Season 17 in Destiny 2 is definitely different. First a weak start, which promised too little content for many Guardians. Then problems in the PvP mode Rift split the community. And last night, shortly after the Weekly Reset, one of the strongest characters in the game caused a sad moment that left many Guardians speechless. MyMMO tells you why.
What happened in the latest story mission? Destiny 2 has made many players thoughtful with ‘Grief’, its latest story mission of ‘Separation’. It showed the NPC, who is regarded as the strongest character in the game and who cannot be thrown off balance, as a broken man.
Until now, Commander Zavala has always been the strong leader of the Vanguard. When everyone would falter – he remains steadfast. But the new story mission now revealed: The strongest Titan of all time is actually deeply saddened and struggles with himself every day.
What is Season 17 about again? The Leviathan, a massive ship of the former Cabal Emperor Calus, has returned and is trying to connect with the Pyramid of Darkness on the Moon. The Guardians must once again face their worst nightmares to find out what the return is about and why Calus (who has probably merged with the ship by now) claims, ‘I am the end!’.
For many Guardians, the new Season 17 was only moderately interesting:
- The exhausting nightmares are already known from the expansion ‘Forsaken’
- The golden Leviathan is a location that many players already knew from an old Calus raid. For Season 17, it was “only” overgrown by the Dark vegetation, the “Egregore Spores”, and transformed by Bungie into a patrol zone with Public Event.
- The first story mission did not reveal anything fundamentally new either, as it merely led players back into the old circus of the Leviathan.
Thus, while new players were excited about the environment, some long-time veterans in Destiny 2 either wrinkled their noses in boredom or turned away from the seemingly uninteresting content and thus from the entire Season 17.
For all players who continued to follow the story, Bungie revealed not only a completely new area on the Leviathan but also the secret of Zavala’s deep connection to two knitting needles. The story has potential if one engages with it.
- Bungie added the area ‘The Irrigation’ for Zavala’s ‘Separation’ mission, through which the Guardians must first find a way.
- The Commander wants to accompany the Guardians fearlessly, but he fails. For the first time in the history of Destiny 2, he is experienced as an internally broken man.
- In the end, when Zavala can no longer speak, Eris Morn tells the Guardians his emotional story, which left many completely silent.
On MyMMO you can watch the emotional cutscene that shows Commander Zavala’s deep sadness:
What does the Destiny 2 community say about it? The players’ reactions to the video and the revelations from the Commander of the Vanguard’s earlier life were marked by strong emotions.
- Many fireteams simply fell silent and stood around for a while on the H.E.L.M., the flying operations base of the Vanguard, while they stared silently into space.
- Others did not even watch the video because they were not interested in either the Destiny story or the Commander of the Vanguard in any way.
- However, some who recalled personal experiences were moved by the story to real tears.
So reports the player mynameisshoe on Twitter:
In the last few years, since I became a father, many things have changed, but this is the first time that Destiny got to me. It really broke my heart.
mynameisshoe via Twitter
And Jacob was also touched by this Season 17 story:
It’s incredible, it made me cry. I’ve been dealing with grief myself a lot lately and it really hit me. One of the best if not the best cutscenes so far. Very good work and I can’t wait to see what comes next. This story in this season is incredible.
Jacob via Twitter
There is probably only one moment in the entire history of Destiny 2 that could touch the Guardians as much as the now revealed fate of Zavala. And that is in the Forsaken campaign, when players had to say goodbye to Cayde-6 forever.
Zavala knows only grief and now some Guardians have also understood why he always looks so contemplatively at the Last City or out of his office window. Cayde-6 also belongs to a long list of lives that weigh heavily on the soul of the Commander.
Next week, players will learn whether they can help him cope with this deep guilt.
Whom do players owe these emotions? Even before Season 17, some developers, including Hazel Monforton, piqued the Guardians’ curiosity on Twitter.
Hazel Monforton has only recently joined Bungie as a Senior Narrative Designer and will mainly work on the seasonal content for Destiny 2 in the future. She is, as we now know, also the person who has implemented this story of Commander Zavala so emotionally.
The story continues behind the scenes: If you still want to know what happened after the video and Amanda Holliday’s last H.E.L.M. radio message to Zavala, you should read the related lore book.
Also, the voice lines after completing this story mission have changed and provide you with even more insights. To listen to them, you just need to complete the story mission and then do a few runs at level 3 of the Nightmare containment in the Castellum on the Leviathan.
What do you think about the latest story mission and the location? Did the message touch you, and do you say ‘More of this!’ or have you already written off Season 17 and are fed up with it? We look forward to your opinions in the comments.
