Except that the Didact wasn't a mindless Human hater in the end. He actually seemed to have a grudging respect for humanity. Beyond that, "Bornstellar" didn't hate humans. I see the Didact being more an ally than enemy- especially since he was against using the Halos. I bet it's the Master Builder and Medicant Bias that will fill the role of anagonists. Maybe a Precursor as well...

That's true, the Didact definitely had a grudging respect for humanity, that much became very clear, but a strong sense that I always got from the books as well, is that the Didact, knowing that he was under the influence of a plan by the Librarian's own design, where she even went so far as to ironically pair him, the forerunner who led the conquering and defeat of ancient humanity, together with two humans, both of which helped in his awakening from his Cryptum, aided tremendously in that respect that he developed for Humanity.

I got the feeling that he felt okay stepping out of all of his initial comfort zones if he felt it's what she wanted him to do. For example, the Didact was against the idea of the Halos, and openly opposed it in front of the Council, instead arguing for plans that involved the Shield Worlds instead. However, it would seem from terminals in Halo 3 that, at the request of the Librarian, the Didact, once it seemed the Librarian could no longer be rescued and brought to wherever the Didact was, agreed to fire the Halo rings to wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy. I know the Flood played a huge part in his decision, but there's a very good chance the Didact, no longer being a more than willing pawn in the Librarian's plans, and taking her sacrifice, as well as his own, to heart, may not look too fondly upon a humanity that, even in spite of a threat from the flood, sought to destroy the Halos, which were viewed as the sole means of stopping the flood. The Chief also essentially fired an incomplete Halo on the Ark, and we know the Librarian seemed to carry out most of her work or stationed herself on the various Arks around the galaxy. However, she had a fondness in particular with Earth, so maybe the ark that could be accessed from Earth was her rest area.

In Halo 3, 343 guilty spark seemed to be wondering why exactly there needed to be such heavy or complex shielding protection around the structure, and then he saw something and seemed really surprised. He said "Oh my," and was about to say something until the Chief cut him off. Now, maybe that surprise was at the realization that his old installation was being rebuilt, and that his sole purpose for existing was being given back to him, but maybe, just maybe, he saw something else, and it involved the Librarian? The Chief might have fired a Halo, albeit not a complete one, in the very location where the Librarian was resting.

Also, I got a very strong sense from the Didact's talk with the Primordial, that while he didn't show it very much, that there might be some kind of competitive grudge reforming with humanity over the things that the Primordial said, about the Forerunner civilization coming to an end, and humanity rising up to take their place and be tested. I mean, I don't know, there's so much to remember, but perhaps that didn't end up developing into anything when all was said and done while the Librarian was still around, but you never know once she is no longer there as a check on his rage, what he might deem necessary to do. He might just be pissed that the Chief or humanity saw fit to destroy an Ark. Those things were like her pet projects almost. I don't know, I guess we'll see, but there's a very strong potential for this to be the Didact. Also, there are strong signs that Mendicant Bias actually secretly aided the Chief in Halo 3. He said something about atoning for his past wrongs to his creators, and I guess helping the Chief would be his way of doing that. It's possible that the sole reason why the Chief survived that Halo ring firing in Halo 3, and the portal closed in time, is because Mendicant Bias managed to save the Chief. There's so much, but I'm excited. :)

I can see the Didact becoming a major alley of sorts, but not before the Precursors enter the picture.

And, then again, even as the Didact was wiping out humanity in the Human/Forerunner War, he still seemed to have a grudging respect towards humanity even then, just not as significant a respect as the one he eventually appears to adopt, but on some level I've wondered if it truly was the case that his feelings about them changed all that much, and if it was just all mostly the kind of control he could display when he had a willingness to do whatever his wife needed him to do, and if his desire to stop the flood had forced him into forming an alliance of sorts with the lesser of two evils?

For example, the ancient human war commander that was inside of Chakas, as he was defeated and captured, the way the Didact spoke to him, signaled a strong sense of respect for his fellow combatant, even if he felt that fellow combatant had done horrific things. The Didact seems like the type that could potentially turn his grudging respect into misguided rage very easily if all the right pieces happen fall into place.

Heres the whole 50min day 1 Halo 4 fiction Panel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQtOU5gZfzI&feature...

Game footage cut out, so you dont have to worry about spoilers.

Wow so much thought and depth being put into Halo/Halo 4, breat stuff!

I really dont want to get another console, but i feel i must, i mean the fucking things Translucent!!

Damn, was hoping the game footage was included, but I will still gladly watch every single minute of it.

I love Halo, but not going to lie, that translucency on that console seems pretty damn off. I actually liked the designs on the internet that I've seen, but that was before I saw realized that it was translucent. Figured if they were going to make it translucent, they'd at least try and make the visible innards look a lot more impressive than that.

Just look at em in that comic con panel. They're so awesome! And Frankie... what can I possibly say about Frankie other than :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6ar55-1a9E#t=24s

Personally, my best guess is still that the Didact, the original one, was turned into a combat artificial intelligence by Master Builder Faber using the Composer. That would certainly be a fantastic way to explain the Didact we knew being turned into an enemy.

Ah hah, 343 are showing more halo 4 cinematics today. :)

Narrative director, which was the lead narrative director for the Mass Effect games, says there will be a lot of explorable story apart of the game. players will have a lot of chances to explore and find things that can give you a different perspective on an upcoming cutscene. That obviously means stuff like the cinematic terminals, but it also means more of the playable, more scripted story scenes, where cortana was communicating so much with the chief and reacting to all the various things going on around him, giving him information like the enemy isn't an organic, or telling him that their not alone, and switching his visor mode for him, that kind of thing, I'm guessing.

Either way, the more I listen, the more excited I get.

I suspected this to already be the case, but Halo Silentium comes out after Halo 4, because it contains tons of spoilers for Halo 4.

I wouldn't read too much into what Bungie did in H3. They never showed any interest in keeping the universe consistent. It's the fact that 343 has very specifically said that they want everything to tie in that makes me excited.
I bet you will fight the "new" Didact, but he will be your ally in the end (ie, why Bornstellar was so important). You brought up a good point about the original Didact possibly being "composed" though. So maybe there will be a conflict there as well.

My money is still on Faber being the Antagonist, with a bit of precursor/ flood down the line.
Don't forget that the Didact admired that the Humans had actually found an effective way of defeating the flood. He/the Forerunners were trying to figure it out, and that is exactly why they saved the human memories into the "de-evolved" humans- for possible retrieval.

The Didact was sold as the Honorable Warrior, so I don't see him doing the misguided rage thing.
Of course, we should get a clearer picture with the next book...

True, the most likely Didact is the Bornstellar version who will eventually become an ally. My second bet is Faber used the composer on the original Didact, and now has him under his command. It was mentioned before that that the Master Builder didn't know how to use the Composer properly, clearly suggesting it's something he could have used before. What also gets me suspicious about it possibly being the composed Didact, is the use of the term Reclaimer. We've only really ever seen Forerunner AI use such a term. But then this is called the Reclaimer Trilogy for a reason. I suppose we'll learn the true meaning/secrets behind that word.

However, with regards to the humans actually finding an effective way to defeat the flood, the Primordial seemed to cast some strong doubt on that, leading the Didact to ask whether the Flood could choose to infect or not to infect. The Primordial seemed particularly confident that there is no such thing as a cure, but perhaps that was just the Primordial messing with the Didact's head.

Well, with regards to Halo 3, when 343 talks about making it all tie together, they certainly also mean existing Halo book/game fiction, of which the terminals from previous games are apart of. The stuff mentioned in the Halo 3 terminals likely get a bigger explanation in the third book. It fits too well, what with the stuff about Mendicant Bias, his interrogation of the Primordial, the specifics of the argument that the Primordial uses to convince Mendicant Bias to betray the Forerunners, and even the way in which Offensive Bias beats Mendicant Bias, due to the flaws in Mendicants strategy due to rampancy, as well as the Didact's last few communications with the Librarian, and countless other things, just to name a few.

It's definitely all tied together. In fact, the Halo 3 terminals may be the biggest source inspiration for the Forerunner trilogy by Greg Bear as it now exists.

And I thought that your excite-o-meter was maxed out a long time ago. ;P

Maxed out with respect to the info released thus far. With each new release of info, the excite-o-meter max threshold raises to new heights, and then I am forced to max out again :P

Pretty soon my excitement will be over 9,000, and then things get really serious.

So just prepare for that with this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiMHTK15Pik#t=05s

Halo Panel Day 2 - Holy Frack at the footage in the mini Vidoc they show!!!

http://comic-con.gamespot.com/video/6387203/halo-4...

Oh my god. That Music during that vidoc!!

My goodness, the footage is nuts, too. I didn't think it was going to get this crazy. I'm having to rewind like crazy just to catch it all.

There's one piece of video that looks like the Chief as he's falling down from the forward unto dawn, and it's so damn amazing. They just showed that thing at Comic Con in full, they better put it online ! :D

Scratch that, it doesn't look like he's falling from the forward unto dawn, but off some kind of mountain? Not sure.

Locations are stunning!!!

Seriously, there are so many amazing things in there, it's insane.

Holy fuck did you see the CG models there using in Spartan ops for the CG Cutscenes, insane quality! and first 50 missions free. :)

343 take a bow..

Seriously, I thought about doing captures, but there's just too much. You gotta really watch this thing. I hope since they done showed it to us already, that they release the direct feed stuff immediately :)

And this is a really small thing to be happy about, and I've heard it mentioned before, but since they are driving home this point, I guess it's a much more deliberate, more thought out thing than I originally thought it was. So, because the last set of enemies that the forerunners were facing were the Flood, their tools, weapons or materials are designed particularly for the purpose of combating the flood, which is why, for example, the scattershot doesn't just kill, it literally incinerates foes till there's nothing left, because there was a real need to destroy all the biological mass so the flood can't resurrect.

That might seem like nothing, but I really appreciate the fact that there is some meaningful thought backed up by a little fiction put into why the weapon has such an effect, and not just a situation where they're just left saying "Well, it just does. No particular reason for why."

All these little things add up. For example, and this might sound silly, but I became a whole lot more excited to play Halo once I actually read and learned just how special and impressive a piece of technology mjolnir armor is. Suddenly I viewed the chief and anybody wearing mjolnir in an entirely different light, and all it took was a few fictional justifications for my enjoyment of the game to be enhanced. I had an entirely new appreciation for the Chief's prowess while he was paired with Cortana than was ever the case before. The games never really gave you much reason before to really give a damn about the armor that the Chief had on, but the fiction in Halo Fall of Reach did that for me.

Actually just got around to seeing the CG models. Damn! Everytime I think to underestimate Spartan Ops, I find out how wrong I was to do so. And even with what they said a day earlier with the narrative focused panel, these story based cutscenes aren't just things where they say "Okay, go kill these guys." They make it sound like pretty significant story based developments will be occurring in these things, and are meant to be major events in Halo fiction that push the universe forward.

Really wasn't expecting that much.

Everytime i think it cant get better, it does, stunning stuff! and that CG for Spartan Ops :O

Heres just the gameplay snippets from the cinema trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AfFAlxtSSk&featur...

Sci-Fi porn! :)

*slumps over in chair with weird look on face*