I know this is the equivalent of beating a dead horse but hear me out.
Given more time, because fuck deadlines, Halo 5 could’ve included the “Hunt the Truth” ad campaign story with its promised evenly split campaign between Master Chief aka John 117 and Agent/Spartan Locke & company leaving for a more fulfilling and quality game all around.
(“This. Is this what you wanted? Is this what you’ve been looking for?” – #HunttheTruth)
I mean honestly, how can you just scrap this:
The audio logs, the hype train, why derail it?
Taking into account how it was all rushed last minute, it was brilliantly done to draw fans in and yet here we stand disappointed with the final outcome.
Furthermore, with or without Microsoft’s intrusion alongside the petty uproar, this fragment of Cortana should’ve been presented better and kept the actual Cortana’s reputation clean as well as made her death redeeming by way of making it clear that the two are not the same persona. This could’ve been done through John having reoccurring dreams of Cortana where she is trying to relay a message to him, e.g, Halo 3’s “I’m just my mother’s shadow. Don’t look at me, don’t listen! I’m not what I used to be. —She’s not me.” Over the course of the campaign we then come to find during John’s hunt for Cortana in an attempt to decrypt her for lack of better word messages from the grave that there’s this rampant fragment of her who has somehow gotten a hold of the domain and is out for blood. Cortana’s message through John’s dreams keep this fragment from persuading John and thus not dragging her memory or reputation through the mud. Blue Team and Team Osiris then of course contact Halsey, cut to cliffhanger. Then, cue the epic story arc: In Halo 6, once the fragment is defeated by way of Halsey, the real Cortana is seen by John who nods her head at him in the background then disappearing, a way of showing her being pleased with the redemption and finally being able to rest in peace…
…as John and ‘Thel Vadam’s whereabouts covered up afterwards thanks to Locke who assures them a peaceful and silent sendoff to relish what’s left of their lives.
Whaddya think? I say it would’ve made for a better game. Here’s to hoping Halo 6 will redeem itself.
~ 117Heather returning to cryosleep
Credit for images used go to their respective entities…, Halo 2 remastered, #HunttheTruth, Sherlock gif.
Featured image artist: Beneath the mask of the Master Chief, Rafal Banasiak.
Master Chief and Arbiter in Space: http://m4dguy89.deviantart.com/art/Master-Chief-and-Arbiter-308156540
Halo Headquarters 
To be honest, i’m kind of ok with the cortana part being left a mystery for now, as it will be explained later. But you are totally right about how lame it is that they scrapped the storyline that they were promoting for quite a while. If they had kept the story they promised, it would have been a hell of a game! Masterchief and blue team actually going rogue, and osiris actually attempting to hunt them down, with ONI claiming to the public that the chief died so as not to deal with the backlash of killing him themselves. If the story happened this way, maybe even with a odst style campaign where you have to find clues of the chief’s whereabouts, i would actually love it for ONI to be in hot water with the verge of mass rebellion, only for chief to set cortana free, where she would actually have somewhat of a motive to police the galaxy, to stop it from imploding on itself.
just my 2 cents! 😀
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I’m with you on that, mate! I actually wouldn’t mind if they left the Cortana part a bit of a mystery and explained it in Halo 6 later. Hell, it would’ve been even better had the face of whoever this villian was, was kept hidden and the voice be distorted. And going forward through the campaign we find that it’s a rouge A.I. and then of course in 6 we see its revealed to be this fragment of Cortana.
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