Given this reset and the season story, it is time for another one of my lore discussions. When this season started, we had two conflicts going on. The override missions to help end the endless night and the inner politics of the last city. We won the fight against the vex and lost the political one. Without drowning too much into the details, I will say this: Lakshmi made her decisions and did them with the best of intentions meant to protect the citizens from a threat she saw. I will give her that her sacrifice was not in vain, but one cautionary tale for anyone who chooses to see demons where none actually exist. The enemy found in the mind? Is just as powerful as the one outside shooting at you given the right leverage. The singular issue at the start was Ikora making a decision that initially speaking, ended poorly for both the Eliksni and the history of the Last City and grew into a bond that will be useful for all parties moving forward and far more, in my opinion than the armistice, we have with Caitl. Ikora opened up the City borders to allow potentially harmful Fallen into our midst from a battlefield we currently do not have control of and cannot verify the intel of who is friendly and who is a foe beyond, "The vandal shot at me". She furthermore did not properly dispose of the machine the Fallen built out of the Black Armory machines there. Maybe, however, to Ikora's credit, that was meant to be a test. Would they rebuild it? Midway point in the season. The Endless Night offensives are going well. We are slowly unraveling the issues and finding more sources to dive into the vex network. Each of these points is a place we have seen the vex before. This proves good as it will generate good leads to finding the true source of the Endless Night. Nothing bad seems to be happening outside of politics. Politics............. The consensus has not outwardly shown support or denied the Eliksni occupation. This... is a very big, massive red flag for me... do they even know? Is this is concealed operation at this point? The vanguard and truthfully all guardian leaders... are silent on this front. The natural conflict... and fear... start hitting my mind. Am I working for overlords? Lakshmi-2 does not make this much better and this is coming from a long supporter of the FWC mission. Saying she has seen the visions without the entire details is just as bad as her and Ikora's spats over the intercoms. I agree with Zavala telling Ikora to not get involved in the faction and its politics. Ikora fails to heed this advice and, moving towards the [url=https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/vi-understanding#lakshmi-2]end of the season[/url] openly meets with Lakshmi and threatens to leave a non-guardian on an icy moon. Now... I've always been a fan of Ikora and her decisiveness. It's reassuring to any person who is a leader that if you aren't stern about your message? People will call your bluff. It's only natural for that outcome so you do have to be precise with your words when lives are on the line. Lives we are trying to protect and, thus far, have a zero-incident count for attacking people while humans have 1 and violent measures are being called for. But then you have the worst outcome. You just threatened to kill one of your own and that is never acceptable. I made a post last week about not letting your emotions get the better of you and here is Ikora doing just that which can only lead to one outcome: Calling your bluff. I can see why Zavala is the vanguard commander and Ikora... I'm not going to put those thoughts into words. Which brings the end of the season. The offensive front? We won. The Endless Night is over. But our political situation borders on nuclear war now due to the events leading up to this when the worst finally happens: Lakshmi is dead along with FWC supporters who aren't guardians, Ikora believes the term celebration is a good choice of word to use regarding this outcome meant to be towards House of Light, but I can only see her being the head of politics now and no longer a true guardian, and we have driven our factions which stood up to help the Last City people to the remnants of space where our enemies are at and lest we forget? The pyramid ships have never lost a battle against us and claimed three of our worlds where one guardian has been brutally murdered by the same power which works for some and not so much for others. Zavala was right to tell Ikora to stay out. Her credibility is gone at this point and her decisiveness? Is now arrogant by the turn of the wheel and by her words of gaining house of light, thus making the Last City superior. We lost three factions, gained one, and expect House of Light to remain stable. Since this is the bed which was chosen for us? The lore should note that the only course of action now is to make the best of things before we combat the threats which beat us back before and now all the members who existed back then? Are dead because the first remnants that came later were the iron lords. To summarize the situation? We have a lot of work ahead of us. How we survive will depend on what we do now and if humanity, as it stands, wants to survive this conflict? We better find more allies and get them up to speed quickly. Lightfall will be a second collapse is what I see now just with this season proving how weak we just made ourselves, by our own choices, which one Witch Queen making small jobs into the situations here and there. Any observations? Thoughts? Opinions?