With a week left until players can wrap up the Light and Dark saga in Destiny 2, Bungie has dropped the launch trailer for The Final Shape. It’s two minutes and 21 seconds of imagery that has me cautiously optimistic, and also unsettled by how many questions it has me asking.
“Witness me!” I scream for the 50th time
The trailer begins with what a lot of players have been begging for, seeing Guardians interact with the Last City’s general populace. A boy stares in awe at a Warlock and their Ghost as they pass by, and we get a real sense that Guardians are these larger-than-life heroes.
An Eliksni is busking with an acoustic guitar in the same market, simultaneously strumming and tapping out a beat with its four arms. Could they be the ideal species capable of reproducing the magic of Steve Vai’s performances?
The boy picks up an apple from an Awoken vendor before looking to the sky with the crowd as the Witness launches its campaign of terror on children and fruit. Piece by piece, The Last City is frozen in place, with its inhabitants twisted into macabre perversions of their original visage.
From there, we get a hodgepodge sequence of the Vanguard already inside the Pale Heart of the Traveler and journeying into it. Time seems out of sorts, as Crow stands in the twilight of The Last City with the Traveler above it, and a Ghost flickers between states of life and death. Zavala’s pauldron is consumed by something not unlike the Venom symbiote, while the Ace of Spades lies broken in a patch of dead grass.
There is a lot of emphasis on Zavala throughout the entire trailer. Before entering the Traveler, we see the Titan staring fondly at a piece of fabric woven into his pauldron that appears to be Amanda Holliday’s scarf. His attention is caught by a mirror held by what, oh holy cow, is that the Winnower!? I wasn’t sure she was actually real!
“The Winnower” is the name given to the veiled figure found in many of the Pyramid ships, who the community thought would be the big bad before the Witness popped up. The Winnower was then thought to be more of a metaphor for the Witness, shaping and cutting back the growth of the Traveler’s “garden.” Yet, here we are, seeing her signaling Zavala with a mirror.
From there, Zavala is seen with Ikora Rey and Cayde-6, reaching into a doorway filled with that same inky mass. Visions of Safiyah cast in stone flash rapidly between shots of the Commander’s gauntleted hand reaching out to her. This, combined with Ikora and the Witness speaking to him, hints the Witness is preying on Zavala’s profound grief and is trying to recruit him.
This is furthered by a shot of the Witness standing before the Veil with an outstretched hand toward Zavala. Behind the Vanguard leader is a sea of Winnowers who begin collapsing into dust. Big Blue stands solemnly before several hands reach out from the darkness to grab his face and pull him in.
Taking a break from Zavala, the trailer jumps to the resurrected Cayde-6 looking over his dead body from the beginning of Forsaken. The last we saw of the former Hunter Vanguard, he had ambushed Crow, who had just infiltrated the Traveler. Cayde will likely have to deal with his death and resurrection while also processing the whirlwind of emotions we all did as Prince Uldren Sov was resurrected as Crow.
There are several shots of a cloud of Darkness chasing Ikora, Cayde, and Crow, with big ol’ Witness hands reaching out for them like it’s the final level in Super Smash Bros. Speaking of hands, it’s all-hands-on-deck in terms of bad guys, with several shots of the Scorn and Vex joining the fray.
Ikora takes a nasty shot to the shoulder before a combined fleet of Vanguard, Eliksni, and Cabal ships begin transmatting Guardians in. Then, the Warlock Vanguard reminds us of the immense power she wields before the trailer cuts to the title. I’m hoping this means we’ll get a sequence like the beginning of Shadowkeep, but even more amped up.
Every time I think I have a handle on the scope of The Final Shape, Bungie shows off a series of snippets that have my mind racing with questions. It’s been said in the previous ViDocs that the development team is pulling out all the stops, and I want to believe them. Here’s hoping The Final Shape answers more questions than it asks.
