Destiny 2: Lightfallwas released last month, bringing the Witness to the Last City’s doorstep. Early trailers forDestiny 2: Lightfallteased the interaction between The Witness and The Traveler. However, much of the campaign focused on a returning enemy, former Cabal emperor Calus. Calus' return came with his being imbued with a new purpose and set of powers, but left players bewildered when they finally faced him in a climactic boss fight. The powerful enemy presented barely a challenge, attacking with basic weaponry and the occasional overhead beam, despite possessing a wealth of darkness-infused abilities.Destiny 2: Lightfallmissed the opportunity to make Calus more aligned with a certain mythological figure, elevating the expansion’s final boss fight.
Destiny 2: Lightfalltasks Guardians with stopping Calus and his Shadow Legion from securing The Veil, which resides on the planet Neptune. The Veil is essential to the Neptunian city of Neomuna, providing power to its structures, defenses, and the CloudArk, a virtual construct in which Neomuna’s citizens reside as their bodies remain in cryogenic stasis. The campaign’s final mission sees Calus arrive at The Veil moments before players' Guardians, leading to an epic confrontation. However, the battle is little more than an endurance test, with players using their newfound Strand abilities to zip around the stage and away from danger, stopping occasionally to whittle down Calus' health across two phases.
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Calus' Final Confrontation Forgoes His Mythological Powers
Destiny 2: Lightfallsees Calus return to the role of antagonist, becoming a Disciple of the Witness. Exhibiting more power than ever before, Calus appears as a daunting herald of the Darkness. He commands the Shadow Legion across the City of Neomuna, in hopes of securing The Veil. In addition to his psionic abilities and those he had acquired as Disciple of the Witness, Calus also seemingly has the ability to turn the things he touches into gold and change their physiology.
Calus' penchant for avarice inDestiny 2and his newfound golden touch mirror the characterization of a certain mythological figure - King Midas. Midas is described as a mythical king of considerable fortune, who rules over the country of Phrygia. When the Greek god Dionysos grants Midas a wish, he asks for the power to turn anything he touches into gold. However, this wish backfires, resulting in the inability to eat or drink. There are various endings to the myth, though most versions of Midas' fate share something in common with Calus', the pursuit of a powerful gift leads to their humiliation.
The strangest thing about theplayers' final confrontation withDestiny 2’s Calusis that the latter completely forgoes the use of his most powerful abilities. Despite the power of the darkness and a space-magic version of the golden touch, Calus prefers to attack guardians with some slow-moving orbs, a large cannon, and a set of battleaxes. As long as players stay away from Calus, they can slowly decrease his health across both phases of the climactic battle. There is one exception. Should players over-rely on the arena’s surrounding catwalks, Calus will call in a golden beam of light that has the ability to one-shot any Guardian.
Lightfall’s Calus is Just One of Its Many Disappointments
The general consensus within the community is thatDestiny 2: Lightfalldropped the ball compared toThe Witch Queen. The expansion featured a campiness that caught many players off guard, and its implementation of the series' darker plot threads failed to deliver. Calus' final boss fight is just one way in whichLightfallfailed to provide fans with longtime payoff. Had Calus utilized the immense breadth of his power, the climatic altercation could have been a series highlight.
What’s more, Calus' defeat means nothing in the end, as the Witness uses the Guardian’s Ghost to seize The Veil, allowing it to establish a connection with the Traveler. The Witness uses this connection to open a gateway in the Traveler, transporting the Witness to an unknown location, and ending the Traveler’s cycle of gifting and protecting Lightbearers.
With the rest ofDestiny 2: Lightfall’s major events due to arrive in upcoming Seasons, fans will need to wait even longer for their promised payoff. Hopefully, Bungie figures out a way to make the revelations of upcoming Seasons discoverable long-term, as those who aren’t able to participate in the seasonal content could miss major story beats, heading intoDestiny 2’s The Final Shape.
Destiny 2is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
