Originally, Lightfall was supposed to be the last chapter of the Light and Darkness saga, but shortly after it’s announcement, things changed behind the scenes, and that original concept for Lightfall would become the Final Shape, and Lightfall would take on a new theme. One, far different than expected.
Now before we dive deep into the theories, lets take a look back at the moment Lightfall was announced by Luke Smitty himself in the Beyond Light reveal stream. Half way through the stream, Bungie just casually dopped these teasers for Witch Queen and Lightfall, which was followed up with this.
“Lightfall will drive it all to a moment.” Oh it certainly was a moment.
But, this is where the theories comes in. The idea that Lightfall’s concept became Final Shape, and Lightfall became a filler episode sometime after this announcement. So here’s the overview of what the main Theory is.
Bungie realizes shortly after it’s announcement in the Beyond Light reveal stream, that Lightfall, The Ending of the Light and Dark Saga, wasn’t quite shaping up to be all that it should. And likely needed some more time in the Oven. So they take the ideas and concepts, push them back a year and rename it to The Final Shape. But, Bungie releases a new expansion every year, so Lightfall, has to be something. Well first thing they did, was cut Strand from the Witch Queen, in order to make it the narrative focus of the now filler story in Lightfall. Combine just a few pieces of the original concept like the Veil and The Witness, but don’t flesh them out in order to set up the final shape. And make the entire campaign now about Calus and his Army for the 5th time.
Now there’s a lot of reasons this is the main running theory right now. And a lot of quotes from Bungie themselves that solidify it to be more fact than theory. But simply looking at things in game right now with Lightfall, might be the best supporting Evidence to legitimize this theory. For one thing, taking a closer look at the cutscenes for Lightfall.
The intro cutscene and the final cutscene feel like 1 complete cinematic that was split in half. During the Intro, the Witness confronts the traveler and attacks us with his ships. The Vanguard and others are hanging out in the Helm watching it all go down. The Final Cutscene picks up what feels like seconds after the intro. Zavala and friends are still just standing there in the same position in the Helm, the Witness is standing right where we left him, and begins to draw his triangle. Now one could make the case that this was originall one complete cutscene that was split down the middle, and Bungie attempted to create an entire expansion to fit between them.
Strand originally meant for Witch Queen has been a highly talked about leak, even prior to Witch Queen’s launch. Though we didn’t know the name of the Subclass yet, Witch Queen leaks did discuss a new Darkness subclass. And it makes perfect sense for Strand to be that subclass. Witch Queen’s story and theme had a lot of that Threadlike imagery and the idea of psychic energy and unraveling, those kind of concepts. And even the Warlock armor in Witch Queen matches the Needlestorm super symbol. But the leaks suggest it was cut to not only make room for 3.0 subclass reworks, but also to use as a focus in Lightfall’s campaign now that the story was being reworked. Which is why the Lightfall story is so focused on Strand and why we get a Mr. Miyagi Strand Training Montage. And without Strand in Lightfall, the campaign would be like an hour tops, so it’s clear that it was important to use to pad out the story length to a half decent measure.
There’s been a lot of Talks about Reskins in Lightfall, and so far, almost every single weapon is a reskin from older content. Enemies in the expansion are just Cabal again. Tormentors are new but also, just Rhulk but small, and most of the public events on neomuna are the same ones we’ve played since 2017. Is all reskinning bad? No. But Lightfall is stuffed full of them lending more to idea of it being a rushed expansion.
The original image for Lightfall’s announcement gave a pretty big Apocalypse, Endgame sort of vibe to it, which made the Shift to Cyberpunk Buzz Lightyear aesthetic all the more jarring, and that original image now looks a lot more like what the Final Shape represents. Which means that again, Lightfall was likely made pretty quickly and used some concepts and assets planned for it’s original iteration, but the bulk of stuff was pushed back for Final Shape.
What’s interesting about all of this, is this makes Lightfall very similar to Rise of Iron. Rise of Iron was also an unplanned expansion for Destiny 1 used as filler for a year when Destiny 2 was pushed back from 2016 to 2017. And Lightfall serves as a filler expansion while the Main Course Finale gets pushed back a year and becomes Final Shape. The difference is that Rise of Iron was received much better than Lightfall.
Now Bungie likely figured that with the combination of Strand, a couple Witness cutscenes, and the Cyberpunk aesthetic of Neomuna, they would be able to easily sell the playerbase on pre-orders and they weren’t wrong as Lightfall became one of the Top Selling games on Steam prior to it’s release, and it’s launch had the Highest recorded playercount on SteamCharts. Bungie’s Marketing worked well for them financially, but critically, not so much. And Lightfall is a perfect example of what their new philosophy means for Destiny. Fast, over Quality. I’m sure Lightfall was cobbled together pretty quickly behind the scenes, and you know what? Bungie still got away with charging an arm and a leg for it. So bravo Justin. You’re plan worked in the short term. But hopefully players look at Final Shape with a more skeptical eye moving forward. Players have lost a lot of trust in Bungie’s ability to bring Destiny 2 to a proper end with Final Shape and I don’t blame them after Lightfall’s narrative.
The raid has yet to release, and it could absolutely be a banger. And I’m sure that Bungie’s hoping its received well so they gain back some positive feedback, because right now… Even the good things about Lightfall are being overshadowed by some pretty big issues.
And those issues I believe stem from the fact, or I guess theory, that Lightfall became filler while it’s most interesting parts became the Final Shape.
When Final Shape was announced during the Witch Queen Live Stream everyone was genuinely confused because we’d been led to believe Lightfall would be The End of the Light and Dark Saga, but 1 more expansion would be coming. At first thoughts were positive, like Bungie wanted to flesh out the ending of the Saga to be better, but it probably should’ve been obvious to us then, that if Final Shape were announced, that meant that Lightfall wasn’t shaping up to be Substantial enough to be Finale worthy. But most of us either brushed off the idea of Final Shape getting announced, or saw it as a positive thing. And maybe Final Shape will deliver the ending better than we all imagined, but one thing is for sure. Lightfall’s story gave us reason to be hesitant. Which really is unfortunate to feel 9 years into the franchise. But let me know your thoughts below in the comments. What do you guys think about the convoluted story behind Lightfall and Final Shape. I’ve got my full thoughts video coming out soon so stay tuned for that. Thanks for watching, I’ll see you guys soon.
Lightfall was supposed to be the last chapter of the Light and Darkness saga
Originally, Lightfall was supposed to be the last chapter of the Light and Darkness saga, but shortly after it’s announcement, things changed behind the scenes, and that original concept for Lightfall would become the Final Shape, and Lightfall would take on a new theme. One, far different than expected.
Now before we dive deep into the theories, lets take a look back at the moment Lightfall was announced by Luke Smitty himself in the Beyond Light reveal stream. Half way through the stream, Bungie just casually dopped these teasers for Witch Queen and Lightfall, which was followed up with this.
“Lightfall will drive it all to a moment.” Oh it certainly was a moment.
But, this is where the theories comes in. The idea that Lightfall’s concept became Final Shape, and Lightfall became a filler episode sometime after this announcement. So here’s the overview of what the main Theory is.
Bungie realizes shortly after it’s announcement in the Beyond Light reveal stream, that Lightfall, The Ending of the Light and Dark Saga, wasn’t quite shaping up to be all that it should. And likely needed some more time in the Oven. So they take the ideas and concepts, push them back a year and rename it to The Final Shape. But, Bungie releases a new expansion every year, so Lightfall, has to be something. Well first thing they did, was cut Strand from the Witch Queen, in order to make it the narrative focus of the now filler story in Lightfall. Combine just a few pieces of the original concept like the Veil and The Witness, but don’t flesh them out in order to set up the final shape. And make the entire campaign now about Calus and his Army for the 5th time.
Now there’s a lot of reasons this is the main running theory right now. And a lot of quotes from Bungie themselves that solidify it to be more fact than theory. But simply looking at things in game right now with Lightfall, might be the best supporting Evidence to legitimize this theory. For one thing, taking a closer look at the cutscenes for Lightfall.
The intro cutscene and the final cutscene feel like 1 complete cinematic that was split in half. During the Intro, the Witness confronts the traveler and attacks us with his ships. The Vanguard and others are hanging out in the Helm watching it all go down. The Final Cutscene picks up what feels like seconds after the intro. Zavala and friends are still just standing there in the same position in the Helm, the Witness is standing right where we left him, and begins to draw his triangle. Now one could make the case that this was originall one complete cutscene that was split down the middle, and Bungie attempted to create an entire expansion to fit between them.
Strand originally meant for Witch Queen has been a highly talked about leak, even prior to Witch Queen’s launch. Though we didn’t know the name of the Subclass yet, Witch Queen leaks did discuss a new Darkness subclass. And it makes perfect sense for Strand to be that subclass. Witch Queen’s story and theme had a lot of that Threadlike imagery and the idea of psychic energy and unraveling, those kind of concepts. And even the Warlock armor in Witch Queen matches the Needlestorm super symbol. But the leaks suggest it was cut to not only make room for 3.0 subclass reworks, but also to use as a focus in Lightfall’s campaign now that the story was being reworked. Which is why the Lightfall story is so focused on Strand and why we get a Mr. Miyagi Strand Training Montage. And without Strand in Lightfall, the campaign would be like an hour tops, so it’s clear that it was important to use to pad out the story length to a half decent measure.
There’s been a lot of Talks about Reskins in Lightfall, and so far, almost every single weapon is a reskin from older content. Enemies in the expansion are just Cabal again. Tormentors are new but also, just Rhulk but small, and most of the public events on neomuna are the same ones we’ve played since 2017. Is all reskinning bad? No. But Lightfall is stuffed full of them lending more to idea of it being a rushed expansion.
The original image for Lightfall’s announcement gave a pretty big Apocalypse, Endgame sort of vibe to it, which made the Shift to Cyberpunk Buzz Lightyear aesthetic all the more jarring, and that original image now looks a lot more like what the Final Shape represents. Which means that again, Lightfall was likely made pretty quickly and used some concepts and assets planned for it’s original iteration, but the bulk of stuff was pushed back for Final Shape.
What’s interesting about all of this, is this makes Lightfall very similar to Rise of Iron. Rise of Iron was also an unplanned expansion for Destiny 1 used as filler for a year when Destiny 2 was pushed back from 2016 to 2017. And Lightfall serves as a filler expansion while the Main Course Finale gets pushed back a year and becomes Final Shape. The difference is that Rise of Iron was received much better than Lightfall.
Now Bungie likely figured that with the combination of Strand, a couple Witness cutscenes, and the Cyberpunk aesthetic of Neomuna, they would be able to easily sell the playerbase on pre-orders and they weren’t wrong as Lightfall became one of the Top Selling games on Steam prior to it’s release, and it’s launch had the Highest recorded playercount on SteamCharts. Bungie’s Marketing worked well for them financially, but critically, not so much. And Lightfall is a perfect example of what their new philosophy means for Destiny. Fast, over Quality. I’m sure Lightfall was cobbled together pretty quickly behind the scenes, and you know what? Bungie still got away with charging an arm and a leg for it. So bravo Justin. You’re plan worked in the short term. But hopefully players look at Final Shape with a more skeptical eye moving forward. Players have lost a lot of trust in Bungie’s ability to bring Destiny 2 to a proper end with Final Shape and I don’t blame them after Lightfall’s narrative.
The raid has yet to release, and it could absolutely be a banger. And I’m sure that Bungie’s hoping its received well so they gain back some positive feedback, because right now… Even the good things about Lightfall are being overshadowed by some pretty big issues.
And those issues I believe stem from the fact, or I guess theory, that Lightfall became filler while it’s most interesting parts became the Final Shape.
When Final Shape was announced during the Witch Queen Live Stream everyone was genuinely confused because we’d been led to believe Lightfall would be The End of the Light and Dark Saga, but 1 more expansion would be coming. At first thoughts were positive, like Bungie wanted to flesh out the ending of the Saga to be better, but it probably should’ve been obvious to us then, that if Final Shape were announced, that meant that Lightfall wasn’t shaping up to be Substantial enough to be Finale worthy. But most of us either brushed off the idea of Final Shape getting announced, or saw it as a positive thing. And maybe Final Shape will deliver the ending better than we all imagined, but one thing is for sure. Lightfall’s story gave us reason to be hesitant. Which really is unfortunate to feel 9 years into the franchise. But let me know your thoughts below in the comments. What do you guys think about the convoluted story behind Lightfall and Final Shape. I’ve got my full thoughts video coming out soon so stay tuned for that. Thanks for watching, I’ll see you guys soon.
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