Disappointed in one Endwalker Aspect [SPOILERS]

[OhNooo]

I hope this might help some people stay invested in their character. We are all different, but in some ways the same, and the shards-of-Azem thing is an elegant solution. And even if we aren't actually shards of Azem, it is people's expectations of us that have led to main character's development and mannerisms. I guess the opposite of feeling like words are put in your mouth would be the Crystarium people who are like "WE ARE ALL WARRIORS OF LIGHT!!!" I don't think that has been the way they've portrayed main character in the narrative, either. We have some agency.

As someone who has never really done roleplaying in this game (just have my own personal head cannons), I'm actually looking forward to different paths my character could take in the future now that the Zodiark/Hydaelyn saga has come to an end. I feel like my character always viewed all of this as a burden and something tying him down. Now he can breathe a sigh of relief and cast off the whole title of WOL/WOD and just have fun and do what he wants. There are so many possibilities and I'm interested to see the direction they end up taking the story next.

[Denishia]

I have a felling the 6.1 dungeon will be something like Skalla- we're going on an adventure to assist a local problem with only a few of the Scions as our Avatar options.

[OhNooo]

To me, Hades is treated far more heroically and sympathetically than I feel justified and that his overwhelming continued presence and treatment inside the game was colored by his popularity outside of it.

Oh I definitely suspect that the writers may not have expected such an overwhelming response from the players about Emet and may not have intended to bring him back at first. I think there for sure was fan service with that.

But that is to say- how one reacts to characters is subjective. And after so many complaints about the WoL standing expressionless during cutscenes or only nodding, these later expansions are starting to address those complaints by adding in reactions- which means not all will land.

And XIV isn't an open sandbox game, at least not the MSQ, nor does it have branching paths, so the single path that it does have has clearly defined protagonists and antagonists and supporting cast and one side will be the protagonists' side and the other given the focus needed to make antagonists work for the story.

Yeah I do remember hearing about those complaints. They can't win no matter what they do because they can't please everyone of course. I think the fact that they stepped it up so much with the story in Shb caused a lot of people to become more invested/interested in the story and then you get disappointed when something doesn't turn out the way you want or when you have to pick a dialogue option that you don't want to pick. I definitely have to keep reminding myself that it's an mmorpg with no branching paths and with the story and direction already decided.

[Denishia]

Oh I definitely suspect that the writers may not have expected such an overwhelming response from the players about Emet and may not have intended to bring him back at first. I think there for sure was fan service with that.

My tinfoil hat theory that Emet narrating Endwalker [My actual biggest complaint about the choices in EW on a purely personal, only for me, gripe is that Emet narrating each zone started each new chapter on a sour note, it was one of my biggest fears going into EW. Also the stealth following of children was one side-quest too many] was a change halfway through the development of the game and that the original plan was to have Alphinaud reciting a letter home [the incandescent joy that I felt when the narration finally stopped being Emet and was now Alphie]

[Cilia]

LOL @ this thread proving me right, that at least some discontent around Endwalker is derived from how Hydaelyn wasn't vilified.

Anyway, I don't feel like Hydaelyn having turned out to be secretly evil or having tempered the PC would have really added anything to the story. I think her role as a benevolent but ruthless "Mother Goddess" figure is much better, and she does a very good job of that by not coddling her "children" and giving them the means to go off on their own with her blessing at the very end. She guides and protects them when it's vitally necessary, but otherwise leaves the races of man to their own devices so they can learn and grow.

Having her turn out to be evil or misguided would be just as cliché, in my opinion.

[KizuyaKatogami]

My tinfoil hat theory that Emet narrating Endwalker [My actual biggest complaint about the choices in EW on a purely personal, only for me, gripe is that Emet narrating each zone started each new chapter on a sour note, it was one of my biggest fears going into EW. Also the stealth following of children was one side-quest too many] was a change halfway through the development of the game and that the original plan was to have Alphinaud reciting a letter home [the incandescent joy that I felt when the narration finally stopped being Emet and was now Alphie]

See i feel this exact way but with Graha. I think they intended to kill him off in 5.3, what with Yoshi P himself even saying they had 2 different endings for the patch, but decided not to because of how popular we were. So then we got graha x1000 and get the fanservice after fanservice graha in 5.4+

[StriderShinryu]

To me at least they pretty clearly laid out Hydealyn as, well, not exactly being good. I get that she was definitely portrayed more "good" than some people liked but it never really felt to me like the game handwaved what she did (and the exact why is always going to be up for debate, just as it was on the other side).

To be honest, though, I actually don't see what they did as being safe. In fact, given all of the hints we had going in to EW, I actually feel making Hydealyn straight up "the bad guy" would have been the safer and more predictable route. So many people were predicting that "twist" that it really wouldn't have been much of a twist at all.

[KizuyaKatogami]

To me at least they pretty clearly laid out Hydealyn as, well, not exactly being good. I get that she was definitely portrayed more "good" than some people liked but it never really felt to me like the game handwaved what she did (and the exact why is always going to be up for debate, just as it was on the other side).

They did kind of handwave the whole her telling lies thing when we bring it up to the watcher. He’s like oh yeah she lied…anyways though… I wouldn’t have minded her getting portrayed as good and benevolent if the same was done for Zodiark. My only problem with it is the apparent bias going on between the two sides which i think a lot of people can agree on.

[MikkoAkure]

Each to their own, I guess. To me, Venat is one of the most sinister villains in a Final Fantasy game to date. Others are free to believe otherwise.

That's a hot take considering EW also has Hermes, who is the actual person behind everything bad that happens, regains his memories as an Ascian, and decides to revive the Final days and permanently kill everyone and destroy the universe once his bosses are dead. I feel like people are unhappy with their predictions or expectations of EW not coming true so they're trying to come up with reasons to justify their distaste of Venat to make themselves feel better.

What specifically about Venat is deliberately "sinister"? Do people think that she had it out for the Ancients this whole time and took advantage of Hermes' plan in order to destroy their civilization? In order to be a "sinister villain" you would expect a character to willingly do something evil as a part of their plan. Where is that for Venat?

Zodiark needed to be summoned. According to Venat, the success of Zodiark hinged on Fandaniel's understandings of celestial aether and dynamis. Hermes is also the only Ancient to our knowledge who created something out of dynamis, so it would stand to reason that he is potentially more knowledgeable than the others. Fandaniel also needed to not know the future or else he would go back to allowing the world to be destroyed again.

We have to take it at faith that a character who used to be on the Convocation who exists in a society that we aren't a part of made the right decision to her. Either way, I hope they have Tales from the Dawn that enlighten us more on that series of events from Venat's point of view.

[Theodric]

I'm not in the habit of giving much weight to the policing of personal tastes. Nobody is obligated to like or support any given character. I don't particularly consider Hermes and his excessive empathy to be especially sympathetic, either - though it is Venat, rather than Hermes, who is responsible for the Sundering.

Before I played FFXIV, I played WoW. Obviously that's a different game, though after seeing Sylvanas getting away with the near destruction of an entire race that I liked I don't feel I'm under any obligation to support a character in FFXIV who is responsible for the complete destruction of an entire race that I like.

Subversive characters generally don't elicit much support or sympathy from me in general, though. Especially if I don't find their reasons or goals to be compelling.