I’ve seen some of the arguments over the identity of the woman on the poster for expansion 2, and I still think it’s Ana Bray, not Elsie Bray or Lady Efrideet.
One of the arguments Myelin made earlier this month is that Ana Bray is claimed to be dead by Lakshmi-2. This seems like a pretty damning piece of evidence, but I don’t think it’s as important as it sounds. There has been a pretty large shift in the way Bungie is writing Destiny 2 versus Destiny 1. Even the concept of the Darkness is being altered to be less vague. I could very easily see the statement being mistaken, ie everyone thought she was dead when she was just missing, or just straight being retconned. Considering all the time-fuckery that’s about to occur in the Curse of Osiris expansion, I could totally see Bungie using that as an excuse to bring back fabled characters from the past. Fingers crossed for the return of Saint-14.
The bigger reason I think it’s Ana, that I haven’t really seen talked about many other places, is the Light holograms you encounter when you unlock Gunslinger in Destiny 2. Most of the recordings are Cayde repeating excerpts from Ghost Fragment Rasputin. The other snippets are other people, one talks about a legendary gunslinger, and another talks about a hunter adamant she could fight an Ahamkara. While the Ahamkara story could be many people, the other story sounds like it describes Ana Bray at the Battle of Twilight Gap.
She leaves the rifle and walks across the naked obsidian into the swarm firing from the hip as she goes, each kick of the old revolver a word. The stone smokes around her where the arc fire lashes it, and the shrapnel guns throw up leaves of obsidian like glass butterflies. She shoots her bandoliers dry, and a team of Vandals in glassy stealth leap up to rush her with knives, but she raises her hand and burns them down with the golden gun, laughing.
So if we are to assume that the gunslinger of the golden gun anecdote is Ana Bray, then what is purpose of the Rasputin story that Cayde tells? I think this might have been an intentional use of the Kuleshov Effect to draw a connection between Ana Bray and Rasputin, especially considering that we already know that it is almost certain that Rasputin will factor into the second expansion. There is no reason for the Cayde holograms to be about Rasputin in that setting unless it is to link Rasputin and the gunslinger talked about in the other holograms.
This reasoning, while potentially flimsy on its own, ties into the other evidence that has been discussed in the past. The fact that Clovis Bray created the Warminds, the emblem on the woman’s shoulder, the fact that the woman is a hunter, etc.
I do think that accepting this evidence precludes the woman from being Elsie Bray, considering Elsie was not known to be at Twilight Gap. It does not preclude Lady Efrideet, although I personally don’t believe it to be her. I think it would make more sense for it to be a Bray, with biometric access to Bray facilities, than Efrideet, who probably wants absolutely nothing to do with Rasputin after the fall of the Iron Lords to SIVA.
I’d love to know what people think. I know this is a pretty tenuous connection to make, but I think it’s worth exploring. Braces to have the infinite reasons I’m wrong shouted at me.
