An open letter to Yoshi P and Dev Team

[hydralus]

I don't know how people haven't figured out after 10 years that the Warrior of Light is neither the main character of FFXIV nor a particularly important one.

They were probably fooled after saving several dozen tribes/cities/the world/universe a few times and never being able to take a break because Lord knows nobody else could do it. Suddenly you're thrust into a story where you're just going "... why am I even here, again?"

[TemporalFruitsAndVeggies]

They were probably fooled after saving several dozen tribes/cities/the world/universe a few times and never being able to take a break because Lord knows nobody else could do it.

Right, but you only do this as a weapon. The WoL is practically uninvolved in the actual story of the game.

[hydralus]

Right, but you only do this as a weapon. The WoL is practically uninvolved in the actual story of the game.

No being uninvolved would be like whatever Hilda's been doing for the last 7 years. A lack of character choice/urgency in the events they're thrust in to has no bearing on whether they're a main character or not. It'd be like going, "Vassili Zaitsev isn't the main character of Enemy at the Gates because he's just a guy who can shoot well and was practically uninvolved in the actual story of WW2". And what's with the idea of them being "uninvolved"? Exactly what would satisfy your definition of involvement with the events of ARR, HW, SB, ShB, EW? The first, where you were a chosen warrior and tackle the growing Ascian threat as allies you've made get into trouble. HW, where you lost comrades, took part in several trials both involving others and yourself, and saved not only a close ally but an entire nation. Stormblood, ShB, EW (ESPECIALLY shadowbringers and EW), at what point in these stories did it come across that the WoL was not involved? When there's a problem and everyone in the room goes, "Hey, maybe we should involve the WoL with this", guess what? That person is very much involved whether you like it or not. This isn't like Sherlock Holmes where Watson is detailing the goings-on of the seemingly mystical deductive powers of the titular character. There's not a moment like "Wow, amazing Lyse! You freed your people without any involvement from me at all." Where they are nothing but an observer to the story. Yeah, there have been things that have happened without the WoL being there of course, but the vast vast majority of that stuff isn't even shown unless it's time for the WoL to... get (say it with me) INVOLVED. The WoL's involvement is so integral to the plot that practically nothing, NOTHING happens without them. Just so happens it's by hitting things hard, which doesn't exclude someone from being the main character of a story. As fans of Dragon Ball will tell you, that fightsexual idiot is still the main character.

I swear, do you browse Reddit or something? It's the only place I could fathom picking up such a boneheaded idea of "the WoL isn't the main character". No your take isn't interesting or deep, it's just stupid.

[Hallarem]

The WoL has very close ties to Ishgard and some of its key leaders, its very clear that its like a second home even. (Just my interpretation and how welcoming Haurchefants dad is everytime you visit.) The WoL is clearly the main character.

But the most boneheaded and farmed take still is the the WoL is some super nuke that cant be killed or stopped. We clearly can, has happened in the the past.
The WoL is supercharged, sure. But people help us from time to time, we get power-ups. The only reason people think this is because we win all the time.
Duh, we are the main character, of course we win all the time. That doesnt make us a continent nuke. Hell, people need to read more on the lore on how jobs/aether and magic work Anything we can nuke a black mage can do too. A monk can blast through a lot of stuff as well if sufficiently trained.

[TemporalFruitsAndVeggies]

No your take isn't interesting or deep, it's just stupid.

Being very confident in your wrongness doesn't make you less wrong. The WoL is only the main character in Shadowbringers (ETA: and the ending bit of Endwalker, I suppose). The overwhelming majority of what the WoL does is follow everyone else around (this is why every quest has dialog like, "WoL, would you like to join us?" -- because the WoL literally drives nothing) until they need a weapon. Then you kill something and everyone else goes back to the actual narrative. This isn't, like, a thing that's up for debate. It is simply how the story is structured. It is literally the fundamental nature of the story's existence.

You are correct that the story wouldn't progress without the WoL, in the same way that the story of an episode of CSI wouldn't progress without cars for the characters to drive to crime scenes. But the cars aren't the main characters. They're crucial -- critical even -- and yet wholly uninvolved in the narrative.

Also ETA: To prove my point, I challenge you to name a single, non-trivial problem that the WoL identified, came to understand, and solved entirely on his or her own. No Urianger or Y'shtola using their knowledge, no Leveilleurs using their political savvy, no Wuk Lamat eagerly helping local peoples, just the WoL making their own, autonomous decision that advances a core part of the narrative. (There is none, of course, because the WoL isn't a written character; they're simply a placeholder for "the person playing the video game.")