Destiny 2’s Season of the Lost story needs to step it up and fast

Destiny 2’s seasonal stories have been fantastic, but Season of the Lost has dropped the ball so far.

Destiny 2 may have struggled to find its narrative footing in the first three years since launch, but it’d be fair to say it put much of that criticism to be in the last twelve months. Each season has gotten progressively stronger, with Season of the Chosen and Season of the Splicer offering fun activities, sure, but really being tied together but a stronger narrative throughline than we’ve seen from Bungie in years.

While that helped us identify with and care about core characters in the MMO/shooter’s universe, Season of the Lost has struggled somewhat. While its actual content is engaging enough, it feels like its story is being dragged out to fit Bungie’s extended seasonal timeline – and it’s making it harder to log in each week.

At the start of Destiny 2’s Season of the Lost, I said the following about the season’s phenomenal opening:

“With Season of the Splicer culminating with confirmation that something was going on with Osiris, it was refreshing to see Season of the Lost essentially open with the reveal that yes, Osiris has been Savathun in disguise for quite some time.”

While we’ve had story tidbits in recent weeks, nothing has really served to nudge the narrative along. Savathun is still imprisoned (and clearly about to double-cross us), and every week it feels like Mara and Petra do everything they can to tell Crow who he was before becoming a Guardian, only to tiptoe around it.

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Honestly, how Crow hasn’t worked it out at this point requires such a suspension of disbelief that it becomes almost more believable that there’s a giant beach ball that gave us superpowers in the first place.

With Season of the Lost intended to bridge the gap to the Witch Queen and Season 16, it has big shoes to fill. Not only were the prior seasons great, but their narrative was also compact. In fact, in many ways Season of the Chosen and Season of the Splicer had wrapped up story-wise with weeks to spare, outside of the latter’s epilogue.

Arguably the saving grace is that Savathun, star of the next big Destiny 2 expansion, has been speaking in riddles to our Guardian every chance she gets. The Hive god is full of treachery, but she makes some smart points.

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In this week’s conversation, she compares how our enemies must’ve felt upon seeing our Light in action, comparing it to the helplessness of tangling with the worm that gives her power. Honestly, she’s been a huge boon for this season, and she’s not even the star yet.

The good news, though, is that Destiny 2 has, in many ways, been setting up dominos for the Witch Queen to knock over for years now, meaning this is likely the start of a rollercoaster where anticipation is at its highest.

Bungie needs to be careful, though – keep us waiting too long and interest may start to wane.