For players of Destiny 2 that have been paying attention to a number of narrative clues, this information is likely nothing more than a confirmation, but for everyone else, it was indeed made plain by narrative designer Robert Brookes that Saint-14 and Osiris are gay and “always have been.”
The revelation was part of an honest thread from Brookes where he talked about his own experiences growing up bisexual, how representation in media is important, and about his own suspicions about the two Guardians. “I’ve been writing Saint and Osiris as gay since I started working at Bungie, because that’s who they were before,” he writes. “Back when I joined Bungie I always felt Saint-14 and Osiris were romantically involved because, as a queer man, their romance made sense to me. I learned my interpretation was in fact correct when I became a narrative designer for the company and I was overjoyed.”
As to why Brookes has outright announced it, he says it’s a matter of avoiding the harm of queerbaiting, particularly when there were only small narrative tidbits that alluded to the pair’s relationship such as Osiris finding notes hidden by Saint in his ship and Saint referring to Osiris as “my fiery phoenix.” Brookes writes, “When I saw how much the community was unclear on something as obvious as ‘is Zavala an Awoken’ I realized I should probably just say something. Because it’s not a secret, it’s not a point of speculation, and it’s not some puzzle designed to be solved by the community. It’s them.”
