Character disconnect and disappointing Player Agency in Dawntrail's MSQ [Spoilers]

[dezzmont]

Um no, I think you are making an unfair comparison. We are not the 'mentor figure' to anyone in those expansions, and HW is not an Alphinaud-as-MC only expansion.

Also the examples you cited are pretty superficial and you even brought in Erenville. Like I said in the trading questline, she could've asked anyone else and arrive in the same conclusion by herself. So I ask again, how is the WoL a mentor figure to Wuk Lamat?

They are superficial because our involvement with literally every plot is superficial. We literally can only talk to people by making a choice of 2-3 dialogue choices that can't ever alter the actual plot. "That isn't a good enough example" isn't an actual counter-argument, the fact is the story does establish that Wuk Lamat looks up to us and looks to us for guidance and our influence does change how she views the world.

As for HW, the first half is pretty explicitly a coming of age story for Alphinauld where he comes into his own and realizes what he should do after the disaster of the Crystal Braves and his confidence is utterly shattered. Its why the firewood scene (which is mostly Estinien's moment with him, not yours) is so legendary. He freaks out utterly over being able to accomplish ANYTHING, and that road trip half culminates with the two adults with him breaking and him meanwhile becoming more resolved. Our involvement in that story is pretty much cheerleading Alphinauld, and he would have gotten there without us. But it wasn't pointless either, and it sets him up for the ultimate end of the story where he (and you) rescue Estinien by refusing to give in to cynicism. Alphinauld, low key, was the main character of HW, he was the one with an arc who grew and changed. It just did a good job of hiding that by having you fight a big dragon. He even shoves into the the ultimate moment of triumph just like Wuk Lamat, but in a cutscene!

A really big difference between the two is the stakes of the 'coming of age' portion (again, cool adventures ending a horrible war vs bear asses). The other is the back half of DT is... not the strongest IMO, which is a problem when your first half is trying to set up a secret lead for the second and the second half just isn't great, which does a lot more to hurt Wuk Lamat as a character in my opinion than 'we support her' which like... duh of course we do. That is literally what we do as the WoL.