Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

Just switch your voices to JP.

I just finished the MSQ (thanks July 4th holiday, I get to stay home!). Even towards the end, when the plot is no longer even about her, she's constantly omnipresent, constantly giving her take, constantly following us around. We get about 1 quest to breathe before we immediately tag with her again. When the group splits up, it's always Wuk Lamat being paired with us while the other characters get split off to do their own thing. The rare sections where it's just us and Erenville were a breath of fresh air, well I shouldn't say fresh since Erenville is a bit depressing to be around but the change of pace was nice by comparison. It's really baffling how much they want her to be around us. At least with the Scions in Shadowbringers and Endwalker, they rotated who was tagging with us, and it made their presence a lot more bearable.

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Originally Posted by Underscore

Just switch your voices to JP.

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It isn't the voice acting. The JP, German and French audiences are also many shades of angry over this game, and they are putting a lot of the problem on how Wuk Lamat is too much the obnoxious center of the expansion. Riling against how the character is voiced at this point may just be pavlovian response because it is the sound you hear every time she dominates the cutscenes. You'd learn to hate any voice that way -- if they had written a popular established Scion like Alisaie to be pushed this aggressively into the main PoV role and made her a character we just couldn't seem to get a break away from to play our own game for even a little, then I think we'd have started hating the sound of her voice, too.

It occurred to me, one of the (many) reasons why the character comes off as so annoying is that they constantly interject into discussions with other NPCs, stating the obvious and not actually adding anything of value. In any other expansion, it would typically be the WoL silently reacting with an emote, or the occasional dialogue option, or one of the Scions occasionally adding something insightful. But in Dawntrail it's Wuk Lamat constantly and unceasingly stating the obvious whenever she's around. I can't count the number of times where I would be hastily clicking past her dialogue specifically, and it only got worse the longer the story dragged on, and I honestly haven't missed anything important to the story from doing so.

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Originally Posted by Xylira

It occurred to me, one of the (many) reasons why the character comes off as so annoying is that they constantly interject into discussions with other NPCs, stating the obvious and not actually adding anything of value. In any other expansion, it would typically be the WoL silently reacting with an emote, or the occasional dialogue option, or one of the Scions occasionally adding something insightful. But in Dawntrail it's Wuk Lamat constantly and unceasingly stating the obvious whenever she's around. I can't count the number of times where I would be hastily clicking past her dialogue specifically, and it only got worse the longer the story dragged on, and I honestly haven't missed anything important to the story from doing so.

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The writers are worried you might forget about peace, happiness, diversity, tacos, and sea sickness if it's not injected into every conversation.

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Originally Posted by lolnotacat

The writers are worried you might forget about peace, happiness, diversity, tacos, and sea sickness if it's not injected into every conversation.

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If tacos are underserved, then that is entirely due to the game itself. G'raha eating a taco was one of the highlights of the trailer, and I still can't believe where it was that we finally got to see that.

It's not that Wuk Lamat is bad... I think the overall reasoning behind the expansion feels off. I just finished the Hanu portion of MSQ.... As well as it's side quests. The game really made it a point that we should be respectful of diversity, culture, and blah blah blah blame a npc for the actions of the past which was not the case. I feel slight woke tendancies, this feels unnecessary so far. Hopefully things get better as MSQ goes on.

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Originally Posted by GeissTheWild

Wow, there really is no such thing as pleasing people. Endwalker was a great end to the tale of the Warrior of Light, now we're back to being some adventurer and you know what. I LIKE Wuk Lamat, she's actually refreshing from the CONSTANT downers we've had the last couple of runs.

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Refreshing take?
She's only the fifth or so naive idealist character in the main scenario. The difference is the other characters had to change their approaches to solve problems because the far more grounded writing of the the past expansions wasn't afraid to provide grave consequences for their naivety. Dawntrail bends realism to be a wholly idealistic story where Wuk Lamat doesn't need to change just for sake of repeating the "we can achieve anything if we work together for peace and happiness of all" message over and over, which isn't even new to XIV either. That's a theme that has existed since 2.0. Dawntrail is simply a lot more childish about the delivery of it and lacks subtext.

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Originally Posted by Underscore

Just switch your voices to JP.

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It isn’t just terrible English voice acting that is causing people to be critical of Wuk Lamat. I play with Japanese audio and still found her to be an insufferable black hole of a character that reduced any and every more interesting character around her to virtually nothing because she ALWAYS had to be there. Even when the WoL is the center of an expansion (e.g., Shadowbringers) we don’t turn other interesting characters around us into set extras. And even when the WoL is the “sidekick” in another’s story (e.g., Stormblood), we aren’t made to feel irrelevant and as if our role in the story could have been fulfilled by Generic NPC #47262939.

I don’t know if the English VA is just inexperienced, if the VA direction for English was just bad, or if it was the forced foreign accent (because I don’t believe the VA has an accent IRL— but correct me if I’m wrong; I don’t know anything about the English VA); but the comparisons I have heard between English and Japanese are like night and day. Even my friends that prefer the English VA over the Japanese one contemplated switching over; but it really doesn’t make her a more likable or interesting character.

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Originally Posted by midnitdragoon

It's not that Wuk Lamat is bad... I think the overall reasoning behind the expansion feels off. I just finished the Hanu portion of MSQ.... As well as it's side quests. The game really made it a point that we should be respectful of diversity, culture, and blah blah blah blame a npc for the actions of the past which was not the case. I feel slight woke tendancies, this feels unnecessary so far. Hopefully things get better as MSQ goes on.

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Now if you said the game has Wuk tendencies, I would have to agree with you.

But once you realize that the Hanu scenario plays straight from the 'primitive tribal people need smart white man to come tell them something stupidly obvious' trope, you'll start to notice that actual respect for other cultures and diversity and all that is quite far from this expansion.

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Originally Posted by Eyrilona

Now if you said the game has Wuk tendencies, I would have to agree with you.

But once you realize that the Hanu scenario plays straight from the 'primitive tribal people need smart white man to come tell them something stupidly obvious' trope, you'll start to notice that actual respect for other cultures and diversity and all that is quite far from this expansion.

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I'm not saying that your right or wrong.... I just don't know if this is the right direction for XIV to go in. Only time will tell, and of course my opinion will change as I go through MSQ

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Originally Posted by Xylira

It occurred to me, one of the (many) reasons why the character comes off as so annoying is that they constantly interject into discussions with other NPCs, stating the obvious and not actually adding anything of value. In any other expansion, it would typically be the WoL silently reacting with an emote, or the occasional dialogue option, or one of the Scions occasionally adding something insightful. But in Dawntrail it's Wuk Lamat constantly and unceasingly stating the obvious whenever she's around. I can't count the number of times where I would be hastily clicking past her dialogue specifically, and it only got worse the longer the story dragged on, and I honestly haven't missed anything important to the story from doing so.

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She frustratingly seems to crush almost every scene in the game, it's crazy how she's the only focus of pretty much everything

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Originally Posted by Reinha

I'm doing the melee role quests before starting the level 99 MSQ and it's a breath of fresh air to unravel the story by myself with no Wuk Lamat in sight pushing her opinions and expecting praise. Doing this quest line veeeeeery slowly just to extend the time away from her. I've never felt like I needed to actively avoid the MSQ to enjoy the game until now. Not even in ARR.

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I started first role and crafting quests, but then went the opposite way - I decided to stop everything else and finish MSQ as fast as possible, so I don't have it hanging over my head. Did it today and now I can finally do things without Wuk Lamat lurking at every corner.

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Originally Posted by Regis_Paran

I started first role and crafting quests, but then went the opposite way - I decided to stop everything else and finish MSQ as fast as possible, so I don't have it hanging over my head. Did it today and now I can finally do things without Wuk Lamat lurking at every corner.

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Lucky you, I'm trying so hard to get there too but it's a slog. I've never been more excited to finally finish the MSQ so I can grind out leveling crafting and other jobs in a FFXIV expansion.

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Originally Posted by FlowerMilk

Lucky you, I'm trying so hard to get there too but it's a slog. I've never been more excited to finally finish the MSQ so I can grind out leveling crafting and other jobs in a FFXIV expansion.

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Definitely power through it. I was extremely sour on the expansion until the MSQ was over and I was allowed to have fun again. I've had a good time doing end game/leveling stuff. DT PvE stuff is really good.

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Originally Posted by Tsumdere

Definitely power through it. I was extremely sour on the expansion until the MSQ was over and I was allowed to have fun again. I've had a good time doing end game/leveling stuff. DT PvE stuff is really good.

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Yeah I really like everything besides the MSQ and I am actually excited to spend a long time in these zones, dungeons, listening to the music, collecting cool looking gear, etc. Every other aspect of the expansion the developers knocked out of the park minus the writing team, I don't know what happened because the story has always been the strongest aspect.

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Originally Posted by FlowerMilk

Lucky you, I'm trying so hard to get there too but it's a slog. I've never been more excited to finally finish the MSQ so I can grind out leveling crafting and other jobs in a FFXIV expansion.

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Yeah I'm still going through the last zone. Early on, I started doing all the aether currents first; I normally hate the aether current hunt, purely subjectively, and wish they'd just be given to me by finishing a zone's story, but this time around they're a nice solitary reprieve before I have to get back to the quests. That says a lot. But I just got the last one that's not tied to the main quest progression, so back into the fray it goes.

And in the last zones, I've thought over and over again how cool some elements are on their own, and what potential the story has if given room to breathe. I wish the first half of the expansion was just cut out entirely, forget the succession game, start somewhere in the wild west and then give the whole latter half the space it needs. And by all the Divines and all the Primals, leave Wuk Lamat out, because we're getting some pretty decent dialogue sometimes when she's not there, and then she butts in again and gets the camera focus, the reactions, the decisionmaking, and all the bit of depth that was trying to build up collapses again like the saddest house of cards. This expansion could have worked, there are the hints, and that's one of the saddest things about this.

This seems very much to be a case of Wuk Lamat being the writer's baby. It's just assumed you love her from the start and want to help, there is no other option, nothing other than complete trust and support for this new character.
I doubt SE, CBU3, or the writer thought people would find her annoying, cringe, or otherwise not completely fall in love with her from the start.

To me that's the most annoying part, there's no room to warm up to her, she's just shoved down your throat. "Oh we need to split up? I'll go with the WoL!"
It feels like she is in the spotlight the entire expansion and you're just background dressing forced to support her whether you want to or not, while youre character has the biggest grin on their face.

While you may not want to, your WoL wants nothing more than to help out the writer's little mary sue baby at any cost.

Wuk Lamat is a good character with good char development and really made me enjoy this expansion story more. People need to chill about not being the MC all the time, it's been 10 years of that, can't we enjoy something different for once ?

Also, what's cringe about her really ? She is a bit naive at first, but then grow to be much more mature and everything, how is that so bad ? Nitpicking at it's finest, people that cringe for that, oof...

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Originally Posted by Vhein

Wuk Lamat is a good character with good char development and really made me enjoy this expansion story more. People need to chill about not being the MC all the time, it's been 10 years of that, can't we enjoy something different for once ?

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Why would I want to play a game where I'm not the main character?

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Originally Posted by Vhein

Wuk Lamat is a good character with good char development and really made me enjoy this expansion story more. People need to chill about not being the MC all the time, it's been 10 years of that, can't we enjoy something different for once ?

Also, what's cringe about her really ? She is a bit naive at first, but then grow to be much more mature and everything, how is that so bad ? Nitpicking at it's finest, people that cringe for that, oof, touch some grass really.

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I'm mostly annoyed at how the game CONSTANTLY tries to force her into every single situation, even ones where it makes no sense. Like exploring the second city. It would make far too much sense to go with Krile or similar, no, gotta go around with Wuk Lamat so she can go on and on about peace and happiness for the 20th time

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Originally Posted by VerdeLuck

Why would I want to play a game where I'm not the main character?

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It's moments like this that makes me realise why FF12 isn't more popular in the west lol.

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Originally Posted by Ramiee

It's moments like this that makes me realise why FF12 isn't more popular in the west lol.

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It isn't? I really like XII myself, and I actually thought it gave me a more interesting form of control over what every member of my party was doing than previous titles.

I will be honest; I was enjoying her goofiness at the beginning. (To be fair, I'm a fan of the sillier parts of XIV *and* yellow quests anyway)

But then it kept going. And it kept going. And then she started repeating herself, over and over.

And then we were level 95 it was still not done.

And when you have the perfect excuse to leave her behind and explore with Krile and Erenville... Nope, she still comes along.

And then you try to have a hype final battle in the last trial and she literally butts in because she *has* to be there for that too.

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Originally Posted by Ramiee

It's moments like this that makes me realise why FF12 isn't more popular in the west lol.

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?
You can control literally anyone in XII. Including the real main character. That's not an absent feature in it.

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Originally Posted by VerdeLuck

This seems very much to be a case of Wuk Lamat being the writer's baby. It's just assumed you love her from the start and want to help, there is no other option, nothing other than complete trust and support for this new character.
I doubt SE, CBU3, or the writer thought people would find her annoying, cringe, or otherwise not completely fall in love with her from the start.

To me that's the most annoying part, there's no room to warm up to her, she's just shoved down your throat. "Oh we need to split up? I'll go with the WoL!"
It feels like she is in the spotlight the entire expansion and you're just background dressing forced to support her whether you want to or not, while youre character has the biggest grin on their face.

While you may not want to, your WoL wants nothing more than to help out the writer's little mary sue baby at any cost.

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Yeah I think this is a big part of it, I never warmed to her and the story immediately assumes the viewer likes her and starts forcing her and no thought was given to taking the time to shore her up it just went harder which was jsut frustrating to sit through

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...14a41d8806992&

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Originally Posted by jameseoakes

Yeah I think this is a big part of it, I never warmed to her and the story immediately assumes the viewer likes her and starts forcing her and no thought was given to taking the time to shore her up it just went harder which was jsut frustrating to sit through

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I did really like Wuk Lamat coming in to Dawntrail. Even liking her from 6.55 is not a robust enough protection against growing increasingly annoyed with her place in (or should I say on top of) the narrative.

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Originally Posted by Vhein

Wuk Lamat is a good character with good char development and really made me enjoy this expansion story more. People need to chill about not being the MC all the time, it's been 10 years of that, can't we enjoy something different for once ?

Also, what's cringe about her really ? She is a bit naive at first, but then grow to be much more mature and everything, how is that so bad ? Nitpicking at it's finest, people that cringe for that, oof...

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I would love to enjoy something different, but the writers forced me to listen to one singular mediocre character for 30 hours without giving me a chance to learn more about others.

I admit, i haven't purchased Dawntrail yet but it sounds to me like XIV's found it's Jar Jar binks.

DT is like a long beast tribe, not missing much.

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Originally Posted by Vhein

Wuk Lamat is a good character with good char development and really made me enjoy this expansion story more. People need to chill about not being the MC all the time, it's been 10 years of that, can't we enjoy something different for once ?

Also, what's cringe about her really ? She is a bit naive at first, but then grow to be much more mature and everything, how is that so bad ? Nitpicking at it's finest, people that cringe for that, oof...

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There have been plenty of instances where we weren’t “the main character” or acting like a black hole that sucks any and all importance and relevance from the characters around us. Unlike Wuk Lamat. She is shoved into every aspect of the expansion; including the very end where she deus ex machinas herself into the last trial just because we can’t have a SINGLE MOMENT without her.

What’s cringe is her constant spouting about peace and love and harmony and friendship. None of these things are bad, but she is constantly preaching about them. Every time she mentioned any of them, I just started rolling my eyes. Like enough already. We get it. You want peace and love and harmony and friendship for all of Tural. I don’t find her any more mature, well-traveled, or see any character growth by the end of the expansion, personally. Everyone keeps bringing up this “character growth” she has, but never actually lists what said growth is. Erenville and Krile had more character growth and progression in the final zone than Wuk Lamat had the entire expansion. Which I don’t think is a good thing.


And inb4 anyone says “This is the first book in a new series!”, I should haven’t to read a bad Book One to get to a good Book Two. Assuming Book Two is even good. Books should be able to stand on their own and have aspects to each that make them good within the series/arc. If your series/arc doesn’t get good until the second installment, that’s not a good thing. Most people don’t want to sit through a long and arduous slog to get to the “good parts”.

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Originally Posted by ReynTime

?
You can control literally anyone in XII. Including the real main character. That's not an absent feature in it.

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To be fair, you can't control Balthier in towns. Game would be too awesome if it did and so it needed nerfing, for our own sakes, probably, maybe.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

And inb4 anyone says “This is the first book in a new series!”, I should haven’t to read a bad Book One to get to a good Book Two. Assuming Book Two is even good. Books should be able to stand on their own and have aspects to each that make them good within the series/arc. If your series/arc doesn’t get good until the second installment, that’s not a good thing. Most people don’t want to sit through a long and arduous slog to get to the “good parts”.

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I don't think people realise just how important first impressions are: the first few pages of a book, the first 5 minutes of a movie, the first 5 minutes of a game, mess that up and people lose interest.

The first few minutes with Wuk at the end of EW told me she was loud and annoying. The first 5 minutes of DT gives us the shonen cliché of her being sea sick, am I playing FFXIV or watching Fairy Tail? She starts out loud, obnoxious and naive and doesn't stop being loud and obnoxious. Post-EW started making me a story skipper and DT practically forced me into it just to not have to put up with Wuk.

Thanks Kate very cool!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRqZbZOW...pg&name=medium

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Originally Posted by Fourbestintoner

DT is like a long beast tribe, not missing much.

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Wow, that's a yikes.
We call them Allied Societies now
Honestly, it's 2024. You need to do better.
(/s in case it wasn't obvious enough.)

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Originally Posted by Vhein

Wuk Lamat is a good character with good char development

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She has less depth as a character than Zenos, and he was about as deep as a drying puddle.

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Originally Posted by EusisLandale

She has less depth as a character than Zenos, and he was about as deep as a drying puddle.

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Zenos: "I want to fight the warrior of light!" Everyone: "How are you going to do that, Zenos?" Zenos: "I'm going to stalk them, threaten everyone they care about, and chase them to the ends of the universe until they fight me."

Wuk: "I want to... um... peace! Yeah. I want peace for my people." Everyone: "How are you going to do that, Wuk?" Wuk: "I don't know, LMAO! Someone tell me what to do, in a way that makes me look like I figured it out myself."

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Originally Posted by Karious

Thanks Kate very cool!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRqZbZOW...pg&name=medium

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Yeah she's definitely Kate's self insert OC lmao

It is done! I'm catfree!
Ending comments:

I knew about The Trial in theory, and braced myself for the unwelcome guest appearance, but when it happened, it was so much worse than I'd even imagined. It just keeps going on and on! And her and Sphene keep talking over the entire last part of the fight! And then they still keep talking afterwards! We get to make our rare dialogue choice, and otherwise everything is about them, and her, and when they're done talking, that's it for the game, and the ending celebration is still about Wuk Lamat, oh my goodness.
Erenville, I will adventure with you anytime, it's been a pleasure, kind of the only one on this trainwreck of a journey. Wuk Lamat, no I will not call on you. Please stay out of the patches, provided I'm even still playing by then. I still don't know. This ending left an even sourer taste in my mouth than I thought it would.

Zero even with all the fedora tipping at least learned new things and changed as a character. Lamat already knew what she knew and just needed us to be there so she could remember it.
"Hmm.. I wonder why is ......"
"Thats right! peace and love"

Its like when you friend asks you something and then they answer it by themselves 30 seconds later. Funny irl,
not in game. I want fantasy, I want creative story telling, I want an actual character development considering shes going for the throne. I bet in 9.0 when we see her again shes still going to be afraid of sea or balloon.

You see, there were also jokes like that about Urianger and Alphi not being able to swim but it was there as a comedic moment NOT as their personality. And thats why its funny.