I want you to consider what would change if Dawntrail had taken place within its own, entirely separate plane of existence, completely isolated from the world of Final Fantasy 14 and the contents of the main story quest. What now, within that story, cannot take place? Off the top of my head, I can think of relatively few things. One, the aetherial conductivity doesn’t exist anymore, so the Hanu’s crops could not have been fixed the same way. Two, Alexandria can’t be a reflection of the source. Three, we couldn’t have recruited the scions for Tural’s succession crisis. And four, Vrtra can’t instantly beat Zoraal Ja’s flying terminators.

Now, let’s try doing the same for Shadowbringers, using the same premise. It has also now been sent to a parallel universe, and anything related to 2.0 has been left behind. But a very strange thing happens. The narrative of Shadowbringers COMPLETELY falls apart. Without the nature of aether, the rejoinings cannot happen. The Flood of Light cannot happen. Without Minfillia, there is no Oracle of Light. There are no Warriors of Darkness. Without the Warrior of Light, there is nobody who can defeat the lightwardens. Without the Ascians, Shadowbringers has no villains. Without the reflections, there can be no Scions, no Crystal Exarch, no Crystal Tower… Shadowbringers REQUIRES the world of Final Fantasy 14 in order to happen. How easy would it be to simply rewrite Dawntrail to be a separate game? The Hanu’s crops aren’t growing? The parade float is somehow the solution anyways, for equally contrived reasons. (You would think the Hanu would have mentioned something about the parade float shooting lasers at some point.) Alexandria might as well be an alien civilization. Everyone except Wuk Lamat could be just replaced with buff yes-men and nothing would change. And if they have problems with Zoraal Ja’s armies, that one bird from the giant questline is always ready to do whatever is convenient to the plot.

The answer to “How does Dawntrail contribute to the narrative experience of Final Fantasy 14,” is that it doesn’t. Because it isn’t a story about Final Fantasy 14. It’s a story about Dawntrail.
My brother, for the longest time, has hounded me about how the Warrior of Light should have died at the end of Endwalkers, and how the story should have picked up with someone else. My problem with that is that it has essentially already happened, and that it’s awful. I miss when the Warrior of Light was integral to the story. I miss when you could do things nobody else could do.

I miss Eorzea. Is this really what we killed it in exchange for?