Cortana

Cortana

Portrayed by

Microsoft Mary

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First seen

"Master Chief Minisode 5: Hillary Clinton"

Last seen

"Master Chief Sucks at Everything (Part 1)"

Episode count

19

Name

Cortana
The Prophet (AI name)

Profession

AI

Cause of death

Damaged by closing portal; fulfilled purpose as an AI

("Master Chief Sucks at Everything (Part 1)")

Cortana (died March 16, 2020), also known by the alias The Prophet, is a main character of the series. She is an AI who befriends Master Chief and the Arbiter in their quest to defeat the King and the Network, but later learns the prophecy she told Master Chief was nothing more than a time travel paradox. Nonetheless, she assists the heroes until her "death" aboard the Ark, and is later rebooted on Installation 04 to help her friends fight Ronald McDonald. Cortana is fatally injured in her attempt to bring Master Chief to the Voice, and having fulfilled her destiny as an AI, she can no longer be rebooted.

History

Before the series

Cortana was a member of the Network with the Arbiter. However, she and the Arbiter left the group when a time travelling Master Chief told them the King was evil. Importantly, Master Chief also tells Cortana of the prophecy she will eventually tell him herself, creating a predestination paradox. ("Master Chief Sucks at Constants")

Alternate timeline (2007)

When Ronald activates the Halo, an alternate timeline is created. In this alternate timeline, Master Chief is an eloquent, sophisticated, and polite protagonist, while the Arbiter is his vulgar and rude counterpart. Additionally, Cortana is his girlfriend. ("Master Chief Rocks at Ordering McDonalds") They go to a restaurant, where Charlemagne reveals he was head of research on the project with his assistant, Avery Johnson. ("Master Chief Rocks at Ordering at Restaurants")

Minisodes (2008)

Cortana appears to Master Chief in prison to inform him of a prophecy that says he is to save the world. ("Minisodes")

Season 2 (2008-2009)

Cortana fights Hillary Clinton

Cortana meets with Barack Obama and tells him that she told Master Chief about the prophecy. ("Master Chief Sucks at Escaping Prison") The Arbiter and Cortana tell Master Chief about the Network and how Barack Obama is sacrificing himself to give them time to escape. Hillary Clinton then assassinates Obama. ("Master Chief Meets the Network") Master Chief, the Arbiter, and Cortana arrive at the superweapon the King has been building, but when he activates it, they discover it's actually a portal to the Ark. After a battle with Hillary Clinton, they enter the portal. ("Master Chief vs the Superweapon")

After Master Chief has a brief but influential time travel experience, he is eventually reunited with the Arbiter and Cortana after using them as "constants," and they fend off the King again. ("Master Chief Sucks at Time Travel") ("Master Chief Sucks at Super Smash Bros.") They discover the Ark's computer and learn that the King is preparing to fire a laser from the structure. ("Master Chief Sucks at Computers") The trio's plan to stop the King is interrupted by Hillary, who goes rogue against both sides and decides to use the laser for her own purposes. Cortana successfully kills her and then begins deactivating the laser. ("Master Chief vs Hillary Clinton") Master Chief and the Arbiter fight the King, but he then reveals he is actually planning on using the laser against the Ancients, a rival group of villains who are much more dangerous than he is. But because Cortana disabled the laser, the Ancients arrive successfully, and destroy the Ark. Master Chief, the Arbiter, and Sergeant Avery Johnson escape on a ship, while the King hitches a ride on Ancients leader Ronald McDonald's ship, but Cortana is left behind in the chaos. Right before the Ark explodes, an apparition of Hillary appears and asks Cortana to come with her if she wants to live. It is unknown if she survived. ("Master Chief: The Second Finale")

Season 3 (2020)

The death of Cortana

Master Chief and the Arbiter ally with Guilty Spark because he claims he can reunite them with the King and Johnson. He explains that while Cortana was killed in the Ark's explosion, her reboot codes were collected by Hillary Clinton (an AI called the Senator) and she can be rebooted from the Halo ring. She is guarded by a program called the Governor, who she says Master Chief and the Arbiter will fight. ("Master Chief Sucks at Shopping") Master Chief and the Arbiter subsequently rescue her from the Governor, or Jack Thompson, and she then helps them raid the Halo's control room, where Ronald seemingly activates the ring. ("Master Chief Sucks at Rescue Missions")

Because the ring was activated prior to 100% charge, the structure begins collapsing. Master Chief, the Arbiter, and Cortana disable the ring and leave Ronald for dead, but unbeknownst to them, Ronald survives and activates the ring at full charge. ("Master Chief vs the Halo") An alternate timeline is subsequently created (see section alternate timeline above). ("Master Chief Rocks at Ordering McDonalds") When the timelines are reset, the King explains that Ronald intends to raid Building 69 for a program that can be used by an AI to control the universe, and that this information was hidden in Master Chief's brain by Ronald himself. He also explains that the user of the program is destined to destroy Master Chief. ("Master Chief Sucks at Alternate Timelines")

However, at Building 69, Master Chief, the Arbiter, Cortana, and Ronald discover that the King did not die and is an AI who has now downloaded the program. The King explains how the series is scripted by a force in the "real world" and he intends to destroy that force and free everyone from their fictional prison, but the group refuses to help him and, in the chaos, Ronald and Johnson are both killed by the King. After they escape, Cortana reveals she has made contact with someone she met in the AI database who can help them: CATS. ("Master Chief Sucks at Plot Twists")

Master Chief, Cortana, and CATS go to the Quantum Flux Teleporter to find the Voice. Once there, Master Chief goes through successfully, but as Cortana goes through, the King begins shutting the portal remotely. It closes on her as she goes through and she is fatally damaged. She explains that she can no longer be rebooted because she has now fulfilled her purpose as an AI: helping Master Chief find the Voice and complete his own destiny. Reminding him of their first conversation, where she told him he is destined to kill the King, Cortana dies. Later, Master Chief remembered her words about every AI having a purpose, and decided his only course of action was to allow the King to kill him so that the King's own purpose would be fulfilled. ("Master Chief Sucks at Everything")

Personality

Cortana is a no-nonsense character, and though she puts up with Master Chief's antics because she believes he is the "Chosen One," she is shown to be rather impatient with him. She gets along better with the Arbiter. A plot twist reveals Hillary Clinton is Cortana's sister, and their relationship appears to be poor. They are later revealed to be sister AI programs. Cortana, like Master Chief and the Arbiter, is highly skilled at fighting, taking on Hillary after she disarms both heroes and later kills her. Cortana is also shown to be highly intelligent and skilled with computers.

Trivia

• In the Halo series, Cortana is an artificial intelligence construct, but in Master Chief Sucks at Ordering she appears to be a physical entity. However, Guilty Spark refers to her as an AI. ("Master Chief Meets Guilty Spark")
• Cortana is the only main character to leave the show and then return as a main character.
• Cortana's actual voice from Halo 3 appears in "Master Chief Sucks at Ordering Finales," but this is an out-of-continuity scene and is not supposed to be the actual character Cortana within the series' continuity.