How Destiny 2's The Final Shape is Mudding the Waters Regarding the Hunter Vanguard Role
One of the best things about Destiny 2's live-service model is that it allowed Bungie to truly explore the depths of seasonal storytelling, with the game reaching new heights in terms of character development and plot progression. One of the best characters to come out of this model was Crow, as he was introduced as a newly resurrected Guardian who happened to be Uldren Sov in his previous life, and thus automatically hated by many in-game characters for things he didn't really do. Among them was killing Destiny 2's Cayde-6, the beloved Hunter Vanguard, all the way back in the Forsaken expansion, which left Hunters without a representative.
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There was a community-wide debate for a long time that Crow would be Destiny 2's new Hunter Vanguard, or that perhaps some other character would step in to take Cayde's place before the end of the Light and Darkness saga, but the recent The Final Shape trailer mudded the waters surrounding this subject. On one hand, Crow becoming the Hunter Vanguard would make sense as a way of honoring Cayde's Vanguard Dare, even though it wasn't technically him who murdered the Exo in the first place. On the other, Cayde-6 is now coming back.
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Destiny 2's Possible Solutions to the Hunter Vanguard Cayde vs. Crow Conundrum
Based on The Final Shape leaks for Destiny 2, Cayde-6 might not be much more than a guide of sorts for players in the valley on the other side of the portal opened by The Witness in the events of the Lightfall campaign. If this is the case, then it's likely that character will indeed play a role in the events of the campaign, and maybe he will become a vendor like other destination-specific NPCs have in the game's history, such as Fynch in The Witch Queen and Nimbus in Lightfall. This would still do Cayde-6 justice, but that might not be what some fans expect.
Moreover, Cayde returning doesn't necessarily mean he will be able to actually leave the valley of time and space and visit The Tower, for example. In that case, he still wouldn't be able to truly return as a full-capacity leader for the Hunters, and it's likely his existence in The Final Shape expansion is actually the byproduct of space and or time collapsing, since Cayde-6's final death in Forsaken happened after his Ghost, Sundance, was shot by one of Uldren's Barons. As such, based on what is currently known about Destiny 2's lore, there would be no way for him to return.
Still, the fact that Cayde-6 is going to be in the next expansion bears the question of what will happen to the Hunter Vanguard role. If Cayde can't really fill that role again, this should be acknowledged, possibly having some dialogue between the Exo and Crow, leading the latter to accept the burden of Uldren's past life as he did in Season of the Haunted, but this time pointing at a clear direction for the character. If Cayde-6 were to forgive Crow in Destiny 2's The Final Shape, then it could be the turning point he needs to fill in the former's shoes.
It's unlikely other characters will be involved in this process, considering that The Final Shape will presumably be a rather large expansion that already needs to address several questions, and thus Destiny 2 is at a crossroads. It can either let characters discuss what will happen to the Hunter Vanguard role and possibly move the pieces in a way that makes this happen sooner rather than later, or it can forgo this particular bit while still delivering character growth in other areas. An in-between type of situation wouldn't really give Destiny 2 players closure after all these years, even if Cayde-6 and Crow end up being in the same room.
Destiny 2 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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Source: GameRant
