Y'shtola is a Mary Sue.

[IkaraGreydancer]

IMO would have been better if they made Hydaelyn similar to Emet back in Shadowbringer. A character with Motivation that is for the ''greater good'' but requires sacrifice that is ambiguous. They could have gone for the thing they did back in Eden with Shiva, where her theme hints that the Light wants to create peace and salvation at the cost of free will. We could have had a depressed Hydaelyn that came to the conclusion that salvation could only come at the price of free will. And having our WOL proving her wrong or something of the like.

Why repeat story beats we had with other characters? That would just be a Vauthry story on roids

[BrokentoothMarch]

Why repeat story beats we had with other characters? That would just be a Vauthry story on roids

The story's already doing this plenty. See Y'shtola and Alphinaud as the most egregious examples.

[Theodric]

The story's already doing this plenty. See Y'shtola and Alphinaud as the most egregious examples.

Yep.

The game seems terrified of shaking up the status quo on any front. It's exactly why I question how many 'story driven' games many FFXIV players have actually played because so many of the established characters are very 'safe' and rarely react in realistic ways.

That not a single Scion was ever at risk of turning into a Blasphemy was utterly laughable to me. Yet if we look at other story driven games - such as The Witcher 3 - even some of the characters that show up in a single quest chain are more fleshed out and dynamic.

Meanwhile in FFXIV, the moment a character rises above the surface of the water they are usually killed off or forced to change. Not only are we stuck with a bloated cast, any character that dares to think or commit to different opinions and methods is shoved aside.