Quote Originally Posted by DevonEllwood View Post
Yoshida stated that he didn't think people looked this far into the story. Well, apparently neither do the writers, because this story should have never happened. it comes off as gross just for the sake of pushing ideals.
Conspiracy theory time. :P

I've thought EW wasn't the story Ishikawa wanted to tell. Given that she was having to rewrite the script to be more 'agreeable' to the team up until 2 days short of the deadline, it makes me think that it was too late to change Venat's actions and the best she could do within the limited time frame was to make her and the sundering appear positive through gratuitous narrative gaslighting. (The fact that she largely managed to pull this off is astounding.) Likely because someone (probably Yoshi-P) told her Hydaelyn can't be a 'bad guy'. There are interviews with Yoshi-P back in ShB wondering why people are so quick to believe Emet when they haven't heard Hydaelyn's side of the story yet. Emet never lied to us, Venat had been since Elpis. (Not to mention if people were that quick to believe an Ascian then I'd say that's evidence a decent amount of people didn't buy into Hydaelyn being a 'good guy'.)

Assuming that is not the case then all I can say is that Ishikawa needed more time to sit on the story. This is still ultimately Yoshi-P's fault for rushing a conclusion that she said in interviews could've gone until 8.0. She also seemed to have not only less creative freedom this time, but was also said to be so overburdened that others had to take over parts of the story for her. Based on what I've read, it seems like Yoshi-P was heavily involved in the Mothercrystal cutscene (aside from being obsessed with getting her face 'just right' for a month), which might explain the weird inconsistency with the Azem crystal. It wouldn't at all surprise me if he also had Emet 'forgive' Venat in UT since we know he's responsible for the bucket list to give players something to look forward to, I can easily see him wanting the 'fan favorite' to acknowledge Venat to further cement her characterization even though most of us were painfully aware how out of character that dialog was for him.

Quote Originally Posted by Lunaxia View Post
On a general (but related) note, one thing that occurred to me was the cutscene where Venat herself states during one of the recordings from Anamnesis Anyder that their actions will earn them the "eternal condemnation" of their people.
There were literally only 3 survivors of the sundering, yet we're not supposed to take their accounts seriously because they're Ascians. How terribly convenient.

Also, I wouldn't worry about repeating yourself too much since we get new people to the thread all the time and I recently found out that it's routinely linked to 5ch. So, hello to JP players translating this right now!

Unfortunately, I'm beginning to doubt I'll ever find peace with this story. As a new(er) player I don't have the time sunk cost. I like other aspects of the game, but ever since this horrible ending I've just lost desire to play. Unless the post patches turn out something amazing I don't see myself sticking around to 7.0. My main goal is getting my SO (who doesn't have much free time) through ShB, then it'll be a lot easier to get that second foot out the door.