Quote Originally Posted by Turtledeluxe View Post
Well that leaves us a few likely cases. One is said person left them a very specific outline for the original arc that happened to be good. One is this team has lost their touch. The last is someone had overhwhelming influence on DT who was more concerned with telling their own story than one about our main cast.

...[W]hile DT asked us to believe Ascians somehow overlooked a soul desaturating slaughterhouse with a key that has transdimensional fusion capabilities immediately after an arc about the color of souls and rejoinings. Also Urianger and Thancred would literally never ever team up with Zoraal Ja even before his murderous intent became obvious. They asked us to believe Wuk Lamat, who doesn't even know her own nation well, is better judge of character than Urianger/Thancred. Insane.
Except they were basically just writing by the seat of their pants until the Shadowbringers / Endwalker duology gave us a coherent resolution to the Ascian plotline (if not one that satisfied all parties). There were interviews during Stormblood where Yoshi-P admitted they did not have the Ascian plot fully mapped out. Everything before that is pretty episodic, even if it seeds plot threads that are eventually cashed in.

Why the Ascians never scooped up the Key is a big question mark, but time differentials may play a part in why they did nothing about Alexandrian society; plus they would have no reason to do so, since it was just a reflection and thus doomed to rejoining sooner or later if their plot ever came to fruition. Is it perfect writing? No, but that's what happens when you don't have a plot mapped out from start to finish.

And you may be misremembering, but Thancred and Urianger threw their lot in with Koana, not Zoraal Ja.