Who knew the 6.15 Omega Quests… (Spoilers)

[EaraGrace]

Eara, speaking only for myself here and honestly hoping we can reach a better understanding, it's not about the actions in a vacuum. I've said multiple times that I could have been completely capable of loving Venat as a character without changing a single thing about her in word, thought, or deed. The problem is the narrative. I and those I know, at least, have extreme reactions to Venat because, unlike the other characters you named, they feel at extreme odds, or dissonant, with how the narrative then treats those characters. Emet and Elidibus are portrayed very sympathetically, but still, ultimately, as antagonists we have to put down, with their wrongdoings recognized as wrong when they are relevant or being discussed. Venat is a very, very different story, and one that is so deeply tied to the overall story and lore that if you feel dissonant with the perspective the story takes on her, it can honestly and truly break the entire game for you. And I don't want the game to be broken for me. It makes me very sad, actually.

Venat herself is fine. The story lauding her and her methods is not fine. Emet and Elidibus as characters, too, are fine. If the story started unironically lauding the creation of the Garlean Empire on Emet's part, or cheering on Elidibus's use of the wishes of the Warriors of Light rather than condemning it (like it did, in fact, do), that also would absolutely not be fine.

With all due respect Brinne, I think you vastly understate the water this game carries for Emet and Elidibus, and the lengths SHB, and Endwalker as well, went to absolve them. The narrative of these two characters is not two evil villains with somewhat sympathetic motivations, but heroes steeped in tragedy that we should weep for. The dissonance you feel with Venat is no different than I felt with the Unsundered. From the comments Alisaie and the Scions make about how they'd do the same if the sides were flipped. The multiple sequences where we get cute bonding moments with them. The constant references and callbacks. The additional lore dumps tying their characters to yours. To make this comparison even clearer, let me just quote the Hades Ex description.

Hearken unto a requiem for a hero fallen. A man who lived a thousand thousand of our lives clinging desperately to faint hope, never shirking his sworn duty to his long-lost brethern. A man who stood proud and avow his true name on the threshold of the battle that would see him fall to his rival-the light to quench his shadow. Borrowing liberally from the funereal rites of the Night's Blessed, the minstreling wanderer weaves an elegy in that hero's honor - the tragic-yet-triumphant tale of a man and a battle that ne'er shall be forgotten.

So yeah I know how it feels. But I never demanded the game to completely change its narrative or rewrite descriptions to be more neutral. I never said it was bad writing. I disagreed with those defenses, and argued my position yes, but never did I react in the way that others have to Venat and Endwalker. My frustration is rooted in that.

[Tehmon]

The dissonance you feel with Venat is no different than I felt with the Unsundered. From the comments Alisaie and the Scions make about how they'd do the same if the sides were flipped. The multiple sequences where we get cute bonding moments with them. The constant references and callbacks. The additional lore dumps tying their characters to yours. To make this comparison even clearer, let me just quote the Hades Ex description.

Oh tell me about it. Whenever the game pushes me to think that what the unsundered do is '' totally logical, and if we were in the same position we'd do the same!!! '' I'm just like no game, I wouldn't go on a massive murder spree to get '' my world, my people '' back. Sorry, guess I'm not the hero the game wants me to be kek. Similarly there are so many moments in Endwalker where we longingly look at Emet, or his damn teacup, or how we reach out our hand at him as we escape Kairos' memory wipe, forcibly creating these weird emotional feelings directed towards Emet from our player character regardless of how we players truly feel about Emet. Emet's final conversation with us in UT is also pretty weird, as WoL lowers their head in dissapointment? and sadness? over Emet's departure and his fate, to the point Emet has to console us. No mate, just leave please, you just stood there and said you have no regrets about what you did and potentially would've done, you can just go, Hythlodaeus you're cool, but Emet you can just piss off thanks.

And with the Omega quest, WoL is yet again forcibly made to feel a certain type of way about Emet, and pushing us towards a narrative I might not agree with for my own WoL. A '' benevolent ally '' as Omega put it, and someone we think about with positively in the end. There's a narrative about the unsundered, especially Emet, being pushed, and it's not painting him as anything except a man who just had to do what he did, a hero to his people, and a great friend to us.

Yet, whether I agree how the story paints the WoL's feelings towards Emet, and the narrative surrounding Emet and unsundered in general, I still think it's a great story and understand why the narrative is what it is, and the game isn't necessarily worse for it. But my opinions will never truly align with the greater narrative, and that is okay. At the end of the day, the parts I don't necessarily jive with that the game forces me into, I am able to roleplay it differently in my head and think of other approaches and outcomes. That is half the fun of RPGs anyway. I don't need the game's story and narrative to always be in line with my own thoughts, values and morals, as long as the story is compelling and fun to go through, and that's what FFXIV manages to do even when I don't completely agree with everything my WoL does.

[Iscah]

I understand that's sort of difficult to process that, yes, we killed a person who did indisputably try to reach out to us in good faith, in hopes for some kind of nonviolent reconciliation.

No, we killed someone who previously tried to reach out to us in good faith (though we couldn't confirm that at the time) but has since apparently abandoned that approach, shot all our friends in front of us and is now directly trying to kill us. Past good faith doesn't count for much at that point.