Season storylines

[Stormwolf]

I've catched up to season 11 now. There are a lot of them and it seems to be a whole day worth of cutscenes to catch up on content i can't actually play. Any seasons that are entirely skippable due to being irrelevant in the overall story?

[Mez Koo]

Tbh a lot of them are skippable, there are timeline missions in the game that have concise cutscenes to get you up to speed.

Season of:

Hunt - we liberate Crow (Guardian Uldren) from Spider.

Chosen - we challenge the Cabal Empress and through contest of strength we form an alliance.

Splicer - Fallen move into the city, racists don't like it, tried a coup, failed and ran away.

Lost - Savathun (Hive Queen) makes a deal for us to help remove her worm.

Risen - we solidify our alliance with the Cabal.

Haunted - we deal with Calus' resurgence and work through Zavala and Crow's traumas.

Plunder - Eramis melted and threw some words.

Seraph - a lot happened but at the same time nothing happened, the Warmind Network is dismantled and Traveler woke up to challenge the Black Fleet.

Defiance - LITERALLY NOTHING

Deep - brought Titan and its guardian Sloane back and we learn about the Witness.

Witch - we powered Eris up to challenge the other hive Queen Xivu Arath, nothing happened.

Wish - we made a deal with Riven (the last wish dragon) to open a portal to follow the Witness into the traveler.

TLDR - If I really had to boil it down to the strictest sense:
12 Find Crow who is guardian Uldren - only need cinematics
13 Cabal Empress admires guardians - skip
14 Fallen move into city - skip
15 we remove Savathun's worm - skip
16 formal Cabal and Human alliance - watch all scenes
17 Crow accepts Uldren, Zavala finally grieves family, Calus reborn - watch all scenes
18 Emaris wakes up - skip
19 Warmind network dismantled and Traveler wakes up - the story itself is intersting I'd recommend watching it but has no bearing on narrative as a whole if you're short on time
20 the Black Fleet took prisoners, we still don't know why - skip
21 big fish tells us about the Witness - can skip, info is presented in the Final Shape
22 Eris powers up tells Xivu Arath "no you" - watch cinematics
23 macguffin dragon magic portal to follow the witness - watch cinematics

If you have time I would suggest watching Destiny 2's own youtube archives that have all the cinematics for each season usually includes a "previously on" for context: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw2gyMFmq40rr688Tg-k0zygEZAK3F8W5

If you want deep dives then lore youtubes like My Name is Byf has you covered.

[Mez Koo]

Before people chew my head off about downplaying importance you gotta understand I'm talking from purely a big picture perspective and speaking in terms of narrative.

We as the players did a lot during those seasons obviously because they were supposed to entertain us for 2-3 months but in the grand scheme of narrative and someone looking back at them for context a lot just didn't happen taking out the constant "tune in next week" structure to keep us logging in.

Hunt, Chosen, Splicer, and Lost did nothing to push the narrative along; yes they introduce us to a lot of new allies and enemies but Risen really pushed Caiatl (Cabal Empress) and Crow into the front to develop Cabal relationships along with Crow's place in the world.

Along with Season of the Risen I think Haunted are definitely the most impactful seasons as stuff that happened in Haunted really laid out the motivations for Caiatl, Zavala, and Crow for the next couple years and really grounded their characters.

Seraph like I said a lot did happen and I was purposely vague in my summaries to not spoil for the OP but he was really just a character "created" to move the plot along and it could have easily not happened and nothing would've changed. Now don't get me wrong it was a great season as I explained in terms of us being players with 2 months of content but narratively it was pointless.

Defiance, Deep, Witch, and Wish could have just not happened at all and literally nothing would have mattered, no name npc died in defiance (don't at me), the highlight of Deep was a cutscene that should've been in Lightfall, Witch didn't do anything sure Xivu is now "vulnerable" but would have mattered in the end anyway, and Wish was literally just a deus ex machina to explain why we couldn't just follow the Witness into the Traveler. Again I have to circle back to "as seasons they were good for players but in terms of narrative they were pointless."