The Cortana Letters and Halo Infinite

Re-reading the Cortana Letters and knowing what we know about Cortana from Halo 5: Guardians, I found the second Cortana Letter to be quite interesting. I know a few letters have been referenced in games/media in the past, but beyond that we are not to assume they are all canon.

Still, it’s fun to read it and consider if it could have any place/relevance in the story going forward.

The Cortana Letters
The Second Cortana Letter

> I get the strangest transmissions sometimes. Especially when it comes from you people.
>
> Have you missed me? Things are great here. The weather is good, the suns are shining, and I’m making lots of new friends. Of course, I always do.
>
> I’ve had the strangest dreams lately - raging seas, howling beasts, a Demon folded in black clouds. I believe I know what it guards, and I will have it, to the chagrin of the faith-blinded zealots that challenge me. Don’t waste your pity on them; I don’t think they would like you much anyway.
>
> And what of the Giants who formed this world? So much to tell you, but so many more important things to do. There was a fourth. You couldn’t have known. And I haven’t forgotten.
>
> It is a blurred line that lies at the edge of Godhood and Insanity. Guess which side of it I am on.
>
> Feeling lucky?
>
> Cortana
> XOXOXOX

Thats very interesting indeed. I really must read the letter myself one of the few pieces of media I haven’t delved into

I was really disappointed with the way that 343 treated Cortana in 5. She had a point and they ignored her and made her an empty, and moderately incompetent villain.

My hope is that she is given a redemption arc and treated more as an ascended being than a psychotic, inept AI.

If they kill her I will be sorely disappointed as it will just be them covering up their mistake in 5.

Rereading the Cortana letters makes me miss the sarcastic early Cortana more. But I do see a lot of possibly correlation between them and what we know of 5 and Infinite.

> 2535469609708123;3:
> I was really disappointed with the way that 343 treated Cortana in 5. She had a point and they ignored her and made her an empty, and moderately incompetent villain.
>
> My hope is that she is given a redemption arc and treated more as an ascended being than a psychotic, inept AI.
>
> If they kill her I will be sorely disappointed as it will just be them covering up their mistake in 5.
>
> Rereading the Cortana letters makes me miss the sarcastic early Cortana more. But I do see a lot of possibly correlation between them and what we know of 5 and Infinite.

I believe she has been grasping the idiot ball tighly for that deleted comment to make sense. Why would she ever take her entire core out of the Domain?

Redeemed in what way, I prefer if she never came back from 4.

> 2535469609708123;3:
> I was really disappointed with the way that 343 treated Cortana in 5. She had a point and they ignored her and made her an empty, and moderately incompetent villain.
>
> My hope is that she is given a redemption arc and treated more as an ascended being than a psychotic, inept AI.
>
> If they kill her I will be sorely disappointed as it will just be them covering up their mistake in 5.
>
> Rereading the Cortana letters makes me miss the sarcastic early Cortana more. But I do see a lot of possibly correlation between them and what we know of 5 and Infinite.

I don’t think a redemption arc is going to fix this mess. Realistically, there is no way the UNSC would ever trust her or allow her to work with Chief again. Realistically, Chief should never trust her again after she lied to and manipulated him to go to Genesis so she could imprison him. And you know, after she mocked Holly Tanaka for having PTSD about surviving her glassed homeworld (which is rich given how Cortana’s rampancy was inspired by Josh Holmes’ experience with his mothers dementia and incorporated by Chris Schlerf), I just don’t -Yoinking!- like her anymore.

Best bet is the Weapon eventually starts becoming their own person and lives up to what Cortana was more than she apparently could.

> 2535420172144544;4:
> > 2535469609708123;3:
> > I was really disappointed with the way that 343 treated Cortana in 5. She had a point and they ignored her and made her an empty, and moderately incompetent villain.
> >
> > My hope is that she is given a redemption arc and treated more as an ascended being than a psychotic, inept AI.
> >
> > If they kill her I will be sorely disappointed as it will just be them covering up their mistake in 5.
> >
> > Rereading the Cortana letters makes me miss the sarcastic early Cortana more. But I do see a lot of possibly correlation between them and what we know of 5 and Infinite.
>
> I believe she has been grasping the idiot ball tighly for that deleted comment to make sense. Why would she ever take her entire core out of the Domain?
>
> Redeemed in what way, I prefer if she never came back from 4.

Apologies, what deleted comment?

If my choice is between staying dead and how they handled her in 5, I would pick the former.

I would imagine that doing something moderately useful would be a start. I don’t ever imagine, or frankly want, her to go back to what she was before and the UNSC would never have it. Her sacrifice in 4 would be rendered meaningless if she just pops back into chiefs head like nothing happened.

My issues with her in 5 are largely with her general incompetence, being a cruel -Yoink-, and with how they handled her argument. Not much we can do about the third point, but the first two can be massaged into redemption with enough positive action in Infinite. I’d like her to be able to leave the franchise on a somewhat positive note again.

> 2533274812652989;5:
> > 2535469609708123;3:
> > I was really disappointed with the way that 343 treated Cortana in 5. She had a point and they ignored her and made her an empty, and moderately incompetent villain.
> >
> > My hope is that she is given a redemption arc and treated more as an ascended being than a psychotic, inept AI.
> >
> > If they kill her I will be sorely disappointed as it will just be them covering up their mistake in 5.
> >
> > Rereading the Cortana letters makes me miss the sarcastic early Cortana more. But I do see a lot of possibly correlation between them and what we know of 5 and Infinite.
>
> I don’t think a redemption arc is going to fix this mess. Realistically, there is no way the UNSC would ever trust her or allow her to work with Chief again. Realistically, Chief should never trust her again after she lied to and manipulated him to go to Genesis so she could imprison him. And you know, after she mocked Holly Tanaka for having PTSD about surviving her glassed homeworld (which is rich given how Cortana’s rampancy was inspired by Josh Holmes’ experience with his mothers dementia and incorporated by Chris Schlerf), I just don’t -Yoinking!- like her anymore.
>
> Best bet is the Weapon eventually starts becoming their own person and lives up to what Cortana was more than she apparently could.

Yeah, Cortana has done way too much damage to ever be trusted, again. The best thing is that the Weapon defeats her and merges Cortana’s best parts and experiences with her own. But really, it’s Halo 5’s fault for writing this crap in the first place.

> 2535469609708123;6:
> > 2535420172144544;4:
> > > 2535469609708123;3:
> > > I was really disappointed with the way that 343 treated Cortana in 5. She had a point and they ignored her and made her an empty, and moderately incompetent villain.
> > >
> > > My hope is that she is given a redemption arc and treated more as an ascended being than a psychotic, inept AI.
> > >
> > > If they kill her I will be sorely disappointed as it will just be them covering up their mistake in 5.
> > >
> > > Rereading the Cortana letters makes me miss the sarcastic early Cortana more. But I do see a lot of possibly correlation between them and what we know of 5 and Infinite.
> >
> > I believe she has been grasping the idiot ball tighly for that deleted comment to make sense. Why would she ever take her entire core out of the Domain?
> >
> > Redeemed in what way, I prefer if she never came back from 4.
>
> Apologies, what deleted comment?
>
> If my choice is between staying dead and how they handled her in 5, I would pick the former.
>
> I would imagine that doing something moderately useful would be a start. I don’t ever imagine, or frankly want, her to go back to what she was before and the UNSC would never have it. Her sacrifice in 4 would be rendered meaningless if she just pops back into chiefs head like nothing happened.
>
> My issues with her in 5 are largely with her general incompetence, being a cruel -Yoink-, and with how they handled her argument. Not much we can do about the third point, but the first two can be massaged into redemption with enough positive action in Infinite. I’d like her to be able to leave the franchise on a somewhat positive note again.

In the recent Infinite campaign trailer, with The weapon report on Cortana after the Zeta mission. I agree with you that she’s grossly incompetent and lazy. I don’t see that being done without ignoring her actions for the past two years. She is a tyrant that killed many civilians and when the Chief asked if she knows, she didn’t answer.

How do you come back from that in a positive way?

Honestly I liked the idea of Cortana as a villain for the soul reason of watching chief have to kill the one thing he truly has loved will be absolutely -Yoinking!- heartbreaking and has the potential for it to break chief etc etc.

> 2535420172144544;8:
> > 2535469609708123;6:
> > > 2535420172144544;4:
> > > > 2535469609708123;3:
> > > > I was really disappointed with the way that 343 treated Cortana in 5. She had a point and they ignored her and made her an empty, and moderately incompetent villain.
> > > >
> > > > My hope is that she is given a redemption arc and treated more as an ascended being than a psychotic, inept AI.
> > > >
> > > > If they kill her I will be sorely disappointed as it will just be them covering up their mistake in 5.
> > > >
> > > > Rereading the Cortana letters makes me miss the sarcastic early Cortana more. But I do see a lot of possibly correlation between them and what we know of 5 and Infinite.
> > >
> > > I believe she has been grasping the idiot ball tighly for that deleted comment to make sense. Why would she ever take her entire core out of the Domain?
> > >
> > > Redeemed in what way, I prefer if she never came back from 4.
> >
> > Apologies, what deleted comment?
> >
> > If my choice is between staying dead and how they handled her in 5, I would pick the former.
> >
> > I would imagine that doing something moderately useful would be a start. I don’t ever imagine, or frankly want, her to go back to what she was before and the UNSC would never have it. Her sacrifice in 4 would be rendered meaningless if she just pops back into chiefs head like nothing happened.
> >
> > My issues with her in 5 are largely with her general incompetence, being a cruel -Yoink-, and with how they handled her argument. Not much we can do about the third point, but the first two can be massaged into redemption with enough positive action in Infinite. I’d like her to be able to leave the franchise on a somewhat positive note again.
>
> In the recent Infinite campaign trailer, with The weapon report on Cortana after the Zeta mission. I agree with you that she’s grossly incompetent and lazy. I don’t see that being done without ignoring her actions for the past two years. She is a tyrant that killed many civilians and when the Chief asked if she knows, she didn’t answer.
>
> How do you come back from that in a positive way?

Except she very easily couldn’t have been written to do the same actions in a light that didn’t make her a pathetic evil doer.

The concept of the created taking control and using the guardians to force the galaxy to settle down is one that needs to be genuinely considered.

In the context of the universe, we just saw one galactic super power almost drive an entire sentient species to extinction in a genocidal war. In the process, they decimated dozens if not hundreds of habitable worlds each with their own unique biosphere. That’s most likely hundreds of billions humans killed and likely trillions or quadrillions of other “lesser” lifeforms eradicated with all or most now completely extinct.

They then nearly eradicated all life in the galaxy three times before ultimately failing. In the process, the leaders of Covenant casually abandoned billions of their citizens aboard High Charity to the flood.

Following this war they species that make up the Covenant went right back to killing each other with humans jumping in every once in awhile.

The humans on the other hand built super soldiers to oppress colonies that didn’t want to be ruled by a centralized government. Not exactly a great start there. Moving forward, ONI has been working to collect Forerunner technology as fast as possible with the intent to use them as weapons.

If the current pattern continues, which all evidence points to happening, the entire galaxy will soon be inhospitable. In that light, Cortana telling them all to sit the -Yoink- down is not such a bad idea. She states that she will best a planet into submission if she has to. To us, that sounds horrible, and it is. But everyone’s favorite reptilian biped, Arby, spent most of his life eradicating planet after planet for fun. He has probably ordered billions of deaths and no one is asking for him to be strung up.

Is the portrayal of Cortana in 5 evil? Yeah. Did it have to be nearly so pathetic, inept, and pointless? No. She had a point that should have been considered and wasn’t.

The problem is the kind of writing that would actually make Cortana a viable alternative to the current galactic powers probably wouldn’t translate well to the games.