Quote Originally Posted by Sjol View Post
Stargate SG-1 is an interesting comparison.
At this point I feel like FFXIV is basically a serialized MMO with every iteration being its own episode/movie with the same characters, for good or ill. Running them through a gauntlet of suffering every single episode is going to get tiring which is why every expansion also has a rotating cast of potentially sacrificial side-characters. After they came out with the Trust System, I decided that there was no way anything bad was going to happen to the Scions again because they were enshrined in a part of the game where you could level them up. Now that the biggest thing ever to happen in the entire world has been resolved, Dawntrail feels like a sidequest and it won't have the same effect if say Thancred finally bites the bullet or gets forcefully retired through injury.


I think one problem is that FFXIV sits in an awkward spot with more content, more new story updates, and a much longer life than a single-player FF where anything can happen and it's all in a self-contained story, but less content than a TV show that has a main cast that is pretty much static. This means that there's not quite as much time as a TV show that has characters go through new problems and solve them every 45 minutes, giving them the chance to show new facets with many more problems than our FFXIV cast has gone through. But they're the main cast of something that's gone on much longer than a single-player experience so it's that much more dire to have something terrible to happen to them.

I nearly gave up on Atlantis after what happened to my favorite character Beckett but he still had a sort of reset by the end anyway. McKay was my next favorite character but I feel like his writing threads a very thin line between annoying smart guy and god's pathetic jingling jester that fails over and over. He's the comic relief but he also has to be hyper-competent and I think that would be difficult to pull off at the same level with say, Alphinaud. They tried it with Y'shtola and the Usual Suspects came into the forums to complain about her torturing familiars or not liking her one haha moment for other reasons.


Though I can see how Y'shtola is basically Sam Carter now and I don't think that'll ever leave my head...