Destiny 2’s The Witch Queen is arguably one of the best releases the entire franchise has ever seen, possibly reaching and even surpassing the monumental heights of both The Taken King and Forsaken. This was achieved with one of the most compelling campaigns to date, where players not only had to explore dangerous new places but also uncover unsettling truths that can reshape the history of the universe - past, present, and future. As customary with every expansion,Destiny 2’s The Witch Queen also came with a new Season, calledSeason of the Risen, that managed to surpass the expectations of the player base compared to past releases like Shadowkeep’s Season of the Undying and Beyond Light’s Season of the Hunt.
Now that Season of the Risen is ready for a wrap, with only four days left until Season 17 is finally released, players have been wondering now more than ever what the next release is going to entail. No new trailer was released in this week’s TWAB, andDestiny 2fans are completely in the dark about what to expect from Season 17, apart from aDungeon set to debut on May 27. However, there are supposed ‘leaks’ circulating the web concerningDestiny 2’s Season 17, and they both reveal possible names for the upcoming release.
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Destiny 2’s Season 17 - Season of the Haunted
Season 17 doesn’t have an official name yet, and Bungie is still referring to it as Season of the [REDACTED], which is something it does when talking about future releases that haven’t been fully announced yet. However, aDestiny2fan called Josh Hunt recently shared a tweet with the possible ‘leaks’ regarding Season 17, which may be called Season of the Haunted. This stems from Bungie’s CMS, which apparently contains internal mentions of the next installment inDestiny 2as Season of the Haunted, which could very well be the real name or a code name – or even something Bungie is doing to tip people off.
Season of the Haunted would presumably be about the Moon and Eris Morn, returning to the themes of the Shadowkeep expansion after a long hiatus. “Haunted” is a term that’s been used inDestiny 2and the franchise as a whole quite often, so it would both make sense for a new Season to bear it in its name while also making it quite redundant. As Hunt states in their follow-up tweets, Haunted is also a word that closely resembles the themes of Festival of the Lost, whereasSeason 17 will include the newly-reworked Solstice event, previously referred to as Solstice of Heroes.
This alleged leak is probably fake, however, seeinghow Bungie likes to toy with fansabout new releases, and particularly about the lack of information concerning Season 17, which is going to see its first and only trailer only a few hours before release. The motifs of Season of the Haunted don’t make a lot of sense in the wake of the events of Season of the Risen, and it might even be a scrapped name for a past Season or even content to come in the future. Still, it’s worth noting that Hunt did discover data leading to Season of the Splicer’s name before it was announced.
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Destiny 2’s Season 17 - Season of the Lord
Another name that’s been hitting the Internet when it comes toDestiny 2’s Season 17is Season of the Lord, which comes from an alleged ‘Pastebin leak’ that seeks to emulate the original one from Season of the Chosen to The Witch Queen. The original Pastebin leak did get most things right and was thus consecrated as the biggest leak inDestiny 2’s history, especially seeing how far back in time it dated. This ‘leak’ was immediately doubted by the community, and it has already proven to be wrong about several things.
For starters, it claimed that Season 17 – or Season of the Lord, as the ‘leak’ would call it – came with specific new weapons for the Vanguard playlist, Crucible activities, and Gambit. The official weapons for all three were revealed a couple of weeks ago by Bungie in a TWAB, which already made the Pastebin document lose credibility. Then, the document claimed thatDestiny 2’s newest Season was featuringCrow as the new Iron Lordthat took the place of Lord Saladin, both as a vendor and as the leading Iron Banner character.
This was the reason why Season 17 was supposed to be called Season of the Lord, but this too was disproved when Bungie talked about theupcoming changes to Iron Bannerand Lord Saladin’s inventory and vendor system. In fact, Bungie went into detail about all these changes, and never once was Saladin’s future in the game on the line. On the contrary,Destiny 2’s Season of the Risen had dialogues confirming Saladin would be coming back in the future, maybe with some of Caiatl’s ideas at hand to change and improve Iron Banner.
Crow’s story inDestiny 2also seems to be pointing at very different end goals, and while him becoming wiser and embracing Lord Saladin’s mentorship in Season of the Risen is actually a big deal, it doesn’t mean that he’s going to replace the former Iron Lord. As such, Season of the Lord seems to be the least trustworthy name of the two, and fans should take both this name and Season of the Haunted with a pinch of salt, especially considering where they are coming from.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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