Cortana (Halo)

Cortana, also known as CTN 0452-9, is a character from the Halo series.
== Charactah Account ==
Cortana serves as Mission Control, whether she's uploaded into external computers or the Chief's Powered Armor. She was created as tech support (on-the-spot hacking) for a secret mission into Covenant space, but as time goes on, her role gets a lot more complicated.
Cortana had a witty and playful personality and a small sense of cryptic humor laced with some sarcasm. She had neither arrogance nor false modesty about her immense capabilities, and her statements about her abilities have an objective perspective that human beings typically cannot achieve. She did get bored often and easily. In fact, it is said that seven seconds of inactivity for an AI is excruciating.
Cortana seemed to share some of her creator's memories, thoughts, opinions, and even values. When she was asked by Dr. Halsey to pick a "carrier," Cortana chose John-117 for his neural compatibility and his "luck." A similar reason used by Halsey for her choice, too. She was not only a facsimile of Dr. Halsey's mind, but also a replica of her physical form, albeit at a younger age.
== Appearance ==
=== Anime ===
* Halo Legends
* Halo Legends: Odd One Out
* Halo Legends: Origins
=== Comics ===
* Halo Graphic Novel
=== Literature ===
* Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
* Halo: First Strike
* Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
* Halo: The Fall of Reach
* Halo: The Flood
=== Video Games ===
* Halo 2: Anniversary
* Halo 2
* Halo 3
* Halo 4
* Halo 5: Guardians
* Halo Infinite
* Halo: Combat Evolved
* Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
* Halo: Reach
=== Web-Animation ===
* Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
== Trivia ==
* Cortana is usually voiced by Jen Taylor, who also voices Catherine Halsey. In Halo Legends, Shelley Calene-Black voices both Halsey and Cortana.
* In Halo 4, Cortana's face was modeled after international model Paisha Coffey and her body, after Frances Ingraham and Katrina Le. Her movement was performed by Mackenzie Mason using motion capture technology.
* Easter eggs involving Cortana can be found in a couple places. In Halo 3, look for a UNSC mobile computer. Watch the lower-left monitor. After a few seconds, Cortana's face will appear for an instant and then disappear. Two of the easiest ways to see this is to either look at the aforementioned screen in the beginning of Crow's Nest, or at one of the computers in the multiplayer map High Ground.
* There was going to be an alternate story in Halo: Combat Evolved in which John-117 rediscovered Cortana inside the control room and she had become mad with power, wanted to take over Installation 04 and ultimately, the universe.
* In the original draft of the Halo: Combat Evolved script, Cortana was supposed to have an accent akin to the British Isles. When in search of voice actors, Martin O'Donnell made sure they had the ability to interpret the accent correctly. This is evidenced by the fact that in Halo: Combat Evolved, Cortana uses several British idioms, such as "Sod off!" when addressing 343 Guilty Spark.
* She was rated as one of the ten most disturbingly sexual game characters by Games.net and one of the fifty greatest female video game characters ever by Tom's Games.
* In Halo 3, she repeated lines Dr. Halsey has said before such as "You will be the protector of Earth and all her colonies." which Dr. Halsey says to the 6- year- old Spartans in Halo: The Fall of Reach. Cortana also recites a few lines from the Cortana Letters in Halo 3 in some of her messages and in the announcement trailer. Some of the lines are said in the Cortana moments in the level Cortana. At certain points in the Halo 4 campaign, Cortana during moments of rampancy is identified on John-117's HUD as Dr. Halsey and often repeats Halsey's quotes.
* Cortana had many similarities to the Marathon AI, Leela, such as control over certain functions of ships and other locations in their computer systems.
* Being a smart AI, Cortana's operational life span was approximately seven years. However, after she took in all the Forerunner information in Halo's control room, her estimated life span was possibly halved, due to the vast task of storing, processing etc. all that information. In addition, all of the data she absorbed on Halo noticeably decreased her efficiency.
* The name Cortana (also Curtana or Courtain) is a Latinized form of the Anglo-French curtein, from Latin curtus meaning "shortened." The name is used for a ceremonial type of sword. According to legend, one such weapon was the sword of Ogier the Dane - it bore the inscription "My name is Cortana, of the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and Durendal." Durendal (spelled 'Durandal' in this sense) was the name of an Artificial intelligence in a previous Bungie game, Marathon. This also ties in with Cortana telling John "I am your shield, I am your sword."
* In Halo: Glasslands, The smart AI Black Box sees Cortana as a negative role model. He believes she has become far too human after spending so much time around them.
* In Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Cortana takes her Halo 3 form. In the game, Cortana always remains in blue, unlike the original, where she is seen in lilac, violet, and pink, and changes to green when in Installation 04's control center.
* On the level Requiem, an audio log can be found in which Dr. Halsey mentions how Cortana could possibly outlive the 7-year life expectancy before saying how odd it is for a UNSC AI. While she did outlast the 7-year period, she performed poorly afterwards.
* Jen Taylor was awarded "Performance of the Year (Female)" by Ben of "TheGamerDrive," for her performance in Halo 4.
* The Didact seemed to show some interest in Cortana, perhaps because of how advanced Cortana was considering humanity and its lower than expected technological sophistication.
* Cortana was chosen to be the name for the personal assistant in Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10.The name was originally "a code name to rally the team around what they were building," but the decision to keep the name was made as a result of petitions and polls asking for the name to be kept when the code name was leaked.
== Gallery ==
File:Cortana (Halo) Render 01.png
File:Cortana (Halo) Render 02.png
File:Cortana (Halo) Render 03.png
File:Cortana (Halo) 01.png
File:Cortana (Halo) Fan Art 01.png
File:Cortana (Halo) Fan Art 02.png
File:Cortana (Halo) Fan Art 03.png
== External Links ==
* Cortana at Halo Alpha
Category:Characters
Category:Females
Category:Halo