Destiny 2’s Most Hated Character Is Now Its Most Adorable

The most hated character in Destiny 2, Uldren Sov, has become perhaps its most beloved. Now known as Crow, Uldren is infamous for killing Cayde-6, the once-Nathan Fillion-voiced Hunter Vanguard who was, at the time, Destiny 2‘s funniest and most popular NPC. Thanks to a memory wipe and some particularly adorable dialogue, Crow might be charming enough to fill the hole he made with Cayde’s death.

Uldren was once the brother of Mara Sov, queen of Destiny‘s mysterious Awoken people. After Mara was thought dead in a battle against Destiny 1‘s Taken King, Uldren entered a period of wandering, looking for his lost sister. He ended up in the Awoken’s Prison of Elders, where he and the Scorn – Fallen he unknowingly resurrected with the corrupting power of the Ahamkara, Destiny‘s wish-granting dragons – eventually escaped, killing Cayde in the process.

His reasons for killing Cayde in Destiny 2: Forsaken weren’t entirely clear; he may have done it to appease the Scorn, whom Cayde imprisoned, or at the orders of the aforementioned Ahamkara, which was influencing him the whole time, or even simply because he never liked Guardians all that much. In any case, the result was the same: Many Destiny players hated Uldren and were happy to be his (implied) killer at the end of the Forsaken campaign. That began to change with a short cutscene in the Black Armory DLC, which showed Uldren waking up from under a burial shroud, revived by one of the Traveler’s Ghosts and turned into a Guardian with no memory of his past life.

How Destiny 2’s Uldren Went From Cayde’s Killer To A Player Favorite

It was another year before Destiny fans heard anything else about this new Guardian Uldren. During Destiny 2‘s The Dawning 2019 holiday event, players began to learn about Uldren’s struggle to find a place for himself as a Guardian (since any other Guardians he ran into reacted to him with hostility) in the lore entry for a new Exotic ship called Amnestia-S2.

“One night, he sits with his head against his knees and listens to the distant snaps of gunfire. He hasn’t seen anyone in about a week, but he can hear them. Somehow that makes the loneliness worse. More potent.

“‘Did you know,’ his Ghost says, bright but gentle. The purple glint of his shell reflects the half-light outside the crate. ‘That in the Last City, they are celebrating? They call it the Dawning. It is a celebration of friendship and hope and warmth.'”

Rather than an evil, stuck-up jerk deserving of hate, this characterized Guardian Uldren as someone players should feel sorry for – a person despised for reasons he doesn’t understand, spending a holiday alone because of them. This carried forward to Uldren’s long-awaited reappearance in Destiny 2: Beyond Light‘s Season of the Hunt, when players were made to rethink their anger towards him even further. Forced away from Guardian life, his situation had grown even more dire, as Uldren – calling himself Crow – became a hired gun for the Tangled Shore’s mob boss-like Spider, who subsequently attached a bomb to his Ghost’s shell to prevent him from fleeing.

But Crow’s appeal isn’t just his sad story. Despite his circumstances, he’s not glum or mopey – he’s charming. Whereas Uldren’s personality was one of angst and arrogance, Crow is adorably pitiful. Like a younger brother, he’s eager to prove himself to the player’s Guardian, acting cool and self-assured, only to be revealed as earnest and inexperienced by his plucky Ghost, Glint. Destiny 2 fans on Reddit have fallen in love with this new Uldren, many saying the writing of his redemption is Season of the Hunt’s best aspect. In one particularly devastating and ironic post-mission voice line, Crow even tells the player, “We make a good team, Guardian! It’s a shame we never met before, or I might not have died in the first place.”

Things came full-circle when players delivered Crow some Dawning cookies. His heartfelt response, illustrated above by fan artist Vanade, is sure to have moved even the most resentful player: “‘Thank you,’ he says softly. ‘Truly.'” Finally, following Destiny 2‘s recent Coup De Grace mission, the player’s Guardian freed Crow from Spider’s grasp. Perhaps now, being a player-favorite character, this once-infamous Awoken prince can fulfill Cayde-6’s wish to make his killer the next Hunter Vanguard.

About The Author

Camden Jones
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Camden Jones is one of Screen Rant’s gaming features editors. He loves video games, but he’s even more interested in the people who make and play them.

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