In the Expansion Main Story..

[Kayokane]

Let's see...
I'm a Second Lieutenant in the Maelstrom.
I've felled Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, Leviathan, and Ramuh.
I've killed 2 Imperial Legatus (Legacy Character).
I've destroyed Ultima Weapon.
I've bested an Ascian.
I've fought pirates, giants, cultists, voidsent, dragons, marmots, bombs, hell even treasure chests!

but most importantly, I look out for the little people no matter that task I'm given.
I'm merely an adventurer.
Some may call me Hero, Defender of Eorzea, Warrior of Light, or Eikon Slayer, but I remember my roots.
Still green entering the Drowning Wench for the first time with a ballonfish in my pocket.
No task is beneath me, save killing an innocent. That is our true glory.
Anyone can fling about my name, but only I can prove it's worth and thus do I declare: Let There Be Filler!

[Mahri]

Seriously, I didn't. When I first did the Costa la Sol part, I was concerned that it was pointless, but when they all gathered at the end to tell you why they did, it made a lot more sense to me and I wouldn't consider it filler.

The Costa Del Sol stuff, simply put, is filler done as right as it can possibly be. It's incredibly self-aware, and all of those quests serve to paint a picture of Eorzea as a setting. Hell, it even gets pretty poignant at one point, with you helping out that Garlean deserter.

Overall, joking even aside, I am just very impressed with the writers and localizers for this game. I trust them to make silly, incidental filler content right alongside the big epic world-shaking stuff.

[Brine_Gildchaff]

Don't listen to this person.

I want more cheese-based quests. There's a whole world of Goblin cheese I'm only beginning to understand and, if anything, not enough has been done to explore this.

Remember, the secret ingredient is *mumble*. Oh my gob!

[Moqi]

The only part I hated about the 2.0 was the huge back and forth in Coerthas to get an airship. I could not care less about the business of those families/cities/whatever and I felt I was playing a different game entierly. Other than that, 2.2's pacing was terrible but 2.3 was great.

[Lucke]

Both of those had good reasons, as both were made of a "why should I trust you?" thing. The CoH didn't want to send some idiot to certain death. The Ala Mhigo have no reason to trust anyone but themselves after how they were treated when the fled the Garlians.

I read the Costa del Sol part as: "Ok, you wanna fight Titus like us? Well, rather than see if you know which part of your sword to fight with by sending you out to kill this beasty that's been terrorizing the resort, I'll send you out to get ingredients...for a feast....that isn't physically demanding or shows us your martial skill. We could just give you the strat that worked for us but instead, you're gonna make us sammiches cause we're hungry!"

[Dark-Saviour]

I read the Costa del Sol part as: "Ok, you wanna fight Titus like us? Well, rather than see if you know which part of your sword to fight with by sending you out to kill this beasty that's been terrorizing the resort, I'll send you out to get ingredients...for a feast....that isn't physically demanding or shows us your martial skill. We could just give you the strat that worked for us but instead, you're gonna make us sammiches cause we're hungry!"

The biggest annoyance to me was that they tell me, "You'll understand why we did this when we tell you the strategy." and, IIRC, the only strategy you get is, "Go attune to a beastman aetheryte and you can finally face him!"...

>:-(

[DragonFlyy]

*snip*

I see now, you have no problem with story, you have a problem with quest mechanics. This is how most games are. Are there better ways to handle it? Absolutely, but it has nothing to do with the story really. If you remove all those, the story would admittedly take about 30 minutes, but you would also be somewhere around level 30 when finished with the main story line. They had to add in something to do, otherwise they might as well make a movie.

[Keres]

Seriously, I didn't. When I first did the Costa la Sol part, I was concerned that it was pointless, but when they all gathered at the end to tell you why they did, it made a lot more sense to me and I wouldn't consider it filler.

My definition of filler is anything that doesn't have some explained reason in the storyline, it's just there and has no impact on anything at all.

And I expect to be an unknown to a new land an expansion would bring. You can't just expect your feats and achievements to carry the same weight elsewhere.

For example, if we got Ala Mhigo, I might expect some people to know me, but as part of the Garlean Empire, other than the events that happened at the Castrums, I can expect that the Empire will keep my name hush-hush.

I'm not even really bothered too much by "story filler" (because, as you say, they all can be given a story justification) but rather "gameplay filler." Remember the part in the 2.1 storyline (that requires level 50) that had you randomly go do Qarn and a couple of guildhests? THAT felt like filler.

[Lucke]

Come to think of it, wouldn't the Company of Heroes fail because as far as we know, they don't possess the Echo. Titus or Leviabeetus could just temper everyone and that's that. I wonder, can Beastymen be tempered by other beastymen's primals? Brayflox is a gobbie, can she be tempered by Titus and Leviabeetus?

[Gramul]

Agreed.
The entire Titan arc was just a slog.
Oh, except for the Fake Hero Fight. That was awesome.