Do you think one of the Scions will die on Dawntrail

[Iscah]

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

Even if it happened, really that would just lead to their death getting milked for drama twice (because there is inevitably going to be a necessary shutdown again) in addition to it basically retreading the ground of the Living Memory tearful farewells. Either that or nothing changes except their form and a tearful death scene that doesn't lead to the character leaving the story.

[Cleretic]

Even if it happened, really that would just lead to their death getting milked for drama twice (because there is inevitably going to be a necessary shutdown again

Actually when you put it like this, this is perfect. If there's anything this fanbase loves, it's a character's second emotional death scene. Yotsuyu, Emet-Selch, Elidibus/Themis, Fandaniel.

[Hingner]

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.

I admit that i i didn't explained my thought process.
This is just a "prediction" Sphene is still here somehow, but is not that absurd to think that she could have a backup of sorts of her, so that's why she still here.
We not Necessarily need to turn off whatever it is that kept that backup, in this case let's put an exemple:

G'rara is captured for seen something that he shuldn't and instead of putting the new regulator thay just absorb his soul and memory with that "gun" just like they did on the first attack to the city to a random person.

In order to save what is left of him, we have to put it on a robotic boddy or something similar so he could still help us to solve the situation, he would become our god of the machine(sort off).

It's more an alternative for "retirement".
It will make space for other character(i don't know if it it's necessary), we will still be able to check him out from time to time, end maybe it could be interesting to have a "Brainiac" type character considering the way alexandrians view things, and MAYBE make some characters become conflicted on the existence of his friend...do you let him go or try to save his memory the best you could.

Probably i'm reaching to much but that was the idea.

[Dikatis]

Probably i'm reaching to much but that was the idea.

It'd be an especially weird thing to do given that fake Sphene has said there's only a limited number of Neo-Regulators left, so it'd be weird to use one on a non-Alexandrian citizen.

Honestly, Iscah has the right of it. There's no particular reason for one of the Scions to become an Endless and you'd have to tie yourself into knots writing a reason in, especially with Living Memory defunct. And I think you're coming in with the assumption that killing off one of the protagonists is somehow more mature when it really feels like just checking off a quota to be perceived as mature with how people talk about it on the Forums.

[Archeron]

No, no, no! How is Square Enix going to sell more merchandise of everyone's favorite characters if they die in the plot? A commemorative tombstone simply won't sell! Square Enix *needs* that money! If they kill anyone, it will be a minor character nobody cared about in the first place so they can tell us how lovely and fantastic their lives were, and how tragic it is that they died, ecetera, (insert more toothless writing here.)

[Dikatis]

No, no, no! How is Square Enix going to sell more merchandise of everyone's favorite characters if they die in the plot? A commemorative tombstone simply won't sell! Square Enix *needs* that money! If they kill anyone, it will be a minor character nobody cared about in the first place so they can tell us how lovely and fantastic their lives were, and how tragic it is that they died, ecetera, (insert more toothless writing here.)

I wouldn't say Gulool Ja Ja is a minor character in Dawntrail given how integral he is to the plot, with his death marking the change in the story's tone and both Koana and Wuk Lamat stepping up to the plate and having to get resourceful to live up to their father's example. Even the minor characters who did die like Namikka advanced the plot by showing the effects of Alexandrian regulators.

Killing members of the Scions left and right isn't "mature", it just means you squander any story potential those characters had. See the general outcry over Moenbryda's and Ysayle's deaths, with Ishikawa herself expressing frustration over how quickly other writers killed them off after she introduced and tried to develop them. Character deaths can't be a quota for the sake of stakes. They have to mean something or your audience just becomes numb to them.

[Rosenstrauch]

And I think you're coming in with the assumption that killing off one of the protagonists is somehow more mature when it really feels like just checking off a quota to be perceived as mature with how people talk about it on the Forums.

There's that, and the thinly veiled "Character I dislike should die" posting. If folks with that attitude had their way there wouldn't even be a recurring cast in this game, 'cause everyone would die like Moenbryda did—exactly one major patch after their introduction.

Honestly, I wish they'd kill characters less often. Maybe take the Oda approach. Vague One Piece spoilers:

Almost nobody dies in One Piece, with the exceptions being characters whose deaths significantly impact the people connected to them. Not even villains die, instead having to live with their dreams and ambitions thoroughly crushed.

[Cleretic]

It'd be an especially weird thing to do given that fake Sphene has said there's only a limited number of Neo-Regulators left, so it'd be weird to use one on a non-Alexandrian citizen.

Honestly, Iscah has the right of it. There's no particular reason for one of the Scions to become an Endless and you'd have to tie yourself into knots writing a reason in, especially with Living Memory defunct. And I think you're coming in with the assumption that killing off one of the protagonists is somehow more mature when it really feels like just checking off a quota to be perceived as mature with how people talk about it on the Forums.

Whenever I see people argue that characters in this game need to die for the story to be 'mature' or 'real', I remember that I did once count, and the expansion with the lowest named character bodycount is Shadowbringers. You know, the one people celebrate as the absolute peak of the story, and also the 'darkest' one to anyone who argues that as a genuine metric. (The highest named bodycount is either Dawntrail or Heavensward, depending on how generous you are about the Heaven's Ward themselves counting as 'named characters'.)

I honestly find it kinda funny; people try to argue correlation equals causation, but those people have such a poor understanding of either metric that they don't even realize that it's not even a positive correlation. Their understanding of the media they supposedly like is so poor that their arguments are rarely even incidentally accurate; they're probably hodge-podged together more from what other people have baselessly told them than any genuine observation. They'd actually look better if they admitted they just have personal preferences rather than claim some sort of measurable fact, but they'll never do that because it feels weaker, even if their 'arguments' are so poor as to be self-defeating.

Case in point...

No, no, no! How is Square Enix going to sell more merchandise of everyone's favorite characters if they die in the plot? A commemorative tombstone simply won't sell! Square Enix *needs* that money! If they kill anyone, it will be a minor character nobody cared about in the first place so they can tell us how lovely and fantastic their lives were, and how tragic it is that they died, ecetera, (insert more toothless writing here.)

This argument is so bad that I can kill it beyond hope of recovery with a single word:

Aerith.

[Xrono_Amber]

Honestly, after Endwalker I don't think they would ever kill someone from the main cast. And even if they would do it eventually, I think quite many people, me included, will look back at Endwalker and say "so, no one died during the fight with a universal level threat, but THIS is where you decided for them to meet their end?" Retirement is a much more feasible option, allowing you to leave your favorite characters dignified and give space to new characters.

[Cleretic]

Honestly, after Endwalker I don't think they would ever kill someone from the main cast. And even if they would do it eventually, I think quite many people, me included, will look back at Endwalker and say "so, no one died during the fight with a universal level threat, but THIS is where you decided for them to meet their end?" Retirement is a much more feasible option, allowing you to leave your favorite characters dignified and give space to new characters.

Fun fact, Endwalker is only barely above Shadowbringers in named character bodycount. Like, it has one more death.

I think both Shadowbringers and Endwalker get by on the 'piles of anonymous bodies' factor; sometimes, throngs of nameless corpses set a tone of 'dark and serious and full of death' that the rest of the game just doesn't have to deliver on and people will still act like it did. I always think of Dragon Age Origins: people act like that game is a dark and serious game full of death, but the actually meaningful bodycount is so low that depending on your character origin and choices it might well be at one. Meanwhile, Dawntrail basically has the inverse; it actually is willing to kill characters. But it instead kills specific characters in one-off incidents, it doesn't pile on the bodies; and when it does, it doesn't discuss them. (The Solution Nine attack is the bloodiest it gets, but the focus afterwards is on supporting the survivors.) As a result people just act like it's bloodless and light, when it really isn't.

There's an amount of people that will only ever respond to the visceral; that the stakes are only dire and bloody if they look dire and bloody, damn all evidence otherwise.

All that said, I do think there's an element of truth in it not 'feeling right' if the Scions died in, say, Dawntrail, even if Dawntrail's meaningful bodycount was actually quite high. Because Dawntrail's deaths were meaningful; they affect the people and world around them. Gulool Ja Ja doesn't die for raw shock value, his death fundamentally changes the character relationships between Zoraal Ja, Wuk Lamat, Koana, and the city of Tuliyollal. In that context, one of the Scions dying would feel wrong, not because the space around them isn't dangerous, but because this isn't their story. Their death wouldn't affect anyone around them, because most of this continent doesn't know or care what a Thancred is; his death would be a meaningless speedbump, when he deserves more.