Destiny 2: Lightfall Killed Off the Wrong Main Character

The Destiny 2 community is still unhappy about the way Bungie handled the Lightfall DLC's central narrative, this time specifically calling out the manner in which its main characters have been dealt with. A far cry from the previous Witch Queen expansion, Destiny's latest outing has been widely critiqued for its campiness and lack of cohesion, but there are specific parts of the story that could've elevated the experience. Please note that, since this covers some of Lightfall's narrative, this is a mild spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't completed it yet.

While Destiny 2 has certainly had its fair share of mishandled narrative threads and character arcs, Bungie did turn things around from Forsaken onwards, choosing mainly to focus on the more serious, down-to-earth aspects of the game's universe. One of Lightfall's big problems is that its cheesy dialogue and rushed progression mirrored much of the game's Year 1 content, which makes it seem like a step back in many ways.

As the dust settled around the initial outcry about the state of the new DLC, the Destiny 2 community has begun coming up with more comprehensive and detailed feedback about what Bungie could've done to make Lightfall more palatable to many players. Reddit user Grown_from_seed, for example, started a popular thread explaining how Destiny 2's Cloudstrider Nimbus and his mentor Rohan should've been handled. As it stands, Bungie telegraphed the big event well ahead of time and did virtually nothing to make the final outcome of the situation more interesting.

Bungie has written a whole roster of unforgettable Destiny 2 characters, and there was potential for Rohan to join the ranks of Zavala, Eris Morn, and the Drifter in the lead-up to The Final Shape. As it currently stands, Rohan's protege Nimbus is interesting on a conceptual level, being a non-binary super-soldier with a pre-configured expiration date. Many players, however, are unhappy with their quippy remarks and the boisterous, happy-go-lucky attitude. In other words, Nimbus would've fit right into Destiny 2's Year 1 character roster and Rohan a better fit in Destiny's current era.

The good news, of course, is that Bungie has the opportunity to turn things around. For example, Nimbus shows their somber side during the Destiny 2: Lightfall's "The Variable" Exotic quest, which suggests that there may be character growth in store for them yet. Still, there's no helping the fact that a large portion of the community would've been more interested in seeing Rohan contend with his mortality over the coming year.

Those who just don't want to bother with Lightfall's narrative after completing the campaign don't need to linger on it, at the very least. Destiny 2's new endgame raid set records during its Contest Mode, proving that the DLC's endgame is up to par with Bungie's usual output. So even if Lightfall's story ended up falling flat for some players, there's stuff to do and Exotics to chase, which is always good news.