Cortana's Faith ***spoilers***

[Kiing 0f Coffe]

I like Cortana, but there's just no plausible way to bring her back. The Didact's ship was hit by a nuclear blast, then fell into Earth's atmosphere and (at least mostly) burned up. There is no possible way for her to survive.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks she should stay dead.

[Hᴜᴍᴘsᴛʏʟᴇs]

Beside Mendicant Bias, Cortana is the only other A.I. who has achieved the Metastability stage of Rampancy. This was seen when she became a physical hardlight avatar of herself, restrained the Didact to a hardlight bridge, and also touched Chief's chestplate.

 

Yes, she was blown to smithereens by a HAVOK nuke. Yes, the ship was disintegrated through the atmosphere. Yes, she says that she must "go".

 

I, for one, am not encouraging her return; I just believe that it is certainly feasible. Let me divulge:

 

1. Mendicant Bias' Compound Mind was fragmented and sent away. After appx 100,000 years, he returned to a stable state and assisted the fight against the Flood in 2553. Now, if educated rumors are true, the giant Forerunner-esque bird in the 'Halo on Xbox One' trailer is guarding Mendicant Bias, or rather a fragment. It seems as if he would shed some light (no pun intended) on Chief's trivial situation.

 

2. Halsey is going to be a key player in H5, and Cortana was digitally emulated from her essence (or something along those lines). She's also a brainiac; although everyone hates her, she knows what she's doing.

 

3. The Librarian...the Lifeworker, the one whose job is to catalog and repopulation the entire universe of sentient life, has had Cortana in her realm. If she could calibrate and unlock an ancient geas in Chief's genetic composition, you better believe she has a back-up flash drive.

 

4. The introduction of the Composer, Ancillas, and Forerunner artifacts. All interesting, all involving Forerunners, all beyond current human technology. Once again, they populated the entire f'ckn galaxy.

 

I think that each and every main character, protagonist or antagonist, is going to go through serious moral dilemmas of what is right and wrong. Friends will become foes, and foes, friends. Characters will have changes of heart, or internal struggles that will give them more depth. Every character is somehow related to another. Chief -> Cortana -> Halsey -> Jul M'Dama -> Didact -> Librarian -> Chief.  I also think that with 2 more games in the Reclaimer Trilogy, that there is ample time to reintroduce Cortana when least expected.

 

If 343 plays their cards right, they might have created the perfectly chaotic maelstrom that will convulge all at the right time down the storyline - then, and only then, will Cortana return.