The atrocity that was the "In from the Cold" quest ending - *STORY RANT*

[VeyaAkemi]

Aside from, again, being a drama queen? Because if super-powerful villains were ever that pragmatic, in any fantasy story, there wouldn't be a story. It would just end the second they found out about a fledgling hero vowing to defeat them.

See, there is a very easy way to dodge this issue, and it is simply not give the villain a power or a feat that makes it feel like they completely overpower the heroes, nobody can say "Wait why didn't the Big Bad just kill the heroes with his mind?" if the Big Bad is never shown or is suggested to have the ability to kill people with his mind, and again, the issue isn't just Fandaniel, Ascians in general are depicted as being completely untouchable until the moment we are supposed to fight them, at which point their ability to impecably teleport away from attacks suddenly vanishes, this isn't even an EW issue, it's a game-wide issue.

I also want to make clear that, at least to me, this is by no means story-ruining, I am used to stuff like this for the reasons you mentioned, but I also feel that a story is made better when the writers put in the effort to avoid tripping that flag.

[Absimiliard]

See, there is a very easy way to dodge this issue, and it is simply not give the villain a power or a feat that makes it feel like they completely overpower the heroes, nobody can say "Wait why didn't the Big Bad just kill the heroes with his mind?" if the Big Bad is never shown or is suggested to have the ability to kill people with his mind, and again, the issue isn't just Fandaniel, Ascians in general are depicted as being completely untouchable until the moment we are supposed to fight them, at which point their ability to impecably teleport away from attacks suddenly vanishes, this isn't even an EW issue, it's a game-wide issue.

You know what? ...Fair points. I can understand the devs wanting to up the ante, but doing so by introducing functionally invincible beings, which the protagonists will then proceed to kill off, maybe isn't the greatest way to go about it. They at least provided extenuating circumstances for the Unsundered; Hydaelyn's intervention vs. Lahabrea, Emet-Selch already being quasi-suicidal, and Eldibus... okay, Elidibus suddenly getting so caught up in his emotions that it made him dumb made little sense, in my opinion. Lahabrea's second (and final) defeat was just stupid, though.

More often than not, however, the WoL just kinda rolls up and slaps the life out of theoretically vastly superior enemies without any kind of special circumstances enabling the victory. They just do it. ... A lot.

[DragonFlyy]

It would have been so appropriate to absolutely devastate the scions here at the hands of Zenos in the WoL's body while Fandaniel holds us down, laughing and making us watch powerlessly and in horror.

And Zenos should also have killed us in the Legionnaire's body right before we swapped back. Just so we could taste death as well. And for additional impact.

And that shows you didn't understand Zenos at all. (I personally hate him because he is a horribly written character)
So, he wouldn't kill any of the Scions because they were beneath him.

He wouldn't kill us in the Legionnaires body because we are too weak. He wants to fight us when we can actually defeat him.

[RyuDragnier]

You know what? ...Fair points. I can understand the devs wanting to up the ante, but doing so by introducing functionally invincible beings, which the protagonists will then proceed to kill off, maybe isn't the greatest way to go about it. They at least provided extenuating circumstances for the Unsundered; Hydaelyn's intervention vs. Lahabrea, Emet-Selch already being quasi-suicidal, and Eldibus... okay, Elidibus suddenly getting so caught up in his emotions that it made him made little sense, in my opinion. Lahabrea's second (and final) defeat was just stupid, though.

More often than not, however, the WoL just kinda rolls up and slaps the life out of theoretically vastly superior enemies without any kind of special circumstances enabling the victory. They just do it. ... A lot.

It's why I hope from 7.0 on they deal exclusively in villains and situations where we can't get the upper hand easily. Such as a villain purposefully causing issues in two places. Whichever place we don't go to, the villain will succeed at. They've essentially neutered our ability to stop their plans easily because they're making sure their plans are happening at multiple places at the same time. Or perhaps a recurring villain who plays the long game and has a plan that takes us into account, manipulating us both to make sure we can't stop them, and to make sure from time to time we end up HELPING their plans inadvertently.

[SassyAssassin]

Was just about to say this sounds like that old perv’s wet dream (George Martin I think? But there’s an R somewhere) and then saw the GOT mention xD

[Clover_Blake]

I admit I also felt very underwhelmed with the ending of that quest. It had been presented as such a dangerous and terrible situation, and it certainly had all the potential to be so! Yet it was solved quickly, with no consequences whatsoever, and the characters simply continue their quests as if nothing had happened. Somehow, I felt there was no point -laughs-.

I did love the overall story of the expansion, for the record. Just not that part.

[BRVV]

My 2 cents: weird plot contrivances where all over EW for some reason

- Suddenly calling off the body swap is weird. Just make one of the good guys stop it somehow.
- GrahaBurgerTime coming just before the final in a forced break felt weird to me. Have it in actual downtime. Either after the final battle OR just write it so that there is a small part where we think we are done saving the world.
- No interaction in the past! That's what they said... then immediately it gets hacked by EmmetYourBoy even though OtherAscian(TM) should have seen that coming

It's like the writers forgot they can plan before and also go back to an older part and change it. #FirstDraftEW

[Kansene]

FFXIV's story has zero stakes. I find other elements in the game to enjoy instead.

[VelKallor]

Suddenly calling off the body swap is weird.

From what Fandaniel said / implied, the body could only be used for a limited time..and lets not also forget that he was more or less insane..Id say more actually, looking at past MSQ text, I got the distinct feeling that immortality itself had driven him mad.

The same theme can be seen in many books and films, where immortality is seen as a tremendous gift or boon...that later turns into an ongoing curse.

When death no longer holds sway, is eternal life truly a blessing?

Remember Zardoz? What was it he said? "Given time? What, dearest May..wasnt eternity long enough?"

Or Commander Koenig's last words "The Infernal Machine" " A lonely, blind creature looking for its death ".

[BRVV]

From what Fandaniel said / implied, the body could only be used for a limited time..and lets not also forget that he was more or less insane

Plot bad because antagonist insane. Got it