You know, the moment I knew about rampancy and that Halo 4 was coming, I had an idea of what was going to happen in Halo 4. I foresaw a tragedy coming. Cortana is going so crazy that she becomes a threat to John-117 and all of humanity. In the end, she goes so crazy that she plans on attacking humanity and anything else she finds in need of termination. John would have no choice but to kill her. That’s what I thought was going to happen in Halo 4. But alas, it didn’t happen. I think that instead of a sad love story, it would have had more of an impact on the fans if John had no choice but to kill his only friend left. What do you guys think?
-Ryan
An anger stage that long would be unrealistic.
Cortana also seems to be a special case because she never went as far as to try and kill John. This may be because of her being a smart A.I.
I think an ending where John is powerless to prevent the inevitable is far better than an ending where John has to solve his problems with killing- per usual.
The story of a machine that developed humanity and a man who lost his is far more powerful then the same old “Cortana went bat -Yoink- shoot until dead”.
You should read this man: http://haruspis.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/halo-4-level-by-level-analysis-prologue/
The author summarizes brilliantly the theme and plot of Halo 4.
This game has a lot of flaws, too many to list.
But if Mass Effect has taught us anything, good story telling can make a game and bad story telling can break a game.
> Cortana also seems to be a special case because she never went as far as to try and kill John. This may be because of her being a smart A.I.
Just to note, only smart A.I. go through rampancy. Though you are correct that Cortana was special. She was the most advanced A.I. created, created from the mind of one of the most brilliant humans of all time.
On topic: I am much happier with 343’s story. It was not a love story, as the relationship between John and Cortana is purely platonic.
> > Cortana also seems to be a special case because she never went as far as to try and kill John. This may be because of her being a smart A.I.
>
> Just to note, only smart A.I. go through rampancy. Though you are correct that Cortana was special. She was the most advanced A.I. created, created from the mind of one of the most brilliant humans of all time.
>
> On topic: I am much happier with 343’s story. It was not a love story, as the relationship between John and Cortana is purely platonic.
She was also created from a living brain, something that is highly illegal, which is part of why she’s special. As for the love thing, there is such thing as platonic love too, the love of a friend, love of family, love of brother sister, etc. However, due to the fact both lacked a -Yoink!- drive, it isn’t unreasonable to think that they might ‘love’ each other in a platonic way.
> You should read this man: http://haruspis.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/halo-4-level-by-level-analysis-prologue/
>
> The author summarizes brilliantly the theme and plot of Halo 4.
<3
I have a number of other posts detailing Cortana’s arc as well - perhaps the most comprehensive one would be this.
I’ve been considering stuff, and I think it might be interesting if a rampant shard of Cortana survived. Then we could have both Chief’s and (the player’s) drive to find and rescue what he believes to be Cortana driving the plot of most of Halo 5. Towards the end, it would be revealed that Cortana as we knew her is indeed dead, and that a Gravemind, the spearhead of a Precursor invasion force, has been leading us on all along. Being crazy, the rampant shard would then attempt to reverse-Composer herself (Cortana always dreamed of being human…), having been enabled to to so by said Gravemind.
Chief is left to kill the both physically and mentally twisted husk of his dead friend as a boss battle. To make things worse, in Chief’s drive to recover Cortana the Gravemind has tricked Chief into aiding his interests, and the game ends on the darkest note ever for a Halo game, with galactic destruction imminent and a thoroughly broken Chief pulling himself together for one last fight. He needs to redeem himself and take revenge. The Precursors must be stopped, even if he dies in the process.
Credits! 
> > > Cortana also seems to be a special case because she never went as far as to try and kill John. This may be because of her being a smart A.I.
> >
> > Just to note, only smart A.I. go through rampancy. Though you are correct that Cortana was special. She was the most advanced A.I. created, created from the mind of one of the most brilliant humans of all time.
> >
> > On topic: I am much happier with 343’s story. It was not a love story, as the relationship between John and Cortana is purely platonic.
>
> She was also created from a living brain, something that is highly illegal, which is part of why she’s special. As for the love thing, <mark>there is such thing as platonic love too</mark>, the love of a friend, love of family, love of brother sister, etc. However, due to the fact both lacked a -Yoink!- drive, it isn’t unreasonable to think that they might ‘love’ each other in a platonic way.
I think this is what I was what I meant to say.
> > > > Cortana also seems to be a special case because she never went as far as to try and kill John. This may be because of her being a smart A.I.
> > >
> > > Just to note, only smart A.I. go through rampancy. Though you are correct that Cortana was special. She was the most advanced A.I. created, created from the mind of one of the most brilliant humans of all time.
> > >
> > > On topic: I am much happier with 343’s story. It was not a love story, as the relationship between John and Cortana is purely platonic.
> >
> > She was also created from a living brain, something that is highly illegal, which is part of why she’s special. As for the love thing, <mark>there is such thing as platonic love too</mark>, the love of a friend, love of family, love of brother sister, etc. However, due to the fact both lacked a -Yoink!- drive, it isn’t unreasonable to think that they might ‘love’ each other in a platonic way.
>
> I think this is what I was what I meant to say.
I know, but there are several forms of platonic love, I was just clarifying the options.
They’re two entities spending most of their time sharing a body and having only each other to confide in. The amount of trust and reliance they place on each other to complete their missions is massive. Even when Cortana was losing it, John went ahead and popped her into things most sane people wouldn’t put a rampant AI in.
He trusted her to keep it together. Even before she achieved meta stability he regarded her as human.
The parallels and differences between them makes their relationship something I wouldn’t chalk up to “love” or “romance”.
They’re more like kindred spirits.
I don’t know, I thought it was pretty moving how Chief was unable to save Cortana and finally truly lost for the first time in the games.
I really thought Master Chief was going to find Dr. Halsey and save Cortana. But guess 343i wanted to kick things off with a Bang! I’m happy the route they went with, and really curious to see how John lives without Cortana. It definitely sets up entering Blue Team in the games which is a great thing, but I think we are going to miss having Cortana after Halo 5.