Today, kind of out of nowhere, Bungie teased the next story beat that may be coming next season during Season of the Worthy (or perhaps even further down the line), and it appears like we’re going to be merging a few of the loose threads from season 1 together.
Spoiler Warning: We’re going to show and talk about the cutscene now. We’ll put in the video form via iiDutchboyy below for you to see right now if you want, but if you prefer to log into Destiny 2 and see it on your TV the way Bungie intended go ahead and do that first and then come back.
OK, so first question: What the F? Second question: What did Rasputin say at the end there? Did he even say anything at all? Let’s break the cutscene down.
So we have our pal Osiris, who is finally allowed to do things now, poking around Rasputin’s home on Mars. We haven’t really heard much from the super AI Warmind since Destiny 2: Warmind’s story campaign where we teamed up with Ana Bray to bring him back online proper in spite of the Vanguard and especially Commander Zavala’s trepidation for doing so.
It seemed, at least at the time, that Ana Bray was justified and that Rasputin was going to use its immense strength and power to be a defender of humanity; but it was going to do so on its own terms and not function as anyone’s tool.
Osiris though is storming in pretty hot though in the new cutscene with his gun drawn at Rasputin. He tells Rasputin that he saw what Rasputin becomes during his time in the Infinite Forest: a thug, murderer, betrayer.
Osiris explains to him that we all need to pick a side: Light or Dark, and asks Rasputin: where do you stand?
This is the point in the cutscene that has fans of the Destiny 2 story buzzing: what did Rasputin say if anything? There’s a couple of different theories floating around that I’ve seen because it’s not entirely clear.
Rasputin Says: Darkness.
This is a popular one but not one that I agree with. I can see how people who are listening for darkness can hear it. I can hear it myself if I’m trying to.
It would make for a very compelling story twist if that’s what is happening, and also a pretty awesome raid of trying to fight Rasputin and bring him offline once and for all. That very well could be the direction Bungie is going here.
The issue is, I just don’t think that Bungie would just come right out and tell us that Rasputin is turning to the Darkness this early in the game. I think finding out what Rasputin’s deal is would be the intrigue of whatever they have planned for this and just telling us he’s evil now would let the air out of the whole thing.
Rasputin Says: Are You Certain?
A redditor by the name of Cruciblelfg123 hears: Are you certain? Which A: does sound more clear to me than: Darkness, and it also makes a lot more sense.
If we have learned anything from Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, specifically The Unveiling lore book, it’s that the relationship between Light and Dark is a lot more complicated than just Light = good and Dark = bad.
Osiris, who is firmly on the camp of the Light may not yet understand this but Rasputin, a soulless AI with not as much at stake as us fleshy mortals, may know more than he does at this point and could be questioning Osiris’ line of thinking here.
Maybe we don’t have to choose between Light and Dark and perhaps Humanity’s survival is contingent on understanding both.
Rasputin Says: Gibberish or Something in Russian
It’s also very possible that Rasputin doesn’t actually say anything and it’s literally just garbled buzzing. Or perhaps he’s saying something in Russian (his language of choice it seems), and us English speakers don’t understand it yet. If you speak Russian and want to chime in in the comments with your ideas, please feel free.
The cutscene is intriguing enough without needing Rasputin to come out and say anything so it’s just as likely to me, if not the most likely, that Rasputin is just making a threatening noise and that’s that.
In any event, it’s awesome that it seems like we’re going to see some plot lines finally merged together. It looks like Shadowkeep, Warmind, Season of Dawn and Curse of Osiris are all converging onto whatever is going on here with this cutscene.
Destiny 2 desperately needs to start tying all of its many loose ends together and it looks like that’s finally happening at least to some extent.
