morgansafe - Tumblr blog

[morgansafe]

so the episode echoes story is over and done and it's great and beautiful and i don't think there's a better resolution to this maya's story than that gut punch but like

i think i'm really worried for what this means for the vex?

we see maya driven off back into the vex network with the echo of command. she's been defeated for now, her plans for conducting a second golden age thwarted for now, but there's literally nothing stopping her from hopping on her shit at any point later down the line

and that's not inherently a bad thing! i LIKE that we don't solve this immediate threat by shooting her in the head until she drops seasonal loot and an ascendant shard! but what they're setting up with her slinking back into the network, clearly growing more capable with the echo and being able to compel more and more people, has me kinda scared that she'll end up getting positioned as the "vex faction leader." in the same way as eramis and her house salvation filling that role as the representational figurehead of "enemy" eliksni, or xivu arath inheriting that mantle as "main hive bad guy"

(i get that these are really reductive labels to give these characters and there's a lot more nuance to be found in both them and the lore surrounding these factions and peoples and the world at large, BUT. as basic narrative elements in these stories, these are their roles)

episode echoes seems to be looking to make maya THAT. and that ruins a lot of the intrigue around the vex for me!

the eliksni are an interesting proposition because they're a spurned people desperately ekeing out survival following their own utter cataclysm. the hive are fascinating as this horrific and tragic omnicidal holy war in service of entropy itself. the cabal are an engaging force because theyre such a strong militaristic imperial faction that's so instinctively hostile to other peoples but is learning now to work in coalition

and what makes the vex work is that they're so fundamentally different. they're fourth-dimensional hiveminds that have existed since the dawn of the universe (i don't even know if the word "since" works there considering their entirely alien approach to time). they don't have "human" interests or drives or goals, they're always at least somewhat inscrutable. we can know what they're doing and what they stand to achieve by doing it, but their motives are about as digestable to our minds as radiolaria itself

(and i get that there are different collectives that have different focuses and that they aren't a monolithic unit but even still, when they're engaging in different stratagems it's still in service of these entirely incomprehensible designs)

so it scares me that bungie might be trying to establish a faction leader for them (already going against what makes them stand out AS a faction) but specifically one whose motives are, if warped, still undeniably human and comprehensible. i get the instinct! it's easier to tell compelling and resonant stories with an antagonistic force that can be understood! and to be fair if any one lore character SHOULD become THE figurehead for the vex, it's maya sundaresh. i just don't want that to be the case for the vex at all! the whole appeal is that they DON'T really have that!

i don't know, this long text wall might be for nothing! these are just the ramblings of someone who finished echoes last night and really liked it but is also worried about this particular avenue of narrative development