Requiring a permit to cross the bridge was bad writing, change my mind.

[PorxiesRCute]

They didn't shut it down, they just shut down new permits to cross it. People who already have them can and do cross, we see a handful of them both in the MSQ and sidequests. Reasonably speaking, everyone who has business regularly crossing already had their permits; there's no writing suggesting a huge backlog or great supply/transport issues, we're the only person who really seems to need a permit without already having one, and that's only barely.

Yes, you're right: We're the only people who need a permit. It's transparently obvious that it's an excuse to keep us from going north.

Hell, I'd reasonably argue that permits probably haven't been paused for long, because Pashenine in the Fisher questline is unambiguously from Xak Tural, and is quite young. New permits were probably only paused for a couple weeks to a month or so.

Yeah, weird how Pashenine didn't mention any of that red tape. If the permits were such a big deal, he could have said something about being glad the Rite is over so he could get one or how he's glad he already had one before the Rite began.

Also, there's a yellow quest that briefly goes into the requirements as to why this whole system is needed; Waiting One's Turn, in Shaaloani. It's not fancy reasons; it's just that it's a big, singular bridge with a lot of transport on it, that calls for inspections and permits to ensure that everyone's getting across in an orderly manner with the goods they say they have. Given that exact bridge route both got exploited in the MSQ, and outright attacked in the role quest capstone, yes you do need all that overhead, and frankly there's a case to be made that it should be even stricter!

Solution Nine's army flew over the bridge and shot it up with robots. It would not have gone any differently if there was no permit system.

I know you fancy yourself a lore nerd, but I think you should stick to "which characters would call me slurs?"

[Exmo]

Solution Nine's army flew over the bridge and shot it up with robots. It would not have gone any differently if there was no permit system.

It's not the function of bureaucracy to stop an invading army. This is a strange qualm to have with the game.

Edit: the paragraph after the one I quoted, no idea what's going on there but yikes?