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

[OdinelStarrei]

No, it's not. People were AVERSE to trying Wind Waker because of the art style. Those who did play Wind Waker had valid complaints but the game was far from called trash.

The feedback Nintendo took from this was appropriate (even if the art style was really great in the end) and that was people didn't really want super cartoony art style for The Legend of Zelda series (at least not the main games).

To draw a parallel, I have friends who weren't interested in DT because of the way the expansion was pitched to us (through live letters and trailers). That's similar to what you saw with Wind Waker and those who didn't like the art style.

To say people playing DT, going through the story and expressing how it was not enjoyable is the same is a false equivalency. That's not an "initial impression".

It's the same as people saying "it's a new start to the story! You can't expect it to be good!"; the run time of the MSQ is longer than most seasons of TV shows and longer than movies by many hours.

How much hand waving is needed to try and get rid of valid criticism?

I didn't enjoy the first half of the story, I didn't like the middle part of the story and I really didn't like the ending. Is that an initial impression or do we need to keep moving the goal post for what/when we can consider feedback valid?

Well obviously, you're supposed to wait 2.5 years for ALL of DT to be out for feedback to be valid, even though DT is guilty of many of the same mistakes EW has had for years now, both in terms of story and gameplay, but by then we can be easily shrugged off by saying "If it's so bad why did you play it for 2.5 years" or "You weren't around for the patches when it got good like in ARR, you're not allowed to complain." depending on which side of the knife we fall on.

The point is that no criticism outside of the ones that are easily agreeable like "lmao square grapes" are going to be seen as anything but whining about nothing, even if the game itself is harmed by such an approach.