-Master Chief: Our duty as soldiers is to protect humanity. Whatever the cost. (Halo 4)
-Halo 5: In Meridian Station he escaped in a Guardian, creating a massive destruction and genocide just to reach Cortana.
What do you think, should Master Chief save Cortana (his only friend), or humanity instead? What did they teach Spartans II about good and evil?
The Chief probably sees the big picture. He alone can’t stop a Guardian, let alone all of them. Cortana is involved in their control somehow so if he gets to her he can stop this whole thing before it gets worse.
In essence the problem cannot be prevented anymore, it has already begun and is progressing. All he can do now is damage control and find a way to end it fast.
Cortana is not his only friend.
Also it’s important to note that Chief had no control over the raising of the Guardian on Meridian. He didn’t cause that. It was his only means of getting to Cortana, but if he had decided not to, it wouldn’t have changed anything; he wouldn’t have been able to save Meridian.
Chief’s morals haven’t changed. He expressed disgust with Cortana’s views on the Mantle and her willingness to sacrifice human lives for the raising of the Guardians.
Firstly: The Chief had absolutely nothing to do with activating the Guardian on Meridian. He got in a portal there that merely led to Genesis. So don’t you dare try to put any of the death and destruction that happened there on him. That was Cortana’s doing alone, which she would have done no matter what, and the only reason Blue Team was there at all was because she outright lied to and manipulated the Chief.
Secondly: Cortana is not the Chief’s “only friend” - she never was, and is most certainly not his friend after the events of ‘Halo 5’. As far as the Chief has been conscious, as of 2559 he has now known Cortana as his enemy more than twice as long as she was his friend. That is a straight up canon fact. The Chief’s real friends & family are Kelly-087, Fred-104, Linda-058 - along with Capt. Lasky, Cmdr. Palmer, and all the other good people he’s come to know who haven’t ever turned their backs on him.
Thirdly: The Spartan-IIs absolutely know good from evil. They’re not stupid. And in ‘Halo 5’ even the Chief openly acknowledges that what Cortana is doing is wrong and even says outright that he is ready and willing to fight Cortana should she refuse to stand down - which is exactly what happens.
Seriously, this obsession with “saving Cortana” has simply got to stop. It’s not good for the story, or the characters (we saw the effects of this in ‘Halo 5’ firsthand). And not only that, it sends sends some seriously harmful messages to Halo’s audience about the nature of codependent and abusive behaviors. 343i has had every opportunity before and after ‘Halo 5’ to make the situation surrounding Cortana not completely alarming and disgusting, but they have done nothing whatsoever to indicate that the character is even the slightest bit worth saving/redeeming or that the Chief should ever be near her ever again. So if that’s what they are going to do, then they need to sleep in the bed that they made and show the mass-murdering psychopath Cortana has become being brought to justice either though a final death, or imprisonment/isolation for the remainder of her existence.
> 2533274903272689;1:
> -Master Chief: Our duty as soldiers is to protect humanity. Whatever the cost. (Halo 4)
> -Halo 5: In Meridian Station he escaped in a Guardian, creating a massive destruction and genocide just to reach Cortana.
>
> What do you think, should Master Chief save Cortana (his only friend), or humanity instead? What did they teach Spartans II about good and evil?
Cortana awoke the Guardian. Master Chief just hitched a ride on it. His goal has always been to safeguard humanity, but as an elite soldier, he knows he can’t save everyone. At that moment his best chance of saving the most people was to get to Cortana and stop her as quickly as possible.
Considering that 117’s loyalties lie first and foremost with the UNSC… I’m gonna assume he’s gonna choose humanity.
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> Cortana (his only friend)
Wait, wait, hold on one second.
Cortana.
Is 117’s only friend?
…Care to explain?
Because he certainly has more friends than just the AI that he worked with for a couple months.
> What did they teach Spartans II about good and evil?
“good and evil” isn’t something that Spartans were ever taught, as far as I know. Besides, the entire concept of good vs. evil is all just a matter of perspective.
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> Secondly: Cortana is not the Chief’s “only friend” - she never was, and is most certainly not his friend after the events of ‘Halo 5’. As far as the Chief has been conscious, as of 2559 he has now known Cortana as his enemy more than twice as long as she was his friend. That is a straight up canon fact. The Chief’s real friends & family are Kelly-087, Fred-104, Linda-058 - along with Capt. Lasky, Cmdr. Palmer, and all the other good people he’s come to know who haven’t ever turned their backs on him.
> ----------
> Seriously, this obsession with “saving Cortana” has simply got to stop. It’s not good for the story, or the characters (we saw the effects of this in ‘Halo 5’ firsthand). And not only that, it sends sends some seriously harmful messages to Halo’s audience about the nature of codependent and abusive behaviors.
Using the term ‘friend’ is pretty strong, the only people chief cares about personally are his squadmates and the rest of the spartan II’s. He simply serves and works with the others you list.
And just what is so bad about saving cortana, exactly? You’d prefer her story to be wrapped up as a pseudo-didact, who rants on about humanity needing to be stopped, only to be stopped by one? Saving her is just about the only way this story should be resolved, as her passing through the domain inhernetly changed her beyond recognition. If anything, given all the forerunners’ methods and the limits of their technology, reversing her personality traits and her position at the head of the Mantle could be achievable. The message that can and absolutely should be given here is that for once, a conflict can be resolved…through peaceful means. Do we eliminate cortana like all the other enemies we’ve killed over the years, or for once, treat the antagonist with dignity and respect, given her history, as well as the disasters with Jul (dying like nothing) or the didact (dying officially in a comic, instead of the game, so he was sort of ‘killed’ twice).
Assuming this is actually Cortana from Halo 1-4 and not, like some sort of splinter from when she fragmented herself to stop the Didact…
(o_O )
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> And just what is so bad about saving cortana, exactly?
Because doing so would exonerate mass murder, totalitarianism, slavery, racism, imperialism, codependency, obsession, and blatant physical/emotional/psychological abuse.
And that is not okay.
To repeat:
343i has had every opportunity before, during, and after ‘Halo 5’ to make the situation surrounding Cortana not completely alarming and one-dimensional, but they have done nothing whatsoever to indicate that the character is even the slightest bit worth saving/redeeming or that the Chief should ever be near her ever again. So if that’s what they are going to do, then they need to sleep in the bed that they made and show the mass-murdering psychopath Cortana has become being brought to justice either though a final death, or imprisonment/isolation for the remainder of her existence.
> You’d prefer her story to be wrapped up as a pseudo-didact, who rants on about humanity needing to be stopped, only to be stopped by one?
Of course.
Cortana’s story arc as a protagonist came full-circle with her death in ‘Halo 4’, which was executed in a way that was the fulfillment of everything she wanted to be and to do. There is literally nothing her character has to offer now. But 343i decided to bring her back anyway (already against all canon and logic) as a murderer and a predator for some cheap exploitative “drama”. So like I said, they need to accept the narrative consequences that go along with that decision.
And if being utterly defeated was good enough for every other major villain we’ve faced up to now without anyone complaining that we didn’t “save” any of them, then such a fate is damn well good enough for Cortana.
> Saving her is just about the only way this story should be resolved –
No, that absolutely not true. As I explain throughout my reply here.
> – as her passing through the domain inhernetly changed her beyond recognition.
This is 100% false as well though. There is nothing about the Domain itself that altered Cortana in any way. Everything she is in ‘Halo 5’ is the direct result of her own personality flaws. Dr. Halsey herself - Cortana’s creator/human-analog, Forerunner and AI tech expert, and all-around the smartest person alive in the Halo Universe - even says so to Locke in the game. Cortana thinks that her newfound “phenomenal cosmic power” and immortality grants her the right to control everyone/everything else the way she sees fit. That’s it. And this is a motivation shared by countless villains throughout all of fiction.
This has since been backed up by the official comic (“Dominion Splinter”) depicting her hostile takeover of both the Domain and the Warden. Which shows the Warden was simply living within the Domain minding his own business and had zero interest in getting on board with a galactic dictatorship until Cortana forced him to be her servant.
> If anything, given all the forerunners’ methods and the limits of their technology, reversing her personality traits and her position at the head of the Mantle could be achievable.
This is not true at all either. The Forerunners had no means to fundamentally alter even their own infinitely more advanced constructs, barring fragmentation and forced meditation for a millennia (a-la Medicant Bias).
You can’t “reset” an AI in the Halo Universe (especially smart-AIs), no more than you can “reset” a person in real life. They’re not like a computer file. They’re a dynamic system - essentially a virtual brain. They are composed of an active network of data pathways that are constantly processing information (like the brain’s neurons). That is why once rampancy sets in it can’t be cured or reversed, it literally destroys their code; much like what happens to brain tissue with Alzheimer’s Disease.
And either way how would “reversing her personality traits” (though even before ‘Halo 5’ she had done some pretty bad things - like engineering Col. Ackerson’s death and covering it up, as well as destroying a fellow AI named Aine) change the fact that she actively chose of her own free will to murder millions of innocent people for literally no reason, on top of perpetuating abuse and violence on her former allies, all in the name of establishing a totalitarian police state based on inherently racist and imperialist dogma that has been the downfall of all those that have adopted it before now? Simply put, it does not.
Not to mention all the other AIs that joined Cortana as well. Everyone seems to oh-so-conveniently forget about them. They saw the wanton destruction and death Cortana caused by simply raising the Guardians. They heard her threaten all the other races of the galaxy with suffering should they not comply with her whims. Yet they went along with the program anyway even though none of them were ever damaged/revived the way Cortana was. So what’s their “excuse”?
Why is it so difficult to accept that some AIs are just bad people?
> The message that can and absolutely should be given here is that for once, a conflict can be resolved…through peaceful means.
No. Just no.
The Chief, or anyone else for that matter, has absolutely no reason or responsibility to try and “save” Cortana after she willingly lied to, manipulated, and betrayed him (which includes subversively attempting to kill his only real friends/family) when he gave her every chance to stop and stand down non-violently already. And it would be stupid in every sense of the word to repeat what we already attempted in ‘Halo 5’ when that clearly didn’t work. Not to mention the fact that it sends a horrible message to Halo’s audience about the natures of abuse, codependency, and personal responsibility.
And that goes on top of the capital crimes against ALL the sentient races of the galaxy that Cortana has perpetuated as well. Ignoring that is not justice, nor is it morally right or responsible. And it is nothing short of disgusting that people are being so blind to the obvious wrongness of the situation simply out of favoritism for Cortana. Enough is enough.
Cortana brought down every retribution she rightly deserves on herself. And 343i crossed the line way too far in ‘Halo 5’ with what they had her do for a “peaceful solution” to be remotely viable now.
> Do we eliminate cortana like all the other enemies we’ve killed over the years –
Yes.
Seriously, this isn’t that complex.
> – or for once, treat the antagonist with dignity and respect, given her history, as well as the disasters with Jul (dying like nothing) or the didact (dying officially in a comic, instead of the game, so he was sort of ‘killed’ twice).
No.
Like I said, Cortana’s history as a protagonist already was honored in ‘Halo 4’. And as of the end of ‘Halo 5’ she is officially out of chances. All that’s left to do is treat her like the truly vile villain she is now, and she “deserves” nothing more than that. 343i shelving Jul and the Didact in especially pathetic ways (which were done only to make way for her as the new antagonist in the first place) does not change anything about that either.
> 2533274903272689;1:
> -Master Chief: Our duty as soldiers is to protect humanity. Whatever the cost. (Halo 4)
> -Halo 5: In Meridian Station he escaped in a Guardian, creating a massive destruction and genocide just to reach Cortana.
>
> What do you think, should Master Chief save Cortana (his only friend), or humanity instead? What did they teach Spartans II about good and evil?
Even though Cortana is not his only friend…
I think chief;s morality can be best summed up as “1 sacrifice for many” at the start of his career… He knew what he had to do with Sam… and that was a major point for his character development. That was most likely bought on with what happened to the augmentations. Conversely you also have the Issue with Johnson and the flood sacrifice… so it seem Halsey made reconsider his opinion. Chief appears to do what he believes is right (like the hunt for truth ambassador thing). A far cry from him being a machine…