Destiny 2 and Why Queer Representation Can Be More Complicated Than It Seems

sept 6 2022

In most online spaces, discussions of queer representation can become incredibly simplistic. It's either horrible queerbaiting or the most perfect gay rep, with no room for the many shades of representation that fall between those extremes. Sometimes, writers have the best of intentions and still end up creating stereotypical or offensive queer representation. Sometimes a writer gets it right with one character, but not another. Sometimes creators try really hard to portray queer characters and narratives, but end up getting censored by conservative higher-ups. When it comes to the question of "does this have good queer representation," the answer can often be much more complicated than just "yes" or "no."

I've had the interesting experience of playing a game for a long time and watching its representation evolve. Destiny 2 is a first person mix between a looter shooter and an MMO, with a heavy focus on storytelling, delivering its narrative through a variety of ways. Some information is delivered in-game through broad plot and character dialogue. Other information is told through "lore books," written pieces of lore that often are character studies or pieces of worldbuilding that simply aren't relevant enough to be talked about ingame. Queer characters have been historically introduced in lore and tie-in properties (like comics), rarely being introduced or even featuring in-game. Queer fans have long argued back and forth over this; is this an example of queer characters purposefully being relagated to the sidelines and treated as less important? Or is this Bungie genuinely trying to include queer characters any way they can? Homophobic or not? Queerbaiting or not? Queer erasure or not?

The situation is more complicated than one would think. Writers didn't banish queer characters to the lore because they hated them; in fact, it was the opposite, with lore being the only place they could really talk about queer characters. In an article exposing the development studio Bungie's former toxic work culture, members of narrative teams spoke about the frustration of trying to include queer characters and always being shut down by leadership. Even the smallest piece of queer representation, like an NPC having a random voice line that could play mentioning his "partner," was deemed as "dangerous" to the game with the excuse that it would lead to the game not being able to ship in China or Russia. The line was adjusted to simply refer to the NPC's husband by name, with the studio later sitting back and raking in the praise for including a gay character.

Characters like Osiris and Saint-14, Destiny 2's first onscreen gay couple, were confirmed by writers to have always been written with a queer narrative in mind, but the two often referred to each other as "brothers" and had no overtly romantic interactions in the first Destiny game and early on in Destiny 2. This is likely due to the aforementioned leadership preventing writers from writing them as explicitly gay, but it still led to people accusing anyone shipping the two together to be supporting incest, some even continuing these accusations long after the two were confirmed to be romantically involved. If Bungie leadership had simply always allowed Osiris and Saint-14 to be written as explicitly gay, this wouldn't have happened.

Saint-14 and Osiris are unique in the sense that they are the only two gay characters to interact on-screen. Queer characters in Destiny 2 have always been "lore-only," leading to some accusations of queerbaiting from queer fans. I used to disagree with this, seeing Destiny 2 as a game that was inherently more focused on platonic and familial relationships than romance; there was no onscreen gay romance, but there was no onscreen straight romance, either. The major relationships explored in-game were the Bray family and the friendship between the Vanguard leaders. Of course, there was lots of fandom shipping, and Bungie tried to stay trendy with one or two jokes about characters getting together, but there was nothing explicit. That in itself was actually pretty unusual— most live service video games have at least one or two characters who are canonly together or even married, but Destiny 2 consistently kept it platonic.

The place to go to see any romance at all was the lore, which just so happened to be overwhelmingly queer. Ana and Camrin, Mara and Sjur, Osiris and Saint-14, tons of minor queer NPCs and references to queer literature (like the lesbian vampire Carmilla); queer romance was everywhere in the lore. Perhaps this was because it was easier for the narrative team to sneak gay people into the lore, which leadership thought only a small percentage of people would even see and an even smaller percentage of homophobes would get mad at, or perhaps it was indicative of changing attitudes at Bungie.

However, recent shifts in in-game storytelling to focus more on romance leave me a little bit adrift. Season of the Haunted (S17) was an excellently written season that focused on trauma and grief recovery; it was also a season that heavily focused on heterosexual romance. During the season, players were introduced to Zavala's dead wife Safiyah via her Memory (a manifestation of Zavala's memory of her while she was alive), learning about Safiyah and their past together through in-game dialogue and lore tabs. You see and read about the two interacting and the tragic events that lead to them separating.

I don't want to make it sound like I hate this relationship or hate the focus on it; far from it. I think this is a great relationship that adds a lot to Zavala's character, as well as giving the spotlight to his wife, who had previously been speculated about and referenced but never really explored in-depth. The season also focused heavily on interactions between two fan-fave couples, Zavala/Caiatl and Drifter/Eris, with the two getting loads of in-game and lore dialogue and getting gushed about by writers on Twitter. Again, I don't think any of this is an inherently bad thing, but it does significantly change Destiny 2's status quo. Romance is onscreen now, and it is important to the game. Season of the Haunted set a precedent that romance can and will be present on-screen, and not just present, but important.

So where does that leave queer characters? Still exiled to lore. The only queer couple that can be considered "in-game" have yet to interact with each other onscreen romantically. The two have dialogue about each other that can be seen as romantic, but they haven't even actually interacted at all on screen for two years, due to body-swap imposter shenanigans, which led to Osiris being put into an indefinite coma. That's right— it has been two years since Destiny 2's only canonly queer onscreen couple interacted with each other, with no end in sight. Osiris is featured on promotional material for Destiny 2's next major expansion, Lightfall, which suggests at the very least that he will awaken in the next three seasons (a season is usually around 10 weeks, but expansions being delayed can lead to them being extended; for example, Season of the Lost was about six months long due to a major Witch Queen delay). At most, it could end up being three full years without any interaction between Osiris and Saint-14.

My rational side wants to say that Osiris' storyline has been nothing more than an interesting conflict that actively contributed to the plot of major storylines, and the separation between Osiris and Saint-14 is merely an unintended side effect that the writers have rolled with, leaning into the "tragic lovers" aspect of their relationship. My cynical side says Bungie want Saint-14 and Osiris to be gay, because they are a company and they want money from gay people, but they also want to keep the two apart as long as possible to keep from pissing off homophobes, because they also want money from homophobes.

The conflict that Osiris being an imposter led to in the main storyline is effectively over, neatly wrapped up with a nice little bow, but Osiris is still asleep in his ivory tower. I truly think we just need to wait it out, but it's just a little disheartening being told that as a queer fan, I need to "wait and see," meanwhile straight fans get to "see" straight relationships now. My worst fear is that Bungie will "play it safe" when Osiris wakes up. After the length of their separation, I want a Nicholas Sparks level dramatic reunion— Saint and Osiris kissing in the rain, making dramatic Pride and Prejudice (2005)-esque declarations of love, becoming the kind of couple who can't keep their hands off each other because they're so happy to be reunited. I worry that instead we'll get a hug at best and some sappy lore pages.

Bungie recently had an online showcase for Lightfall, and a big part of their messaging was wanting the game to feel inclusive and welcoming to all players. As a queer person, I really am touched by this, but I don't feel included and welcomed when it seems like a writer can join the narrative team and immediately get to work making their favorite straight ship canon, while Osiris and Saint-14 feel like an afterthought that their writer had to fight to even be included in the first place. I know this is the most cynical interpretation, and the writers probably have no ill intent, but I am a queer fan and I am tired.

I am tired of Bungie erasing characters who are canonly lesbians in order to "jokingly" pair them with men. I am tired of waiting for gay characters to interact onscreen. I am tired of being told to just wait and see what happens and waiting for years and not seeing any change. I am tired of Bungie wanting to get the goodwill of gay fans from joking about Osiris and Saint-14 being gay on Twitter but not being willing to actually do anything ingame that would piss off homophobes. I am tired of male and female characters interacting once and getting shippy posts from official Destiny social media accounts while even canonly gay relationships are treated as just good friends. I am tired of the only transgender representation being a genocidal alien and a robot with one lore book and nothing else.

I have defended this game and this company from complaints that they don't treat their queer characters equally, but I just don't want to do it anymore. It's 2022 and we deserve more than lorebooks and scraps. Just because they treat their queer characters and players better than companies like Riot Games, notorious for years of homophobia and misogyny both within the company and their games, doesn't mean there isn't more Bungie could be doing.

I do think that Destiny 2 and Bungie do a lot more for queer players and characters than most other games and companies are willing to do, and that does count for something, but it's simply not enough. My criticism comes from a place of love. I really do love this game and its characters, and I want to constantly be pushing Bungie to do better because I know they can. I want more focus on main characters who canonically have queer partners, because there are plently of them! Let Ana Bray talk about Camrin and let Camrin show up onscreen. Let Mara Sov's girlfriend Sjur Eido finally escape the Nine and show up ingame. Let Micah-10, a trans Exo, show up onscreen as part of a season. There are plenty of characters in Destiny 2 that are canonically gay or have been hinted at being queer, so let them exist! Let their relationships be just as important as the straight ones!

As a fellow queer fan on Twitter put best, "[I]f you want to say your game has gay characters in it. There has to actually be gay characters in the game. It has to be part of everyone's experience, in the mainstream parts of the game that most players will play, not relegated to lore books." The more straight romance becomes visible onscreen with queer romance being left in the lore books, the more queer players will feel like their experiences aren't important enough to be shown onscreen.

TLDR; Bungie, I know you want queer people to feel included in Destiny 2, so it is important to put your money where your mouth is and include queer people in Destiny 2.