#WukLamatMustDie

[Midare]

While I generally agree with you, on the last part it should be noted that the leaves were reserved for whichever team tried to actually look into the history between the two tribes in the area. Of course, out of the 4 candidates, only Wuk Lamat showed an inherent interest in learning of the cultures she visited, so one could argue it was somewhat rigged.

Guess that is the one thing Wuk Lamat learned on her journey. "when you meet people, just learn about their culture and they will be nice to you." (somehow feels like the plotpoint of a childrens show.)

Yeah, but he was all sneaky guiding them around.

He didn't try to do the same with Zoraal Ja.

And of course funny man Wuk Evu was there too... for some reason. Maybe cat dad planted that too? Who knows, writing's all over the place.

And yes, it does seem like some kind of teaching moment from a children's tv show.

[ovIm]

Yeah, but he was all sneaky guiding them around.

He didn't try to do the same with Zoraal Ja.

And of course funny man Wuk Evu was there too... for some reason. Maybe cat dad planted that too? Who knows, writing's all over the place.

Eh, from where I stand I think he would have shown the others as well, had they asked.
But Koana is not interested in anything that comes from outside of Sharlayan, Zoraal Ja just wanted to muscle through the test, and Bakool Ja Ja was his usual cartoony mustache twirling evil guy that planned on just taking the keys from the start, not caring about winning that trial.
However, considering everyone knew the participants of the trial, making one that is so obviously made so Wuk Lamat would win it... leaves a bit of a bitter taste, thats for sure.

[Midare]

Eh, from where I stand I think he would have shown the others as well, had they asked.

Well yeah but if they didn't ask around, even if their associates didn't, how'd they find about the recipe?

Cat dad then said "Oh they didn't do it themselves, so it's not good"?. Don't know, seems rather biased, specially since she and Koana didn't do the investigatin' themselves alone either.

[ovIm]

Well yeah but if they didn't ask around, even if their associates didn't, how'd they find about the recipe?

Okay, may have to rephrase what I meant there.
While the others inquires were more focussed on getting the recipe, Wuk Lamat in her eternal "need to learn about cultures" quest instead wanted to try and learn about the history of the village. Which was the required thing to do to get he leaves for the trial.

Like... don't get me wrong, I still think the way the trial was one was equally stupid, hella suspicious, and super biased towards Wukkie.

[Midare]

Okay, may have to rephrase what I meant there.
While the others inquires were more focussed on getting the recipe, Wuk Lamat in her eternal "need to learn about cultures" quest instead wanted to try and learn about the history of the village. Which was the required thing to do to get he leaves for the trial.

Like... don't get me wrong, I still think the way the trial was one was equally stupid, hella suspicious, and super biased towards Wukkie.

I'm not entirely sure about the wording that cat dad used, at least not exactly, but if I remember correctly, he told the "participants" that no one in the village would tell them about the details of the dish, but that they could ask about anything else, yet everyone gave team Poochie very obvious hints, and there's where the cat dad started being sneaky.

If they followed the same rules, they too had to ask questions and guess. Of course, we don't know this since we get absolutely no insight on the Triple Ja duo.

So yeah, even without the dad being directly involved, for all we know the villagers didn't give them any hints, while they were so subtle to her side, that the next thing they could do it's write down the recipe.

Speaking of which... I was also re-watching the ending cutscene. Poochie didn't even do the cooking, and Krile apologized for the delay as if she was some sort of maid... Not to mention cat dad all but subtly mocks the Triple Ja team for not getting the leaves while Bakool Ja calls them "some crusty old leaf" as a result. That last bit got me thinking.

The whole point of xibruq pibil was to mix the things the xbra'al and the mamool ja ate, the ja tiika banana leaves being the mamool ja side of things.

Bakool Jaja was the result of his people popping egg after egg of stillborns with him being the 1 in a 100... and he didn't know the need for the ja tiika banana leaves that represent his people and calls them "crusty"... it feels almost like it adds insult to injury.

The more I think about the story, the worse it gets.

[CuteBucket]

It really is one of those stories where as soon as you examine just about any scene in the game, it falls apart under scrutiny.

And what's so infuriating is that with more editing passes or just better writing to begin with, it could work! They establish that while there is "peace" between the Xbraal and Mamool Ja, it's more like a cold war than actual peace. They could have done something more with that setup here. For example, what if while out gathering information about the area's history, Wuk Lamat sees some of the Xbraal being much more cagey or even hostile in answering any questions with Bakool Jaja and Zoraal Ja? She realizes they're being treated far differently than her, and has to have a moment where she struggles with her own morals and goals: Does she call out the blatant racism and favoritism she's seeing, as her moral compass (according to what we're told) should tell her to do? Or does she keep quiet, because calling it out would be helping her opponents which could put her at a serious disadvantage for the Dawnservant challenge?

Of course, doing anything like that would require actually grappling with a conflict that isn't easily solved in ten minutes and showing any sort of character depth, which is apparently impossible in Dawntrail.

[Papayatar]

Speaking of which... I was also re-watching the ending cutscene. Poochie didn't even do the cooking, and Krile apologized for the delay as if she was some sort of maid... Not to mention cat dad all but subtly mocks the Triple Ja team for not getting the leaves while Bakool Ja calls them "some crusty old leaf" as a result. That last bit got me thinking.

The whole point of xibruq pibil was to mix the things the xbra'al and the mamool ja ate, the ja tiika banana leaves being the mamool ja side of things.

Bakool Jaja was the result of his people popping egg after egg of stillborns with him being the 1 in a 100... and he didn't know the need for the ja tiika banana leaves that represent his people and calls them "crusty"... it feels almost like it adds insult to injury.

The more I think about the story, the worse it gets.

This is speculation, but I think he calls them crusty probably to show a point now disconnected he (and his hometown) are from that dish and the importance of it.

The Xbra’al fully adopted the dish as a regular food in their cuisine, but the Mamool Ja didn’t. Even though it’s their “come together” food only one side fully embraced it.

So it’s reasonable that Bakool Ja Ja just sees it as non important because he wasn’t taught it was important to anything and only held the belief of this is that one dumb fruit we’re stuck with back home.

And even if he did know the history of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if the attitudes about it were bitter, not just cuz it’s their only stable crop until we offer alternatives, but because it represents a false unity. I.e, they still live separated, still interact in secret (the aether current follow quests), and the Mamool Ja felt eugenics programs was still the right course of action despite that one day they all ate together :’/.

[Midare]

And even if he did know the history of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if the attitudes about it were bitter, not just cuz it’s their only stable crop until we offer alternatives, but because it represents a false unity. I.e, they still live separated, still interact in secret (the aether current follow quests), and the Mamool Ja felt eugenics programs was still the right course of action despite that one day they all ate together :’/.

I'm aware it's speculation on my part, but my point is that Bakool Jaja already has a pretty rough background to, on top of that, being shown as someone who doesn't care enough about his people to know that the Ja tiika leaves are an important part of the mamool ja diet regardless of the existence of xibruq pibil... but also also being so desperate that he will cheat and steal to win the contest for his people.

It's flat out inconsistent, even if he is shown as this sort of simple minded musclehead.

I know I'm cherry picking when singling out how that particular case looks, but as I said, it's a matter that the more I pick at the writing, the worse it gets for me.

And that not even accounting for xibruq pibil being a "come together" dish that only one side can make.

[lolnotacat]

I know I'm cherry picking when singling out how that particular case looks, but as I said, it's a matter that the more I pick at the writing, the worse it gets for me.

This is the best commentary on DT's story I've read.

[Papayatar]

I'm aware it's speculation on my part, but my point is that Bakool Jaja already has a pretty rough background to, on top of that, being shown as someone who doesn't care enough about his people to know that the Ja tiika leaves are an important part of the mamool ja diet regardless of the existence of xibruq pibil... but also also being so desperate that he will cheat and steal to win the contest for his people.

It's flat out inconsistent, even if he is shown as this sort of simple minded musclehead.

I know I'm cherry picking when singling out how that particular case looks, but as I said, it's a matter that the more I pick at the writing, the worse it gets for me.

And that not even accounting for xibruq pibil being a "come together" dish that only one side can make.

I meant my theory was speculation too lol

But I read yours as, it’s odd he doesn’t know the importance of the rainbow banana leaves, not as he’s written inconsistently. Now I get what you mean and yeah that inconsistency is pretty glaring because of the things you said.

Edit to add: Just realised if it was written better they could have played it off him writing off the rainbow bananas, like how some bullies are written. Where they say something is stupid but they like the thing or it’s important to them. But he wasn’t written well so you get that inconsistency in characterisation instead.