Cortina

Cortina is the family ship between Dr Neo Cortex and Nina Cortex from the Crash Bandicoot fandom.

Canon
NOTE: For context, 'Cortex' refers to Dr Neo Cortex as that is what he is more commonly known by.

After being introduced in to the series, Nina appeared in every game alongside Dr Cortex until the series' hiatus. It is established that Cortex is Nina's uncle, but it has been brought into question due to him accidentally saying "My daught-uh, niece!" at one point in Crash Twinsanity. This has not been referenced again since, however, suggesting that it was a one-time gag intended for a laugh.

Cortex and Nina have a rather toxic history with each other. According to the game manual for Twinsanity, when he found out that his niece had gained a fondness for cute and cuddly animals - a trait that belied his plan for world domination at the time - he replaced her hands with steel-trap fists and sent her to Madame Amberly's Evil Public School to become evil. Years later, Cortex reunites with Nina, as he needs her help to defeat the Evil Twins. In Crash of the Titans, Uka Uka has Cortex replaced by Nina and eventually he confronts her towards the end of the game. Following her defeat and the destruction of the Doominator, Cortex tells Nina he is "Going to spank you stupid for this!" As revealed in Crash: Mind Over Mutant, Cortex ended up abandoning Nina at Evil Public School so that she may suffer.

In the DS version of Crash of the Titans, Nina becomes aware that she is a grunt minion working for her uncle, so she plans to overthrow Cortex and take charge. After she convinces Tiny and N. Gin to work with her, she confronts Cortex and tells him how his plan with the Cortexbot isn't evil enough and that she is taking over. Annoyed and disappointed, Cortex escapes and leaves Crash to deal with Nina. When she and Crash confront her uncle again later, he feigns giving up to defeat Crash. Depending on the player's percentage, one of two endings can happen. In the standard ending, Nina accidentally turns herself into a baby and has to be turned back by Cortex. When she asks her uncle how she did, he pulls out a report card and reads her results. If the player completes the game 100%, Nina ends up blasting Crash and turning him back into a baby. Afterwards, she challenges Cortex to a battle and ends up defeating him and taking over his Cortexbot. It is implied that this ending is non-canon, however.

That said, there have been moments throughout the series where Cortex seems to genuinely care about Nina - to a point. In Twinsanity, Cortex becomes worried when Evil Crash kidnaps Nina and runs off with her. Later on, when he arrives at Evil Crash's house, he tells the evil counterpart to "Let her go. Take me instead!" In the console version of Crash of the Titans, Cortex admits that he is proud of Nina for betraying him - even though he is still going to punish her.

Fanon
Fans generally accept Nina as Cortex's niece, but occasionally like to play off of the Twinsanity gag where he accidentally says 'daughter' instead of 'niece'. There is plenty of fan material that depicts Cortex caring for a growing Nina as a parent, though there are also just as many where the two clash. Some fan-works don't have this depiction and instead have them getting along, working together to scheme and plot the defeat of Crash Bandicoot. Additionally, some fans like to use their relationship as a story vessel if they ship Nina romantically with either Crash or Coco.

Cortina is the second most popular family ship in the series, only behind the Bandicoot Siblings. A lack of tags that directly refer to this ship make it tedious, but a direct search for fan content usually brings back plenty of results.

Fandom
FAN FICTION