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

[Nilroreo]

I sometimes wonder if they were going to go with a Lavos-style villain as the big bad behind everything......then one day Ishikawa was going for a walk in a park and saw a blue bird fly by and an idea suddenly struck her: "wouldn't be a cool idea to make a cute little bird the big baddie?" and just completely derailed the original idea and that's how we got Meteion and why Meteion doesn't feel like she was originally what they had intended.

I was initially under the impression that this was going to be the case based on how one npc in particular describes the event.

'Tis said it starts suddenly, a cacophonous keening from beneath the earth. The sound distorts all living things within earshot, and wrests from us control of our creation magicks.

None can point to the source of the phenomenon. 'Tis as if the star itself has fallen ill─as if a force inimical to life now festers and spreads.

[YukikoKurosawa]

snip

The entire theme of Endwalker (Existentialism, finding the meaning in life, moving on from the past) was just totally out of left field and none of these core themes were in any way, shape, or form explored in the story prior to Endwalker.

I certainly wasn't questioning the very meaning of existence while I was listening to a Darth Vader wannabe monologuing about his quest for power in ARR. At no point in the story were these kind of questions asked. FFXIV was never a deep, philosophical story and it's sudden 180 into being just that in Endwalker was extremely jarring. That's part of why a Lavos-style eldrich abomination for the big bad would've worked a lot better because it would've fit more in line. FFXIV has never been about deep themes. Compelling storylines, with serious moments interspliced with levity here and there, and carried by a solid cast of characters with depth, and villains who have sympathetic, understandable motives? Yes. A deep, thematic story that leaves you with serious meaningful questions? God no. This is not and has never been high literature nor does it need to be, and it really should not be trying to now.

These themes were extremely ham-fisted and though while I think ultimately it worked (barely, they managed to tie those core themes into the entire origin story of the world itself as the Sundering happened because Venat had these philosophical questions leading to her ultimate decision), it's obvious that it was never the original intention for the story and a sign that the writers don't really have a clear, consistent direction for the plot.

[YukikoKurosawa]

I was initially under the impression that this was going to be the case based on how one npc in particular describes the event.

Did they just completely forget they wrote this merely one expansion prior?

[Kozh]

Forever, because they wouldn't give us a better ending. (I see you, Kozh! Why you hiding this stuff from us?)

Adjsgakf oh no, I've been discovered XD


Okay new things I hate from the current story: apparently sharlayan now is just another generic scholarly nation that strive for "betterment of the star" and will rejoin the Eorzean alliance. Yayyy... *deflated balloon noise*

Like, c'mon, reclusive magical nation who prefer to observe is a common trope in fantasy setting. Do we really need to strip them of their only uniqueness?

Also, forgive me for not liking the excuse they gave us. "oh, we actually went into seclusion bc we're busy building a space ship". Meanwhile in HW we know they have an assassin sect that hunt people who dare spread sharlayan knowledge to the world, even though it's pretty unrelated to info about final days and Hydaelyn true nature.

[Caurcas]

I was initially under the impression that this was going to be the case based on how one npc in particular describes the event.

It also would've worked better with the dynamis concept.

[anhaato]

Then dispute the charge and quit? If i hated something that bad, i would've just called my CC company. You can see we still have our college-esque scions as teammates on the future story. It's not going to get miraculously better.

Just wondering, what's your goal in posting all of this? Like what is your ultimate end goal, what do you hope to achieve by telling us we should stop being disappointed with the story?

[Nilroreo]

Did they just completely forget they wrote this merely one expansion prior?

Well, they do kinda address it in Endwalker. After returning to Thavnir from the moon, Ahewann says this:

"Last night, the isle was rocked by tremors, and the earth itself cried out."

Not quite as specific as the first quote. Seems like this sound they heard was recontextualized into the song of oblivion, though its hard to ignore that the description from Shadowbringers was very clearly suggesting The Final Days was being perpetrated by some internal force, unless Meteion can somehow project her voice from inside the planet, in which case, sure why not. Dynamis is already an absurdly abstract form of energy that I'm sure can be used to explain anything away.

[anhaato]

I sometimes wonder if they were going to go with a Lavos-style villain as the big bad behind everything......then one day Ishikawa was going for a walk in a park and saw a blue bird fly by and an idea suddenly struck her: "wouldn't be a cool idea to make a cute little bird the big baddie?" and just completely derailed the original idea and that's how we got Meteion and why Meteion doesn't feel like she was originally what they had intended.

The planet itself cried out... no one can pinpoint a singular source or direction of origin... there's a newly-revealed anti-aether substance based on emotions called dynamis... dynamis was killing people before our eyes... Hydaelyn even has the ability to give a blessing that gives us the power to give physical form to constructs of dynamis... so clearly the big baddie is an amalgamation of dark dynamis released by each planet as it died off which is amassing and becoming malevolent, and we have to give form to it so we can defeat it, yes? Oh... a bird?

[KageTokage]

I was initially under the impression that this was going to be the case based on how one npc in particular describes the event.

The whole "keening" plot point still stands out as strange to me given that we're never given any explicit confirmation about exactly what it is, just that it's dynamis-related.

Though something that bugged me even more was the sudden seeming retcon of the Blessing of Light/traveler's ward being specifically intended to protect against a primal's tempering as opposed its more generalized purpose of preventing aetherial corruption that was brought up in Shadowbringers. When that dialogue choice came up in Elpis, my first thought was "Why would I say that, the Echo is what protects against primals."

[Nilroreo]

The whole "keening" plot point still stands out as strange to me given that we're never given any explicit confirmation about exactly what it is, just that it's dynamis-related.

Though something that bugged me even more was the sudden seeming retcon of the Blessing of Light/traveler's ward being specifically intended to protect against a primal's tempering as opposed its more generalized purpose of preventing aetherial corruption that was brought up in Shadowbringers. When that dialogue choice came up in Elpis, my first thought was "Why would I say that, the Echo is what protects against primals."

Oh yeah, I actually brought this up as well a few months ago.

When Emet confirms he was tempered in Shadowbringers, I decided to take him at his word, since I have no reason to assume he would lie about something like that. But when paired with the revelation a few patches later that the Echo isn't some phenomenon tied exclusively to Hydaelyn but instead to all Amaurotines in general, it brings to mind every single instance of immunity to tempering up until this point and how all have been attributed to the Echo. In ARR, I believe we didn't even have Hydaelyn's blessing for most of the story, so it would've been the Echo protecting us. In Heavensward, our blessing was revoked by Middy, and in Stormblood, 3 separate characters, none of which have the blessing were able to resist it with their Echo. But then Shadowbringers drops this revelation and Endwalker confirms it was actually the blessing of light protecting us this whole time!

So now, if we assume the Echo is what gives us immunity, then Emet couldn't have been tempered, but if we assume it was actually the blessing, then every single instance of the Echo being used to resist tempering between ARR and Stormblood is now called into question. the "light tug" comment in Endwalker doesn't really help much to clarify things either.

Something I neglected to bring up here is that both Arenvald and Fordola were chosen to investigate a tower in 5.5 (I think?). By this point in development, the devs should've already settled on the Blessing being the source of our immunity, and yet, their immunity is still somehow attributed to the echo.