It's an ironic tragedy that originally, the Didact was a true hero. He was kind, merciful and respectful. A thousand years of war against humanity hardened him, but he was still the Didact whom the Librarian loved. The war against the Flood, however, broke him. It was his responsibility to protect the galaxy, but no matter what he did, he witnessed all Forerunner civilisation be destroyed, piece by piece. His methods grew ever more extreme, even altering his own body. Finally, when awoken on Requiem, he was a monster whom he would've once despised.
Not to mention what we find out happens to him in Epitaph. I won’t spoil anything, but it explains why he became so ruthlessly aggressive and vindictive toward the end of the forerunner-flood war, and why when he is released from the cryptum in Halo 4, he is unreasonable and basically insane.
@@Frankman121 he was left to quarantine in the domain from a gravemind but was ‘left’ after the halo array was fired - ending the war and being in requiem for 100k years so he was big mad
Didact saying: "Know this, relentless enemy, killer of our children, Lord of Admirals...." There is more to this statement than most people realize. The Forerunner trilogy written by Greg Bear expands more on this, more on why the Didact hates the humans. Meg, I would highly recommend you check out that trilogy of books as it will help you understand more of the motivations of the Didact and the Librarian, while also seeing the state of the Forerunner empire during the Forerunner-Flood war.
Those were the last Halo novels I read before I kinda stopped keeping up as much, and they were probably the best ones hands down. Loved Cryptum, reading it before Halo 4 definitely improved my experience with the game.
@@arbington Renegades, Point of Light and Epitaph, I would also strongly recommend....! I also expanded Mendicant Bias' part of the story in my own fiction, online (I thought it needed expanding, further)
I like the idea of the Librarians gift to humanity when paired against the concept of the great filter. Humans becoming a space fairing species, creating an empire, creating the combat skins and AI are sort of an inevitability, it happened the first time so it'll happen again, but there always exists the possibility that humanity would have destroyed themselves before then. Through countless wars, including the insurrection, humans might have never been able to reclaim the mantle. The Librarian's guidance sort of granted us a pass through the filter to ensure that we prosper though to get to this point.
The Didact is ironically a hero in this story. He was schemed against by the master Builder, put into exile then captured again by Faber and sent into flood controlled space. There he was tormented by the Gravemind living through the deaths of his children on repeat and shown visions of his people dying. He was the Master Chief of the Forerunners everyone looked to him for protection. Him knowing that he failed and the betrayals he suffered broke him. Him learning that the mantle which he soo belived in all was a lie by the Precursors. sent him off the edge.
Didact's voice actor did a lot of voices in the Mass Effect trilogy, including Harbinger the Mass Effect 2 big bad. He was also in The Dark Knight, he was one of Gordon's detectives. That might be why his voice is so familiar, he voices a lot of video games
One key piece you're missing is found only in the books, and it's *why* the Didact is even acting as foolishly and recklessly as he is. Halsey's work is her own, but there was some hidden guidance, I will admit.
Yeah, even as a Halo fan I agree that a BIG problem with the 343 era is that the EU books are now required homework to understand the plot of the games.
@@Timjer92 And while most people act like 343 was made up of people who "aren't Halo fans", I'd argue that this was all written by people who were _overzealous_ fans of Halo's story to the extent of being frustrated by Bungie's own denial of what Microsoft was trying to do with it. That, in itself, wasn't an issue, but they weren't empathetic enough towards the fact that _most people_ weren't chugging novels.
Didact is one of the best characters in this universe but he really only shines in the books. So if you wanted more then reading the Forerunner Trilogy and then Halo Epitaph (to be read after beating Halo Infinite) is an amazing read to really get to experience his Arc.
The flood are the precoursors that been corrupted. The precoursors created the humans and the forerunners from a common ancestor that split after millions of years.
17:49 The Didact views his actions as MERCIFUL. Slowly being vaporized and having your consciousness harvested and subjected to... who knows what sort of horrors, and that's what he calls a KINDNESS.
I picked the Librarian logo for the first part my account icon when I started playing the Master Chief Collection, just because of how it looked, and I was a bit surprised at how hard the lore vindicated me after the fact.
Bro there are a part of the fanbase is an adamant fringe group that likes to bash on people’s head that 343 retconned and the original story BUNGIE wanted was different. But it was BUNGIE that wanted to make it this way 😂 so don’t fall for their nonsense
Soooort of. "Bungie wanted it this way" is reductive, as much as I agree that there's more of their DNA in here than people want to admit. Bungie was pretty fractured in how deep into the sci-fi they wanted to get. Halo 2 got closest to pushing towards the sort of universe that 343 has gone with (considering what Ryan mentioned, and the mystery of the Gravemind in particular), while Halo 3 has this odd personality split between the terminals (which Frank o'Connor wrote) and the plot of the game itself, creating a near-contradiction on what the Forerunners were. A good chunk of Bungie was resentful towards Microsoft's franchise-minded view of Halo (and the novels) and was trying desperately to just wrap things up cleanly. I remember a huge blog post someone wrote about all of H3's cut dialogue, and how it points towards a story which was originally much less "cut and dry" and might've actually had the Gravemind indirectly blame the Librarian for his current failures. Buuut Bungie employees have also expressed understandable disappointment at how much less militaristic and professional the UNSC feels in 343's games, too.
@@ryan_1099 Nah that was so they could be used with both hands, it wasn't for six fingers it was so they could be used with both the left and right hand
@@colbyboucher6391 that last point is super irrelevant lol But continuing on the actual topic; Halo's story has always been built up from the books a little more than people realize I think. Halo: The Fall of Reach was released just before Halo CE, and subsequent novels close after. I think Bungie wanted the story of the games to be guided by the writes of the novels but not bounded by them, as they took some of their own liberties.
Fun fact originally a lot of covenant language was reversed English, in this its closer to a derivation of japanese and around the time if halo 5 they really nailed down a sangheilli language idea. Lots of ees at the end of words.
ah the terminals are so good, I really hope they bring them back when the next halo drops. Also are you still getting copyright claimed for the music while playing or have you been able to work around it?
LMAO okay so spoilers, Nintendo announced Metroid 4 Prime (finally) and my brain read this title _ as_ Metroid 4 and was immediately like "God that was a fast reaction."
Just a reminder to please not discuss any lore that Meg has not come across yet - be it in books, cinematics, or elsewhere. (She wants to discover it all herself.) Thank you!
Not that anyone's interested, but my reaction to the Halo 4 Terminals is "Scrap the lot." You need to have a really good reason for ancient spacefaring humans to magically exist, and Halo doesn't do that. Also, they're gross.
@@steelbarber In every detail, they are not the quality I'd expect, and they require too much magic and suspension of disbelief in order for the storyline to make sense.
@steelbarber Hang on, I think I misread your comment. Look, if Halo was a series where humanity evolved on a planet called Humour, and was surrounded by ancient derelict spaceships, ancient graffiti on the moon Happy Face, and found ancient alien bones in power armour in the fossil record, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Stargate, Star Wars, Homeworld, and Farscape did this sort of thing better. Ancient space faring humans from a million years ago CANNOT exist without some serious explanation that other scifi series, and even Fantasy series like The Forgotten Realms provide, but Halo does not--because humans evolved on Earth, and the timeline is the same, so I can assure you humans NEVER established a space faring civilisation in Earth's past.
@@3mpt7 I mean, Halo does kind of explain it though. After devolving Humanity, the Forerunners destroyed every trace of Human's past achievements, with a lot of their focus being on Earth because that was Humanity's homeworld and that's where they were being reseeded. And even still, we know they didn't get everything. The planet in Legends: The Package which had ancient buildings on it that resembled those seen in Japan, the derelict ship ONI found that led to the creation of Hellcat armour (Ancient Human armour) but the culture of Ancient Humanity was so thoroughly destroyed that anything they could find they could only attribute to the Forerunners.
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
It's an ironic tragedy that originally, the Didact was a true hero. He was kind, merciful and respectful. A thousand years of war against humanity hardened him, but he was still the Didact whom the Librarian loved.
The war against the Flood, however, broke him. It was his responsibility to protect the galaxy, but no matter what he did, he witnessed all Forerunner civilisation be destroyed, piece by piece. His methods grew ever more extreme, even altering his own body. Finally, when awoken on Requiem, he was a monster whom he would've once despised.
Not to mention what we find out happens to him in Epitaph. I won’t spoil anything, but it explains why he became so ruthlessly aggressive and vindictive toward the end of the forerunner-flood war, and why when he is released from the cryptum in Halo 4, he is unreasonable and basically insane.
Spoiler:
Possible logic plague
@@Frankman121 he was left to quarantine in the domain from a gravemind but was ‘left’ after the halo array was fired - ending the war and being in requiem for 100k years so he was big mad
@@lnconceal that is true, but it's not the source of his madness, just fuel for the fire. If you haven't, I suggest reading Epitaph.
Didact saying: "Know this, relentless enemy, killer of our children, Lord of Admirals...." There is more to this statement than most people realize. The Forerunner trilogy written by Greg Bear expands more on this, more on why the Didact hates the humans. Meg, I would highly recommend you check out that trilogy of books as it will help you understand more of the motivations of the Didact and the Librarian, while also seeing the state of the Forerunner empire during the Forerunner-Flood war.
Such a fantastic trilogy
It's like a sci-fi bible
The books also explain why he came back to life so so angry. It wasn't just a little "woopsie didn't think of that."
Those were the last Halo novels I read before I kinda stopped keeping up as much, and they were probably the best ones hands down. Loved Cryptum, reading it before Halo 4 definitely improved my experience with the game.
@@arbington Renegades, Point of Light and Epitaph, I would also strongly recommend....!
I also expanded Mendicant Bias' part of the story in my own fiction, online (I thought it needed expanding, further)
I like the idea of the Librarians gift to humanity when paired against the concept of the great filter.
Humans becoming a space fairing species, creating an empire, creating the combat skins and AI are sort of an inevitability, it happened the first time so it'll happen again, but there always exists the possibility that humanity would have destroyed themselves before then.
Through countless wars, including the insurrection, humans might have never been able to reclaim the mantle. The Librarian's guidance sort of granted us a pass through the filter to ensure that we prosper though to get to this point.
The Didact is ironically a hero in this story. He was schemed against by the master Builder, put into exile then captured again by Faber and sent into flood controlled space. There he was tormented by the Gravemind living through the deaths of his children on repeat and shown visions of his people dying. He was the Master Chief of the Forerunners everyone looked to him for protection. Him knowing that he failed and the betrayals he suffered broke him. Him learning that the mantle which he soo belived in all was a lie by the Precursors. sent him off the edge.
Didact's voice actor did a lot of voices in the Mass Effect trilogy, including Harbinger the Mass Effect 2 big bad. He was also in The Dark Knight, he was one of Gordon's detectives. That might be why his voice is so familiar, he voices a lot of video games
Keith is a God among voice actors
My favorites from him are Kyne from Dead Space 2008, Crow Father from Darksiders 2, and yes the Didact.
He’s even done voice for both Fallout and Elder Scrolls series
He's also Joshua Graham!
@@insertsomethingfuni2617 I forgot Joshua Graham! I loved that DLC
Thank you for doing this, the lore is sooo good.
Spartan ops could either be played or just the Cutscenes watched, i believe theres a video that includes the gameplay dialogue aswell
One key piece you're missing is found only in the books, and it's *why* the Didact is even acting as foolishly and recklessly as he is.
Halsey's work is her own, but there was some hidden guidance, I will admit.
Yeah, even as a Halo fan I agree that a BIG problem with the 343 era is that the EU books are now required homework to understand the plot of the games.
Too True
@@Timjer92 And while most people act like 343 was made up of people who "aren't Halo fans", I'd argue that this was all written by people who were _overzealous_ fans of Halo's story to the extent of being frustrated by Bungie's own denial of what Microsoft was trying to do with it. That, in itself, wasn't an issue, but they weren't empathetic enough towards the fact that _most people_ weren't chugging novels.
@@Timjer92they are not required at all, haven’t read a single one (yet)
@@colbyboucher6391 I think the "aren't Halo fans" part is mostly from the fact that 343 have multiple times proudly stated that themselves.
Didact is one of the best characters in this universe but he really only shines in the books. So if you wanted more then reading the Forerunner Trilogy and then Halo Epitaph (to be read after beating Halo Infinite) is an amazing read to really get to experience his Arc.
Dont forget to watch the spartan ops cutscenes! Those are *chefs kiss* and honestly i love the elites language in that, it absolutely fits their looks
Idk if you looked into this but plz look up the relationship between the precursors, forerunners and humanity, and the formation of the flood
Love your bangs, your hair looks beautiful
"You know we have no choice....cleanse the planet."
The flood are the precoursors that been corrupted. The precoursors created the humans and the forerunners from a common ancestor that split after millions of years.
17:49 The Didact views his actions as MERCIFUL. Slowly being vaporized and having your consciousness harvested and subjected to... who knows what sort of horrors, and that's what he calls a KINDNESS.
I picked the Librarian logo for the first part my account icon when I started playing the Master Chief Collection, just because of how it looked, and I was a bit surprised at how hard the lore vindicated me after the fact.
Bro there are a part of the fanbase is an adamant fringe group that likes to bash on people’s head that 343 retconned and the original story BUNGIE wanted was different. But it was BUNGIE that wanted to make it this way 😂 so don’t fall for their nonsense
Yesterday I learned that even in Halo 2 the Forerunner buttons and stuff had 6 fingers, so that maybe me chuckle
Bungie themselves changed the lore more than once. People just want to hate.
Soooort of. "Bungie wanted it this way" is reductive, as much as I agree that there's more of their DNA in here than people want to admit. Bungie was pretty fractured in how deep into the sci-fi they wanted to get. Halo 2 got closest to pushing towards the sort of universe that 343 has gone with (considering what Ryan mentioned, and the mystery of the Gravemind in particular), while Halo 3 has this odd personality split between the terminals (which Frank o'Connor wrote) and the plot of the game itself, creating a near-contradiction on what the Forerunners were. A good chunk of Bungie was resentful towards Microsoft's franchise-minded view of Halo (and the novels) and was trying desperately to just wrap things up cleanly. I remember a huge blog post someone wrote about all of H3's cut dialogue, and how it points towards a story which was originally much less "cut and dry" and might've actually had the Gravemind indirectly blame the Librarian for his current failures. Buuut Bungie employees have also expressed understandable disappointment at how much less militaristic and professional the UNSC feels in 343's games, too.
@@ryan_1099
Nah that was so they could be used with both hands, it wasn't for six fingers it was so they could be used with both the left and right hand
@@colbyboucher6391 that last point is super irrelevant lol
But continuing on the actual topic; Halo's story has always been built up from the books a little more than people realize I think. Halo: The Fall of Reach was released just before Halo CE, and subsequent novels close after. I think Bungie wanted the story of the games to be guided by the writes of the novels but not bounded by them, as they took some of their own liberties.
Shout out to Eden on Instagram! I'm glad they cleared up some stuff for you
Glad you enjoying it, Flood and the Forerunners are my favorite part of Halo's story.
And the books they are epic.
Meg! I can’t wait for you to read the forerunner trilogy! 😆
Man she should read Halo Epitaph because she would like its ending.
Meg you would absolute love the Destiny Universe 100%
Halsey improved the Elite/Sangheli armor. The Elites ripped their technology from Forerunner designs.
Fun fact originally a lot of covenant language was reversed English, in this its closer to a derivation of japanese and around the time if halo 5 they really nailed down a sangheilli language idea. Lots of ees at the end of words.
ah the terminals are so good, I really hope they bring them back when the next halo drops. Also are you still getting copyright claimed for the music while playing or have you been able to work around it?
LMAO okay so spoilers, Nintendo announced Metroid 4 Prime (finally) and my brain read this title _ as_ Metroid 4 and was immediately like "God that was a fast reaction."
Meg please read the Forerunner trilogy novels to better understand the context of the Terminals
Just a reminder to please not discuss any lore that Meg has not come across yet - be it in books, cinematics, or elsewhere. (She wants to discover it all herself.) Thank you!
Plz play or watch the spartan ops stuff after halo 4!!!!
Neural Physics?
Not that anyone's interested, but my reaction to the Halo 4 Terminals is "Scrap the lot." You need to have a really good reason for ancient spacefaring humans to magically exist, and Halo doesn't do that. Also, they're gross.
Elaborate why they shouldn’t exist?
@@steelbarber In every detail, they are not the quality I'd expect, and they require too much magic and suspension of disbelief in order for the storyline to make sense.
@steelbarber Hang on, I think I misread your comment. Look, if Halo was a series where humanity evolved on a planet called Humour, and was surrounded by ancient derelict spaceships, ancient graffiti on the moon Happy Face, and found ancient alien bones in power armour in the fossil record, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Stargate, Star Wars, Homeworld, and Farscape did this sort of thing better. Ancient space faring humans from a million years ago CANNOT exist without some serious explanation that other scifi series, and even Fantasy series like The Forgotten Realms provide, but Halo does not--because humans evolved on Earth, and the timeline is the same, so I can assure you humans NEVER established a space faring civilisation in Earth's past.
@@3mpt7 I mean, Halo does kind of explain it though. After devolving Humanity, the Forerunners destroyed every trace of Human's past achievements, with a lot of their focus being on Earth because that was Humanity's homeworld and that's where they were being reseeded.
And even still, we know they didn't get everything. The planet in Legends: The Package which had ancient buildings on it that resembled those seen in Japan, the derelict ship ONI found that led to the creation of Hellcat armour (Ancient Human armour) but the culture of Ancient Humanity was so thoroughly destroyed that anything they could find they could only attribute to the Forerunners.