Here goes my theory on the bastion and the Didact. If you listen to his speech in halo 4 epilogue, it sounds like he is actually talking to someone. I think it’s other forerunners in the bastion because of this sentence: ‘We squander eons in the darkness while they seize our triumphs for their own’. By “we”, he meant forerunners of course, and the rest of the sentence references to humanity using promethean technology. What I think is the most mysterious sentence is: ‘Refusing to eradicate them is a fools gambit’. Other forerunners probably don’t share his opinion on humanity. His last sentence is the most important one. ‘The reclamation has already begun, and we are hopeless to stop it’. By “we” he is again referring to other forerunners in the bastion. Humanity cannot “reclaim” the mantle because they never had it in the first place. He cannot mean the forerunners because of the ‘we are hopeless to stop it part’. Only other thing that held the mantle were AI’s after the first firing of the halo array, and the reclamation happens in halo 5. In his final speech in halo 4 he also said: ‘I stand before you, acused of the sin of assuring forerunner ascendancy. Of atempting to save us from this fate where we are supposed to… receed’. By “fate” he may be referring to the bastion. The end of Didacts speech is also a subliminal message in Halo 2 anniversary. What do you think?
As much as it pains me to say this, I don’t think the Didact’s speech in Halo 4’s epilogue fits well with the events presented in Escalation. Yet your theory would work, better than anything we could come up with before. Of course, the most simple explanation was that the Didact was talking to other Forerunners right after the end of Halo 4, while standing trial. The Next 72 Hours, unfortunately, threw that right out of the window. Hopefully your theory is right, and this Bastion story is a way to keep the Didact involved and justify his speech - which at the moment can’t be properly placed on the timeline.
On a sidenote, it is worth noting that Humanity can actually reclaim the Mantle. While they never held it, they were supposed to inherit it. So in a sense, their ascendancy would simply be taking back what’s theirs. And by ‘fate’, I think the Didact refers to little more than the Forerunners’ absence in the affairs of the galaxy since the firing of the rings.
> 2535418949901934;1:
> The end of Didacts speech is also a subliminal message in Halo 2 anniversary. What do you think?
Not sure what you mean by that?
We saw in the Legandary Halo 5 a unknown Halo insterlation ( 01, 02, 06 or 07), maybe the flood is in there. I hope so the Flood will retun because in the outside of the milkyway the Flood is alive. Maybe it would`t come in Halo 6 but maybe in future Halo games
I meant that by hiding a part of the speech in the H2A 343 might be hinting at the importance of it. And it’s still possible that the speech didn’t happen directly after halo 4. I still wonder what he meant by ‘In this hour of victory’ though.
> 2535418949901934;4:
> I still wonder what he meant by ‘In this hour of victory’ though.
Most likley humanitys win over him
> 2535408730995228;5:
> > 2535418949901934;4:
> > I still wonder what he meant by ‘In this hour of victory’ though.
>
> Most likley humanitys win over him
This would not make much sense though. “In this hour of victory, we taste only defeat. I ask why.” I think he sees himself and the Forerunners at large as victorious in this statement, but the other Forerunners do not, because whatever victory he is talking about was built on his “sin of ensuring Forerunner ascendancy”.
> 2535418949901934;4:
> I meant that by hiding a part of the speech in the H2A 343 might be hinting at the importance of it. And it’s still possible that the speech didn’t happen directly after halo 4. I still wonder what he meant by ‘In this hour of victory’ though.
Still did not know what you meant, so I did my research. For those like me who did not know, the remastered version of the Mausoleum Suite (Cryptic Whisper), like the original, contains reversed speech. When reversed, however, the remastered version offers a different speech from its original version, and it’s actually the Didact’s epilogue speech in Halo 4. Nice find!
That speech at the end of Halo 4 was revealed by Catalog to have taken place prior to the firing of the Halo Array. However it later said that it wasn’t sure when it took place. This was due to the fact that the writers or whoever realized the speech didn’t make sense to have happened prior to the Halo Array firing and retconned it to be uncertain when he made the speech until they can fix the mistake later or just ignore it if they so choose which I wouldn’t surprise me if they do.
Another prove of Bastion (with other Forerunners alive) is in the second Crate data, the Vergil interrogation
> 2533274801216645;8:
> Another prove of Bastion (with other Forerunners alive) is in the second Crate data, the Vergil interrogation
>
> http://www.halopedia.org/images/8/8a/LC_002_Doc_8.jpg
Unless you include Prometheans, Sentinels, Monitors, Shield Worlds, etc.
Would it have made sense for the speech to have taken place right after the Forerunners defeated and de-evolved the ancient humans, perhaps? I dunno.
> 2533274869999832;7:
> That speech at the end of Halo 4 was revealed by Catalog to have taken place prior to the firing of the Halo Array. However it later said that it wasn’t sure when it took place. This was due to the fact that the writers or whoever realized the speech didn’t make sense to have happened prior to the Halo Array firing and retconned it to be uncertain when he made the speech until they can fix the mistake later or just ignore it if they so choose which I wouldn’t surprise me if they do.
Unfortunately I think this is actually the best explanation of why it’s so hard to place when it would have happened, that they just honestly didn’t put enough thought into it. It sounded cool so they rolled with it. I could be wrong.
> 2533274961806222;10:
> Would it have made sense for the speech to have taken place right after the Forerunners defeated and de-evolved the ancient humans, perhaps? I dunno.
>
>
> > 2533274869999832;7:
> > That speech at the end of Halo 4 was revealed by Catalog to have taken place prior to the firing of the Halo Array. However it later said that it wasn’t sure when it took place. This was due to the fact that the writers or whoever realized the speech didn’t make sense to have happened prior to the Halo Array firing and retconned it to be uncertain when he made the speech until they can fix the mistake later or just ignore it if they so choose which I wouldn’t surprise me if they do.
>
> Unfortunately I think this is actually the best explanation of why it’s so hard to place when it would have happened, that they just honestly didn’t put enough thought into it. It sounded cool so they rolled with it. I could be wrong.
No, it wouldn’t make sense at any point prior to the firing of the Halos as the Forerunners won that war, devolved Mankind, making them no threat to their hold on the Mantle and Forerunners in general were not receding at that point. In fact they had no intention of ever doing so despite their belief that they would someday pass the Mantle on to another race as they were hellbent on keeping it for themselves, some of them even till the end and after that like the Ur-Didact. You could argue that the Didact believed the Forerunners would lose the war with the Flood, the Halo 4 terminals and Primordium implies this when he speaks to Forthencho but he wouldn’t say this to a group of Forerunners which is implied by the speech to be whom he’s addressing.
The only way this speech makes sense is in the context of modern-day Humanity who had since become strong again and were starting to knowingly or not ascend as a galactic superpower again and come into their role. This is seen with infinity and the Spartan 4’s and other technologies we gained from Onyx and other installations. The bridge between our technological capabilities and the Covenant’s was decreasing. We were even mediating potential alliances between a faction of Brutes and the SoS. We were gradually regaining our lost power.
I believe that epilogue speech was put in when the plan for Halo 5 was still for the Didact to be the main antagonist of the Reclaimer Saga and before all the re-writing and changing the storyline to remove the Didact and give us this Created angle and bring back Cortana to promote that App that Microsoft had released (I’m sorry but that’s what it was, just a way to market and promote more of that Cortana App. The Artwork of Halo’s 5 mission descriptions prove that. Cortana coming back as the villain was never “always the plan” no matter what 343i says). I imagine they were using this speech to set up the Didact and a faction of living flesh and blood Forerunners as the main enemies for Halo 5 as it was implied in pre-Halo 4 media that a rematch between Humanity and Forerunners for the Mantle was happening. A proper rematch with living breathing Forerunners not a symbolic proxy war with Forerunner machines. Ok rant over.
That’s my take on what the speech originally meant and was intended for. But we’ll have to see if 343i can retcon it into their new plot in a way that makes sense or just ignore it. I’m thinking the latter as I don’t think it will make sense if they do bring it into the story now.
Mm, yeah, good points about the timing of the speech, I was just quickly brainstorming. I couldn’t remember all of it. Nevermind, as you were. LOL!
I wholeheartedly agree with everything said though.
> 2533274869999832;11:
> > 2533274961806222;10:
> > Would it have made sense for the speech to have taken place right after the Forerunners defeated and de-evolved the ancient humans, perhaps? I dunno.
> >
> >
> > > 2533274869999832;7:
> > > That speech at the end of Halo 4 was revealed by Catalog to have taken place prior to the firing of the Halo Array. However it later said that it wasn’t sure when it took place. This was due to the fact that the writers or whoever realized the speech didn’t make sense to have happened prior to the Halo Array firing and retconned it to be uncertain when he made the speech until they can fix the mistake later or just ignore it if they so choose which I wouldn’t surprise me if they do.
> >
> > Unfortunately I think this is actually the best explanation of why it’s so hard to place when it would have happened, that they just honestly didn’t put enough thought into it. It sounded cool so they rolled with it. I could be wrong.
>
> No, it wouldn’t make sense at any point prior to the firing of the Halos as the Forerunners won that war, devolved Mankind, making them no threat to their hold on the Mantle and Forerunners in general were not receding at that point. In fact they had no intention of ever doing so despite their belief that they would someday pass the Mantle on to another race as they were hellbent on keeping it for themselves, some of them even till the end and after that like the Ur-Didact. You could argue that the Didact believed the Forerunners would lose the war with the Flood, the Halo 4 terminals and Primordium implies this when he speaks to Forthencho but he wouldn’t say this to a group of Forerunners which is implied by the speech to be whom he’s addressing.
>
> The only way this speech makes sense is in the context of modern-day Humanity who had since become strong again and were starting to knowingly or not ascend as a galactic superpower again and come into their role. This is seen with infinity and the Spartan 4’s and other technologies we gained from Onyx and other installations. The bridge between our technological capabilities and the Covenant’s was decreasing. We were even mediating potential alliances between a faction of Brutes and the SoS. We were gradually regaining our lost power.
>
> I believe that epilogue speech was put in when the plan for Halo 5 was still for the Didact to be the main antagonist of the Reclaimer Saga and before all the re-writing and changing the storyline to remove the Didact and give us this Created angle and bring back Cortana to promote that App that Microsoft had released (I’m sorry but that’s what it was, just a way to market and promote more of that Cortana App. The Artwork of Halo’s 5 mission descriptions prove that. Cortana coming back as the villain was never “always the plan” no matter what 343i says). I imagine they were using this speech to set up the Didact and a faction of living flesh and blood Forerunners as the main enemies for Halo 5 as it was implied in pre-Halo 4 media that a rematch between Humanity and Forerunners for the Mantle was happening. A proper rematch with living breathing Forerunners not a symbolic proxy war with Forerunner machines. Ok rant over.
>
> That’s my take on what the speech originally meant and was intended for. But we’ll have to see if 343i can retcon it into their new plot in a way that makes sense or just ignore it. I’m thinking the latter as I don’t think it will make sense if they do bring it into the story now.
I’ve been looking back on my comment and now that think about it, to have living flesh and blood Forerunners as enemies in a Halo game fighting the UNSC would require you to seriously nerf the Forerunners capabilities in armor and weapons for gameplay and balance purposes so they my suggestion of them being the main enemies might not be so great after all.
> 2533274869999832;13:
> > 2533274869999832;11:
> > > 2533274961806222;10:
> > > Would it have made sense for the speech to have taken place right after the Forerunners defeated and de-evolved the ancient humans, perhaps? I dunno.
> > >
> > >
> > > > 2533274869999832;7:
> > > > That speech at the end of Halo 4 was revealed by Catalog to have taken place prior to the firing of the Halo Array. However it later said that it wasn’t sure when it took place. This was due to the fact that the writers or whoever realized the speech didn’t make sense to have happened prior to the Halo Array firing and retconned it to be uncertain when he made the speech until they can fix the mistake later or just ignore it if they so choose which I wouldn’t surprise me if they do.
> > >
> > > Unfortunately I think this is actually the best explanation of why it’s so hard to place when it would have happened, that they just honestly didn’t put enough thought into it. It sounded cool so they rolled with it. I could be wrong.
> >
> > No, it wouldn’t make sense at any point prior to the firing of the Halos as the Forerunners won that war, devolved Mankind, making them no threat to their hold on the Mantle and Forerunners in general were not receding at that point. In fact they had no intention of ever doing so despite their belief that they would someday pass the Mantle on to another race as they were hellbent on keeping it for themselves, some of them even till the end and after that like the Ur-Didact. You could argue that the Didact believed the Forerunners would lose the war with the Flood, the Halo 4 terminals and Primordium implies this when he speaks to Forthencho but he wouldn’t say this to a group of Forerunners which is implied by the speech to be whom he’s addressing.
> >
> > The only way this speech makes sense is in the context of modern-day Humanity who had since become strong again and were starting to knowingly or not ascend as a galactic superpower again and come into their role. This is seen with infinity and the Spartan 4’s and other technologies we gained from Onyx and other installations. The bridge between our technological capabilities and the Covenant’s was decreasing. We were even mediating potential alliances between a faction of Brutes and the SoS. We were gradually regaining our lost power.
> >
> > I believe that epilogue speech was put in when the plan for Halo 5 was still for the Didact to be the main antagonist of the Reclaimer Saga and before all the re-writing and changing the storyline to remove the Didact and give us this Created angle and bring back Cortana to promote that App that Microsoft had released (I’m sorry but that’s what it was, just a way to market and promote more of that Cortana App. The Artwork of Halo’s 5 mission descriptions prove that. Cortana coming back as the villain was never “always the plan” no matter what 343i says). I imagine they were using this speech to set up the Didact and a faction of living flesh and blood Forerunners as the main enemies for Halo 5 as it was implied in pre-Halo 4 media that a rematch between Humanity and Forerunners for the Mantle was happening. A proper rematch with living breathing Forerunners not a symbolic proxy war with Forerunner machines. Ok rant over.
> >
> > That’s my take on what the speech originally meant and was intended for. But we’ll have to see if 343i can retcon it into their new plot in a way that makes sense or just ignore it. I’m thinking the latter as I don’t think it will make sense if they do bring it into the story now.
>
> I’ve been looking back on my comment and now that think about it, to have living flesh and blood Forerunners as enemies in a Halo game fighting the UNSC would require you to seriously nerf the Forerunners capabilities in armor and weapons for gameplay and balance purposes so they my suggestion of them being the main enemies might not be so great after all.
That may be true that it would be a significant nerf, but I wouldn’t be surprised by it happening regardless. Really the Prometheans should be dramatically more OP than they already are in the games anyway. Stuff is only ever as powerful as it needs to be for plot, as evidenced by Halsey hacking a Contender-class AI with a laptop, LOL. 
I don’t think it’s a stretch to believe that when 343 sat down in 2009, 2010, 2011 to plan out the future of the fiction and came up with the roots of the Reclaimer Trilogy/Saga, they said to themselves: “The Covenant was defeated in Halo 3, but we need a Covenant 2.0/galaxy-spanning-antagonist-empire-of-human-hating-aliens to fight, or it won’t feel like Halo. How do we get that back again?” And I personally think the plan was that way back then, the Didact was going to be the one activating the Guardians in H5, and rebooting the Ecumene for himself with the Prometheans and the ex-Covenant races allied with him as his people - we see that beginning to happen in Halo 4. That gives us the Covenant 2.0 that we needed as the antagonist, but with the Didact now in the place of the San 'Shyuum. That’s what I personally kind of think the plan was, anyway. No sources for any of it, just pure speculation.
(And btw, I would have been INFINITELY happier with that plan, than with the Created.)
Part of me wonders if it’s not too late to steer the arc back in this direction. Didact returns and somehow defeats Cortana and takes control of the Created for himself?
I’m pretty certain he gave that speech at the end of the Human-Forerunner war. That’s the only point where it makes sense contextually.
> 2535418949901934;1:
> Here goes my theory on the bastion and the Didact. If you listen to his speech in halo 4 epilogue, it sounds like he is actually talking to someone. I think it’s other forerunners in the bastion because of this sentence: ‘We squander eons in the darkness while they seize our triumphs for their own’. By “we”, he meant forerunners of course, and the rest of the sentence references to humanity using promethean technology. What I think is the most mysterious sentence is: ‘Refusing to eradicate them is a fools gambit’. Other forerunners probably don’t share his opinion on humanity. His last sentence is the most important one. ‘The reclamation has already begun, and we are hopeless to stop it’. By “we” he is again referring to other forerunners in the bastion. Humanity cannot “reclaim” the mantle because they never had it in the first place. He cannot mean the forerunners because of the ‘we are hopeless to stop it part’. Only other thing that held the mantle were AI’s after the first firing of the halo array, and the reclamation happens in halo 5. In his final speech in halo 4 he also said: ‘I stand before you, acused of the sin of assuring forerunner ascendancy. Of atempting to save us from this fate where we are supposed to… receed’. By “fate” he may be referring to the bastion. The end of Didacts speech is also a subliminal message in Halo 2 anniversary. What do you think
His speech was from the end of the first human-Forerunner war
I agree with OP, but for all who do not, I leave you with this video below. Here’s to hoping.
> 2535410586901580;17:
> I agree with OP, but for all who do not, I leave you with this video below. Here’s to hoping.
>
> Halo Infinite - The Didact's Return - YouTube
Thanks for sharing the video. This guy is a genius.
> 2535418949901934;18:
> > 2535410586901580;17:
> > I agree with OP, but for all who do not, I leave you with this video below. Here’s to hoping.
> >
> > Halo Infinite - The Didact's Return - YouTube
>
> Thanks for sharing the video. This guy is a genius.
You’re welcome. I understand the Didact was not the most well-understood villain in history, but his character and story is awesome and I’m all about him potentially getting another go at the spotlight.