Why the Didact wasn't a good antagonist IMO

Games Other Halo
1

I’ve always said how the Didact wasn’t a good villain in Halo 4, so I thought I might as well share WHY. I know Halo 4 threads are getting tiring, but this was one of the biggest let downs I felt about the game. 343i preached about how Master Chief was finally going to get a true antagonist and that the Didact, at least according to Frank O’Conner, would be seen as more of a noble figure while being the enemy.

I found nothing of the sort. The Didact boiled down to being a Forerunner supremacist who hated humans for the sake of being evil. I have seen the argument made about the Halo novels setting the stage for this, but I disagree having read the novels. The Didact in the Forerunner Saga isn’t nearly as big of an -Yoink- as he is in Halo 4. One way to drive this point home is by comparing a speech of his in the Terminals with the same speech in Halo: Primordium.

Here is his confrontation with the Lord of Admirals in Halo 4: Here

Now we can gather that he really despise humans in this and really sees them as a blight. Yet when placed in its proper context, the tone changes. Here is the speech in Primordium:

> My finest opponent, the Mantle accepts all who live fiercely, who defend their young, who build and struggle and grow, and even those who dominate—as humans have dominated, cruelly and without wisdom.
>
> But to all of us there is a time like this, when the Domain seeks to confirm our essences, and for you, that time is now.
>
> Know this, relentless enemy, killer of our children, Lord of Admirals: soon we will face the enemy you have faced and defeated. I can see that challenge coming to the Forerunners, and so do many others… And we are afraid.
>
> That is why you, and many thousands of your people who may contain knowledge of how humans defended themselves against the Flood, will not pass cleanly and forever, as I would wish for a fellow warrior, but will be extracted and steeped down into the genetic code of many new humans.
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> This is not my wish nor my will. It arises from the skill and the will of my life-mate, my wife, the Librarian, who sees much farther than I do down the twining streams of Living Time.
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> So this additional indignity will be inflicted upon you. It means, I believe, that humans will not end here, but may rise again—fight again. Humans are always warriors.
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> But what and whom they will fight, I do not know. For I fear the time of the Forerunners is drawing to a close. In this, the Librarian and I find agreement. Take satisfaction, warrior, in that possibility.

I see in this quote a lot of regret about Composing his enemies and an admittance that the Didact himself believes that the time of the Forerunners is coming to an end and that humans may rise again…and he seems to understand it. Yet in Halo 4 his sole motivation is to cast down the humans and have the Forerunners rise again. His speech in the epilogue reaffirms this.

Honestly, it seems 343i did everything they could to expunge any noble qualities of the Didact just to make him evil. Aside from cutting his speech to the LoA, there is no mention of the Primordial talking to him on Charum Hakkor and how the Flood is retribution against the Forerunners, well that is the implication, nothing about the exploits of Bornsteller Makes Eternal Lasting, nothing about his conflict with the Forerunner Council and subsequent self-imposed exile to Earth, all things that shaped his personality and character.

Not only that, but he saw the fall of his civilization, the destruction of his people at the hands of the Flood, really traumatic events. With everything 343i had to work with, they really could’ve made the Didact the new Darth Vader: a tragic villain who we feel sorry for. Instead we are treated to a generic bad guy with logic expected of from an 80s cartoon villain. I mean he Composed humans to make Promethean Knights 100,000 years ago and it didn’t stop the Flood and 100,000 years later does the same thing, but without any real reason to do so besides, “Humans bad and are a threat to the galaxy!”.

Nevermind the fact he is simply turning innocent people into mindless, homicidal robots that kill against their will. Good going Didact.

To wrap this thing up, the final confrontation was terrible too. One QTE and he is done. Personally, I would’ve used QTEs for a fight, but expand on it. Have the Chief actually fight the Didact with jabs to his face, duck and block blows from the Didact and seemingly incapacitate him. He would run to arm the nuke, but be grabbed, pulled toward the Didact and get punched the -blam!- out! Then Cortana would bind him and, instead of a pulse grenade, maybe Chief could shove the nuke in the Didact’s armor and push him off the bridge and actually give him a realistic chance to escape the nukes detonation. Sorry if that seems contrived, but it works better in my head ;p.

So in conclusion, I just felt disappointed with what 343i did with the Didact. So much potential and yet he is a step below past Halo antagonists like Truth, Gravemind and/or Guilty Spark. If you read everything, thanks for your time.

*Addendum: I understand Halo: Silentium will have Halo 4 information in it that may clear up why the Didact is the way he is in Halo 4, but since it doesn’t physically exist yet, I can’t factor it. Maybe it will change my perspective, but I still think it is shoddy storytelling to leave a huge gap in the story until March of 2013 to make a game in November of 2012 make sense.

2

he has to be a -Yoink- because blowing up earth is obviously not making it clear enough that he is the bad guy

3

> he has to be a -Yoink!- because blowing up earth is obviously not making it clear enough that he is the bad guy

Yet it does a disservice to the character and the motivation to do so isn’t there. Having a bad guy be bad simply to be bad is poor storytelling.

4

Technically, there are two of him. One turned evil, the other stayed good. the evil one was imprisoned in requiem while the good one fired the halo array.

5

> Technically, there are two of him. One turned evil, the other stayed good. the evil one was imprisoned in requiem while the good one fired the halo array.

…

I know this. The one in the game is implied to be the Ur-Didact and his behavior in-game does not match up with how he was in the novels. 343i just made him evil without really showing us adequately how he came to be evil.

6

I have’nt read many of the Halo books, I’ve only read Cryptum. If I remember corectly, in one part of the book (WARNING: SPOILERS) I remember the Didact got information abut a planet whose ecosystem was once thriving, but was now falling apart because of something the Forunners or the Didact did, and the Didact felt guilty about it. (My memory of the book Cryptum is foggy) But the Didact was a total -yoink- in Halo 4, not to mention the fact that his character was impossible to follow. Then agian Halo 4’s entire story was hard to follow.

7

> I have’nt read many of the Halo books, I’ve only read Cryptum. If I remember corectly, in one part of the book (WARNING: SPOILERS) I remember the Didact got information abut a planet whose ecosystem was once thriving, but was now falling apart because of something the Forunners or the Didact did, and the Didact felt guilty about it. (My memory of the book Cryptum is foggy) But the Didact was a total -yoink- in Halo 4, not to mention the fact that his character was impossible to follow.

Well the Didact didn’t do it, it was the result of a Halo firing. But yeah, in Cryptum he really does show some regret for his past actions. He is by no means humanities number one fan, but we can see how the arrival of the Flood put things in a new perspective for him.

8

Ya, he is pretty much just a homicidal maniac.

9

Well I agree, but only because they threw way too much unto the game when trying to focus on Chief saving Cortana. That took away potential to delve deeper into him, but as we see from the terminals there is a reason for him to turn a little crazy. I think the big mistake was making it somewhat of a romantic relationship trying to be saved while they are showing us Forerunners for the first time, it was just too much.

10

> Well I agree, but only because they threw way too much unto the game when trying to focus on Chief saving Cortana. That took away potential to delve deeper into him, but as we see from the terminals there is a reason for him to turn a little crazy. I think the big mistake was making it somewhat of a romantic relationship trying to be saved while they are showing us Forerunners for the first time, it was just too much.

I don’t think the Terminals were all too good either, they weren’t really clear on the timeline, skipped over crucial events from the Forerunner Saga and were pretty vague at best.

11

Well that clears it up a little bit, but I still feel that Halo 4’s story is really difficult to follow. I know I have’nt read all the books, but I belive that 343 could have done a better job explaining the entire Forerunner aspect of the campaign. At least they did a good job with Cheif and Cortana’s relationship.

12

> Well that clears it up a little bit, but I still feel that Halo 4’s story is really difficult to follow. I know I have’nt read all the books, but I belive that 343 could have done a better job explaining the entire Forerunner aspect of the campaign. At least they did a good job with Cheif and Cortana’s relationship.

It isn’t your fault if you didn’t read the books just to understand the game, 343i said you wouldn’t have to.

13

Having stopped reading the novels I never read much about the didacts and such, however, to speak on what I have seen, I also saw a big difference, just from Halo 4 didact to the terminal vids.

I remember telling all my friends to watch the terminal vids cause it gave the didact some character while in the game…he’s just…yea 80’s super villain that works.

I do kind of feel like I could see the rational behind what the didact did in the vids even though yes he was turning towards darker means(which was why he had to be taken down, even though like a boss he took two binary shots and just got knocked out) he didn’t seem that bad of a guy, But in 4,he was just killy, glass a whole installation, not a big deal.

Seems instead of centering and finding peace over the time of imprisonment he just steemed in his own hate and became just insane with ideas of humans did this, humans weakened us, humans are to blame, I am so mad bro.

14

Hmm… it’s possible that whatever the Didact did to himself to make him immune to the Flood changed his psyche? That’s pretty much the only explanation I can think of given the information at hand.
The Didact could have easily used the Covenant races as material for the Prometheans. But I think the genetic diversity of Humanity (and Forerunners) made them the best choice. I don’t view the Didact as “the bad guy”. He’s an antagonist, sure, but he isn’t “evil” like how the Prophets were evil. He is… misguided. I think by the end of the Reclaimer Saga, the Didact would have learned the lesson from Humanity the Librarian hoped he learned.

15

> Hmm… it’s possible that whatever the Didact did to himself to make him immune to the Flood changed his psyche? That’s pretty much the only explanation I can think of given the information at hand.
> The Didact could have easily used the Covenant races as material for the Prometheans. But I think the genetic diversity of Humanity (and Forerunners) made them the best choice. I don’t view the Didact as “the bad guy”. He’s an antagonist, sure, but he isn’t “evil” like how the Prophets were evil. He is… misguided. I think by the end of the Reclaimer Saga, the Didact would have learned the lesson from Humanity the Librarian hoped he learned.

Well, turning innocent people into ruthless, mindless, homicidal robots that fight against their free will does seem kinda evil to me. And he did this twice already in history.

16

Im afraid for how they are taking this trilogy. I don’t even want the Precursors to show up because I feel they will not be introduced well and have absolutely no information on who or what they are. At the same time though, I wonder how they can drag the Didact thing out considering it was written up poorly.

17

I thought it was sorta implied that, when he attempted to mutate himself to acquire Flood-immunity, it made him somewhat unstable. He only really began acting like a human-hating bad guy afterward; beforehand, his dislike of humanity was apparent, but limited to “They deserved what happened to them”, which is sorta more in-line with the Saga’s portrayal.

I’m just wondering if we’ll see Bornstellar in 5 or 6.

Edit: Also, the revelation that his gods basically said “screw Forerunners, humans rule” might have deepened his dislike into open hatred. I mean, he basically lives for the Mantle and to make sure Forerunners are on top, and now some old Gravemind tells him they’re planning on giving humans their position? I’d be sorta ticked too.

18

if you don’t understand the halo 4 storyline you must be one of those people who ask questions during movies. It’s not hard to follow and I dont know if you noticed but it’s a game, your suppose to be motivated to do something, he’s trying to get your stuff and kill your people, needs to be in there. the noble thing is a little touchy your right.

19

> To wrap this thing up, the final confrontation was terrible too. One QTE and he is done. Personally, I would’ve used QTEs for a fight, but expand on it. Have the Chief actually fight the Didact with jabs to his face, duck and block blows from the Didact and seemingly incapacitate him. He would run to arm the nuke, but be grabbed, pulled toward the Didact and get punched the -blam!- out! Then Cortana would bind him and, instead of a pulse grenade, maybe Chief could shove the nuke in the Didact’s armor and push him off the bridge and actually give him a realistic chance to escape the nukes detonation. Sorry if that seems contrived, but it works better in my head ;p.
>
> So in conclusion, I just felt disappointed with what 343i did with the Didact. So much potential and yet he is a step below past Halo antagonists like Truth, Gravemind and/or Guilty Spark. If you read everything, thanks for your time.
>
> *Addendum: I understand Halo: Silentium will have Halo 4 information in it that may clear up why the Didact is the way he is in Halo 4, but since it doesn’t physically exist yet, I can’t factor it. Maybe it will change my perspective, but I still think it is shoddy storytelling to leave a huge gap in the story until March of 2013 to make a game in November of 2012 make sense.

That’s just it though. The Didact was supposed to be far too powerful and with armor far too strong to engage through traditional means. Sticking with this, the only scenes we would get of the Chief trying to engage with hand-to-hand would have to be the Chief getting his -Yoink- handed to him. The Didact is about the only enemy we’ve ever seen that can just bat the Chief away like it’s nothing, due to the strength his armor gives him. He would either send the Chief flying with every punch, block everything without being affected, or catch the Chief’s punches and then suspend him in air. The fact that we basically got a cheap shot in that was only possible because he was being held down by hard light (which he even manages to break), and even after having a grenade go off in his armor, he’s still alive. He’s simply too strong to engage without some kind of suckerpunch.

I do agree with you on the personality thing, though.

20

> if you don’t understand the halo 4 storyline you must be one of those people who ask questions during movies before going in. It’s not hard to follow and <mark>I dont know if you noticed but it’s a game, your suppose to be motivated to do something, he’s trying to get your stuff and kill your people, needs to be in there.</mark> the noble thing is a little touchy your right.

Yeah I know it was a game. This game had a story though and they did a piss poor job developing their villain. Frankie did say:

> “His persona is kind of a mixed bag. He’s a heroic figure, he’s a noble figure in history, and in some ways feels like a good guy - but he’s much more complicated than that.”

Where is this character depth? Where is this nobility in his persona? 343i dropped the ball despite having a mountain of material to work with.