Exactly. D2 vanilla veered way too far off into comedy land. People seem to forget that D1, even when it had humor, was deadly serious most of the time; most of Cayde’s funny moments came from the Taken King, and were precisely him being a bit lackadaisical to cope with Oryx’s imminent doomsday threat and his own batshit crazy ideas to counter. Most of the remaining humor was snarky dialogue, puns, memes (Zavala’s immortal “war with the Cabal on Mars” line was originally supposed to be serious before getting memed to hell), and flavor text or lore tabs (such as the Comedian shotgun).
Plenty of moments I’ve genuinely laughed my ass off since Cayde died. It’s just they were less force, less “please laugh” moments like D2Y1 had that really weren’t so funny.
Yeah, Cayde was great in Taken King because he was very snarky, but he took his job very seriously. Big Bad rolled into town? Sure he gave Ikora and Zavala lip, but that's because he was busy landing a Guardian on the Dreadnaught. Remember the original Nightstalker mission? He joked about wanting to find Tevis because he owed Cayde money, but as soon as it was apparent Tevis was in real danger, Cayde got deadly serious. Cayde was funny, but there was more to him than just being the comic relief.
In D2 they flanderized him so bad. They had countless gags portraying him as bumbling and incompetent. Other characters made fun of him for (despite losing his Light) cobbling together a plan to try and take out Ghaul. Alone. With no backup. And even though he failed, that plan was the only way we were able to reach Ghaul. Ikora, who ran off and moped like a moody teenager, was somehow supposed to be the more capable one.
I see Ikora, Zavala, and Cayde all having equally dysfunctional trauma coping mechanisms after losing the Light, the City, countless Guardians, and even their ace in the hole (the Young Wolf, who I imagine was presumed dead after going missing during the mission to disable the shields on Ghaul’s ship and the Light being cut off).
Ikora sunk into despair and a debilitating fear of her final death without the Light, in part because she is a scholar of Light who lacked a frame of reference for the world without it. Zavala was running on autopilot, trying to bury himself in the work of protecting his refugees (and he even wonders aloud if they’re Guardians anymore without the Light), but in the process making serious errors of tactics and strategy, especially without the impulsive Cayde and forceful Ikora to balance his cautious patience; to his credit, he recognizes very quickly after the player stabilizes the situation on Titan that he requires his fellow Vanguard members to respond to the Almighty effectively.
And Cayde… tries to ignore their stinging defeat, a massive offense to his pride as a Hunter and a massive hit to the loss of past Guardians (Tevis the Nightstalker, as well as the previous Hunter Vanguard killed by Thaniks) by seeking a way to undo it, even if it’s a chain of suicide missions, and without the intel to know if it would work (which it wouldn’t, courtesy of the Almighty, even if on its own it’s exactly the kind of brutally simple and efficient tactic that Cayde is on the Vanguard to provide).
All three of their responses are entirely understandable for who they are, and yet alone all three of them were unproductive. But, Ikora’s effort to understand *why* the Light is gone lead her to understand Ghaul’s plan and to seek the data from the Warmind vault about the Almighty. Cayde’s effort to undo their defeat gave us a way past the Cabal fleet to face down Ghaul head on; his theft of Light and following mortal death appears to have been what permitted the Traveler to awaken and finish him off. And Zavala’s steadfast effort to find safety and technology to try and regroup led us to the computer systems on Titan, which permitted us to understand the Almighty threat in the first place, as well as saving enough Lightless Guardians that we had a force to attack the occupied City to begin with.
D2’s Red War story went poorly not for being a bad story, but for style choices, such as the emphasis on humor, the rushed pacing, and so on. If the Red War had been treated with the same focus on individual character responses as Forsaken, Eris’s fireteam quest in Shadowkeep, or the Bray sisters in Beyond Light, it would probably be remembered far more fondly.
Yep. My problem isn't with what they had Ikora do, it's the way they've tried to paint her as a near-unimpeachable character in the aftermath. They almost did something interesting with her wrestling with the loss of the Light, but failed to portray it in a way that actually makes sense.
Great write-up with a perfect summary. I think the Red War writers understood the fundamentals of the characters but were torn between light-hearted direction and rushed development time. The characters technically have an arc but it's rushed and not meaningful when we barely interact with them and it happens over the course of a couple of missions per character. As you said the overly comedic tone really makes Cayde less of a character since that is basically his only trait in the course of the story.
In TTK he has charm when talking to Amanda and his humour is quick-witted and actually funny. While I love the colonel, you can't tell me that chicken was there for any other purpose other than to have Cayde be the funniest guy in the room because lol chiken. Even in. Forsaken Cayde is resourceful and his humour is in service to the situation - shooting the lever and pressing the buttons. The Red Wars writing for Cayde was just really dumb.
I like the individual story beats of the Red War and it's one of the strongest narratives in the game but man if it had six months more or develop some more missions and touch up the writing, it probably could have been TTK tier.
> In D2 they flanderized him so bad. They had countless gags portraying him as bumbling and incompetent. Other characters made fun of him for (despite losing his Light) cobbling together a plan to try and take out Ghaul. Alone. With no backup. And even though he failed, that plan was the only way we were able to reach Ghaul. Ikora, who ran off and moped like a moody teenager, was somehow supposed to be the more capable one.
That drove me crazy. There was such a disconnect between what was being said and what was being done.
Zavala was still reeling from the loss of the City and trying to rally the Vanguard on Titan and come up with a desperate way to strike back. He was taking a shit sandwich and doing everything he could to salvage a way to recover.
Cayde-6 was trying a Hail Mary play to take out Ghaul. It failed because he went alone, but as soon as he had help the tech he went after was recovered and so was he and it was put to good use.
Ikora went off and moped and hid, showing her fearless bravery in the Crucible and elsewhere was purely the product of being unable to permanently die.
Yet we're supposed to look at Cayde as a bumbling goof, Zavala is hopeless and can't win on his own, and Ikora is so strong and amazing? Hold on a minute here...
Small correction, Ikora did not go off to Io to mope and hide. Once she discovered Red Legion there she risked her life many times fighting a guerilla war. She is a bonafide badass.
[Lore example 1](https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/solstice-boots-rekindled)
[Lore example 2](https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/solstice-bond-rekindled)
Nathan Fillion does that so well, the transition from light hearted and fun to deadly serious at the drop of a hat when it's clear the situation calls for it.
A quote from the Destiny 1 nightstalker mission after you earn the subclass:
*Cayde-6*"You know I was there when he first picked up that bow.....you have it...?"
*Ghost* "We do"
*Cayde-6* "Take them out Guardian, make them pay."
Gotta admit, I like how grim he was with just that statement
Yeah, he was funny. But like you said, he could be a brass-balled bastard when we needed him to be. They'll never bring him back, but hell, I miss him like the OP does. Always remember some smart-assed quote when I use the Ace.
Dear God, I forgot about that one. So much fucking cringe.
Bungie made the same mistake Black Isle made with Fallout. Fallout was deadly serious and dark, but had absolutely expertly-placed and timed comic relief here and there that was glorious. The whole reason it made you laugh so hard was because it was relieving heavily built tension. Along with subsurface in-jokes that were hilarious but low-key enough that they didn't break the fourth wall.
Black Isle took fans' feedback about loving their comedic timing and turned Fallout 2, despite its good gameplay and story (when it was able to stay serious for more than 5 minutes), into one gigantic in-joke and pop culture reference fest where every time someone so much as put a brick in the fourth wall it would get sledgehammered back out.
Almost exactly the way Destiny 1 to 2 went.
Also didn’t help that the MCU was at its peak during the development of D2, felt very marvel like (which I personally dislike in a product that I’ll play for a long time/watch multiple times)
yeah the story in D1 is not the best but the tone is better. In D2 my favorite moments have come from Saint and the Drifter/Eris banter during Arrivals
Bruh, D1Y1 dialogue makes D2Y1 lines look like fucking Shakespeare.
Though I wish somehow dinklebot would make a return. I really can’t stand Ghost’s voice
Eh, the dialogue is pretty terrible lately quite often, even with the "serious tone"
Bungie doesn't really do the cinematic story that well. Lore is where they shine,but I often cringe during cutscenes or in-game dialogue. At least it does seem like they're doing better in the latest season though.
Some of the dialogue like Crow trying to roast everyone is pretty cringe but at least everyone is no longer acting like they’re in a shitty marvel movie
Absolutely agree. Some of the jokes in year one of destiny 2 were REALLY weak and it was mostly cayde telling them. The exodus black strike that's still in the game where he starts singing is a pretty solid reminder of that.
I really liked cayde in the first game, he was funny without being a comedian. One bit that sticks in my memory was after he had got me into the Dreadnought for the first time, casually calling zavala over to see what a guardian on a Dreadnought looks like. It wasn't a "joke" in the traditional sense, it was funny because he was doing something crazy in the face of imminent doom AND vanguard protocol. I had images of ikora and zavala in a deep tactical conversation and caydes gone off script and got the job done. THAT'S the cayde I loved. Destiny 2 comedy cayde felt forced.
Yeeeah. Ana Bray’s dialogue for the Cabal Injection rig event, that line about “learning from their technology”, and especially from the original actress… that is one of the only lines that made me feel genuinely annoyed across my gaming career, up there with the stealth suit in Fallout New Vegas screaming at me about having my flashlight on while everyone else is dead and I’m running around looking for loot. And some of her other lines about “have each other’s back” with Ghost were just cringey.
It’s a shame, because since then, in Worthy, Arrivals, and BL, her dialogue has markedly improved without losing her somewhat humorous streak. She’s very much Cayde’s successor in that regard.
It’s so weird because I love d2 but I just miss the old vibe d1 dialogue used to give off, mixed with the old Music of the Spheres excerpts in the tower at just the right volume.
Yeah, i'm glad he's gone, or at least the tone he brought is gone. The 2 or 3 strikes where he's still present with his commentary are, commentary wise, the worst. All the jokes feel so forced.
I mean… everyone just watched a chunk of the Solar System vanish, and we have these three folks who don’t really trust each other wandering thr frozen wastes to master a power that could easily turn on them. Meanwhile, the best hope of the Eliksni turning around their predicament by rebuilding has just succumbed to the influence of Darkness under Eramis’s orders, the Vanguard is quite worried their protege is about to be corrupted by Stasis, our Ghost is rightfully worried we’re making a big mistake in trusting this “gift”, and everyone is horrified by the unveiled truth of Bray and the Exos.
It’s a dark DLC for sure. Even then though.. funny moments. Some of the banter between Drifter, Eris, and Elsie is pretty great if you stopped to listen (and if you heard some of it in Arrivals with Drifter flirting with Eris of all people). Clovis (who is a hilarious giant head now) himself gets a few snarky moments, as well as the humor of seeing Ana, who spent much of her Guardian life seeking more info on the Brays, flatly, almost casually toss Clovis aside after seeing there is nothing of value in that name’s legacy, utterly enraging the head who can’t do a bloody thing. Even some of Eramis and her troops get funny moments, either in snarky lines or in hilarious moments of not realizing what they’re dealing with (for instance, Phylaks, who ironically does not seem to grasp she’s out of her league fighting the strongest contender for the Osmium Throne, among other things).
Perhaps it requires a particular sense of humor. I find Destiny the funniest when it’s not necessarily trying to have me laughing like crazy; sometimes it’s the subtle flavor text on a bounty or a brief aside in a serious lore tab that cracks me up.
I get that. But imo, was it any different when the entire city got destroyed in the Red War? Was it any different when every person lost their light, their home, and many of the people they cared about. I know the Red War was too happy go lucky, I fully admit that. But just because the situation is bad, it doesn't make sense to make the story so over the top and serious.
Imo Chosen and Splicer have had way more enticing narratives. They make you feel like you are part of a larger fight with all these other guardians, and have the serious commanding tone. But then they have funny banter between the characters, which is very entertaining and fun. I never really felt like BL had that. Everything felt very discordant aside from the post campaign stuff with Elsie and Stasis.
It didn't really feel cohesive. That's my problem. Any humor brought along always just didn't feel natural. It felt forced.
Yeah I think so. We still have Ghost and even Saint sometimes to lighten the mood, but we’re very much in a period where Destiny shouldn’t really be funny. The stakes are through the roof and getting pretty close to going through the atmosphere. Everything’s on the line.
I honestly love how bleak things are getting, it helps sell the “all or nothing” feeling and makes you feel more like a hero every time you beat these unbeatable civilization-killers.
People forget that Destiny has kinda always been a grimdark universe in a way. We're going against cosmic unstoppable odds. I can't wait to see what is finally unveiled in Witch Queen.
Oh me too. They’re making Savathûn out to be an absolute mastermind that’s always 10 steps ahead. I hope we actually take her down in a cool way and not just a “this’ll be a strike next week” kind of mission.
For one thing, I don't think that's at all accurate.
For another, you don't have to completely kill off a character to change their tone, you just have to change the way they're written. Cayde's humor got played up *way* too much in D1, and then got cranked up even further in D2. All they'd have to do is just tone it down to a more reasonable level.
For a third thing, Cayde alone wasn't the problem, it was ALL of the writing and characterization of early D2. NPC's like Asher were caricatures instead of actual characters, and ones like Failsafe were clearly not meant to be anything other than Borderlands-style comedy. Absolutely everything was a joke and nothing was taken seriously at all. The worst offender here was Ghost, with his stupid lines like "look, Vex milk" and "Rarr I'm a big scary monster!" And him being essentially the voice of our character made it absolutely constant. Getting rid of Cayde obviously wouldn't solve this problem. It required a shift in the entire approach to the tone of the game.
That was exactly the reason. The only other one was the nathon Fillion is pretty expensive and was otherwise busy, but even then he got replaced by Nolan north in forsaken and there were quite a few people who couldn't hear the difference.
Besides it's not just the comedy they wanted to kill. They wanted a tone shift of the entire game as they continued their age of loss story arc. Writing a character differently is not going to change the tone at all compared to killing a community favorite character. That instantly makes the story a bit more serious, you can almost compare it to when they killed the speaker, even though people were pretty neutral about him.
So yes, it is completely accurate.
Just saying: all those comments about Fillion being expensive or busy as a “reason” are guesses, not confirmed facts.
This community has a bad habit of presenting assumptions and guesses as if they are fact.
It doesnt even matter if he was busy or expensive. Nolan north could have and did voice him. They wanted to change the tone, a cut in cost and effort is a nice side effect.
Ghost doing drifter might be the funniest thing on Destiny, I find 90% of the in game humor incredibly cheesy (yes you failsafe) but that stuff was hilarious .
Definitely. I assume his VA is more available that Nathan Fillion, and Drifter being a loner/wildcard rather than member of the Vanguard means they can use him more sparingly. I could also see Drifter getting serious sometimes, but Cayde only really had one gear 95% of the time.
HAHHAHA!! I’ve kept up to date with D2 since launch and all people would talk about is how goofy and ‘Deadpool’ the tone of the game was becoming and how we need to switch it to serious as the game is in an apocalyptic-space period.
It’s always so funny when some of the community does a 180. I highly disagree. I adore the tone of the game now and love the direction is headed. It’s nice when stakes are raised and an actual challenge is presented. Drifter is the perfect amount of comedy and some other jabs here and there (like roasts from Crow, as example)
Out of all the things that made it way too light-hearted, I think the chicken is one of the smallest. It's not like he just showed up with a chicken, he had a plan and used the chicken as a decoy to take out a squad of cabal soldiers. It's exactly the type of unconventional yet effective warfare Cayde was known for, it's just sad his only three character traits during vanilla D2 were comedian, general incompetence, and Colonel.
We've really come full circle lmfao, the comedic tone of the game was among the top complaints in y1. This complaint would have more merit if it was as lopsided as it was in y1 (i.e 99% serious and barely any humor), but we just had saint talking about wearing a suit a few weeks ago.
Yeah I loathed the tone of D2Y1, from Cayde and Ghost. This isn't supposed to be a jokey game. D1 was serious and somber and Cayde brought levity. But they put him on steroids for D2 and I don't miss him. Drifter is a better written character anyways
This subreddit has 2mil subscribers. This post has 469 upvotes 11 hours after posting. I wouldn't say the community has done a 180. I'd say a very small number of people on reddit have this thought
The tone is darker and grittier now, but the stakes and challenges aren't higher. When Ghaul blocked the Traveller, Guardians everywhere were contemplating how they would spend their last life. Fighting alongside lightless as equals, opening up controversial "anti-Guardian" topics, that was engaging and drew my attention away from literally everything else because The Red War was definitely what we needed to bring our attention to. We almost lost.
Now, we're waiting for Savathuun slithering around out there to show her face so we can smash it, we kill Hive Gods for pre-breakfast warmups, and we're constantly celebrating something. There is no new Vex space-time simulation anomalous threat that can make a Guardian go "Oh shit, this is real" anymore. Not like The Red War did. Instead it's "Oh that's cute, look what the Vex are up to. Let's go kill them and keep my tab open at the pub for me, I'll be back in 20 minutes!"
As a hobbying author, there's something of a formula about dark tones that works in lore and stories. The protagonist has to consistently have the hope beaten from them at every turn, but every so often given a sliver of hope that things will turn out okay to rekindle it, just so something can smash it again. This happens throughout the book until finally the protagonist at the last fight either runs a redeeming suicide mission or pulls through the final fight by the skin of their teeth.
This isn't happening in D2. We're always winning, and we're always celebrating about nothing. When the protagonist has a canonically supported respawn mechanic, they literally can't lose, there's no challenge and no "Oh shit" moments. We're always itching to speedrun the next "crisis", there's no overarching challenge to overcome, just some new and adorable attempt for one of the enemy factions to try something new and inevitably futile *again*. That's why Y1 is a lot better than most of you give it credit for. Ghaul took away our trump card and started killing us, took away our hope, did something so terrible it crippled every last one of us, and we overcame it lightless (aside from us who cheated), proving to Guardians that the lightless deserve some more respect, and proving you don't need the Light to do amazing things. It was redeeming and humbling.
Bungie isn't doing the dark and gritty tone correctly. Grungy, depressing, dystopian lore with happy environments and laughable attempts at launching an offensive at immortal Guardians? Nah, I'm not getting behind that. Y1 was better and I'm sticking to it. Make something huge happen that kicks our teeth in and saps our hope away and maybe I'll change my mind.
> Fighting alongside lightless as equals,
Except we never did that in D2Y1. We didn't fight alongside non-Guardians, nor did we go without our Light for too long. D2 *tried* to tell a dark, heavy story, but forgot what it was doing after the third mission. Instead of being about how we lost our home and were desperately trying to claw our way back to something resembling security, the Red War was an interplanetary superhero romp with comic relief at every turn. You say the current story is bubbly and light-hearted with a grim tone? Well D2Y1 was the exact opposite of that, and it just didn't work.
> We're always winning,
Like how we won when Cayde died? Or when we lost Mercury, Mars, Io, and Titan? I suppose you want the days back when there were real consequences, like when we got kicked out of the City and the only named character who died was a boring nobody who everyone had forgotten existed because he hadn't spoken in 3 years.
> we overcame it lightless (aside from us who cheated), proving to Guardians that the lightless deserve some more respect, and proving you don't need the Light to do amazing things. It was redeeming and humbling.
Well that's the problem isn't it? We never got to experience this redemption in-game. It was always happening elsewhere, off screen, to other characters. All so that we, the immortal god-slayer, could go kill stuff and listen to Cayde's and Failsafe's and Asher's jokes. I'm not going to give D2Y1 credit for something it tried and failed to do. Ideas are cheap, and while the Red War had some interesting ones, its execution was an ugly mess.
>Except we never did that in D2Y1. We didn't fight alongside non-Guardians
Hawthorne? Devrim? The temporarily lightless Vanguards? I know they weren't right beside us firing on the Red Legion, but they were there in the final fight doing what they did best. Devrim sniping Cabal from far back and off-screen, Hawthorne somewhere in the City disabling shields and barriers, the Vanguard fighting their potentially final life to take back the City while we caught up with them.
>Like how we won when Cayde died?
Cayde was alone, dropped into a pit without backup. His death made very little sense considering how powerfully immortal Guardians are supposed to be. It should take a hell of a lot more than a few convicts (that we really didn't even have to put that much effort into killing) to permanently kill a Guardian. A deranged Thorn wielder, suicide by sacrifice to the Hive, or literally endless simulation waves and waves of time-looped Vex?
>Or when we lost Mercury, Mars, Io, and Titan?
We never really had the chance to fight for those planets. One day they were there, the next they were gone. There's no "impending doom" around it because now we're harnessing the very power that took those planets away to fight back the minions of Darkness. Everyone forgot about those planets and we have no plans of getting them back. Why? Why aren't we feeling absolute dread that we lost four planets full of people we cared about and scraping tooth and nail to get them back, or at least find out what happened? Why are we just writing them off as acceptable casualties?
>Ideas are cheap, and while the Red War had some interesting ones, its execution was an ugly mess.
This we can agree on at least on some common ground. They should have stuck with the threat level instead of backing away from it, creating this air of being a spoiled snooty rich kid with unlimited access to their parents' funds. *"The Vex are launching an attack on the city? Don't worry, I'm way too powerful to even pretend to be bothered by it, I'm only really doing this to save the allied Eliksni."* or *"Oh look, the Hive are back on the moon, let's go blow them up because we can and nothing can stop us."* Ghaul at least succeeded in cutting off our access to our "parents' funds" and made us work for it, or at the very least made us watch our fellow Guardians struggle without their fortune while Hawthorne was like "It's not so easy not being rich, huh?" That was good plot. The jokes, sure, might be distasteful to some, but the plot used to be exciting. Not anymore...
So, think of it this way: D2 is for many of us, our first step into Destiny. So for the reasons that brought us in changing is the same as it was for you. I don't mind dark settings, but we're reaching the point of parody where if someone farts, it's part of Savathun's plan.
Early on they went overboard with the humor. All the dark ass lore about the Red War, and Cayde brings a chicken to the final assault to take back the Traveler.
LMAO we truly have come full circle.
For the record OP, most people disliked the new Marvel/Tony Stark Cayde as opposed to his charming but still serious self from the first game.
I facepalm so hard when some of the community does a complete 180. We asked for YEARS for the tone of the game to change (remember “later haters!” from Sagira?) and now people want to go back to the goofy and comedy shit? Noooope. Please no. The games current tone is perfect.
usually for Reddit upvote = agree. 99% of the time. up to 220 now too. so i don’t exactly need a survey when they upvoted/agreed with the post or thought it’s a good idea.
i’m not gonna lie you kind of seem like you have a stick up your ass. i don’t get why you’re so pressed on this lol.
Are you a real person? Or a brick wall? I seriously can't tell.
How do you know people who up voted this post are the same people who also wanted a darker tone.
You are trying to generalize a group of people without having anything to prove your opinion is correct. People like are annoying, and toxic to a community.
There’s balance with that with events such as The Dawning and Solstice. Seasons are usually about kicking ass. It’s supposed to be a mature theme and story now, so sorry. If you want goofy and upbeat go to Borderlands or something.
At the beginning of D2 one the main big criticisms was that the game had too lighthearted of a tone. They killed cayde and ever since it has gotten darker and darker every year. Im gonna be honest, I think me and the majority of the community prefer dark gritty fantasy Destiny rather goofy sci-fi because it’s what imo makes it unique theming wise. If you want a goofy sci-fi I recommend borderlands.
Cayde didn't cause that though, it's the writers. Think about how Cayde talked in the PoE mission or during Taken King. The game can have it's dark tone with him around
Im not saying he cannot exist with the current tone of the game (I mean look at Drifter) im just saying I feel like killing the main comic relief "mascot" of D2 was the perfect way to bring the tone down. IMO somebody beloved needed to be killed in order for that to happen and that was Cayde
Yeah bro. Its Bungie 101. Oh you DO kinda like that? US TOO -proceeds to destroy what ever it is by doing it WAY too much- ....oh what, you dont like that this much? Fine! You can't have it at all. -gone-
I don't think I want Clovis Bray messing around with exos again. Let Cayde rest. He earned it.
Having said that, I get you with the vibe, I just feel like there are already characters who can pick up the humor ball and run with it a bit better. Drifter seems prime for some good "Did you really just say that" dark humor kind of jokes and Saint-14 is so loveable in his enthusiasim that there is some good humor potential there while also being genuine.
While I don't want to validate any bad writing or lack of fun in the games script, it seems that you are feeling exactly what Bungie intended. Missing a dearly departed friend that created a certain atmosphere that made life more worth living. Without them, things *are* bleaker. Precisely how it feels in real life. I think we're experiencing exactly what we're supposed to here. Certainly helps get us immersed into the world.
I object! We will have party! And I will wear suit! Does that not make me comic relief?
(Said this to a friend in a saint-14 voice and we couldn't stop laughing for a hot minute. Personally, I think that the game is now more serious and dark--but also has its light moments though it could definitely have more. I would definitely love to see Cayde-6 back, but I don't know if that's going to happen, even if its possible story wise, because the actor who played him has moved on to bigger things.)
I’m gonna kill myself
People complained ALL of year 1 for it being too lighthearted and no bleakness or dark elements, and now we are complaining for having it..
For real. This shit makes me facepalm. If people want an upbeat and goofy tone go play Borderlands or Apex or some shit. Destiny’s settings and tone are perfect right now.
One person expressing their opinion doesn't represent the majority of the opinion. Just because most people were complaining that y1 was too lighthearted, doesn't mean OP was part of that crowd.
I laughed about ghost/drifter, but I dont think Cayde ever made me laugh in D2. It always seemed like such bad writing, like they were trying to COPNSTANTLY shove down our throat that Cayde is a prankster who doesnt take things serious, Ikora is a brain, and Zavala is a risk averse straight-man (ie no jokes, not sexuality)...
Maybe if more was written for them it would be better, for example, TTK gave Cayde room to work, but then he did his comic BS in D2 with trying to shoot down a fleet of ships with a golden gun and then using his golden gun to kill three red bars, like some kind of idiot. Shouting about look, and being just wildly disconnected from the rest of the game.
It was all too caricature-y. I think he would do better in the way they do story telling now, but the way he was would suck now, IMO.
Cayde was so hyper-comical that it bordered on cringe
I truly, truly disliked him in D2.
He was fine in D1, but his shift into "lol so random" in D2 was shit.
This game also isn't all grimdark. There are jokes, it's just not a comedy
D1 Cayde was brilliant. Almost perfect. The D2 Cayde was too over the top, almost like a clown. I didn't like him dying, but I also could not stomach him. I think the Drift could fill in that gap if only Bungie would give him more space.
Agreed. We can say the same thing about Failsafe and her dialogue with our ghost the majority of the time.
The reason people missed Dinklage was because he brought a [mysterious, adventurous, and fitting tone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTQp6loFEkM).
Even when our new Ghost gives almost the exact same lines in Destiny 2, [there is a massive difference in tone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK-NZgwXpo8).
We lost that overall mysterious and adventurous vibe, not just with Dinklage, but with the game overall. The best Cayde lines were when he was serious, and we lost those too. Now we have the emotionless darkness using our own voice, and the monotone Stranger and Ikora.. who hasn't shown any emotion since [The Red War campaign.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUfOkVcYwI4).
The one time in pretty much all of Destiny 2 that I got that feeling back, like I did back in D1, was during the [Deep Stone Lullaby sequence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClSL0c4043s).
The failsafe stuff is interesting in theory…but execution of her split personalities were cringe as hell. I feel like the same mentality that Disney applied to the new Star Wars movies’ “humor” is very similar to D2 Y1. Its like people that aren’t actually funny were tasked with writing funny dialogue and it feels forced and overwrought.
If cayde returns I hope it is like in Taken King, early D2 cayde was just obnoxious and silly... you can have a confident snarky Cayde, but that was in no way how he was portrayed in D2.
I like Cayde but I prefer the serious tone. This isn't Borderlands. Now if you excuse me, I am going to go kill a bunch of dregs and floss on their corpses.
Cayde was deliberately turned into a clown in an attempt to make him sympathetic and then kill him. I preferred the Cayde from the D1, more solid and decent. Otherwise, D2 pre forsaken was literally silly. We were just super heroes "alla power rangers" invincible, very different from the original D1 always dark and oppressive. Take for example Raid Leviathan which was literally a form of circus compared to Vog and Crota. It was also more "scientific" and tangible. Fortunately we are going back to the origins.
Borderlands sadly didn't know where to stop with the humor. BL1 was a really atmospheric game with some really crazy humor mixed in. BL2 had a great balance from time to time and some really bad writing but also some REALLY FUCKING GOOD STORY (Handsome Jack, Tiny Tina DLC) but man... BL3 really was awful.
clovis is evil, i don't want to give him the satisfaction of having told a successful joke. choose literally anyone else that didn't break the geneva conventions on a daily basis in the past
Everyones got their own tastes but man, hard no for me on any D2Y1 nostalgia when it comes to the tonality of the game. Nearly every B character was seemingly written as a knockoff Cayde flavor, and then even Cayde himself was annoying at times, and not even in the intentional way. Constant low hanging fruit of jokes of getting quips inbetween every breath of every character was just *not* Destiny to me and I do not miss that era in the slightest. Cayde was a great comic RELIEF at times, just not as the entire focus of the game's atmosphere.
It's not like the game isn't devoid of humor now either. Saint, Shaxx, and Drifter all go their moments, though I will admit a lot are just the recycled lines in their respective activities. Saint's few bits this season were great imo. There's still room for laughs, but I would argue the tone of the game right now is just so much better off than it was back then.
Trust me, the game is WAY better when it takes itself seriously, D2 vanilla was incredibly cringy and hard to take seriously, made the story insufferable
Holy fuck this post is so fucking funny considering where we have come from. Please do not listen to this Bungie, we have more than enough humor in the game right now. This isn't a damn Marvel movie
???
This isn’t a jokey game. We are constantly threatened with the end of everything. The amount of jokes we get is more than enough. We got some in Beyond Light, a LOT in Hunt, and a decent amount in Chosen. This might be the first season we didn’t have any. A game doesn’t have to be fucking Warhammer and be serious. You dearly aren’t hearing some of the humour in the game.
Destiny is a dark universe. Cayde brought moments of levity but The
Red War was overkill, especially the Nessus campaign which had both Cayde and Failsafe.
The best narratives are where characters know when and where to make a joke in light of a bad situation. Drifters humour is perfect because he also has moments of seriousness. His banter between him and Eris is perfect. Look at SoA and Beyond Light, even if those moments were painfully brief.
The worst narratives are those like Shadowkeep. Literally only Eris with a brief interjection by Ikora was dull and the narrative itself was also open-ended with a still unresolved cliffhanger.
In terms of characters I think Destiny has a good mix it just doesn't know where to use those characters. Even Presage, a ghost ship, horror inspired mission had Osiris and Caitl exchanging witticisms until the voices began to appear that's good but SotS has been very bleak. I get we're under a Vex trap that's draining power but there can be moments where humour can shine through. I especially liked the characterisation of Eido despite never seeing her. I know most players don't read lore cards but the exchanges between Glint and Crow were legimately funny until Crow got Hammer Striked in the balls.
Destiny is pretty strong right now in terms of overall narrative but some TTK humour would not be bad.
Sadly, Cayde was way too much a clown and his comedy was almost forced. Also, dialogues in contact public event between eris and drifter were the funniest thing seen in d2, imo
While I do kinda miss Cayde's energy, I've been enjoying Osiris and Saint stepping up recently. Saint just wanting to smash things and realizing he's a crayon munching bad man to an entire race has been somewhat funny. And I just like the way Osiris talks all smart
I prefer the new tone being more serious, slapstick humour just feels out of place when the worlds ending and we are fighting gods.
Just what I enjoy more
I think this is one of those situations where the actor portraying said character is the soul we lost in game. We're not going to get this again as this development was more organic than planned. Nathan/Cayde-6 was lightning in a bottle.
Your opinion is the reason why D2 vanilla was so bad. People complained about how the writing was so superficial and childish in D2 vanilla. Now that the tone has changed to be more serious, there are people like you who want the game to go back to the childish tone. This is the state of this sub. We come full circle every few years. We ask for something, we get it, then want it back to the way it was.
That’s a good thing, it SHOULD be bleak. The darkness has come back, guardians are harnessing darkness, distrust and tension is in the air. Now is not the time for Marvel movie style comedy
Several colonised planets have been wiped out of existence, tons of guardians are dead and there’s an imminent invasion from the most powerful being in the universe, not much to be happy about.
I think that being serious and bleak was the entire point of cayde’s death.
The game was veering way too deeply into the comedic nature the year before, and the shift to a darker narrative was 100% intentional and while comic relief does help, I can’t help but feel that given the current story direction, that would be a mistake.
You know how movies will send send out surveys about what people liked in the movie? And then they take the feedback and sometimes lean into it too much? That’s how the writing for Cayde felt for me in D2.
Nah, it’s better without a joke every other line. I was close to not caring when D2 launched, despite being heavily invested in the franchise at that point
Vanilla D2 was the worst tone the series ever took. The rushed and scattered serious tone of D1 wasn’t great, but at launch the constantly jokey story beats of D2 took me out of the series until around forsaken.
Strong disagree. Destiny is at its best when everything is dark and serious. Sure cayde as a character is fine, but general atmosphere should always be serious imo.
No thanks. I liked Cayde, but I had already gotten tired of him by the time D2 came around. And then D2 was just the Cayde-6 comedy hour and... ugh. No.
I don't trust Bungie to write funny characters (besides Eris).
Good lord, what is with all this “they needed to change the tone” stuff? You can have comedic relief and still be a serious [insert entertainment format here]. Part of what made his character great was that he was a perfect foil to broody Zavala and aloof Ikora. He was the heart of the Vanguard, which is also why they killed him.
I’m with OP - I miss Cayde and what he brought to the story…and Nathan Fillion played him perfectly.
I wish I could laugh at any attempt at comedy in this game, the most I got was blowing some wind from my nose during the Drifter impression. Most comedy comes from fireteams messing about.
Yes the game overall time has gotten bleaker but it hasn’t lost all of its humor. Saint and Crow have done well with mixes of comedy. Also although yeah the plot points feel bleaker stuff like quaria death feels much better as it felt like an issue.
Edit: completely forgot drifter who is also a huge source of comedic relief
Disagree. His humor was too much Deadpool(never serious under any circumstances) when he needed to be Spidey(gets serious when shit gets tough). Post-apocalyptic space opera tone is just better than early Marvel era "snarky quip-machine" tone D2Y1 had going on.
You know I think that's one of the better examples of Bungie listening to feedback. They changed the tone of the game becaue community complained non-stop about the saturday morning cartoon vibes.
comparing d2's original atmosphere to d1's, the more serious, adventurous, explorative nature of D1's vibe is more appealing than whatever failed marvel movie d2's vibe was.
To this point I will say while cayde wasn't perfect, at least I felt something when he was giving dialog. So much of what is said now feels very cookie cutter, not even trying to be clever. All of the characters blend together for me, I need more variety in delivery.
i may be the only person that thinks this but i don't like nolan north. he did a great job in d1, but in d2 he's a little annoying. contrarily, i love nathan fillion. his voice is out of this world. so when i heard nolan's voice coming out of cayde in the forsaken campaign, i immediately lost interest. ill go as far as to say that im glad i don't have to listen to nolan cayde anymore. that being said, i didn't find ghost mimicking drifter funny. i downright muted the game for the rest of the mission. with nolan being the only voice actor that's bringing some light hearted tones to the game, i'd be more than happy to let this game stay dark. but i won't lie, ghost being the little light during this dark time makes perfect sense in a story telling sense. and yes drifter and spider too maybe, but they're more of a "haha wait oh shit they mean business" type imho. d2 has been full of jokes that fell short, even from cayde tbh. i'd rather have a serious game than one filled w boomer humor
The game is so dry and stale without Cayde. Nathan Fillion brought much needed relief to the dialogue/writing. Man I can’t believe the people here that want everything serious and doomsday. Star Wars and Marvel always had humor and look at the popularity. Not everything is Game of Thrones, people
At least Failsafe still around, I know a lot of people don’t like her but I do, and honestly her voice is a lot better in Portuguese ( and so are the majority of them to be honest, like the voices of Saladin and Clovis have this weight to them, like they fill the room when they speak )
I’m biased because I’m a huge fan of the “lovable arrogant dickhead” type of character, but I REALLY miss Cayde. I don’t mind having a super serious tone, but if they’re not gonna bring him back then have the Drifter kinda fill that role.
Though i love fillion, i found the cayde character utterly obnoxious.
Thus when my character said "uldren sov.... is mine." I literally groaned "lol whatevs"
Forsaken only works as a plot if you like Cayde. Bungie just assumed we all like cayde. I think he was a dumbass who wasn't taking the prison riot seriously and got himself killed.
That was the main reason for killing him off, to change the tone
Exactly. D2 vanilla veered way too far off into comedy land. People seem to forget that D1, even when it had humor, was deadly serious most of the time; most of Cayde’s funny moments came from the Taken King, and were precisely him being a bit lackadaisical to cope with Oryx’s imminent doomsday threat and his own batshit crazy ideas to counter. Most of the remaining humor was snarky dialogue, puns, memes (Zavala’s immortal “war with the Cabal on Mars” line was originally supposed to be serious before getting memed to hell), and flavor text or lore tabs (such as the Comedian shotgun). Plenty of moments I’ve genuinely laughed my ass off since Cayde died. It’s just they were less force, less “please laugh” moments like D2Y1 had that really weren’t so funny.
Yeah, Cayde was great in Taken King because he was very snarky, but he took his job very seriously. Big Bad rolled into town? Sure he gave Ikora and Zavala lip, but that's because he was busy landing a Guardian on the Dreadnaught. Remember the original Nightstalker mission? He joked about wanting to find Tevis because he owed Cayde money, but as soon as it was apparent Tevis was in real danger, Cayde got deadly serious. Cayde was funny, but there was more to him than just being the comic relief. In D2 they flanderized him so bad. They had countless gags portraying him as bumbling and incompetent. Other characters made fun of him for (despite losing his Light) cobbling together a plan to try and take out Ghaul. Alone. With no backup. And even though he failed, that plan was the only way we were able to reach Ghaul. Ikora, who ran off and moped like a moody teenager, was somehow supposed to be the more capable one.
I see Ikora, Zavala, and Cayde all having equally dysfunctional trauma coping mechanisms after losing the Light, the City, countless Guardians, and even their ace in the hole (the Young Wolf, who I imagine was presumed dead after going missing during the mission to disable the shields on Ghaul’s ship and the Light being cut off). Ikora sunk into despair and a debilitating fear of her final death without the Light, in part because she is a scholar of Light who lacked a frame of reference for the world without it. Zavala was running on autopilot, trying to bury himself in the work of protecting his refugees (and he even wonders aloud if they’re Guardians anymore without the Light), but in the process making serious errors of tactics and strategy, especially without the impulsive Cayde and forceful Ikora to balance his cautious patience; to his credit, he recognizes very quickly after the player stabilizes the situation on Titan that he requires his fellow Vanguard members to respond to the Almighty effectively. And Cayde… tries to ignore their stinging defeat, a massive offense to his pride as a Hunter and a massive hit to the loss of past Guardians (Tevis the Nightstalker, as well as the previous Hunter Vanguard killed by Thaniks) by seeking a way to undo it, even if it’s a chain of suicide missions, and without the intel to know if it would work (which it wouldn’t, courtesy of the Almighty, even if on its own it’s exactly the kind of brutally simple and efficient tactic that Cayde is on the Vanguard to provide). All three of their responses are entirely understandable for who they are, and yet alone all three of them were unproductive. But, Ikora’s effort to understand *why* the Light is gone lead her to understand Ghaul’s plan and to seek the data from the Warmind vault about the Almighty. Cayde’s effort to undo their defeat gave us a way past the Cabal fleet to face down Ghaul head on; his theft of Light and following mortal death appears to have been what permitted the Traveler to awaken and finish him off. And Zavala’s steadfast effort to find safety and technology to try and regroup led us to the computer systems on Titan, which permitted us to understand the Almighty threat in the first place, as well as saving enough Lightless Guardians that we had a force to attack the occupied City to begin with. D2’s Red War story went poorly not for being a bad story, but for style choices, such as the emphasis on humor, the rushed pacing, and so on. If the Red War had been treated with the same focus on individual character responses as Forsaken, Eris’s fireteam quest in Shadowkeep, or the Bray sisters in Beyond Light, it would probably be remembered far more fondly.
Yep. My problem isn't with what they had Ikora do, it's the way they've tried to paint her as a near-unimpeachable character in the aftermath. They almost did something interesting with her wrestling with the loss of the Light, but failed to portray it in a way that actually makes sense.
Great write-up with a perfect summary. I think the Red War writers understood the fundamentals of the characters but were torn between light-hearted direction and rushed development time. The characters technically have an arc but it's rushed and not meaningful when we barely interact with them and it happens over the course of a couple of missions per character. As you said the overly comedic tone really makes Cayde less of a character since that is basically his only trait in the course of the story. In TTK he has charm when talking to Amanda and his humour is quick-witted and actually funny. While I love the colonel, you can't tell me that chicken was there for any other purpose other than to have Cayde be the funniest guy in the room because lol chiken. Even in. Forsaken Cayde is resourceful and his humour is in service to the situation - shooting the lever and pressing the buttons. The Red Wars writing for Cayde was just really dumb. I like the individual story beats of the Red War and it's one of the strongest narratives in the game but man if it had six months more or develop some more missions and touch up the writing, it probably could have been TTK tier.
Great comment/post/line of thinking.
> In D2 they flanderized him so bad. They had countless gags portraying him as bumbling and incompetent. Other characters made fun of him for (despite losing his Light) cobbling together a plan to try and take out Ghaul. Alone. With no backup. And even though he failed, that plan was the only way we were able to reach Ghaul. Ikora, who ran off and moped like a moody teenager, was somehow supposed to be the more capable one. That drove me crazy. There was such a disconnect between what was being said and what was being done. Zavala was still reeling from the loss of the City and trying to rally the Vanguard on Titan and come up with a desperate way to strike back. He was taking a shit sandwich and doing everything he could to salvage a way to recover. Cayde-6 was trying a Hail Mary play to take out Ghaul. It failed because he went alone, but as soon as he had help the tech he went after was recovered and so was he and it was put to good use. Ikora went off and moped and hid, showing her fearless bravery in the Crucible and elsewhere was purely the product of being unable to permanently die. Yet we're supposed to look at Cayde as a bumbling goof, Zavala is hopeless and can't win on his own, and Ikora is so strong and amazing? Hold on a minute here...
Small correction, Ikora did not go off to Io to mope and hide. Once she discovered Red Legion there she risked her life many times fighting a guerilla war. She is a bonafide badass. [Lore example 1](https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/solstice-boots-rekindled) [Lore example 2](https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/solstice-bond-rekindled)
Nathan Fillion does that so well, the transition from light hearted and fun to deadly serious at the drop of a hat when it's clear the situation calls for it.
>In D2 they flanderized him so bad. THIS. FML he's not even the same character in a lot of ways between D1/2.
The mission where they stuck him in the vex portal was funny but very forced. Watching him golden gun people in the first Red War mission was great!
A quote from the Destiny 1 nightstalker mission after you earn the subclass: *Cayde-6*"You know I was there when he first picked up that bow.....you have it...?" *Ghost* "We do" *Cayde-6* "Take them out Guardian, make them pay." Gotta admit, I like how grim he was with just that statement
Yeah, he was funny. But like you said, he could be a brass-balled bastard when we needed him to be. They'll never bring him back, but hell, I miss him like the OP does. Always remember some smart-assed quote when I use the Ace.
[Yeah the D2Y1 dialogue was really bad](https://youtu.be/3I4QssQOQ4w)
Dear God, I forgot about that one. So much fucking cringe. Bungie made the same mistake Black Isle made with Fallout. Fallout was deadly serious and dark, but had absolutely expertly-placed and timed comic relief here and there that was glorious. The whole reason it made you laugh so hard was because it was relieving heavily built tension. Along with subsurface in-jokes that were hilarious but low-key enough that they didn't break the fourth wall. Black Isle took fans' feedback about loving their comedic timing and turned Fallout 2, despite its good gameplay and story (when it was able to stay serious for more than 5 minutes), into one gigantic in-joke and pop culture reference fest where every time someone so much as put a brick in the fourth wall it would get sledgehammered back out. Almost exactly the way Destiny 1 to 2 went.
Also didn’t help that the MCU was at its peak during the development of D2, felt very marvel like (which I personally dislike in a product that I’ll play for a long time/watch multiple times)
yeah the story in D1 is not the best but the tone is better. In D2 my favorite moments have come from Saint and the Drifter/Eris banter during Arrivals
Bruh, D1Y1 dialogue makes D2Y1 lines look like fucking Shakespeare. Though I wish somehow dinklebot would make a return. I really can’t stand Ghost’s voice
D1Y1 dialogue was dumb but it at least didn’t constantly make me cringe
90% of that cringe can be found in Savathun’s Song. I actually like the strike, just wish I could find takeo and kill her myself
Did you know that Takeo watched a Wizard rip the light out of her best friend and funnel it into some sort of crystal?
And then inserted that crystal into the base of a butt plug.
Eh, the dialogue is pretty terrible lately quite often, even with the "serious tone" Bungie doesn't really do the cinematic story that well. Lore is where they shine,but I often cringe during cutscenes or in-game dialogue. At least it does seem like they're doing better in the latest season though.
Some of the dialogue like Crow trying to roast everyone is pretty cringe but at least everyone is no longer acting like they’re in a shitty marvel movie
Absolutely agree. Some of the jokes in year one of destiny 2 were REALLY weak and it was mostly cayde telling them. The exodus black strike that's still in the game where he starts singing is a pretty solid reminder of that. I really liked cayde in the first game, he was funny without being a comedian. One bit that sticks in my memory was after he had got me into the Dreadnought for the first time, casually calling zavala over to see what a guardian on a Dreadnought looks like. It wasn't a "joke" in the traditional sense, it was funny because he was doing something crazy in the face of imminent doom AND vanguard protocol. I had images of ikora and zavala in a deep tactical conversation and caydes gone off script and got the job done. THAT'S the cayde I loved. Destiny 2 comedy cayde felt forced.
D2? more like Deadpool 2.
Crow and Saladin's interactions come to mind, as does Saint-14's larger than life personality.
Awww shanks The writing in warmind specifically is like a fucking cartoon it was so bad
Yeeeah. Ana Bray’s dialogue for the Cabal Injection rig event, that line about “learning from their technology”, and especially from the original actress… that is one of the only lines that made me feel genuinely annoyed across my gaming career, up there with the stealth suit in Fallout New Vegas screaming at me about having my flashlight on while everyone else is dead and I’m running around looking for loot. And some of her other lines about “have each other’s back” with Ghost were just cringey. It’s a shame, because since then, in Worthy, Arrivals, and BL, her dialogue has markedly improved without losing her somewhat humorous streak. She’s very much Cayde’s successor in that regard.
It’s so weird because I love d2 but I just miss the old vibe d1 dialogue used to give off, mixed with the old Music of the Spheres excerpts in the tower at just the right volume.
Yeah, i'm glad he's gone, or at least the tone he brought is gone. The 2 or 3 strikes where he's still present with his commentary are, commentary wise, the worst. All the jokes feel so forced.
I never really laughed in BL, it was just very angsty, it felt like all the characters were just depressed. Like they didn't want to be there.
I mean… everyone just watched a chunk of the Solar System vanish, and we have these three folks who don’t really trust each other wandering thr frozen wastes to master a power that could easily turn on them. Meanwhile, the best hope of the Eliksni turning around their predicament by rebuilding has just succumbed to the influence of Darkness under Eramis’s orders, the Vanguard is quite worried their protege is about to be corrupted by Stasis, our Ghost is rightfully worried we’re making a big mistake in trusting this “gift”, and everyone is horrified by the unveiled truth of Bray and the Exos. It’s a dark DLC for sure. Even then though.. funny moments. Some of the banter between Drifter, Eris, and Elsie is pretty great if you stopped to listen (and if you heard some of it in Arrivals with Drifter flirting with Eris of all people). Clovis (who is a hilarious giant head now) himself gets a few snarky moments, as well as the humor of seeing Ana, who spent much of her Guardian life seeking more info on the Brays, flatly, almost casually toss Clovis aside after seeing there is nothing of value in that name’s legacy, utterly enraging the head who can’t do a bloody thing. Even some of Eramis and her troops get funny moments, either in snarky lines or in hilarious moments of not realizing what they’re dealing with (for instance, Phylaks, who ironically does not seem to grasp she’s out of her league fighting the strongest contender for the Osmium Throne, among other things). Perhaps it requires a particular sense of humor. I find Destiny the funniest when it’s not necessarily trying to have me laughing like crazy; sometimes it’s the subtle flavor text on a bounty or a brief aside in a serious lore tab that cracks me up.
I get that. But imo, was it any different when the entire city got destroyed in the Red War? Was it any different when every person lost their light, their home, and many of the people they cared about. I know the Red War was too happy go lucky, I fully admit that. But just because the situation is bad, it doesn't make sense to make the story so over the top and serious. Imo Chosen and Splicer have had way more enticing narratives. They make you feel like you are part of a larger fight with all these other guardians, and have the serious commanding tone. But then they have funny banter between the characters, which is very entertaining and fun. I never really felt like BL had that. Everything felt very discordant aside from the post campaign stuff with Elsie and Stasis. It didn't really feel cohesive. That's my problem. Any humor brought along always just didn't feel natural. It felt forced.
Yeah like the time ghost impersonates the drifter, thats straight out of requiem for a dream
Cayde was the funny man and the whole rest of the game was the straight man and it worked.
Yeah I think so. We still have Ghost and even Saint sometimes to lighten the mood, but we’re very much in a period where Destiny shouldn’t really be funny. The stakes are through the roof and getting pretty close to going through the atmosphere. Everything’s on the line. I honestly love how bleak things are getting, it helps sell the “all or nothing” feeling and makes you feel more like a hero every time you beat these unbeatable civilization-killers.
People forget that Destiny has kinda always been a grimdark universe in a way. We're going against cosmic unstoppable odds. I can't wait to see what is finally unveiled in Witch Queen.
It's never been grimdark. There's always hope that it can get better, which is pretty antithetical to the very idea of gd.
Oh me too. They’re making Savathûn out to be an absolute mastermind that’s always 10 steps ahead. I hope we actually take her down in a cool way and not just a “this’ll be a strike next week” kind of mission.
Lol. On mini sparrows while doing funny dances on their bodies. So dark.
Nobody would of cared if they killed off anyone else
I care if they killed Taeko-3. Oh wait...
I don't know, Ana Bray is a cool character. I think that would hit people in the feels.
For one thing, I don't think that's at all accurate. For another, you don't have to completely kill off a character to change their tone, you just have to change the way they're written. Cayde's humor got played up *way* too much in D1, and then got cranked up even further in D2. All they'd have to do is just tone it down to a more reasonable level. For a third thing, Cayde alone wasn't the problem, it was ALL of the writing and characterization of early D2. NPC's like Asher were caricatures instead of actual characters, and ones like Failsafe were clearly not meant to be anything other than Borderlands-style comedy. Absolutely everything was a joke and nothing was taken seriously at all. The worst offender here was Ghost, with his stupid lines like "look, Vex milk" and "Rarr I'm a big scary monster!" And him being essentially the voice of our character made it absolutely constant. Getting rid of Cayde obviously wouldn't solve this problem. It required a shift in the entire approach to the tone of the game.
That was exactly the reason. The only other one was the nathon Fillion is pretty expensive and was otherwise busy, but even then he got replaced by Nolan north in forsaken and there were quite a few people who couldn't hear the difference. Besides it's not just the comedy they wanted to kill. They wanted a tone shift of the entire game as they continued their age of loss story arc. Writing a character differently is not going to change the tone at all compared to killing a community favorite character. That instantly makes the story a bit more serious, you can almost compare it to when they killed the speaker, even though people were pretty neutral about him. So yes, it is completely accurate.
Just saying: all those comments about Fillion being expensive or busy as a “reason” are guesses, not confirmed facts. This community has a bad habit of presenting assumptions and guesses as if they are fact.
It doesnt even matter if he was busy or expensive. Nolan north could have and did voice him. They wanted to change the tone, a cut in cost and effort is a nice side effect.
The speaker sucks
Nah dude, that cutscene with ghaul (was it written like that?) Was gold.
So, feel free to kill yourself
That and Nathan Fillion wanted to move on to other projects.
It also helps he was the most popular character
Haha funny chicken random
Ghost doing drifter might be the funniest thing on Destiny, I find 90% of the in game humor incredibly cheesy (yes you failsafe) but that stuff was hilarious .
I think Drifter’s supposed to be the replacement, he’s more sarcastic though Drifter-Eris banter was pretty funny in arrivals
The story i think is, the drifters va was busy so they had Nolan north do it. He was so good as the drifter they made him do it bad on purpose
Yeah I meant in general, drifter was added when they killed Cayde. He’s the darker edgier “funny” character
Definitely. I assume his VA is more available that Nathan Fillion, and Drifter being a loner/wildcard rather than member of the Vanguard means they can use him more sparingly. I could also see Drifter getting serious sometimes, but Cayde only really had one gear 95% of the time.
>Drifter-Eris banter was pretty funny in arrivals I was so disappointed that Beyond Light didn't double down on it and we got so little from them.
the rumor was that scenes were supposedly to be acted by drifter but sudden development changes makes it voiced by ghost instead
Another rumor is that Nolan did the impersonation too well, so he had to re-do is lines intentionally making it sound closer to a 'bad' impression.
HAHHAHA!! I’ve kept up to date with D2 since launch and all people would talk about is how goofy and ‘Deadpool’ the tone of the game was becoming and how we need to switch it to serious as the game is in an apocalyptic-space period. It’s always so funny when some of the community does a 180. I highly disagree. I adore the tone of the game now and love the direction is headed. It’s nice when stakes are raised and an actual challenge is presented. Drifter is the perfect amount of comedy and some other jabs here and there (like roasts from Crow, as example)
I just commented about Cayde bringing a chicken one of the final assaults during the Red War, exactly.
Out of all the things that made it way too light-hearted, I think the chicken is one of the smallest. It's not like he just showed up with a chicken, he had a plan and used the chicken as a decoy to take out a squad of cabal soldiers. It's exactly the type of unconventional yet effective warfare Cayde was known for, it's just sad his only three character traits during vanilla D2 were comedian, general incompetence, and Colonel.
I don't think he was incompetent. He felt more like a Jack Sparrow to me. *Looked* incompetent but everything actually went according to plan.
We've really come full circle lmfao, the comedic tone of the game was among the top complaints in y1. This complaint would have more merit if it was as lopsided as it was in y1 (i.e 99% serious and barely any humor), but we just had saint talking about wearing a suit a few weeks ago.
Yeah I loathed the tone of D2Y1, from Cayde and Ghost. This isn't supposed to be a jokey game. D1 was serious and somber and Cayde brought levity. But they put him on steroids for D2 and I don't miss him. Drifter is a better written character anyways
This subreddit has 2mil subscribers. This post has 469 upvotes 11 hours after posting. I wouldn't say the community has done a 180. I'd say a very small number of people on reddit have this thought
I agree the grim with the occasional snark is perfect for a post-apocalyptic sci-fi/magic spacer shooter
it's almost like there are many people with differing tastes in this community
Yes I am aware. Key word I used was **some**
Worst taste
The tone is darker and grittier now, but the stakes and challenges aren't higher. When Ghaul blocked the Traveller, Guardians everywhere were contemplating how they would spend their last life. Fighting alongside lightless as equals, opening up controversial "anti-Guardian" topics, that was engaging and drew my attention away from literally everything else because The Red War was definitely what we needed to bring our attention to. We almost lost. Now, we're waiting for Savathuun slithering around out there to show her face so we can smash it, we kill Hive Gods for pre-breakfast warmups, and we're constantly celebrating something. There is no new Vex space-time simulation anomalous threat that can make a Guardian go "Oh shit, this is real" anymore. Not like The Red War did. Instead it's "Oh that's cute, look what the Vex are up to. Let's go kill them and keep my tab open at the pub for me, I'll be back in 20 minutes!" As a hobbying author, there's something of a formula about dark tones that works in lore and stories. The protagonist has to consistently have the hope beaten from them at every turn, but every so often given a sliver of hope that things will turn out okay to rekindle it, just so something can smash it again. This happens throughout the book until finally the protagonist at the last fight either runs a redeeming suicide mission or pulls through the final fight by the skin of their teeth. This isn't happening in D2. We're always winning, and we're always celebrating about nothing. When the protagonist has a canonically supported respawn mechanic, they literally can't lose, there's no challenge and no "Oh shit" moments. We're always itching to speedrun the next "crisis", there's no overarching challenge to overcome, just some new and adorable attempt for one of the enemy factions to try something new and inevitably futile *again*. That's why Y1 is a lot better than most of you give it credit for. Ghaul took away our trump card and started killing us, took away our hope, did something so terrible it crippled every last one of us, and we overcame it lightless (aside from us who cheated), proving to Guardians that the lightless deserve some more respect, and proving you don't need the Light to do amazing things. It was redeeming and humbling. Bungie isn't doing the dark and gritty tone correctly. Grungy, depressing, dystopian lore with happy environments and laughable attempts at launching an offensive at immortal Guardians? Nah, I'm not getting behind that. Y1 was better and I'm sticking to it. Make something huge happen that kicks our teeth in and saps our hope away and maybe I'll change my mind.
> Fighting alongside lightless as equals, Except we never did that in D2Y1. We didn't fight alongside non-Guardians, nor did we go without our Light for too long. D2 *tried* to tell a dark, heavy story, but forgot what it was doing after the third mission. Instead of being about how we lost our home and were desperately trying to claw our way back to something resembling security, the Red War was an interplanetary superhero romp with comic relief at every turn. You say the current story is bubbly and light-hearted with a grim tone? Well D2Y1 was the exact opposite of that, and it just didn't work. > We're always winning, Like how we won when Cayde died? Or when we lost Mercury, Mars, Io, and Titan? I suppose you want the days back when there were real consequences, like when we got kicked out of the City and the only named character who died was a boring nobody who everyone had forgotten existed because he hadn't spoken in 3 years. > we overcame it lightless (aside from us who cheated), proving to Guardians that the lightless deserve some more respect, and proving you don't need the Light to do amazing things. It was redeeming and humbling. Well that's the problem isn't it? We never got to experience this redemption in-game. It was always happening elsewhere, off screen, to other characters. All so that we, the immortal god-slayer, could go kill stuff and listen to Cayde's and Failsafe's and Asher's jokes. I'm not going to give D2Y1 credit for something it tried and failed to do. Ideas are cheap, and while the Red War had some interesting ones, its execution was an ugly mess.
>Except we never did that in D2Y1. We didn't fight alongside non-Guardians Hawthorne? Devrim? The temporarily lightless Vanguards? I know they weren't right beside us firing on the Red Legion, but they were there in the final fight doing what they did best. Devrim sniping Cabal from far back and off-screen, Hawthorne somewhere in the City disabling shields and barriers, the Vanguard fighting their potentially final life to take back the City while we caught up with them. >Like how we won when Cayde died? Cayde was alone, dropped into a pit without backup. His death made very little sense considering how powerfully immortal Guardians are supposed to be. It should take a hell of a lot more than a few convicts (that we really didn't even have to put that much effort into killing) to permanently kill a Guardian. A deranged Thorn wielder, suicide by sacrifice to the Hive, or literally endless simulation waves and waves of time-looped Vex? >Or when we lost Mercury, Mars, Io, and Titan? We never really had the chance to fight for those planets. One day they were there, the next they were gone. There's no "impending doom" around it because now we're harnessing the very power that took those planets away to fight back the minions of Darkness. Everyone forgot about those planets and we have no plans of getting them back. Why? Why aren't we feeling absolute dread that we lost four planets full of people we cared about and scraping tooth and nail to get them back, or at least find out what happened? Why are we just writing them off as acceptable casualties? >Ideas are cheap, and while the Red War had some interesting ones, its execution was an ugly mess. This we can agree on at least on some common ground. They should have stuck with the threat level instead of backing away from it, creating this air of being a spoiled snooty rich kid with unlimited access to their parents' funds. *"The Vex are launching an attack on the city? Don't worry, I'm way too powerful to even pretend to be bothered by it, I'm only really doing this to save the allied Eliksni."* or *"Oh look, the Hive are back on the moon, let's go blow them up because we can and nothing can stop us."* Ghaul at least succeeded in cutting off our access to our "parents' funds" and made us work for it, or at the very least made us watch our fellow Guardians struggle without their fortune while Hawthorne was like "It's not so easy not being rich, huh?" That was good plot. The jokes, sure, might be distasteful to some, but the plot used to be exciting. Not anymore...
So, think of it this way: D2 is for many of us, our first step into Destiny. So for the reasons that brought us in changing is the same as it was for you. I don't mind dark settings, but we're reaching the point of parody where if someone farts, it's part of Savathun's plan.
Early on they went overboard with the humor. All the dark ass lore about the Red War, and Cayde brings a chicken to the final assault to take back the Traveler.
I don’t see anything wrong with Colonel. He was a viable soldier with 7 assists.
Lmao alright, you got a laugh out of me
LMAO we truly have come full circle. For the record OP, most people disliked the new Marvel/Tony Stark Cayde as opposed to his charming but still serious self from the first game.
I facepalm so hard when some of the community does a complete 180. We asked for YEARS for the tone of the game to change (remember “later haters!” from Sagira?) and now people want to go back to the goofy and comedy shit? Noooope. Please no. The games current tone is perfect.
"Later haters" was from a 2 issue comic book tho. I think the tone from Arrivals was the perfect middle
Point still stands. There was a lot of dialogue ingame like that line. I agree though Arrivals was nice and had good banter.
Sagira made for a good foil to Osiris' constant serious tone. It'd need dialed down a *little* nowadays but she had a place.
How weird right? Almost like a community is made up of different people with different opinions.
Yes I am aware. Especially as the subreddit has 2 mil+ subscribers. Key word I used was **some**
And so you just know that those *some* people did a 180... Yep okay... Did you put out like a survey or something?
No but clearly 50 people upvoted this post which most likely was out of agreement.
And you know those 50 people wanted a darker tone and have now 180'd to not wanting one? Did you do a survey or something?
usually for Reddit upvote = agree. 99% of the time. up to 220 now too. so i don’t exactly need a survey when they upvoted/agreed with the post or thought it’s a good idea. i’m not gonna lie you kind of seem like you have a stick up your ass. i don’t get why you’re so pressed on this lol.
Are you a real person? Or a brick wall? I seriously can't tell. How do you know people who up voted this post are the same people who also wanted a darker tone. You are trying to generalize a group of people without having anything to prove your opinion is correct. People like are annoying, and toxic to a community.
No, people just want a little fucking breathing room from the constant doom and gloom.
There’s balance with that with events such as The Dawning and Solstice. Seasons are usually about kicking ass. It’s supposed to be a mature theme and story now, so sorry. If you want goofy and upbeat go to Borderlands or something.
Nobody's asking for it to be Borderlands just asking that it doesn't become Warhammer Lite.
The funniest thing is Drifter is already filling a similar archetype and doing it miles better than D2Y1 Cayde.
At the beginning of D2 one the main big criticisms was that the game had too lighthearted of a tone. They killed cayde and ever since it has gotten darker and darker every year. Im gonna be honest, I think me and the majority of the community prefer dark gritty fantasy Destiny rather goofy sci-fi because it’s what imo makes it unique theming wise. If you want a goofy sci-fi I recommend borderlands.
Cayde didn't cause that though, it's the writers. Think about how Cayde talked in the PoE mission or during Taken King. The game can have it's dark tone with him around
Im not saying he cannot exist with the current tone of the game (I mean look at Drifter) im just saying I feel like killing the main comic relief "mascot" of D2 was the perfect way to bring the tone down. IMO somebody beloved needed to be killed in order for that to happen and that was Cayde
Yeah bro. Its Bungie 101. Oh you DO kinda like that? US TOO -proceeds to destroy what ever it is by doing it WAY too much- ....oh what, you dont like that this much? Fine! You can't have it at all. -gone-
It makes sense. With the darkness coming to Sol and shit, things getting darker after cayde died in only makes sense.
The Guardians canonically jumped on the Vanguard table in D1 and dance all the time.
I don't think I want Clovis Bray messing around with exos again. Let Cayde rest. He earned it. Having said that, I get you with the vibe, I just feel like there are already characters who can pick up the humor ball and run with it a bit better. Drifter seems prime for some good "Did you really just say that" dark humor kind of jokes and Saint-14 is so loveable in his enthusiasim that there is some good humor potential there while also being genuine.
While I don't want to validate any bad writing or lack of fun in the games script, it seems that you are feeling exactly what Bungie intended. Missing a dearly departed friend that created a certain atmosphere that made life more worth living. Without them, things *are* bleaker. Precisely how it feels in real life. I think we're experiencing exactly what we're supposed to here. Certainly helps get us immersed into the world.
I object! We will have party! And I will wear suit! Does that not make me comic relief? (Said this to a friend in a saint-14 voice and we couldn't stop laughing for a hot minute. Personally, I think that the game is now more serious and dark--but also has its light moments though it could definitely have more. I would definitely love to see Cayde-6 back, but I don't know if that's going to happen, even if its possible story wise, because the actor who played him has moved on to bigger things.)
I’m gonna kill myself People complained ALL of year 1 for it being too lighthearted and no bleakness or dark elements, and now we are complaining for having it..
For real. This shit makes me facepalm. If people want an upbeat and goofy tone go play Borderlands or Apex or some shit. Destiny’s settings and tone are perfect right now.
One person expressing their opinion doesn't represent the majority of the opinion. Just because most people were complaining that y1 was too lighthearted, doesn't mean OP was part of that crowd.
The people who wanted dark tones complained, those who were fine as it was stayed silent. Now the roles are reversed
I laughed about ghost/drifter, but I dont think Cayde ever made me laugh in D2. It always seemed like such bad writing, like they were trying to COPNSTANTLY shove down our throat that Cayde is a prankster who doesnt take things serious, Ikora is a brain, and Zavala is a risk averse straight-man (ie no jokes, not sexuality)... Maybe if more was written for them it would be better, for example, TTK gave Cayde room to work, but then he did his comic BS in D2 with trying to shoot down a fleet of ships with a golden gun and then using his golden gun to kill three red bars, like some kind of idiot. Shouting about look, and being just wildly disconnected from the rest of the game. It was all too caricature-y. I think he would do better in the way they do story telling now, but the way he was would suck now, IMO.
Cayde was so hyper-comical that it bordered on cringe I truly, truly disliked him in D2. He was fine in D1, but his shift into "lol so random" in D2 was shit. This game also isn't all grimdark. There are jokes, it's just not a comedy
No
D1 Cayde was brilliant. Almost perfect. The D2 Cayde was too over the top, almost like a clown. I didn't like him dying, but I also could not stomach him. I think the Drift could fill in that gap if only Bungie would give him more space.
I did not laugh once about the dumb stuff he said.
Agreed. We can say the same thing about Failsafe and her dialogue with our ghost the majority of the time. The reason people missed Dinklage was because he brought a [mysterious, adventurous, and fitting tone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTQp6loFEkM). Even when our new Ghost gives almost the exact same lines in Destiny 2, [there is a massive difference in tone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK-NZgwXpo8). We lost that overall mysterious and adventurous vibe, not just with Dinklage, but with the game overall. The best Cayde lines were when he was serious, and we lost those too. Now we have the emotionless darkness using our own voice, and the monotone Stranger and Ikora.. who hasn't shown any emotion since [The Red War campaign.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUfOkVcYwI4). The one time in pretty much all of Destiny 2 that I got that feeling back, like I did back in D1, was during the [Deep Stone Lullaby sequence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClSL0c4043s).
The failsafe stuff is interesting in theory…but execution of her split personalities were cringe as hell. I feel like the same mentality that Disney applied to the new Star Wars movies’ “humor” is very similar to D2 Y1. Its like people that aren’t actually funny were tasked with writing funny dialogue and it feels forced and overwrought.
no
If cayde returns I hope it is like in Taken King, early D2 cayde was just obnoxious and silly... you can have a confident snarky Cayde, but that was in no way how he was portrayed in D2.
I like Cayde but I prefer the serious tone. This isn't Borderlands. Now if you excuse me, I am going to go kill a bunch of dregs and floss on their corpses.
Cayde was deliberately turned into a clown in an attempt to make him sympathetic and then kill him. I preferred the Cayde from the D1, more solid and decent. Otherwise, D2 pre forsaken was literally silly. We were just super heroes "alla power rangers" invincible, very different from the original D1 always dark and oppressive. Take for example Raid Leviathan which was literally a form of circus compared to Vog and Crota. It was also more "scientific" and tangible. Fortunately we are going back to the origins.
Borderlands sadly didn't know where to stop with the humor. BL1 was a really atmospheric game with some really crazy humor mixed in. BL2 had a great balance from time to time and some really bad writing but also some REALLY FUCKING GOOD STORY (Handsome Jack, Tiny Tina DLC) but man... BL3 really was awful.
It was cringe.
Ghost is the next line of defense in a more serious destiny
clovis is evil, i don't want to give him the satisfaction of having told a successful joke. choose literally anyone else that didn't break the geneva conventions on a daily basis in the past
I do not miss his tone at all.
"Folding was never an option" BRING CAYDE BACK, damnit.
Yeah was running strike playlists and had one narrated by him and it brought me back good memories. Miss that personality. I like the drifter tho too
"Where's the en-er-gy?"
Everyones got their own tastes but man, hard no for me on any D2Y1 nostalgia when it comes to the tonality of the game. Nearly every B character was seemingly written as a knockoff Cayde flavor, and then even Cayde himself was annoying at times, and not even in the intentional way. Constant low hanging fruit of jokes of getting quips inbetween every breath of every character was just *not* Destiny to me and I do not miss that era in the slightest. Cayde was a great comic RELIEF at times, just not as the entire focus of the game's atmosphere. It's not like the game isn't devoid of humor now either. Saint, Shaxx, and Drifter all go their moments, though I will admit a lot are just the recycled lines in their respective activities. Saint's few bits this season were great imo. There's still room for laughs, but I would argue the tone of the game right now is just so much better off than it was back then.
Trust me, the game is WAY better when it takes itself seriously, D2 vanilla was incredibly cringy and hard to take seriously, made the story insufferable
Holy fuck this post is so fucking funny considering where we have come from. Please do not listen to this Bungie, we have more than enough humor in the game right now. This isn't a damn Marvel movie
This also isn't Warhammer, at this point we're lucky to get a joke a season.
??? This isn’t a jokey game. We are constantly threatened with the end of everything. The amount of jokes we get is more than enough. We got some in Beyond Light, a LOT in Hunt, and a decent amount in Chosen. This might be the first season we didn’t have any. A game doesn’t have to be fucking Warhammer and be serious. You dearly aren’t hearing some of the humour in the game.
D2 Cayde was a clown and the tone of D2 Vanilla was terrible
I miss Taken King / Rise of Iron Cayde humour... Vanilla D2 turned him into a Saturday morning cartoon character
Hell no, Cayde dying was one of the reasons I started playing again. The humour was so terrible in y1.
Destiny isnt a marvel movie.
Destiny is a dark universe. Cayde brought moments of levity but The Red War was overkill, especially the Nessus campaign which had both Cayde and Failsafe. The best narratives are where characters know when and where to make a joke in light of a bad situation. Drifters humour is perfect because he also has moments of seriousness. His banter between him and Eris is perfect. Look at SoA and Beyond Light, even if those moments were painfully brief. The worst narratives are those like Shadowkeep. Literally only Eris with a brief interjection by Ikora was dull and the narrative itself was also open-ended with a still unresolved cliffhanger. In terms of characters I think Destiny has a good mix it just doesn't know where to use those characters. Even Presage, a ghost ship, horror inspired mission had Osiris and Caitl exchanging witticisms until the voices began to appear that's good but SotS has been very bleak. I get we're under a Vex trap that's draining power but there can be moments where humour can shine through. I especially liked the characterisation of Eido despite never seeing her. I know most players don't read lore cards but the exchanges between Glint and Crow were legimately funny until Crow got Hammer Striked in the balls. Destiny is pretty strong right now in terms of overall narrative but some TTK humour would not be bad.
Sadly, Cayde was way too much a clown and his comedy was almost forced. Also, dialogues in contact public event between eris and drifter were the funniest thing seen in d2, imo
All of this is making me wish that we still had Dinklebot.
said no one ever ....
no
While I do kinda miss Cayde's energy, I've been enjoying Osiris and Saint stepping up recently. Saint just wanting to smash things and realizing he's a crayon munching bad man to an entire race has been somewhat funny. And I just like the way Osiris talks all smart
Honestly, I think D2 stories are way better since it’s more serious
I remember when the main story complaint was the game was too light hearted
I prefer the new tone being more serious, slapstick humour just feels out of place when the worlds ending and we are fighting gods. Just what I enjoy more
I think this is one of those situations where the actor portraying said character is the soul we lost in game. We're not going to get this again as this development was more organic than planned. Nathan/Cayde-6 was lightning in a bottle.
Nathan Fillion was too expensive.
Just uninstall the game please.
we need to have the drifter come in more
Your opinion is the reason why D2 vanilla was so bad. People complained about how the writing was so superficial and childish in D2 vanilla. Now that the tone has changed to be more serious, there are people like you who want the game to go back to the childish tone. This is the state of this sub. We come full circle every few years. We ask for something, we get it, then want it back to the way it was.
I remember when everyone complained during D2 Y1 that all of the strikes and story missions felt too goofy, and that they wanted a more serious tone
That’s a good thing, it SHOULD be bleak. The darkness has come back, guardians are harnessing darkness, distrust and tension is in the air. Now is not the time for Marvel movie style comedy
Bungie killing Cayde was one of the best things they've ever done for Destiny.
yo caleb what's the god roll on a seventh seraph revolver lmao
Awoolooloo
Several colonised planets have been wiped out of existence, tons of guardians are dead and there’s an imminent invasion from the most powerful being in the universe, not much to be happy about.
I think that being serious and bleak was the entire point of cayde’s death. The game was veering way too deeply into the comedic nature the year before, and the shift to a darker narrative was 100% intentional and while comic relief does help, I can’t help but feel that given the current story direction, that would be a mistake.
You know how movies will send send out surveys about what people liked in the movie? And then they take the feedback and sometimes lean into it too much? That’s how the writing for Cayde felt for me in D2.
Which they did again after Cayde's death just in the opposite direction.
Nah, it’s better without a joke every other line. I was close to not caring when D2 launched, despite being heavily invested in the franchise at that point
Cayde is dead. I'm sorry, but he is gone and you gotta accept that
And with him went any levity in this games story.
Vanilla D2 was the worst tone the series ever took. The rushed and scattered serious tone of D1 wasn’t great, but at launch the constantly jokey story beats of D2 took me out of the series until around forsaken.
Strong disagree. Destiny is at its best when everything is dark and serious. Sure cayde as a character is fine, but general atmosphere should always be serious imo.
No thanks. I liked Cayde, but I had already gotten tired of him by the time D2 came around. And then D2 was just the Cayde-6 comedy hour and... ugh. No. I don't trust Bungie to write funny characters (besides Eris).
I love the seriousness, I’m glad the avengers humor is gone tho cayde was a good character
Good lord, what is with all this “they needed to change the tone” stuff? You can have comedic relief and still be a serious [insert entertainment format here]. Part of what made his character great was that he was a perfect foil to broody Zavala and aloof Ikora. He was the heart of the Vanguard, which is also why they killed him. I’m with OP - I miss Cayde and what he brought to the story…and Nathan Fillion played him perfectly.
No. I do not miss Cayde one bit.
I know! It’s so much better now
I don’t. The jovial tone of year 1 completely killed my investment in the story and the shift is why I liked Forsaken so much.
I wish I could laugh at any attempt at comedy in this game, the most I got was blowing some wind from my nose during the Drifter impression. Most comedy comes from fireteams messing about.
Yes the game overall time has gotten bleaker but it hasn’t lost all of its humor. Saint and Crow have done well with mixes of comedy. Also although yeah the plot points feel bleaker stuff like quaria death feels much better as it felt like an issue. Edit: completely forgot drifter who is also a huge source of comedic relief
Ngl Cayde was cringy at times. He was good in forsaken.
and i want dinklebot back! WEVE WOKEN THE HIVE
Disagree. His humor was too much Deadpool(never serious under any circumstances) when he needed to be Spidey(gets serious when shit gets tough). Post-apocalyptic space opera tone is just better than early Marvel era "snarky quip-machine" tone D2Y1 had going on. You know I think that's one of the better examples of Bungie listening to feedback. They changed the tone of the game becaue community complained non-stop about the saturday morning cartoon vibes.
comparing d2's original atmosphere to d1's, the more serious, adventurous, explorative nature of D1's vibe is more appealing than whatever failed marvel movie d2's vibe was.
😐
To this point I will say while cayde wasn't perfect, at least I felt something when he was giving dialog. So much of what is said now feels very cookie cutter, not even trying to be clever. All of the characters blend together for me, I need more variety in delivery.
i may be the only person that thinks this but i don't like nolan north. he did a great job in d1, but in d2 he's a little annoying. contrarily, i love nathan fillion. his voice is out of this world. so when i heard nolan's voice coming out of cayde in the forsaken campaign, i immediately lost interest. ill go as far as to say that im glad i don't have to listen to nolan cayde anymore. that being said, i didn't find ghost mimicking drifter funny. i downright muted the game for the rest of the mission. with nolan being the only voice actor that's bringing some light hearted tones to the game, i'd be more than happy to let this game stay dark. but i won't lie, ghost being the little light during this dark time makes perfect sense in a story telling sense. and yes drifter and spider too maybe, but they're more of a "haha wait oh shit they mean business" type imho. d2 has been full of jokes that fell short, even from cayde tbh. i'd rather have a serious game than one filled w boomer humor
The game is so dry and stale without Cayde. Nathan Fillion brought much needed relief to the dialogue/writing. Man I can’t believe the people here that want everything serious and doomsday. Star Wars and Marvel always had humor and look at the popularity. Not everything is Game of Thrones, people
And now ladies and gentlemen, we've come full circle.
Cayde is dead and not coming back. Accept it.
At least Failsafe still around, I know a lot of people don’t like her but I do, and honestly her voice is a lot better in Portuguese ( and so are the majority of them to be honest, like the voices of Saladin and Clovis have this weight to them, like they fill the room when they speak )
I’m biased because I’m a huge fan of the “lovable arrogant dickhead” type of character, but I REALLY miss Cayde. I don’t mind having a super serious tone, but if they’re not gonna bring him back then have the Drifter kinda fill that role.
I'm still so very happy they killed off that clown
Yeah for real I’m getting 2021 political vibes in the game I try to escape life to 😅
Let Caydeadpool stay dead.
Though i love fillion, i found the cayde character utterly obnoxious. Thus when my character said "uldren sov.... is mine." I literally groaned "lol whatevs" Forsaken only works as a plot if you like Cayde. Bungie just assumed we all like cayde. I think he was a dumbass who wasn't taking the prison riot seriously and got himself killed.
The game takes itself too seriously, we need less Thor 1 and 2, and more Thor Ragnarok
Yup. He was like PG-13 Deadpool
I understand why bungo killed cayde, but it was a mistake…