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

[CrownySuccubus]

They say that Hydaelyn created them "from her love of the people of Etheirys", implying that their servile nature is a byproduct of being extremely nurturing, not because Hydaelyn directly programmed or ordered them to be subservient.

The Loporitz and Smileton was basically just another hamfisting of the "Perfection/paradise is impossible" narrative. The Loporitz tried to create a perfect paradise for mankind on the moon, and failed spectacularly at it. Buildingway tried to create a perfect domicile for mankind, and failed even more spectacularly, then both get told to "just copy what's done on Etheirys", and like all Loporitz, they predictably fall in love with the world as it is.

So once again, it becomes a "Just accept the status quo and make small improvements at best" moral lecture.

[Rulakir]

They are most assuredly the Lambs of Dalamud. I remember a while back that Koji was asked about them and wanted to see more done with them. Then before EW it was said they'd be featured again, although, I don't know for what purpose. I don't get the appeal, but whatever. I believe they're also in the Tam Tara starter dungeon as well.

There wasn't anything in the trailer that struck me as interesting. I'm glad at least Azeyma doesn't appear to be Venat. The 'Twelve' bosses look cool, but I hate raiding so other than that it's meaningless to me.

Alternatively, we could also have encounters with characters with motivations similar to Ardyn

I loved Ardyn and frankly wanted to see him win. I didn't particularly like Noctis or most of those on the protagonist's side except for Ignis. Now that I think about it, similar feelings regarding the Scions and the Ascians.

I'm over sympathetic antagonists who end up losing everything and, worse, because after the complete and utter defeat of them the Scions are on the sidelines cheering and patting themselves on the back. It's tasteless. I've said before that FFXIV's narrative comes across as Saturday Morning Cartoon at times, like we need to drive home that the "villain" is beyond redemption and must be condemned despite claims of nuance and no one right side. Well, the 'right' side is always the Scions and whatever they're championing and the 'wrong' side is always who the WoL is sent to crush underfoot to joyous accolades. As we've seen with Venat, it doesn't even matter how atrocious the actions of those on the protagonist's side are, as long as they are in support of the WoL/Scions they are presented as good which is a whole host of issues in itself.

I need a break from being made to feel bad for antagonists, even ones I don't like such as Hermes. Please just give me someone who's fun to love to hate for a change or, barring that, someone who if we're made to like doesn't have to be permanently killed off especially while the Scions won't even break a fingernail in the struggle.

[KageTokage]

Bringing voidsent back into the picture felt fairly logical to me given the rather high likelyhood that a certain "friend" of ours is going to end up being used as a flesh puppet by one in the wake of his demise.

Being left in another dimension is little obstacle for entities that routinely cross the boundary in search of aether and prey and that ominous voice stating it is "returned at long last" makes me think it's not the first time it's been around to cause trouble.

[KizuyaKatogami]

The hand resembled Erebos to me from Eden(voidsent that Gaia summons the arm of) so i’m hoping it’s that rather than just more Zenos stuff. I’m kinda hoping they just write off his voidsent or leave it as some random boss later on rather than focus on it. He’s had 3 expansions now, it’s time to be done with it.

[Lauront]

Bringing voidsent back into the picture felt fairly logical to me given the rather high likelyhood that a certain "friend" of ours is going to end up being used as a flesh puppet by one in the wake of his demise.

Being left in another dimension is little obstacle for entities that routinely cross the boundary in search of aether and prey and that ominous voice stating it is "returned at long last" makes me think it's not the first time it's been around to cause trouble.

Indeed, the Void is pretty much an unresolved problem as things stand as well.

[Rulakir]

Bringing voidsent back into the picture felt fairly logical to me given the rather high likelyhood that a certain "friend" of ours is going to end up being used as a flesh puppet by one in the wake of his demise.

I just hope they keep Zenos' VA for it, he's great.

[aveyond-dreams]

I need a break from being made to feel bad for antagonists, even ones I don't like such as Hermes. Please just give me someone who's fun to love to hate for a change or, barring that, someone who if we're made to like doesn't have to be permanently killed off especially while the Scions won't even break a fingernail in the struggle.

In terms of unsympathetic antagonists, I believe the best representation of one in the series is Kefka. In stark contrast to the failures of Hermes and Zenos, Kefka accomplished much more by simply being entertaining and not wasting the player's time with teases that never come true or convoluted plot elements like time travel or memory wipes.

Kefka's backstory as the first experimental magitek knight is hardly something an FFVI player needs to understand before they get to really enjoy whenever this character comes on screen, which works well for unsympathetic antagonists because the goal should never be to coax the player into "understanding what they went through" to justify their later actions. I did not appreciate the attempt to get me to feel sorry for Hermes, I liked him better when he was just a psychotic jester.

It was a bad use of screentime, meanwhile when it came to Kefka we got to see him poison and take out Doma in one swoop, a humorous introduction where he literally got his soldiers to wipe the sand off his boots, along various scenes where he betrays his imperial allies and his other acts of cruelty, like him turning various espers into magicite one by one as they threw themselves against him. We do not feel sorry for the character-but we know that whenever he comes on that something worth watching is happening.

The scenes of Hermes in Elpis were a failed attempt to get players to "feel" for him with very little action outside his final scene, but ultimately did more to turn players against him, especially those of us who are no longer affected by the hype from launch and people who were, for logical reasons, sympathetic to the Ancients. Endwalker would have worked excellent without him and with either Zenos or Venat taking on the role of primary antagonist, but I suppose the overwhelming urge to "subvert expectations!" couldn't be resisted by whoever decided to rework the story that the lead writers had already laid out.

[RoroCookies]

It appears Garlemald only appears in the role quest in 6.1 despite being in the most dire straights at the moment. Sharlyan may have to change some policies but is still whole. Thravnir suffered massive damage as well but it at least still has a leader and viable living conditions. Garlemald has been reduced to Rubble, its residence huddling in a subways (and it was hinted at that a large amount of citizens and soldiers were un tempered and are undergoing treatment after the tower of babel so they need a more viable living location soon) and it has no current leader or government that people can turn to.

You think this would be the prime concern for the WoL due to how they like helping those in need but the recent trailer just shows us helping personal colleges to shard hop and go on a treasure hunt because lol TrEaSuRe and AdVeNtUrE. So very personal stuff over helping people in need. Maybe I am wrong maybe the dungeon serves the same purpose as the one in 4.1 to get an ancient lost treasure to help the economy of those who have suffered the most in the final days and repair some of the damage, so namely Garlemald, Thravnir, and the at the moment unvisited Corvos. Maybe they were to busy trying to get 6.0 finished and used this patch cycle to tune old content from 2.0 and so the story is more filler. Maybe Garlemald will get a similar treatment to Doma in SB where it gets a hub that is repaired over the expansion like the Doman Enclave and story arch that lasts at least 2 patches, which it is at least owed after losing an entire expansion. But still this lack of focus after I now know that a Garlean Expansion was sacrificed to rush the finale is only going to make me be more critical of the lack of content focused on Garlemald, only having 1 zone that is mostly destroyed, no hub like at least the Doman Enclave, and almost no side content at the moment outside of the role quest (which I am so glad I finished all of those so I can play that on day 1, before the MQS I might add).

Nah you see, the people of Garlemald need to learn from their suffering and become stronger. We shouldn’t have to help them improve their quality of lives because it will only make them weaker.

[Lauront]

Nah you see, the people of Garlemald need to learn from their suffering and become stronger. We shouldn’t have to help them improve their quality of lives because it will only make them weaker.

Indeed, back to the caves with them, and for that matter, everyone else!

[Caurcas]

Echo chamber aside. Zenos works as a simple antagonist. Shame about that middle bit with the Fandaniel/Hermes nonsense. Also having Venat play antagonist would just turn 14 into another cliché jrpg story.