Endwalker MSQ gripe - *early spoilers*

[Midareyukki]

I have a special place in my heart for that time we fought Gaius and let him go into his mecha armor for no reasons.
We literally just stand there while he leaves and then get in his death robot.

Okay, but like...!! That's not even us just letting him go!

- He talks for what feels like two hours
- We slap him when he goes super sayian
- Then he laughs
- Turns around
- SLOW WALKS into Porta Decumana
- Walks over to his fursuit
- Climbs the stairs to enter his fursuit's cockpit
- Has time to make a whole speech about it

What were we doing the whole time??

I don't really have a problem with such moments since rarely do people want the reverse to occur. There's many more moments when the Warrior of Light or one of the Scions should just be executed because the opportunity presents itself - but that doesn't happen and people are fine with it. At least to a greater extent than they are whenever the same thing plays out with the antagonists.

I mean, I guess... But at least we have plot armor, so it's easy to come up with a way to deal with that. Even if it's to just make the Echo "sense a surge in the aether" like the Force or Spidey Sense.

It makes zero sense for us to not Holmgang Misija before she can turn people into her minions.
And worse still was it us listening to Mikoto and never for once considering we don't know the full extent of her very limited visions. Nor do we prepare for that. We don't "secure the vision", we just go in blindly with full faith that it's going to turn out fine. When we don't see the aftermath nor the events leading up to it. We don't even know if, say, Misija gets apprehended at the doors to Delubrum but then a surprise bomb detonates and we all get blown to smithereens!

[Theodric]

These are not civilians, they are military remnants. Holdouts.

They're military remnants sheltering civilians.

[Rhaggnos]

Helping random schmuck is the core objective of our heroes. It's the reason why we fight the telephores in the first place.

We did the same thing during Shadowbringers when instead of chasing Vauthry, we helped the people of Eulmore.

True, and that was irritating as well tbh. The first time I got into the room with Vauthry my first instinct as soon as he began his rant about his own greatness was to want to decapitate him where he stood. If it were me as that WoL Dark Knight I'd have leapt onto him and split open his quadruple chin before his sin eater pet even had time to cover her tits in surprise. Would have saved us all 25h of fetch questing and a whole lot of suffering for a whole lot of people.

Ascian monologues as well. I'd jump into those portals without a second thought, firmly grasping one of those auracite tail plugs and be like "Yes, yes, fascinating stuff, but now the heel of my boot needs to get intimately acquainted with your throat."

[Pyro2hell3]

I have a special place in my heart for that time we fought Gaius and let him go into his mecha armor for no reasons.
We literally just stand there while he leaves and then get in his death robot.

because if I stopped him I wouldn't get to the fight the giant robot. you seriously expect me to not fight the giant robot? that's absurd

[BRVV]

I have a special place in my heart for that time we fought Gaius and let him go into his mecha armor for no reasons.
We literally just stand there while he leaves and then get in his death robot.

You know how villians wait for the transformation sequence? Gaius pulled a uno reverse card and did it on us. Damn that man is good!

[TaleraRistain]

You only come off as peaceful or empathic in a conflict if you've shown yourself to be capable of great violence, and then show obvious restraint. Otherwise you're just going to be considered harmless, not peaceful.

Quintus knows exactly who the WoL is and that's why he says he's not going to bother with a collar. He knows the WoL's capabilities and that that the WoL is already showing restraint. And he doesn't care. The WoL is a brutal savage to them, and reinforcing that image isn't going to solve anything. It's one of the few places in the game we can't solve things with our fists.

[Absimiliard]

Bad strategy is bad strategy. The Scions constantly taking up the WoL's time with menial tasks has probably killed tons of people.

Approaching Garlemald non-violently turned out to be a good call in the long run, but it's one of few times the WoL going along with their plans hasn't needlessly complicated matters. The vast majority of "bad guys" in the game could've been dealt with earlier and with far fewer casualties than they were simply by the WoL deciding to pull out ye olde "breaking limits as only a Warrior of Light can" and slapping the fudge out of them at the earliest opportunity.

[Rhaggnos]

Quintus knows exactly who the WoL is and that's why he says he's not going to bother with a collar. He knows the WoL's capabilities and that that the WoL is already showing restraint. And he doesn't care. The WoL is a brutal savage to them, and reinforcing that image isn't going to solve anything. It's one of the few places in the game we can't solve things with our fists.

This notion keeps coming up, but why exactly do they see you aa a savage? The whole deal with Gaius?

They were invading foreign lands and syphoning ether through magitech to summon eikons. Defending yourself is hardly worth being labelled the next Ghengis Khan

[Rhaggnos]

Bad strategy is bad strategy. The Scions constantly taking up the WoL's time with menial tasks has probably killed tons of people.

Approaching Garlemald non-violently turned out to be a good call in the long run, but it's one of few times the WoL going along with their plans hasn't needlessly complicated matters. The vast majority of "bad guys" in the game could've been dealt with earlier and with far fewer casualties than they were simply by the WoL deciding to pull out ye olde "breaking limits as only a Warrior of Light can" and slapping the fudge out of them at the earliest opportunity.

Quite true.

Luckily the Ascians also have this Bond-villain-esque tendency to go about everything in the most obnoxiously frivolous and roundabout way, which eventually bites 'em in the ass. Which is how things balance out I guess.

[TaleraRistain]

This notion keeps coming up, but why exactly do they see you aa a savage? The whole deal with Gaius?

They were invading foreign lands and syphoning ether through magitech to summon eikons. Defending yourself is hardly worth being labelled the next Ghengis Khan

Because that's how they see all Eorzeans, savages who use magic, and us as the biggest and baddest and most brutal of all. Remember every time any of them see us, we're mowing down their people around them. Whether they've been misled by propaganda or not, we've been positioned as their enemy and our behavior toward them to that point has only reinforced that idea. We are their Zenos.