What Is Destiny 2 Trying to Say?

 Front cover for Destiny 2: The Final Shape. Pulled from MobyGames

Destiny has been going on for a long. As such, it tries to a lot of things. I will attempt to analyze Destiny 2. themes, stories, what questions it asks and what commentary it makes (or rather tries to).

We first have the base game: titled Red War. Within this story we see out character lose everything, their power, home, and friends. They are displaced by a military faction who destroys their home, just like some country that's been in the news

The player character then goes through a religious arc. Exploring the nature of "the light" and the traveler, gaining power through their faith and their understanding of it.

They meet a new ally, named Hawthorne, a leader who takes care of outcasts. The region, named "The Farm" acts as a home base. We could analyze the meaning of calling it the farm, its ability to provide, function as a home as well as producer, and the idea of fleeing a city and seeking refugee outside of safety, rubbing shoulders with people otherwise ignored.

From there, our player character meets allies old and new. We meet up with Zavala and Sloan, both titans. Sloan and our player character help reignite the faith in Zavala.

Ikora, the warlock, heads to Io, to reflect on the nature of the light and peruse a religious pilgrimage. Asher has long rejected faith, choosing instead a scientific approach to the light and the study of it due to his personal history. With his help, we ignite the fury of Ikora.

Then we have Cayde-6, who runs to Nessus to flee his problems. Failsafe, a broken A.I., helps him realize that he cannot flee his problems.

After all of this, the group commences a fight to take back the city.

So, the message is clear: one must refortify themselves with hope and faith to preserver challenges. What do our characters do when their home is occupied? They fight back to reclaim it, without sacrificing yourself and your beliefs.

It is a story that is pro-rebellion, that celebrates faith, trust, and community. A story that believes in hope and the future of us all.

But the story didn't end there. 

The story didn't end there.

Next we have Curse of Osiris, a story about how even heroes who seem stronger then life can fail. Warmind is a reflection on family, commitment, and what it means to be human.

Forsaken is a story about revenge, loss, and grief. A test of the faith and hope we had at the beginning of the tale.

Shadowkeep is about trauma, and how to live despite it. It showcases this through enemies called nightmares.

Beyond Light has us using "The Darkness" the yin to light's yang. To understand stasis in particular, we have to understand what it is reflecting, being solar. Stasis is all about slowing down, stopping, and freezing, whereas solar is about rushing, passion, and burning. It represents a time for reflection for our character. What do we stand for? Why do we keep fighting? Eramis, the main villain, wants to restore her people, just as we did not too long ago. The DLC portrays her actions as cruel, as it seems like she fell from grace, builds an army, then is defeated. It portrays Stasis itself as a corrupting factor, despite us being the people using it. It acts as a refutation to Red War's ideas. Further complicating this is Clovis Bray, a character who is portrayed as cruel and evil, who refused to question what made people, people.

The Witch Queen follows this. It further disputes "The Red War" as the Traveler, the god-like figure, attempts to abandon humanity. What does faith mean when your own god attempts to abandon you? The answer is find your own faith, and take it back. We define who we are, and what we must do, as opposed to Savathun who wishes to believe a lie.

Next up is Lightfall. Just as before we get a new Darkness subclass, being strand. So let's understand what strand is so we can understand how it relates to the overarching theme of faith, dualism, and hope. It is a reflection of.... no one knows. Here is my guess based on the themes of each. I believe that strand is analogous to the void. Where the void symbolizes nothingness and separation, strand is about the connections between ourselves. This also does not make the best sense either. Anyways, what is Lightfall about? It's about restoring hope and faith. It is done in a very similar manner to Red War. We have to fight back against occupiers, enhance our connection with the light (and dark this time) and attempt to unravel mysteries about the Traveler.


Then finally, we have the Final Shape, the so-called conclusion to the Light and Dark saga! We utilize both light and dark, further emphasizing the dualistic nature of the powers. We meet up with Cayde-6 who was brought back to life, and finally we defeat the witness, who wanted to destroy the traveler to bring the world to darkness.

Through utilizing the power of light and dark, we reveal that the nature of Light and Dark are the same chords, just played differently. Through a revisit of our history, we rediscover who we are and meditate on that fact. And finally, we reignite our faith, not to a god, but instead to our friends and family. And finally, we lay rest to Cayde-6.

AND THEN THE STORY CONTINUED

The story continues to play the same notes of faith, hope, and dualism. But at this point, it has run out of things to say and stories to tell. Look at Lightfall, it said nothing new about faith, hope, and dualism.

So what is Destiny trying to say?

That wasn't the end, we didn't go to another game at the end. It just keeps going. We don't even have the ability to play through the original story, as it was "vaulted."

The game's narrative exists in a limbo state.

Let's compare this with another series that is long, covers similar themes, and is a little complicated, Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Heart's saga continued for 17 years, from 2002-2019. But, these were each separate games that could explore themes on their own in interesting ways. Further, we did not have to worry about "seasons" which also contained important story elements that have been deleted. Say what you will about Kingdom Hearts, but at least it you get all the games, you get the story.

As it stands, Destiny exists in a limbo which makes it hard to analyze. It makes it even harder for people to create narratives that mean something. We have to analyze each DLC as both a separate thing (like a book in a series) and as part of the original book that released after. But this time, the front of the novel is burning away as you read it.

We have not even begun on the characters of Destiny and how they relate to the concepts and themes of the story. For example Zavala was extremely hesitant to use the darkness until the end of the story, being "The Final Shape." We could analyze what this means for his character and the overall themes of the story, but wait, the story is still going on and we have not seen him use it since.

Did he just decide that actually the darkness is cringe? Perhaps he simply uses it off camera, but that would suggest he is embarrassed by it. Or perhaps the story is simply unfolding overtime, so we will just have to wait to analyze what that means for his character.

But isn't that silly? That we have to wait to analyze the themes, messaging, and point of the text UNTIL it's done. But when will it be done? It's a live service game after all, we will just have to keep waiting, forever.

So I ask you, how do you think we are supposed to analyze live service games? 

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