: I think it's completely in keeping with the Didact's character and his
: attitude toward humanity in general. He's impressed by the Chief's
: tenacity, but he NEVER considered him a threat until he saw him running
: toward him with a Pulse Grenade. He's a proud character. He probably never
: thought the Chief would survive him throwing him the way he did when he
: first met. And I'm sure he never thought the Chief would survive his
: Cryptum's Slipspace rupture (New Mombasa sure didn't :P). And I'm sure he
: never thought the Chief would escape on a Ghost. He didn't think he needed
: to kill him. Granted that's a trope of most villains, but I think it's
: pretty justifiable here. The Chief's luck got him out of ridiculous
: situations plenty of times when Bungie was taking the reigns.

That's a really plausible story explanation. I sort of doubt 343 thought of this, though, because no matter how I simplify things, the fact remains that the Didact was just about to destroy Chief until Cortana beat him down. And that part with the nuke still nuked my suspension of disbelief.

: You're simplifying things too much, ain't ya? :P

It's not my fault that Master Chief used a GameShark and cheated his way out of everything. Bungie gave the Chief luck, but 343 gave him chetz.

: The Earth was in the middle of getting Composed when you reached the Didact
: and the Composer. The threat is literally staring you in the face. And the
: ease in which they were destroyed? What about on the Ark in Halo 3? All
: the Chief had to do was stroll up, push a button, then watch the Arbiter
: stab a sick old man. Bam. Universal disaster averted.

The Earth isn't in the middle of anything. Until that last cinematic, for all I knew he was Composing a bunch of desert. Did he just fire at random? Does that beam ever spread out? Does he have to spend the next few years circling the planet slowly and blasting everywhere to make sure he got everyone? What's the urgency here? I felt more urgency when Gravemind appeared at the Ark than I did when that Composer started blasting.

For the record, there's no indication the Ark in Halo 3 was ever destroyed. Sure, replacement Alpha Halo might have exploded, or potentially just fallen apart all over the Ark, but there's no guarantee that the threat is fully or truly neutralized or that the Gravemind is actually dead. As for Truth, I can't defend Bungie on this one. Truth seemed to be getting Flood infected just as Chief and Arbiter were dealing with him, so he did seem to have a lot going against him. Also, it took a few games to deal with Truth. Regardless, I feel that Bungie failed pretty hardcore with Truth's handling in Halo 3 (from voice actor to writing). Not as bad as how I feel 343 has handled the Didact in H4, but I'm not going to even try and defend how Truth was written in Halo 3 (though it was nifty how he turned Miranda into a stegosaurus, just saying :P).