Preface: I will admit I was surprised that we got the remainder of Act 3 released in a single week. It might have been changed because we got the rewards we normally get for completely a week's worth of Seasonal/Episodic content after forging Willbreaker, and then a second time after completing the final missions.
Between this, the Marathon Save the Date Trailer, and confirmation that we'll be getting the Frontiers update in the Summer, I'm almost certain we will get news about Frontiers and Apollo in the coming weeks.
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With this week, the Episodes have been brought to an end (barring any Epilogue content for Heresy) with the destruction of the Echo of Navigation, and the second death of Oryx with it. I had ideas about how the Echo's fate could turn out, given we found Oryx's body (Ghosts of the Deep), his Chisel (Sundered Doctrine), reforged Willbreaker, and Savathun has confirmed his Worm is hidden somewhere. Throw in the Echo, it was like pieces being put in place for bringing Oryx back to life in full.
But reflecting on the events of the Episode it wasn't about resurrecting Oryx, but giving this version of Oryx closure. There was no other way it could end.
Back in the Taken King, Oryx shows up and causes havoc across the system, we fight and defeat him in the campaign, and then we kill him for good in "The King's Fall" raid, with most of his character being given to us through the Books of Sorrow and other lore tabs.
On the other hand, Destiny 2 showed that Oryx's actions in his expansion had a long-lasting impact. His killing and "Taking" of Mara led to Uldren's descent into madness; his Taking of Riven is revealed to have prompted the Nine to kill the other remaining Ahamkara, and Taranis to use a Wish to hide away his and Riven's eggs, ending his own life in the process.
While he didn't have much screen time the narrative made up for it by showing how far into the future his actions affected characters and the story, as well as how much the aftermath of his death affected the Hive.
What his death prohibited, on the other hand, was developing Oryx as a character. The Witch Queen expansion revealed that the Hive were lied to by the Witness. We revealed this truth to Savathun, and it shook her enough to allow us to more readily defeat her at the end of the expansion. It might have even informed Savathun's plans going forward, after Season of the Witch. But so long as Oryx was dead, we would never know how he would react to that knowledge.
Returning as an Echo in Heresy allowed for that opportunity, even if the Memory of Oryx is from right after he killed Akka and claimed the Taken power as his own, without the long life and memories of the Oryx that we killed. When he learned the truth from Savathun, it all but shattered his faith in the Sword Logic, and he decided to go to Fundament to try and ascertain the truth for himself before we sealed him in Eris' Throne World.
Both sisters wanted their brother back, and they both tore at Eris' Throne World in an attempt to liberate the Echo. Then, when he had the opportunity, Oryx punched his way out of Eris' prison and back onto the Dreadnaught.
Holding him prisoner was unsustainable, and he couldn't be allowed to roam free...That is if he still wanted to. He admits he has nowhere else to go, he embraces the fact that his original self died and laments his failure to understand the truths of the universe. By the end, it felt like he was just waiting to die. His original self died, and he wanted us, the one who originally slew him, to end his life once more. The one part of the Sword Logic he still held onto, realizing his life had been built on a foundation of lies.
His original self died in ignorance. Now, the Echo embraced death after understanding his failures.
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The big mystery left lingering after all this is the Lord of Every Nothing, the new King and God that the Taken have willed into existence for themselves. Currently, one of the Nine is a strong candidate for the identity of the Lord of Every Nothing.
But it is entirely possible the Taken willed it into existence [b][i]from nothing.[/i][/b]
Consider [url=https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/finalitys-auger]Finality's Auger, the Sundered Doctrine exotic[/url]. Truce speculates there was so much will hanging around the Pyramid that [i]i Finality's Auger willed itself into existence through spontaneous acausal generation.[/i] If a gun did that in the Sunken Pyramid, I wouldn't put it outside the realm of possibility that the Taken managed to will the Lord of Every Nothing into being from nothing.
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I thoroughly enjoyed how the Echo was characterized. As seen throughout the previous two episodes, the Echos were barely treated as characters. We got hints at a character and will within the Echo of (Riis?), but it was so muted outside of the Whirlwind Dirge cutscene that it genuinely felt more like a tool, just like the Echo of Command. In this Episode though, we get the Echo of Navigation which is a character first, and a very WILLFUL character at that. It’s why the echo is never under the control of another entity, but instead being the Echo that commands others (Funny how the Echo of Command is controlled by another). That’s what the Episodes should have focused on. The Echos as characters because not only would we get new/returning characters, but we would also see new relationships forge. This paired with the changes that should have come with each episode, including the Return of the Dreadnaught and Tangled Shore as active locations albeit altered, and the alteration of Nessus to match the new aesthetic, would have made each of the Episodes, even the ones with rather abysmal stories, Good in my eyes. Heresy shows what Bungie can do with even old Character’s, and it disappoints me that we seem to constantly follow this cycle of having a years worth of bad content, only to be capped off with some stellar content. I also like how this sort of acts as the Epilogue to the Light and Dark Saga too. As you mention, this marks the end of the long reaching effects of the Taken War upon initiation within the Taken King Expansion. Oryx was one of the first major threats we faced that had directly come from outside of the System in the time that the Guardian was resurrected. He was the first threat to the whole of Humanity who hadn’t been beaten back into a standstill unlike the Fallen and Crotas Brood, and was the first markings of War. The fact that Oryx, even up until now, retains his ranking as one of the most powerful Raid Bosses is a show of what he represented. Oryx, our first run in with a Disciple sized threat, the first vestige of what the Light and Dark Saga would entail, and the first show of our strength as a Guardian beyond the destruction of the Black Heart of the murder of Crota.