As someone who loved it, why I think Dawntrail didn't work for everyone [Spoilers]

[Cilia]

I don't mind Wuk Lamat, but it's pretty undeniable she took up a majority of screentime in the expansion and way more than any FF XIV npc that's come before. Like I'd say HW Alphinaud is probably the closest comparison in terms of focus, and even then he shared the stage a lot with Estinein and Ysayle and HW felt like an ensemble cast overall.

The player spending an arc with Krile (on the scale of hanging with Erenville in Shaaloani) and doing little quests along the way with the scions (say on the scale of the one with Erenville and the aether detector) probably would have helped a lot with players feeling stifled by her.

Edit: I guess Lyse was around for most of Stormblood, but the player was still sent to hang out with other people like Gotsetsu and Yugiri pretty regularly iirc.

Heavensward Alphinaud is by my measure the closest as well, but he doesn't have quite as much screentime. He sits out the initial two excursions, remains in Ishgard for most of the interludes wrapping up the Ul'dahn political crisis, doesn't assist with the fight against either Ravana or Bismarck beyond the planning stage, lets you and Estinien have the raid on Nidhogg's Aery, stays with Matoya during your trip to the Great Gubal Library, and hangs back to buy time for you to make the final push across Azys Lla and into the Aetherochemical Research Facility and Singularity Reactor. Even if he does have as much screentime (I'm not so petty as to demand metrics), the fact that Estinien and Ysayle have their own character arcs alongside him means he doesn't monopolize character focus in the way Wuk Lamat does, and the PC has their own goals to accomplish in Ishgard that don't necessarily involve him (restoring the Blessing of Light, rooting out the Ascians' involvement with Thordan, and avenging his death after Haurchefant is killed).

Lyse is the central character in Stormblood but most of that is spent in the Far East, where she spends most of the time in the background. Alisae is given more focus in the Ruby Sea, Yugiri and Gosetsu take center stage for most of Yanxia, and Hien and the PC are focused on most in the Azim Steppe (with a moment for Gosetsu). It's actually one of Stormblood's weak points, since she's supposed to be growing into a capable leader but we don't see any of that - the "diversion" is laid out in Doma, and after the return trip Lyse suddenly is made leader of the Resistance despite displaying no capabilities as a leader or commander while we were out there... but I digress. Other characters have their own arcs, focus is put on characters besides the main protagonist, and the PC still has a narrative role (their growing rivalry with Zenos).

None of them come close to hogging the spotlight to the degree Wuk Lamat does... at least, not by my measure.

[Vyrerus]

It's actually one of Stormblood's weak points, since she's supposed to be growing into a capable leader but we don't see any of that - the "diversion" is laid out in Doma, and after the return trip Lyse suddenly is made leader of the Resistance despite displaying no capabilities as a leader or commander while we were out there... but I digress. Other characters have their own arcs, focus is put on characters besides the main protagonist, and the PC still has a narrative role (their growing rivalry with Zenos).

Decisions surrounding Lyse certainly were muddled and generally without much fruit. Her growth in Stormblood was subtle if you ask me, as it wasn't explicit she was going to lead The Resistance until it was foisted upon her by a dying man. Her issues at the front half of Stormblood are that she's encountering unexpected mental/morale resistance from the Ala Mhigans who are in the occupied territory. She has to come face to face that she was a lucky refugee that lead a privileged life, and that she doesn't know how to connect with the oppressed people who didn't get out.

She'd worked with the leadership of The Resistance off screen since Heavensward though, and what she learned in The Far East wasn't so much how to lead as it was how to accept responsibility and inspire other people.

So when Conrad lays dying, and he's saying he wants her to take up the mantle of Resistance Leader, of course she was going to accept, she knew the man well and he knew her father and she'd just been inspired by Hien. And what's powerful about it is that she accepts it and even has ideas about what to do next and how to inspire The Resistance.

What's really jarring, in my opinion, is that she takes the mantle but then because of Stormblood's issue with showing scale, she is basically never seen leading or marshalling forces. She kind of just goes directly with the WoL through the next few areas, and fights alongside some Resistance soldiers with her group in Ala Mhigo (dungeon).

The game was like, "Hey Lyse, you're the leader now." And then she has no one to lead except like M'naago and Soldiers #1 and #2.

Like as far as I remember she makes a speech or two, but I don't think more than one of them was ever specifically to The Resistance. Most her leadership stuff comes in 4.1+ when they start the move to sideline her.

[kaynide]

Alphinaud; Lyse

Alphinaud in HW, imho, was the way to do it. He's important to the story of HW, but he's also doing his own thing while you are doing yours for bits and pieces. His expertise in his area, and ours in our own is well used. Essentially allowing each member to "stay in their lane" with what they bring to the story.

Even Lyse kinda sorta had her own things going on in SB, even though we never really saw it. (Agreed weak)

For Wuk Lamat to have worked, they really should have allowed other characters to do what they do well. Alphinaud should have been able to put together what's going on at the Hanuhanu ritual; Erenville could have taught Wuk Lamat about animal handling a bit more with the Pelupelu arc; Less "smells good saddle" and more Erenville showing her how to approach/what food they like etc.



But, more-so, Wuk Lamat seems to "learn a lot of things" and "talk about learning a lot of things", but that learning is never really built upon or is largely forgotten.

She learns rituals might have more to them than face value. We never really see a ritual play out later in story where she can surmise "there's gotta be more to this...". It could have been something as dumb as "There's a tea-ceremony ritual most people in Solution 9 do, but this one boy hates tea.... turns out that tea negates the lightning sickness, and that's why they drank it originally."

She learns to overcome her fear with Alpaca. We never really have her face a major fear after that.

She convinces an artisan to live somewhere else; this could have been a moment for her to learn from Alphinaud about persuasion, then later USE that to talk to the red Yok Huy instead of Deus Ex Machina (with Alphinaud nodding in approval).

The only one arguably used is that food can be a bridge between different cultures and warm relations, but I even that was G'raha getting ice cream.

Hell, she seems to be amazed at this Zipline she's never seen before in her life, despite us using one in Sharlayan. Sure she might not remember the specific name, but they are the super obvious thing connecting zone bits, so at the very least she could put two and two together. Less "Oh I've never seen that before" and more "Hmm Zip...line..? Is..that.. like the thing from Sharlayan?"

TL;DR, Wuk Lamat should have utilized her companions more in story, or had the other members take stage from time to time.

[Cleretic]

She learns rituals might have more to them than face value. We never really see a ritual play out later in story where she can surmise "there's gotta be more to this...". It could have been something as dumb as "There's a tea-ceremony ritual most people in Solution 9 do, but this one boy hates tea.... turns out that tea negates the lightning sickness, and that's why they drank it originally."

She learns to overcome her fear with Alpaca. We never really have her face a major fear after that.

She convinces an artisan to live somewhere else; this could have been a moment for her to learn from Alphinaud about persuasion, then later USE that to talk to the red Yok Huy instead of Deus Ex Machina (with Alphinaud nodding in approval).

The only one arguably used is that food can be a bridge between different cultures and warm relations, but I even that was G'raha getting ice cream.

You mention the use of food as a relational bridge, but I don't know why you mention G'raha eating bad ice cream in Asyle Volcane, rather than her literally evoking that around the meal with Otis, which is a scene that gives her more of an idea of Alexandria's history than actually talking to their queen did (a queen that incidentally cannot build that bridge, because she cannot eat). Her entire reasoning for opposing the Alexandrian soul recycling system (and Living Memory by extension) stems from her knowledge of the Blessed Siblings; that just because a practice is really old that doesn't mean it can't be stopped, and that just because it came from a good place doesn't mean it shouldn't be stopped.

There's also her using Zoraal Ja's constant and obvious predilection for 1v1s against him, and the ongoing theme of her asking for the input of the people around her, which grows in how she approaches it; first as a show of her own insecurity with the Hanuhanu and Pelupelu, then as a very intentional method of understanding why the people of Mamook are like that, and finally as finding the tools they need to beat Sphene while not disrespecting the dead she's fighting for within Sphene's kingdom itself.

If you want to say that you wanted to see her use more of the tools she picked up during the rite of succession, then let's properly respect and recognize all the tools that she did use.

[kaynide]

You mention the use of food as a relational bridge, but I don't know why you mention G'raha eating bad ice cream in Asyle Volcane, rather than her literally evoking that around the meal with Otis, which is a scene that gives her more of an idea of Alexandria's history than actually talking to their queen did (a queen that incidentally cannot build that bridge, because she cannot eat). Her entire reasoning for opposing the Alexandrian soul recycling system (and Living Memory by extension) stems from her knowledge of the Blessed Siblings; that just because a practice is really old that doesn't mean it can't be stopped, and that just because it came from a good place doesn't mean it shouldn't be stopped.

There's also her using Zoraal Ja's constant and obvious predilection for 1v1s against him, and the ongoing theme of her asking for the input of the people around her, which grows in how she approaches it; first as a show of her own insecurity with the Hanuhanu and Pelupelu, then as a very intentional method of understanding why the people of Mamook are like that, and finally as finding the tools they need to beat Sphene while not disrespecting the dead she's fighting for within Sphene's kingdom itself.

If you want to say that you wanted to see her use more of the tools she picked up during the rite of succession, then let's properly respect and recognize all the tools that she did use.

I don't know if either scene (or ANY scene really) actually evokes the meal in between the Hrothgar/Mamool Ja if we're being honest, as the lesson there was more about fusing culture to make something better together; The simple act of sharing food to make friends/get to know each other is hardly something she learned there- heck one of our first run-arounds in town was to share some tacos.

That is to say, "getting to know people better by sharing a meal" is not a lesson she picked up in her trials but rather something she had been doing all along.

I'd also argue it's not exactly a hard choice to be opposed to the Mamool practice of sacrificing babies or the Alexandrian of souls and that rather than being an old tradition, it's more the obvious moral wrong from our point of view. The better story would have been how our position on Alexandrians in Living Memory somewhat reflects that of the Ascians and how it's a really moral gray zone over who decides who gets to live or die, or even who is alive in the first place.

For Zoraal, that is fine...but then again his entire schtick is nonsensical at best.