#not actually but DAMN BUNGIE

[emerald4-ce]

Feel bad for the homophobes playing this season of Destiny cuz DAMN THESE BITCHES GAY.

[gothbard]

the next twid needs to start with pete parsons's resignation letter

[ahamkara-apologist]

Bits about the opening mission of Revenant that I absolutely love:

-Crow opening it talking about how he wants this to be a diplomatic mission where he proves that hunters can build bridges, not just burn them, and then the mission fucking ends with the bridge of the Helm getting blown open and the whole damn thing crash-landing into the Tower

-Failsafe taking one metaphorical look at this whole crashing thing and calmly taking over bc this is not her first rodeo. Rip Failsafe's new chassis it was fun while it lasted

-Getting to actually walk amongst House Salvation and fight alongside them!! I've wanted a begrudging alliance with them since I first started playing during Beyond Light and I'm happy that we're getting it. Strained political ties my beloved

-More Eliksni words!! I love the way the language sounds, so I hope we can get more of it. The conlang folk deserve to eat good this episode

-Everything about showing up to fight alongside of Eramis, and her sorta just begrudgingly accepting it. Like you can practically feel her desire to be a proud bitch struggling with her desire and her responsibility to keep her people safe, and her pride is failing. I love her so fucking much

-Eramis not giving in bc of her pride and her disdain for humanity until Crow mentions that Eido would be sad if she didn't come with. She is SO soft on this kid, I just know that she used to be the type of parent who'd bitch about her children whining that they want something only to turn right around and give it to them later. Granted, with Eido its not hard to not want to dissapoint her, but the fact that she's such a deeply caring person at heart under her wall of thorns is just. It gets to me, man

-I also love Crow acting as a diplomat, bc again, he's doing what I've been itching to do since I figured out what Salvation's whole deal was. Put those uwu softboy powers to good use prettyboy

-Eramis implying that she trusts us (the guardian) to ensure that Crow sticks to his word had me like '!!!' bc it genuinely wasn't something that I expected, especially after Ana's stunt on the Seraph Station. I think the fact that she's fought us so many times and has seen us fighting to keep House Light safe has convinced her that the Young Wolf is a pretty straightforward fellow who follows the honour-rules of her people, while she hasn't had the proof that other humans are the same. I think that's something that she respects about us, at least, even if she still very much does not like us. I mean, she also could have been speaking sarcastically but given how she talks to us later on I don't think that's the case

-(Granted, I also think that Eramis is aware of her crimes and feels like she needs to be punished for them in some capacity, and we're an outlet for that, but humanity also isn't exactly her first choice. Shes a deeply proud individual on account of her suffering so many indignities over her long lifespan, so if she's gonna choose to work with us, she has to be clear about how unhappy she is with all of it)

-(also who's responsible for repeatedly scaling her up in bossfights and then shrinking her right afterwards. Bungie???)

-Crow fucking pointing his dinky little Hawkmoon at Eramis's head. I know that it has paracausal shots and that Crow is a guardian, but it's comically small next to her and got a good laugh out of me

-When Fikrul smashes into the helm and we're being blown about like pieces of debris (I'm ignoring the fact that Crow can apparently speak in the vaccum of space bc idk what the fuck is happening there), the fact that Eramis just nonchalantly braces for impact with all her arms cuffed up implies that she's done this many different times before, and I love that little bit of detail. Fuck yeah more alien space pirate action, I always am down for that sorta shit

[xivu-arath]

man after putting a lot of my gripes about relatively recent writing together with The Lore Circle, and then seeing the article about just how dire the state of bungie is right now, it's really... not a surprise. we'd been noticing and feeling the effects of this in bits and pieces for over a year, at least

the weird flattening and streamlining of story and narrative and characters, the unnecessary amount of connections being made with zero ambiguity allowed, characters and dynamics being written in reaction to overall community opinions and vibes but often without actual depth, the very... on the face and rote pattern of seasonal dialogues. not that I care much about gameplay, but the intense pivot towards "challenging gameplay" that feels both one-note and pretty damn brutal for casual players like myself. I'd long held that there had to be a strong executive meddling for how things were being handled, and it sucks to have been so right

and it's so easy to see how things will spiral into going worse. why should longtime fans extend any grace or trust to bungie now? how can we be "earned back" when all the good writers and community managers and counsel and musicians have been laid off? when every well-meaning initiative has been promptly shut down and everyone involved is gone?

I don't generally have the energy nowadays to Express Opinions or be as loudly disappointed as many of my friends are. but I am disappointed and tired and also really fucking sad. the destiny that exists in my memory could actually be pretty good, and sometimes almost matched what I was writing and imagining in my own head. and... it's probably never going to return to that. I'm not going to leave it! I will probably hang around and keep plucking out the dregs that appeal to me, and keep writing and theorizing and talking with the talented and passionate community I've found myself in. I've scavenged and remained invested in much worse and more overall garbage stories

but I am going to grieve this decline for a long time, too. not just as a fan, but for the hundreds of people who did work on this big and silly universe and put their hopes and best efforts into it, and got crunched up instead

[thefirstknife]

Sorry to dump this rant in your inbox but the community’s attitude this entire season has legit got me tilted to the point I ignore pretty much the entire community outside of tumblr and a few irl friends. A lot of it has been frustrations I’ve had since Lightfall dropped wrt acting like the story was dogshit bc it didn’t give all the answers.

I legit got so fed up with Byf’s whole “oh all this season of the deep lore should have been in Lightfall��� stuff bc like. My guy. You were one of the biggest complainers about the seasons having zero lore or story relevance. Fucking pick one or the other. Either seasons are all filled bullshit or you’re gonna get cliffhangered and expected to have some damn patience for storylines to get picked back up over time in the seasons after the main campaign of an expansion is done.

Especially bc like. IMO anyone expecting anything not a cliffhanger from the end of Lightfall when we KNEW The Final Shape was coming after it was just setting themselves up for disappointment, you need big tension and shit like that before the final act and this way getting dripfed answers in the lead up feels less like we’re dicking around doing nothing useful for the entire year as we wait for TFS to drop. It legit felt like being a KH fan back when KH3 dropped who had payed attention and played all the games and knew wasn’t the end of the series, just the conclusion of an arc and anyone mad about the stuff left unfinished was being unreasonable when it was made pretty explicitly clear it would either be answered in the future bc this wasn’t the ending or had been answered ages ago and people just hadn’t bothered to pay attention to it. Lightfall was never going to have all the answers bc it wasn’t the ending, and Bungie has proven they’ll circle back around and answer questions and pick up story beats if you’d just have a little patience! I’ll agree it wasn’t done perfectly and could do with more focus on the Veil and less on Strand but come ON my guy!

Combine that with the general toxicity of non-story focused Destiny YouTubers, especially PvP only typesc about Destiny and the way their fans have behaved and I’m full on not watching Destiny content creators anymore. Genuinely never seen content creators who need to touch grass and maybe just. Take a break. I’m not saying Lightfall was perfect or that Bungie hasn’t fucked up but I’m honestly just. Extremely fucking tired of how the community outside of tumblr has reacted to everything. And I’m especially sick of crybaby crucibros being obnoxious. Much as I don’t actually think it’d be at all good for the game there’s a part of me that thinks the idea of them splitting PvP stuff and PvE stuff into separate Destiny games in the future might have some merit to it purely so those of us who just want to explore and enjoy the story in peace can never bother with them again

Go off, honestly. So true. I've felt the same and I've pretty much not watched any Destiny youtube content in months. I started a few of them, but then stopped because of how utterly annoying and just plain wrong they were. The Lightfall situation is such a shitshow, not because of Bungie or the expansion itself, but because I genuinely believe that Destiny is above the reading level of most gamers.

Obviously, I still have some issues with how some stuff was handled, just as you do. Literally nobody is saying that everything in Lightfall was perfect. And I extend that to all expansions btw. Every expansion had faults. None of them are perfect. I think Lightfall's mysterious storytelling could've been a little bit clearer. And make no mistake, Lightfall WAS clear that nobody knows about the Veil, it just wasn't as clear as it could've been. Nothing would've really changed about the mystery if this was made more obvious earlier on in the campaign.

But dear lord, the bullshit around it is so tiring. I get it. I was confused at first too. I even posted here that I found certain things not as good and that they made me a little annoyed! And like that's fine! Your first impressions are your first impressions. But please move on. Are you seriously deciding everything based on first impressions? Do you never look into things and see if maybe there were things you missed or were wrong about? Like, it's okay to be confused at first and then realise later that you missed things. That's how learning works.

And yeah, the whole "everything should've been in Lightfall's campaign right away" is not only annoying because of the stuff you said, it's also annoying because it ignores that there's too much content to fit inside of a single campaign and also that this content has a theme. The campaign is a self-contained story with a theme and a plot (and the plot is NOT "learn what the Veil is." The plot of Lightfall is "stop Calus and the Witness from destroying Neomuna" which has concluded perfectly well in the campaign). Post-campaign stuff, the Witness cutscene and the Veil Logs are all things that don't fit thematically with the high action 80s movie story about protecting a city from destruction. These things were deliberately spread out through the year to give us multiple stories to follow while we wait for TFS. It's a live service game. You're here for the whole year. And it's fine if that's not the storytelling type you like. It's fine! That doesn't mean the story is objectively bad.

But yeah, agreed with what you said. It helps to vent! There's definitely people out there who are in the same situation and who just want to enjoy the game as usual and not having to deal with crybabies who make the whole experience absolutely miserable and make it impossible to engage with anything. Luckily, there's also always people who are still engaging with the game normally. We like the game and we like engaging with the game. And when I stop liking it, I'll just stop engaging with it. I wish other people could do the same.

[hellkitten813]

You know a game is good when you lose time playing. 5pm turned into 2am in the blink of an eye!

The story (so damn good!), the mechanics, the gameplay, and so many more things to actually do! Not forgetting to mention the Wild Card mission! Omg!

Thank you, Bungie! You said you were listening to the community, and you actually implemented what they wanted in the game! I tip my hat to you!

I'm so happy to see and do missions with Cayde, a very missed and beloved friend 🧡

Though I do still have one personal selfish want.. Shiro-4.. (I miss my Exo sweetheart). Hopefully, he'll be in a future episode. There's HOPE.

[ahungeringknife]

The worst part about Amanda is that up until Season of Defiance I liked her. Like she had a complicated relationship with Crow and she was our kinda silly Lightless friend who made friends with Eliksni and in general just a (kinda boring but loveable) Girl Next Door character with a good heart.

Then Defiance happened and Bungie went 'actually she's a bitch now' and ruined like 10 years of good will by having her be a level of bitch we only see out of fucking Mara Sov for absolutely no reason. She bad mouthed the Guardian and Crow constantly and was busy acting like new shit on the block. For what????

For a fucking mediocre death at the end of the season. I'm sorry? Were we... supposed to feel something for her? After she'd spent several weeks being the most unlikable character in the game?

Fucking damn shame what they did to Amanda. Her death could have been so, genuinely, impactful. But instead her death was an absolute wet fart. I genuinely think the only reason people are as worked up is bc it was on the tail of Lance's death because even if she was your favorite character her death was completely lack luster and pretty fucking disgraceful honestly.

At least in my friend group we all agreed she should have just been offed in the opening cut scene and Defiance all about continuing Amanda's legacy to fight even in the face of Darkness and dispair. Instead we got that.

[thathomestar]

Man, I'm so glad you've made that post about Bungie, because it perfectly encapsulates my thoughts about the whole situation. It's so damn painful.

i'm still withholding judgement on the marathon game until it actually exists in some capacity but they're not making it easy to give it a chance!

[xentari94]

Back again with another hot take on how I think Cayde could be coming back- back. Or me just fusing different thoughts together to try and make them make sense idk. I try to write these things down when I think about them because I forget stuff easily. Especially long thought out stuff. But- okay so yeah I’m still betting on the 15th wish to be the way that Cayde comes back but- I just thought of something else…

The reason I’ve always assumed the 15th wish would have something to do with Cayde is because there’s lore where characters have wished for him to be here. And Cayde and Sundance were the ones directly affected in Forsaken, which is where we got the raid and in turn the 15th wish. I think of it like how Osiris could only use the Sundial for Saint alone because it was connected, Saint was directly linked with the Infinite Forest, the Sundial was built on Mercury where it was. All within the same season. Cayde’s death, the wish… all within the same DLC. So I’m not changing my stance on the 15th wish.

However- it would be way too obvious and that is one thing Bungie is not. I don’t think. They’ll put one bit of info out but it’s never as it seems.

So- what if instead of the wish being the direct way Cayde comes back, it is instead a big core piece, but not one that works alone and without actively helping it to. “This one you shall cherish.” An end goal so to speak.

The events of Forsaken, while yes I have hated with a passion, I cannot deny was the reason we have Crow and how he’s come to have a better life. But at the same time- I don’t believe the Traveler would use the end of a life for another life without there being some kind of failsafe.

A portion of light from Sundance being imbued into Ace being that failsafe. That’s the only valid explanation I can think of on how we got Memento Mori. And I think the perk is only called that because we as the player, up until when we see Cayde again, have believed him to be very much dead. There’s nothing that’s happened before now to make us believe otherwise.

I think in the teaser, Cayde and his cracked Ace are the saved copy of our Cayde we know and love, being formed by his light that returned to the Traveler when Sundance was shot. And the reason his Ace is shown cracked is because not all of his light returned if the real Ace has it. I think Ace is another key piece here. And damn wouldn’t it be emotional as hell if the gun that had saved Cayde on so many occasions, was able to indirectly save him once again before that final shot.

I think another key piece are the literal pieces of Sundance we know through lore to be in the possession of Ikora’s Hidden. In the teaser we see Ikora with her Ghost but Sundance is not there with Cayde and it makes sense because Ikora is not dead. I 100% believe that. But Cayde technically not technically is. I think he’s in some type of limbo. Which- maybe could explain why Eris could hear his voice. Maybe he was trying to tell her something idk that’s just another side thought. The Ghosts are made separate from their guardians in a way because they have to search for us, but they know deep down who we are when they find us. So that leads me to believe each Ghost and Guardian are originally paired with their own unique light signature. We’ve yet to actually know how Ghosts are made or how they are connected with everything (this meaning the Darkness and the Witness) if they are.

We don’t know what the Witness means by “your pale heart holds the key” either yet do we? Idk but the theory that someone is inside the Traveler controlling it is interesting. Ghosts come from somewhere, if we find out how they are created, could we possibly use all the key pieces being the Cayde we meet, the Ace we have and Sundance to find a way to restore Cayde’s light and life through first restoring his Ghost? Letting her once again be able to bring him back?

The 15th wish is the goal, but it is not given freely and takes us to fight for what we would cherish.

And as for the Traveler not forsaking Cayde in favor of giving Crow life, what if Crow is in turn right alongside us in getting Cayde back.

Could also explain why Cayde-6 warned us about Cayde-7. Maybe he knew something was going to happen. There’s his line in D1 where he goes “It’s calling me, thank the Traveler I only have a year left.” And we’ve been presented with the knowledge that we could try bringing him back through the Clovis Bray facility because his consciousness could be there, but we know by what Cayde said to us this is not the right way and if we see him as 7 then someone isn’t playing nice because it’s not actually him. But the way we go with the key pieces we ensure it’s the true Cayde-6.

[cambria-writes]

Candles Astarion/bard!Reader

Starts in Act 1 and continues onwards, just kind of covers things happening outside of what's addressed in the game. Reader has trauma because the whole damn party does, and has gotten in her head to try and get Astarion accustomed to genuine kidnness.

Lokismál God of Stories!Loki/Reader

I have a thing for fortune teller characters. Anyways, reader gets scooped up from her perfectly normal 9-to-5 life and shoved into völva training, basically, and becomes the first priestess Loki's had since somewhere around the 1300s. There is predictably some time fuckery going on.

Does it hurt when it rains? Min Yoongi/Reader

The story I teased last year (that I procrastinated on in favour of actually completing another story) which has a soulmate feel about it. Two people dream of each other but don't realize until far, far down the line that they both genuinely exist.

Ad Abyssosque Cayde-6/Reader

A story that was floating in my head ever since I saw the giant portal appearing on the traveler, and Bungie's teasin Cayde's return. Extremely gritty, very much playing fast and loose with trauma, death and resurrection.

[five-dregs-in-a-hunter-cloak]

oh my GOD final shape has been so damn fun so far, I haven't attempted the exotic class item mission yet but I'm hoping to this weekend once I finish my assignment

Wild Card was probably the most fun I've ever had in an exotic mission ever and Still Hunt has single handedly made me love snipers (for no reason other than haha funny illegal golden gun and I'm a hunter main)

also the RAID??? CALL ME A MICROWAVE THE WAY I MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

I haven't personally run through encounters 1-3, gave 2 a few attempts on day 1 with my clan when they needed a fill but didn't really understand what was going on, but encounter 4 is my all time favourite encounter in any raid that's ever been released (that I've played at least, which would be all the d2 raids that existed after the sunsetting, no scourge or leviathan or crown or spire or eater :( )

I just love the mechanics it involves and the brainpower needed, it's right up my alley and I also love the idea of pocketing a friend's ghost only to shove it onto a seemingly empty pillar to revive them, and the mechanic of SEEING THINGS WHILE YOU'RE DEAD?

I fear bungie cooked, and that is a good fear to have

also the witness fight is so fucking fun, I did excision before getting to the actual fight in the raid but I think the hands mechanics are so fun and I love doing them so much, I can't wait to be part of a full run from start to finish

CAMPAIGN SPOILERS BELOW

Fuck the campAIGN

oh my god I cried so much, when we met Cayde again, when Glint was mad at Crow, when Targe died, FUCK!! EVERYTHING!!!!

and when our own ghost sacrificed himself in excision i was genuinely sobbing

it makes so much sense for Cayde to do what he did though, to essentially trade places with our ghost so he can reunite with Sundance, my god

anyway i really love final shape and I'm excited for the episodes :')

[ahamkara-apologist]

don't fuck with the destiny community we can't read or listen or see or think about anything story related ever. why didn't nimbus die fr fr

The way I've been so burned by how bad people are at basic literary understanding that I thought you were being serious for a moment 😭 but yeah I was just having a convo with some friends about how it sucks that bungie has been appealing to the gamerbros so damn hard bc it feels like the story is suffering for it- it seems like they're pouring all the money into coming up with new game shit like Vesper's Host and Contest of Elders, while the story itself is a buggy mess that feels really...sparse. Everything we've got is pretty solid, don't get me wrong, but even knowing it got ported to a different release model after it was made for the old update style doesn't really account for how it feels barren in dialogue and intercharacter story progression compared to how much they're putting into gameplay stuff. Which sucks, bc if you ask me D2's story is absolutely S tier, while the gameplay itself is more B tier, and everything just keeps getting longer and harder which makes shit near-impossible for people who are either solo players (like me) or who have actual full time jobs (also like me)

[savyir-genesizz-the-wizard]

Quick question: how do you think Uluran react to mixed-breed children? I know there haven't been many (euphemism to say: not at all) Uluran-human unions, but what are your thoughts? How do you think they would be treated?

(I'm not talking about now that Caiatl is in charge because we are in good terms with them, but mostly about the period between the Praetorate and Ghaul's fall)

It's a tricky question because I'm 100% sure that it's impossible for Uluran and human to have a child. I think that there are just way too mang biological differences - after all they are completely different species who just happen to be both bipedal mammals even though they evolved completely separately. It's kinda like. Tigers and lions can have kittens together because they come from the same predecessor. But hedgehogs and echidna can't because they are actually two completely different things that just happened to look kinda similar.

But if you'd ask what I think about how Uluran/human relationships would be perceived... Hm. Good question.

So we know that humans and Cabal had some sort of contact before they got into a war but it seems they were rather rare encounters. After that we were (and are. Red Legion still exist. Kinda. And there is my man Calus too) at constant war. And since during that period there wasn't much cultural exchange (Rahool couldn't even fully translate a Cabal text (recipe) during SotChosen) I think that all positive (or at least neutral) relationships between Ulurant and humans would be among deserters, such as, for example, Unbowed Legion or pirates.

Now it it's the second opinion - anything goes. I doubt if pirates care.

But if it's the first... damn, I have no idea. So it's kinda common among the Cabal to mock and ridicule humans for they appearance (notably size) but, again, these are Ulurant who align with the Empire. So I guess it really depends. They probably have some cultural bias but probably just find it anywhere between weird and funny.

Also if there is any Cabal that definitely fucked a guardian that definitely was Calus. I mean, come on now.

TL;DR I don't think that Ulurant and humans can have children. And I kinda hope they can't because that would be fucked up and cursed. I mean, Bungie doesn't even want to show us Awoken/human children soooo. But when it comes to relationships I suppose that it depends on a person and their background.

(further discussion in the comments)

[thefirstknife]

The thing is, forcing you to buy extra silver is by design. It's a well-known and annoying, even predatory, tactic to get more money out of people. If they have just a little left over, they're more likely to spend more to round it out next time. And if they never use it, then it just sits there but the company already got their money so they don't care. I highly doubt they'll make it possible to buy just the exact amount of silver specifically because it means making less money. On the one hand, I get it as they don't have a subscription fee and the money has to come from somewhere. On the other hand, it's still a scummy tactic that I hate. (And I hate the price increases overall. Lightfall + Annual Pass is the same price as I've paid for other games' CEs that came with an assortment of highly limited edition physical collectible goods. If TFS is more expensive yet again I might not be able to see the conclusion to a story I've invested almost a decade of my life in...) I'd honestly rather they drop the price back down and scale dev back to keep it more affordable.

Yeah, agreed. It's a really annoying predatory practice, especially announced in this way. We're almost to the new season and they hyped people up for it. Especially since this season was very mild overall, but we've already been told and hinted a lot about the next one which has been highly expected. Obviously, hyping people up for the new season is normal, but waiting until the last moment to also tell us about the price is kinda shitty. They must've known that the price will jump a decent amount of time ago.

Definitely not expecting them to let us buy the exact amount of silver any time soon, but I think it's one of those things we should let Bungie know about as a community. This community makes a drama out of everything, but this is the one time it would be actually for something important. Letting them know that we don't appreciate these practices can't hurt. Maybe the silver bundles can't be altered right now, but perhaps in the future they could be.

I'd love to see people send feedback about it. In like, a normal way like human beings without threatening the devs for once, of course. It's not their fault anyway. But like, there's been so many price increases recently. Season pass stuff is just the latest one and it's paired with this shitty practice of basically holding us hostage by FOMO or by making us pay extra silver we don't need which makes people more willing to buy again because of leftovers you can't spend on anything else.

We got hit with the dungeon key first, then event cards, then base expansion increase and now season pass. :/ Everything is getting more expensive so it's not surprising, but at LEAST don't shove in these predatory practices, damn. I'd honestly give them $15 per season rather than this pretending that it's only $12 but actually not really. Just be honest and transparent. It's still awful, but you know.

[abidethetempest]

lots of rambling abt my Eliksni conlang below, abandon all hope ye who enter here

the real pain so far of trying to conlang Eliksni is that it essentially already "exists"-- not to say that Bungie has actually released any sort of detailed documentation on it, but there are preexisting patterns. I had to work backwards from the given list of words that I do have (many of which are only seen in writing and therefore have zero cues as to proper pronounciation) and try and create a vowel inventory based on that alone.

Some of the issues I encoutered: is this a different vowel or is it just a variation of this other sound filtered through my particular accent? Because I read and write in English, there aren't any consistent markings to show differences in pronounciation, so it really is a guessing game.

On top of this, the canonical pronounciations of many words often include contradictiong sounds. Why does one name start with a different "a" sound than another, when there is no discernable difference? Of course there are many cases like this in real life languages where sounds don't follow perfect, easy rules. However, I want Eliksni to be more phonetic than not, so I've had to get creative with the rules about spelling and creating some new diphthongs to represent sounds that the canonical spellings do not.

sorry, thats a lot of rambling to say in the end that I find this aspect of the project both very frustrating and very engaging. frustrating because if I was making a conlang without any prior material, I would just do away with all this mess and decide for myself what the damn vowels are. would have saved me a lot of 3 am headaches from realizing I forgot about a name that uses a sound i didn't include. the fun part-- at least for me-- is the problem solving. just earlier today, I felt like a genius because I came up with a solution to a discrepancy between the pronounciation and spelling conventions of the long "i" sound that not only fixed the issue in a way that felt very natural but also still aligned perfectly with canon material! so yeah; working backwards is part good and part bad, all around a very interesting first conlang experience.

[waffelteufel]

(Sort of Destiny 2 criticism, but also i love the game and it's not just hate, i'm just rambling lol) I'm honestly a biiit worried with Destiny's storytelling? I have been thinking about this and feeling this since a while now, but the seasonal story stuff we've been getting feels… Lower quality, than the previous dlcs, if that makes sense? When Destiny used to have a lot of reading in between the lines and surreal concepts and complex conversations/relationships, it tends to follow very obvious tropes lately, which feel on-the-nose and like they were written by people who are terminally online and don't actually read that many good books either. Ok this sounds very mean, and I don't mean it that way, but it is the way I feel lmao. As a result I find those seasonal conclusions to always feel rather.. Childish? and Hollywood-esque? Almost like Marvel? I will try to explain.

Season of the Haunted as an example here – instead of giving us plots and hints, the DLC spoon-fed us a therapy session every week, with a morale story at the end. That's nice and all but it didn't feel quite Destiny to me? It was a means to an end with your typical 2020s Hollywood morale story about mental health at the end. For any other series or game I wouldn't have a problem with it, but in Destiny it just felt… Off. Not bad, just weird and disjointed. I am sure they could have pulled it off much better if we didn't have this (honestly absolutely abhorrent) seasonal system that locks you out of story and content after each season. Season of Plunder ending was honestly ridiculous story-wise and felt like a means to an end to wake up Osiris – the plot we had felt extremely inconsistent and - unfortunately - like it was pulled out of Bungie's ass. As a bigtime Misraaks (and also Sjur, who has been conveniently forgotten by Bungie, even though Eido is named in honor of her) enjoyer, I felt let down. Season of the Seraph has been such an on-the-nose western trope with a very obvious ending, i mostly felt disappointed by it and, even though the cinematic was drop-dead gorgeous and the ending made sense (because AGAIN: it follows extremely obvious cinema tropes that don't leave you with big surprises if you pay attention and know a thing or two about narratives), it just felt… Silly. "Who needs war sats if you have each other" That sentence was so damn Hollywood to me… Again, I blame the seasonal system, because Rasputin's shift and whole development (and eventual demise) happened too quickly. I am sure this could have been amazing if this awful seasonal system didn't exist, but yeah. Narratively throwing away a big personality like that in a season instead of an expansion was ballsy, but not in a good way imo. It essentially gets rid of plot and drama the characters might have in the future, and Destiny's story conflicts have already been dumbed down enough so that Rasputin's death actually feels very sad to me, because it's drama we will never get to experience now! Also to the people saying Bungie must want to resurrect him at some point: Rezzing him after that, and also after Crow and Savathun, is objectively extremely bad and silly writing. Like fanfiction level self indulgent stuff that throws away established points that seemed important to the writers. Like they made a point, even if I am not a fan of it, and it seems kind of disrespectful to just throw it away again and nullify that. I just can't see it happening, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it did anyway, because it's tonally in line with Hollywood right now. Eris and Ikora have been such non-entities also – they are there but also they aren't, because their own stories and conflicts have not been a part of Destiny since a good while now. They are mostly means to an end for other characters. I used to adore these two, but I find myself not caring anymore.

There have been good seasons too! My favourite by far has been Splicer, where they somehow managed to make the shift between Misraaks and Saint-14 feel very organic. The themes about xenophobia and prejudices didn't feel wannabe-educational, it all felt very organic and genuine within the pacing of the plot to me. The season with Mara trying to get rid of Savathun's worm was very nice also. The sister-brother story with Crow felt complex and there was a good amount of subtle reading inbetween the lines. Also nice. In general I really appreciate how they handled Saint-14 and Osiris also. The Witness and Savathun are also great and feel much more Original-Destiny-Esque to me than the rest.

I don't know. it just feels kinda Hollywood to me right now? I honestly wonder how many of the original writers are still part of the team? People like Seth Dickinson used to write my all time favourite lore pieces, like the Awoken stuff, and they've not been part of the project since a good while. I don't know. I really don't like it when stories need to push your nose into something, it gives me the impression as if the authors assume you must be an idiot, and it's not been the vibe I had of Destiny as a franchise since the longest time. These wannabe mental health and friendship storybeats can work and I am sure they could make them work, but they just feel like written by terminally online authors. I don't want to use that term so negatively, but it feels like a self indulgent fanfiction (which is fine in itself!! but i don't expect fanfics from Bungo) or someone making a twitter post to educate someone – as opposed to a seasoned writer who puts a lot of effort into their craft and doesn't feel the need to over-explain every single thing and emotion because they are confident enough in their craft to not be scared about bad-faith-interpretations by toxic online weirdos.

Still, the story in Destiny is so complex, you cannot really compare it to most games out there, so I feel rather nitpicky about it, cuz it still ain't bad, you know? I am not hating on it, it's just criticism I have. Because I do genuinely love the setting. I understand if the seasons need to have different vibes, but the tone of the game shifts a bit too much for me. Or its complexity and matureness, that is. Makes me worry where this will all go, and if this marvel-approach will become more prevalent or less in the future. Maybe I worry for naught also, and it will go back on track again? I've noticed my interest fading toward the end of the seasons anyhow, but then at the start of the next expansion it is piqued again. Neomuna and the Cloudstriders seem very intriguing for example. This might also be a cultural thing. I am not from the US and I don't vibe with most of Hollywood cinema anyhow, so maybe I'm the problem lmao. Which is fine. Not everybody needs to agree with me, I am just sharing some feelings here and I wonder if others feel similar, or don't agree at all? Would be interesting to hear!