: Tropey... not really. It's just that the tropes that went into him weren't
: used very well. It's like every trope that went into him was used to
: communicate "This is a bad guy", and not much was used to give
: him character. And he didn't feel like a credible threat, so, no great
: hurry on my part.

He didn't strike me as particularly smart, but then he didn't strike me as particularly anything except for being angry and feeling superior, at least in the game proper. I'd say that's the failing here.

: Really, Vagueness? You're going to pretend that all I said were those two
: quotes?

well...

Def Guru 7777:
: As to this point and your point above, Vagueness already said what I was
: going to.

and then you said

: What about my counter-arguments?

so I thought you were referring to your reply to what I said, which was

: "You expect me to outrun a slipspace rupture and a localized earthquake?"
: "No, Master Chief. I expect you to die."

if you meant for something else to show up there, I can't see it, and if you were referring to something else, it wasn't clear to me

: So, did you find the Hog run at the end of Halo 3 to be boring? Would it have
: played better in a cutscene?

: I'm not thinking of something quite on that scale, and definitely on foot,
: but I can't see it as boring or frusterating if done properly.

I have difficulty seeing how could be done properly and be fun and give the impression the Didact had done all he could. Why not drop the whole floor? That would definitely make things difficult. What about raising the floor? Why couldn't he lower it and then raise it as the Chief's falling to hit harder? What about raising it all the way up, and what about the walls and the ceiling? Why shouldn't he be able to just crush the Chief? Even if he can't do most or any of that and he can only disintegrate the floor like we saw, that's still a pretty bad fall if he does it when the Chief's at the top of a tower, and if he makes sure the Storm or Covenant or whatever don't bring any Banshees in there he's going to take a long time and have a lot of difficulty getting back up. If you can find a way to make going up what's basically a giant bare metal pipe fun, then I'll agree they could've done that better.
Of course they could've also just not had the platform-disintegration thing in the game, or at least not in gameplay. They also, especially since that level has the only moment where the Didact acts less smart than that, could've entirely rearranged that level. It did feel a little, IDK, obligatory, but then the first game had The Library and Two Betrayals and Halo 2 had Uprising and some parts of other levels have had that kind of feel, and the game was pretty close to feeling overly short.

: The point is to make the player feel like he's earned it.

to feel like they've earned what, exactly?

: I'm saying that if the Didact DIDN'T have bigger guns than the Prometheans
: had, he had the facilities to make them.

bigger guns only do so much-- case in point, Scarabs

: How does that immunity work?

I haven't the faintest idea, just like how I don't know how the Composer itself works. I'm OK with that as long as they don't explain it with ridiculousness like they did with "hard light" and as long as how either of them works doesn't become a plot point (and probably a deus ex machina) before we're let in on it.

: I wanted to play it safe and make sure that I didn't miss anything.

Oh I understand, that's what I did too, somewhat, but no one was forcing you to stop playing.

: Terrible lines, cheesy drama. I figured that 'soap opera' was an applicable
: appellation.

oh, I thought you meant something else

: You going to recommend any good animes? Everyone else does.

No, I'm going to gut you with a batleth, you ptaq.