Des2ny is Canon (Story Spoilers) (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Monday, September 11, 2017, 12:40 (2418 days ago) @ Robot Chickens

When I was playing, my understanding was that the protagonists were assuming that Zavala's assault was doomed to fail because the Cabal would just retreat as quickly as they came and blow up the Sun, which would be pretty consistent with their previous behavior (Shield Brothers strike). None of the protagonists were aware of Ghaul's actual plans involving the Traveler beyond cutting off the Light, although we as the players are due to the Ghaul cutscenes.

But the player knows his actual plans. I am actually not sure about how I feel when a player knows something the character they play would not. In film it's pretty common for the main character to not know some aspect of the villain's plan, but this is almost always done to create dramatic irony for the audience.

Yeah, even though it makes sense that the characters would act the way they are in this scenario, the effect as a player is that they appear to be directing their energies in the wrong place. I think there are ways this could have been pulled this off, but it felt disjointed because the draw (for me) was to the tension between Gaul and the Speaker that my character couldn't have possibly known about.

Notice that Naughty Dog, who are universally praised for their game narratives, basically never show the player anything that the main character doesn't either see or know.

Way back with Crash 2, the opening cutscene has Cortex hatching a plan which Crash doesn't see. We know he's using Crash for evil, but Crash doesn't know. I remember that bothering me. Why would I get the crystals for him, when I know Cortex isn't on my side?