Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
At this point it's feeling like a bit of a pattern that as soon as the fandom likes a "cool old guy" character, he gets swapped out for being younger and the new version doesn't necessarily work as well.
Oh god, I think you might be right. Emet-Selch damn-near exactly fits this mold; the audience absolutely loved when he was a dark but intriguing figure haunted by his past and of somewhat debatable morality... and then Endwalker comes along and goes 'oh, you liked that, well you're gonna love meeting him before any of the defining moments in his life that led to him becoming who we know him to be!'

We need to keep an eye on Sphene; it'd be a weird instance, since Sphene isn't exactly 'old' so much as 'ageless and unchanging', but it might be the closest example to see if they do this to a woman too; they could bring in the true, non-Endless Queen somehow.