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

[Caurcas]

Why be concerned with what other "parts" of you are doing on other shards? It doesn't effect you, and you more than likely have far more tangible concerns. Why morn or feel sad for something you never had? Just like our WoL isn't Azem, so why should they be concerned with Azem? Azem is long dead and we are our own person.

[Theodric]

Many people are fascinated by the lives of people who aren't them - such as celebrities and historical figures. There's also a lot of people who dig deep into their family tree to sate their curiosity. If we're to assume that adventurers are thirsty for adventure and knowledge then the aversion to finding out more about the past makes very little sense.

There's plenty of aspects of the story that I don't care about, though if they're fleshed out for those who enjoy them? Great. I just hope that the stuff I do care about is, in turn, fleshed out further as well.

[KageTokage]

Is it Preach? I'm curious what he's going to say. I've been occasionally checking in on Pyromancer. I don't like watching him, but as a lore guy (and Emet fan) I want to see what his reaction is to Elpis and Venat. The problem with streamers is they're paid to entertain and griping about the story isn't going to amass an audience, especially in this community. Having said that, Zepla's reactions during her playthrough were almost identical to mine. She was pissed off at the end of Elpis, cried when Emet & Hythlodaeus showed up in Ultima Thule, and commented about the writers not being done twisting the knife.

Pyro was very vocal about how much he loathes the concept of time travel when it was brought up in ShB, so I am very curious to see how he receives the whole Elpis bit, particularly because none of the other people I've watched seemed to really bat an eye at how completely out of the blue it was.

[Caurcas]

Many people are fascinated by the lives of people who aren't them - such as celebrities and historical figures. There's also a lot of people who dig deep into their family tree to sate their curiosity. If we're to assume that adventurers are thirsty for adventure and knowledge then the aversion to finding out more about the past makes very little sense.

There's plenty of aspects of the story that I don't care about, though if they're fleshed out for those who enjoy them? Great. I just hope that the stuff I do care about is, in turn, fleshed out further as well.

My question was from an in universe perspective. Furthermore, the ancient are supremely boring. What did they do besides the final days? That is literally their entire lore. A singular event in a pacifist race.

[tokinokanatae]

My question was from an in universe perspective. Furthermore, the ancient are supremely boring. What did they do besides the final days? That is literally their entire lore. A singular event in a pacifist race.

They did everything any other NPC in the games did, that's the point. People care about the Ancients in the same way they care about other characters, not because of their narrative use.

[PawPaw]

Pyro was very vocal about how much he loathes the concept of time travel when it was brought up in ShB, so I am very curious to see how he receives the whole Elpis bit, particularly because none of the other people I've watched seemed to really bat an eye at how completely out of the blue it was.

Hmm, I wonder if he'll hate it or if he'll get swept away in the fanservice of the moment. He seems to love the Ancients so the whole Elpis experience might overpower his objections for a time. I also wasn't aware that he hated the time travel in ShB, so he just hated everything about the Crystal Tower/alternate timeline story?

[KageTokage]

He just bluntly stated as an aside that he really didn't like the concept in response to the bit about G'raha wondering why he even exists still now that the timeline he hailed from should've vanished, but brushed it off presumably because it didn't actually have much bearing on how things played out in Shadowbringers and was more just prior set-up for allowing its plot to occur in the first place...unlike how it was handled in Endwalker.

I'd assume his dislike probably stems from its usage in WoW where it was used as an excuse to create an entire expansion with no build-up, with an army from an alternate timeline just coming out of the blue to assail both warring factions and it being apparent from the get-go that timey-wimey nonsense was to blame. It felt very out of place in a setting that still had multiple antagonists at large and is generally agreed as the point where the story started going off the rails into absurdity.

[EaraGrace]

She changed her stance after the fact, yes. She doesn't tend to read chat when she's playing, so the reactions at the time were more authentic. As far as I know she only streams FFXIV, which has a community notorious for not accepting criticism, and she's been invited to interview Yoshi-P. She's not going to burn those bridges. Even still, she's continuously said she wants a happy "no more tears" ending for the Ancients.

I don't watch a lot of other streamers. I enjoyed Rich Campbell before he did an abrupt about face sometime in ShB because people in his audience were threatening to have his sponsorships removed on ethical grounds because he was pro-Ascian at the time. He was also invited to interview Yoshi-P. I tried watching some of his EW playthrough and it's just a gushy mess that doesn't sound authentic. I suspect that's going to be the case for anyone to whom FFXIV streaming is a significant source of revenue and even moreso if they have a history of being involved with SE, it's not in their professional best interests to be critical.

I think it’s very much in the realm of confirmation bias to assume that these reactions were motivated by less honest reasons. Not to mention, if you think someone isn’t willing or able to be honest, why trust their opinions in any way? But eh, most streamers seemed to love the storyline on any case.

[FrightfulNight]

It would honestly feel a bit anti-climactic to me if the situation in Ilsabard with the rogue Garlean legions still occupying the provinces ended up just blowing over peacefully.

We were originally meant to have an entire expansion dedicated to sorting out matters with Garlemald, and that could still reasonably happen except we'd be helping the legions who chose to stand on the side of the Populares curb the threat of the imperialists who still desire to rule the continent with an iron fist. Desperation could lead to them becoming an even bigger threat then the empire originally was if Black Rose was any indication.

I knew it felt like a Garlean Themed expansion was sacrificed at one point, all that build up throughout the entirety of SB and ShB up until 5.3 and it is just one zone that is already ruined and feels more like side content. It felt so anti climatic, I was more excited for Garlemald then anything else this expansion and i was way more interested in exploring zones tied to it then I was Ultima Thule. Even worse I have not seen one piece of side content this expansion related to Garlemald. Now with everyone only thinking and talking about Merycydia, the New World and the other shards all i am here thinking is that we still have the entirety of Ilsabard shrouded in mist and mostly unexplored, and there is a lot of indication that it suffered the most damage from the combination of the civil war and final days and is not in the best of shape so you think that helping the people there would take precedence over going to Meracydia or the New World because Adventure.

It is seriously a concern of mine that most of Ilsabard and Orthard will be relegated to side content and not have many exploration zones as well as not being fleshed out that much but Meracydia and the New World and even other shards will get tones of new zones and characterization, when Ilsabrd and Orthard interest me the most since they are tied to my 2 characters backstory. I seriously hope that the lack of resolution for Garlemald and only having one zone after 4 years of continuous buildup and not getting any side content is a sign that the next expansion will be Ilsabard and deal with the aftermath of EW. Luckily there is a sign that it might be as Yoshi P. said that the story of the next expansion will be a conflict of Ideals and that for me seems to point more towards Ilsabards current state then Meracydia.

[FrightfulNight]

Continuing from my last post, as I have mentioned before in other posts I imagine that there is a large power vacuum in Ilsabard now now and tensions and conflicts between various nations, some of which were nations that gained there independence, some of which were formed by former legatus's like what Noah was trying to do, and some are completely new having formed out of the chaos. I also imagine that these nations have a lot of reasons to be warry of each other and even hostile towards one another as they fight for resources to rebuild and do not have any reason to join together like the Eorzean Alliance as there is no bigger threat to push them together.

This can allow them to do a more down to earth storyline and it can be a sort of Romance of the Three Kingdoms type storyline. We can have a human conflict that is morally grey and an actual conflict between multiple powers of similar strength and not another liberation from the Empire storyline that we have seen 4 times now. It should be noted I do not recall Yoshi P. saying he does not want to do another war story just that he doesn't want to do another liberation storyline.