There are stories… (Destiny)

by Jabberwok, Friday, September 26, 2014, 16:40 (3952 days ago) @ Earendil

Not that I would want iconography to get in the way of a good story, but... They would have to have come up with a new iconography, something that is the image of what we are about, what we try and protect, what our goal in the universe is. The image of the Traveler over the city is an amazing and memorable image, and to twist that into a panoptic structure would destroy any iconography that was built. That is not to say that iconography is about advertisement, it is used there, but it's also powerful for story telling. Having a simple icon that reminds you of a people, a building, or an event is a powerful thing. Think of the Swastica, the Rod of Acslepius, or the Cross. These are symbols that bring about stories, emotions, feeling of good, evil, and conflict.

That said, they can make the Traveler "Not the good guy" without making him "The bad guy". Just pull a Babylon 5 style philosophical conclusion. I've actually been thinking that Applying that sort of conclusion to the Destiny Universe would be amazing, and doesn't conflict with anything we know about Destiny yet.

Edit: For example, the Halo Ring was awesome iconagraphy that was neither good nor evil, but extremely dangerous. Looking at it now brings up a lot of the Halo universe plot points, and motivations and philosophies about different races. That's beautiful, and could be done with the Traveler without (I would guess) Activision caring one bit.

The Halo ring is a perfect example of why the story would not disrupt the iconography, and why this interpretation is believable. The Halos were revealed as weapons of horrific destructive force early on, and still retained their power as symbols of the series. Bungie has done this sort of change-up in the past. And that twist would only make the Traveler a more interesting icon, IMO, something beyond this childish black and white symbolism that we have right now in Destiny. If this story IS true, then Activision is staffed with busybodied halfwits. Though to be fair, they have revealed so little at this point, that the game's story could easily go in that direction.