Can we have an honest conversation about the Scions? Dawn Trail

[Lyth]

...

Remember those fabled 'cities of gold' that Emet mentioned?

Dawntrail is likely a reference to that. Aurum (Au on the periodic table, Latin for gold) is a reference to the Roman goddess of the Dawn. Also probably the reason why we were told that the theme color is gold, and why the story is supposed to be a 'journey of discovery'. I wouldn't be surprised if the succession ties in to finding this fabled place. The fact that we haven't seen anything resembling such a place yet makes me wonder if this is more of a long term goal than an expansion-specific one.

I doubt that the fight against Gulool Ja Ja is overly important, as he's the current ruler. As far as I'm aware, we don't know who the potential candidates are yet.

[Banriikku]

The Scions are bland ... and behave more like Chat GPT than any person. Thats the problem.

The scion dont need to go, they need a personality. None of them is believable and our WoL is greatest offender of "limited intelligence". Example: The trust for Zero from beinning to end is not only weird, it is plain old stupid.

I want Graha to be a cool character and not only the comedy relief aka funny cute catboi but here we are and the best i will see from him will be ShB.

Yshtola should be our Gandalf but she is Cpt. Marvel..... and thats annoying.

The twins are Thor from "Thor Love and Thunder", funny on the wrong places and almost ALWAYS out of place. As if you watch Cowboy Bepop and in the next scene Velma from the old cartoons series appears.

Friendship is a deep and complex topic but what EW showcased a twisted non-human way of friendship. EW was about friendship but only on the surface, as if somebody tries to explain to me how the law works but only heard of it and read about it on acticles on some weird websites and has nothing to do with it.

The scions should stay but please give them personality, goals, dreams, happiness and sadness. Make them relatable.
Maybe change the writers for them or let them write. I am not sure if the writers are bad or they are not allowed to write in the first place.

[DPZ2]

According to the forced reactions the writers impose on the player character the WoL:

...snip...

The above are imposed and the player doesn't have any agency to change it except for headcanon that can't actually be applied to any quest or MSQ.

Such is the wonderful world of video games, where the writers always impose certain character traits or limits on the player character.

Video game protagonists (generally, but not always, the player) fall into a number of character types. A good search using the term "common video game protagonist characteristics" will pull up articles on this topic. The ones from unity.com and starloopstudios.com were pretty enlightening, but then again, they make software and offer services to video game creators.

The poster's list is not necessarily the only one. Their view of the Warrior of Light is fairly negative at the moment, which is about the time I would start looking for another game to play in addition to this one. Somewhere that the writers provided a hero that better meets their expectations.

My own point of view of the Warrior of Light I've come to know (a much shorter list here):

-Drinks alcohol both onscreen and offscreen, generally in moderation, and always with an eye to poison when I do not know the alcohol's source.

-Is driven by a sense of truth and justice rather than emotion, although emotion definitely played a part in the direction of that sense.

-Tolerates fame, but does not revel in it.

Perhaps an example, from nearly 7 years ago, pulled from my tumblr blog:

On my first trip to Gridania, I shared a coach with a lovely man with the palest green eyes I've ever seen.

As we talked, he asked me "What was it that first attracted you to the life of an adventurer?". I did not know how to respond. The typical answers of "Fame, Fortune, Power" do not ring true for me.

It is desire, I think, to grant aid to those who cannot afford it; to protect those without power to protect themselves; to acknowledge every life in a world where fame so often overshadows all else.

Nothing in the storyline since then has forced me to ignore that text.

[Jeeqbit]

The Scions are bland ... and behave more like Chat GPT than any person. Thats the problem.

Come on now, ChatGPT isn't that bland. It could write a novel with more personality in a single second.

Example: The trust for Zero from beinning to end is not only weird, it is plain old stupid.

That's where fantasy comes in though. It's not grounded in reality. It's the sort of theme where your belief and emotion can mean something and be right. Where believing in someone, or something, can meet you on the other end and allow you to save the world. Hence why we got dynamis, but I would have said this before Endwalker even.

Whereas if this were not fantasy and was just a real, reality-based, science-based crime drama, our belief in Zero would probably be stupid and naive.

[ReynTime]

Such is the wonderful world of video games, where the writers always impose certain character traits or limits on the player character.

I stopped reading here, because this isn't true at all unless your experience with video games is completely deprived of real RPGs, as opposed to Square-Enix's overrated offerings. The most recent example being Baldur's Gate 3.

Regardless of how XIV's team like to market it, WoL is a silent protagonist, not a real player avatar. At best you can change the superficial aspects of the character and make your headcanon.

In actual RPGs your choices change future events, locations in the setting, how the NPCs perceive you and what your relationship with support characters is. In XIV your choice does fuck all. WoL in the MSQ is very much a defined but quiet character that the player can choose the appearance for.

[DPZ2]

I stopped reading here, because this isn't true at all unless your experience with video games is completely deprived of real RPGs, as opposed to Square-Enix's overrated offerings. The most recent example being Baldur's Gate 3.

The fact that you stopped reading is disappointing yet expected.

Oh great and wise player of Baldur's Gate 3, please enlighten me to exactly how your player character has no limits and how you can decide to play outside of those limits?

As a first measure of enlightenment, please let me know how you subvert the 'Pick one response' when it is presented.

At the point of selection, the game is as "on the rails" as any Visual Novel I've played in the last decade, good and bad endings included.

You may perceive "choice", but it has all been programmed for you ahead of time.

Since we were talking about an MMORPG, where players may engage outside of the story in any manner they please, your in-story character and your in-game character are free to develop differently. I am not limited to being a protagonist playing with only three friends or NPCs for eternity.

As an aside, you pretty much had to mention Baldur's Gate 3, since most other real RPGs (of the single-player variety) pale in comparison at the number of choices you have to develop your character and the game.

[Jeeqbit]

Remember those fabled 'cities of gold' that Emet mentioned?

Dawntrail is likely a reference to that. Aurum (Au on the periodic table, Latin for gold) is a reference to the Roman goddess of the Dawn. Also probably the reason why we were told that the theme color is gold, and why the story is supposed to be a 'journey of discovery'. I wouldn't be surprised if the succession ties in to finding this fabled place. The fact that we haven't seen anything resembling such a place yet makes me wonder if this is more of a long term goal than an expansion-specific one.

In Japanese the expansion is called "golden legacy". To say gold they are saying "yellow money".

The dawn part is interesting because that could relate to the Azim Steppe lore. They believe that is how they were created. The dawn father and dusk mother.

I doubt that the fight against Gulool Ja Ja is overly important, as he's the current ruler. As far as I'm aware, we don't know who the potential candidates are yet.

Probably the scions. So we can contest against G'raha, Alphinaud, Alisaie and Y'shtola, wipe the floor with them with them and defeat Gulool Ja Ja blindfolded. That's probably what the hood was for until it got ruined.

[BiddyBatnana]

Same I'm so done with the Scions (especially the twins)
Please give the new companion more screen time.

[KageTokage]

I'm not sure why it took so long to occur to me that this "conflict that divides the Scions" may simply be another Stormblood scenario where circumstances demand that they split up and we'll just end up staying in southern Tural with one portion of them while the rest head north to look into whatever business is going on over there.

[strawberrycake]

As several others have pointed out above me, the Scions friendship with us is only surface lvl, I think the only one of them to ever really go beyond that was Alisae, specifically when were going to deal with Emet alone, she calls them out for how they all treat us. I frankly would love to keep the Scions along if we actually go into detail with just this point exactly and talk about how we as the WoL feel weaponized by them a lot, we need something, anything to deepen our bond with them all because so far only 2 of them see us as people, Estinien and Alisae.

And this is also why Zero felt lack luster, they followed this exact kind of writing approach, bland lifeless aceeptance. It's old and boring.