Seeing the posts come up about the topic varying wildly, I figured we should discuss what the concept is and how it’s likely to manifest. So what is it? Simply put: that which proves it right to exist over all else. Unveiling, The First Knife: “All you will do, I said, with rising panic|fury, is delay the dominant pattern that will overrun the others. It is inevitable. One final shape… Whatever exists because it must exist and because it permits no other way of existence has the absolute claim to existence. That is the only law.” And contest after contest would whittle things down to a final result, ie Final Shape. In the Flower Game, the contest was to see which pattern dominates. In the cosmos, it’s been a struggle between the Dark and Light. Seeing which side is ultimately correct. Unveiling, The Wager: “That which cannot claim and hold existence is not real. You do not mourn the unreal. Why should you care for it? Tend it? Guard it? It was the gardener that chose you from the dead. I wouldn't have done that. It's just not in me. But now that they have invested themself in you, you are incredibly, uniquely special. [b]That wandering refugee chose to make a stand, spend their power to say: "Here I prove myself right. Here I wager that, given power over physics and the trust of absolute freedom, people will choose to build and protect a gentle kingdom ringed in spears. And not fall to temptation. And not surrender to division. And never yield to the cynicism that says, everyone else is so good that I can afford to be a little evil." [/b] The gardener is all in. They are playing for keeps. And they are wrong. Or so I argue: for, after all, the universe is undecidable. There is no destiny. We're all making this up as we go along. Neither the gardener nor I know for certain that we're eternally, universally right. But we can be nothing except what we are. You have a choice.” Coupled with the First Knife quote, we see the two positions being taken. Gardner: we won’t abuse the power too much Winnower: we’ll ruin the cosmos with the power. So given the rules of this contest, the Final Shape is nothing more than the victor of the conflict. And we see it clearly in the game. The Dark side ravages the cosmos in selfish pursuit. The Hive- committing cosmic genocide to maintain immortality The Witness- destroying the whole cosmos cause it disagrees Calus- willing to destroy the cosmos to be self indulgent The very things the Winnower warned would happen. But our alliance with our enemies and working cooperatively is exactly what the Gardner envisioned, as highlighted in the wager quote. “people will choose to build and protect a gentle kingdom ringed in spears. And not fall to temptation. And not surrender to division.” And it’s solely because we didn’t fall into temptation (going dark side) and division (allying with enemies enabled us to progress to where we are now). Which tells us how it’s going to end. Especially since Bungie spoiled things by saying the game continues afterwards. We, the Light side, have to win. We’d all be dead otherwise lol The issue is, what happens to the gods and powers. Personally, I think they are going with the Ulan-Tan ending. It was the only one they carried over from D1 and was hinted at in the Travelers Vision cutscene. We sacrifice the Light to rid the cosmos of the Darkness. The cutscene shows a showdown on Io and they just so happened to put a lost sector named “the grove of ulan tan” on Io. So I take that are some heavy handed foreshadowing.