A game for 4 year olds

[RyuDragnier]

And what happens if the clone decides they do not want to follow in the footsteps of the Master?

The only way Noah can become a "recurring" villain is if all players are forced to go through the Bozjan quest lines first. Since the author of those quest lines has already decided that they are not going to pursue the tale further, that looks decidedly iffy to me.

You say that, but then you do recall how they introduced Alisaie, right? She was only in Coil prior to her appearance in HW. They can have him show up at some point, and some NPC there can just go, "Wait, reports stated you were burned alive after you lost Bozja and Dalmasca!" Right there, no need to go into the Bozja content, we know exactly that he had been killed, and has now shown up again.

[DPZ2]

You say that, but then you do recall how they introduced Alisaie, right? She was only in Coil prior to her appearance in HW. They can have him show up at some point, and some NPC there can just go, "Wait, reports stated you were burned alive after you lost Bozja and Dalmasca!" Right there, no need to go into the Bozja content, we know exactly that he had been killed, and has now shown up again.

And absolutely nothing else. How can a villain be "recurring" without us having come across them before? How are we to evaluate their current actions, to feel like this is indeed someone worthy of our attention just because an NPC says so in an introductory quest.

We met Allisaie in the carriage cut scene of 2.0, saw her again with her brother around level 15 as we learn about airships and commemorations, know she had a quarrel with her brother about his methods (it's in the cut scenes). That's enough background to explain her presence in Heavensward. After that, the story and the character develop together. It's not quite the same thing.

What background needs to be presented to make the 'original' Noah Gabranth real to us as a villain? And why does the clone act as a villain? Is it programmed in the same way it was for the two Allagan clones we've met? In that case, the villainy isn't really villainous ... the clone is just "made that way". Besides, the dream of its creator has been fulfilled, right?

They turned a 'dead' Gaius into a hunter of Ascians. What's to say that the writers won't do the same thing to Noah's clone? The writer of that series of quests in Bozja wants any continuing storyline to be about healing rather than war. It won't be anywhere near the same if a Major Villain pops up from the original story line.

Sure, if the writers can make it believable and worthy of our consideration it might well be cool. But I can't see them shoehorning in that particular recurring villain without pursuing Yet Another War Story Line or forcing players to go through Bozja to get the full feel of villainy. Without the Scions. Without us. Because I hope like heck that we're done with War on Three Continents for at least one expansion.

It had better be a good plot line, set up in 7.x and starting in 8.x.