NOTE: I made a previous thread talking about this, however the title of the thread kinda botched it from being a full fledged discussion and instead got major backlash. So I have decided to make a part 2 to that thread and executing it properly this time!
MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!
Ok, so as I said before, I beat the campaign of Halo 5 Guardians and saw the Legendary ending with the Halo ring being activated.
So I am curious as to how in the hell Cortana is going to be brought down in Halo 6 at all given that the stakes are at the highest.
This is literally Mass Effect 3 all over again and I remember playing that game and Shephard and the Normady crew faced nearly impossible odds, if they can defeat an overhwelming galactic threat then so can Masterchief along with Locke and the Aribiter!
But here is the reason why I wonder how Cortana is going to be defeated at all given that she has essentially become the Reapers of Mass Effect, Skynet from Terminator and Ultron from Marvel all in one!
First, she has or had the domain on Genesis that gave her Precursor information, cured her of her rampancy and corrupted her, but at the same time made her into a powerful entity beyond that of an AI.
Second, she has the Guardians, the Promethians, all of the Forunner Technology including Halo Arrays and the AI’s across the galaxy on her side and at her disposal.
Third, with all that power and knowledge in her hands, plus the combined ability to be anywhere in the blink of an eye, the galaxy could very much be screwed by stealth tech attacks or malfunctioning equipment.
That being said, Cortana is nearly unstoppable! Unless we have all of the monitors of the Forerunner installations such as 343 Guilty Spark who was resurrected, Exuberant Witness on our side since they are bound to be p*ssed off at the fact that they have been robbed of their installations to say the least.
Combine that with the Librarian who is although technically dead, she has transcended into a higher being and sped up Master Chief’s evolution in Halo 4. So if we go back to Requim and get her on our side, that would be a plus and not too far fetched at this point in the story.
Then the possibility of bringing back Mendicant Bias, an AI that went rogue similar to that of how Cortana has could play an extremely essential role in how to defeat Cortana since she could grant knowledge to the Infinity Crew (which includes the Arbiter and the Sangheili at this point) on how to bring her down and on top of that, help everyone bring Cortana down in general like how Exuberant helped in Halo 5. Mendicant Bias did help Masterchief once before after all, on the Ark through the terminals.
Finally, you have the possibility of Forerunners like the Diadect still out in the Galaxy out there that could form an alliance with all life in the Galaxy in an effort to defeat Cortana and the AI’s once and for all only to deal with the Forerunners that aided you later. Kinda like what happened with the Gravemind and the Covenant in Halo 3.
One thing comes to mind when it comes to all of this! Cortana as we know has been corrupted by the Domain, but still has a heart for Masterchief to the point where she was planning on taking him with her despite the rift that occurred with the two. Also, the fact that she is activating the Halo arrays goes COMPLETELY against what she stood for in the past 4 games! It makes me and probably others wonder if she is being possessed somehow by the Precusors or something, much like how she was possessed by the Gravemind in Halo 3. In other words, there is a chance that she is a puppet on the strings being pulled by an even bigger bad out in the universe. With that said, some believe that in Halo 6, Cortana might be redeemed and either die a noble death by sacrificing herself again to defeat the true enemy or she might simply come back to the good side and be your ally again for Halo 7 and onward.
To top all this off, there IS a theory that some people believe and have been tossing around lately. That being that the real Cortana died in Halo 4 with the rest of her being teleported to the Domain. This can be backed up by what Cortana said at the end of Halo 4 “The rest of me is down there” meaning that a part of her saved Masterchief and the rest of her, which were small fragments got merged back together upon entering the slipspace continuum and got corrupted by the Domain, meaning that the Cortana in Halo 5 is an entirely different Cortana altogether, but just happens to share some aspects of the original, namely her memories and feelings for John 117.
So that all said, I truly wonder how Cortana is going to go down in Halo 6. Do you all think that she is going to be eliminated and finished off once and for all or do you think that there is a chance that she might redeem herself and come back to the good side again? More importantly, overall, how do you all think Cortana is going to be defeated or saved from going down this dark path she has taken in Halo 6?
Tell me your thoughts in the comments below as always!