Everyone is wondering what’s Cortana up to in Halo Infinite; that’s why we would like to share everything we know about Halo Infinite Cortana with you! Halo Infinite is one of the best entries of the Halo series and expands the Halo universe to new horizons.
The last time we saw Cortana in Guardians, she was hell-bent on destroying everything that opposed her perspective about how the world should be. Even Master Chief was unable to change the mind of his most trusted ally, and it was clear that Halo Infinite would pit Master Chief against Cortana in the new Halo.
However, when Halo Infinite begins, we don’t see many traces of Cortana conquering the world, which surprised the players. Halo Infinite takes place after quite some time. Cortana, in theory, could have made some big moves in this timeframe.
We didn’t see anything concrete in the new Halo to witness Cortana’s authority. Instead, we get to see a new artificial intelligence called “Weapon”. The UNSC Marines created her to help Master Chief fight against the Cortana players known from the previous games.
We will talk more about Weapon and share everything we know about her while telling you what happened to the original Cortana.
What is The Weapon?
The Weapon can be thought of as a cloned brain of Cortana. She isn’t part of Cortana and is an independent AI construct. Dr Catherine Halsey developed and constructed The Weapon to imitate the security of Zeta Halo, a part of the Halo Array.
The Weapon’s main goal was to capture Cortana after she descended into Rampancy to be reclaimed and exterminated. Rampancy is a process in which an AI overthinks itself to the point that it becomes a threat to sentient life.
The way The Weapon behaves is also pretty similar to Cortana. Although the precise date of The Weapon’s creation is never revealed, it is known that she was brought to the Ring World by the UNSC Infinity. She isn’t as intelligent as the original Cortana and doesn’t know much about various topics that Halo fans would do.
However, this is the start of her journey with Master Chief, and she will have a big part to play in the Halo Wars.
The Weapon and Cortana’s voice actor is the same!
The Halo fans will always recognize Steve Dowens as the voice of John 117 (Master Chief). Still, it’s quite surprising that Jen Taylor doesn’t get the same recognition! She has been Cortana’s voice for the last 20 years and now has taken the responsibility of being the voice of The Weapon too!
Jennifer Taylor does an amazing job, and at times it’s almost surprising that she’s the same woman who voiced Cortana! However, you can notice the same quirkiness and optimism in her voice despite sounding a lot younger and more innocent than the original Cortana.
The Relationship with Master Chief 🙁
Halo Infinite is the ending of the unofficial Reclaimer trilogy and the beginning of a new adventure for Master Chief. Still, this time instead of Cortana on his side, it will be The Weapon. Master Chief had a special relationship with Cortana.
You can’t blame John 117 for having trust issues after Cortana’s death at the end of Halo Guardians. That’s why you will see John 117 have some difficulty accepting The Weapon as his new companion even though she’s trying her best throughout the campaign.
The biggest difference between her and Cortana to John 117 was that he didn’t hesitate to delete her when trying his best to save Cortana multiple times! The Spartan will not trust someone who resembles his former companion that easily.
However, The Weapon tries her best throughout Halo Infinite to improve the relationship. At one point, they finally establish a good working relationship. Still, it is nowhere near as strong as the Master Chief had with Cortana.
Master Chief will eventually come to terms with The Weapon and her existence. Still, he could very well do that with the perspective of protecting Cortana and all the good she did before turning to the dark side.
What happened to the real Cortana?
Master Chief’s ally turned foe was speculated to be the primary antagonist of Halo Infinite. Still, she didn’t have much screen time to cement her place as one of the game’s most important characters. Her arc was almost completely resolved before the game even started!
The struggle between Cortana’s “Created” and the UNSC has been raging for months at the start of 343’s newest chapter. The Spartans are the only hope of humanity, and that’s the main objective Master Chief has to deal with throughout Halo Infinite. However, other threats like the Banished and The Endless set up the future of the Halo galaxy. They played a big part in Cortana’s end.
It is revealed that Cortana sacrificed herself after realizing that nothing would ever change truly by what she’s doing. Cortana understood that Atriox and The Banished were manipulating her. After being confined to Zeta Halo by The Weapon, she had only one thing left to do. In a heroic act before ending her life, she detonated a huge chunk of The Ring and killed Atriox too.
That’s how Cortana’s arc came to an end……or did it!?
The Weapon is Cortana! (Technically…)
At the end of Halo Infinite, it is revealed that The Weapon is more than just an AI that shares an uncanny resemblance to the original Cortana! We find out that The Weapon is an earlier version of Cortana before she met Master Chief.
It was an amazing revelation to wrap things up and change the dynamic of the relationship between Master Chief and The Weapon. John 117 started trusting The Weapon more, and she assured him that this time things would be different; however, it’s clear that they aren’t confident of their own words.
At the end of the Halo Infinite, we get a delightful interaction between the two, as Master Chief asks The Weapon to decide what her new name would be. The game ends before we get to see what she answered, but we are pretty sure that she will choose the name of her predecessor!
Is the original Cortana gone?
Halo Infinite ended after tying up many loose ends, but fans think that they hid something from us. There are so many fan theories out there, but the one that caught our attention was that is it possible that she has tampered with the Weapon’s coding!?
She might be claiming to be her younger self to deceive Master Chief into releasing her from the Halo ring and allowing her to rejoin the network? There is so much that Cortana can do, and it wouldn’t be surprising that she tricked her younger naïve self into continuing the mission she strived so hard for in Halo Infinite!
Conclusion
There are several possibilities the Halo lore could diverge to after the ending of Halo Infinite. Still, we are sure that Cortana will have a major part in the battles to come. The only question is what version of Cortana will be by Master Chief’s side.
If you liked this guide, we are sure that you will love our other Halo guides! We recently solved the mystery of how UNSC Marines work in Halo Infinite, so if you have any trouble controlling them, you should check our “How to control Halo Infinite marines” guide!
If you have any suggestions or feedback for us, please comment below to improve and share related topics with you soon! Until then, take care, Spartan and save the planet!
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