Do you think one of the Scions will die on Dawntrail

[MediocreIndigo]

Y'shtola:She is slowly killing herself, but i don't see she dying before goint to the first again.

If I recall correctly, this part was a misleading translation. She's not actually shortening her lifespan by using magic to see, but she could potentially get hurt if she pushes herself too far. Since she hasn't really gotten the same amount of character development as most of the other main Scions (she's gotten some, but I wouldn't say she has a complete arc at the moment), I think an interesting direction to take her story in would be for her to experience a health scare as a result of overtaxing herself, which would then prompt her to contemplate whether she should continue her work or if she should settle down, but I don't see her being killed off.

[Anonymoose]

If I recall correctly, this part was a misleading translation. She's not actually shortening her lifespan by using magic to see, but she could potentially get hurt if she pushes herself too far.

You are correct.

Remember how teleporting used to cost "anima" (life-force aether) instead of gil? Imagine someone had a demanding job, but then started doing a few teleports every morning and acting like there were no additional burdens on their body or limitations to their exertion. What if they got into a situation where those additional resources are the difference between life and death and they're not even acknowledging their loss? Even if not, that can't be infinitely sustainable. One day they have to accept that the additional burdens/limitations are real. Until then, their mother would probably be pretty concerned. It'd be easy to dismiss her at first, but not forever.

Taking all four languages and the context of the story thereafter into account, it seems like that's what Matoya was saying.

[Cleretic]

You are correct.

Remember how teleporting used to cost "anima" (life-force aether) instead of gil? Imagine someone had a demanding job, but then started doing a few teleports every morning and acting like there were no additional burdens on their body or limitations to their exertion. What if they got into a situation where those additional resources are the difference between life and death and they're not even acknowledging their loss? Even if not, that can't be infinitely sustainable. One day they have to accept that the additional burdens/limitations are real. Until then, their mother would probably be pretty concerned. It'd be easy to dismiss her at first, but not forever.

When you're not taking it literally, it's actually Matoya's most characterizing sequence. This is a brusque, flippant woman who's full of sass and acts like she doesn't care about anyone... and yet here she is worrying about Y'shtola's visible yet under-control injury, and doing the magic equivalent of freaking out when she learns one of the kids has been riding a motorcycle. Beneath everything, she's plausibly the most caring parental figure in the entire game.


As for the Scions... while I think they're never gonna do this, I want to come at this from another direction. If you kill a character, then they are completely off the board for almost all possible future storylines. In the context of an ongoing story with writers coming in and out, and characters that have been a stable if background presence for a while, that's actually pretty bad; if someone comes up with a really good storyline for a character that's dead, then that story either has to exist in a second-best form or not at all.

So with that in mind, I want to ask a question: which Scions, if they died right now, would have left a satisfying character arc? Connor on the last page is right that now feels like a very wrong time for this, but we'll leave that aside for now. Ideally, here we want people who've wrapped up their main plot hooks, and haven't gotten a new one in the meantime; if this character dies, people don't have lingering unresolved questions or wants.

So, looking at the list of still-alive Scions, I'm gonna bold the ones that feel 'done' to give us a list of Scions that can plausibly kick the bucket without screwing anything too bad.

• Y'shtola (never really had a story arc and we've never even visited her home, hopefully that changes someday)
• Thancred (Shadowbringers was everything he needed)
• Tataru (Grand Endeavors did her good)
• Urianger (I don't know what he can do but he hasn't done it yet)
• Alphinaud (Endwalker wrapped his overarching story)
• Alisaie (constantly in search of a story, none have stuck)
• G'raha (been doing nothing useful since he joined the Scions and I don't think he's about to find something)
• Estinien (Meracydia means dragons, it'd feel weird to go without our Dragon Guy)

So theoretically, you could kill half the Scions and not lose anything, but if I'm honest I'd probably nix Alphinaud from this list; he's our Politics Guy, it feels like we should have that sort of skillset in the wings.

...But I also can't help but notice that when people raise this subject, it's never 'any Scion at all', it's usually very specific ones. ...and it's usually one of the ones I haven't bolded. So I don't think people would be happy with any Scion's death.

[Hingner]

When you're not taking it literally, it's actually Matoya's most characterizing sequence. This is a brusque, flippant woman who's full of sass and acts like she doesn't care about anyone... and yet here she is worrying about Y'shtola's visible yet under-control injury, and doing the magic equivalent of freaking out when she learns one of the kids has been riding a motorcycle. Beneath everything, she's plausibly the most caring parental figure in the entire game.


As for the Scions... while I think they're never gonna do this, I want to come at this from another direction. If you kill a character, then they are completely off the board for almost all possible future storylines. In the context of an ongoing story with writers coming in and out, and characters that have been a stable if background presence for a while, that's actually pretty bad; if someone comes up with a really good storyline for a character that's dead, then that story either has to exist in a second-best form or not at all.

So with that in mind, I want to ask a question: which Scions, if they died right now, would have left a satisfying character arc? Connor on the last page is right that now feels like a very wrong time for this, but we'll leave that aside for now. Ideally, here we want people who've wrapped up their main plot hooks, and haven't gotten a new one in the meantime; if this character dies, people don't have lingering unresolved questions or wants.

So, looking at the list of still-alive Scions, I'm gonna bold the ones that feel 'done' to give us a list of Scions that can plausibly kick the bucket without screwing anything too bad.

• Y'shtola (never really had a story arc and we've never even visited her home, hopefully that changes someday)
• Thancred (Shadowbringers was everything he needed)
• Tataru (Grand Endeavors did her good)
• Urianger (I don't know what he can do but he hasn't done it yet)
• Alphinaud (Endwalker wrapped his overarching story)
• Alisaie (constantly in search of a story, none have stuck)
• G'raha (been doing nothing useful since he joined the Scions and I don't think he's about to find something)
• Estinien (Meracydia means dragons, it'd feel weird to go without our Dragon Guy)

So theoretically, you could kill half the Scions and not lose anything, but if I'm honest I'd probably nix Alphinaud from this list; he's our Politics Guy, it feels like we should have that sort of skillset in the wings.

...But I also can't help but notice that when people raise this subject, it's never 'any Scion at all', it's usually very specific ones. ...and it's usually one of the ones I haven't bolded. So I don't think people would be happy with any Scion's death.

Just to add to that.
The only ones that have a palpable objective after Endwalker are the twins that will try to rehabilitate Garlemald to the word and Y'shtola that want to go back to the first.

[Carin-Eri]

So, looking at the list of still-alive Scions, I'm gonna bold the ones that feel 'done' to give us a list of Scions that can plausibly kick the bucket without screwing anything too bad.

• Y'shtola (never really had a story arc and we've never even visited her home, hopefully that changes someday)
• Thancred (Shadowbringers was everything he needed)
• Tataru (Grand Endeavors did her good)
• Urianger (I don't know what he can do but he hasn't done it yet)
• Alphinaud (Endwalker wrapped his overarching story)
• Alisaie (constantly in search of a story, none have stuck)
• G'raha (been doing nothing useful since he joined the Scions and I don't think he's about to find something)
• Estinien (Meracydia means dragons, it'd feel weird to go without our Dragon Guy)

Good summary!

As unpopular an opinion as this may be, I can't help but think you're right about G'raha in particular.

I mean, don't get me wrong - I like him. But his only 'purpose' since joining the Scions was to allow the WoL to fulfill the promise to have him join us on an adventure. Which he has now - several times.

I'd say he's probably the least likely Scion to die if there was any threat of that, though, since he seems ridiculously popular and the numerous players who consider him to be their husband would never forgive the Devs.

[Hingner]

Good summary!

As unpopular an opinion as this may be, I can't help but think you're right about G'raha in particular.

I mean, don't get me wrong - I like him. But his only 'purpose' since joining the Scions was to allow the WoL to fulfill the promise to have him join us on an adventure. Which he has now - several times.

I'd say he's probably the least likely Scion to die if there was any threat of that, though, since he seems ridiculously popular and the numerous players who consider him to be their husband would never forgive the Devs.

I do agree with the G'raha situation, his arc concluded in SdB in perfectly.
If they wanted to have someone to fill the 8th spot on trust, krile was already there for years and she did had more sense to be more relevant on endwalker when she became the link between Hydaelyn and us.

But you are also ritght he is too popular now to be killed off or retired.
He could have been our haurchefant 2.0 but now it's too late, i don't feel crying for him a 3rd time you know.

[Hingner]

I know i titled the thred as death, but maybe retiring like Lyse did would be more viable, so we can check ont then besides not being adventuring more.

[Hingner]

I did not know about the misleading translation part.
Thanks for the extra info