: The Next 72 Hours comic series came out in August 2014, and we knew what was
: going to happen in those issues for at least weeks if not months
: beforehand, like all the comics. They're done pretty far in advance (one
: of the reasons why despite getting immediate criticisms on some aspects of
: Escalation, it took so long for, say, the art to improve.)

: If Cortana's role was supposed to be filled by the Didact, they would have
: had to change it the better part of a year and a half or longer before
: release. It doesn't seem that likely to me that her role is a sudden
: substitution.

: As for why Cortana would be "stupid" enough to fall into the same
: trap as the Forerunners... when you're a super-intelligent being who plans
: on leading a bunch of super-intelligent beings, you might just think that
: you're better than those fallible meatbags from 100,000 years ago.

: As for why the AIs would care about humanity at all, I think there's a bit of
: an unstated envy on the AI's position. From what we know, they still
: retain some memories or impressions from their physical bases, not to
: mention subconscious and personality elements. Black Box stands out like a
: sore thumb from some pretty human-like AIs (if you can decide what you
: want to be, the fact that they almost all choose human avatars says
: something about how they're still bound by some vestiges of organic life.)
: Basically, even if from a dispassionate perspective AIs shouldn't feel any
: ties to humanity... it's clear they still do (hence why Sloan tries to get
: his people off-planet before he bugs off, why BB despite his "pure
: thought" shell genuinely cares for those put in his charge, etc.)

Simple reason for AIs feelings for humanity is its written into their code, Asimovs 3 Rules.