[ENDWALKER MSQ SPOILERS] Timeline weirdness

[Lauront]

I don't want to get my hopes up, but I'd love to see it. I can't tell if they did too good a job with the Ancients or not a good enough job with everything else. I'm far more excited about the possibility of interacting with Emet & Hythlodaeus again than any of the Scions and the Ancient world is more fascinating to me than anything else has been since Ishgard. Emet listing off all the places we haven't seen on Etheirys didn't sound exciting on their own.

I'd be game for it provided they don't try use it to push some kind of "See! they'd have died anyway?!" nonsense to try retroactively vindicate the sundering as it went down. I'm also of two minds on it. On the one hand, I find what Veloran mentioned appealing. I'd like a departure from the Scions irrespective of where we're headed next and I'd also like a move to completely new pastures and a plot that is a bit more dialled down for a while and yes, using the Overlords in that manner would be a good idea, and certainly preferable to having them just be villains for the sake of it. On the other, would I complain if SE came back to the World Unsundered via an AU or something, and if it were done tastefully? Probably not. Leaving some element of mystery to what it was like isn't a bad thing but at the same time I would be very curious to see their world under better circumstances.

[Jandor]

I have to echo the sentiment that I'm not too excited about going back to the past again.

There is the rest of our world to see, plus the shards, plus we have a spaceship now. I wouldn't mind a bit more clarity on a few loose ends, but for the most part I'm happy to wrap things up and move on.

[Cilia]

I appreciate the time travel, but only so far as it's predicated on time loops. Otherwise things make even less sense. The past is in the past - let it stay there.

[Denishia]

With Trusts and that the game wasn't at all subtle about how the 'disbanding' of the Scions was a sham, the idea that the MSQ is going to actually leave them behind and introduce a new cast of characters seems erroneous. Frankly I'll be surprised if more than one or at most two of the main Scion cast fades into a support character a la Cid while they make room for Krile to have more importance. A rebranding may or may not happen.

As for the Ancient past, I will stand for the opposite opinion that I found they vastly inferior as a cast of characters and setting, and if the MSQ and related raids continue to focus on them past Pandaemonion, I will disappointed. The more the plot focuses on Azem, the less enjoyable it has been, and as I would rather go on adventure with Grynewaht and Livia than Emet, plus the problems with the Ancient models being a Hyur on an Elezen frame thus making any players whose WoL is a Hrothgar, Miq'ote, Viera, Au'ra, Lalafell, or just a Roe or Elezen with a non-Hyuran skintone be further divorced from 'Azem' ...any roleplay as Azem or, worse, our WoL through more time travel shenanigans becomes the Azem that succeeds Venat sounds like the worst case scenario for the plot to go.

The new year's message was one of excitement to explore new zones and plotlines and enemies.

[Yuella]

The sundering has been vindicated over and over. Those ancients crying to Zodiark wouldn't be able to get their lives together. Even if they had sacrificed new lives to restore the world to pre-final days, they're so spoiled that the next time something bad happen they would just come crying to Zodiark again. And eventually they will ask Zodiark to just let Meteion end them

The sundering accomplished two things:
1. To deny access to Zodiark but not kill Zodiark (because he's needed to forestall final days)
2. To prepare humanity to eventually confront and defeat Meteion by teaching them the struggle of life and how to find hope even if things go bad

I don't know why people are so enamored by the ancient lifestyle anyway. It's not a good lifestyle. They wantonly create living beings and then kill them off cold-heartedly if they're "not suitable" even though these creatures feel pain. Imagine buying a dog from a pet shop and 1 week later, you decided you don't like it and throw it out to the street. It's full of hubris and hypocrisy that Hermes was almost justified to calling out Emet at the end of the dungeon.

[Rulakir]

I wasn't trying to say let's hang out in the past forever, that's not even plausible. I would've been perfectly fine had Elpis ended with everyone being saved and that was the last of it. Unfortunately, due to the time loop, they weren't saved and now I'll always have this nagging desire to do so.

I think EW made me realize how tired I am of the Scions though, for different reasons. Thancred used to be my favorite, but he can't stop moping about Minfilia and I'm over it. He's welcome if/when he ever gets his ARR mojo back. Urianger has lied to me twice and I've been forced to forgive him both times when after the second I would've been done with him. I've never particularly been a fan of Y'shtola. Alphinaud is fine in small doses, but I do get tired of him being my mouthpiece for extended periods of time.

Estinien is my brother-in-arms, but he has no reason to follow me around the world (unless it's to Meracydia I guess) and doing so would be out of character. I like Alisaie, but at some point she (and her brother) need to stay off screen long enough to grow into adults. So, that leaves G'raha, who I adore, and is free to join me on all the adventures he wants. :P

I just love Emet and Hythlodaeus' personalities and chemistry. All through Elpis I was jealous of Azem. The trio sounded like a blast.

Imagine buying a dog from a pet shop and 1 week later, you decided you don't like it and throw it out to the street.

You mean something that happens every day everywhere? Don't even get me started on holidays. People who adopt bunnies for Easter, black cats for Halloween, or puppies for Christmas, only to be surrendered to shelters after they've worn out their cuteness.

It seriously is infuriating how anyone thinks that modern humanity has a leg to stand on, like, how oblivious to the cruelties of the world are you?

[Theodric]

Thankfully MMO's are designed to appeal to a broad variety of tastes, so I think we can take comfort in the simple fact that there's plenty of room for many characters and factions to receive their fair share of time in the spotlight moving forward. Even if such comes solely in the form of the occasional cameo.

Though there's a very vocal minority around these parts who bring up their distaste for the Ancients at every possible turn, there's quite a lot of people who are quite fond of them. I imagine that number has only grown as a result of Endwalker.

[Kordarion]

You mean something that happens every day everywhere? Don't even get me started on holidays. People who adopt bunnies for Easter, black cats for Halloween, or puppies for Christmas, only to be surrendered to shelters after they've worn out their cuteness.

It seriously is infuriating how anyone thinks that modern humanity has a leg to stand on, like, how oblivious to the cruelties of the world are you?

And you're assuming that because we know people do those things in the real world that means we are okay with that? I have a problem with that reckless disregard for life in both cases, as would many others I can only presume.

It is seriously infuriating that you think that because some modern humans are monsters that all modern humans are monsters.

[Rulakir]

Someone posted this on Reddit a couple weeks ago: Results of FF14 Japanese fandom character popularity poll post-Endwalker

The Ancients seem quite popular in Japan as well, especially Emet.

Emet-Selch 4621 votes(17.2%)
Hythlodaeus 3513 votes (13.1%)
Venat / Hydaelyn 3136 votes(11.7%)
G'raha 1546 (5.8%)
Meteion 1295 (4.8%)
Alisae 1197 (4.5%)
Hermes 961 (3.6%)
Estinien 930 (3.5%)
Alphinaud 893 (3.3%)
Urianger 869 (3.2%)
Zenos 866 (3.2%)

[Lurina]

And you're assuming that because we know people do those things in the real world that means we are okay with that? I have a problem with that reckless disregard for life in both cases, as would many others I can only presume.

It is seriously infuriating that you think that because some modern humans are monsters that all modern humans are monsters.

In every country on Earth, it's pretty normal to cull predators or invasive species when they start causing problems to the wider biosphere. The US alone culls tens of thousands of wolves a year. Even greater numbers of predatory fish and merely disruptive herbivores, like deer, are killed for no purpose other than management of the environment and maintaining a sustainable population of all species.

It's not that the Ancients doing it is morally uncomplicated, just that it's weird to act like it makes them alien or evil - I assume you don't think of the RSPB workers who do this stuff as 'monsters'. If I might be a little presumptuous, I doubt this is something you think about much in your day-to-day life at all. They probably don't either.