: If that's all Cortana wants then I'm not bothered, she can have that, we
: don't need to pay taxes for the military. The UNSC and ONI whiff of
: darkness. It's about time the military was put in its place in the
: haloverse.

: John's out of a job but that's his worry.

Do you really think Cortana's going to stop at just disbanding all militaries? Her plan isn't just to bring peace, it's to uplift everyone using her long-term planning, to make us "more thanb we are" - that sounds to me an awful lot like micromanaging everybody, guiding them into specific jobs, turning us into cogs in the giant machine. And given how unstable she seemed in Halo 5, I don't trust her to be right about which cogs go where, or to give the cogs a choice in the matter.

: Her plan is probably not what the Precursors want but so what? I don't give a
: flying fig for what they want. I always thought that the mantle (or the
: love of the mantle) was silly. But, you know, if Cortana wants it, if it
: makes her happy, then she can have it.

In place of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen! Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me, and despair!

: Maybe humanity should talk to her. Say, "You can have the mantle if you
: want but we don't want you to be queen of the universe. We don't trust you
: because you have Hasley's I know what's best for everybody disease. We'd
: like there to be a council of AIs to oversee things and we'd like to be
: consulted as well."

: See what she says. Ensuring that the other AIs have a big say would blunt
: her, mummy knows best, tendencies.

At this point, Cortana's made it clear that she's not interested in talking this over, or seeing humanity's viewpoint in this case, because humanity have buggered everything up already and it's up to her Created to put it right. Never mind that the imperial peace of the Mantle is about to kill the galactic dynamic and equilibrium that was being reached with the death of the Covenant. Even if the UNSC seem totalitarian (and really, I've always understood it to be a reluctant totalitarianism, at least on Hood's part as de facto leader) I'd rather have them than a race of immortal, nigh-omnipotent AIs telling humanity how to manage its affairs.