The Negative Impact of Poor Character Writing on the Quality of Dawntrail's MSQ

[Tethan]

snip

Yes, I think you are hitting the nail on the head. Whatever support Erenville gets from the rest of the cast felt very token and stiff and the whole thing came off like the narrative itself was uncomfortable with its own implications and Erenville was a spoilsport for bringing it up. And I remember thinking "well, no wonder he's a bit withdrawn considering he apparently grew up around people with no interest in respecting his feelings or boundaries".

For much of the Dawntrail MSQ I found myself saying (jokingly) "shut up, Krile, no one cares!" But the final zone was very "shut up, Erenville, no one cares!"

[Loggos]

Yes, I think you are hitting the nail on the head. Whatever support Erenville gets from the rest of the cast felt very token and stiff and the whole thing came off like the narrative itself was uncomfortable with its own implications and Erenville was a spoilsport for bringing it up. And I remember thinking "well, no wonder he's a bit withdrawn considering he apparently grew up around people with no interest in respecting his feelings or boundaries".

For much of the Dawntrail MSQ I found myself saying (jokingly) "shut up, Krile, no one cares!" But the final zone was very "shut up, Erenville, no one cares!"

Yeah I completely agree. I think they wanted to use him as a narrative tool for some "sweet" tragedy and sad tear jerker moments but then realised that they are undermining their whole "they are not real" premise if they actually take his perspective seriously. After all, how can Erenville be right in his feelings regarding Cahciua, the endless, when it's not his "real" mother. So they solved it in a way that allows them to eat their cake and have it too: They have some big sad scenes to "spice up" their story (and give us "life lessons" about life and death) while also not having to actually feel bad for the endless, because Erenville is being "irrational" and is grieving somebody who is already gone. He needs to let go.
Like this they can have his sadness be right and wrong at the same time. Right because he is grieving somebody dying in the past, wrong because he is "projecting" (not really, but you know) that grief onto an illusion.

And yeah, I feel you re: the boundary crossing. To me it came across like that as well.