Destiny 2 The Final Shape has finally arrived on PS5 and Xbox, bringing with it the (hopefully) thrilling conclusion to a decade-long story arc. To celebrate the big day, executive creative director Luke Smith took to X to share a message of thanks to fans and devs who’ve come along for the ride. However, there’s a rogue bit of capitalization in Smith’s final post that has gotten me pondering the orb…
“Hopefully, it’s an exciting time for you and I know it is for the Destiny Team,” Smith’s mini-thread on the FPS game’s latest expansion begins. “First and truly, thanks to all of you who have spent any time in Destiny since 2014’s launch. It has for us and you been a long trip.
“Final Shape is the product of an immense effort from the Destiny development team, but Destiny itself has been built by many, many people who have since moved on from Bungie or to other projects. And to the team of today and the teams of many yesterdays, Thank You.”
So far, so good. It’s a lovely message, and I especially love the nod to the former devs, many of whom were affected by the studio layoffs last October. It’s a bittersweet moment for the multiplayer game, in a sense. But this isn’t where the thread finishes.
“Our Hope is always the same with Destiny games, expansions, seasons, DLCs, exotic missions, secret missions, in-game events, merchandise, et cetera – we genuinely Hope you enjoy the time you spend with it. Anything we’ve made or will make, that’s the Hope. Make your own fate.” Nope, I haven’t intentionally capitalized “Hope,” that’s all Smith. This is where the mystery comes in.
While there is a small chance that Smith is adding emphasis to the word for a laugh, we know that, historically, ‘hope’ has been a central theme in the space game. But what in the Cosmodrome is he talking about here?
Well, a big clue could lay in the vaulted Red War mission, Hope, which was the first time we visited Titan. During the Season of the Deep, we returned to Jupiter’s moon after it went AWOL for a hot minute, meeting the giant, serpentine sea worm Ahsa – an old enemy of The Witness – in the process. During the sub-aquatic season we also finally learned about The Witness’s origins via one of the most important lore cutscenes in all of Destiny.
“The Witness’s first victims were once like you,” the narrator says. “Struggling for survival, bolstered by hope… until their hopes became reality” – oh yeah, real Hope-y stuff right there. As it transpired, this ‘Hope’ manifested itself as The Traveller, which offered the gift of Light to The Witness’s people as it has more recently done to the people of Earth. However, things took a pretty dark twist and The Traveller peaced out after they tried to whip it into (the final) shape.
Though this is quite the rabbit hole to go down, I can imagine ‘Hope’ will act as some third, tertiary power to darkness and light – order and disorder. It’s a power of manifestation that can seemingly only be tapped into when certain dire prerequisites are met, that perhaps acts as the great balancer should darkness consume the light or vice-versa. It would also explain the “make your own fate” messaging that appears both in Smith’s thread and more heavily across the DLC’s marketing.
With this in mind, I won’t be surprised if The Witness ‘wins’ the war, but we end up sparking Hope into life, giving us some sort of Super Saiyan-tier buff in the raid that defies the logic The Witness espouses. This could materialize either as a raid mechanic (most likely in the final phase) or during a post-raid cutscene so as not to trivialize the boss – that’s where I’m tentatively placing my chips.
Of course, this is all a very literal interpretation of Smith’s message, spun out by a directly related piece of Destiny 2 content. Nonetheless, it’s been fun to see how far back the current of ‘Hope’ has underpinned Bungie’s game – both in terms of its initial story missions and its in-universe lore. But enough chit-chat. If you joined us in the spoiler bunker over the weekend, then it’s finally time to get out there and see what exactly Smith’s teasing.
If you enjoyed this wild piece of Destiny speculation, be sure to check out some more of the latest news on the best PS5 games and best Xbox games in the land of shooters. For example, peep the wildly broken wall-hack exploit this new The Finals update has fixed. Meanwhile, you’ve only got a few days left to enjoy Battlefield 2042’s new Future Strike mode – it’s a sweaty one.