I was talking with an old acquaintance from these forums about her gripes with Cortana's portrayal in H4, especially toward the end. I watched a video that reminded me about the stages of Rampancy, particularly the final one: Metastability. One that could only be achieved should an AI inhabit a system large enough to sate its thirst for knowledge and power.

My friend questioned why the UNSC wouldn't put more research into something like that. Why wouldn't we want an AI that had essentially human levels of free-will? I argued that an AI with that much power might end up too dangerous for its own good, ala Skynet.

...I apparently wasn't far off the mark. Though it may be a shocking twist...its not all together out there. Look up Bungie's own stages of Rampancy and you see that the precedent is kind of there...

It honestly worked as a story, despite how shocking and saddening it may be. I thought it was a very compelling story that was thought provoking. I agree with car15's assessment of the whole campaign besides the end.

The story may not go where we want, but I feel like it went in a direction that's justifiable in-universe.