Final Fantasy XIV Hot Takes

[Kazhar]

Is it wrong that when we started the 6.1 storyline, I thought/hoped she was going to be tempted into join Golbez?

I would even take this instead of what we got. I'm so starved for anything new with this damn cast.
The Scions are nothing more than exposition enablers and ego boosters for narcissists at this point. If you're too scared of hurting the popularity of the story by getting rid of them at least do something with their characters!

[Thurmnmurmn]

People that organize hunt trains need to quit acting so entitled. No one has a "right" to any hunt. They aren't something a player or group of players can own.

From my experience running trains (conducted near 100 trains on Lamia), the conductors and scouters are not the people your complaining about. The majority of those who organize trains want the most people as possible to come along (trains are advertised everywhere).
The ones who are entitled are actually hunters who don't spawn or do any trains themselves.
There may be some bad apples running some on some servers but overall, your stance is targetting the wrong people.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

You're really gonna do the SE defense force thing in a hot take thread? Aight. Here you go.

Joke's on you. I really do hate the Scions. Especially Alphinaud and Tataru.
If you think an underage girl being so openly interested in a character that is very clearly an adult (and not even a young adult, considering how much time has passed) isn't creepy, I don't know what to tell you.
People like the new Kratos. What Estinien has going on now is not personality. It's the equivalent of being domesticated. The character just exists in the background, its entire personality replaced with "hurr hurr greater good." Estinien has zero depth. Kratos, on the other hand, transitioned from having little depth to having an incredible amount of it. The two characters aren't remotely similar in any way.

Lol what defense Force? Its a Hot Take, Calm Down Buddy. People are always so ready to fight XD
And, its not like she is trying to date you or sleep with you, caring about someone isn't the same thing. So calling her creepy still makes no sense.
I disagree that Estinien is Domesticated, I think he's just Matured, and he has other things going on then "I AM VENGEANCE, DESTROY DRAGONS" same with Kraotos, who became a Family Guy. I think Both Evolutions and Maturity of the characters is good.
But lol, the hate on both characters is pretty small anyway, but from what Ive seen on critiques on them (If you are familiar with QuantumTV for example) people hate on New Kratos and I think with Estinien, because they are no longer edgy Single-minded meathead Killing Machines. (Maybe not Estinien but I digress)

No I'm pretty sure I hate them. Character death wouldn't increase my appreciation of any of them, but at least they would be gone.
My hot take is that the Scions are the worst main cast out of any Final Fantasy I've played (which is all of them since IV).
Shadowbringers almost salvaged them by giving them a good amount of focus and individual character arcs, then EW regressed them all to a boring, amorphous mass of single character traits. Where all they do is preach the themes of the story and smile blankly at everything the WoL do.
Krile is the worst of them, she has so little character being used as a sock puppet by Hydaelyn doesn't even faze her. She creeps me out.

Hey, Ill agree that none of the Scions are really 'compelling' anymore, they went through their arcs, yeah Ill agree. But I dont think there is any reason to hate them or wish them dead (Except Yshtola, but thats only because she's had...what, 3 fakeouts? Either commit or dont waste our time)
And of course, I strongly Disagree about them being the Worse. For me that would be FFXIII, eh maybe possibly XII. But its all subjective. I like the Scions because they are a Group that universally agrees, and get shit done. I like that personally. But thats me.I didnt personally find most of the characters interesting in the other named games.
(Except Snow and Balthier)

Again Ill agree on Kryle, she has nothing going on. I hope that changes. Im sure there is more interesting things with her, but they have yet to do anything with her.
Urianger started out the same, so I believe she CAN still be improved later.

Wait, the truth can be a hot take? Huh.

It is?....so is agreeing a Hot Take as well?
XD

[ronibosch]

All of these white-haired characters, and not a single one is 50+.

We need more bad ass old people.

[Raoabolic]

All of these white-haired characters, and not a single one is 50+.

We need more bad ass old people.

Yeah, the RPR questline was pretty sweet. Though the RPR questgiver just acts like the old lady from the Dwarf crafting questline if she had a job stone, lol.

[kpxmanifesto]

Calm Down Buddy. People are always so ready to fight XD

You're construing his dissenting opinion as aggression?... Lmao

[ReynTime]

I don't hate the Scions, but in any story keeping characters in the main cast just for sake of keeping them is plain terrible. Estinien joining for Endwalker, that I didn't mind since Endwalker was meant to be the culmination of (retconned) 1.0+ MSQ, but since then he hasn't had much done other than training some people off-screen? His development is pretty much done. We know he's matured by now. And they don't even bother to give more nods to his foster big brother relationship with Alphinaud anymore since it's not needed, after all Alphinaud also matured and also wrapped up his own character arc after going Sage and his relationship with his father got better.
Thancred was another one that was basically along for the ride in Endwalker. His arc was centered around his sense of guilt and need of atonement for Minfilia, which wrapped up after he was able to let Ryne go in ShB.

I don't know how long they're gonna keep rehashing the same "arcs" for Urianger and Alisaie, but it's gotten as old as Y'shtola's fakeouts. Urianger never has much of a development going for him beyond being a keeper of secrets for the expansion then apologizing for it. The only exception was the meeting with Moenbryda's parents, which was quite rushed and anticlimatic anyway, like the writers had that in their checklist of things to do before the finale but it ended up being limited to 5 minutes of the MSQ.
Alisaie's arcs have been a repeat of "Look how strong and independent I am! Oh no maybe I'm not strong enough . NEVERMIND I'm totally fine now!!" every time she has one. Whether she stays or not I guess it doesn't matter.
Y'shtola, the one that gets shat on the most, is, ironically, one of the few Scions that has an unresolved arc.
G'raha doesn't really have any real unresolved arc, but he has the excuse of not having gone on a real adventure with the WoL like he's been wishing for yet. I say this because Endwalker felt more like a series of organized operations by the Doomsday Prevention Squad than an adventure.

So yes, I do firmly believe Thancred, Alphinaud, Estinien and even Urianger shouldn't be in the MSQ active party anymore. Possibly Alisaie as well. But they'd never push that many to the sidelines, if any of them. And I like most of those characters, while I really wouldn't shed a single tear if the two nekos perished somewhere, I aknowledge they're the only ones that absolutely have solid reasons to stay other than being marketable.

One of my favorite things about the first half of Heavensward is how the group we were traveling with cooperated for a common goal but had internal conflict regarding the means and their beliefs (and I include Alphinaud in this, well intentioned as he was). That's VASTLY more interesting than a cast of 7~8 characters that immediately agree on everything like a hivemind and at best argue for comic relief sake. Zero was almost offering something like that, but the current writing direction has less nuance than an MCU movie, and she's quickly converted into being another upstanding member of the r/Scions.

How boring.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

You're construing his dissenting opinion as aggression?... Lmao

Aggression? I though he was just getting Excited because he said I was ""really gonna do the SE defense force thing in a hot take thread""
But....

[RyuDragnier]

You're construing his dissenting opinion as aggression?... Lmao

Well he did start with "You're really gonna do the SE defense force thing in a hot take thread?" So yes, it was aggressive. Had he NOT put that line, I don't think one could interpret his post as aggression.

[Absimiliard]

Tis not the first time someone has interpreted something I said as aggression, and I'm sure it won't be the last. S'no skin off my nose.

Anywho, another hot take:
Krile should've been sacrificed to take down Eureka. Her continued presence has added nothing of value to the story.