You said there could be copies and you mentioned anything being possible with an AI (which I still don't like because it sounds like "a wizard did it"), that was about it.

: Yes. There are. There is also storytelling which challenges established
: 'facts of life'. And sci-fi is definitely a genre worthy of making those
: challenges! And if that's true, certainly any genre can even challenges
: its own in-universe 'facts of life'.

Challenging hard in-universe facts without good reason seems... well it seems like a good way to lead to internal inconsistency, like what bringing back Cortana would do.
Anyway my point with that is that basing a story in a "fact of life" like that grounds it and humanizes it and gives it more weight. Wanting to help someone and not being able to is relatable. Having someone die and come back to life is not.

: All in the realm of speculation. At this point they've said 2 more games.

No, they haven't. They came out and said (last year?) it's not a trilogy any more, it's a saga. I don't understand why you would take them at their word for the initial announcement ("we're making a trilogy") and not the later one ("we're making an undefined number of games that's larger than 3").

: So I'm running with that. With #6 estimated to be the last in John's arc, to
: me it seems silly to kill off Cortana with 2 games to go.

Why do you think Halo 6 will be the last game with the Master Chief? When they talked about the "Reclaimer saga", I figured that was MC-centric games, and that's clearly where they think the money is.

: Yes, there are plenty of other elements that make Halo Halo. I never
: debated that. I said that Chief & Cortana have always been at the center.

Yes, that's exactly what I was debating. That was not at the center until either Halo 3 or Halo 4, and it wasn't the main focus until Halo 4. Halo 1 had you without Cortana for two levels only and interacting with her minimally for most of the second half of the game, Halo 2 was clearly something else with the Arbiter getting dual focus with the Chief, and Halo 3 had her mostly only present for a few bewildering and unexplained seconds at a time until almost the end of the game, and the Chief only acted concerned about her for one or two cutscenes (at the end of Floodgate and at the end of Cortana).

: *shrug* That's why it's great we have a variety of preferences. People want
: different things. I'm sure there are things I'd think would be a 'bad
: idea' as well, but I realize that I can't really make that judgement until
: the production is finished and I see how such 'bad ideas' were
: implemented. I've been surprised before. And if I discover certain things
: have been planned all along, that tends to make me appreciate it more,
: even if I used think something would be 'bad idea' (mainly because in
: looking back I failed to see the bigger picture).

What if there is nothing it ties back to? What if there's no good reason that already existed? I know this is severely hypothetical because clearly almost any reason you'll take as a variation of something already presented and be content with it. Come to think of it, this is even weirder because you're so into the story and dive so deep into it and look at all the intricacies-- I would think you would be the most concerned with the details and having things play nice together, rather than just saying "they'll justify bringing this character back, it'll be fine".

Also, I wanted to clarify/expand on my comment from before, about Cortana saying there could be another AI, another Halsey-based AI, even another "Cortana model"-- I think if we see something like Cortana again, it'll be that, because it fits what was established and it was even called out by a character. That's (a small part of) why I don't think she'll be coming back. I was wondering why you think they won't go that route and will go the more troublesome route of bringing back the original Cortana.