Bungie Universe
This topic has moved here: Subject: Of Soldiers, Systems, and Sensibilities
  • Subject: Of Soldiers, Systems, and Sensibilities
Subject: Of Soldiers, Systems, and Sensibilities

M6D Pistol - $190
MA5B Assault Rifle - $320
Halcyon-Class Cruiser - $198,783,189,420.92
Taking out an entire Covenant Armada all by your lonesome - Priceless
There are some things marines can't do.
For everything else, there's Master Chief.

I wrote up this and I thought some people here might like to read it as well. I do apologize in advance if I am simply re-hashing already-talked-about ideas.



Fair Warning: I talk about some important plot details of the HALO numbered series. If you have not played the games and would like to, then please disregard and do not read this. The story is a good one, and I should hate to spoil any surprises or points of suspense or relief that you might experience on your own in the intended order and circumstance.


A lot of people don't seem to understand the relationship between Master Chief John and Cortana (I might well not be one of them). They think she and he are "in love" or They just flat out reject the idea of any sort of intimate relationship between them, insisting Chief is "just doing his job" or something similar. The truth, I believe, as is often the case, is somewhere between these two extremes.


From what I recall, there was very little in Halo from the angle of Chief and Cortana's relationship. It was Bungie's first Halo game, they'd spent many years working extremely hard on the game's systems itself, making heavy changes throughout the development cycle, I think the first game lacked a bit as far as real depth of story and character development. It was still a great game, and was still a good introduction to the series.


Ironically, the second two numbered installments are my least favorite from a game play perspective, but held so much more value in terms of story-telling (aside from the Elites becoming spurned of the Covenant and then allying with the Humans, which I still think is cliche and forced). I would have to play through HALO 2 again with a more critical eye (I wonder how long it would take on easy... <.<) turned toward character development, but there is one particular scene that stands out where an affection between them is apparent.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw1bYEW-pc4


"Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it." I really like that line. A lot. But not so much as one I shall later share.


If, as some people suggest, Chief does not care about Cortana in any other capacity than as a tool to complete his mission(s), then why would he even consider coming back for her? She is left behind specifically to detonate a ship in order to cause a catastrophic explosion that will destroy the ship, High Charity, "Delta" Halo, the Gravemind, and all but certainly herself. Making such an offer inherently conveys a sense of affection for that which will be lost. Cortana, the lady she is, of course stops him from making a promise she knows he can't keep, because she knows her fate. She's a computer, she's done the math.


Fast forward to Halo 3 (because from the end of one game to the beginning of another is so far in a story, right?). Even in the very opening (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVzKVuCmakY), the way Cortana speaks, in her very voice you can hear an affinity that you wouldn't really expect from an unfeeling computer, and you don't really hear when she talks to anyone else. Throughout the first three quarters (guess) of the game, especially in the first level, you get these flashes of Cortana, with her speaking to you cryptically in some. Now it's not really made clear if this is some fragment of herself that she left with you, perhaps to guide you back to the rest of her, or just memories or daydreams or something like that. I like the idea that she left a piece of herself with him. That is a fantastic metaphor in favor of the position I am now arguing.


Observe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gswqH2UxBUo). He makes specific note that it's just a message, and yet, when she recoils in pain mere moments later, he makes a sympathetic forward movement. Then when he's asked if he trusts Cortana enough, not only to risk himself, but all of humanity when she very well might be corrupted by the enemy, he makes no hesitation in supporting her. I suppose one could chalk up that to espirt de corps. I do not.


The most touching cut scene, however, which plucks my heartstrings every time I watch it (which I must say is aided significantly by Marty's most beautiful score) is this on (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iG1ElOrhII). "You found me... But so much of me is wrong, out of place. You might be too late." "You know me. When I make a promise..." "-you... Keep it. I do know how to pick 'em." "Lucky me." And I only just noticed the irony of him calling himself lucky there, as she named luck as the reason she chose him in the beginning of the game. The whole scene is so touching. His making a joke about "mixing things up" by shooting his way out and then, when he finally plugs her back into his head, she repeats a line from the very first game: "Keep your head down, there's two of us in here now, remember?" She says that on the first level in the first game after she's put into Chief's head and your shield gets depleted.


And then at the very end of the game, the last we hear of Chief's story (and I really hope M$ doesn't revive this story line, I really like the way they ended it. Part of me wants to see the 'next chapter', but I think the majority of me is quite happy with it as Bungie left it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h62oVkSOB1Q). She says softly "I'll miss you." That line speaks volumes to me. To claim that Cortana has no emotions is a lost cause, it's obvious she does, but even so, why would she feel the need to let him know she'll miss him? Why would she miss him? She'll be there whenever they are found and she wakes him. The sentiment alone implies affinity, to say nothing of her want or need to tell him. "Wake me, when you need me", is also one of Chief's best lines in the series. And so Chief's story ends as it began: Cortana in charge of the ship and him in cryostasis, and the circle is complete. You can't improve on that, M$, you just can't.


I don't really see how anyone can, having gone through all the previous games, watch those last two scenes I linked and not recognize there is more than camaraderie between Chief and Cortana. I wouldn't go so far as to say it is a romantic or lover's love, but I do think it is certainly more than friendship. This is a point that ties in quite nicely with something else I've recently noticed. I realized a few weeks ago while re-reading a section of John Steinbeck's "The acts of King Arthur and his noble Knights" that, aside from the futuristic setting and far grander scale, essentially, what you have in Halo, is a knightly tale. You have a soldier in fancy armor, running around adventuring, with a lady fair at his side, and I believe the concept of courtly love might be the very solution to the question of Cortana and Chief's affection for one another. I think this is one of the reasons that Halo has appealed to me so much, even though I only just now consciously made the realization that it's a new knightly tale, my subconscious could have made that connection immediately, who knows?


And I realize I may be projecting my own feelings and affections for Cortana onto Chief, and maybe that's the basis for the two predominant and diametrically opposed opinions on the matter of their relationship. But then, wasn't that kind of the point in having chief speak little and never revealing his face? That the player would identify more strongly with him and feel more immersed in the story? Of course, there's also the fact that the vast majority of meaning that people find in stories and art is imbued by the audience, not the artist. None the less, I thought I would share my thoughts on the matter, even if the likelihood of many people actually reading this in the current "TL;DR" era is somewhere approaching 0. ~_^


[Edited on 04.13.2011 12:19 AM PDT]

  • 04.11.2011 10:40 PM PDT

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things."

"Waiting is good. It means you’re not going to die. The person you need to feel sorry for is the one who gets rushed into the ER and treated first."

NREMT-B

Tiocfaidh ár lá!

I agree wholeheartedly that Cortana and the Chief have more than just a "working relationship. " There is definitely an emotional attachment between the two. The one thing that really remained constant in the later parts of the Chief's life was Cortana's presence.

  • 04.11.2011 11:18 PM PDT
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Good read, well reasoned post. I agree there is definitely an emotional attachment between the two. What a lot of people seem to ignore is the fact that Cortana is an intelligent, independently thinking being, rather than just a bunch of ones and zeroes.

Also, she is definitely part of that mystical 'luck' that the Chief is famous for. Without her guidance, he would not have been able to do many of the things he accomplished.

I am hoping that the storyline eventually continues, but I also won't be disappointed if it does not - it's a good story.

  • 04.12.2011 6:16 AM PDT

Well written for starters! Just what I have been saying except better worded. :P

All I would change is that I whole heartedly believe they do "love" one another, just not in a romantic sense.
More of a "We share a body and have survived death together, not to mention being the only constant either of them have ever had in their lives" way. A mouthful eh?

  • 04.12.2011 12:59 PM PDT