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

[SentioftheHoukai]

Simple. They had an army. We had a WOL.

That said, Ishgard abandoning its isolationism made sense. That was imposed by a tyrannical theocracy to keep people ignorant and secure said religious dictator's power hold.

But now that you mention it, I can't help but notice that most cases of the WOL ending an isolationist society results from "They have X and we need X to save the world. Therefore, we have to force them to give us X", which basically comes across as a 15th-Century "How to Justify Colonial Expansion" manual. I mean, yeah, the fact that the player usually needs to upturn some society to get what they need to save the world is both true and not exactly new to RPGs, but it IS noticeable how often it happens to the Scions.

No offense, but the WoL died from Black Rose. We're not some unfallible deity, if Garlemald in its prime threw the worst it had to offer at us and they all dogpiled us I'm rather certain we'd die. We're not a freaking Super Saiyan, or a character in a musou plowing through literal regiments of enemy soldiers simultaneously. The only reason the threat Garlemald proffered was defanged was because Zenos slaughtered them all offscreen so the Garlemald expansion didn't have to happen.

Same. Especially after the NieR crossover doubled down on Emet's 12k years of "hatred and heartbreak". I could accept what Brinne said about Emet not wanting to upset the WoL, but the leap to commending Venat was too much. I can't help but wonder if that was also Yoshi-P's doing because it was so character inconsistent and didn't match with the surrounding dialog. "We need to have fan favorite, Emet, praise Venat too to really sell her character!" Speaking of which, did anyone else notice his Elpis description of her essentially paints her as a Mary Sue? She's apparently the best there is at everything. :| This also seems in conflict with his other dialog that suggests he didn't like her even back then.

This worries me, tbqh what with how Y'shtola seems to be leading the next patch cycle/possible expansion. Y'shtola feels like a developer's mouthpiece more than a character to me these days. Black Mage job switch, the most fanatically devoted to Hydaelyn of all the Scions, etc. Feels like we're gearing up to be smashed in the face with more faulty ideology with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.