Not entirely sure how to word this, but I’ve always loved the entire concept of Ghosts as a way to justify a revive/respawn mechanic.
In pretty much every game I’ve ever played that has a revive/respawn mechanic, it’s never explained as to how it works. Which isn’t really that big of a deal to me; it’s a game mechanic that allows you to keep playing the game, case closed.
And then you have Destiny. Get gunned down by a Cabal turret? Your Ghost will have you up in a hot second. Did another Guardian fire a rocket a bit to close to themselves? Go interact with their Ghost to rez them. Did you finally kill that bastard camping an ammo spawn in Trials? Better make sure their teammates can’t get to their Ghost, or they’ll be back up doming you from halfway across the map in seconds.
Except your Ghost is more than just a flying respawn machine. He can hack stuff, mark things on your tracker/radar thingy, oh and he’s an entire character with a personality who reflects the personality of your Guardian, who barely speaks.
The nonverbal communication and interactions in cutscenes between the two are fuckin immaculate. The way Ghost tilts the parts of his shell to express emotions - annoyance, shock, excitement, curiosity… and your Guardian reacts to him usually with a glance or a look, like… idk they just kinda get each other.
But while he is your Ghost, he’s not YOUR Ghost. By which I mean, Ghost is his own, independent character. He’s not a reflection of you or anyone else, and that’s made clear when his opinions and thoughts don’t align with the actions of you as the Guardian. In a lore thing from Forsaken I believe? there is a list of things he wishes he could say to you. One of those things is how he sees that you’re going on a rampage through the Tangled Shore, and justified by the death of Cayde-6 as it may be, he doesn’t like it; it scares him. But he still loves you - that’s also on the list, and even during Beyond Light we see this when he continues to stay by our side even as we start wielding the Darkness in the form of Stasis.
That’s not to say he can’t be vengeful himself. In the lead up to the final boss battle with Savathun during the Witch Queen campaign, Savathun taunts you and your Ghost. This isn’t anything new - bosses taunt you before and during boss fights all the time in Destiny campaigns - and usually you react by wiping the floor with them, without a word in response. Except this time, Ghost is PISSED, essentially says “how fucking dare you, you killed my friends”, lists a bunch of shit the Hive have done to humanity (most of which you personally have been affected by as a combatant against the Hive), and ends off by telling her that he would rather die than serve the Hive.
Speaking of the Witch Queen, we also get to see that Ghost isn’t perfect; he absolutely despises other Ghosts who joined the Hive, and makes that abundantly clear. He’s also extremely suspicious of Fynch, the Hive Ghost who helps you out in the Throne World. Ghost is kind of an ass to Fynch, because to him, the Ghosts who joined the Hive under Savathun betrayed the Traveller and humanity. But when he realizes that most of the Hive Ghosts like Fynch were coerced into helping the Hive in their search for their Guardians, he outright APOLOGIZES to Fynch. It’s actually a pretty cool moment in the story, and it shows like… yeah, he’s capable of making mistakes, but he’s also capable of at least trying to fix them.
Also he was really funny that one time when the Drifter didn’t show up to run tactical for you in Beyond Light, so he did an impression of him instead lmao
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