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

[Caurcas]

Well that has been a issue for a long time. For all the aspirations of being a epic, the story is not structured like one. The main character, the WoL, never feels like they have any agency and instead has to have side characters speak for them. Furthermore, instead of letting the story play out XIV does have a bad habit of directly stating and restating its point and themes at the player. All the speeches wear thin, when I as the player feel more akin to a errand boy instead of this mythical hero of legend. Also the stakes never reach or feel epic. Nothing is really lost, and more is told than shown. It's tiresome.

[Theodric]

I wonder how you'd feel if Elidibus and Venat switched roles, but everything else was the same. So Elidibus caused the sundering, Venat was the heart of Zodiark.

If the circumstances were exactly the same, then I'd be sympathetic towards Venat in such a scenario.

You seem to be real hung on on Venat being a woman. Like.. You just can't let that one thing go, it comes across are rather crass honestly.

I think that's pretty disingenuous and a rather strange assumption to make about someone you do not know. From what I recall, it isn't the first time you've implied it either - so I'm genuinely curious as to what drives such defamatory comments. If you want to know who my favourite female characters are, then you only need to ask.

Venat's gender isn't a factor as to why I dislike her. I do find the 'mOmMy GoDdEsS' thing to be a little creepy, though I'd say the same thing if - as you proposed - Elidibus was switched with Venat and it became 'dADdY goD' instead. I don't root for characters based purely on their appearance or gender.

Disagreeing with a character, who just so happens to be a woman, is not sexism. I didn't find her reasons for doing what she did to be realistic or compelling, given that she deliberately withheld key information from her people and judged them on the basis of not responding in the way she desired when the Ancients themselves had no possible way to know what, exactly, she was judging them for.

Plus, if the Ascians succeeded, all currently living souls lose their agency, through no actions of their own.

My stance has long been that it makes sense for the Sundered to do everything possible in order to survive and that expecting them to just roll over and die for the sake of the Unsundered is not a fair expectation.

With the caveat that the reverse is true as well. The Unsundered can't reasonably be expected to just roll over and die for the sake of the Sundered when such an abhorrent atrocity was inflicted upon their civilisation.

To say nothing of the simple fact that it is Venat, herself, who is ultimately responsible for the Rejoinings by willingly allowing the three Unsundered to escape the Sundering. At the time, she was possessed of the knowledge of what they would do and even stood to benefit from the Rejoinings herself on some level as it factored into her 'grand plan'. As such, it is at the feet of Hermes and Venat where I lay most of the blame as they're ultimately the duo responsible for most of the more abhorrent events in the story to date.

[Teraq]

I'd go one step further and make Emet a woman, looking like Cruella de Vil in ShB and being absolutely Tsundere for Azem in EW. Now the Unsundered can be the Mean Girls I've always wanted them to be deep down. You can't hang out with us, Sundered.

But hey, at least we got to gasp and clap at the super cool Answers anime music video.

It had just occurred to me a couple of days ago that this was probably the reason why Venat was so obsessed with giving Hermes/Meteion humanity's "answer": so we could stand up and clap when the lyrics hit. Then I had this terrible feeling about the potential title of the final fight BGM, so I had to go check the OST tracklist and I'm pleased to report neither of them have anything to do with a question whatsoever. Whew. I might have died of cheese.

(I also found out the Elpis night theme, which tends to make me sad to begin with, is titled "Stars Long Dead". Oof ouch owie...)

(meanwhile we saw how Emet-Selch and Elidibus were capable of enduring for 12k years to pursue their goal so the idea that they lack resilience is just silly)

I really liked your previous signature quote, of bearing the burden and fighting on, kicking and screaming until your last breath is spent, as said by the Scions in Ultima Thule – wait... (checks notes) ...it's not the S– oh dear there's been a terrible mistake –

Furthermore, instead of letting the story play out XIV does have a bad habit of directly stating and restating its point and themes at the player. All the speeches wear thin, when I as the player feel more akin to a errand boy instead of this mythical hero of legend. Also the stakes never reach or feel epic. Nothing is really lost, and more is told than shown. It's tiresome.

By the time I unlocked the Endsinger I was ready for Ra-La to come and take me tbh

I wish the Final Days had been so much more. But Sundered stronk!

[Lauront]

I just hope they don't sink low enough to implement the idea that the Azem of the ancient world is the player character now, having gone back in time...

I really liked your previous signature quote, of bearing the burden and fighting on, kicking and screaming until your last breath is spent, as said by the Scions in Ultima Thule – wait... (checks notes) ...it's not the S– oh dear there's been a terrible mistake –

It's a great quote, isn't it? He has many great ones. I also liked that one because it (along with Hades) is a corrosive against the idea I've seen floated around that the ancients couldn't relate to the idea of struggling to fight for their existences to the bitter end. To me he epitomises the notions of "nothing is impossible" and exceeding love for and allegiance to his people far better than a certain other character professing these notions.

[Rosenstrauch]

I just hope they don't sink low enough to implement the idea that the Azem of the ancient world is the player character now, having gone back in time...

I don't think they will.

There's no real benefit to telling that story if it leads to a foregone conclusion—the WoL sitting on the sidelines, abstaining from conflict altogether, then laying down and meekly accepting annihilation at Venat's hands.

There's also little benefit to telling the same story twice—we've already had our song and dance about stopping Meteion and the Final Days, so doing it a second time would have much less impact regardless of how it's handled. Even if they leaned into that by having her be, say, the boss of the level X5 dungeon, we'd have folks feeling it's underwhelming to take her out so easily when she was a nigh impossible hurdle to overcome in Endwalker.

And even then, we already have Meteion as the heretofore unknown third party who was actually responsible for the Final Days. There's not much room to inject an even more secret fourth party who needs to be dealt with, unless they pull something like the Infinite Dragonflight from World of Warcraft—and even then, the story would probably run into the same headache we have now regarding Venat's character, but with the player instead.

And finally, I doubt they will ever willingly undermine the legitimacy of Venat's actions. If the WoL went back in time and successfully did anything that Venat failed to do, it would only make her look worse by comparison. And even if we succeeded in stopping the Final Days, Venat would still be the woman who wants to end the Ancients' world because "What if they might die of apathy?".

[Rulakir]

I'd go one step further and make Emet a woman, looking like Cruella de Vil in ShB and being absolutely Tsundere for Azem in EW. Now the Unsundered can be the Mean Girls I've always wanted them to be deep down. You can't hang out with us, Sundered.

Here you go. :P