: I hate statements like that. It wasn't "clearly" anything. Do you
: even remember after Halo 4's launch and how many people predicted Cortana
: wasn't truly gone? Spoiler: it was a lot of people. So, no there's no
: "clearly" about it.

People speculate about a lot of things. Doesn't mean that the developers should cave in to fanboy pressure and backpedal on the death of a major character like this.

I just think it's such a cop-out because she got a game's worth of buildup to her inevitable death and more closure at the end than most characters ever get. Bringing her back like this, bringing her back at all, ruins that closure and her legacy.

It seems very blatant to me that Halo 5's antagonist was originally supposed to be the Didact. Back in the Halo 4 days 343i kept saying he would stick around as Chief's nemesis, and if you listen to the things Cortana says in H5, she's basically quoting the Didact most of the time. Now why would Cortana ever subscribe to the Forerunners' archaic Mantle religion? Because something happened mid-development that made the writers change the villain, that's why. Maybe it's because Cortana is a recognizable character and people didn't really like the Didact. But for all his Disco Dracula looks and Bond villain monologuing having him be the antagonist would've still made the overall story way more cohesive than this.