Inside of me are two wolves. One wolf is looking at Destiny 2: The Final Shape with a critical eye. Ten years of storytelling have all been leading to this, and there’s a lot riding on this expansion. It needs to deliver a satisfying conclusion at an epic scale, tie up loose ends, surprise us, and make up for the shortcomings of Lightfall. He’s looking at every detail, every beat, every line of dialogue, and scrutinizing them. The other wolf is standing in the back chanting “Cayde’s back! Cayde’s back! CAYDE’S BACK!”
You might say they’re the Lord of Wolves
I try not to let the second wolf distract me, but he’s pretty hard to ignore. Cayde-6’s death back all the way back in Forsaken was one of the most devastating character deaths I’ve ever experienced. Killing off Destiny’s most beloved character was a bold storytelling decision on Bungie’s part, and the lasting consequences of losing Cayde have been fascinating to watch unfold. I respected the hell out of Bungie for killing Cayde and keeping him dead for the last six years, so I have a lot of mixed feelings about seeing him alive again in The Final Shape.
There is a version of Cayde’s return that would have really disappointed me. Destiny is already leaning into tired tropes from superhero comics by bringing him back, so if he had been treated like a marketing tool - a shiny pair of keys to dangle in front of retired Guardians to entice them back into the game - I wouldn’t have much patience for it. The MCU has done irreparable damage to culture by milking cameos, and I’d hate to see Bungie lower its standards for the sake of cheap fan service. This is the first wolf talking, of course. The second wolf is currently dusting my collection of Cayde-6 memorabilia.
Thankfully all cause for concern ended up being unwarranted. Cayde’s role in The Final Shape’s story is essential. He seamlessly reintegrates into the main cast while serving as a catalyst for each of the other Vanguard members’ personal arc within this story. The way Ikora, Zavala, and Crow react to his resurrection, and where that development leads them, enriches the story’s themes, raising the stakes even higher by increasing the story’s emotional depth. It feels right that Cayde would be here in the end, but more than that, it’s through his sudden resurrection that the characters are able to find what they need to face that end.
Ikora’s Guilt
Cayde’s relationship with each member of the Vanguard gives us a different lens through which to examine the important themes in Destiny’s story. For Ikora, Cayde’s return forces her to grapple with her insecurities as a leader, and the resentment she holds for Cayde that she’s never been able to process. When Nightmares plagued our heroes during Season of the Haunted, Ikora saw visions of Cayde, blaming her for his death and shaming her for inviting his killer into the fold. In The Final Shape, Cayde is afraid to see Ikora again because of his own guilt for breaking his promise to operate as part of the team, which ultimately led to his death.
Their reunion is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking moments in the campaign. There is a conflict between their love for each other and the guilt they hold towards each other within each of them. Ikora initially rejects him, convinced that he must be a machination of The Witness’s influence. When she realizes he’s real, she lashes out, yelling all the things she wishes she could have said to him ever since he died. It’s a deeply cathartic moment for both characters, but particularly for Ikora, who has had to go on living without him all these years. Cayde renews his promise to Ikora, and throughout the campaign we see him live up to it by fighting alongside the Vanguard at every turn, healing one of Ikora’s deepest wounds.
Zavala’s Apostasy
For Zavala, Cayde is a catalyst for his final break with The Traveler. Zavala has been going through a crisis of faith for a long time, and over the last few years has come to believe that The Traveler is not the divine and omnipotent being he once believed it to be. His apostasy stems from the loss of his son and his unanswered pleas to The Traveler to bring him back. Though he welcomes Cayde with open arms, his sudden psychological descent thereafter makes it clear that Cayde’s resurrection is yet another twisting of the knife for Zavala.
The Final Shape is the culmination of Zavala’s journey away from the light and towards the darkness, and having Cayde present to watch the final stages of the transformation, as somehow who has only known Zavala as a man of great faith and conviction, gives more weight to what Zavala is going through here. Seeing Zavala through Cayde’s eyes was the perfect way to move the character into the next phase of his journey.
Crow’s Redemption
Of all our heroes, Cayde’s return has had the biggest impact on Crow. We learn throughout the campaign that it was not the Traveler, but Crow’s wish that brought Cayde back from the dead (Wish magic is wacky, don’t ask me to explain). Crow’s journey began with Cayde’s death, so his return creates a full-circle moment for the character that effectively ends both of their arcs in a clever way. The post-campaign mission Wild Card is about their relationship, and it’s easily the best mission in The Final Shape so far.
Crow has become Destiny 2’s main protagonist in the years since Forsaken, and he’s had a long and difficult journey. We’ve watched him grow from his first moments as a shunned lightbearer to a reluctant leader, along the way discovering his place in the tower through the mentorship of Lord Saladin. We watched him remember Uldren’s life and grapple who he once was, and form new relationships with the people that once considered him an enemy. His trajectory was clearly leading him to becoming Cayde’s replacement as the Hunter Vanguard, but he could not find true redemption within himself until Cayde returned.
The brotherhood that develops between Cayde and Crow is one of my favorite things about The Final Shape, and the resolution that relationship delivers is, unexpectedly, the exact kind of satisfying pay-off I needed The Final Shape to deliver. Cayde teaches Crow his final lesson - that it’s not enough to fight, you have to live, too. He then officially passes the mantle of Hunter Vanguard to Crow in an act of forgiveness, and a showing of respect. This is the blessing Crow needed in the moment he was finally ready to accept it, and I can’t imagine a more perfect way to complete Crow’s arc.
I knew I would enjoy seeing Cayde again no matter what. Nathan Fillion doesn’t miss a beat, and the dialogue crafted for him never sounds like fan fiction, which often happens when new writers take over legacy characters in other media. There’s not a moment where he feels superfluous or shoehorned into the story, even when he’s merely adding levity to the scene. Cayde was always the beating heart of the Vanguard, and the way he reintegrates himself, picking up on all the old dynamics as if no time has passed at all, reminds me why Cayde was so important to Destiny in the first place.
I don’t expect him to stick around, given the nature of Wish magic, but I feel better about letting him go this time. What could have been a cheap gimmick was instead used to provide closure, catharsis, and important insight into each of Destiny’s main characters. If a series has ever made a dead character’s resurrection more meaningful than this, I haven’t seen it.
