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

[ReynTime]

I used to find Y'shtola tolerable but she's becoming about as much as an insufferable know-it-all as Hermione Granger at this point. It'd be pretty refreshing to see one of her theories be shown to be utterly wrong to humble her a little. I think if the intention is to make a cast of protagonists to be likeable and relatable then ensuring that they stumble and fall from time to time is a necessity. I'm also not sure why Y'shtola was insisting on being the one to share her aether with Zero when she's supposedly weakened already by her inability to see through regular means.

I suppose I just miss the days where the game's worldbuilding and story accounted for such things more prominently.

At any rate, Zero is a refreshing breath of fresh air by virtue of having a more mercenary personality to the other characters. How long that lasts, exactly, remains to be seen - but it showcases how the dynamic of a scene can become a lot more interesting when new faces and personalities are mixed in with the old.

On one hand, Estinien is evidence they don't feel like they have to fit every character into a Disney mold. On the other hand they could have introduced her the way she is BECAUSE they will have her change completely later...

[Saraide]

This is straining my credulity too. We keep getting these quests where Scions offer to dump their aether into something, whether it be a voidsent or auracite crystal or whatever. And like, it's pretty much always someone who just finished talking about being near-dead from exhaustion at the end of their rope.

Standing next to a person who's been rejoined more times than any living person, and is canonically the fountain of practical infinity plus one aether. While they just stand there and go "yup. Aether bleeding Y'shtola should be the one to hand over some aether. I'm just gonna stand here like I'm not the far more obvious candidate for it".

I personally would like to have those aether dumps be our wol more often but there is logic to it this way both from a group perspective but also from yshtola's perspective specifically. For a group it's not really the dumbest approach to keep your canonically most powerful member in top condition and yshtola specifically wants to keep the strain on the wol as low as possible after what the wol went through with their own aether on the first.

[aveyond-dreams]

I consider Y'shtola to be one of the worst female characters in the entirety of the Final Fantasy series. Remember the teacher we had in our party that was actually likeable? Quistis ring a bill anyone? Even she wasn't as arrogant and smug as this immortal character is, whose fans are too attached to her to let any harm befall her no matter the cost to the story.

There are ways to do this sort of character archetype properly - though that usually requires a degree of endearment that is present nowhere in Y'shtola's writing. Instead that role for some reason had to go to G'raha Tia and Alisae. It also helps whenever such a character performs a noble sacrifice, that it isn't undone so swiftly and with nothing in the way of lasting consequences. Of all people to offer a Voidsent aether, it seems as if it was forgotten that Y'shtola relies on it to see. And then they had her doing battle in the skies surrounding Barbariccia's domain. How did this come to pass?

I personally would like to have those aether dumps be our wol more often but there is logic to it this way both from a group perspective but also from yshtola's perspective specifically. For a group it's not really the dumbest approach to keep your canonically most powerful member in top condition and yshtola specifically wants to keep the strain on the wol as low as possible after what the wol went through with their own aether on the first.

Disproven for the reasons above, our trip to the first happened long enough ago that the WoL has long since recovered. Y'shtola consumes aether to see regularly. If we should be worried about anyone's condition it should be hers. I'm quite tired of the game fussing over my character checking up on how ok they are or the endless "I care about you!" or "Don't push yourself too hard!" It's such an easy way to stifle any other tension that might be going on in the story.

It is high time for them to reconsider just what it is they want to do with this character and what her on-screen present is meant to accomplish besides just giving out endless, ill-timed explanations that take away from the heat of the action. Bench her and give us something better. As much as I despised Dragon Age Inquisition's Vivienne at least despite how cold that character was, she wasn't anywhere near as detrimental to my story experience as Y'shtola's is.

[Saraide]

I consider Y'shtola to be one of the worst female characters in the entirety of the Final Fantasy series. Remember the teacher we had in our party that was actually likeable? Quistis ring a bill anyone? Even she wasn't as arrogant and smug as this immortal character is, whose fans are too attached to her to let any harm befall her no matter the cost to the story.

There are ways to do this sort of character archetype properly - though that usually requires a degree of endearment that is present nowhere in Y'shtola's writing. Instead that role for some reason had to go to G'raha Tia and Alisae. It also helps whenever such a character performs a noble sacrifice, that it isn't undone so swiftly and with nothing in the way of lasting consequences. Of all people to offer a Voidsent aether, it seems as if it was forgotten that Y'shtola relies on it to see. And then they had her doing battle in the skies surrounding Barbariccia's domain. How did this come to pass?



Disproven for the reasons above, our trip to the first happened long enough ago that the WoL has long since recovered. Y'shtola consumes aether to see regularly. If we should be worried about anyone's condition it should be hers. I'm quite tired of the game fussing over my character checking up on how ok they are or the endless "I care about you!" or "Don't push yourself too hard!" It's such an easy way to stifle any other tension that might be going on in the story.

It is high time for them to reconsider just what it is they want to do with this character and what her on-screen present is meant to accomplish besides just giving out endless, ill-timed explanations that take away from the heat of the action. Bench her and give us something better. As much as I despised Dragon Age Inquisition's Vivienne at least despite how cold that character was, she wasn't anywhere near as detrimental to my story experience as Y'shtola's is.

This disproves literally nothing. It being the best interest for people to worry about themselves first doesnt mean they will actually do so. That happens very frequently. It's a subjective reason for her to volunteer, nowhere did I claim it was the objective best choice.

Also doesnt disprove the logic of keeping your most powerful member in top shape as best as possible.

[Semirhage]

Most of my current dislike for Y'shtola is that her presence is the death of all narrative tension. She's so popular that *nothing* bad can happen to her. Nothing that isn't either glossed over (I barely remember she's blind. She always manages to see perfectly fine even when the ambient aether is explicitly thin) or instantly recovered (oh she used Flow again? Rescued in ten minutes by Emet. Died to make a path to the end of the universe? Bam, back to life).

I might have believed for a moment that Thancred or Estinien would be in trouble in Ultima Thule, but the nanosecond Y'shtola volunteered I knew heaven, hell, and the universe itself would bend around resurrecting her because she has plot armor more solid than Jean Grey and her personal velvet-roped revolving door to the afterlife.

[Boblawblah]

Remember the teacher we had in our party that was actually likeable? Quistis ring a bill anyone?

Quistis? Likable?

[Theodric]

I liked Quistis. She lost out somewhat in terms of story relevance after a certain point in the game but I found her far less annoying than Selphie, Irvine and Rinoa.

[Saraide]

Most of my current dislike for Y'shtola is that her presence is the death of all narrative tension. She's so popular that *nothing* bad can happen to her. Nothing that isn't either glossed over (I barely remember she's blind. She always manages to see perfectly fine even when the ambient aether is explicitly thin) or instantly recovered (oh she used Flow again? Rescued in ten minutes by Emet. Died to make a path to the end of the universe? Bam, back to life).

I might have believed for a moment that Thancred or Estinien would be in trouble in Ultima Thule, but the nanosecond Y'shtola volunteered I knew heaven, hell, and the universe itself would bend around resurrecting her because she has plot armor more solid than Jean Grey and her personal velvet-roped revolving door to the afterlife.

It took you until urianger and yshtola? I felt it was barely believeable at thancred with it being entirely offscreen. With estinien I was 100% convinced that this was only temporary.

[aveyond-dreams]

I liked Quistis. She lost out somewhat in terms of story relevance after a certain point in the game but I found her far less annoying than Selphie, Irvine and Rinoa.

This is more or less the same experience that many came away with from FFVIII. In terms of its female cast she was one of its better members. She also has something that Y'shtola doesn't, it being some degree of lasting growth and character progression that isn't as superficial as changing jobs or outfits.

[Semirhage]

Quistis? Likable?

Yeah that would require that Quistis had more personality traits than "I think Squall is hot but decides I like him more as a younger brother aaaaaaaaand whoops I stop getting character development after disc 1". To be fair though, that gives her a second character dimension beyond "naughty nerd with a whip", which is one more dimension than half the party in FF8 has.