Critique of Endwalker Characters

[StriderShinryu]

The only scion that really fell in my estimation was YShtola. I used to appreciate her snark and how she offered insight and intelligence on things. Now she feels fairly useless as an intelligence source since we have, like, 4 others with us at pretty much all times who know just as much or more than she does. Her snark has also been worn down to throw away comments about how amazing she is as a mage.. which she demonstrates by using magic that looks like something I do 10 times a minute in my BLM rotation. She just feels like she has lost most or all of her point for existing.

I've never really liked Graha after the Exarch reveal so there wasn't much room to drop for him. Just like Zenos, Graha would only really work as a character if you happen to see him in the exact way the game throws him at you. With Zenos, it's as this dark twisted dangerous mirror rival of your character. With Graha, it's as the super precious adorable must protecc catboi. The rest of the scions don't really require you to have a specific required point of view beyond kind of, sort of liking them. Withe Graha, the game insists you love him and want to be with him 4ever <3. To me, he's just an annoying fanboy that has built his entire existence around YOU and actually is basically just as much of a creepy stalker as Zenos is.

The rest of the scions are fine but could use a rest. The only one I really honestly do want to spend more time with is Krile.

[Iscah]

I have absolutely no idea what happened to G'raha. He saved us on the first, was a leader, even his JP voice actor spoke differently. Was anyone actually asking for him to fanboy over us?

I think it's easiest to regard the Exarch as dead, and "our" G'raha as inheritor of his memories but not his personality.

And he has always fanboyed over us, right back since the Crystal Tower. As to whether we "wanted him to", I think it's better to take a third-person view on character relations. If my character is interacting with a person in a friendly way, we are supposed to regard them as a friend – and from that early plot I got the vibe that the WoL and G'raha did just connect well despite not knowing each other very long, so Shadowbringers onwards is just resuming that connection.

[Silvarer]

I have absolutely no idea what happened to G'raha. He saved us on the first, was a leader, even his JP voice actor spoke differently. Was anyone actually asking for him to fanboy over us?

Not really sure why you're acting like the fanboying comes out of nowhere unless you're ignoring the fact that he fanboyed over us as the Exarch more than once and also when we first met him in ARR too. G'raha was basically putting on a persona as the Exarch to be able to get through all of the hardships he endured. Not to say his leadership capabilities or seriousness aren't real, they certainly are, but he had to focus only on that part more than any other in order to survive and be able to protect his people. Getting a second chance to live his life as freely as he wants to in the Source without the overwhelming burdens he carried for so long means that he can indulge in his more exciteable and fanboyish side. He's getting to meet people and see places that he had only ever read about before so of course he's going to be enthusiastic about it. It's exactly what he always wanted and wished for.

[Jin-]

Alright. You hate the main cast. We get it.

Many actually do. People tend to dislike boring and one dimensional.
Being open about it? Well every one knows how pissed FFXIV can't do anything wrong fans get when criticism is given

[Kozh]

It's kinda funny that I start the game already liking the scions, and still was after ShB. In fact I was worried that something going to happen to them in EW. But after EW... I just can't care less about them. Though I still love thancred (yes, I'm bias lol). Out of everyone in the scions, thancred has lost the most and outright admit he's been suicidal. Imo he can become more like our version of emet; no-nonsense, willing to do anything, yet still has the charm.

I have absolutely no idea what happened to G'raha. He saved us on the first, was a leader, even his JP voice actor spoke differently. Was anyone actually asking for him to fanboy over us?

I blame the fandom, truly. I've seen the sign miles away after 5.0 is released. With all of those "uwu baby g'raha" "aww look at him blushing and being shy" fan contents (where they really exaggerated his shyness etc.), it's no wonder that the devs thought that what the fanbase wants.

I mean, maybe it's not completely wrong, but my god they took it too far.

I was actually kind of okay with him for a while, but when they made him op by suddenly introducing his photographic memory (and somehow able to perform a complex magic in one try) ... that's when I realized he's just there for fanservice. An annoying that is, like elder scroll's adoring fan.

[Iscah]

I was actually kind of okay with him for a while, but when they made him op by suddenly introducing his photographic memory (and somehow able to perform a complex magic in one try) ...

I never got the impression of him having a "photographic" memory – he's read a lot, he knows a lot and clearly has a good memory but the closest to being photographic is that he had long enough to read and memorise the temper-reversing spell before the computer crashed. It could have been a fairly simple but precise phrase, or one that was easy enough to read and recall in the time he had to look at it. We never get much information about how incantations really work in FFXIV, but in battle we sometimes see people working big spells with just a few lines.

And I'm not sure whether you're referencing that same incident or his casting Float with "complex magic in one try", but the anti-tempering spell was explicitly the product of getting the computer to do months of testing for him. Getting the Float spell right might have been luck, but it's plot-driven luck and "really" there might have been every chance of it going wrong. (I think it was terribly poor storytelling that they had worked out the tower was basically summoned and likely to collapse with the core destroyed, and yet nobody thought to be prepared for this ahead of time.)

Anyway he had used the spell before, but only on himself, not on a big group of people. He said he was using it in the library to get to the high shelves.

[Skiros]

Completely agreed with OP. There's too much fanservice now.

Except Urianger. I think this expansion actually developed him very well and retroactively repaired the bad character arc in ARR-HW.

[van_arn]

It's kinda funny that I start the game already liking the scions, and still was after ShB. In fact I was worried that something going to happen to them in EW. But after EW... I just can't care less about them. Though I still love thancred (yes, I'm bias lol). Out of everyone in the scions, thancred has lost the most and outright admit he's been suicidal. Imo he can become more like our version of emet; no-nonsense, willing to do anything, yet still has the charm.



I blame the fandom, truly. I've seen the sign miles away after 5.0 is released. With all of those "uwu baby g'raha" "aww look at him blushing and being shy" fan contents (where they really exaggerated his shyness etc.), it's no wonder that the devs thought that what the fanbase wants.

I mean, maybe it's not completely wrong, but my god they took it too far.

I was actually kind of okay with him for a while, but when they made him op by suddenly introducing his photographic memory (and somehow able to perform a complex magic in one try) ... that's when I realized he's just there for fanservice. An annoying that is, like elder scroll's adoring fan.

I was hoping hoping he would become Shadowbringers' Nidhogg 5.3 fight. The forum riot would have been legendary.

[Skiros]

Also I just want to say, my god, this thread is PRECISELY why I and many others think that toxic positivity is a real thing LOL! Listing all of the examples down:

1.

Sorry for you public admittance of your terrible opinions

2.

OP might as well have just titled the thread "Reasons why I like the Elpis trio better than the Scions" because that's all the post basically boils down to. I see no actually interesting or useful critique to be had on it.

3.

Alright. You hate the main cast. We get it.

[SenorPatty]

Also I just want to say, my god, this thread is PRECISELY why I and many others think that toxic positivity is a real thing LOL! Listing all of the examples down:

1.



2.




3.

Only the first post qualifies. The two others are just pointing out the obvious.

Do I agree we need a fresh cast? Yes. New adventure, new friends, new everything. Do I think the main cast sucks and/or are boring? Nah. Some of them started out bland, like the twins but overall, by EW, I feel like they reached their completion fairly well.

Also, aren't the Elpis trio physically dead? What kind of believable magic is supposed to happen, aside from creation magic (which is the prettier term for "I just pulled this out of my butt magic"), to bring them back for 7.0?