Xivu Arath, the Hive God of War, has been one of the main antagonists of Destiny 2 for almost three years now, and with the recent finale of Season of the Witch, Bungie is setting up to prolong this villain even further. Today we’ll be going over Xivu Arath’s background in the series, when she was introduced, her role in the story, and why it’s finally time for Bungie to move onto a new antagonist aside from her.
The Issue At Hand
Let’s start with recent events and look at the overall issue at hand. The Season of the Witch finale ended with Eris Morn banishing Xivu Arath from her own Throne World, cutting her off from her source of power, and most importantly, making her mortal and able to be killed. So what does this mean? It means that, once again, in a future Season or potentially an expansion, we will duke it out with Xivu again. Me personally, this is where I draw the line.
We’ve had five Seasons, which totals up to almost two years’ worth (Season of the Lost was six months long) of content that was centered around Xivu. That’s far longer than what both her siblings, Oryx and Savathun, had, and both of them had entire expansions centered around them. No other antagonist, other than The Witness, has had that much build-up in the series, and now, Bungie is setting up Xivu to return AGAIN in some shape or form. It also feels like Bungie keeps building up Xivu, just to cast her aside time and time again, especially now with the final battle with The Witness drawing near with The Final Shape DLC.
To make things worse, we also have NO IDEA as to what Xivu even looks like, as her role has always been “the one in command,” where instead of fighting her directly, we have fought her various armies of Hive, Taken, Scorn, and Wrathborn. There has yet to be a single cutscene giving us a glimpse of what she looks like. All we have is quick shots of what she used to look like before becoming a Hive God, like in the image shown below. She has consistently lurked in the shadows but has yet to fully reveal herself and battle us, despite her title as “God of War.”
When Will She Return?
As of right now, we don’t really know the plan for what happens after The Final Shape DLC, as currently, it is presumed that is when we will finally defeat The Witness once and for all. Afterward, Bungie is changing the seasonal format into “Episodes,” where they will be themed around certain enemy types. Episode 1 will consist of the Vex, Episode 2 will be for Scorn, and Episode 3 is centered around the Hive. Bungie has yet to announce their plans for a new expansion, as they want to wait until after The Final Shape DLC launches to reveal what they have in store.
Thus, unless Xivu is getting an expansion for herself in 2025, we may potentially see her return in late 2024 when Episode 3: Heresy begins. Worst case scenario, we will see her very soon for a third Season in a row when Season of the Witch ends in late November and Season of the REDACTED begins.
What Needs To Happen
Destiny 2 launched in late 2017. We were introduced to Xivu in late 2020. It is now late 2023. Of the near six years of Destiny 2’s lifespan, almost two of them are entirely dedicated to Xivu Arath, which is more than any other villain in the series outside of The Witness has gotten. Despite that, Bungie is once again, preparing us to fight her now that she’s mortal and able to be killed, and unlike Savathun, who is technically a Guardian, Xivu can’t be revived.
With all of the build-up and content that’s been centered around Xivu, it would be a real shame if we didn’t finish her off in a climactic way like we did her siblings. It stands to reason that Xivu deserves her own expansion, which may very well be the case in early 2025. Either way, it’s time for Bungie to move on from Xivu and expand their universe of enemies outside of the Hive. The Vex and Scorn are perfect candidates for development.
Over the last three years, the vast majority of the Seasons have been centered around the Hive, Taken, and occasionally, the Cabal. The Scorn have been more or less thrown to the sidelines, where they are used every once in a while since they are technically part of The Witness forces, and the Vex haven’t had a Season for themselves since Season 14, which by all means doesn’t count too much since Savathun led them at the time. Not to mention, by the way, Savathun is now alive and roaming around again thanks to the events of the finale of Season of the Witch.
It’s good to see the first two episodes centered around the Vex and Scorn, as there’s so much potential with the Vex given their time-traveling capabilities, and Fikrul, the previous leader of the Scorn, is still alive and hasn’t been utilized since the Forsaken DLC four years ago. Either way, for Destiny to fully move past the Light and Darkness saga, we need to finally end our feud with the Hive Gods and put down Xivu and Savathun for good so we can fully begin a new journey post The Final Shape.
