[MAJOR ENDWALKER/SHADOWBRINGER SPOILERS] On the introduction of dynamis.

[Nekaru_Infitima]

I have seen people mention time-travel as the reference they were making when they said "we're really going there" but I really feel like introducing dynamis was the most shocking risk.

It was neither. There's another part to that quote if you look it up which I'm about to make a topic about as it would derail this one.

[MirronTulaxia]

Snip.

I don’t think any of the established villains worked as a final villain after Shadowbringers. We killed off the two biggest Ascians, and what’s more Zodiark isn’t some innately evil boogeyman. And what’s more they had been very consistent on Zodiark being weakened. I think trying to do some “fight Zenos/Zodiark/Ascian” endgame would have been fairly weak, especially with how they did Shadowbringers. It’s pretty easy to take what they did with Endwalker and twist it into a story like that, it’s just not a satisfying one.

And they were pretty repetitive with the flower and the importance of whatever concept was tied to it, while managing to loop it into past things fairly well if you want to take that route. In the end we get something that manages to be consistent with the tone of XIV even if it’s not the people we’ve fought all this time (and really it’s still Ascian related).

[Cleretic]

I don’t think any of the established villains worked as a final villain after Shadowbringers. We killed off the two biggest Ascians, and what’s more Zodiark isn’t some innately evil boogeyman. And what’s more they had been very consistent on Zodiark being weakened. I think trying to do some “fight Zenos/Zodiark/Ascian” endgame would have been fairly weak, especially with how they did Shadowbringers. It’s pretty easy to take what they did with Endwalker and twist it into a story like that, it’s just not a satisfying one.

And they were pretty repetitive with the flower and the importance of whatever concept was tied to it, while managing to loop it into past things fairly well if you want to take that route. In the end we get something that manages to be consistent with the tone of XIV even if it’s not the people we’ve fought all this time (and really it’s still Ascian related).

Which, ironically, is the situation with Necron, and why FFIX's finale holds up better in retrospect to a more analytical eye.

Textually, FFIX is about stopping Kuja from cracking the planet open. But subtextually and tonally, FFIX is about death, and how people handle its inevitability--Vivi grappling with his short lifespan and his people used as soldiers, Garnet with the loss of life put on her shoulders first by her mother's acts, and then by Alexandia itself being destroyed, Freya dealing with the loss of her home, and most importantly for the narrative, Kuja struggling with the fact that, no matter what, he will die. That's why Necron ultimately works when you step back and take a more analytical eye to the story. Narratively he comes from nowhere, but thematically the only way for a story about death to end is by facing death itself.

The dynamis stuff works in much the same way (albeit with a lot more of a space to introduce that final opponent into the text itself); it's not that the narrative was all leading to this final destination, it's that this is the tonal and subtextual culmination. That ultimately, this is where the ideals of the story reach their endpoint.

[MirronTulaxia]

I think there is still merit in facing Kuja as the end boss for IX, for various reasons (namely there isn’t a good reason narratively not to face him, while there are good reasons narratively that the known villains of XIV don’t work as well for the final boss), but I agree Necron isn’t as bad as some make him out to be (though he could still be a lot better).

[LalafellDown]

The ending to Endwalker was meh. Emo kid get sadness beat out of her. All is well again.

Lalafell beats the sadness out of a little girl. Great life lesson.

[kpxmanifesto]

The ending to Endwalker was meh. Emo kid get sadness beat out of her. All is well again.

Lalafell beats the sadness out of a little girl. Great life lesson.

Yeah I felt the ending fell kinda flat. I was hoping that the story went in the direction of Meteion contacting a hostile alien civilization and that's what caused the final days. But nah, just sad and extremely powerful emo kid.

[MirronTulaxia]

Yeah I felt the ending fell kinda flat. I was hoping that the story went in the direction of Meteion contacting a hostile alien civilization and that's what caused the final days. But nah, just sad and extremely powerful emo kid.

Aliens from out of nowhere would have been much more unsatisfying an ending to me.

[kpxmanifesto]

Aliens from out of nowhere would have been much more unsatisfying an ending to me.

Technically Meteion is from out of nowhere too though; just introduced in the middle of the last expansion.

[MirronTulaxia]

Technically Meteion is from out of nowhere too though; just introduced in the middle of the last expansion.

Meteion isn’t an alien, and does thematically represent the issue that the games have dealt with. There are key differences between that and what amounts to “Omega is bringing an army to conquer us”.

[kpxmanifesto]

and does thematically represent the issue that the games have dealt with. There are key differences between that and what amounts to “Omega is bringing an army to conquer us”.

Really? How so and how can that be when Meteion and Dynamis were just introduced mid-Endwalker? Also what key differences?