Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

[PaleYonder]

Adding on the mentoring topic: I enjoyed e.g. Heavensward with Alphinaud, where he'd fallen on his face and we were teaching him the ways of the real world (whereas for Wuk Lamat, the laws of the real world have been suspended), seeing him grow, but it was not the Alphinaud expansion. We were also trying to pull Estinien back from a metaphorical cliff and back on solid ground, and I was really invested in this. We were also helping Aymeric with his political goals against forces very much opposed to them. But we were all capable people in our own right who were helping each other through the struggles caused by a hostile world and bad decisions. It was great. And we were also still the hero and centre of the story. None of that applies here.
And I'll be honest, I want to be the hero. I want my character to make the difference, to engage with friends and opponents both, for things to be his business. That's part of the fun of playing games.

This case here is a perfect storm of everything done wrong that one can possibly do wrong. A character without the necessary depth to carry anything beyond saturday morning feelgood cartoons, a plot that hands her everything without meaningful development or struggle, the player character sidelined, the player character's established companions sidelined and without personality, including the ones that were supposed to get real focus this time - and I'm really enjoying Erenville and Krile here.

In fact, the difference between Wuk and Erenville is a gaping gulf. The short wild west escape with Erenville being cool Western heroes was so much fun, and he shows actual personality and depth, and layers that unravel slowly. I enjoyed him a lot in Endwalker, and I feel like he's still himself, but showing more of himself, getting his own struggles, and he's actually my character's friend. We're bonding over struggles and doing things together and clearly enjoying travelling together. This is good, this is how you introduce a new companion to a group that's as long-established as the Scions without making him seem like an intruder. I'm around the end of zone 5 and I still want to spend more time with him instead of less, and think he's been robbed. Meanwhile I wish Wuk Lamat was just retconned out of everything right this second.

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do about my subscription after this. I'm probably going to see this trainwreck to the bitter end once because the curiosity outweighs all else, unless something makes me give up in frustration on the last stretch after all. But then? I don't know. I actually enjoy what I've seen of the combat, but I'll be honest, that's not enough to carry the game for me; especially this one I've played for story and ambience above all until now. The ambience is still there, but the story is now a mess.