: That said, I also wouldn't be surprised if they find a way to resurrect
: her, either through some clever manipulations of the Librarian's echoed
: self in Requiem (unlikely now that Requiem's a mass of molten metal in a
: sun that didn't previously exist) or by giving the Chief another copy of
: Cortana (which would, admittedly, be a less satisfying solution).

I think they are going to have to replace Cortana with something. Playing missions completely alone just isn't as fun as playing them with some sort of NPC companion, but I'm not sure if their replacement could possibly measure up to Cortana. Players don't really want to build a new dynamic with a new character in the second game of a second series. That being said I think a "copy" of Cortana will be a very dissatisfying solution and another AI would be an even worse solution. Worse still however would be a human companion.

I am kind of leaning in the way of a copy of Cortana simply because it is the lesser of many evils. There could be some interesting development of a new Cortana coming to terms with the fact that she doesn't match up with the original.

: I'm not certain we've seen the last of the Didact, either (his end seemed
: a little too... deus ex machina ... too easy).

Agreed. His death was certainly less than satisfying. And he was only really an interesting character after seeing the motivations for his actions in the terminals. And considering that I was definitely not going to stop playing the game to go to Waypoint and watch them, I didn't see them until after beating the game :/