Destiny 2’s Season of the Witch is a Double-Edged Sword For The Dark Future Narrative | Games Rants

Destiny 2‘s Season of the Witch is a slight departure from the rest of the Lightfall era, with Season of Defiance looking more at the impact of the war on the citizens of The Last City and Season of the Deep bringing back Commander Sloane and her stronghold of Titan. Instead, Season 22 retains the overall grim stories of Year 6, but it goes back to a theme that most players are familiar with: the Hive and its Sword Logic. These have long been core conceits of the Destiny 2 Light and Darkness saga, and Season of the Witch takes a look at the effects of the Sword Logic on Eris Morn’s transformation as a Hive God of Vengeance – something that is awfully familiar to the Dark Future storyline.

Not all stories in Destiny 2 are told in a conventional way, and the game makes plentiful use of lore books to have branching plots and explore new paths for each character without focusing on the traditional quests or cutscenes. The so-called Dark Future does exactly that, telling the tale of Elsie Bray and her ability to experience different timelines, each ending with humanity’s defeat at the hands of the Darkness – all with Eris Morn at its center.

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Destiny 2’s Eris Morn in Season of the Witch and The Dark Future

Eris Morn’s story goes back to the era of Crota, who just now returned to the limelight thanks to Destiny 2‘s Crota’s End Raid being reprised for Season 22. Eris was the sole survivor of her fireteam, and ever since she’s sworn vengeance against the Hive – something that Season of the Witch explores more deeply as she gets the Guardian to tithe offerings to her in order to increase her power and possibly face Xivu Arath. This is part of the plan to bring Savathun back to life and finally learn how to open the portal that leads inside The Traveler.

However, things are much more complicated than that when one takes a look at the Dark Future storyline, which Elsie Bray was continuously forced to live from beginning to end until the current timeline. Here, Eris Morn is not the usual ally players have come to know, but rather she is the Witch Queen, a title mostly attributed to Savathun, and she commands her own army of Darkness-corrupted Guardians. In Destiny 2‘s Dark Future, Ikora is dead, and so is the Drifter, and Elsie finds herself enlisting the help of older Zavala, Mara Sov, Rasputin, and Ana Bray – her sister.

The current events diverge from the Dark Future timeline quite a lot and in significant ways, such as Ikora and Drifter being still alive, Rasputin having sacrificed himself for humanity, and Eris being surrounded by friends and loved ones. However, the fact that she is becoming Hive is concerning, especially for Elsie, who confronts Ikora about it in a new lore book entry, stating that this is how it could all begin again. Elsie is particularly concerned about the Dark Future because her sister Ana falls to the corruption of Destiny 2‘s Darkness, and she has to kill her.

The fact that Eris is going down a darker path of vengeance and retribution, combined with her dedication to the Sword Logic’s principles, can be quite concerning depending on how things change in the coming weeks. Ikora, Drifter, and other characters could play a significant role in Eris not becoming the Dark Future’s Witch Queen, and this could even show in a future cutscene or story moment. Destiny 2‘s The Final Shape is around the corner, and it’s hard to imagine that players will face The Witness with Eris giving in to Darkness and betraying the main cast, but if she gets over this then it’s going to be hard to reprise the Dark Future storyline ever again.

Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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