What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[KizuyaKatogami]

The moment Thancred "died" and the characters were just "okay, moving on", that was already a sign. When Estinien was "dying", the first thing I thought was: "Oh, it's gonna be one of those moments" that have been done countless times in other japanese RPGs and animes. Just because something was done before, doesn't mean it's bad, but Ultima Thule did it in such a formulaic, non-impactful way that whatever immersion I had was just replaced by "Alright, here's zone 2, who's next to make the speech and disappear so we can move on?" When the writing becomes this predictable, it becomes hard to create immersion to begin with. I feel they could've just kept the scions there the whole time, interacting with the different alien races and it would've probably been better.

And before someone says it: I don't think killing characters for the sake of emotional impact is good either. That said, this expansion was advertised as an apocalyptic moment. There is a limit of how many random NPCs you can kill in the most tragic ways before it stops being impactful because the main cast just seems to be immune to it. You don't have to kill the scions, but surely you can leave scars - both literally and figuratively - on them: it's a sign of development and of the stakes the story is trying to present.

Why did a banquet in ARR leave a bigger impact on the scions than the actual end of the world? Most of the WoL's dialogue became heavily influenced by Haurchefant and Emet-Selch, because those characters left a legacy after death that shaped the protagonist's view. Death doesn't need to happen everytime, but it can improve a narrative and I feel EW had some great opportunities to use it.

Agree with everything you said, but this especially i resonated with a lot. There really just wasn’t any time that i felt this expansion felt truly end of world-like. Thavnair was probably the closest but even then it was just random npcs introduced to be killed off for about 5 minutes. Your point about the banquet is a good one as well. Why is it that the banquet or the garleans were able to apply more consequences or scars than the literal end of the world event was? This can be applied to shadowbringers too tbh.

Mmmmm not really. The most Dynamis manipulation from an Ancient we see is Hermes, whose noted as being the only one to change the Elpis flowers colors. There’s also the inherent issue of if Dynamis could be manipulated by them why make Meteion, or he’ll why make her so aetherically weak. Neither of those choices would make sense if they could.



Neither of these things are true. She did give them a chance, and they chose to return to the world they thought lacked fear or suffering, and we’re willing to sacrifice the living for that. And are we now arguing that the Limit Break is purely a Dynamis creation?



He hallowed grounded, not exactly a “Dynamis block.”



A lot of maybes.



For that to work the suppression would have to suppress soul density as well, an effect we don’t have proof is possible.



So the Ancients would create a race of beings whose purpose is to suffer so they don’t have to, beings that had no choice in the matter and ultimately no reason to love the Ancients or their people. When faced with the graveyard of hope that is Ultima Thule, why wouldn’t they join with Meteion or give up entirely? What would they have to live for?



Prayer and aether are linked as well. On a planet like Etheirys even more so.

1.)Yes, theres good info to suggest limit breaks in some form are indeed a part of Dynamis control, which prayer is also a part of, hence we see this with Elidibus and in Ktisis.
2.)She approached them after the Final Days occurred, when in reality she could have approchaed them beforehand. I've reiterated this point numerous times now and you keep ignoring it or saying "but, well...there were problems with that." No there weren't. She chose to not even give them a chance then, she kept her secrets to herself and continued to keep them and lie in our own time as well. Shes a manipulator and deceitful person.
3.) He does it purely against limit breaks, if you want to amount it to something else thats on you.
4.) Thats about what 90% of the arguments advocating for Venat are based around.Dont see you equating it as such when it benefits your argument hm? Regardless i've given absolutes before and people simply dodge around them or avoid those points entirely.
5.) As for your point about the creating beings just to suffer, please, pray tell, explain to me how this is any different from us summoning primals in the Empty just to kill them without their consent.