Originally Posted by
Striker44
Personally, I don't think they "mishandled" his arc at all - I've felt it's resonated well with me. Things happen that fundamentally change people. They've happened to the scions, too. Y'shtola lost her regular eyesight and now needs to use aether to "see." Thancred lost his ability to use magic in his trip through the lifestream. Yda/Lyse came to terms with who she is and now fights for Ala Mhigo instead of the scions. The dev team "maims" the scions, too, and turns some of them into side material. An expansion doesn't have to kill a major character to be good; then you devolve into killing someone off purely for the sake of killing someone off, and all that will do at this point in a long-running series like FFXIV is alienate fans.
If you haven't done so yet, I'd also encourage doing the Healer role quests in EW. Arenvald plays a major role there and is given significant development.