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

[ArcturusWhisper]

As Sneed said, the writers most likely do not care about Koana at all. Just like every other character in Dawntrail, they exist purely to push Wuk Lamat's story and character as the MC and then get side-lined after their purpose is done.

Koana changed the most during the rite, going from someone who pretty much didn't give a damn about his nation's culture and only about Sharlayan innovation, to someone who gradually understands it's importance and why it's not a hindrance. Meanwhile Wuk barely changed at all and solved pretty much everything in her path with peace and happiness and friendship, both during and after the rite. She was always pushed as "The Perfect Ruler" ultimately and Koana just existed to enforce that by giving up right at the finish line to declare she was the only one fit to rule.

Koana SHOULD'VE been the one to go with us in the 2nd half. He could've went to Shaaloani to see that the Dustwatch he set up has corruption issues, see the issues that his train may have inadvertently caused to some of the locals and the local wildlife as a result, and maybe gotten some more backstory on him the nomadic family that just left him. He could've seen with his own eyes just how far advanced Alexandria is and then try to wrangle with the cultural implications of their soul system. Even in Living Memory he could've seen both just how far technology can go, and also the horrors of what it would take to maintain such a thing, resulting in S9 and the final 2 zones essentially asking himself "How far is too far with technology, and is it ultimately worth it?" and learning where to go from there.

Unfortunately, Koana is not named Wuk Lamat, so he becomes another Yes-Man and then gets thrown to the side because Wuk needs another dozen hours of talking about peace and happiness and friendship.

Yeah this exactly. While I don't think Koana was too well-written either, he objectively has a character arc that Wuk Lamat doesn't. Gulool Ja Ja went on about how the trials of succession was about helping them grow, not merely picking a successor, but Koana was the only one who has changed? No matter how abrupt and unnatural it is written currently, he did change his long-held opinion on something. That can be counted as growth. What change did Wuk Lamat have? Nothing. She holds the exact same opinions and spout the same exact ideals as she did when she first met us. Nothing has challenged her worldview.

If as you said Koana's story can be explored more, if he can visit the S9 and understand everything that entails, his change could become a lot more natural and convincing and he would be an even better character. But none of that happened. It's just so frustrating.

[witsby]

was going through that jp thread seems theyre not too happy either, they well and truly fumbled this msq. those jp complaints cant be ignored, im on copium they'll make 7.1 msq more interesting now.

[Kennar]

To be honest, this isn't completely unreasonable.

- If Koana sent someone who is able to travel the Aetheryte network there is barely any travel time at all.
- We know Dragons can fly pretty fast - and high. In fact Midgarsormr flew through space to get to the Source, so fair to assume Vrtra could've flown across from a very high altitude.
- Vrtra owed us one after all that business in the 13th

Full disclosure, I was pretty well checked out by that point and I don't recall if it was ever said who negotiated the alliance with Vrta. Could have been Alphinaud, maybe? Was he not with us? I can't think of too many other people who would be able to teleport between Tural and Radz-at-Han. Estinien would have been an excellent choice, but he was away on vacation.

Still though, I found the scene just as cheap and contrived as when the Domans showed up at exactly the right time to help the Ala Mhigans at the end of SB. It would would have worked better if there was some leadup to it. Perhaps we should have seen Koana sending representatives to all the major nations to petition them for help; watched him anxiously waiting for news, and when when all hope seemed lost, Vrtra arrives. It's an old story, but it works.

[TaleraRistain]

Full disclosure, I was pretty well checked out by that point and I don't recall if it was ever said who negotiated the alliance with Vrta. Could have been Alphinaud, maybe? Was he not with us? I can't think of too many other people who would be able to teleport between Tural and Radz-at-Han. Estinien would have been an excellent choice, but he was away on vacation.

He was there, though, so I would have been happy with a "Meanwhile..." type scene that had Koana, Thancred, and Urianger discussing what to do and then you see a boot and a familiar voice go "I may be able to assist with that" cause you know Estinien would be like "Hey little bestie, can you come help" and Vrtra would take off immediately. So they wouldn't even need an alliance.

[Striker44]

I have seen many people proposed that we should have Koana accompanying us in the second arc and I think I agree. It would get Wuk Lamat away from us for a while and so more room to flesh out other characters. Both Koana and Zoraal Ja are characters with potential, but they squandered it with literally not actually giving them any substance. We are told their character traits and then that's more or less it.

I don't see how Koana being the one to go with us would've made sense, though. The whole purpose of going inside the dome is to fight Zoraal Ja on his home turf. Wuk Lumat is the warrior of the duo; it makes sense for her to be the one going to fight. Koana is the thinker of the duo and familiar with the innovations he's brought to Tuliyollal; it makes sense for him to be the one organizing the defense. I just can't see a viable plot reason for them to swap roles there.

Koana SHOULD'VE been the one to go with us in the 2nd half. He could've went to Shaaloani to see that the Dustwatch he set up has corruption issues, see the issues that his train may have inadvertently caused to some of the locals and the local wildlife as a result, and maybe gotten some more backstory on him the nomadic family that just left him.

Same as above. At the time we're going to Shaaloani, both Wuk Lumat and Koana just became the Dawnservants of Resolve and Reason. Koana needs to be in Tuliyollal at that point, just like how Wuk Lumat (who follows us literally everywhere else) isn't with us for that part of the journey.

Koana changed the most during the rite, going from someone who pretty much didn't give a damn about his nation's culture and only about Sharlayan innovation, to someone who gradually understands it's importance and why it's not a hindrance. Meanwhile Wuk barely changed at all and solved pretty much everything in her path with peace and happiness and friendship, both during and after the rite. She was always pushed as "The Perfect Ruler" ultimately and Koana just existed to enforce that by giving up right at the finish line to declare she was the only one fit to rule.

What? Wuk Lumat started the journey as someone with no self-confidence whatsoever and didn't think she brought anything to the table, then steadily learned how her empathy is actually a valuable characteristic, that there are people you can trust and be vulnerable with rather than just showing false bravado, and ultimately that she can be (part of) a capable leadership team. Koana and Wuk Lumat were basically opposite sides of the coin; one started over-confident and thinking he knew everything, the other started without confidence and thinking she knew nothing. He learned there's things he didn't know and that other people could make important contributions; she learned she had something essential to contribute.

[Ashpd]

Add to point - instead of Koana made alliance with Vrtra, maybe show Ragnarok arrival, with some fireworks from cannons? Think more logical to contact already expirienced Sharlayan and + into bag of Koana loving tech's

[Arrogantia]

I still don't understand how, as the WOL, we not only accept to do political mercenarism in a country we do not EVEN KNOW, we also follow Wuk Lamat around and somehow think to ourself "yeah, let's make her queen she is so capable".

It's so frustrating. No one, not even Alphinaud, sees anything wrong with us meddling with Tural's politic. Nobody points out that, maybe, the apex human of our world (the WOL) should not intervene in the rite of succession. Nobody thinks that it's a disproportionate intrusion in Tural's affairs.

Writing politic is hard, but not that hard come on.

[Raven2014]

I still don't understand how, as the WOL, we not only accept to do political mercenarism in a country we do not EVEN KNOW, we also follow Wuk Lamat around and somehow think to ourself "yeah, let's make her queen she is so capable".

It's so frustrating. No one, not even Alphinaud, sees anything wrong with us meddling with Tural's politic. Nobody points out that, maybe, the apex human of our world (the WOL) should not intervene in the rite of succession. Nobody thinks that it's a disproportionate intrusion in Tural's affairs.

Writing politic is hard, but not that hard come on.

Especially jarring when you consider the fact that at the end of 6.0, the Scion is so self-aware of their influence that they impose a self-banned so that they don't inadvertently effect nation's politic.

Yet ironically, and idiotically in DT I think we have the most direct involvement in playing kingmaker then we ever did comparing to all other expansion.

Just another point to show that the new writing team did a horrible job in maintaining consistency in the story, like it's almost they don't care.

[Arrogantia]

Especially jarring when you consider the fact that at the end of 6.0, the Scion is so self-aware of their influence that they impose a self-banned so that they don't inadvertently effect nation's politic.

Yet ironically, and idiotically in DT I think we have the most direct involvement in playing kingmaker then we ever did comparing to all other expansion.

Just another point to show that the new writing team did a horrible job in maintaining consistency in the story, like it's almost they don't care.

Louder for the people in the back

[gumas]

"we should disband the scion, it become to dangerous, people might use us to further their personal goal"

*literally join a bandwagon princess to make her the queen of the country*

"but we are not scion nope nope, we dont have any influence whatsoever" lol