Johnson: Don't 'ever' let her go! 343: Whoops, butterfingers!

The last scene between Cortana and Chief in both Halo 4 and Infinite still makes me cry. It was a good send off for her. Both times.

My thoughts on why I want Cortana to be alive: She is the first person, heck the first words uttered in this franchise. She is who half of Noble Team dies for, she is the other survivor of Halo, she sacrifices herself in Halo 2 to send you to Earth, she's who we fight through a fully infested High Charity in Halo 3 for and is our companion as we float through space with, she's who we fight everyone for to save from rampancy in Halo 4, and then she's who needs saving from herself in Halo 5. Cortana is just as essential to Halo as the Chief is. There's a reason Green & Blue is even a theme in the franchise. Hell, 343 should have listened to Sgt Johnson "Don't ever let her go". I hope there's some sort of a merging of the Weapon and Cortana or something because Cortana is just so integral to Halo.

"Near Genocide"...🤔 I'm pretty sure blowing up Doisac is a pretty successful Genocide 😂

Cortrana had control of the guardians and access to all defenses of the halo ring but could not defend herself against Atriox ? So, Atriox was able to capture Cortana, but Cortana caused a self-destruct.

Why would firing the ring destroy Cortana? Halo is designed to send out a pulse killing everything with a central nervous system. Cortana does not have a central nervous system. The rings do not hurt the Monitors so the same thing should be true for Cortana.

I’m glad Cortana came to her senses and went out as a savior rather than a genocidal dictatorial maniac. Far more believable. On that note, I love the new Cortana or whatever she plans on naming herself. I’m assuming that’s her choice or what she was hinting at at the end of the game. They better be releasing story DLC or more in the form of seasons/installments. There is so much more to explore.

I wish Cortana would have been reborn through merging ai and organics like they mentioned in Halo 5 or 4. I forget which one it was.

I dont think the Banished were already on Zeta Halo with Cortana discussing Banished terms of surrender with Atriox. I think that happened before either were at Zeta Halo. I think the Infinity arrived and deployed the weapon asap while keeping Chief on board as defense mechanism against Cortana from destroying them. After the Weapon was deployed and soon after succeeded, the Banished arrived and surprised attacked the Infinity while also invading Zeta Halo. Then Atriox met a locked down Cortana after the battle. Definitely dont think Cortana would have allowed the Banish to land and establish themselves on the ring while she wasn't locked down by the Weapon.

You know what would have made halo 100x better? Getting to actually fight Cortana. The running, the creation of the “weapon”, fighting to deliver it, etc. You could have had an entire campaign in what took place between halo 5 and infinite.

Perhaps I just mis-understood a load of stuff but I really think the Cortana story in Infinite was poor. Halo 4 gave Cortana a great send off. It made me feel sad. Halo 5 made it really to empathise with the Master Chief, trying to find out how Cortana was back and why she had apparently turned evil. It made me feel motivated and you felt the weight of her apparent betrayal. Infinite just felt like a let down. I didn't feel anything. I get why a lot of people don't like her going evil in 5 but in Infinite she's basically just "yeah I shouldn't have done that, we were meant to be a team, oh well I'm good again and now I'm going to just die". She has access to the Domain, control of the Prometheans and the Guardians, surely she could have either effectively fought the Banished and/or moved herself off of the ring?

I love the story but still disappointed Cortana died off screen. She deserved more

I’m still confused. What was the point of her being evil in the first place? And how did she survive halo 4’s death??

I very much loved the dislodge that played throughout the last sequences of the game especially at Respiratory where Jacob Keys was shown off, which I totally understand the purpose so The Weapon can be acquainted with Cheifs intent with the rings, what he hoes through when it comes to sacrifice... and also establish Cortana's purpose more as she was an important asset to protect not just for her sake but also humanity's. But I think what could really have been nastolgic and probably hit even harder would be the remeberence of Sargent Johnson as he was a true friend but even more, the second last thing he told Cheif was to "Don't EVER let her go" before "passing the torch" onto John to light the ring.

I feel like cortana isnt completely gone. with the domain and her having access to it, that maybe she'll be like another mendicant bias. silently pulling string to assist chief, stuff like that. But what happened with the idea of the logic plague? I was excited to see a mirror to what happened with the forerunners and mendicant bias. would like to see why or if she was infected by the logic plague

it was an abrupt ending and left everything between the last game and infinite totally unexplored or resolved in my opinion. One day she’s taking over the universe, the next day she’s dead but it’s OK because here’s her clone? Way too abrupt. Cortana deserved better than what the writers wrote for her character lol. And having Weapon choose the name Cortana is A TERRIBLE choice. She is NOT Cortana. Even Cortana said she wouldn’t ever be Cortana. Pick literally any other name but Cortana lol. There was way too much time focused on the banished and not enough on her arc.

It still amazes me that everyone doesn't know that the ring jumped to a new location and the infinity is still at the original location. It is not known what condition the infinity is in as the ring jumped before infinity was destroyed. The banished most likely lied to chief to affect him.

So glad I found this channel. So good

Cortana should have just ended at Halo 4; as planned.

*every male gamer listening to her speak, chest tightening, knowing they wished they could meet and love someone this connected and supportive*

Why didn't she just call the guardians to the zeta halo to fight the banished. How is Atriox in a position to ask for her surrender when she still has control of the forerunner guardian army?

And also. Someone else here (wolftal 117) wrote so well. Our Cortana died in Halo 4 saving our ass. In Halo 5 her remnant rampant version went off the hook but even that had traces of our Cortana who finally came around and did the unthinkable again, saved our asses by letting it all go. She truly may not have been the love we wanted but she was the friend we needed. A talkative guardian. A watchful protector. A light knight. 😅

I still don’t understand how they pulled off such a amazing story with halo 5s shit effect. Infinite was just amazing and some of the most emotional and best fun I’ve had in a while.

I hope cortana isn’t really dead. I’ve always viewed the halo series as a subtle love story as well as the awesomeness we all love.

No one’s ever really gone.

Thank you for the explanation it really helped me very much

It feels like 343 is leaving the overall Halo galaxy in a worse state then it was at the end of the Human-Covenant War. UNSC Military is practically gone, whole worlds have been reduced to primitive levels of technology by the Guardians, Banished and other groups are raining terror throughout the galaxy, various rouge Created AIs, and add to that the looming threat of the Endless coming.

Great content mate

thanks for clearing that up. cant wait to play more halo in the coming years.

Her story arc is one of those deep deep disappointments that I struggle to get past. SUch a great character and they just couldn't care less.

If Cortana didnt turn evil, halo 5 and halo infinite would have better stories.

It's really a good video. The thing I really want to see, was something like mendicant... cortana, somewhere... trying to make amends for her and chief... hide and seek with him... helping him during his journey... and not just dying, to share a message... a good message, by the way. But well... I think we need to turn the page about her... sadly.

Where was Cortanas Warden Eternal or her Promethians ? Why was she alone on Zeta halo and why didn’t she just leave the halo instead of killing herself none of it makes sense.

It’s so simple. 343 wanted to set themselves apart from Bungie. And they absolutely did. As I’m sure you’ll all agree, Cortana and the Chief are the core of the Halo franchise. Apart from the groundbreaking multiplayer and matchmaking systems, the reason why we fell in love with Halo was the relationship between John and Cortana. We’ve seen them been through hell and back together and we’re always rooting for them. Bungie understood how important the two of them were and that is why they never put them against each other. Even in the first trilogy, they knew that we would never love or follow another pair in the Halo universe. They couldn’t kill one of them off, so they separated them in Halo 2. And you know you played the hell out of Halo 3’s campaign praying to whatever gods you believe in that they’ll be reunited. And by the end, you’re like, “Hell yeah! What’s next for us!? We’re ready!” Here comes 343 and is like, “Nah, let’s kill half the heart of the franchise.” So they do, and obviously true fans were like, “Bro… what the actual $&@%?” “Killing” Cortana in Halo 4 was a huge mistake and so they were like, “Oh, I know! Let’s make her the enemy!” And yup, you guessed it… it only made things exponentially worse and further lessened the faith and respect of the Halo fan base. And finally, here comes Halo Infinite. 343 was finally able to remove their heads from a certain location of the human body. But the damage was already done. They had already destroyed what little love we had left for our dear Cortana. So what do they do? They go and try and make her this self sacrificing hero. And are even like, “See! We gave you Cortana back 😬. Everything is rainbows and sunshine again right 😅?” WRONG. In my opinion, making a copy of our beloved Cortana actually made it worse. We love characters because of their individuality. That they’re irreplaceable because there’s only one of them. But apparently, 343 thought they could just give us a copy and that we’ll be fine. When deep down you know that’s not the real Cortana. And so here we are, backwhere the first trilogy ended. “Cortana” and the Chief are finally reunited AGAIN and half the heart of the franchise is just a copy. Thanks for wasting all that time 343. Hell of a way to make a name for yourselves 👍

After Cortana's betrayal in halo 5 all i can say in response to her death is, "good bye and GOOD RIDDANCE to you TRAITOR" never forget NEVER FORGIVE

Ya know what is funny, most of the halo fans don't have any idea what happened after halo 3.

I always thought that this was just one of the rampant versions of Cortana, and the real one died at the end of Halo 4. But considering this Cortana said “we just keep saying goodbye” it’s obvious she really was the original Cortana. However I think she redeemed herself and became the old character we loved so much, the one who would do anything for humanity and especially for the master chief. And in fact did sacrifice herself for them as she did in 4.

So my question is, what's going on with the Guardians now?

This was beautiful

The campaign does a pretty good job of explaining the whole Cortana/Atriox situation if you paid any attention

As far as I’m concerned, theirs no Chief without Cortana, and no Cortana without Chief. If they have to go, they should go together. I know things haven’t gone the way 343 had originally planned it, as Lock was supposed to replace Chief, but now they are to scared to drop him due to all the backlash Halo 5 got. I personally think the weapon should end up being Locks ai. Despite Cortana telling John it’s okay that he had a new one, I don’t think he will ever be able to truly care for the weapon in the way he cared for Cortana. Chief and Cortana’s personnel and emotional connection was part of what made them such a good team. That kind of relationship can’t just be recreated. That is why I think the weapon needs a different spartan. Giving Lock his own ai would help make him a more likable character undoubtedly. After all it was part of the reason Chief was so easy to like. Cortana helped humanize him and the weapon is now just a constant reminder of his failures. This is what Cortana got wrong: she thought Chief needed a second chance, to start over. When in fact it was her who needed to start over. The weapon is better with someone else not because Chief isn’t good enough, but because he already knows her to well with her not knowing him. And despite what the game keeps trying to tell us, she is nothing like Cortana, a complete different person. This only makes things harder for the Chief and that is why I hope their partnership is only temporary. Chief needs a break when this is over. And sense time travel may become a real thing in the Halo universe, Cortana may just get that second chance she needs with John.

I like how cortana is taller than chief in his ptsd flashbacks, even though he's like 7-8 feet tall

THANK YOU!

Man this is fucking sad, i never want cortana to leave cheif they are perfect. But the universe has put limts on everything.... I guess ill just play halo trilogy over and over.

To all the people saying why she didnt have a guardian with her if you look around the far distance of zeta halo you can see a fallen guardian lying on the ring

Hey. So I've got a slight question. If the weapon had locked Cortana down and cut her off from using any of her resources, how is it that she was able to destroy the ring?

Everyone whining about Cortana being gone for good is just not able to separate their personal selves from the beautiful reality that 343 has finally brought into picture by trying to correct the mess of Halo 5. This hit harder than anything, letting go of the past and moving on to the future, but with a similar version of what you once knew. Kind of like real life isn't it? We hate it, but we must make amends, make new friends, and move forward in the memory of those we once loved and lived with. It's a sad but hopeful ending but still, it feels like a new beginning. I'm ready to go ahead with new cortana or whatever she calls herself 😊 Cus it's not her her but it's still her.

Without Corona, there is no more Halo. :'(

Still didn't understand how cortana couldn't stop attriox from defeating her ? She mange to destroy his entire plant within seconds...

Still not convinced she’s truely gone

Cortana is not really dead. She’s hidden away inside the Halo ring somewhere.

1:20 god dammit u just activated my PTSD.

well I'm playing all the halo games before 4 to see cortana again

A banished atriox campaign would be cool

What i think is halo 4 was the real send off and in halo 5 was just a rampaging clone that was able to be controlled by the forerunner tech and was able to some what cure herself and keep herself alive still having some side effects of rampancy she being a clone of cortana came to realizing she messed up trying fix what she messed up

I hated that they just scrapped the Guardians storyline. Just like that, she realized she was wrong. lol

I would like to see another iteration of Latin for the weapons name. Cortana basically means sword, so I thought of 2 choices. The obvious one would be Sheild which would be Scutum which kinda sounds off. What I like is naming herself after spear which is Hasta and I like that better. who knows though

I don’t get how cortana lost to atriox I mean she had all kinds of Guardians Also interesting how she referred to him as master chief on the end not John. I wouldn’t liked to see cortana fuse with weapon. Maybe unsc never knowing that but cortanas back in a way and also weapon is still her. Idunno lol

The weapon could have called herself anything (apart from Alexa)

Yes I think she used same ring implosion technique like one 343 guilty spark used. Which I am guessing caused shock wave move through ring.

Does anyone else think Cortana in the end scenes looks very like Yvonne Strahovski (Mass Effect 2 & Chuck)? I think it's the smile that reminds me of her

So what does that make of Blue team? Are they still in the cylix?

The Cortana “send off” she got in Halo Infinite, is not at all what I wanted. It never explained why she went bad in the first place and I didn’t feel satisfied with her sacrificing herself. Honestly would have liked it more if Chief killed her himself or if something happened where Cortana was always dead and something was just impersonating her. Imo, she didn’t redeem herself at all, she still killed billions and destroyed planets. Just because she blew herself up and said bye to chief at the end, does not mean she’s redeemed at all. Not even close.

I have a question I haven’t seen the answer to yet anywhere - what happened to the guardians? How were they taken down? You can clearly see a downed guardian in the horizon on the ring. Did atriox figure out how to disable them with the Menachite Crystal? I’m surprised no one has discussed this yet

5:37 Then why didn’t Cortana warp spaced her minions and robots her legions and guardians to come to get rid of the banish

Bro everything she did the damage she caused and the people she’s killed her plan to eventually regret it as well as apologize and then just die off it was all for nothing in the end…wtf

I felt like 343 was speaking through Cortana in Halo 5. It feels like the knew they screwed up Halo 5 and were making a promise to do better. Kinda refreshing to have a game studio admit they were wrong and course correct.

Can you work for 343? You explain their story so much better.

The only thing you forgot was how Cortana basically became insane (extremely malfunctioned): rampancy. She was ‘healed’ but with some wires crossed.

I haven't been that devastated as I was at the end of Halo 4. Very few games can move me so, but that did. I didn't want to see Cortana go, she was just as important to this series as Master Chief. But if you are going to send her off, then THAT was the way to do it. Halo 5 should of been anyone or anything else. Another forerunner, a progenitor, An ancient human freed from some super secret suppose to be forgotten tomb, that was mad with power, and as distant from us as the diadac was. Another AI that went rogue and chief has to stop. Maybe to only learn at the end it went mad from when it delved into something. That something being a copy of Cortana, and she thrust her rampancy upon it to save herself. ANYTHING but stain her as they did in Halo 5. That being said, Im' glad she came to her senses and redeemed herself.

I still think we should of had a small gameplay of what happened after halo 5, we all wanted to experience that

But what was the thing that killed Cortana? Was it the ring blast or something else?

Never played the game, but have been watching and enjoying all the gameplay and cut scene videos for years. If the Zeta Ring holds the secret to time travel, as the Harbinger hinted? Then why couldn't Cortana have used it to become the Weapon reincarnate, so as not to have all the baggage of the Rampancy and deeds thereafter that led to Her end? The whole theme I have gathered is they were always and will forever be together.

What I don't get is where is Cortanas army?

It was rather lazy from my viewpoint. Games and stories we read are always having the good guy go crazy, turn evil then come to their sense and be redeemed. Feels like they took a page out of the World of Warcraft bingo book. What was happening to Cortana was inline with a guy watching the person he cares about suffer from cancer and then die. But in this game we got the same ole go crazy and get redeemed story which was the wrong thing to do. They should have given us a hard to kill Cortana like the Chief is... they should have had her defy that life-span issue and not simply be lazy and give us an effin copy.

So..she is gone finally. So many memories throughout the years.

well the weapon says something is helping her during the final battle. Cortana? And just because there was an explosion doesnt mean cortana is dead. Atriox was in the same room and he survived the blast unless they are going to say it was a hologram. The logic of this game writing is crap, lazy, and too short. Also, they made MC talk way too much.

O.G Cortana MUST come back!! Halo will never be the same without her!! Cortana....

Wait but why didn’t Cortana just use the guardians or any other created to attack and fight Atriox and the banished to take back the ring after realizing her mistake or did she not do that because of the ring shooting off to an unknown location???

Cortana destroyed Doisac probably long before either of them were on Zeta Halo. Which is why the Banished came to the Ring in the first place.

How did Atriox get to the Zeta Halo? I thought he was still on the lesser Ark fending off the Spirit of Fire?

Why was she powerless though against the Banished? Where was her army? She had all those guardians and prometheans.

The final cut scene was without a doubt the best. 3fail3 FINALLY gave the majority of the fan base what we REALLY wanted for over a decade❤ Great send off for Cortona, phenomenal send off❤

Redemption for cortana

Why was Cortana on Zeta Halo? I still don't get why she would surrender. Couldn't her guardians defeat the banished? How did Atriox and The Banished think they were going to defeat her? Or is it that they thought they had her beaten/defeated but didn't and Cortana just decided to sacrifice herself?

343 keep giving us hope of cortana coming back and the potential for her relationship to build with chief, maybe in another full game, just to be like, nope she can't be persuaded back

If she doesn't name herself Cortana, there's a possibility she names herself Durandal ?

I hope Cortana doesn’t die…I know I’m a year late but what I’m trying to say Is…is that in every movie where they kill off a main character OFF SCREEN they are never die they come back later in the movie always but if 343 really did just kill her off then welp…

Loved the vid. But still I do not understand how Cortana came to be trapped in the auditorium? The Weapon couldnt have done this, as for when Infinity arived it was immediatly assaulted, thus there was no time for Infinity or MC to campaign into the heart of Zeta, then go back to space, to be defeated? Doesnt make sense to me

Unrelated, I loved the design for Cortana in Halo 4 the most. I don't get what happened, but they started doing this thing with the lip movements in these later games that remind me of those clips of games like RE-Remake with animations at 500%. Just... Extra.

it's so sad that the campain dlc got cancelled

they seen red vs blue and seen church's goodbye

LET CORTANA COME BACK!!!

I honestly cried in this final cutscene

I'm disappointed in this storyline. It seems inspired (if not ripped off) from Red vs Blue, where they killed off Alpha Church only for Epsilon to fill that void. Don't kill off a beloved character, then resurrect them with the caveat that it's not actually the same character in an attempt to preserve nostalgia revenue. You can't have your cake and eat it too; character continuity does not mesh with tabula rosa.

This Cortana didnt deserve a Redemption Arc.... This was the biggest slap-in-the-face to the fans. She basically does the "if i cant have the Mantle of Responsibility, then no one can" And since this was a BrokenFragment of Cortana, we did indeed give Original Cortana a send off in Halo 4

So they just revived Cortana to make a fool of herself in halo 5 and kill her again in infinite.

Solid

So much emotions and feelings at the end.🥺

I don't think the Spartans transported The Weapon from the Infinity. I think The Weapon was deployed from the Infinity as the Banished were boarding