[Spoilers] Noble Sacrifices (and the lack thereof)

[FrejyaAthenes]

Can we take a few moments to discuss how much Square seems to be holding its punches with the main characters? Since early Stormblood they have had a habit of putting the main cast into mortally wounded and/or Noble Sacrifice situations that consistently have zero consequence shortly after. This works well as a storytelling trope, but they just keep doing it and it has reached the point where any time a main character is put into danger I, as the viewer, do not feel a thing as I know they will stand right back up in 5 minutes.

Here are some major examples that I can recall:

Y'shtola nearly cut in half by Zenos
Gosetsu has a building collapse on him
Y'shtola falls into seemingly bottomless pit
Thancred fending off Ran'jit
Ryne taking a seemingly mortal blow from Emet; they even have a slow motion effect on this one for emphasis

On a side note, remember how Y'shtola's use of aethersight was slowly killing her in HW and hasn't been brought up since?

I love these characters as I am sure most of you do, but I am tired of these moments having so little meaning. The Thancred one in particular for this expansion really ruined his entire hero moment for me.

I believe that was a dub only line, so don't expect it to come up later.

[Cilia]

Honestly, with all the people complaining about the lack of major characters dying, I wish they'd just do an Aerith-style death to satisfy them. Comes out of nowhere and solves nothing.

Character death =/= good storytelling.

[Dualblade]

Honestly, with all the people complaining about the lack of major characters dying, I wish they'd just do an Aerith-style death to satisfy them. Comes out of nowhere and solves nothing.

Character death =/= good storytelling.

Now now lets be fair here, it DID almost solve Sephiroth's problem of casting Meteor. Almost.

Almost solved shippers problems too, cept you can never solve that.

[Nanami_Naniwa]

I cannot count the times I thought that now they are going to kill off Thancred - especially in this expac. Don't get me wrong. I'm always relief when the characters I'm grown fond of survive. But especially with Thancred I felt like they should have just let them make his noble sacrifice. Right now I can't take situations where it seems like a character is going to die seriously anymore. Because part of me will always be like: "They bring them back somehow anyway."

So even if they going to kill someone off, I'm probably having a hard time believing it and can't proper moan them because I don't think they are gone for good. :/

[Alleo]

I am the opposite and I wished we had less death and I am quite happy with how this expansion is right now. (Of course they can still change that in the coming patches) I find it to be really bad to develop a character just to have him die. And I dislike dramatic deaths just for the sense of being dramatic.

This expansion shows imo that you can have huge emotional impacts without needing to kill a major character off. Of course using too much of this: is he/she death? can become predictable and boring after some time but people should not forget that the characters in that moment dont know if the other is alive and feel the emotions for that. Even if they come back later this can still leave scars on someone.

I also think it fits well in an expansion that is about: Lets not sacrifice the lives of people but continue fighting and finding ways without needing people do die. Of course even with this view people will die along the way.

[Hezzlocks]

I cannot count the times I thought that now they are going to kill off Thancred - especially in this expac. Don't get me wrong. I'm always relief when the characters I'm grown fond of survive. But especially with Thancred I felt like they should have just let them make his noble sacrifice. Right now I can't take situations where it seems like a character is going to die seriously anymore. Because part of me will always be like: "They bring them back somehow anyway."

So even if they going to kill someone off, I'm probably having a hard time believing it and can't proper moan them because I don't think they are gone for good. :/

Funnily enough, I never once thought Thancred was in any mortal danger. Oh, I rode the highs and lows, for sure, but in the back of my mind I knew he would be fine. In fact, I knew ALL the Scions would be fine. Why?

The Trust system.

Plus, as the only tank in the Scions, Thancred surviving is an automatic given. And no, G'raha Tia doesn't count, as he can't reliably stray too far from the Crystal Tower.

[CaesarCV]

I mean, I personally at least felt like this expansion was a lot better about that sort of thing than Stormblood was. I never really got the impression that any of our Scion Friends were really dead, or that they were trying to make us think that. The closest was the Flow scene, but even that had the clear mysterious gust of wind to show that something was up. They didn't dwell on the scion's dead bodies or have the main character scream in anger or terror as Emet-Selch took down the Scions, so I safely assumed they weren't dead. I do understand the confusion with Thancred's battle against Ran'jit and Ryne getting shot though. I think that the direction was a bit unclear on those.

[Jaywalker]

One other thing I wanna throw into this thread--I need to double check the scene but the way I spun my WoL when Y'shtola fell into the pit was basically "if there's no body are we really assuming she's dead???"

When Runar freaks out about the whole thing I actually found that tension between "she couldn't have survived that" versus "she's a miqo'te she has nine lives look at her track record" really interesting. To me it kind of read like WoL was in shock and not sure whether to believe she died or survived at that point because of past weird survivals. Y'shtola was, for a brief period, basically Schrodinger's Cat.

Idk if that shapes what anyone else thinks of the situation but IMO that uncertain period was pretty neat and inches toward exploring what those near-misses do from a character standpoint.

[Neophyte]

I think Y'shtolas 2nd 'accident' was quite good.
First, it didn't happen at 77 and then about 15h later we get a cutscene spoilung her survival for the next patch cycle.
It took less than 1h to resolve the issue.
Second, it was really important for giving Emech an opportunity to recieve 'some' trust, while also showing his powers.

I really liked that something which made us worry for several patches last time was undone with a 'single snap' (quite literally).

[Hezzlocks]

I think Y'shtolas 2nd 'accident' was quite good.
First, it didn't happen at 77 and then about 15h later we get a cutscene spoilung her survival for the next patch cycle.
It took less than 1h to resolve the issue.
Second, it was really important for giving Emech an opportunity to recieve 'some' trust, while also showing his powers.

I really liked that something which made us worry for several patches last time was undone with a 'single snap' (quite literally).

Yeah, plus I don't think SE thinks we're idiots, and it was pretty clear they weren't going to kill Y'shtola off in such an unspectacular way. If she survived Zenos' blade, they aren't going to kill her by making her fall down a bottomless pit, certainly not for a bottle of antidote that kinda came out of nowhere for a bunch of people we didn't know were poisoned until then and haven't had enough time to feel a connection with.

And as you said, it was a good way to showcase Emet-Selch's power while also earning him some brownie points. The first time around, granted she was in the stream for far longer, but it took the collective powers of Gridania's White Mages, as well as pleading the Elements themselves for help, for a rescue attempt that no one was sure would even work. The second time around? Emet-Selch just casually walks up, has a little feel around, snaps his fingers and hey presto he pulled a cat out of the aether! And with a second snap, clothed the poor dear! Heh, kind of reminds me of Piccolo's Clothes Beam.