Hackneyed af (Destiny)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Thursday, December 12, 2019, 14:45 (1815 days ago) @ breitzen

Bungie has been riding that trite concept for a bit too long at this point. Ghaul, Uldren, the emperor, the Fanatic, even the Darkness itself! It's bland at this point, because the "hero of their own story" angle is predicated on the villain's ignorance, or mistaken perspective.

Of course, you can argue that those two things are the basis of most villainy, but far too many stories rely on that to substitute character development, or they fail to reinforce the villain's motives in any other way.

Let's look at Wilson Fisk in the Daredevil Netflix series. When introduced, he very much feels like he's the hero of his story. He loves the city, and thinks he's saving it by managing the different criminal syndicates that pollute it. But instead of just coasting off that, and giving us yet another generic villain blinded by his own arrogance, the show explores his childhood, and shows us why he veered in this direction in the first place.
We see that he's not really feeling like a hero, since much of what he does is lashing out at his upbringing, and his father. The show moves his character forwards when he finally acknowledges that no, he was never the hero.

"I always thought that I was the Samaritan in that story. It's funny, isn't it? How even the best of men can be deceived by their true nature.... It means that I'm not the Samaritan. That I'm not the priest, or the Levite. That I am the ill-intent... who set upon the traveler on a road that he should not have been on."

It's the turning point that elevates him to a true villain and threat, and the show is better for it. In season two, this idea is explored further for the protagonist with Frank Castle, who sees himself as a villain, but a necessary evil without regard to his own well-being.
Those two things, the "necessary evil", and the "HotOS" are very similar, but you can empathize better with the former, because of the self-awareness, or in Fisk's case, you fear them more, because they embrace their malevolent nature, removing lines that they otherwise would not cross, and they're not working towards something that they think is better for others.

So how could Bungie improve instead of giving us the same tired stuff?
They're not that far.
I've often felt that as far as Bungie's enemies go, the less we understand them, the better they can be as enemies. At this point, do we really fear the Fallen? Are the Cabal more than just an annoyance anymore? Do we even remotely feel like the Emperor will betray us before Destiny 3?

The two things Bungie has going for them are the Hive, and the Darkness, and they've diminished them as something to fear.
The Hive, we understand a bit, but their philosophy is alien enough that we can't really know what they're capable of next. The Darkness are shown to be HotOS-minded, but we've only seen the tip of the iceberg as far as their capabilities go, and we have the Collapse as a hint of that. We have never really understood their motives.

I want more enemies driven by desperation, or who are so alien, that they can't bargained with, can't be reasoned with. Who don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear.

But again, all of that is irrelevant to Neo-Uldren, who has been shown to not have the capacity for evil (choosing to isolate himself rather than lashing back at the Guardians who keep killing him).