Reading Response #6: Destiny 2

In the video game ‘Destiny 2’ written by Jason Harris, you play as a Guardian, a defender of the Last City of Earth several centuries after our modern time. During an invasion by the Red Legion, the Last City is left occupied by hostile forces, and most Guardians have been hunted down and killed. The malevolent leader of the Red Legion, Dominus Ghaul, is after the source of the Guardians powers, the mysterious floating city-sized sphere known as the Traveller. Ghaul knows the Traveller is the source of the Guardians powers, and manages to encase the Traveller in a cage, and separates it and the Guardian’s powers from the Guardians. The remainder of the story involves you travelling between several planets in the solar system to rescue other Guardians, and taking back their home and their powers. Personally, the ‘Destiny’ series has been one of my all-time favourite series, and I think one of the reasons for this is that the whole series could be interpreted as a metaphor for working for a better life from the very beginning. You strive to become something from having been and done nothing, and despite multiple challenges you must overcome, some even seeming impossible to pass, you continue to push towards the future you’ve always worked for, and personally, I find this relation to life, and sometimes my life, another reason I keep coming back to this series.

One significant location, which itself creates a significant idea, is Jupiter’s moon Io, which was the last place the Traveller terraformed before the Collapse, and is still infused with the Travellers raw energy. Io is one of the most sacred sites for Guardians, and Ghaul and his soldiers simply destroy it as if they were stepping on a bug. Normally Guardians are undefeatable, they are unkillable, they can bend aspects of the very laws of nature to their will, yet without their powers, they are simply, human. For me, even just playing this game and others like it, give me a similar feeling. When I start playing, I feel incredible, I can do anything. I can be a Guardian of the Last City, warding of imminent threats to our very existence, I can be an explorer of the galaxy, discovering what it means to be, I can be a hunter of machines in the next age of humanity, uncovering what we once were and how not to repeat our mistakes. But, stepping away from these games, I always feel powerless to an extent, going from a great warrior or a legendary survivalist to just another person in a world of similar people. I feel the helplessness of powerless Guardians is very similar to my feeling of loss of purpose when I stop playing these games, and yet it always seems to end up with me saying ‘Hmm, maybe I should’ve have spent the last 6 hours studying instead of saving the Last City from the Red Legion. Hmm…. No, it was worth it.’

In conclusion, some aspects of the game ‘Destiny 2’ I believe are highly relatable, from the supporting roles of your mentors, to your quest to reclaim your former strength. The major details of both could be switched to include details of one’s personal life, and the story could quite easily become about someone trying to make their way back to a high point in their life, and the support and comfort they receive from those around them who care about them, and I seriously hope that should this story decide to include me, I’m not the one playing the ‘Dominus Ghaul’ of the story.