation, nothing but their experiences and madness to keep them company.
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> Interesting.
So, I’m curious, Waypoint Community, what are your thoughts on this?
Halsey’s logs at the start of the 2nd level of Halo 4 seems explicitly designed to explain how she managed to live so far. A lot of people took it to mean she would live past her rampancy on her own, but I always took it to explain why she hadn’t gone rampant for 3-4 years.
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> Halsey’s logs at the start of the 2nd level of Halo 4 seems explicitly designed to explain how she managed to live so far. A lot of people took it to mean she would live past her rampancy on her own, but I always took it to explain why she hadn’t gone rampant for 3-4 years.
I saw to that as explains why Cortana didn’t self destruct when she turned seven. It seemed that the UNSC placed something that would kill the A.I once they turn rampant but Cortana had removed that, hence explaining why she was still alive in Halo 4.
One thing…I still dont quite understand why people hate Traviss’s Kilo 5 trilogy so much. I really like those books, except for the “Halsey is a monster” detail. Well written, interesting characters, different opinions on Halsey’s actions, and the redemption of one man’s desire to find his Spartan daughter again.
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> One thing…I still dont quite understand why people hate Traviss’s Kilo 5 trilogy so much. I really like those books, except for the “Halsey is a monster” detail. Well written, interesting characters, different opinions on Halsey’s actions, and the redemption of one man’s desire to find his Spartan daughter again.
I hope you double checked your flamesuit is air tight.
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> One thing…I still dont quite understand why people hate Traviss’s Kilo 5 trilogy so much. I really like those books, except for the “Halsey is a monster” detail. Well written, interesting characters, different opinions on Halsey’s actions, and the redemption of one man’s desire to find his Spartan daughter again.
That’s off topic. If you want to discuss about it, make a thread about it on waypoint and I’m sure somebody would be willing to answer it.
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> > Halsey’s logs at the start of the 2nd level of Halo 4 seems explicitly designed to explain how she managed to live so far. A lot of people took it to mean she would live past her rampancy on her own, but I always took it to explain why she hadn’t gone rampant for 3-4 years.
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> I saw to that as explains why Cortana didn’t self destruct when she turned seven. It seemed that the UNSC placed something that would kill the A.I once they turn rampant but Cortana had removed that, hence explaining why she was still alive in Halo 4.
Yeah. There really wasn’t much in h4 to suggest she survived…at least not in the way H5 had her do so.
The didact and cortana comparison is interesting though.
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> > One thing…I still dont quite understand why people hate Traviss’s Kilo 5 trilogy so much. I really like those books, except for the “Halsey is a monster” detail. Well written, interesting characters, different opinions on Halsey’s actions, and the redemption of one man’s desire to find his Spartan daughter again.
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> That’s off topic. If you want to discuss about it, make a thread about it on waypoint and I’m sure somebody would be willing to answer it.
How is it off topic? The OP has their opinion mentioned in the first sentence…
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> > > One thing…I still dont quite understand why people hate Traviss’s Kilo 5 trilogy so much. I really like those books, except for the “Halsey is a monster” detail. Well written, interesting characters, different opinions on Halsey’s actions, and the redemption of one man’s desire to find his Spartan daughter again.
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> > That’s off topic. If you want to discuss about it, make a thread about it on waypoint and I’m sure somebody would be willing to answer it.
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> How is it off topic? The OP has their opinion mentioned in the first sentence…
It was a jab at the quality at the quality of Traviss’s work in the eyes of most of the community. It actually has very little to the topic at hand, which is “How Damaged was Cortana?”, not “Why do people hate Kilo Five”. You want to discuss about the quality of Kilo-Five (which has very little to do with the topic at hand), make a seperate thread. Otherwise, keep on topic, which is, again, “How Damaged Was Cortana?”.
I’d say quite a bit. By the end of first strike she was already showing many problems due to the amount of info she’d acquired. I’m guessing between FS and H2 she had some major data purges and that’s why we don’t see the problem in H2. Add to that all the other things you’ve stated its a wonder she didn’t loose her cookies while adrift on the Dawn. Plus there’s no telling how much more data she got from Requeim.
As far as the viral termination code she disabled that in her first moments of existence according to Halseys journal.
