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

[Absimiliard]

the Light is not a benevolent force and is in fact extremely controlling

It's actually much worse than that. According to Warcraft lore, the light has in fact been gradually consuming the universe in almost exactly the same way its servants claim the shadow will. There are whole planets out there crystallized by the light, their inhabitants (presently sealed inside the crystallized worlds, I'll note) having their very souls rewritten. The light is a force of nature; it doesn't care who uses it or how, only that it consumes everything in the end. This is why, for example, blatantly evil characters can still wield the light just fine. All you need to call upon it is sufficient willpower. It doesn't "choose" you, it wants to be invoked so it can eat away at you from the inside. It may not be evil, but it's definitely not good either. It's totally amoral -- an endlessly hungering parasite without regard for anything outside its own base nature.

A quick edit for clarity: it does have its own will. While it is essentially a fundamental force of the universe, it very much is aware of its nature, actions, and the consequences thereof. It simply does not care. It does what it wants, when it wants, and to whoever or whatever it wants, within the bounds of whatever laws limit its spread.

If you ask me, this interpretation of the light one of the things Warcraft got right.

[Rosenstrauch]

It's actually much worse than that. According to Warcraft lore, the light has in fact been gradually consuming the universe in almost exactly the same way its servants claim the void will. There are whole planets out there crystallized by the light, their inhabitants (presently sealed inside the crystallized worlds, I'll note) having their very souls rewritten. The light is a force of nature; it doesn't care who uses it or how, only that it consumes everything in the end. This is why, for example, blatantly evil characters can still wield the light just fine. All you need to call upon it is sufficient willpower. It doesn't "choose" you, it wants to be invoked so it can eat away at you from the inside.

Funny thing about all that is that this is a major pivot from what the Light originally was—Christianity with the serial numbers filed off. Mostly because back in Warcraft 1 it literally was just Christianity, and it wasn't until 2 and 3 that the developers moved away from real world faith in favor of fantasy. But even as late as, I think it was Warlords of Draenor, the Light was still treated as an Absolute Good contrasted to the Absolute Evil that was both the Void and Fel.

All this is to say that the current status quo is one hell of a pivot, and more impressively it's a pivot they've been sticking to for... we're closing in on seven years now. Wow.

Contrast that with FFXIV, where they couldn't go one expansion after such a pivot before falling back into old habits. Even the singular mention of Light and Dark being elemental polarities instead of moral opposites—the codex entry for Zodiark—is written like it's an antiquated and disproven belief and not something the protagonists recently learned to be true.

[Theodric]

I do appreciate it when a setting has the stones to avoid the infantile trope that is equating darkness with evil and light with good. Even purely in terms of aesthetics, preferences differ.

[Vyrerus]

Any word on when they're releasing the second half of the 7.0 trailer? I wanna huff some copium.

[Atelier-Bagur]

maybe at EU Fanfest? idk

[Amenara]

Any word on when they're releasing the second half of the 7.0 trailer? I wanna huff some copium.

Full trailer will come out with JP fanfest more than likely. We will probably get a job reveal in EU fanfest.

[magtuired]

Little late to the party with this topic but in terms of death, I really thought that Thancred was going to die in Endwalker considering his character arc from Heavensward had very satisfyingly been completed and Endwalker did not throw out any interesting ideas for where it could go.

I sincerely thought when he disappeared to manifest Ultima Thule physically that it was going to be a permadeath and it felt really fitting he would do it as a last act of defiance and as a last act as a character.

Then when the scions all started having their own little mini speeches where they disappeared I realise they were all going to come back and it frankly made the ending fall flat on it's ass for me.

[Hallideus]

Honestly? Yeah, at the time going through it for the first time I didn't mind and just took it as is but over time I've not been able to shake the apprehensiveness towards the story. At least the 6.0 big story.
Most of it I felt was great, well executed, with some brilliant use of side characters and twists to get us from A to B to C.

Now, I'm sorry in advance if this seems a bit negative, but this is simply how I feel. My 2p. My opinion.

The way Zodiark was handled really didn't sit right with me.
Mind you, Fandaniel was absolute fire.
Oh and he was actually the bloke from Crystal Tower with the funky hat everyone kept outrolling me on? Like, sure, yeah, Ascian and all, he can be that guy too. Just Let him have his magnificent hat ffs. Worst offence of the game entirely. Do the devs know how much a hat tells you about a person? For shame!!

Personally I didn't really didn't vibe with the fact the ACTUAL big bad all along, was basically past-Fandaniel's very emo bird. The Zodiark-Hydaelyn dynamic that was built up and hyped up for the last 10 years was subsumed for Existential Twitter, who I just met like 5 minutes ago basically.

The entirety of the Ultima Thule zone though was horrid for me. Exhausting, I actually really disliked that zone and the way the story went for it. Self yeeting scions to carve you a path to the big bad, but get brought back effortlessly before the big fight. Only for Zenos to gatecrash at the end because he's horny for a fight like a chav after a few cans of stella. Oh you beat the big bad emo bird causing the end of the world? "1v1 me brah no balls, no balls". Everything else is a minor gripe but this zone, this entire zone was torture.

Now the patch stories of us going into the void and getting the FF4 references has been far better, the Pandaemonium and Myths of the Realm too. Better. Though Pandaemonium turns into a bit of a "daddy issues" story, with a twist at the end of "yer ma was actually a psycho, son" and some very wholesome bromance going on. Still better.


Oh and as a sidenote does anyone else feel Anima could have been a proper awesome standalone trial? Bit of a waste but, ah well. You can't have it all.

[OooBlooPloom]

Dollar store crusted up powerbait

[Theodric]

Oh and as a sidenote does anyone else feel Anima could have been a proper awesome standalone trial? Bit of a waste but, ah well. You can't have it all.

That was almost certainly planned to be the case, though for whatever reason we ended up losing out on a Garlemald focused expansion. A shame, but it is what it is - the current stance of the development team seems to no longer be fond of the same world and tone they established back in the days of ARR and seem eager to move away from it.