How might Cortana make a comeback in H5?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Surely Cortana will return in some shape or form in Halo 5. Do you think:

a) She’ll play a similar role as in the first 8 levels of Halo 3, and just be a mental creation in his head,
b) She has survived through the Didact somehow- perhaps in his armour configuration (or through some other Forerunner capacity),
c) Dr Halsey creates a ‘new’ version of Cortana for the Chief,
d) Won’t be in Halo 5,
e) Won’t be in any more Halo adaptations,
f) Other

I personally think she’ll play a role. I believe she (if not some version of her) is still alive in some type of Forerunner capacity.
Perhaps through the Didact’s armour configuration, or…
…you know how the Librarian dies on Earth 100,000 years ago, but imprints on Requiem during Halo 4? Perhaps Cortana will be ‘alive’ in a similar way? Perhaps Cortana has knowledge on how the Librarian did this? Cortana does, after all, have extensive knowledge of the Forerunners, from being in Installation 04’s control Room system.
If she has, in fact, survived this way, that would explain the Forerunner eagle-like structure that the Chief faces when trying to find Cortana in E3’s 2013 trailer; Cortana is imprisoned, locked away in some way or form by the Forerunners (or the Didact)- and the Chief is trying to find/rescue her. Th Eagle could be protecting a Forerunner shield world that she (and possibly the Didact) is on?
Surely she has found a way to survive.
Also, Cortana may be much more important than previously imagined, perhaps a Forerunner/Forerunner descendant? (Long shot, I know.)

2

I honestly would have more respect for 343i if they kept her dead and didn’t make any attempt to revive her.

3

> I honestly would have more respect for 343i if they kept her dead and didn’t make any attempt to revive her.

Yeah, you’re right. It does feel like she regularly disappears and needs to be rescued. End of Halo 2 and practically all of Halo 3, and now the end of Halo 4 (and likely the whole of Halo 5). Maybe she should just ‘call it a day.’

4

Hallucinations imposed on the Master Chief by the Gravemind, though more like glipses of a full-sized Cortana in the distance or interacting with Chief than the screening filling mess like in Halo 3.

5

For H5:G, I’m expecting elements from both H2 and H3. I think something like the hallucinations will return. In H4, after the console John inserted Cortana into was destroyed, you hear multiple Cortanas talking in John’s helmet, and even see some elements of his HUD change, too. There are a dozen ways that they left open to bring her back and, at this point, it’s just a matter of picking a method.

6

I’m not eager to see her back.
If anything then I’d say a) or d)
H5G is said to be a darker halo, bringing a main protagonist back doesn’t really helps to create a dark atmosphere.

7

> > I honestly would have more respect for 343i if they kept her dead and didn’t make any attempt to revive her.
>
> Yeah, you’re right. It does feel like she regularly disappears and needs to be rescued. End of Halo 2 and practically all of Halo 3, and now the end of Halo 4 (and likely the whole of Halo 5). Maybe she should just ‘call it a day.’

i agree with this

im starting to tire of her whole “slow-death” thing …MC by this point in his life has already dealt with massive loss, I respect them trying to make it a huge deal but i think its ok if she dies and the story moves on,

for some reason i doubt she’ll stay dead

8

I’d rather she stay dead. Let Chief fail and realise that he brought this on himself by making Cortana his only companion. I want to see him accept that realisation and become a stronger person because of it. If she’s brought back I’ll be miffed cos he’ll have his trusty companion at the ready again. Without her, he can progress, and we’ll be able to see this development in H5:G and 6.

9

STAY DEAD! I don’t mind her though showing up memory wise in a place or two. (Kinda like Gwen’s father in The Amazing Spiderman 2)

10

I don’t understand why is everyone assuming she’s dead.

Seriously, doesn’t it make sense that the Librarian took her? But had her make copies of herself first to elude the Didact and John, also she holds the knowledge of all human recent history.

So it means that whatever happened after John got his enhancements Cortana was already with The Librarian’s AI.

Now the reasons behind that “abduction” would be would be to have Cortana as the Didact’s AI To have her reason with him. To make him understand and try to have him help humanity in saving the galaxy from the Flood?

or

Maybe she also saw that doing this would have John search for a way to bring her back. In which he would trigger something the Librarian intended him to.

Or even if she was with him all along, maybe the Didact collected a fragment of her before fleeing the ship.

There are many good possibilities to “bring her back” and they all make sense.

11

> I don’t understand why is everyone assuming she’s dead.

Probably because we literally saw it before our eyes at the end of Halo 4? That, and the fact that the Essential Visual Guide explicitly lists a ‘Date of Death’ under her name. They’d be literally breaking canon just to revive her, which i don’t encourage.

> Seriously, doesn’t it make sense that the Librarian took her? But had her make copies of herself first to elude the Didact and John, also she holds the knowledge of all human recent history.

Trying to fool the enemy, and even companion just to fake her death, all for the sake of ‘plot twist’, is very lame story telling to me. Why bother with the drama then? Why bother with all of the effort?

> So it means that whatever happened after John got his enhancements Cortana was already with The Librarian’s AI.

There is no evidence to suggest this whatsoever, and even if she did manage to this, Requiem getting sent into its nearby star, doesn’t help in keeping that theory afloat.

> Now the reasons behind that “abduction” would be would be to have Cortana as the Didact’s AI To have her reason with him. To make him understand and try to have him help humanity in saving the galaxy from the Flood?

Except that the Didact is now gone, so now that becomes moot.

> Maybe she also saw that doing this would have John search for a way to bring her back. In which he would trigger something the Librarian intended him to.

Wouldn’t it be more sensible for her to tell John of this top secret mission at the start instead of being needlessly secretive for the sake of mystery? And i son’t see the point of trying to fake Cortana’s death to lead John round in circles, just to have an unnecessary revelation by the end of it. If i was Chief, i’d be pissed, and tell her to smother off, because she deceived me to get me to do her bidding, for what seems like no apparent reason at all…

> Or even if she was with him all along, maybe the Didact collected a fragment of her before fleeing the ship.

He didn’t flee…Chief shoved a pulse grenade in his hip, which exploded, thereby sending him through the portal underneath the Composer. I very much doubt he had the time to snatch up a fragment before bidding Chief goodbye, after their fancy tea party.

> There are many good possibilities to “bring her back” and they all make sense.

So far, nothing that you’ve just mentioned makes the slightest bit of sense, to me.

12

Goes to say that if they decide to keep her “dead”, its OK with me. I just think having her back wouldn’t ruin anything if done properly.

What I said makes perfect sense though. You just have your fixed opinion on the take.

13

> > Now the reasons behind that “abduction” would be would be to have Cortana as the Didact’s AI To have her reason with him. To make him understand and try to have him help humanity in saving the galaxy from the Flood?
>
> Except that the Didact is now gone, so now that becomes moot.

And that’s where you’re dead wrong.

The Didact isn’t gone, Halo 4’s epilogue makes that quite clear and isn’t really up to much interpretation.

> > Or even if she was with him all along, maybe the Didact collected a fragment of her before fleeing the ship.
>
> He didn’t flee…Chief shoved a pulse grenade in his hip, which exploded, thereby sending him through the portal underneath the Composer. I very much doubt he had the time to snatch up a fragment before bidding Chief goodbye, after their fancy tea party.

While it’s a stretch of an assumption, one of Cortana’s fragments does appear to implant itself into the Didact’s helmet. While I’m in no way an advocate of magically resurrecting characters, when there’s potential evidence right in front of me, it’s hard to resist acknowledging it.

Also, Human Weakness foreshadows Cortana following the same path as Mendicant Bias. What’s specifically interesting about the possibility of one of her fragments hitchhiking on the Didact is that both her and him were mind–Yoinked!- by the Flood in similar ways.

“Didact, do you have a moment? Just a moment? That’s all it will take.”

“Silence fills the empty grave, now that I am gone. Yet my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on.”

Additionally, while it is a nebulous proposal, a lot of what Cortana said in her farewell with Chief can be interpreted in more ways than one.

“I’m not coming with you this time.”

I imagine that if she was stating that she was forever dead, the use of the word “this” would be nonexistent.

Also, “you” can be interpreted as her stating that she’s not going with the Master Chief, which supports the Didact hitchhiking theory.

“Most of me is down there, I only had enough energy to get you off the ship.”

Again, while you can say that by “most”, she’s saying that the remainder of herself is in a hardlight projection with the Master Chief, technically, her physical projection is still inside of Mantle’s Approach.

I don’t know about you, but the possibility of Cortana not only surviving but also being a repeat of Mendicant Bias really unsettles me.

“There is only one truth. That that which has been done will be done again, for we cannot cease from creating.”

“They are about to give it powers that it never had before. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”

Foreshadowing. 343i loves foreshadowing.

14

A.
F. Librarian is my guess if she indeed is to return somehow.

15

I think she’ll return in some form, but I doubt it’ll be the same Cortana from Halo 1-4. It’ll probably be a new model or something, but like the original Cortana said "It won’t be me, you know that right?

16

> A.
> F. Librarian is my guess if she indeed is to return somehow.

Although I don’t think that the Librarian kept a copy of Cortana for herself, a mission of Spartan Ops that I can’t remember the name of heavily indicates that the Librarian left Requiem before it exploded.

It’s the mission that has the voice actor that played Ashley Williams from Mass Effect in it.

Towards the end of the mission, you’ll hear a brief dialogue of the Librariam saying “to the Absolute Record” before a MASSIVE data transfer occurs.

At first I thought that the dialogue from the Librarian was just a sudden eavesdrop from her conversation with Halsey, I realized that not only does the mission clearly take place after the cutscene, but the Librarian’s tone of voice was complete different.

So whatever the Absolute Record is, the Librarian is waiting there

And whether or not she’ll be greeted by Jul 'Mdama after having a slaughterfest on the humans or if it will be the UNSC fresh after curb stomping all of the other races in the galaxy hangs desperately in the balance.

17

What if Cortana saved both the Didact and Chief? Now there would be a logical explanation why the Didact is still alive.

18

So Cortana to return… hmm for and against…

In Halo 5: Guardians, Cortana no doubt will serve a presence… unto John-117 and thus, in-directly, the direction of the Reclaimer Saga and other Characters. Whether this presence is a direct confrontation or background is unknown…

An extract from Halo 3:
“You WILL show me what SHE hides!”

Now having found out that Cortana… well disappeared… and was in the last symptoms of Rampancy, at the end of Halo 4, we can assume she is ‘well dead’. Yet Cortana, at her core, was never a ‘physical’ being but rather a intelligence…

An extract from Halo 3:
“A collection of lies, that’s all I am… stolen thoughts and memories.”

And so my thoughts are in-fact that she could still remain…

Imagine this:
(The Ur-Didact’s outstretched palm fingers like columns of power and descent… to which a chained captive is taken… flickering in it’s torment. The Ur-Didact with one finger begins stripping data from her… torturing the very fabric of her being)

Didact: “Such anxious, and yet a hidden strength… such a powerful contraption you appear… but simply underneath all your bravado and servitude… you are at your core, broken. Without him, you are nothing but a tool, a means to an end… his end… and my victory. I will possess all of your knowledge!”

(John-117 reaches out with his empty data chip, and Cortana, in one quick glimpse, dissipates into its core matrix)
(Yet as this happens the Didact immobilizes John-117, and simply takes his treasure possession)

Didact: “Such a primitive entrapment for such a qualified being… watch as her life is as pointless as this chip. No more shall she tamper with my plans… you are but a tool in HER plans… she was the real hero, you were her ancilla.”

(Didact crushes the chip in his hand, right in front of John-117)

So Cortana could return as a tormented soul… even being manipulated into upgrading the Promethean ancillas, giving them a better co-ordination against the Covenant and UNSC… which means yes she would need rescuing, again, but this time she is not rescued but killed… as a method of revenge… the Ur-Didact forces his hand… John-117 to release her from her suffering… can only finally let her go, in death. Giving him closure and yet… still torment from the Didact.

19

> What if Cortana saved both the Didact and Chief? Now there would be a logical explanation why the Didact is still alive.

The Didact feel into a slip space portal under the composer and was teleported somewhere else. As for Cortana, I doubt she’s coming back.

20

I think she should stay gone, but not forgotten.

Playing the old games will have that bitter sweet feel you get when you replay the games with Johnson & Miranda.

Unless of course, if when the Librarian yanked her from the system she did something to Cortana that had yet to be sorted out by the end of the game.

Forerunners had “blue female ancilla” in their armor as well, so when the Librarian was talking to Chief about his evolution, his combat skin, his ancilla, she obviously found all of that important and maybe did something to preserve Cortana and halt her rampancy.

Plus, the Dr. Halsey audio log at the beginning of “Requiem” where she mentions the “7 year life cycle” may not apply …

We have a year and a half to wait and see.