Quote Originally Posted by Cebo View Post
Those who argue it lays the foundation and is necessary for world-building really oversell it. Things like Good King Moogle Mog, Leviathan/Ramuh, the Ivy's subterfuge etc. could all have been on the chopping block (ie. moved to sidequests), without much loss to the primary narrative.
The issue with removing Moogle Mog is the Churning Mists in Heavensward either gets further bloated or needs to be restructured to fit the loss of earning the trust of the Twelveswood moogles specifically Kuplo Kopp.

Removing Leviathan section completely removes a decent amount of voice lines and the knowledge the Scions gained(the Sahagin priest being like the Ascians yet gets killed by Leviathan) which later lead to Moenbryda showing up with white Auracite, the plot mcguffin that allows us to destroy Ascians.

Ramuh section has the same amount of importance as Leviathan section without it the Scions would not have figured out the means to destroy Ascians, Urianger figures out how directly after beating up Ramuh.

Ivy situation is another issue with HW directly referencing it in a voiced cutscene, they ain't going to redo a perfectly fine voiced cutscene, it's a very costly endeavour to do so.