Hello Halo community, the following topic is made for some speculation in regards to the Didact, for possible appearances in the future and an interesting thought me and my friend had on the naming of Prometheans.
My friend asked me an interesting question, why are they called Prometheans?
First of all, the Prometheans, as most can figure out, are named after Prometheus, a Greek mythological Titan whom gave the gift of fire, symbolism for knowledge and technological advancement, and he was punished for it. But how does this relate to the Prometheans? Well it’s not necessarily about the Prometheans themselves, rather than it is their creator, Didact.
Although becoming a Promethean is likely a painful process likely involving death of the humans transformed, it is a gift of immunity, practically immortality given to ancient humans by the Didact. He even refers to the process of imprisoning humanity as Prometheans as a “gift” near the end of the game. Similar to Prometheus’ gift of fire, Didact’s gift is of great technological advancement, the fire propelling humanity into civilization, and Didact’s composing giving huge advancements to humanity. Ancient humans too became “civilized” from this gift due to being under control of Didact.
The Gods in Greek mythology views Prometheus’ actions negatively, casting him into a pit for eternal torture. Many Forerunners, such as the Librarian, saw Didact’s gift as genocide and imprisoned Didact in Requiem. Both Didact and Prometheus were imprisoned by their successors, or lesser beings, considering Prometheus was a Titan and Didact was the highly ranked leader of the Forerunner military.
Overall, we believe Didact is a manifestation or representation of the Greek myth Prometheus, and his army of “gifted” humans being named after him, at least in human translation.
As for Didact’s potential roles in halo 5 or 6 (spoilers if you somehow have yet to finish the game.)
At the end of Halo 4, Didact is sent tumbling into the source of his own machine, the tool used to harvest humans to create Prometheans. His body is seen disappearing into the core of the machine, presumably tearing him apart on a molecular level due to being so close to the source of the machine or possibly unaffected physically but held in place by the gravity of the core. Either way, he is no longer an obstacle for Master Chief, whom shortly afterwards detonates a Havoc nuke that obliterates Didact’s ship and the composer. Chances of Didact surviving are of course, very slim.
However, in the minute possibility, it’s possible Didact himself was composed and turn into digital matter. During the final level, he is floating directly in the beam of the composer, but not in the actual core, which is possible considering the composer was designed to harvest humans. It is possible that the core of the beam itself does not categorize data or DNA types of organisms and instead harvests anything caught in the source. This would mean the platform Didact waits upon would have to somehow organize the DNA collective storage system for Didact to just carelessly bath in the digital DNA stream of humans. But the ship was destroyed shortly after Didact’s digitalization, if the previous theory is true, making this all pointless right? Maybe, but considering the fact how easy data is to transfer in terms of Forerunner technology, it’s possible Didact’s DNA stream was transferred to another location or is floating off in the vacuum of space, still liable to transform Didact into a Promethean if found.
Though not very likely, if all of this is true, it is likely Didact is liable to return in a sequel as an advanced Promethean.
These are just some fun thoughts based on conversations based on my knowledge of the story, feel free to shoot down any flaws I may have made or add your own ideas on the subject.