Quote Originally Posted by Eloah View Post
The reason his character in Endwalker is "directionless" is because he is directionless, but not in a bad way. He's been given a second chance and needs to figure out what he wants to do for himself again. However, he knows he has time, kinda, and is content with just going on a journey with his friend for now. Not focusing on himself, but the moments that come.
Thank you for highlighting the main problem a lot of us have with this character, having gone from serious to nearly pure fanservice. This isn't the sort of character we needed in an expansion about the end of the world.

Quote Originally Posted by Eloah View Post
You can see this in the two major moments where he picks up his Exach persona, in order to provide greater aid to those around him. For over 100 years he had to be a leader and be strong for his people. But he no longer has to shoulder that burden and can just focus on himself, but he has to relearn who he is first. That's why his goals are very simple, and he's content with assisting instead of leading.

I'm not saying his character couldn't have done more, but from a human perspective, how he was written for Endwalker makes perfect sense.
I think the rewrite does a good job of fleshing out the Exarch vs Graha personas and has both reach a satisfying conclusion. It also gives him more than just goals that are are as simple as they are irrelevant. Just wanting to hang out isn't compelling. Having a battle between two conflicting personas in your mind is, along with the bit about trying to clean up after the remaining messes Allag left in the world.

We didn't want someone content with merely "assisting" we wanted the cool mage dude who was ready to sacrifice it all for the sake of a world not their own. Instead we got Ultima Thule with no real impact on his character arc.