Chris Sohl, who captured this image from Bungie's Halo 3 announcement trailer, had this to say about it:

Who is this dude?!?! His faces are less than a second apart in the trailer.

The first face doesn't have a lot of definition at all, so while I wouldn't bet the house that it isn't Cortana, I wouldn't argue strongly against someone who felt that it wasn't, either.

The second is so distorted that it's difficult to say much at all, except that it looks menacing. Sort of like a slee-stack from Land of the Lost.

As for what's going on in the trailer with Cortana, I think there are two possibilities:

Cortana mentions during Halo 2 gameplay a "presence" in the Covenant system that is resisting her, that she thinks is unusually strong for a Covenant AI. Perhaps it is a Covenant AI, or a Forerunner AI, or something else. This face might represent that entity, whatever its identity is.

We know that Cortana is being held captive by Gravemind. But we still don't know much about who or what Gravemind is beyond the "Flood hive brain" description. We don't know what his genesis is.

If, as some believe, the process of the formation of a Gravemind-like entity is what we were seeing in the Keyes blob, it's possible that perhaps in the distant past, Gravemind was also a humanoid. Perhaps it is that face we are seeing here; the initial or primal identity subsumed by the Flood into the body that eventually became Gravemind.

Some of the more conspiratorial theorists may still hold to the notion that Gravemind himself is the Keyes blob, somehow escaped from the destruction of Installation 04 and transported to Delta Halo. As unlikely as that is, this would make the face perhaps Captain Keyes. I don't particularly see any resemblance, but again, the image does lack definition.

Comments

Legends's picture

I think that the face on the bottom is cortana still comming into view, the top i am not so sure.

Anonymous's picture

It's a glitched Cortana view. I don't quite understand why she appears that way, though. Just cenematics. I don't take it seriously.

Legends's picture

If you look carefully at the middle of the yop picture you can see a face, maybe cortana, also the filmy picture ontop of it could possibly be a claw or a foot comming down. Or it could even be Gravemind, that would make sense, because that is where cortana is traped.
As for the bottom it looks like cortana , and behind her face it looks like it could possibly be a halo, surrounding her.

Halcyon Heren's picture

No way, dudes. Look at the nose on the top face; it's an absolutely male feature, completely different from Cortana's. And as for the bottom, it's not consistent with the fade-in appearance of Cortana. It's separated from her appearance in that sequence. On top of all this, Cortana's trademark hair is part of her frame model, and she would not and could not be represented without it.

narcogen's picture

In reply to: Neither Cortana!

That's a good point about the hair, I hadn't thought about it. But you're probably right. Without it, she'd be considered off-model. And even where she's distorted, her haircut is there and distorted, too, whereas some of these other images don't have it.


Rampant for over six years.


Rampant for over se7en years.



Champ's picture

In reply to: Neither Cortana!

[quote=Halcyon Heren]No way, dudes. Look at the nose on the top face; it's an absolutely male feature, completely different from Cortana's. And as for the bottom, it's not consistent with the fade-in appearance of Cortana. It's separated from her appearance in that sequence. On top of all this, Cortana's trademark hair is part of her frame model, and she would not and could not be represented without it.[/quote]
I think that he is getting to something. In the top picture it does look like a human male and if you look more closely the face kinda looks like Keyes from Halo:CE. To back up my theory look at this article from a couple of weeks ago http://rampancy.net/blog/narcogen/06042006/a_little_rampant_speculation_...

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-The CHAMP is here!

Anonymous's picture

In reply to: Re: Neither Cortana!

because on halo 1 keyes becomes one of them,by this i mean one of the flood guys and even cortana says it, which is on the level named "Keyes", check it out and see if i maybe be correct.

Anonymous's picture

I belive the first image to be that of cortana, however she is being covered by something which i thinkmay be gravemind itslef or maybe one of the tentacles.
The bottom image i belive to be a more focused cortana, that appears to be "fusing" with wot looks to be gravemind.

Anonymous's picture

This image looks suspiciously like a prophet's head. Remember that Mercy is also in Gravemind's clutches. He could be being accidentally broadcasted while Cortana is trying to communicate with the Chief.

narcogen's picture

In reply to: Mercy

Sure, Gravemind's got Mercy-- even if he is dead. 2401 Penitent Tangent, too.

I was never clear, though, whether absorption by Gravemind somehow gave Mercy's corpse animation, or whether Gravemind simply had access to his mind, his knowledge, and his... ewww... body.

Better not to think about it.


Rampant for over se7en years.


Rampant for over se7en years.