Destiny 2 players are processing their grief by posting their most embarrassing self-owns, and I’ve never felt more seen

After last week’s unhappy but not wholly unexpected news that Bungie is ending ongoing development for Destiny 2, players past and present have been mourning the ill-fated loot shooter by sharing their favorite bits of lore, comparing favorite guns, and posting highlights of their most impressive feats of Destiny prowess.

But as cool as those clips of clutch plays and team wipes might be, I’m more fond of a more relatable form of commiseration that’s emerged alongside them. Rather than sharing their crowning achievements, many Guardians have instead been posting clips of their most shameful fumbles, and it’s a surprisingly heartwarming way to remember a game that mattered to so many.

The unconventional form of communal grieving emerged after MLG Halo player and FPS streamer Makowski posted a video of some of his finest Crucible kills, captioning the clips with the rhetorical question, “Dad, how good were you at Destiny?” While it showcased some immaculate sniping, others followed the example by instead posting an entirely different genre of highlight reel, answering the hypothetical child’s curiosity with a brutally honest, ‘Kid, I was pure dogshit.’

Consider, for example, the video embedded above from @EndlessGL, which displays a clear talent for using all available Destiny 2 movement tech to plunge expertly into a bottomless pit. It’s a style of self-own that’ll be familiar to any Guardian: Bungie’s ability sandbox provides a broad, deep toolkit for launching yourself on the exact trajectory that you absolutely shouldn’t.

As PC Gamer global editor in chief and long-suffering Destiny diehard Phil Savage said in Slack earlier today, “the triumph of D2 is that every class has their own specific way of looking dumb.” As proof, check out this video from Warlock @Ka2chaN_03, where they demonstrate a string of speedrun techniques with a precision that could only be described as perfection—until it extremely isn’t.

Or Hunter @durkoffdaperc’s stunning an enemy player with a heroic swan dive into the abyss:

It’s not all traversal mishaps. The outpouring of fondly remembered failures also includes moments like the one captured by @Iunarran, who “couldn’t even die right” while trying to put a comedic capper on a wiped raid attempt. She’s far from alone: There are more raid fumbles than anyone could count, like this clip from @SSG_Jonny in which they could have salvaged a boss clear with one climactic golden gun shot—only to send it sailing over the boss’s head, dooming their group to death via orbital cannon. You hate to see it.

I’m especially fond of videos like this one from @TheKillerAxe2. In it, they’ve encapsulated a universal Destiny experience: finding yourself in a high-stakes firefight and managing to apply lethal force to literally everything except the guy who’s killing you. I know that panic well:

I’m not sure which stage of grief it is, but there’s something particularly wholesome and humanizing about seeing so many players gleefully trading their less-than-glorious moments. It’s a reminder that Destiny 2 was more than a venue for world first raid clears and flawless Trials runs: It was a space for sharing the full spectrum of canonical Destiny experiences, which kept us coming back for so many years of falling into holes.

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