Halo: Cortana's First Line Explained (It's Not From The Games)
Cortana, the beloved artificial intelligence from the Halo universe, finally made an appearance in Paramount+’s television show, and her first line was a fun addition to her big debut. While most know about Halo by way of the video games, the universe spans a variety of media. Cortana is a fixture within the franchise, having been featured on many of these different mediums, and even inspiring the name of Microsoft’s personal productivity assistant.
In the Halo universe, Dr. Catherine Halsey created Cortana through an illegal process. Dr. Halsey wanted to use her own brain as Cortana’s model, but since the process to be used, called Cognitive Impression Modelling, would destroy the donor’s brain in the process, she illegally flash-cloned herself. These clones are made of her own memories, but their minds are unstable. Eventually, Dr. Halsey used one of those clones to create the AI Cortana, as well as another named Kalmiya. Since Cortana shares Dr. Halsey’s memories, it creates an opportunity for some interesting dialogue.
Related: How Cortana Is Created In Halo: Origin & Flash Cloning Explained
When Cortana is finally activated in Halo episode 3, «Emergence,» she says to Dr. Halsey, “When the game is over, the king and pawn go back into the same box.” The AI first uttered this line in Eric Nylund’s novel Halo: The Fall of Reach. The phrase is actually an Italian proverb that was said to Dr. Halsey by her mother after the former had lost a game of chess to the latter. Since Cortana shares Dr. Halsey’s memories, the AI would have known about this moment she had shared with her mother. The proverb itself has to do with the idea that regardless of status, chess pieces, and, metaphorically, people all end up in the same
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