This is probably the most significant cutscene in 9 years of Destiny 2 history – but it comes a bit late. Because only now, in Season 21, have the Guardians from Bungie received answers about the Witness, the Veil, and the Final Form that Lightfall desperately needed to become a success. MeinMMO shows you what has been revealed and explains the new information.
How a cutscene enhances the experience of Lightfall: After the story campaign of the last Lightfall DLC, the Guardians had more questions than answers.
The Witness, enemy of the Traveler and user of Darkness, simply disappeared at the end of the Lightfall story. No one knew exactly what he had done with the Traveler, what exactly a “Veil” is, and how all this is connected to the “Final Form”.
It was a huge cliffhanger that greatly angered players and caused Bungie’s “beginning of the end” to be flooded with negative feedback about the open story in the form of bad reviews on Steam.
Only now, in week 5 of Season 21, has the seasonal story revealed a grand cutscene that has the potential to fundamentally change the plot of Destiny 2 and answer many of the questions that Lightfall left open.
- On the one hand, the Guardians could finally understand better how the events of Lightfall interconnect and what role the Witness, the Veil, and the Final Form play in it.
- On the other hand, the video shows what is at stake and opens new possibilities for the final expansion of Destiny 2, because only a video makes the story suddenly great again.
However, the most important thing is that after nearly nine years of guessing in Destiny, it finally reveals information about what the Traveler, the great unknown entity in the sky above the Last City, really is.
This one cutscene would have made Lightfall more epic
Mega-story as seasonal snack: For almost nine years, Bungie has been immersing its Guardians in the conflict between Light and Darkness through DLCs and Seasons. And for just as long, there has been speculation about who or what these two powers might be and what their relationship is.
And now, a small cutscene in Season 21 of Destiny 2 reveals the foundation for understanding the entire conflict between Light and Darkness and even brings clarity to the points of the story where Lightfall has failed.
For some players, this revelation from Bungie’s storytelling team comes too late. After the cliffhanger in the Lightfall campaign, the Guardians were not very motivated to complete the DLC year because the story felt superficial and thin.
But the now revealed cutscene has that certain something again and the potential to turn the entire plot of Destiny 2 on its head and put the Guardians in a new story euphoria.
From here on, the article contains massive spoilers and also shows the latest story video of Season 21. Additionally, we will discuss the story content presented and explain the new insights.
If you don’t like spoilers, please do not read any further and first complete the Lightfall campaign and the current mission of week 5 in Season 21.
Every fan of Destiny must have seen this
We are linking you the latest cutscene to watch again. In it, Ahsa, “the long noodle” who once rejected the Witness’s offer, speaks through Sloane and explains in just over three and a half minutes the origins of the Light and Darkness saga.
So, what Guardians have always wanted to know and what new players have been asking since Lightfall.
Answers to some of the biggest questions in Destiny: As already suspected during the first presentation of the Witness, the being of Darkness consists of many individual creatures of an extraterrestrial race. Not unlike humans and their history.
It is also the first race that the Traveler has ever blessed, and they were the ones who freed him from a dire situation. Because, as we now know, the Traveler was helplessly buried on their home planet the whole time.
As a thank you for his liberation, he brought the people who freed him the first “Golden Age” and used his terraforming powers, which is why they named their new benefactor “Gardener”.
- This piece of information is strong, because it confirms that the Traveler and the Gardener, which have been discussed in Destiny lore for 9 years, are not two, but one and the same being of Light.
The race of the Witness also built the massive pyramid ships and successfully evolved with the help of the Traveler over aeons.
Light and Darkness are one: But then one became increasingly tired of the “silent god”. They expected guidance, communication, meaning from him. But he did not offer that. He only stood silently in the sky, as the Guardians know him. So this people researched and learned more and more about Light.
- Light is not only life. It also means chaos and decay. Principles of life and death or as Ahsa put it: “Two halves of a whole”.
- And they discovered that there seemed to be another being in the stars that was connected to the Traveler: the so-called “Veil”.
The people of the Witness realized that this “chaos” needed to be controlled. And Darkness offered them what the Traveler did not have: communication, thoughts, and consciousness.
So they set out to eliminate the chaos of existence and try to shape it into a form. A Final Form that better matches their ideas.
They wanted even more and therefore brought the Veil to the Traveler in the hope that this would further strengthen the connection between both entities. But the Traveler did not allow that anymore. He left their world. Or rather: he fled.
However, he could not stop the race of the Witness. On the contrary. Since they had already recognized the truth in Darkness, they now used this power for the fusion into a single being that now stands as an enemy before the Guardians: the Witness. He witnesses “the truth in Darkness” and consists of many who speak with one voice.
The being of many beings knows only one goal: to create the “perfect universe” and bring it into its “Final Form”. Of course, in a form that is supposed to replicate the entire reality in the way they desire. Whether that is good or bad, we do not know.
For the Traveler, however, this seems to mean nothing good. He is on the run and has also never been safe for long. Because he and the Veil are central elements that the Witness needs for this task.
- He has come up with various possibilities and has repeatedly manipulated students so that he can reconnect the Veil with the Traveler.
- The radial mast on Neomuna was one of them. Presumably, before he found out that the ghosts of our Guardians can also make this connection.
And maybe it’s already too late.
Currently, the Witness is closer to his final goal than ever before. The connection with the Veil has indeed already been established, and humanity has no way to stop him. We also do not know what will happen to us if the Witness brings the universe into the Final Form he desires. The end of everything? Or something new?
However, there is a glimmer of hope: At least the revelation in the video made it clear that the Witness only has powerful ships that have emerged from Light. Or that he has understood what the power of Darkness can do and how he uses it for his purposes. Because these two things are all that he is and can.
The Witness might be more powerful than anything we have encountered so far, but now we know: he is not an indestructible deity that cannot be harmed.
When we think about the story, two questions arise:
- If the civilization of the Witness could connect with Darkness, could all Guardians also unite their power through Light?
- And then there is the question of the Nine. Are they perhaps renegades from the civilization of the Witness who did not merge with him and instead, through the support of Light, make his life difficult?
So it can continue: With this information, it is fun again to think about the options. Overall, the insights from these few minutes have opened up many possibilities and allow some players to look a bit more positively at the Final Form expansion of Destiny 2 in 2024.
However, one should also be aware that Bungie will probably continue not to tell the story in the original story of a DLC.
As we have seen, Lightfall does not simply end with the campaign, and one is finished. It ends when “The Final Form”, the last DLC of the saga of Light and Darkness, begins. So in Seasons 22, 23, and later this year. It’s like a book; one does not learn the entire plot in the first chapters. And the reveal of the greatest insight into the Lightfall story was probably just the beginning. Ahsa and Sloane may still provide further information on how we can follow the Witness in or through the most likely dead Traveler.
But at least many are optimistic about the quality of the narrative from this cutscene for what is yet to come. And Cayde-6 is still waiting in the last DLC, which pleases fans of the character very much.
By the way, you won’t have to wait until next year. Bungie will present a showcase for the new DLC “The Final Form” in August. There should also be first information on how the future of the Destiny universe looks after the last DLC of the Light and Darkness saga.
What do you think of the reveal in the cutscene from week 5, and how does it affect your view of the story of Destiny 2? Do you think the division into seasons was a good decision? Or should Bungie drop such things in the first season of a DLC in the future?
And how do you feel about the fact that this could make the content in the following seasons less exciting? Feel free to share your opinions and speculations in the comments.
Or are you no longer riding the big wave and have been demotivated by the current difficulties of the loot shooter?
Destiny 2 frustrates its players – more and more Guardians wish for an “end forever”
