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

[SpitbreakFTW]

continued from above:

• We have to accept two unarmed women in street clothes seriously fled onto a monster covered ice shelf in the direction of a dead end just to avoid talking to someone they don't like
• We have to accept whoever wrote that wants us to feel sorry for those two Darwin Award Winners
• We have to accept that Thancred had the Conquerer's Chain with him the entire time
• We have to accept that Thancred didn't tell anyone that he had the Conquerer's Chain with him the entire time
• We have to accept we didn't murder Thancred (this is the point I gave up on the expansion)
• We have to accept no one complaining about the cold the entire time ever thought to put on a winter hat to cover their doofus carnival ears
• We have to accept no one lost an earlobe to frostbite
• We have to accept the Loporrits had hostile robots wandering around the dining room FOR NO RAISIN!
• We have to accept that Hermes was mentally and emotionally defective enough to have a breakdown because we had to euthanize a wild animal before it killed everything else in Elpis
• We have to accept that despite being such a fragile clod, Hermes rose to be in charge of Elpis and was being considered for Convocation-ship
• We have to accept that every planet a Meteion went to had developed sapient life that had subsequently went extinct
• Not one planet just didn't have life on it. Or just had early aquatic life, or was in a Dinosaur stage, or had a society that hadn't yet destroyed themselves, or any other of many possibilities. HOW CONVENIENT for clown plot
• We have to accept Hermes has an Insta-Cast spell strong enough to bind the WoL, the former Azem, and the current Emet Selch. And also some other guy.
• We have to accept Hermes didn't use this incredibly useful spell TWO MINUTES EARLIER when he was fighting us.
• We have to accept that bind spell was either broken or ran out of duration JUST after Hermes finished programming Kairos, and also JUST IN TIME for everyone to act in time for Venat and WoL to escape. HOW LUCKY
• We have to accept that EMET SELCH, formerly highly intelligent and practical, spent time saying a few final words to the WoL instead of acting to escape himself
• We have to accept that Venat refuses to even attempt to bring Emet Selch into the fold, despite his objective and demonstrable status as an ally. Because this clown plot couldn't occur otherwise
• We have to accept all the various and myriad lore shattering lunacy that occurred in that Venat cutscene as the WoL was returning to the present day (that is another tl;dr for another time)

continued again

[SpitbreakFTW]

• We have to accept the WoL did not get any closer to the Satrap despite running towards him for several seconds
• We have to accept that some Blasphemy cascade situation didn't completely unravel anywhere in the world while we were VERY LEISURELY making our way through the rest of the extremely padded out plot
• Seriously. Kugane, Doma, Azim Steppe, Bozja, etc, completely unharmed. The giga-blasphemies masquerading as proper job quests? Completely contained offscreen nothing else to worry about
• Yeah just do some chores and kill some time and walk and talk for several hours as the world is supposedly ending no big deal
• We have to accept Y'Shtola sincerely suggested that Hydaelyn sundering Man, and thereby reducing an individual's aetheric density, rendered us more resistant to dynamis, even though that is EXACTLY the opposite of how it had been established to work. I'm fairly certain it was Y'Shtola herself that spelled out how the Unsundered didn't themselves turn into Blasphemies because of their aetheric density.
• We have to accept that Hydaelyn played along with Y'Shtola's idiocy because Hydaelyn herself just realized what an idiotic idea sundering Man was
• We have to accept that only the "Core Scions" were loaded up for the one and only chance to save the universe
• We have to accept that we didn't use any of the spare time in the plot to gather extra help for the One And Only Shot to save the actual universe.
• Really no one thought to try and wrangle up any of Gaius, Lucia, Hoary Boulder And Friends, anyone from the various combat guilds, anyone from the various job quests, the crazy lady from Azim Steppe, literally even that Assassin Fisherlady from Heavensward there's plenty of bloody room on the Ragnarok and the universe is at stake why are we pretending we have the roster limitations of a basketball team who wrote this abject garbage
• We have to accept that Y'Shtola unironically told us not to bring them back by using Azem's crystal, even though there was no reason NOT to bring back Y'shtola, Urianger, and Estinien once the WoL reached the next Aetheryte.
• We have to accept that Zenos, after multiple times refusing to instigate a fight with the WoL because there was a lack of "despair" or whatever edgelord nonsense, all of a sudden is cool with challenging the WoL to an explicitly voluntary duel.
• We thus have to accept that the writers of this decade long mess went through all the trouble to bring Zenos back from the whole dead, but not for one good reason.

This expansion was a catastrophic failure of characterization, continuity, and common sense from start to finish. Or the plot of the expansion was, anyway. The gameplay """content""" is, of course, the exact same loop of tired tripe we've been repeating since Heavensward. And I still can't actually WEAR my SAMhat

[Misplaced_Marbles]

Really no one thought to try and wrangle up any of Gaius, Lucia, Hoary Boulder And Friends, anyone from the various combat guilds, anyone from the various job quests, the crazy lady from Azim Steppe, literally even that Assassin Fisherlady from Heavensward there's plenty of bloody room on the Ragnarok and the universe is at stake why are we pretending we have the roster limitations of a basketball team who wrote this abject garbage

Ah, but you see, if they brought in the expendables, someone might have actually died and we can't have that.

[Jagick]

Here's a no doubt non-inclusive list of all of the contrivances, plot holes, and outright idiocy one has to accept in order to get through Endwalker's trainwreck of a plot. THIS is how far one's Disbelief must be Suspended

• We have to accept that 7 Rejoinings have limited Hydaelyn's ability to communicate with men, and generally weakened her, despite 7 being the same number of Rejoinings since the start of A Realm Reborn, the time when she talked to men all the time and actively protected us from the Ultima spell
• We have to accept that several formerly intelligent characters thought it wise, in the face of the Apocalypse, to have the WoL waste their time helping nerds read books in the Nerdery, taking their focus off the End of the World Tower they are uniquely qualified to deal with
• We have to accept the WoL saw an autonomous, less-than-lethal grenade drone and didn't mention it or its MANY uses to ANYONE
• Thus, we have to accept that the WoL is cannonically dumber than gibbon turds
• We have to accept that Nidhana seriously thought it was a good idea to test the anti-tempering scale herself. Risking the top of the chain of command for absolutely no benefit
• We have to accept that Alisae and Alphy were dumb enough to propose a plan to invade Garlemald without killing anyone
• We have to accept that the rest of the Scions unanimously agreed with this suicidally idiotic plan
• We have to accept that several heads of state agreed with this suicidally idiotic plan
• We have to accept that very many volunteers gleefully stepped forth to throw their lives away on this suicidally idiotic plan
• We have to accept NO ONE MENTIONED THE CONQUERER'S CHAIN and how it would make this suicidally idiotic plan just a tiny bit less suicidal
• We have to accept that the Far East contingent, comprised of highly trained ninjas and warriors, extremely capable of targeted strikes, forward reconnaissance, and simply open fighting, were relegated to Naruto Running communications back and forth off screen. Even though LINKSHELLS EXIST
• We have to accept that Y'Shtola, formerly intelligent character, ever thought Estinien, whose only skill is stabbing, would be useful in non-fatally subduing wild zombies
• We have to accept the suicidally idiotic plan to completely non-lethally invade Garlemald actually works
• BECAUSE we have to accept that hitting people with my gigantic axe just knocks them over with Looney Toons stars around their head. Instead of killing them like it had done to everything else throughout the whole game since level bloody 1.

to be continued

continued from above:

• We have to accept two unarmed women in street clothes seriously fled onto a monster covered ice shelf in the direction of a dead end just to avoid talking to someone they don't like
• We have to accept whoever wrote that wants us to feel sorry for those two Darwin Award Winners
• We have to accept that Thancred had the Conquerer's Chain with him the entire time
• We have to accept that Thancred didn't tell anyone that he had the Conquerer's Chain with him the entire time
• We have to accept we didn't murder Thancred (this is the point I gave up on the expansion)
• We have to accept no one complaining about the cold the entire time ever thought to put on a winter hat to cover their doofus carnival ears
• We have to accept no one lost an earlobe to frostbite
• We have to accept the Loporrits had hostile robots wandering around the dining room FOR NO RAISIN!
• We have to accept that Hermes was mentally and emotionally defective enough to have a breakdown because we had to euthanize a wild animal before it killed everything else in Elpis
• We have to accept that despite being such a fragile clod, Hermes rose to be in charge of Elpis and was being considered for Convocation-ship
• We have to accept that every planet a Meteion went to had developed sapient life that had subsequently went extinct
• Not one planet just didn't have life on it. Or just had early aquatic life, or was in a Dinosaur stage, or had a society that hadn't yet destroyed themselves, or any other of many possibilities. HOW CONVENIENT for clown plot
• We have to accept Hermes has an Insta-Cast spell strong enough to bind the WoL, the former Azem, and the current Emet Selch. And also some other guy.
• We have to accept Hermes didn't use this incredibly useful spell TWO MINUTES EARLIER when he was fighting us.
• We have to accept that bind spell was either broken or ran out of duration JUST after Hermes finished programming Kairos, and also JUST IN TIME for everyone to act in time for Venat and WoL to escape. HOW LUCKY
• We have to accept that EMET SELCH, formerly highly intelligent and practical, spent time saying a few final words to the WoL instead of acting to escape himself
• We have to accept that Venat refuses to even attempt to bring Emet Selch into the fold, despite his objective and demonstrable status as an ally. Because this clown plot couldn't occur otherwise
• We have to accept all the various and myriad lore shattering lunacy that occurred in that Venat cutscene as the WoL was returning to the present day (that is another tl;dr for another time)

continued again

• We have to accept the WoL did not get any closer to the Satrap despite running towards him for several seconds
• We have to accept that some Blasphemy cascade situation didn't completely unravel anywhere in the world while we were VERY LEISURELY making our way through the rest of the extremely padded out plot
• Seriously. Kugane, Doma, Azim Steppe, Bozja, etc, completely unharmed. The giga-blasphemies masquerading as proper job quests? Completely contained offscreen nothing else to worry about
• Yeah just do some chores and kill some time and walk and talk for several hours as the world is supposedly ending no big deal
• We have to accept Y'Shtola sincerely suggested that Hydaelyn sundering Man, and thereby reducing an individual's aetheric density, rendered us more resistant to dynamis, even though that is EXACTLY the opposite of how it had been established to work. I'm fairly certain it was Y'Shtola herself that spelled out how the Unsundered didn't themselves turn into Blasphemies because of their aetheric density.
• We have to accept that Hydaelyn played along with Y'Shtola's idiocy because Hydaelyn herself just realized what an idiotic idea sundering Man was
• We have to accept that only the "Core Scions" were loaded up for the one and only chance to save the universe
• We have to accept that we didn't use any of the spare time in the plot to gather extra help for the One And Only Shot to save the actual universe.
• Really no one thought to try and wrangle up any of Gaius, Lucia, Hoary Boulder And Friends, anyone from the various combat guilds, anyone from the various job quests, the crazy lady from Azim Steppe, literally even that Assassin Fisherlady from Heavensward there's plenty of bloody room on the Ragnarok and the universe is at stake why are we pretending we have the roster limitations of a basketball team who wrote this abject garbage
• We have to accept that Y'Shtola unironically told us not to bring them back by using Azem's crystal, even though there was no reason NOT to bring back Y'shtola, Urianger, and Estinien once the WoL reached the next Aetheryte.
• We have to accept that Zenos, after multiple times refusing to instigate a fight with the WoL because there was a lack of "despair" or whatever edgelord nonsense, all of a sudden is cool with challenging the WoL to an explicitly voluntary duel.
• We thus have to accept that the writers of this decade long mess went through all the trouble to bring Zenos back from the whole dead, but not for one good reason.

This expansion was a catastrophic failure of characterization, continuity, and common sense from start to finish. Or the plot of the expansion was, anyway. The gameplay """content""" is, of course, the exact same loop of tired tripe we've been repeating since Heavensward. And I still can't actually WEAR my SAMhat

Excuse me while I vomit blood uncontrollably because this sums up my issues with the expansion, especially the Garlemald arc, and especially how so much requires the WoL or other supposedly intelligent characters to be stupid to accommodate the terrible writing. Agreed with everything. THANK. YOU.