: Don't get me wrong, she was a very liked character, but I do hope she does
: not come back, as it would remove the impact of the event. At least
: personally, her death did have an effect on me, but regardless, since some
: are putting comic books as an example of death being impermanent, it's a
: reason on why should characters be only killed with full decision. Ironic
: considering I like DBZ, and the power of the titular balls to resurrect
: people is mercilessly parodied in Abridged.

: My hope is that they stick to their guns in regards to her dying, and make it
: permanent, or something to reinforce that she is not coming back the way
: neither John nor us remembered her (Cortana stated that, even if Halsey
: had created another A.I., it wouldn't be her. You are not the same person
: you were five years ago). Besides... again, Origins II had a brief scene
: of Gravemind handing over a chip to the Master Chief. If that ends up
: being a prophecy, do you really trust the lovecraftian bastard to not
: have any underhanded motives to it?

: As they mentioned in one of the ViDocs, the Master Chief was supposed to get
: knocked the hell out of his comfort zone. So without Cortana? He would be
: actually forced to evolve and adapt, especially so with all he went
: through after all four games. I don't know if he'd like to have another
: A.I. in his head after the bond he formed with Cortana, though.

: The characters that have had a defining, on-screen death in Halo canon, and
: still dodged it, are a handful so far... Linda, Johnson, and 343 GS. Cole
: technically counts, but his was suggested before Nylund wrote his full
: story, in which he both died onscreen and most likely saved himself.

Without touching on whether Cortana should come back, I sort of hope that most if not all of Halo 5 is just the Chief, whatever he's doing.

Even when we didn't have Cortana before, we had contacts; communications and missions, communicated to us and given to us by our Cortana-fillins. If 5 is as lone wolf as the teaser implies, I'd love to see the Chief really just strike out on his own. The missions he does are those he(we) decides, not those given to us by someone else. No sidekick, no partner.

It would be a sort of new twist in Halo, but I think it would really help to rekindle that 'discovery and exploration' feel we've been missing since 1.

As for Cortana, I think it would be a disservice to John, in the grand scheme of his character and story, if Cortana were never to return, in any form. But that's just MHO :)