Do you think one of the Scions will die on Dawntrail

[Cleretic]

That's a good point specifically the the "Alisaie... well".
She can do more than being the emotional support for other NPCs or the emotional valve for the team in the sense that she speeks out what everyone is feeling at the moment.
She needs a specialization of sorts.

Honestly, between the three Scions that I'd say are stuck without any real direction, we've somehow got three different ways to end up in that position.

Y'shtola's just not really had any storylines for her at all; they've only relatively recently tried to do something with her with the shard travel thing, but it just hasn't become prominent yet.

G'raha had a storyline--that's Shadowbringers--but ever since then he's been sort of milling about as a rudderless tagalong without any real direction or input. Contrast with Thancred, who had his big story at the same time, but he spent Endwalker and Dawntrail doing things with very distinct intention, largely in service to other stories than his own; something not particularly true of G'raha.

And Alisaie's honestly kinda the saddest, because they've tried to give her storylines, between Binding Coils, her independence streak in Stormblood, and her efforts to cure aetheric corruption, but none of it's really coalesced. For whatever reason they just haven't nailed down her story. Which I want to be mad about because it feels like an actual failing, but I don't even know what I'd do with her now that I think about it.

My reflexive idea for what I'd do with Alisaie is to lean on that effort to cure aetheric corruption, and make her essentially the group doctor. A reliable contact for explaining any illnesses, injuries or deficiencies, which then gives us the ability to have those stories in the MSQ in the first place. (Surprising nobody, my favorite Star Trek episodes are frequently when the show's resident doctor character does Actual Medical Work, and I think that sort of story could hang really well.) But then of course you hit the problem that she's not the healer, Alphinaud is, despite that skillset not particularly syncing up with his story presence.

[Hingner]

Honestly, between the three Scions that I'd say are stuck without any real direction, we've somehow got three different ways to end up in that position.

Y'shtola's just not really had any storylines for her at all; they've only relatively recently tried to do something with her with the shard travel thing, but it just hasn't become prominent yet.

G'raha had a storyline--that's Shadowbringers--but ever since then he's been sort of milling about as a rudderless tagalong without any real direction or input. Contrast with Thancred, who had his big story at the same time, but he spent Endwalker and Dawntrail doing things with very distinct intention, largely in service to other stories than his own; something not particularly true of G'raha.

And Alisaie's honestly kinda the saddest, because they've tried to give her storylines, between Binding Coils, her independence streak in Stormblood, and her efforts to cure aetheric corruption, but none of it's really coalesced. For whatever reason they just haven't nailed down her story. Which I want to be mad about because it feels like an actual failing, but I don't even know what I'd do with her now that I think about it.

My reflexive idea for what I'd do with Alisaie is to lean on that effort to cure aetheric corruption, and make her essentially the group doctor. A reliable contact for explaining any illnesses, injuries or deficiencies, which then gives us the ability to have those stories in the MSQ in the first place. (Surprising nobody, my favorite Star Trek episodes are frequently when the show's resident doctor character does Actual Medical Work, and I think that sort of story could hang really well.) But then of course you hit the problem that she's not the healer, Alphinaud is, despite that skillset not particularly syncing up with his story presence.

I feel that Y'shtola's time is yet to come, but a see this taking a while.

G'raha, yup, he is complete and they don't know exactly what to do with him, and honestly unless Alag is relevant again i don't think he will be that important

Alisaie is complicated, there is nothing she could do now without being on the space of one of the others.
A while a go i thought she could be attuned to Dynamis in some way so she would have something diferent to do from the others, but i don't feel it will be relevant again or in the case it is, better to just bring back Meteion.

Maybe something to complement Alphinaud's political part, her being more about "the little guy" while Alphinaud is more about the macro.

[Carin-Eri]

Y'shtola's just not really had any storylines for her at all; they've only relatively recently tried to do something with her with the shard travel thing, but it just hasn't become prominent yet.

I'll admit that I don't actually like the way they seem to be heading with Y'shtola's storyline.

Personally, I didn't actually think much of what many view as a budding romance between her and Runar and am not keen on the idea that one of her primary motives for researching shard-travel is to see her 'boyfriend'.
I, personally, saw his implied interest in her as being rather one-sided, not to mention that - regardless of having noble motives for it - she was dishonest about who she really was.
I guess it isn't impossible that she could move to the First though.

I don't expect the story to actually build on it anyway as the writers are demonstrably adverse to the idea of NPC's entering relationships with other NPCs due to how players can feel about them/player headcanon.

[Anonymoose]

Y'shtola is one of the few FFXIV characters who very rarely provides a monologue explaining their thoughts/feelings/motives (and that's when she's not outright attempting denial and misdirection about her inner world to avoid talking about it). More is shown than told (facial expressions, vocal tone, where the camera chooses to focus / for how long) to communicate ideas. I think this leaves her, more than other characters, open to interpretation, and especially open to being misunderstood.

I at least see it as kind of a mitigating factor that her motivation to return to the First was established during Shadowbringers itself. And (in my humble opinion; everyone's entitled to interpret the story however they like best) a lot of the non-verbal content of that scene did seem (to me) to be trying to say that Y'shtola felt very strongly for Runar, but couldn't bring herself to admit it to him - barely admit it to herself - because it was a foregone conclusion that she would have to say goodbye and didn't want to cause either of them "unnecessary" pain.

Remember, she's not very good at social stuff. She can intuit other people's thoughts, feelings, and motivations better than most, but doesn't know how to use that information. She doesn't know what to say or do, and overly relies on formality, decorum, and sarcasm to close the gap. (10 years with mainly Matoya for company will do that.) My favorite example: When Lyse admitted she wasn't Yda, Y'shtola understood that she was feeling extremely vulnerable, and knew she might need support, but didn't know what to do or say to offer comfort, so she just pretended to leave and watched over her from like, a hundred yalms away.

It also seemed (to me) as if they were trying to present Runar as understanding this and choosing to respect her wishes.

Anyroad, the motivation to find a method for traveling between shards was more explicitly established to be (in part) to continue engaging the mysteries of the First and (in part) specifically to return to / continue aiding the Night's Blessed, who she now considers among "her people". Whether her having feelings for Runar is part of that is still more open to personal interpretation.

I definitely recommend watching the scene (for the additional audio-visual tone) rather than reading the raw words, but...

Runar
Master Matoya! For too long, I have remained silent. But no longer. I could not bear it if you were to leave. Please stay! I beg of you!

Y'shtola
Runar... Please...

Runar
...I jest. At least in part. Ahem. What I came to say is this... Thank you. Without your wisdom, your strength, and your kindness to guide us, our people would still be lost. We will never forget you, Master Matoya. Wherever your journeys may take you, you will always be in our hearts.

Y'shtola
And you in mine. Remember that your people's journey─that our people's journey is yet ongoing. Your lives will change, and so too will your dreams. Yet come what may, you need not forsake your time-honored traditions, nor less your beliefs. But neither should you be beholden to them. For it was with curiosity and courage that the Night's Blessed first triumphed over adversity. New knowledge and new wisdom are ever worthy of pursuit.

Runar
Indeed they are. And so, until we return to the sunless sea, we shall endeavor to live our lives to the fullest.

Y'shtola
That is well. But however great your strides, there may yet come a day when the challenges you face cannot be surmounted alone. On such a day...

Runar
On such a day?

Y'shtola
You may call on me. Since a means to travel between worlds exists, you can be sure I will find a way to employ it. And there remain so many mysteries here that want for solving.

Runar
Master Matoya!

[Cleretic]

Remember, she's not very good at social stuff. She can intuit other people's thoughts, feelings, and motivations better than most, but doesn't know how to use that information. She doesn't know what to say or do, and overly relies on formality, decorum, and sarcasm to close the gap. (10 years with mainly Matoya for company will do that.) My favorite example: When Lyse admitted she wasn't Yda, Y'shtola understood that she was feeling extremely vulnerable, and knew she might need support, but didn't know what to do or say to offer comfort, so she just pretended to leave and watched over her from like, a hundred yalms away.

It also seemed (to me) as if they were trying to present Runar as understanding this and choosing to respect her wishes.

Anyroad, the motivation to find a method for traveling between shards was more explicitly established to be (in part) to continue engaging the mysteries of the First and (in part) specifically to return to / continue aiding the Night's Blessed, who she now considers among "her people". Whether her having feelings for Runar is part of that is still more open to personal interpretation.

Yeah, I've definitely always read Y'shtola as having feelings for Runar, but that it's unclear to both her and us how deeply and equally that runs; I've been there before myself, and there's a tangible and real-feeling tension in a relationship between someone who loves openly and easily, compared to someone who's a lot more reserved about it; the latter is perfectly legitimate and often not lesser, but it's hard to feel like there's not an inequality there.

I was personally more interested in that brief notion we had of a relationship (possibly not romantic) between her and Zero, but that's just preference; I was interested in a 'normal human' level of emotionally reserved bouncing off someone who was genuinely new to these experiences. But that turned out to not really be the direction they were going and Zero had more of a journey of meeting and learning form a variety of people, which I think caused the patch story to feel a bit scattershot; would've worked better as an 'expansion lead'.

As for her actual shard travel storyline, I think what's there mostly works, the problem is that there should be more of it. I want to feel like Y'shtola's actively pursuing this, but so far it feels like it's instead been 'shard travel shenanigans are happening right now, so Y'shtola happens to turn up to take notes'. I get that she's not really the active agent in shard travel so she can't be that much on the forefront, but I really want there to be more connective tissue between these scenes, get some of her own insights. (And I'm still mad that she sat out the trip to Living Memory, it would've done so much for her to actually be there for that one.)

[Hingner]

Y'shtola is one of the few FFXIV characters who very rarely provides a monologue explaining their thoughts/feelings/motives (and that's when she's not outright attempting denial and misdirection about her inner world to avoid talking about it). More is shown than told (facial expressions, vocal tone, where the camera chooses to focus / for how long) to communicate ideas. I think this leaves her, more than other characters, open to interpretation, and especially open to being misunderstood.

I at least see it as kind of a mitigating factor that her motivation to return to the First was established during Shadowbringers itself. And (in my humble opinion; everyone's entitled to interpret the story however they like best) a lot of the non-verbal content of that scene did seem (to me) to be trying to say that Y'shtola felt very strongly for Runar, but couldn't bring herself to admit it to him - barely admit it to herself - because it was a foregone conclusion that she would have to say goodbye and didn't want to cause either of them "unnecessary" pain.

Remember, she's not very good at social stuff. She can intuit other people's thoughts, feelings, and motivations better than most, but doesn't know how to use that information. She doesn't know what to say or do, and overly relies on formality, decorum, and sarcasm to close the gap. (10 years with mainly Matoya for company will do that.) My favorite example: When Lyse admitted she wasn't Yda, Y'shtola understood that she was feeling extremely vulnerable, and knew she might need support, but didn't know what to do or say to offer comfort, so she just pretended to leave and watched over her from like, a hundred yalms away.

It also seemed (to me) as if they were trying to present Runar as understanding this and choosing to respect her wishes.

Anyroad, the motivation to find a method for traveling between shards was more explicitly established to be (in part) to continue engaging the mysteries of the First and (in part) specifically to return to / continue aiding the Night's Blessed, who she now considers among "her people". Whether her having feelings for Runar is part of that is still more open to personal interpretation.

I definitely recommend watching the scene (for the additional audio-visual tone) rather than reading the raw words, but...

I ways saw their relationship as one being very open about his feelings and the other not so much.
I don't see a problem with her primary objective is to go back to a place she feels at home.
I would not mind if she ended up staying there once she manage to make the trip.

[Hingner]

Just to entertain the idea.
What if one of then became an Edless?
We just have his/her memories and it becomes a existence similar to Cahciua

[Zakuyia]

Doubt it. Nothing dangerous remains in Dawntrail.
Plus the writer shied away from any type of imperfection and conflict in DT.

I would say how they treated Krile, but then I remember they snubbed her twice already and rpobably forgot Krile even exists.

I mean the most dangerous thing in dawntrail is the piss poor writing thats just the literal enemy at moment.

[Cleretic]

Just to entertain the idea.
What if one of then became an Edless?
We just have his/her memories and it becomes a existence similar to Cahciua

I mean, the biggest question there is 'why'. They know how terrible the regulators are, they know the horrible price that the Endless come at, and crucially they know that Living memory is already shut down; why put a regulator on?

Especially because outside of Estinien, none of them are really fighters first and foremost, so death isn't exactly high on the list of daily concerns.

[Eldtagg]

So very personal opinion here, but: it's long time overdue to age up the entire ensemble, but that's just my personal opinion.

What would happen is that the twins grow up to be (tall) young adults and assume more leadership roles in their fields.

Alisaie is more of a muscular military type so she'd act as a bodyguard while Alphinaud has always been the diplomat and sweet talker, so emphasize that.

I feel that Square needs to find a way to keep the Scions together "as a detective bureau group" so that everything makes sense, especially if they continue to accompany us, which I hope they do because I've always hated the JRPG "chosen one" trope and I'm more into the "more people/alliances is a resource" and we solve everything through numbers and experts angle.

Going ahead, I would prefer to focus on the Scions (as a group) "solving mysteries" rather than introducing new main characters.

And could we please improve the wriring of the Scions so that they behave and speak to us like friends rather than distant business partners?