As anyone who lives on social media can tell you, memes now rule the world. It's entirely possible to have entire conversations with just visuals or random phrases and each person will know precisely what is being said.
Before Bungie announced Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, a meme emerged that showed a Guardian telling Ikora Rey that the moon was haunted. Not only did this become immensely popular but Bungie has now acknowledged it.
What's the meme?
nasa employee: oh hey u guys are back early
astronaut: moon's haunted
nasa employee: what?
astronaut: *loading a pistol and getting back on the rocket-ship* moon's hauntednasa employee: oh hey u guys are back early
astronaut: moon's haunted
nasa employee: what?
astronaut: *loading a pistol and getting back on the rocket-ship* moon's haunted— dustin Couch (@Dustinkcouch) October 30, 2018October 30, 2018
This meme came directly from this fantastic tweet by Dustinkcouch about NASA astronauts returning to Earth for weapons to go and deal with a haunted moon. Of course, this would be picked up by the Destiny community since almost the whole of the first game was sorting out the Hive on the moon.
What brought the whole thing to the attention of Bungie, though, was a sketch that received thousands of hits.
The meme, drawn initially by Tumblr user seamachine, shows the same wording as the tweet but being said by a Guardian to Ikora Rey — the Vanguard Warlock — and it captures the feeling of Destiny so well.
Everyone who's played the game knows that we, as the champion of the world, are just stumbling on things of epic proportions all the time. "BTW Guardian, the Worm God is just over there could you deal with him? Kthxbye" is pretty much the core of the game.
When Bungie announced Shadowkeep, though, the meme took off, and a lot of fans asked it to be put into the story somewhere. Some were even asking for our Ghost to say it to Ikora, but it seems the voice work was already done before the announcement.
Instead, Bungie added this little nod to the meme. This is something that Bungie is very good at — it previously made a gun based on a terrible piece of writing from Destiny 1.
The quest called "Which moon is haunted?" is one of the steps in the main storyline of Shadowkeep, so every Guardian playing through the game will see it.
I love that Bungie, through Destiny, continues to acknowledge that the fans are the driving force behind its success. Long may it continue to do funny little things like this for us to enjoy.
Nightmares are born
Shadowkeep is the start of a whole new chapter for the team at Bungie. Expect huge new bosses, new raids, new moves, and oh so many new weapons and armor.
