Identity in Destiny is fascinating.
Everyone, barring non-Guardian, non-Yang Liwei Awoken and non-Guardian Humans, has been, functionally speaking, at least two people.
Guardian Yang Liwei Awoken have been three.
Orin, as Emissary, has been four.
Exos, bless their overloaded circuits, have been as many people as they have reboots, in addition to the new-personhood being a Guardian might give.
Guardians, of course, have been at least two.
And then you have the Hive siblings, one of whom changed name, gender, and grew wings because he just felt like wings would be lit.
But the truly wonderful thing is how Destiny approaches these identities.
Whether or not someone is the same person from life to life is both a hotly contested issue in-universe and in our community, and it's incredibly irrelevant.
The ONLY person who can say whether or not they are who they claim to be is, well, themselves.
Crow is Crow because he's decided, for himself, that he is not Uldren.
Banshee-44 is Banshee-44 because he's decided, for himself, that he is not Clovis Bray, nor is he Clovis-1 through 43.
Ana Bray is Ana Bray because she's decided, for herself, that she is still Ana Bray.
Elsie Bray is Elsie Bray, and all of her former boots are as well, because she's decided, for herself, that she's Elizabeth fuckin Bray uninterrupted. Note how she forgoes her number.
And then you have the nebulous people, like Cayde-6, who at once is and isn't Caydes 0-5 as well. He acknowledges them, follows their advice, but is in most respects simply Cayde-6.
Nebulous people like Orin, who does not know but yet feels Nasya Sarwar and Nasan Ar, and carries Nasan's torch still with respect to her dealings with Mara. She is the Emissary of the Nine, but is also Orin, and the entities are at once one and separate.
The point of all this is that everyone chooses for themselves who they want to be, and the debate of people who are not them has simply no relevance or bearing.
They aren't in denial. They aren't playing pretend.
They're unrepentantly themselves.
