Quote Originally Posted by Slatersev View Post
Its funny, for as much as this thread claims the Watcher is to biased in his stance to be trusted, he's explicitly fine with people coming to there own conclusions and in fact encourages it and doesn't go out of his way to force his own opinion on anyone.
Okay? I never said he was going to waterboard the WoL for not agreeing. :P However, he also says: "I am a creation of Hydaelyn, and as such, I believed the age of the ancients would fade and be forgotten..." This can be easily extrapolated to her ideology as a whole, particularly as he does make frequent usage of "we" and "our" terminology. I think it's ridiculous after years of character agency being hand waved due to tempering, somehow an actual creation of a primal is exempt from any form of bias (especially when we see this isn't the case). He also suspects his recollection was limited by her and when he speaks of 'sharing her sleepless vigil' it's in the context of her being 'so resolved in her convictions'. His OG self couldn't have changed her mind if he wanted.

I actually like the Watcher, but I feel sorry for him. I view him (both versions) as one of many victims of Venat's path of destruction towards "the world we knew you deserved".

Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
They haven't lost agency at all. It's still their own actions and decisions that will create the future, even if somebody else knows what will happen. Unless Hydaelyn is manipulating their every move, they are still in control of what they do.
She was manipulating it from the moment she spared Emet from being sundered while sundering Azem. She wouldn't have been ignorant of the bond between those two and, listening to the WoL's tales of the future, could be assured that Emet's sentimentality towards Azem regardless of incarnation would be his undoing. Likewise, Emet's saving the WoL from the rift in SoS within the context of EW has now turned into perpetuating the time loop (having regained his memories upon death) than the initial belief it was a kindness to Elidibus. (Instead, by doing this he seemingly dooms Elidibus to 'turbo death'.)

Quote Originally Posted by CrownySuccubus View Post
Reddit, Twitter, Discord and other sites are nebulous "them" scapegoats. In any fanbase or faction, it's always easy to find "You disagree with me, therefore you're bad" trolls.
I don't do Twitter, but I've been told by those who do it depends entirely on what your 'circle' is based on various filtration methods. As for Reddit, it's gotten better, but for 3-4 months after EW's release you couldn't say anything negative about EW without being downvoted into oblivion. I ended up chatting in private with several people who didn't like the story who'd messaged me because they thought they were alone. This is a sentiment I see a lot, especially any newcomers to the lackluster thread in general discussion. Most of the people I've chatted with on Reddit and more recently Discord don't post on the forums either. I know there seems to be some weird copium going on here that only about 3 people and their army of alts disliked EW and that's just simply not true.