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

[Theodric]

The Ancients are dead and forgotten. Get over it.

Moenbryda died in ARR and Haurchefant died in HW, though both have been brought up repeatedly over the years. There's no reason to believe that the Ancients will never be mentioned again, especially with the popularity of the likes of Emet and Venat.

You're free to dislike them, though clearly there's plenty of people who do like them and are interested in their legacy being remembered as the story advances. Which in itself was a major plot point towards the end of Shadowbringers, as I recall.

Though I think that's likely a bit too much nuance for fly by posters with questionable takes to grasp, I suppose.

[CrownySuccubus]

Just wanna say that making the argument “This needed to happen for there to be a story” is like admitting that the story only happened due to contrivance.

[TShimmer]

After lurking this thread for a while, I just wanted to say that I'm quite glad it exists. I don't feel I'm very good at expressing myself well, specially on discussions of this level, but through Endwalker I always found myself constantly disappointed about its story developments, and some outright dumb character moments, sometimes even the lack of moments, like at the fight with Hydaelyn. Even shutting my brain off during Elpis didn't quite help feeling like a letdown. I know that at the end of the day, people that don't like a lot of the story of EW are in the minority, but I'm happy that minority exists, because otherwise I would be questioning what is wrong with me for not being as engaged as seemingly everyone else is into this story.

The only part that I found well done and had me actually caring was the Garlemald portion, and some of Thavnair in isolation. And I'll be forever salty about the fact that we didn't get a Garlemald expansion in favor of, whatever the hell this hope vs despair thing was, and honestly the worst part of it all is how it all came to be, it couldn't just have been a simple story about that, we have to add in closed time loop, a machine that can wipe out memories cause of course, and Venat being the worst.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

My post was directed at the unnerving people who would kill everyone on the Source and bring back Elpis. We may remember the Ancients but they would never remember us. Not to mention outside of trash fanfiction I'm never going to read, there's no feasible way to get Elpis back without letting the Ancients kill us. Losing Elpis sucked, but I'm not giving up what I accomplished as Egil Vairemont.

[anhaato]

My post was directed at the unnerving people who would kill everyone on the Source and bring back Elpis. We may remember the Ancients but they would never remember us. Not to mention outside of trash fanfiction I'm never going to read, there's no feasible way to get Elpis back without letting the Ancients kill us. Losing Elpis sucked, but I'm not giving up what I accomplished as Egil Vairemont.

I'd like you to find me anyone, literally anyone, even just one person, who has said they wanted that.

[Lauront]

My post was directed at the unnerving people who would kill everyone on the Source and bring back Elpis. We may remember the Ancients but they would never remember us. Not to mention outside of trash fanfiction I'm never going to read, there's no feasible way to get Elpis back without letting the Ancients kill us. Losing Elpis sucked, but I'm not giving up what I accomplished as Egil Vairemont.

Yes, AUs such as this don't happen in 14, after all.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

I'd like you to find me anyone, literally anyone, even just one person, who has said they wanted that.

how's this?

[Theodric]

My post was directed at the unnerving people who would kill everyone on the Source and bring back Elpis. We may remember the Ancients but they would never remember us. Not to mention outside of trash fanfiction I'm never going to read, there's no feasible way to get Elpis back without letting the Ancients kill us. Losing Elpis sucked, but I'm not giving up what I accomplished as Egil Vairemont.

Yes, you've made a number of posts expressing such 'concern' from what I recall. I'd be more worried about those who can't grasp that none of the characters are actually real and are simply pixels on a screen designed to entertain us at the end of the day. Just because someone joins the Dark Brotherhood in an Elder Scrolls game that doesn't suddenly make them a mass murderer after all. Though in my experience, those who express concern over someone's stability in regards to a video game simply aren't coming to a debate in good faith.

As for the Unsundered world continuing to exist? Well, Shadowbringers already established the existence of alternate universes to justify G'raha Tia's continued existence. The writers may not have gone with the same approach for the Ancients though it's not like it would have been impossible for them to have come up with a way to do so.

We can also look at the single player games and note that the draw for many lies not only in the story of the protagonists but that of the antagonists. A one sided approach where the protagonists gain everything and the antagonists lose everything isn't what a lot of us enjoy...nor was it ever the core premise of FFXIV back when it first launched.

[RoroCookies]

G’hara and the Ironworks going back in time to save one person = good
Us going back in time to not only save the anicents but also all the worlds that Meteion has destroyed = bad

[Ixon]

Dead, maybe. Forgotten, nope. Besides, their souls are now released into the Aetherial Sea.

You ever think we will make any future trips to The Aitiascope to talk to some dead people for exposition or advice? I don't quite remember if there was some canon "You can only go there once" type deal. Though I am sure they won't allow us to go talk to the souls in the Aetherial Sea whenever we fancy.