What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Heroman3003]

The narrative purpose would be the supposed themes of Endwalker. The game preaches about embracing suffering as a grim necessity and then not only tries to justify the genocide of the Ancients but shrouds many major and minor characters in immensely thick plot armour to the point where they're bragging about walking away with not even a single scar.

I disagree that it would have contributed to narrative themes that much. I think it would just upset the tone of 'staying hopeful in face of darkness' way too much. That, and again, I do believe character death should serve a point not just in grander story, but in character's personal arc, and only Urianger fit the bill in Endwalker, with both his resolution post-Lopporits and meeting with his dead gf's parents happening. For genocide of the ancients, while I will preface this by saying that I do agree with general narrative portrayal of it as the lesser evil and more correct option, I do also agree that when looked at from complete outsider's critical lens perspective, the story doesn't do much to make it seem justified either (which is one of the things that I kinda wish was touched upon further, although the way I would have liked that would not be really fitting into eisting narrative well without just being stated explicitly). And, unlike Shadbowbringers that did it twice, not once in Endwalker did I feel like "this character should have died there" myself, although that is a much more subjective metric of plot armor.

[Vyrerus]

I disagree that it would have contributed to narrative themes that much.

It's supposed to be a world ending threat that we don't know how to stop. Yet, it gets cordoned off to one easily manageable by the Scions one at a time area. And the Scions have no trouble at all fighting with the Blasphemies, which in the role quests were troublesome enough for the City States to have to call in specialists and the WoL.

So the theme is supposed to be staying hopeful in the face of darkness, but what is darker about this darkness than the typical state of affairs that come about on Etheirys every other week? We see more destruction in places like Bozja.

What's inspiring or compelling about a storyline that essentially comes across as, "I sure hope we beat this threatening threat that's threatening, threateningly sometimes here or there! Watch out, it sometimes kills NPCs who have to be saved from hostile Chinchillas!" As opposed to one, that you know, demonstrates its dangers and threat by actually harming the characters that have to / are the only ones who can stop it?

Oh... a, "The Sundering was right." bloke. Yeah, you're the one who's here in bad faith, pal.

[Heroman3003]

Oh... a, "The Sundering was right." bloke. Yeah, you're the one who's here in bad faith, pal.

Nice 'anyone who disagrees with me is a troll' here. This is why I don't take this thread seriously.