Big Twists In The Witch Queen Will Affect Destiny 2 For Years

When Destiny first shipped it didn’t have much of a story to speak of. Years later, that’s definitely changed. There’s still plenty of ridiculous jargon, but also characters, conflicts and histories Bungie has spent nearly a decade diligently cultivating. With Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, it’s all coming to fruition, and a lot of what players through they knew to be true about the game’s world has been turned on its head.

Spoiler Warning: You don’t need to go into The Witch Queen a blank slate to enjoy it, but if you want and or plan to at some point, turn back now.

In the conversation below, Kotaku weekend editor Zack and I get into some of our thoughts about what the latest expansion’s big reveals mean for the story and the series. But first, a quick recap of what recently transpired in the universe of Bungie’s loot shooter MMO.

Hive god Savathûn is reborn with the Light and tries to hold the Traveler hostage in her Throne World. The Vanguard kill her and free it, but in the process discover that the Hive were not always evil, but in fact tricked into becoming so by a Disciple of the Witness named Rhulk for the purpose of waging war against the Traveler.

While Guardians manage to kill Rhulk in the Vow of the Disciple raid, the Witness is still at large and massing his army of Pyramid ships to possibly destroy the Traveler for good. At the same time the Vanguard are questioning everything they thought to be true about the Light vs. the Darkness and turning to ever more questionable means to achieve their goals. And with that out of the way, let’s get to it!

Ethan Gach: So Zack, where do we even start? The end of the Witch Queen campaign, and especially the new Vow of the Disciple raid, is the biggest update to Destiny’s ongoing space opera since The Taken King and also completely changes the meaning of so much of what came before.

Zack Zwiezen: Boy howdy are things getting exciting! I fully admit that I bounced off Destiny 2 around the first expansion/season. I came back briefly for Shadowkeep and have now been back since Beyond Light. And the way Bungie has really kicked the narrative into high gear these last two or three years has been exciting. And Witch Queen’s campaign and ending are just increasing the momentum of it all so much. I’m honestly pumped to see what happens next. That wasn’t always the case in the past with Destiny 1 or 2.

Ethan: Yea it’s a big change, and I’m curious if it will ultimately be for the better. For so long Destiny’s most interesting stories were in its ancient history. But the biggest events are now about to go down in Light Fall and Final Shape.

Zack: Right! And I do wonder about that too. But it’s awesome that now all that stuff from Taken King, those tomes of old shit, are finally relevant in a big way in-game. It also feels like Bungie paying off story threads that were established years and years ago. Which I never expected because of it being a live game.

In my head, Destiny 2, GTA Online, WoW, etc are games that just…never end. But it seems like Witch Queen and recent seasons are actually building to a big end. A finale. That’s really interesting to me.

Ethan: We’ll see! Promises of building to something have been made for years, and even now Final Shape is a way of kicking the can down the road (Bungie’s official line is that it needed more time to tell the story).

Zack: That’s a fair point. Perhaps I’m just too naive. Too hopeful. But the ending of Witch Queen has me pumped. I can’t help it!

Ethan: I do think the future feels more open than ever, because with these new twists, there aren’t really the same established rules. What had you most pumped coming out of the campaign?

Zack: Well, before we go any further, and I assume this will be made clear above this but: SPOILERS!

Anyway, I’m excited about how Beyond Light and Witch Queen have really destroyed the idea of Darkness being an inherently evil force and the Light (and Traveler) being a force of good. Instead, we see that these are just two things that have always existed and can be used for good, bad or anything in between.

The Hive can use the Light. We can use the Darkness. And Witch Queen really does a good job of tossing curveballs at Zavala and other characters who, for so long, seemed to know it all. They got how this all worked. No more. And that isn’t even touching on The Witness and what that all means for Destiny 2 moving forward. How did you feel about Witch Queen’s twists/turns and narrative?

Ethan: I think it definitely helps add stakes the game has never quite had before. Destiny has always had this front-of-the-box problem. A friend picks it up and asks you what it is and there’s no one character you can say it’s about. There wasn’t even a defining antagonist. It was like Star Wars if you took out Luke and Vader. Now we have…