The key to Azys Lla

[Edax]

I think we get away unscathed simply because the Ascians are just so arrogant and prideful, that we're 'beneath them', as a mortal we're like insects that we're not even worth the effort finishing off. Of course, pride definetely comes before the fall, and thus that means they hold the Idiot Ball well and truely, and are consistantly having their butts kicked accordingly when said 'insects' give them one hell of a nasty venomous sting (Emet all but evokes this with his little racist rant at the end of Amaurot).

But then, we have Lahabrea mercilessly delivering an extremely long monologue of exposition about Hydalean before trying to murder the Warrior of Light in the MSQ roulette. Utterly no point in explaining any of this if the intent is to kill the Warrior of Light and that does seem to be their intent so I'm not even sure arrogance and pride can be an excuse. Ascians are diametrically opposed to agents of Hydaelyn, there's no reason not to cause the Warrior of Light's mission to fail. I can understand Thordan VII leaving the WoL alone since he's a neutral party, but the Ascians are not neutrally aligned to the Warrior of Light.

[MrThinker]

But then, we have Lahabrea mercilessly delivering an extremely long monologue of exposition about Hydalean before trying to murder the Warrior of Light in the MSQ roulette. Utterly no point in explaining any of this if the intent is to kill the Warrior of Light and that does seem to be their intent so I'm not even sure arrogance and pride can be an excuse.

Isn't that just the Evil Plan Trope in action?

[Rannie]

That and I think a bit of the Evil Gloating also with Lahabrea.

[Enkidoh]

Which fits in perfectly how

Lahabrea was mentioned to be the 'master Orator' as an Ancient...

/sarcasm

Hells, Varis stated to Emet's face bluntly that the Ascians outright love "the sound of their own voices", so a tendency to monologue evilly for dramatic effect only goes hand in hand with that.

[YianKutku]

But then, we have Lahabrea mercilessly delivering an extremely long monologue of exposition about Hydalean before trying to murder the Warrior of Light in the MSQ roulette. Utterly no point in explaining any of this if the intent is to kill the Warrior of Light and that does seem to be their intent so I'm not even sure arrogance and pride can be an excuse. Ascians are diametrically opposed to agents of Hydaelyn, there's no reason not to cause the Warrior of Light's mission to fail. I can understand Thordan VII leaving the WoL alone since he's a neutral party, but the Ascians are not neutrally aligned to the Warrior of Light.

Honestly I'm not sure how representative the MSQ roulette duties are, because everyone in those monologues incessantly, like holy carp. I can only assume it's due to the writers at the time not being able to really write a convincing "final dungeon" type of dialogue without motive rants.

Like, Livia definitely intends to kill us, and monologues at us about being thirsty for Gaius. Nero sees us as a mere roadblock on the way to Proving Himself Over Cid, and monologues about it endlessly too. And then we have Gaius "How Glib" van Baelsar, who made a good effort to try to kill us multiple times, and has a monologue about it every time.

Lahabrea was either influencing the XIVth Legion rather too much, or he decided that if everyone was going to prepare a speech, he might as well join in.

[Edax]

Honestly I'm not sure how representative the MSQ roulette duties are, because everyone in those monologues incessantly, like holy carp. I can only assume it's due to the writers at the time not being able to really write a convincing "final dungeon" type of dialogue without motive rants.

Like, Livia definitely intends to kill us, and monologues at us about being thirsty for Gaius. Nero sees us as a mere roadblock on the way to Proving Himself Over Cid, and monologues about it endlessly too. And then we have Gaius "How Glib" van Baelsar, who made a good effort to try to kill us multiple times, and has a monologue about it every time.

Lahabrea was either influencing the XIVth Legion rather too much, or he decided that if everyone was going to prepare a speech, he might as well join in.

I can make arguments that Nero and Gaius are trying to justify to themselves what they are doing with their monologues. With the way Gaius desperately tries to justify how Eorzea is his by right, I get the impression he knows he's wrong and he experiences a character arc with every defeat. I'm not even sure he even would kill the Warrior of Light, seeking to platonically conquer the Warrior of Light instead. With Lahabrea, he's so comically evil and diametrically opposed to the Warrior of Light that there's no point for him to utter a word. He doesn't accomplish anything by talking to the Warrior of Light nor does his character develop, if anything his monologue contradicts his own goal at attempted murder. I'm sure Lahabrea had a fun conversation Elidibus afterward.
"Yes, thank you Lahabrea for telling the Warrior of Light our plans right before she crushed you. Your a credit to Amaurot! Now go to Ishgard and manipulate Thordan VII and try not to tell him all our plans too or get defeated by the elderly."

[kujoestars]

We were literally paralyzed by an Ascian (who would most likely have killed us if we didn’t have Hydaelyn’s Blessing protecting us) after a rough fight with a flying whale primal on top of not having Hydaelyn’s full protection again at the time, as others have mentioned. If that isn’t a good enough reason, I don’t know what is.

[SannaR]

The problem I have with this scene and others like it where we just got done with a huge fight we tend to never look like we're tired. Mostly just because SE seems to have this problem of never showing our character being tired. The only time we seem to actually need a break is the first time we are shown there might be a slight problem with us absorbing lightwardens. Yet after we get back to our feet we just look like we're good to go and I want to say we even start to go ok what's next, but we get told to go to bed because we've exerted ourselves too much. Before Shadowbringers npcs even comment to us on how they don't know how we continue to go at the pace we are and that they feel bad about giving us yet another task for us to do. Then comes Shadowbringers and even though our character looks like they can continue the amount of times we're told to go get some rest increases to the point where it felt like they were going to tell us to go get some rest after attuning to an aetherite. If SE did a better job of showing that we're actually in need of catching our breath we wouldn't end up having scenes like this one where we just stand there and watch.

[Elladie]

We were literally paralyzed by an Ascian (who would most likely have killed us if we didn’t have Hydaelyn’s Blessing protecting us) after a rough fight with a flying whale primal on top of not having Hydaelyn’s full protection again at the time, as others have mentioned. If that isn’t a good enough reason, I don’t know what is.

But we weren't immediately paralysed by an Ascian. We stood there and did nothing while she talked at us. If she had taken us by surprise and wrapped us in darkness before we could react, fine. But that isn't what happens. If we'd attempted to stop her and failed, fine. But we literally DO NOTHING. The only reason for us doing nothing is the story - Thordan needs the key - which is poor and lazy writing.

[kujoestars]

But we weren't immediately paralysed by an Ascian. We stood there and did nothing while she talked at us. If she had taken us by surprise and wrapped us in darkness before we could react, fine. But that isn't what happens. If we'd attempted to stop her and failed, fine. But we literally DO NOTHING. The only reason for us doing nothing is the story - Thordan needs the key - which is poor and lazy writing.

To be fair, we could just still be out of it after the fight, but I can agree having us at least dive at the key before we get paralyzed would have worked better.