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

[SpectrePhantasia]

The writing of the Ancients from the phantom Amaurot was so fascinating, well-written, and most importantly, a massive departure from how they were often represented in Endwalker—or rather how the narrative seemed to want you to feel about them. The city not only had people like the Firebrand who argued for celebrating creations who don't meet arbitrary standards, but you also have far more self-conscious ones in the Gentle Amaurotine, who told us eventual stagnation was a very real issue they considered and thought about:

But even inspiration has its limits. For all the wonders we have wrought, I do wonder if there will come a time when we have fully explored the potential of our powers—when there is truly nothing left unmade, and only iteration and imitation and stagnation remain...

Much of these 'issues' that the Ancients seemed to have not only seemed to be largely conjured up for specifically Endwalker, but they also contradict the image of the society that we came to know before. And yes, I know its easy to say its a result of Emet-selch's rose-tinted glasses, but I honestly think these discussions and issues are too complex to be the result of bias on his part. These Ancients seem reflective of actual people, giving their thoughts about the world they live in. The more you consider people like the ones in this city, the more holes are poked in the idea that they were beyond saving.

[Brinne]

The writing of the Ancients from the phantom Amaurot was so fascinating, well-written, and most importantly, a massive departure from how they were often represented in Endwalker—or rather how the narrative seemed to want you to feel about them. The city not only had people like the Firebrand who argued for celebrating creations who don't meet arbitrary standards, but you also have far more self-conscious ones in the Gentle Amaurotine, who told us eventual stagnation was a very real issue they considered and thought about:

Much of these 'issues' that the Ancients seemed to have not only seemed to be largely conjured up for specifically Endwalker, but they also contradict the image of the society that we came to know before. And yes, I know its easy to say its a result of Emet-selch's rose-tinted glasses, but I honestly think these discussions and issues are too complex to be the result of bias on his part. These Ancients seem reflective of actual people, giving their thoughts about the world they live in. The more you consider people like the ones in this city, the more holes are poked in the idea that they were beyond saving.

What's really wild about Elpis is that, putting aside my inherent mixed feelings in fully realizing the Ancients as part of this fantasy world to begin with (their presentation in Amaurot was striking and haunting because they felt so deliberately removed from the fantasy and closer to Actual People - down to having the more modern New York-style architecture and skyline, which becomes another piece of "uh, what?" in terms of "hoping you'd find them scary because they're Not Like Us" - Shadowbringers leaned on them being more Like Us than the residents of Eorzea, but okay) - considered entirely on its own, I loved it and it was almost everything I could have hoped for. The Ancients were still incredibly sweet, gentle, well-meaning people who were still very clearly people with their own struggles, thoughts, and individuality. The haunting sense of "lost reality" from Shadowbringers was necessarily and inevitably missing, but I still had the same sense of "warmth" and "safety" from them.

But then the overt narrative itself and interviews went and tried to sit down and tell me: "All those aspects you found lovable and charming and wonderful and indicative of a good society and good-hearted people? Those were all meant to be bad and demonstrative of why the Ancients Had To Go and the story is dependent on you reacting to them that way." It's a bit of a head-spinning trip, just like the story points demonstrating Hydaelyn's actions to be worse, to my perception, than I ever thought or suspected they could be, while simultaneously urging me to understand her as noble and benevolent. What is even happening here.jpg, down is up, up is down, etc. Endwalker!