Can we talk about Soreel Ja?(Spoilers)

[Papayatar]

Honestly he could have been a literal puppet controlled by Zoraal Ja and it’d be the same, except maybe people would think the 1st promise is off his rocker talking to/through a puppet.

Whether he was a red herring or victim of rewrites I think he was wasted a bit. Most of his screen time was building up that he’s got some plan and maybe he’s influencing Zoraal Ja in some way.

But nope Zoraal Ja was apparently always cracked and Sareel Ja was his scheming right hand man because….? Actually, what benefit was he to Zoraal Ja, I guess he did get the azem hourglass macguffin thing and extra keystones from Ketenram, but what else was he good for? I got he was sticking to Zoraal Ja because it helped w/e plans he had but, Zoraal Ja could have probably gotten those two items without him esp. if he’d always end up going down the same plot anyway.

[Rayne6665]

I am the worthy king!

(I called him Sriracha XD)

[Zaniel]

It's really simple, as a writer Hiroi only knows how to write characters (I'll leave the discussion as to whether he does that poorly) not plot or world building. He builds a character and because he hasn't built a functioning story or world for them to move in they just become a caricatured puppet with no purpose or a very simple purpose like "have a sword stuck in him". Valigarmanda was much the same, they painted the image of the mythical beast, then it just ... vanished.

Actually, I wonder how much of this is influenced by his work in theatre, where every waki (protagonist) has their wakitsure (companion or retainer). In Japanese theatre actions are often heavily narrated rather than played out on stage so Soreel Ja's only purpose might be to act as a narrator, not an actual entity or sub-protagonist in the world. /shrug, who knows, doesn't work in an MMO story. Western plays can also get a lot like this on occasion, there's quite a bit of "exit-stage-left" once a character has spouted their lines and fulfilled their dramatic purpose never to be seen again.

[Silver-Strider]

If the story had been better, I'd say they "killed" him off so that he could return in a later patch but given how lackluster the story was, I can't help but feel he's actually dead.

If I was to give the Devs the benefit of the doubt, they could make it so that he's not actually dead, finds a way into Living Memory and locates Sphene's Crown, which somehow grants him some level of authority over Alexandria allowing him to be be an antagonist for some patches before ultimately being stopped. It isn't the most interesting premise but at least we'd get something from him instead of being the most lackluster red herring we've ever gotten.

[TaleraRistain]

I honestly thought he was going to turn out to be the big bad and manipulating Zoraal Ja behind the scenes.

[CaptainLagbeard]

A lot of the writing in the expansion feels like even the writers didn't know what was going to happen... Like Sareel they set up to end up backstabbing someone to gain power, but then he just gets backstabbed by VegrilZoraal Ja in his quest for more power.

[Jojoya]

We would have fought him in the level 99 trial instead of Zoraal Ja. That's the only thing that would be different because Alexandria was always sitting there waiting to be the big bad.

[Iscah]

A lot of the writing in the expansion feels like even the writers didn't know what was going to happen... Like Sareel they set up to end up backstabbing someone to gain power, but then he just gets backstabbed by VegrilZoraal Ja in his quest for more power.

Why do you think that feels like a mistake and not a deliberate planned twist?

[TheMightyMollusk]

Why do you think that feels like a mistake and not a deliberate planned twist?

Because assuming the worst is the forum's favorite pastime.

[Fawkes]

Why do you think that feels like a mistake and not a deliberate planned twist?

Because a deliberate planned twist should be fleshed out enough to actually know it's a twist when it happens. If we actually knew Sareel Ja's intentions and weren't all just saying "he seems like he might've been plotting something" then you'd actually know what to expect and that expectation could be subverted.