Dawntrail’s Narrative Missteps: Why Natsuko Ishikawa’s Touch Is Sorely Missed

[ScartPearl]

We went from being the Warrior of Light to the Warrior who likes to watch in many of the cut scenes. Hell, in one of them what's his face even acknowledges that we are a walking nodding force of nature. And if our presence was meant to be as some kind of mentor for Wuk, then that was garbled in the story line of her own "personal growth".

I’ll be honest, I don’t mind not being the center of attention, but things need to be justified. For better or worse, the WoL defeated the greatest threat in the universe single-handedly. There are certain situations where it doesn’t make sense for the WoL to just stand by and watch—it goes against their very nature.

What really bothered me, though, was the lack of character development with Wuk Lamat. She’s described as a princess who’s never left Tuliyollal, to the point that she doesn’t even know her own people. And yet, the way they handled her "growth" was frustratingly shallow—she gets everything handed to her on a silver platter, without struggle, without learning that failure is an essential part of growth.

She needed to fail. Because it’s through failure that we learn and grow, but instead, she breezed through every challenge, and in some cases, the solutions were outright ridiculous. It felt like she was succeeding just because the story needed her to, not because she earned it.

A perfect example of this is the final fight with Sphene. What irritated me wasn’t that someone broke the barrier and joined the fight—it was who broke it. Are you seriously telling me that Wuk Lamat is stronger or more capable than G’raha Tia, who has all the knowledge of the Crystal Exarch? That makes no sense. G’raha is incredibly powerful and intelligent, and it’s completely unrealistic to portray her as having the strength or knowledge to surpass him, especially given how immature she still was at that point.

[TaleraRistain]

There are certain situations where it doesn’t make sense for the WoL to just stand by and watch—it goes against their very nature.

I wanted to scream at my screen during a certain throne room scene. The WoL would not just STAND THERE while someone is being killed. And some lame line about honor is not going to change that.

[ScartPearl]

I wanted to scream at my screen during a certain throne room scene. The WoL would not just STAND THERE while someone is being killed. And some lame line about honor is not going to change that.

YES, exactly! I wanted to scream too! The WoL has been through so much, fought gods, and saved entire worlds—there’s just no way they’d stand there and let that happen. That line about "honor" was such a weak excuse, it made my blood boil. It completely goes against everything the WoL stands for! That scene was so out of character, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

I mean, it's obvious they wanted to kill that character, but they could have written it in a much smarter way! That scene felt just plain stupid. I think even those who liked the expansion have to admit that it makes absolutely no sense.

[TaleraRistain]

YES, exactly! I wanted to scream too! The WoL has been through so much, fought gods, and saved entire worlds—there’s just no way they’d stand there and let that happen. That line about "honor" was such a weak excuse, it made my blood boil. It completely goes against everything the WoL stands for! That scene was so out of character, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

I mean, it's obvious they wanted to kill that character, but they could have written it in a much smarter way! That scene felt just plain stupid. I think even those who liked the expansion have to admit that it makes absolutely no sense.

They could easily have had an extensive time with the WoL and the others pushing through the opposition toward Sunperch. Even get some good solo instances out of it. We might send Wuk ahead while we handle business in the city. And then we arrive at the throne room just in time to see it happen. Wuk's disabled somehow. We get an Echo headache that shows us what happened.

Still manages to do exactly what they wanted but doesn't have the WoL act completely out of character.