Isn’t Cortana in the Domain not Zeta Halo? We see her project herself across the Galaxy to Sanghelios and the Infinity during Halo 5. We even see Exuberant Witness shut Cortana out of the Genesis Shield World installation., but wasn’t able to lock Cortana down. Which seems to suggests she exists in the Domain and controls things from there.
The way it’s described by the Weapon she imitated the Halo Rings security systems and used them to lock Cortana down. But, why would this have a different outcome to what Exuberant Witness did? There’s no suggestion she was yoinked out of the Domain and why would she move onto Zeta Halo when the Domain is what gives her all the power? She didn’t need to leave the Domain to control the Guardians or other technology so why she need to be on Zeta Halo? That seems like an unnecessary risk with no benefit.
3 Likes
I expect this is a plot point that will come up later. I think the Weapon wasn’t as successful as she thinks she was.
It seems likely that Cortana actually won, and the Weapon was locked down. That explains why the Weapon was limited to one specific room, while Cortana clearly still controlled the Halo clear up until she blew up a large piece of it. It also explains why a piece of the Weapon’s code was removed at the time of confrontation.
This, and the survival of Atriox has me convinced that Cortana survived, and that she was acting behind the scenes through the whole game.
1 Like
Cortana at the end of h5 was far too powerful for the setting’s good. They pretty much needed to nerf her or come up with a seriously contrived way of her being defeated.
That said, I hope she stays dead. I honestly got tired of cortana moments halfway through the campaign. Just let her go and let the weapon be her own character.
1 Like
I liked that they raised the stakes with OP Cortana and it was a fun idea. It made it more likely that they would let the Flood actually escape since you could have something that would balance that out.
I don’t think they’ve made the Weapon her own character. They establish she has the same mannerisms, catchphrases and the Chief explicitly says it’s her if they hadn’t met. Well they have met so what does that make her?
Raising the stakes is one thing, but i’d say things at the end of halo 5 were encountering trouble making sense in the context of an FPS game.
The halos in the past were effectively what made Chief relevant in the original trilogy. The covenant possessed naval superiority, making the actions of the spartans largely irrelevant for most of the war. The halos got introduced and suddenly you had something that covenant couldn’t (or wouldn’t due to their beliefs) just glass. They had to put boots on the ground to achieve their goal, and thats where chief comes in with stopping them.
The created however exhibited near perfect control of forerunner systems, and could teleport about at will. Their leaders existed in a super internet where they were effectively invincible.
Now yes, intentionally releasing the flood might have done something, but then you have the problem of the flood doing the fighting for you. Not to mention, if the flood becomes capable of stopping cortana…how do you stop the flood without firing the rings at that point?
It just feels like the scale of things would exceed what would make the hero, our green armored soldier with an assault rifle, would be terribly relevant in.
Yes I remember that line. However, Chief’s a different person now than what he was when he met cortana. Cortana didn’t have the legacy of having an ‘evil older sister’ to haunt her.
This should naturally lead to the development of a different individual. One is shaped by their life’s experiences, not just ‘oh this 1 thing happened now we’re the same’.
1 Like
Chief would be relevant in that story because he has that bond with Cortana. If the Flood showed up, Cortana would be the obvious counter to that, but if she’s infected with the Logic Plague and not all there then everyone dies. But even without that particular twist you have a much clearer situation of freeing the Galaxy from this AI. I don’t think the point would be beating Cortana in a conventional war.
I am not convinced by the opposite extreme of making a big deal out of a minor splinter faction with a handful of ships. There’s almost no real escalation or threat in the story. The Banished are trying to repair the Array and you handily stop that several times. The Endless, who are some floating squids, say they’re a big deal and you beat them but they get away anyway. They never get close to firing the array or make a move that threatens humanity. It also has the problem that like Halo Wars 2 this is all happening in a vacuum outside the main galaxy so nothings at risk apart from our heroes. Plus, a few UNSC ships could easily knock out the Banished here. Compare them to the Covenant fleet at High Charity.
Basically starting over means the story has to start a lot smaller. But this is hampered by the game being essentially chapter 1. This results in a lot of talk coming from the villains about what they’re going to do and how significant they are; even if they don’t do anything to back that up. Halo Wars 2 had the same issue of nothing really happening and being cryptic with information.
Which is set up as old Cortana trying to set up new Cortana so they go back to being a perfectly perfect team again. That means a return to the status quo. I don’t think they intend for her to be a radically different individual. The difference is that she’s in the Shadow of this other character, everything she did and everything they meant to the Chief. But that’s more the situation rather than the character.