Yeah like, there are 3 or 4, maybe 5 threads in General Discussions that are positive, and they all get mocked and dogpiled on. The outcome was predicted on the very first page of this thread.
Seriously can someone ban those sockpuppets?
My main issue with the story was the second point in the OP, "The right of succession was mostly pointless and dragged out".
None of the things written in that section of the OP really address it, imo. Like, I get the themes it's presenting, and they're fine, but also it was a story that was basically laid out at the start and then proceeded exactly as-expected. An event having in-world significance, and playing through it feeling pointless/boring/dragged out, are different things. The closest thing to a twist or interesting plot development I cared about was the backstory of Bakool Ja Ja, where the "Wuk and Koana" ending was on my bingo sheet for the straightest way to tie up that plot too (though I was secretly hoping it was Erenville as a twist). The only other thing that could have possibly been a shocking plot development would be Valigarmanda being freed, but even without the teasing of it being the first trial, we know we would've been fighting it regardless, so it being freed would be entirely unsurprising. Plus, it felt like Wuk's character honestly didn't have much character development at all from the journey, she gains an education about the people of Tural but being more educated and character development are pretty different things.
That being said, I thought everything from the 97 dungeon (Vanguard) and beyond was fantastic, and for the most part I don't have *that* much of a problem with Wuk, I just think she was put front+center a *little* too much after the succession. 90-96 was just a bit disappointing.
Disclaimer: I didn't read the post because I am still early in the story, but I really love Dawntrail so far.
After so much focus on the WoL as the main character, it's refreshing to have other characters (mainly Wuk Lamat) as the main focus for the time being. Also, the writing seems to be favoring a lot of character development, which is something I really enjoy seeing and is a nice change of pace from the constant major events happening in other expansions. As well, seeing the Scions develop their character due to the timeskip in ShB was one of my favorite parts of the expansion, so I like having more of that in Dawntrail.
I'm only up to the level 99 trial but my feelings are the opposite of yours.
I enjoyed 90-96 as a mostly relaxing story that did a substantial amount of world building. It felt like the vacation that YoshiP described it as being when they first started talking about 7.0.
Then the story turned and my reaction was "Was this the best they could come up with to round out the story? Did they really feel a need to jump the shark and raise the stakes like this right after they had talked about how the intent was to dial back on it for an expansion?" I was able to predict far too many things with reasonable accuracy between paying attention to details in the big cutscene at level 96 and then our first meeting with our new enemy.
Maybe what happens between the level 99 trial and the level 100 trial will redeem the second segment of the story but I'm really not hopeful at this point. I'm going into it with a feeling of "well let's just get this over with so I can move onto doing content I find more interesting". I can't remember feeling that way while playing this game since they revamped the ARR MSQ.