Destiny’s latest seasonal storyline reached its climax this week with a major character death. After infiltrating a Cabal base to rescue more prisoners from the Black Fleet, the Vanguard’s shipwright Amanda Holliday is caught in a sudden blast and killed instantly. It’s the first casualty our side has suffered since Sigira was killed in Season of the Hunt, but unlike that death, this one shouldn’t come as a surprise. Bungie has beenꦜ telegraphing Amanda’s fate for weeks, building towards this moment in such an expedited way that it feels unearned. It’s a significant moment that will have ramifications for seasons to come, but if the moment itself left you feeling indifferent, there’s a good reason why.

Amanda may not be considered a key player in Destiny’s story, but she’s had a role to play in several major seasonal storylines and campaigns over the years. She is the Vanguard shipwright and mechanic, and it is through her that Guardians get their first ships and sparrows. In the original Destiny, she served as the host of the Sparrow Racing League and was Cayde’s closest confidant💮. When Uldren Sov was resurrected as Crow, she was one of the first people at the Tower to welcome him in.✱ Amanda may not be a Guardian herself, but she serves a vital role to the Vanguard and has always been a valuable supporting character.

This season, Amanda stepped fully into the spotlight🌳 for the first time. At💯 the start of Lightfall her ship is shot down over the EDZ by the Witness’ forces, and for a while we’re left to wonder if she even survived. At the Farm, Devrin Kay discovers a group of prisoners, including Amanda, are being held captive on a nearby pyramid ship, so with the help of Mythrax and Mara Sov we stage a rescue mission.

Related: A Random Mach🍸ine Gun Is Quietly The Fiercest Weapon I💮n Destiny 2 Right Now

Amanda then becomes the main character of the season. Her relationship with Crow is brought back into focus as we discover she’s still struggling to trust him ever since she learned his true identity. We see that she’s now single-mindedly driven to rescue other captives, to the point of recklessness - a not-so-subtle piece of foreshadowing. Ahead of this week’s mission, we caught up with Amanda and Mithrax, who have formed a close bond during their recent missions, and Amanda tells us about her life growing up on the road and her ch✤ildhood dream of becoming a pilot. If cramming years worth of character development into a few weeks doesn’t scream ‘this character is about to die’, I don’t know what does.

Amanda’s death is a big deal. We’re already seeing the ramifications of her loss, and we will continue to see the fallout from it in the future. At her vigil, we get to see how the rest of the Vanguard is reacting. Crow is overcome with grief and preparing to seek vengeance, which we can expect to see play🗹 out next week in the final seasonal mission. Zavala is reckoning with the significant losses around him - first the Travelerಞ and now Amanda - and is being forced to confront his own role as the Vanguard leader. Mithrax is conflicted, not just because he was with Amanda when she died, but because Eramis tried to warn him this would happen, but he ignored her. There are a lot of consequences and interesting threads that spin out of this tragedy, but the problem is that none of them have anything to do with Amanda.

Destiny 2 Season Of Defiance Amanda

Treating characters like plot devices who only serve as a catalyst for other characters to act was criticized throughout the Lightfall campaign. When we’re introduced to Rohan, we’re told he’s in the tenth year of his ten year life span. He dies a few missions later, but no one is surprised, so the 🌞impact of it isn’t felt. Rohan only existed to die, in order to motivate Nimbus to become the hero he needs to be. Amanda may have had a lot more history than 💟Rohan, but her death served the same purpose. No matter who Amanda was or what she’s meant to the story over the years, in the end she is just a sacrificial lion - a character whose death only serves to raise the stakes.

In Lightfall and throughout Season of Defiance, we’ve been forced to confront the cost of war. The Cloud Striders are a reflection of the Guardians, but unlike us, they chose to become prot🍸ected, and with that choice came the price of a ten year lifespan. Throughout our jailbreak missions, we’ve been reminded that there are mortals like Devrin and Amanda fighting on the front line and risking their lives in a way we never will. Amanda’s death is meant to put a fine, and perhaps final, po♚int on that theme. It’s easy to see why now was the time some one needed to die, but it all comes across too calculated and artificial to have any real emotional weight.

I don’t think these storytelling ambitions are misguided, but the overly condensed way this story was told didn’t do justice to this character that’s been part of the story for so many years. Amanda deserved more than to be everyone else's reason to fight, and letting her take center stage just so that her death will mean something feels cheap.

There’s still more story to be told this season, so some amount of judgment must be deferred. A pivotal death can be a great catalyst for bigger developments, but this is the kind of thing that should have been built towards over months and years, not weeks. Resurrecting Amanda as a Guardian won’t fix the problem 🐲either, as I’ve seen some suggest. Not only is that no longer possible following the end 🦄of Lightfall - at least according to Zavala - but it would undermine the entire point of her death. We need to understand that there’s a human cost to all our space magic adventures, I just wish it had been a little more human and a little less of an obvious plot device.

Next: Destiny's Big Themes Are Starting To Look Like Narrative Dead Ends