So I just read “Human Weakness” which was really cool cause it had the Gravemind and even a reference to Hunt the Truth. Yeah, read it again if you didn’t notice, it says “Part of her still seemed able to carry on this desperate hunt for truth. Was Halsey a monster? The doctor had a track record in it. She stole children and experimented on them…” But that’s not what this post is about.
My theory is that Master Chief only rescued a fragment of Cortana in Halo 3, and the rest of her is with the Gravemind. This idea was based initially by my idea that Cortana’s fate would mirror that of Mendicant Bias. They do line up a bit. This theory was then supported by the amount of times the Gravemind said “We exist together now,” which I noticed in my campaign playthroughs on the MCC.
So now I read “Human Weakness” after I saw it brought up a couple times on the forums, and I’m even more convinced. The Gravemind takes her through the stages of rampancy (from Marathon and RvB) which someone on here tried to tell me wasn’t canon, but it is…it’s right there in “Human Weakness.” All except for the theoretical fourth stage was listed, though it was implied and then proven by Mendicant Bias. The Gravemind offers her eternal life, which she is inclined to accept. In the Gravemind, she wouldn’t have to worry about outgrowing her matrix because the Gravemind is infinite. No, it never actually says she took the offer (closest thing it says is “She couldn’t stop herself from being consumed now. She was almost curious to find out more about death.”) but I’m going with it.
Cortana may have been confirmed dead, but that might only mean that the Cortana we saw in Halo 4 died. The Gravemind did say in Halo 3 “And yet, perhaps a part of her remains.” I think that Chief rescued a small fragment of Cortana, a part she designated to hold off rampancy (for she was already rampant in “Human Weakness”) to take care of John that eventually died in Halo 4.
Whether or not any of this is true should become apparent in Halo 5 because it’s pretty clear that the Flood is coming back. I think it would be a great plot twist, the greatest possible plot twist in my opinion (probably just so I could say I told you so), if you had to fight Cortana as some sort of final boss along with the Flood. What do you think?
Very good write up, this also makes me think that in Halo CE Bungie thought an alternate ending where Cortana became mad with power and wanted to take over Installation 04 and the universe. Could this idea be the seed of what you are saying?
Perhaps Cortana fragmented a large portion of herself to keep herself alive and the index safe. It’s also possible that the Gravemind can now manipulate John using Cortana’s memories and voice.
The problem is that AIs cannot permanently separate themselves without dying. An AI is like a cake. You can take a piece of that cake out and therefore make the cake smaller/lesser. If you eat that cake which we can use as a metaphor for an AI fragment being destroyed then that cake will never be whole again. Now cakes won’t malfunction if a piece of them is ripped out, but an AI will.
If Cortana were fragmented not only would be know about it she’d be able to feel it in some way.
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> The problem is that AIs cannot permanently separate themselves without dying. An AI is like a cake. You can take a piece of that cake out and therefore make the cake smaller/lesser. If you eat that cake which we can use as a metaphor for an AI fragment being destroyed then that cake will never be whole again. Now cakes won’t malfunction if a piece of them is ripped out, but an AI will.
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> If Cortana were fragmented not only would be know about it she’d be able to feel it in some way.
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> > 2533274833380875;6:
> > The problem is that AIs cannot permanently separate themselves without dying. An AI is like a cake. You can take a piece of that cake out and therefore make the cake smaller/lesser. If you eat that cake which we can use as a metaphor for an AI fragment being destroyed then that cake will never be whole again. Now cakes won’t malfunction if a piece of them is ripped out, but an AI will.
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> > If Cortana were fragmented not only would be know about it she’d be able to feel it in some way.
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> Copies?
The Cortana we took to the Pillar of Autumn in Reach was just a fragment that was re-united with the rest of herself. Mendicant bias was fragmented and when High Charity landed on the Ark he said they brought back to him the last shard. I think they can.
This is certainly one of the better thought out theories I’ve read. Thank you for sharing it with the community! I’m sure there are others like me, who like to read these theories but don’t like to think of our own, and we appreciate it a lot.
Overall its a good theory… But I ask… if she is with the gravemind… and the gravemind exploded with the ring in halo 3…? Or do you mean like… she became a part of there flood hive mind?
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> Overall its a good theory… But I ask… if she is with the gravemind… and the gravemind exploded with the ring in halo 3…? Or do you mean like… she became a part of there flood hive mind?
Yeah, the Gravemind was still talking to you after you blew him up. And I do mean she’s with the hive mind, somewhat in the same way Mendicant Bias was
The only problem I see is that in Human Weakness, Cortana did not join the Gravemind and take up his offer. She shut herself down at the last minute. You even bring it up, but instead ignore it and base your idea on just a guess, and an unsupported one at that. I would say it is at least probable that such an event could have happened, but it isn;t very likely as no real supporting evidence can corroborate with it.
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> The only problem I see is that in Human Weakness, Cortana did not join the Gravemind and take up his offer. She shut herself down at the last minute. You even bring it up, but instead ignore it and base your idea on just a guess, and an unsupported one at that. I would say it is at least probable that such an event could have happened, but it isn;t very likely as no real supporting evidence can corroborate with it.
I mean, yeah it’s just a theory. If I were 343, I wouldn’t have told everyone this was going to happen beforehand either. But from the looks of it, they’ve certainly left enough room for my theory to be true. I think Halo 5 will show us one way or another
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> > Overall its a good theory… But I ask… if she is with the gravemind… and the gravemind exploded with the ring in halo 3…? Or do you mean like… she became a part of there flood hive mind?
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> Yeah, the Gravemind was still talking to you after you blew him up. And I do mean she’s with the hive mind, somewhat in the same way Mendicant Bias was
Source please? Because I don’t recall the gravemind talking to you after you blow up the ring in halo 3.
In regard to the hive mind… that raises a whole new can of worms… because… whats it range? is it gravemind to gravemind? intergalactic?..
I wouldn’t really say you have that much wiggle room. In First Strike, the copies of Cortana knew that they were copies. Yet in Halo 3, Human Weakness or Halo 4 we do not see any evidence to suggest the AI Chief has is a copy. Also, I don’t get this communities obsession to make Cortana evil as some Gravemind-corrupted boss fight. I’ve seen that trope dozens of times and it is just a cheap emotional punch, nothing else. Cortana’s death was tragic in Halo 4 because we expected Chief to somehow win as he always does, but he could not save her. Yet she went out on her own terms, helping Chief take down the Didact, saving Chief in a reversal of roles and briefly being physical as she always wanted to do. It is sad, but it has some positivity to it. Making her evil just ruins Halo 4’s ending and I would even say ruins Cortana’s character as a whole by showing how she had no will to resist the Gravemind and just abandoned everything she cared for.
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> > > Overall its a good theory… But I ask… if she is with the gravemind… and the gravemind exploded with the ring in halo 3…? Or do you mean like… she became a part of there flood hive mind?
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> > Yeah, the Gravemind was still talking to you after you blew him up. And I do mean she’s with the hive mind, somewhat in the same way Mendicant Bias was
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> Source please? Because I don’t recall the gravemind talking to you after you blow up the ring in halo 3.
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> In regard to the hive mind… that raises a whole new can of worms… because… whats it range? is it gravemind to gravemind? intergalactic?..
I really don’t know that much about the Flood to tell you that, to be honest. And my, bad, I thought you were saying after we blew up the Gravemind, not the Halo ring. He still talks to you after you destroy High Charity.
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> I wouldn’t really say you have that much wiggle room. In First Strike, the copies of Cortana knew that they were copies. Yet in Halo 3, Human Weakness or Halo 4 we do not see any evidence to suggest the AI Chief has is a copy. Also, I don’t get this communities obsession to make Cortana evil as some Gravemind-corrupted boss fight. I’ve seen that trope dozens of times and it is just a cheap emotional punch, nothing else. Cortana’s death was tragic in Halo 4 because we expected Chief to somehow win as he always does, but he could not save her. Yet she went out on her own terms, helping Chief take down the Didact, saving Chief in a reversal of roles and briefly being physical as she always wanted to do. It is sad, but it has some positivity to it. Making her evil just ruins Halo 4’s ending and I would even say ruins Cortana’s character as a whole by showing how she had no will to resist the Gravemind and just abandoned everything she cared for.
I actually don’t hear anybody else saying this, but on the other hand, I don’t read people’s Cortana theories often cause I already have my own. I don’t think she would have had to know she was a copy. Maybe she wasn’t even a copy, all I’m proposing is a situation where she goes with the Chief and the Gravemind both. I’m not getting too hung up on specifics.
You know me. I thought Halo 4’s end was in itself a cheap emotional punch (which I don’t want to argue about), but I think my theory would redeem that. And if she left a piece with John because she cared about him, and also took the Gravemind’s offer so that she could reach her goal of knowing everything, I don’t see how that’s abandoning everything she cared for. It’s more her checking off everything she cares for from the list. I think it would be epic if this happened, and they could tie it back to so many things, but that’s just me