4) Oryx
I know, one should never judge another based solely on appearance, but it’s tough not to assume Oryx sits firmly on the despicable end of the moral spectrum. It’s the teeth that give it away, mind you; The Taken King‘s galaxy-spanning crusade against the Traveler and his Light are a secondary giveaway – nobody with gnashers that crooked or stained with blood could be considered a kind and gentle soul. Who, after all, really has time for dental hygiene when there are planets to conquer and humans to devour?
For a villain who was only properly introduced as a threat to Earth’s Guardians as part of Destiny‘s first expansion, Oryx, for all intents and purposes, is to be considered the first game’s primary antagonist. The narrative yarn that Bungie spun for the vanilla game, which placed the Vex at pole position in the hierarchy of villainy largely fell flat as a threatening, all conquering force, not because they weren’t intimidating, but more so that the time-traveling robotic race had no face or spokesperson to represent them.
Oryx, on the other hand, is exactly that. Bungie started foreshadowing his arrival with The Dark Below by pitting players against his son, Crota. After the latter receives a swift spanking (read: he’s very dead) at the hands of the Vanguard, daddy takes it upon himself to finish what his spawn started. It’s not so much the remarkably mild encounter with Oryx at the end of The Taken King‘s story that makes the monster so memorable, but rather, the spectacularly designed boss fight at the climax of the expansion’s King’s Fall raid.
Even now, at Destiny‘s end, that particular encounter remains the most visually striking and mechanically ambitious boss fight to date and the one that Bungie will undoubtedly want to top with Destiny 2‘s first end game PvE affair.
