The excitement over the last season ofStar Wars: The Clone Warscould not be higher as the series enters into its last few episodes before it wraps up for good. However, the same can’t be said right now forDestiny 2, which has experienced quite a few ups and downs throughout its Year 3 content drops. WhileThe Clone Wars, being an animated series, andDestiny 2, being a live service action-adventure MMO first-person shooter, are completely different beasts with their own formulas to get just right, there’s one lesson in particular thatDestiny 2should take from this last season ofThe Clone Wars.
And that has to do withDestiny 2’s narrative, which in many ways has struggled to please fans as it has continued to stretch out events andnot completely deliver satisfying payoffs for its setups. But the main focus here is about howDestiny 2has continued to treat its characters, its lore, and its history.
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Destiny 2 FOMO and Universe
ToDestiny’s credit, the franchise quickly built up a rich and interesting universe with fascinating lore, backstories, legends, and more. In many ways,Destinyas a franchise has quickly launched itself to being a contemporary ofStar Warsdespite it being nearly 40 yearsStar Wars' junior. But there is one place, in particular, that could become a pitfall forDestiny 2’s narrative if it isn’t careful. And that is howDestiny 2often tries to draw a connection between too many things.
Destiny 2has a long history of relying on legends of its lore to excite players,and sometimes underwhelmingly. Osiris returned from his exile in Year 1’s Curse of Osiris DLC. Ana Bray reappeared on Mars in the subsequent Warmind DLC. Both Nokris and Xol, powerful Hive entities, appeared in the same Warmind DLC. Saint-14 returned last season in Season of Dawn. This season, so many connections are being made between Ana Bray, Zavala, Rasputin, the pyramid ships, the fabled Seven Seraphs, and more.
While many players have complained about how this reliance onthe past has allowedDestiny 2to avoid making forward momentum into the future, it has also caused another problem. It has madeDestiny’s universe feel suddenly much smaller, as though every major event in the game’s universe has been interconnected and involved only a small cluster of characters. And that is whereStar Wars: The Clone Warscomes in.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Destiny 2
In the season 7 episode, “Dangerous Debt,” there is a character who appears who may have gone unnoticed to many fans unless they are familiar with theStar Wars: Rebelsanimated series. In “Dangerous Debt”, theMandalorian Bo-Katanis accompanied by fellow Mandalorian Ursa Wren. Ursa Wren is the mother of Sabine Wren fromRebels. While this is a great piece of connection between the two series, supervising director ofThe Clone WarsDave Filoni explained the danger of making too many connections in a fictional universe:
“You have to be careful when including characters. It’s always a balance between a fun idea and a character we love, and a universe which begins to feel too small.”
This is a great piece of wisdom from someone who has done a lot of work in theStar Warsuniverse, arguably one of the most expansive, successful, and generation-spanning franchises in history. And it illustrates the dangerous path thatDestiny 2’s narrative has been heading down. In particular, the inclusion of so many characters fromDestiny’s lore and history, while has been fun and exciting at the time, has impacted the universe in a way that has shrunk it down in scope considerably.
There is less mystery than ever inDestiny. Many of the characters that were fabled legends—Osiris,Saint-14, Dredgen Yor, the Ahamkara—have stepped out of the pages ofDestiny’s Grimoire and into the gameplay ofDestiny 2. Granted, many moments with these characters and narratives surrounding them have been satisfying. But again, each time they have been brought out of the past and into the present, it has taken some of the mystery and intrigue away.
Suddenly, there is less lore to look back on because the lore has become the player’s present reality. And with each answer and connection made, the universe has actually started to feel smaller instead of wider and more unknown, begging to be explored. It would be good forDestiny 2to take the advice fromThe Clone Warsand to be selective with how many connections it makes lest the depth of theDestinyuniverse turn mistakenly much more shallow than it could—and should—be.
Destiny 2is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
