Did I skip something in the MSQ? This part doesn't make any sense to me

[Daralii]

It was just very badly written.

I have no issue with the fact we killed them all per se. I do have an issue that in previous expansions we would have gotten to think about it, talk about it, there would be doubts and the characters would look for alternatives, etc. I mean come on, we showed more empathy and understanding during Emet Selch's Amaurot, and that was legitimately NOT people/ascians in any form, more like a depressed dude rewatching a video recording of his dead loved ones. But here we come face to face with actual people, just in a different form, and yet we jump at the opportunity to murder them like it's nothing.

And I do have an issue with the fact that the game kind of contradicts itself in regards to what makes a living being. Did anybody read the lore tabs in Origenics? Or were we not supposed to do that or something? Because everything in Origenics basically proves that people originating from memories are just as legitimate as those originating from "soul". In the end it doesn't make a difference what order you put "soul" and "memories" together in. It still makes Aether of a living being.

Similarly Origenics brings up beings that are not really alive - aka a soulless body infused with multiple souls but no memories. THOSE are not alive. But as soon as proper memories come into play, along with a corresponding soul - you have a living being made of aether, same as any of us are.

Beings that didn't have souls and weren't made of aether(and didn't even have flesh or brains) were alive according to the Last Dregs quests, but maybe I just hallucinated 6.25.

[Lady_Silvermoon]

Beings that didn't have souls and weren't made of aether(and didn't even have flesh or brains) were alive according to the Last Dregs quests, but maybe I just hallucinated 6.25.

There is no way the person who wrote the story for Living Memory has played through the Omicron storyline because there are a bucket of solutions to maintaining the Endless in Ultima Thule. Three of the races there have figured out some form of immortality. The Omicron are capable of creating anything they have data on. Wanting to continue living is such a laughably solvable problem in the FF14 universe we could have just pointed at G'raha and been like, "He extended his life for centuries by fusing with a tower, then we stuck his mind and soul in a crystal and jammed him into a younger version of himself so he could spend another 100 years kicking it with the crew. Seriously Sphene, give us a week. We can solve this. Heck, we just ended racism with a bag of seeds and defeated an army 30 years in the making in an afternoon. This is like an average Tuesday level of difficulty for us. BTW, we also likely have a cure for levin sickness. Probably should have mentioned that earlier."

And for anyone who thinks there just wasn't enough time to solve her problem, I remind you, we learn the Endless can be stored on the servers for at least centuries and Azem's crystal not only summons specific people when needed because we summoned two ghost out of the aetherial sea to Ultima Thule, in the fight with Sphene we summoned people into a virtual reality... And we already know the residents of Ultima Thule can come to Etheirys because we brought an Omicron here to gather cooking tips.

We didn't wipe out the Endless because "we had to," doing so changed literally nothing about what comes after. Sphene didn't even seem to notice they were gone. We wiped them out because the story wanted to push a moral that it is wrong to continue past your time as if that's really an issue modern humans must contend with and I remind you, one of the people in our group is working on his 4th century. So I guess it's only wrong for people who aren't our unofficial love interest.

[CVXIV]

There is no way the person who wrote the story for Living Memory has played through the Omicron storyline because there are a bucket of solutions to maintaining the Endless in Ultima Thule. Three of the races there have figured out some form of immortality. The Omicron are capable of creating anything they have data on. Wanting to continue living is such a laughably solvable problem in the FF14 universe we could have just pointed at G'raha and been like, "He extended his life for centuries by fusing with a tower, then we stuck his mind and soul in a crystal and jammed him into a younger version of himself so he could spend another 100 years kicking it with the crew. Seriously Sphene, give us a week. We can solve this. Heck, we just ended racism with a bag of seeds and defeated an army 30 years in the making in an afternoon. This is like an average Tuesday level of difficulty for us. BTW, we also likely have a cure for levin sickness. Probably should have mentioned that earlier."

And for anyone who thinks there just wasn't enough time to solve her problem, I remind you, we learn the Endless can be stored on the servers for at least centuries and Azem's crystal not only summons specific people when needed because we summoned two ghost out of the aetherial sea to Ultima Thule, in the fight with Sphene we summoned people into a virtual reality... And we already know the residents of Ultima Thule can come to Etheirys because we brought an Omicron here to gather cooking tips.

We didn't wipe out the Endless because "we had to," doing so changed literally nothing about what comes after. Sphene didn't even seem to notice they were gone. We wiped them out because the story wanted to push a moral that it is wrong to continue past your time as if that's really an issue modern humans must contend with and I remind you, one of the people in our group is working on his 4th century. So I guess it's only wrong for people who aren't our unofficial love interest.

doesn't defeating Sphene cause the terminals to be shut down anyway? It's entirely reliant on her and her inability to see reason due to her being programmed the way she is

[Lady_Silvermoon]

doesn't defeating Sphene cause the terminals to be shut down anyway? It's entirely reliant on her and her inability to see reason due to her being programmed the way she is

Yep. So instead of spending that time trying to find a way to reprogram her. Or informing the people of Living Memory our next boss fight is about to end their existence, so they should probably wrap things up if they have any unfinished business like that wedding that couple has waited centuries to have. Or searching for a way to save the memories in storage so after we stop Sphene they aren't lost, we instead spend that time vacationing with people as we wipe them out...

I personally find dressing up as a bunny to give children happy memories ten minutes before wiping them out of existence absolutely mental. I would have rather the characters pulled out lawn chairs and sat in front of the Meso terminal waiting for Sphene to finish reformatting than what they actually did with that time. I get they are trying to do the "you live on as long as you're remembered" thing, but I'm pretty sure that's in reference to being remembered by the people who love you, not assailants remembering their victims. I guess where the Garleans went wrong wasn't that they tried to drop a moon on us, but that they didn't try any of the local cuisine beforehand.

[BakoolJaJa]

Beings that didn't have souls and weren't made of aether(and didn't even have flesh or brains) were alive according to the Last Dregs quests, but maybe I just hallucinated 6.25.

No, you're absolutely right. Add that to the bucket of inconsistencies. Omicron do not work with this new story at all. If Omicron happened in Dawntrail, we would have genocided them all and then played Smile after.

[BabySneed]

And we already know the residents of Ultima Thule can come to Etheirys because we brought an Omicron here to gather cooking tips.

We didn't wipe out the Endless because "we had to," doing so changed literally nothing about what comes after. Sphene didn't even seem to notice they were gone. We wiped them out because the story wanted to push a moral that it is wrong to continue past your time as if that's really an issue modern humans must contend with and I remind you, one of the people in our group is working on his 4th century. So I guess it's only wrong for people who aren't our unofficial love interest.

Also N-7000 visits Dravania to speak to Vidolfnir, likewise residents of Etheirys (or the moon) can still visit Ultima Thule so there shouldn't be a problem there, though unfortunately I think Ultima Thule got locked in the writers closet where it will be forgotten and never brought up again, which is a real shame because it's my favorite Endwalker zone.
Really they should've just had whoever wrote the Omicron quests on the Dawntrail writing team, both the writing quality and lore coherency would have increased significantly

[CVXIV]

Yep. So instead of spending that time trying to find a way to reprogram her. Or informing the people of Living Memory our next boss fight is about to end their existence, so they should probably wrap things up if they have any unfinished business like that wedding that couple has waited centuries to have. Or searching for a way to save the memories in storage so after we stop Sphene they aren't lost, we instead spend that time vacationing with people as we wipe them out...

I personally find dressing up as a bunny to give children happy memories ten minutes before wiping them out of existence absolutely mental. I would have rather the characters pulled out lawn chairs and sat in front of the Meso terminal waiting for Sphene to finish reformatting than what they actually did with that time. I get they are trying to do the "you live on as long as you're remembered" thing, but I'm pretty sure that's in reference to being remembered by the people who love you, not assailants remembering their victims. I guess where the Garleans went wrong wasn't that they tried to drop a moon on us, but that they didn't try any of the local cuisine beforehand.

I wasn't entirely certain which is why I had asked, so thank you for confirming it for me. I could've sworn that was the case but I didn't want to claim so without being sure.

Yeah I believe the intent was to create a twisted sort of way of the Yok Huy's teachings, given that they are referenced when we learn about living on through people's memories but the story does have a lot of holes in it which I hope gets addressed later on, given that the story has yet to be truly resolved.

I think if the Garleans had tried archon loaf they would have seen the errors of their ways.
Truly the pinnacle of the culinary art.

[Daralii]

Also N-7000 visits Dravania to speak to Vidolfnir, likewise residents of Etheirys (or the moon) can still visit Ultima Thule so there shouldn't be a problem there, though unfortunately I think Ultima Thule got locked in the writers closet where it will be forgotten and never brought up again, which is a real shame because it's my favorite Endwalker zone.
Really they should've just had whoever wrote the Omicron quests on the Dawntrail writing team, both the writing quality and lore coherency would have increased significantly

The Ragnarok docked in Labyrinthos is also an instantaneous teleporter between Sharlayan and Ultima Thule, so the logistics of bringing Omicrons to the 9th would be simple.

[Striker44]

Beings that didn't have souls and weren't made of aether(and didn't even have flesh or brains) were alive according to the Last Dregs quests, but maybe I just hallucinated 6.25.

I think the issue there is that the Last Dregs are optional content, and the MSQ has always avoided having any significant involvement of optional content getting included. For example, people have talked about Unukalhai not having any involvement with things related to the 13th (where he's from and tried to save), but he's part of an optional questline, so the MSQ writers can't assume players know who he is or his story, hence he's not part of anything involving Zero's storyline. Likewise, in ShB he gets minorly involved, but again only in optional content (completing all of the role quests).

The one time they decided that optional content was actually essential for the MSQ was the Crystal Tower series leading into ShB, and the result was making CT become mandatory. They'll only include in the MSQ things they can guarantee every player has already experienced.

The info you bring up from the Last Dregs is optional side content from EW, so whether each of us individually likes it or not, it won't be considered relevant when writing MSQ stories.

[Jojoya]

It's badly written.

I can't think of anyone we meet in Living Memory that talks about someone who died before they did (with the exception of everyone knowing about Sphene). Every NPC I can remember meeting died first. But I also haven't done most of the side quests there so maybe there is someone like that.

Whether or not you care about the Endless is personal to you. But the writers did go out of the way to keep stressing they are only facsimiles created by a computer and not the original living being and that none of them care that you're about to turn them off because they're not programmed to care about it.