I thought it was nonsense how Maya constantly told us and saint that bringing him back was wrong, and this was a false timeline, but then reveals that she wants to do the same for Chioma. Just saying it's bad writing.

This reminds me of Curse. A lot of word salad, some vague ominous threat that doesn’t make sense and a reliance on feelings to cover how the storyline makes no sense. Finding a timeline that has what she is looking for is little more than finding a template. And that’s why it’s a ripoff of Curse. A mysterious simulation that has a blueprint for the Vex to win, that’s all the detail we ever got.

[i]"It confirms the Echo is associated with his memory and those of the Qugu".[/i] Kinda' But do you know anything about it? You should. It's called the "Golden Amputation". It involved the Hive... and 2 other races. Or probably just One. I'm not fully convinced they're different entities because there is so much overlap. [i][b]"We hatched eggs".[/b][/i] - the Taishibethi [i]"For millions of years of evolution the Qugu have been infected by a virus so insidious that it wrote itself into their genome. The virus compels them to offer their limbs for amputation by enormous sessile jaw-beasts. They venerate these beasts and treat them as gods. [u][b]The virus converts Qugu cells into eggs, from which strange crawling things pupate, to live within the jaw-beast gut.[/b][/u] In turn the jaw-beast extrudes sweet nectar for the Qugu to drink, and they have brilliant visions. Savathûn and her broods have liberated the Qugu from jaw-beasts, and indeed from existence. But [u][b]as they chased the Qugu ark-ships[/b][/u], [u]I stopped in to vaporize my sister's warship and a few of her underlings.[/u] I want to dwell on the ruins a while, and punish Savathûn for failing to guard her flank. [u]They are like us, these Qugu. Bound in symbiosis[/u]".[/i] Bound in symbiosis... like the Hive. Savathun was ONE entity bound by 2 in symbiosis. Sathona and her wurm. Like the Qugu & the Taishibethi. And here's where it gets tricky... [i]"I stopped in to vaporize my sister's warship and a few of her underlings".[/i] This never happened. Because we saw her ship, it's fine. We boarded it in Witchqueen. So essentially, this is what happened if you read between the lines. The Qugu... started as 'caterpillars', but through a genetic virus would change/"metamorph" into the Taishibethi. Savathun liberated both the Qugu and the Taishibethi? It's because they're the same entity. The "Mountain" the Qugu worshipped? Guess what that was? A pyramid ship. They worshipped the darkness. And that same virus that was used to create the Witnesses army like Nezerac? It's inside of Osiris germinating in his gut. This lore informs that transformation: [url=https://www.destinypedia.com/Lore:Inspiral#The_Art_of_Symbiosis]Lore:Inspiral[/url] [i]"The Art of Symbiosis A trance-imagining of Darkness sweet like honey, a life refracted through another's eyes like splintered light. It leaves behind an imperfectly translated data fragment to mark its passing. …Anyway, beloved sibling, if you want to catch me while I'm still wearing this (form/body?), you'll need to come home in the next couple of cycles. I don't mind if you'd prefer to wait until I'm down by the [untranslatable] among our ancestors, but you might get a different sort of chat! I'm excited about it, genuinely. I still hear from our parents, from our great-parents, distantly in my night-trances. And there are those nectar-made moments—you know the ones, when you turn your thoughts to the Darkness and just listen, and the long sum of Qugu history graven there reflects dark-comforting advice. I have lived out my life with the tenebrous warmth of our ancestors over me like a (cloak/atmosphere?) between us and nothingness. It's different—it's distant. I've drunk of the nectar a few times in the last cycles, and I touch briefly that concurrence of us all, and more and more, I think it is time to be part of it. I want to know the truths our ancestors keep close, and it is my turn to guide the future's children. I know we argued the last time we spoke about it. You thought I was moving too fast toward aging-metamorphosis, but really I just think you've been away from home too long. Don't take it as my urging to get on with the next stage of your life, just take it as… I miss you. Funny, isn't it? How can you miss someone when you know they're always in the Dark? I close my eyes, and in the warm nest-hide of sleep, I know you are real and happy and out there on some other part of the world, far from the river, far from the [untranslatable] where our ancestors (dream/exist) together. But it isn't the same as having you near, knowing your truth is under the same stars. Being able to simply turn my (head/face/bloom?) and ask for your opinion. Dear sibling, come home. Live in my house, and let me (dream/exist) close to you again, whether in this shape or the new one I will take on. I will not be the same, but which of us ever is? You are not the same as you were as a child, either. No matter the form of the existence, I will love you".[/i] And I know this is going to trigger you, because you demand "literalism"... The Qugu lore is called a "classical allegory". This lore: [url=https://www.destinypedia.com/Lore:Dynasty]Lore:Dynasty[/url] Based on this (directly, I'm done being diplomatic with you)... that lore above in Destiny 2 was based on one of my favorite literary texts. Plato's Republic... namely, [url=https://faculty.tamuc.edu/jherndon/documents/plato.pdf]“Allegory of the Cave” (The Republic, Book VII, 514a-521d)[/url] credit: tamuc.edu (Texas A&M) - not where I attended; I know it's linked to a faculty whose tag is very similar to mine... It's just a coincidence. I wanted a free and legally shareable excerpt from Plato's "Republic", and this was the best one I could find. In talking to [b][Glaucon][/b]: [b][Socrates][/b], [i]"And now shall we consider in what way such guardians will be produced, and how they are to be brought from darkness to light, -- as some are said to have ascended from the world below to the gods"?[/i] I'm going to say it straight up... I know BETTER THAN YOU! 😇 👍💠. For awhile, more than a year... I've been racking my brain, how am I going to bring these lore "scholars" into the light? I'm over it. The change was when Architect came back... who's smarter than every one of you too, btw. And you all... swarmed on him. This is going to end so badly for your frail ******* egos. I promise you.

I think Maya both being the antagonist of this Episode and confirming our reality/timeline as real through her treatment of both Saint-14 and Chioma is such beautiful delicious irony that I’m convinced someone at Bungie has to be monitoring the spinfoil on these forums. It’s too funny. Edit: Especially given that the cutscene this week has confirmed that this Maya was the one that plugged herself into the Veil, the very same one that has been repeatedly labelled as ‘the Madonna’. Wonder how this plays into the grand design.

[quote]There is no evidence to support the entire universe and setting being a simulation in Destiny 2, on the other hand.[/quote] Yet, there are people in-game and in lore that treat it as such. I also remember in my notes stating how to design the shape of free will...and seeing it in game as literals through the vex which are part of a reality engine.