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Destiny 2's sendoff update, the Monument of Triumph, includes a hidden scene that seems to tee up what would have been the next big narrative saga had Bungie not ended development on the game. Resident lore scholar My Name is Byf, a near-household name who's spent years collating and explaining the main stories and deeper lore of Destiny, argues this plot thread indicates just how compelling Destiny 2 could have been if the game had been allowed to continue.
Destiny 2 spoilers ahead. But also, the game is dead, so does it really count?
In a moment shared online by Destiny Bulletin, our Guardian approaches Edge of Fate keystone character Lodi, now the speaker of the nebulous Nine, and finds a very different being puppeting him. This is credibly believed to be our first proper interaction with the Winnower, the granddaddy cosmic threat of Destiny 2's Darkness, which is the primal force opposite to the Light gifted by the Traveler. I'm simplifying a little but, I kind of have to.
The unknown voice insists that the Nine need us, the Guardians, "because I exist," and threatens a conflict to come. "Don't worry. When it's over, I won't abandon you," the voice concludes.
Some players have also been reading into the voice's final lines with hopes of future Destiny releases in their hearts – whether we are just getting glimpses of now-dead ideas once thought up by Bungie, or if this could be the seed of an experience that may one day exist outside of Destiny 2, if that's how it has to be.
"Take a breather," it says. "Take your libations. Let that vigor seep back into your bones. Get hungry." Given the tone of the Monument of Triumph, and the many mixed emotions in the air amid this bittersweet finale, it's perhaps dangerously easy to favorably read this as a bit of a fourth wall break: enjoy your rest after defeating the Witness, but know that the Winnower is still out there. However, Bungie has made it abundantly clear that Destiny 2 is done.
Byf, who's spent more time poring over Destiny lore than almost anyone, says, "I have seen the cutscene in question. No spoilers in this thread. I am utterly livid.
"The devs who worked so hard on Destiny for years, who knew where things were going and the potential that was ahead," he continues. "They all deserved so much better."
The type and shape of the content in the Monument of Triumph makes it clear that a lot of this stuff was not originally planned as a sendoff for the game, to say nothing of the Nine plotline kindled in the last big expansion and now abruptly severed. We can only speculate as to when Bungie shifted from "get this stuff ready" to "get this stuff into the game before we turn the lights off," but it does feel like we've gotten a preview of what at least the next year or two might have covered.
Byf adds: "I love that the story has been told at all, but there were clearly greater plans. Magnificent, majestic plans. But all that potential has been squandered. The devs all deserved better than this. They deserved to tell this story."
Echoing hundreds of thousands of players calling for Destiny 3 online, he concludes, "Greenlight D3 already."
