I know that this topic has been covered who knows how many times ever since Halo Wars 2 came out. But I figured that it would be a good topic to bring up for anyone still interested. Since the release of HW2, Spartan Jerome and Isabel were regarded as the next potential MC-Cortana style team up. With Jerome fighting off an entire team of Banished Brutes single-handed, and Isabel bringing down an entire Super-Carrier on her own - despite being programmed as a Logistics AI - the potential future team up was literally laid out for everyone to see; myself included.
What do you say about this future match up?
I’m down! I’d love to see it happen and think it would make for some great campaign DLC down the road.
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> I’m down! I’d love to see it happen and think it would make for some great campaign DLC down the road.
Thanks for the comment. Again, I know this topic has been around for some time. I just thought it would be good to discuss it with people other than youtube followers.
Jerome, maybe. He has about as much personality as Chief, which is to say the perfect amount for a Spartan. I can see him taking over if we get to that stage, though I sincerely hope Chief remains the main character for the life of the franchise. It would not be Halo without him, as nearly everyone who played Halo 5’s campaign will attest.
Isabel, not so much. She is a fairly likeable character in herself, but nowhere near as interesting or entertaining as Cortana. Cortana had humor, loyalty, constant quips, incredible comraderie, and the list goes on. Her bond with and trust in Chief was so strong that she could zone out and enjoy thinking like an AI should since she knew Chief was fighting the Covenant, blah blah blah. That comes from Halo 2’s level “Regret” when Cortana starts talking about the Forerunner structures and eventually comes back to reality and says, “Sorry, were you trying to kill something?” because Chief was yet again faced with another horde of Covenant that he skillfully put down. Isabel seemed on edge and a bit theatrical, though I figure the latter is due to the writers’ desire to make all the cutscenes very dramatic. She is learning though and was never made to be an AI for combat as you mentioned. As such, I would like to see them show some character development in another game, wherein Isabel becomes more acquainted with being in combat situations and perhaps has some more depth to her personality.
Man, this made me appreciate even more how great the writing was for Cortana. Not only that, Jenn’s voice and delivery was top notch. As a whole, Chief and Cortana are the perfect duo and their back-and-forth from the original trilogy (and books like Fall of Reach) can really never be topped.
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> Jerome, maybe. He has about as much personality as Chief, which is to say the perfect amount for a Spartan. I can see him taking over if we get to that stage, though I sincerely hope Chief remains the main character for the life of the franchise. It would not be Halo without him, as nearly everyone who played Halo 5’s campaign will attest.
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> Isabel, not so much. She is a fairly likeable character in herself, but nowhere near as interesting or entertaining as Cortana. Cortana had humor, loyalty, constant quips, incredible comraderie, and the list goes on. Her bond with and trust in Chief was so strong that she could zone out and enjoy thinking like an AI should since she knew Chief was fighting the Covenant, blah blah blah. That comes from Halo 2’s level “Regret” when Cortana starts talking about the Forerunner structures and eventually comes back to reality and says, “Sorry, were you trying to kill something?” because Chief was yet again faced with another horde of Covenant that he skillfully put down. Isabel seemed on edge and a bit theatrical, though I figure the latter is due to the writers’ desire to make all the cutscenes very dramatic. She is learning though and was never made to be an AI for combat as you mentioned. As such, I would like to see them show some character development in another game, wherein Isabel becomes more acquainted with being in combat situations and perhaps has some more depth to her personality.
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> Man, this made me appreciate even more how great the writing was for Cortana. Not only that, Jenn’s voice and delivery was top notch. As a whole, Chief and Cortana are the perfect duo and their back-and-forth from the original trilogy (and books like Fall of Reach) can really never be topped.
I have to disagree that Halo wouldn’t be Halo without Chief, even if I do really like him. I think that proving that it wouldn’t be Halo without him by mentioning Halo 5’s mediocre campaign is kind of a moot point, as that wasn’t it’s only problem; Halo 5’s campaign was death by a thousand cuts. I think Chief dying (or “dying”, possibly leaving ambiguity) respectfully and appropriately could let us move on to a new protagonist. Not saying it would be easy though (at all).
I also think that Isabel could flesh out over time as she becomes more bonded with Jerome. We have to remember that Cortana picked Master Chief, meaning she was by default comfortable with him because he was her choice. Isabel didn’t choose to have her humans slaughtered by the Banished then be found by Jerome and Red Team, so I consider her personality in HW2 to be a consequence of her circumstances. But again, replacing Cortana won’t be easy either.
Yes I would like to see more from Jerome and Isabel as a pair in the future. There’s a lot of potential there for a good character dynamic, and it’d be a shame if it was wasted.
It isn’t a bad idea. Halo Wars 2 was said that It will connect with Halo Infinite in some way. Although at this point it seems a little ambiguous if 343 is keeping that promise since they’ve had frequent shifts in creative directions. Time will just have to tell what the future holds for those two.
I find Isabel to be annoying and don’t really care for the Halo Wars S-IIs, so no thanks.
Personally something that I would like, concerning Halo Wars, is to see Anders whole ‘wants to be an AI’ thing brought back. I’d like to see, somehow despite the narrative tech saying otherwise, a person get turned into a Smart AI and then used. I think it’d be an interesting twist, given that we don’t see that very often. And honestly, give me someone like Kat or Emile or Carter. Those were the three Noble Team members I liked so I’d like to see more of that.
I’m a big fan of Jerome taking over the reigns of the series should Chief go missing in action. But I’m hesitant about Isabel being his little orange sidekick. I actually quite liked her in HW2, but at the end of the day she isn’t on Cortana’s level. What made her so useful and beneficial to Chief was her counter-intrusion software, among many other things. She could dig into Covenant and Forerunner systems. Can Isabel do that? If she can, then let me know so I can shut up about it. But if not, then she doesn’t have the right stuff to be considered a sidekick to a Spartan who will be routinely accessing enemy systems.
Beyond that, it would get old to just keep going with the same dynamic. A suit of armor and his AI has been done over and over with Chief and Cortana. It’s worked so far, and could probably work again with them two. But to shift that over to two other characters entirely would be a bit of a stretch.
Were this to happen, and Jerome and Isabel become the new Chief/Cortana “power couple”, then I wouldn’t mind it too terribly. I just think we can do better than that from a creative standpoint.
They arent going to take over, I see them more as a lite version of the classic pair