: If you kill a character, kill the character please.

Bungie started to understand that as they moved in Halo 3 and decided that death added depth to a story if the characters stayed dead. Think back to Captain Keyes... how would you feel if you somehow found he was alive on the Ark somehow? In a Forerunner storage pod or something?

It would've ruined moment when the Master Chief had to "kill" him to get the neural relay. It would have ruined the introduction of Commander Keyes when she accepted his medals posthumously.

It hurt even more when Miranda died as well. I like to think the Chief had a moment of pause under his helmet when he saw Johnson cradling her body. I like to believe that he was sad that he had let her down just like her father.

Cortana's death was cheesy, but it worked. I really hope she remains gone, but that she is brought up again in memory through dialogue or actions(ex. the chief having her chip in the desert in the trailer for H5.)