Highlights
- Destiny 2's storytelling in the Final Shape era may change, but the core franchise's tales are unlikely to undergo significant changes.
- The game's expansions often include minor stories through items, dialogue, and lore tabs, like Season of the Deep's Veil Containment and Chioma Esi's audio logs.
- The character Banshee-44, formerly Clovis Bray, has a sad and tragic backstory, and his fourth-wall-breaking dialogue with players serves as a reminder of the impact of events and the potential for characters to be forever changed.
One of the most interesting aspects of Destiny 2 to sci-fi fans can be the way the game tells stories and how those plotlines can diverge, change, and overlap in its 10-year saga soon coming to an end - something that future sagas are most likely to keep doing. Destiny 2's Episodes in The Final Shape era could change the way Bungie tells its stories, but it's unlikely that those tales at the core of the franchise will change as a result. Now, many years after the original first came out, Destiny 2 reprised Crota's End as a Raid for Season of the Witch, and it is indirectly breaking the fourth wall via a sad and bitter secondary plot.
With Destiny 2's expansions often come multiple minor stories told via items, dialogue, cutscenes, or even just lore tabs found in the game. Season of the Deep's Veil Containment is a great example of this, with an otherwise forgettable mission providing some of the most interesting and valuable bits of lore in the game's history thanks to Chioma Esi's audio logs. More recently, Season of the Witch introduced a new Hive weapon called Ex Diris, which players can take to Banshee-44 in The Tower when they complete the requirements for its catalyst, and he will share a fourth-wall-breaking moment with Guardians.
How Destiny 2's Ex Diris and Crota's End Give Players a Sad Moment With Banshee-44
Despite not being a major part of the main storyline, Banshee-44 has always been an interesting character thanks to his seemingly somber mood and forgetfulness, which is often mentioned either by him or by other characters in the game's cast. Interestingly, Destiny 2's The Lament quest introduced with the Beyond Light expansion revealed that Banshee-44 was actually Clovis Bray in his human life, the infamous scientist that brought ruin to humanity with his atrocious experiments and obsession with a Darkness artifact he dubbed Clarity Control.
As it transpires from the quest, Banshee-44 was previously called Clovis-1 (and remained as such all the way until Clovis-43), and he had an enhanced Exo body with the mind and memories of Clovis Bray. However, he despised who he was as a human, and so decided to join Elsie Bray in her mission to make amends for Clovis' wrongs, excessively wiping his memory with new reboots, which are known to put a strain on Exo minds, possibly degrading them. He fought against the Vex on Europa, and when he was done he decided to let Elsie erase his identity and become Destiny 2's Gunsmith - Banshee-44.
In a quest to atone for sins that were not his, technically, he also forgot humanity's greatest accomplishments and the friends he lost along the way. When players turn in the Exotic quest for the Ex Diris catalyst in Destiny 2, Banshee-44's text dialogue reads that the weapon made him remember names from the past, which he follows with a request to Guardians to send his regards to Crota if they use the gun against him. This is a fourth-wall-breaking moment since Crota's End just came out, and it's Bungie's way to nudge players.
However, Crota initially fell in Destiny after what became known as the Great Disaster, where multiple fireteams headed to the Moon in order to stop the Hive God, but they died their final deaths. This is also the origin story of Destiny 2's Eris Morn in Season of the Witch, which makes Banshee-44's request all the more tragic. Not only has Banshee-44 seemingly forgotten about Eriana and other Guardians that fell to Crota, but he may not even recognize Eris in her current Hive form were he to see her. As much as Bungie's fourth-wall-breaking line is a funny way to allude to players' loot-farming habits, it's also a dark reminder that some characters may never be the same.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
