This is a long post and just to be clear, it is not aimed at any post in particular. It's more so just extreme annoyance at how any more posts are only complaint after complaint after complaint. It's been forever it seems since the forum was filled simple enjoyment and loving Halo for what it is. Of course its not a perfect game, yes it has plenty of subject matter to be critiqued, but damn any more its like the game developers have to please spoiled white teenage chicks that have super rich dads.

I know I am going to sound like an asshole for saying this, but you do realize Halo 4 is basically setting the stage for an inevitable test that if overcome will be evidence that mankind is capable of inheriting the responsibility of the Mantle from the Precursors.

The books do not portray the Didact anything in the way of an ancient evil, or truly evil for that matter. In fact he held great respect for mankind, in the way that two great general/warriors/opponents admire and acknowledge the talent of each other. The Didact is simply stubbornly possessive of The Mantle's teachings and responsibilities being solely the duty of the Forerunners, not to be shared with other races. Even when it was discovered that ancient humans weren't conquering worlds and greedily expanding their nation, but simply running and dealing with the Shaping Sickness, he still considered their defeat to be punishment for humans ignorantly thinking the Mantle's responsibility was theirs alone to uphold and not kneeling before the Forerunners for help.

I believe the actions the Didact took are a compromise with his wife. Something like, if humans can not stand up to a single forerunner weak from a 100,000 year slumber, with only a fraction of his true potential to wage war, then they will at least serve as warrior-servants to do battle with whatever the Precursors set forth to bring their cold and logical ideals of unity to our galaxy. Inclusion of the Didact's personality and inner turmoil dilutes his indubitable will to wipe out man. The Didact spent all the time observing Infinity, letting John live, and scanning our technology rather than just outright obliterating all who stood as an obstacle before him because he was infuriatingly trying to understand why humans were the ones deemed worthy successors. Add on fear from the knowledge he gained in his conversation with the Primordial and you have a foe that is far to self-conflicted to be a heartless evil hellbent on eradication of all life.

With all that in mind, a mindless, terrifying opponent was not even meant to be 343i's intent with Halo 4. However, to say a threat was never felt is absolutely ridiculous. I guess that since America and Russia never saw large bloodshed from squaring off against each other the Cold War never really seemed like a threat to anyone. The possibility of total ruination of not just all of mankind but the entire world itself wasn't at all distressing for all world leaders and their people. Just because something was stopped before any real damage was taken does not mean there was no threat. The situation with the Didact was a Doomsday-like predicament, total annihilation or minute losses. If it weren't for the Master Chief negating the desire of Promethean master, Earth would have suffered a different fate.

Regarding some other topics brought up in this discussion, the whole Captain Obvious stance on how could Master Chief and Cortana be so dim-witted as to think a communication device would be at the location they found it is a view that is ignorant of Forerunner engineering. When thinking of Forerunner design and structural engineering, nothing is ordinary or obvious from the viewpoint of mankind's comparatively diminutive intellect and scientific comprehension.

The 'magic' that saved John was not so. I would say that the hard light emitters that create the bridge were quickly converted to create a hard light shield around the Master Chief and also phase him out of the dimension momentarily. Similar to the tech used in, Halo: Primordium, in which to save Halo 07 from obliteration sections of the ring were covered in hard light shields and 'phased out' to avoid being damaged. A similar explanation for John's survival really is not far fetched at all.

If this whole post was actually read, sorry for I'm pretty sure going way off topic, just wish people remembered to appreciate something for what it is and show love for it rather than pick everything apart like the game should be built specifically for themselves and themselves alone. It's impossible to write a story that unfold exactly how millions of people think it should.