So after the cutscene where Saladin apparently tells Crow the story we're unlocking in the "Acts of Mercy" lore entries, as I much as I love that Saladin's getting more screen time I wanted to reach into my monitor and slap him. Quick summary of the key points: Saladin catches a thief, who's just a kid who has been coerced into her role as a thief. It should be obvious this gang of thieves didn't ask if she wanted to. Saladin believes he was "merciful" and that not killing a child who was coerced into criminal acts by adults is some massive and earth-shaking exception to the law of the day, which executed all thieves. Other than massacring that specific band of jerks, his only actions towards this kid were 1) not killing her on the spot, and 2) giving her a shiny necklace. And nothing else. He walks away and forgets about her, and the village involved, for years, by his own admission. Patting himself on the back about how "merciful" he was. But he wasn't. It isn't mercy to give a defenseless kid a shiny trinket that really probably would've gotten her killed by the first person who took a liking to it. If you intervene, if you get involved in something, you accept the responsibility for it. You spared this kid's life but left her alone in this lawless forest (with something that could make her an even bigger target....), no follow-up at all? Not making any effort at all to see her to a secure place, a safe place? Or at the very least, spend ten minutes talking to her and the village she was robbing? Explain what was really going on, ask them to take her in maybe? He did a half-arsed job - at best - and left a jaded, traumatized kid (not to mention a battered, belagured village) to their own devices. He came in, swung his axe around, and walked away. That's not being a "Lord." That's not standing for Order. That's just venting your anger on @$$h0l3s. Good for you. Meanwhile the people you leave behind still have to live their lives when you're gone. Mercy is not sparing the life of a child - that's just *sanity*. True mercy, real compassion and not just some abstract ideal, means taking responsibility for the results of that action and seeing it through. Seeing to the child's care. Seeing to the village's defenses. Making a real difference in people's lives.... not storming in and showing off how awesome you are then vanishing. But no, your axe is as far as you think your responsibility goes, eh? "Mercy to an enemy" did not create the monster that grew up to be the next local terror. Saladin's pride did. His arrogance. That he'd "solved" anything, when he'd barely scratched the surface of it. But he thinks his show of might is enough to change the world. I would've hoped that the intervening centuries would've brought the guy some insight into that incident. But it seems he 's still blaming "the enemy," and the concept of mercy - when there's no one to blame but himself. He failed that child, and the village that withered and died. And all he has to offer to make up for it is more judgement, more death. Perhaps one day the enormity of what he'd done, the full weight of it, will come crashing down on his mind. Perhaps he'll go half mad when it does. Perhaps that would be for the best. Sometimes old iron needs to be smelted and reforged. Edit: also, YES LUCENT HIVE RISEN BY THE TRAVELLER GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLIES MAN GET OVER IT ALREADY Who in Bungie decided to troll us with every voice line in the Tower being repeated literally every 5 seconds, endlessly, as loudly as if they were standing next to you shouting in your ear? I have to kill my damn volume whenever I need to manage my inventory lmao