Basically the intergalactic version of Scumbag Steve
Honestly, he was less “Ancient Evil” and more “Ancient -Yoink-”. Frankly I’m not really sure what he was hoping to accomplish, well I have an idea because of the books, but he really reminded me of the average 80s cartoon villain with a rather illogical motive.
“I’M GOING TO DESTROY THE WORLD!”
“Why?”
“BECAUSE I’M EVIL!”
The Didact would be…
“I’M GOING TO DESTROY ALL HUMANS!”
“Why?”
“BECAUSE I’M EVIL!”
So basic thoughts on the Didact? I’ve discussed about him in greater depth before, but I want a real sense of what the community thinks of him.
Actually I thought of him in precisely the opposite context. He isn’t evil, he’s just part of a longstanding conflict with humanity that he’s justifiably going to try to finish.
HOWEVER, in a nutshell he is the the chaos prince from Space marine. Robo voice, force powers, spiny fingers, power armor, messed up face, hold-over from a long dead war, and his ultimate plan to retrieve an ancient artifact (after he tricks you into releasing him and his ilk after a time spent fighting a more familiar enemy) in order to fulfill the original designs of that war…which you stop of course thanks to a very long drop.
To be fair it’s a good character but I can only go so far to give props to the didact for assuming it.
> Actually I thought of him in precisely the opposite context. He isn’t evil, he’s just part of a longstanding conflict with humanity that he’s justifiably going to try to finish.
>
> HOWEVER, in a nutshell he is the the chaos prince from Space marine. Robo voice, force powers, spiny fingers, power armor, messed up face, hold-over from a long dead war, and his ultimate plan to retrieve an ancient artifact (after he tricks you into releasing him and his ilk) in order to fulfill the original designs of that war which you stop of course thanks to a very long drop.
>
> To be fair it’s a good character but I can only go so far to give props to the didact for assuming it.
I wouldn’t even say it is justifiable for him to finish, it had been finished for over 100,000 years before he woke up. In a sense, he is punishing a new race of humans who have no idea about the Forerunner-Human War or anything of the sort. The Librarian had hoped he would meditate in his time in meditation to HELP humans, not turn them into mindless kill droids.
Really, he is just doing the things that caused the Forerunners to fall in the first place.
To me, even in the books, the Didact always seems like a warrior who could never let the war end for himself.
he views humanity as chaotic and self serving. A threat to all living things anywhere. He is perfectly right…
> he views humanity as chaotic and self serving. A threat to all living things anywhere. He is perfectly right…
More like he is jealous that the creatures smarter than he or his race, the Precursors, chose Humanity to guide the galaxy, and not the Forerunners.
> he views humanity as chaotic and self serving. A threat to all living things anywhere. He is perfectly right…
That describes every other species in the known galaxy, Forerunners included.
Humans killed his children during the war…
Now I very much doubt anyone out there could forgive that rather easily and wouldn’t want a bit of revenge even after a very long nap.
I do feel he could have been used more in the campaign than he actually was but I certainly don’t see him as “evil”, and when you see ancient humans (the ones he knows of) not bothering to inform planets of flood infection but instead destroying all life on said planet, seems pretty evil to me.
> Humans killed his children during the war…
So that means all humans, even those not the least bit involved in the war, deserve to loose their lives and become mindless kill droids?
> Now I very much doubt anyone out there could forgive that rather easily and wouldn’t want a bit of revenge even after a very long nap.
>
> I do feel he could have been used more in the campaign than he actually was but I certainly don’t see him as “evil”, and when you see ancient humans (the ones he knows of) not bothering to inform planets of flood infection but instead destroying all life on said planet, seems pretty evil to me.
Well actually humans DID try to warn the Forerunners in the books if I recall, but the Forerunners did not believe them. Either way, the Terminals are a pretty poor representation of that whole ordeal. Did you know they cut down the Didact’s speech to the Lord of Admirals? Sort of casts a different light on the scene.
As with what’s been said, he does have a dark history against Humanity, still blaming them for the Forerunner’s shortcomings and demise. He sees them as chaotic and sadistic, he isn’t wrong either when you look at ONI’s escapades and the Insurrectionist conflict.
While this all seems extremely hypocritical on his behalf. I’ve mentioned before that I believe there’s a major ulterior motive going here. I believe the Prometheans the Didact wanted to create from Earth were intended for a much larger conflict from an unknown force, Flood or otherwise, that may be returning to the Galaxy.
Some hints of this may be in the Didact’s words:
“Your actions tread between honor and foolishness.”
“So misguided. Humanity’s imprisonment… is a kindness”
“Your compassion for mankind is misplaced.”
I find this theory gives the Didact more depth and true motive, instead of being branded as stereotypical ‘evil’.
he reflects 343 creativity. Not to mention that he looks like a human with a slightly deformed face, very creative.
A couple of years ago in the halo3 days I google imaged forerunner and I got some concept art that really looked what you would expect the fore runners to look like.
The Promethean are amazing thought.
> I believe the Prometheans the Didact wanted to create from Earth were intended for a much larger conflict from an unknown force, Flood or otherwise, that may be returning to the Galaxy.
> Some hints of this may be in the Didact’s words:
>
> “Your actions tread between honor and foolishness.”
> “So misguided. Humanity’s imprisonment… is a kindness”
> “Your compassion for mankind is misplaced.”
>
> I find this theory gives the Didact more depth and true motive, instead of being branded as stereotypical ‘evil’.
Now that would give him more depth if it was actually reinforced in-game. Yet why is that the only solution? Why not help teach humanity the proper path? While you mentioned ONI and their bad ways as evidence to back up the Didact, can they be used to represent a MAJORITY of humans? That isn’t fair.
> As with what’s been said, he does have a dark history against Humanity, still blaming them for the Forerunner’s shortcomings and demise. He sees them as chaotic and sadistic, he isn’t wrong either when you look at ONI’s escapades and the Insurrectionist conflict.
>
> While this all seems extremely hypocritical on his behalf. I’ve mentioned before that I believe there’s a major ulterior motive going here. I believe the Prometheans the Didact wanted to create from Earth were intended for a much larger conflict from an unknown force, Flood or otherwise, that may be returning to the Galaxy.
> Some hints of this may be in the Didact’s words:
>
> “Your actions tread between honor and foolishness.”
> “So misguided. Humanity’s imprisonment… is a kindness”
> “Your compassion for mankind is misplaced.”
>
> I find this theory gives the Didact more depth and true motive, instead of being branded as stereotypical ‘evil’.
I like this makes you think. I don’t think he died it was a little too easy and Nothing is ever that easy
From what I can gather from what I’ve read the ancient Humans never warned the Forerunners, hence why they didn’t realise about the Flood until it was too late.
I see it as the Didact knows his children have been killed by a species that he see’s as “trying to aggressively expand”, not run away from something that was infact killing them. Had the Forerunners been informed/warned, they could have investigated, discovered the Flood and then aided the humans in it’s destruction instead of going to war with Humanity.
Now you tell me if you would hold a grudge against a race that you see as destroying other species to get what they want, a species who would rather murder several billion of your own people instead of informing you of a serious threat to your entire species.
I could also argue that he see’s how inferior the human race is compared to how it used to be, and realises that if the Flood are about to come back, Humanity is pretty much screwed so he’s gonna need a few more Promethean Knights.
I said in my 1/3 review of Halo that he’s basically that old cartoon villian who twirls his mustouche and puts tied up girls on the train tracks.
I also said it’s much harder to take the story in Halo 4 seriously considering that Mass Effect just ended where the main theme of that franchise was, “Humanity is irrelevant”. Then Halo 4 comes along and says, “Oh, humanity is the best thing in the world cause we’re so awesome and other races are just jealous of how awesome we are”. Kinda like how arguing with an American usually results in him saying “Americaaaaa!”.
> I could also argue that he see’s how inferior the human race is compared to how it used to be, and realises that if the Flood are about to come back, Humanity is pretty much screwed so he’s gonna need a few more Promethean Knights.
Well I’d argue the greatness in that plan since it didn’t work out so well the first time he tried it.
> Now that would give him more depth if it was actually reinforced in-game. Yet why is that the only solution? Why not help teach humanity the proper path? While you mentioned ONI and their bad ways as evidence to back up the Didact, can they be used to represent a MAJORITY of humans? That isn’t fair.
While more hints to a plot like this in the game would of been good. I wouldn’t suspect the Didact of giving more clues on his intentions. Due to him still seeing Humanity as a lower race- only to serve the will of the Forerunners along with all other species. His claim to the Mantle makes him believe he is the only one who can ensure peace over the Galaxy- should an unknown threat be approaching.
It’s true the representation of Humanity based on the actions group isn’t fair. Overall though I doubt that would make a difference to the Didact’s impression of Humanity. But it would be interesting if he did use something like ONI’s actions as evidence for the Sangheli to once again unite against Humanity…
> While more hints to a plot like this in the game would of been good. I wouldn’t suspect the Didact of giving more clues on his intentions. Due to him still seeing Humanity as a lower race- only to serve the will of the Forerunners along with all other species. His claim to the Mantle makes him believe he is the only one who can ensure peace over the Galaxy- should an unknown threat be approaching.
>
> It’s true the representation of Humanity based on the actions group isn’t fair. Overall though I doubt that would make a difference to the Didact’s impression of Humanity. But it would be interesting if he did use something like ONI’s actions as evidence for the Sangheli to once again unite against Humanity…
I doubt he’d really care about the Sangheili, after all he did call them beasts. Frankly keeping the Sangheili from challenging humanity is a page taken from the Forerunner playbook of keeping a race’s technological advancement down and turning the galaxy into a galactic nanny state. That was one of the reasons the galaxy feel so quickly to the Flood, they had no way to defend themselves.
Every crime ancient man committed the Forerunners committed, even killing their own people.
> he reflects 343 creativity. Not to mention that he looks like a human with a slightly deformed face, very creative.
>
> A couple of years ago in the halo3 days I google imaged forerunner and I got some concept art that really looked what you would expect the fore runners to look like.
>
> The Promethean are amazing thought.
>
> http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/u678/lolek6/Ih_promethean_bullet_zps251c093b.jpg
Us and the Forerunners were always supposed to be similar, we were in a way sibling species. If they had gone with that concept art you linked, everyone would be -Yoinking!- about how the Forerunners looked like Geth, that Harbinger was their leader, and that Femshep was Palmer.
> and that Femshep was Palmer.
I think they actually are, voice actor wise.
