





Quote: "All of the readings I would expect from a Forerunner structure of this scale are erratic at best. I am beginning to wonder if the signal is in fact bouncing off these locations as I theorized or if she is trying to access them directly, and failing."













Quote: "You think she tricked the Master Chief into abandoning his post? Respectfully, sir, to what end? Why is Cortana the problem?! Because she refused to die when she was supposed to?"







Quote: Eles agiram como eles estavam recebendo ordens de uma grande central inteligência. (They acted like they were receiving orders from a great central intelligence.)"



"Uma rede neural tão avançada seria capaz de abordar a degradação que ocorre com o envelhecimento de inteligências artificiais. (Such an advanced neural network would be capable of halting the degradation process that happens to artificial intelligences.")



"Você não entende? Se as inteligências artificiais pudessem ser hospedadas inteiramente numa matriz de rede, nada impediria elas de superar a vida biológica. (Don't you understand? If artificial intelligences could be forever hosted in a network matrix, nothing would stop them from surpassing biological life.)"

I've said before I didn't plan on making another Cortana-themed thread going over her character and such, but given 343's relative silence on this matter, the quote from Frankie about people who think Cortana is evil lacking the ability to see the "subtlety and nuance" behind her change in Halo 5, and Haruspis' recent efforts of analyzing each level in Halo 5 (seriously check it out), this is has been a monkey on my back for months now. Not a crippling monkey mind you, just an annoyance at the back of my head.Still, if Mr. O'Connor truly believes that there is subtlety and nuance behind Cortana's role in Halo 5, I figure I should look at her behavior and lines to try and find it. Thing is though, I'm only going to examine elements from Halo 5 itself. I realize peeling back pieces of the expanded universe may shed some light on Cortana's development, but Frankie made no specifications and was talking about Halo 5 itself when he made his subtlety and nuance comment, so I'm going to see what the game says to really grasp if things are as deep as he says.So our first tangible mention of Cortana comes from Halsey Research Notes 4 in the first mission.Nothing major, just Cortana seemingly trying to access the Forerunner structures on Kamchatka. One can infer that Cortana had some role to play in awakening the Guardians prior to Meridian though Vale seems to think that was the first Cortana personally raised. It seems like odd logic to me why the Guardians would all of the sudden start activating just as Cortana attempts to start taking over the galaxy. Moving on, I think we can infer that the Prometheans no longer obeying Jul 'Mdama may be a sign that Cortana has by this point assumed control of them, but that may be an assumption. If true, however, it raises some troubling implications later on.The opening cutscene for Blue Team seems to infer that the UNSC is aware of what Cortana is doing, though perhaps only the upper branches of command and Captain Lasky and Commander Palmer. Halsey seems worried and concerned with how much Cortana has managed to do. The fact Halsey is concerned makes me worried. Afterall, Halsey did not have hatred for Cortana so for her to be worried about her seems pretty noteworthy. However, further into the mission we get Cortana guiding Chief in a vision (somehow) to instruct him that the Domain is open, Meridian is next, and that the Reclamation is beginning with a Guardian rising behind her. My suspicions are raised about Cortana's intent since she shrouds herself in shadow and is pretty vague about what is going on. The only definite thing she tells Chief is that Meridian is important. I don't know about you, but this seems like it has the makings of a trap. Cortana has to know the kind of trauma the Chief was going through and even how the flimsiest of leads will have him go where she wants. He went back to the Flood-infested High Charity on the flimsy notion she could still be saved and was still functioning after all. There is an element of manipulation here that I think makes itself apparent later on. Also, she didn’t say anything to Chief or anybody for nearly a year. She let Chief think she was dead.Glassed begins with Halsey, Lasky, Palmer, and Roland having a discussion about Cortana with Halsey mentioning how she is a danger and in control of the Domain which allows her to access the technology that caused the damage. Roland objects with:On one hand I can understand Roland's outburst here since it feels like a set-up for the introduction of the Created as a faction in the Halo universe and to prime people to not think Cortana is up to no good. But it comes off as a pretty weak attempt since Cortana not being dead wasn't the problem, but Cortana having control of Forerunner technology causing destruction is. Moving on to Meridian itself, the implication of Cortana controlling the Prometheans starts to come into play. Prometheans are attacking the miners and security personnel at Meridian's space elevator. If Cortana is in control then that means she is allowing the killing of innocent people who have done her no wrong. That's...not a good thing and makes me wonder why. I've seen speculation that this was to slow down Osiris so Chief and Blue Team could make it to the Guardian unscathed. The problem is that even these forces and the Warden fail to slow down Osiris so these people effectively died for no tangible reason. But I'm getting ahead of myself.While Cortana doesn't have any appearances or direct mentions, there may be a hint that confirms her role behind the attacking Prometheans. There are two citizens in this level you can talk to yet one speaks in Brazillian. Luckily, his dialogue has been translated and here is what he says in spite of the bad job his friend helps translate.That great central intelligence seems to point to Cortana to me. I suppose it could also point to the Warden Eternal, but as far as I know the Warden has no presence on Kamchatka whereas Cortana seemingly did. Yet even if the intelligence is Warden, then that means Cortana gave the Warden free reign to do what he wanted. That's negligence at best to outright indifference at worst.