NPCs with plot armor, does it bother you?

[Alaray]

I doubt the only reason these characters haven't died in the story is because they are in other quest lines. Most of the characters listed, if they had a death in the various scenes they could've died, would have served little narrative purpose and would only have died "just 'cuz uh death and stuff is deep 'n... stuff" and cheapened their own individual stories.

Making characters just to build them up and cut them down isn't even in the realm of decent story telling. It's a lazy way to pick at reader/player emotions at the easiest level. That's it.

A character's death, especially characters who are so prominent and major components to their respective storylines and narratives that encompass not just them, but the entire overarching story of the game, should mean more than "lol we killed them off isn't that WILD???"

There should be an actual narrative reason for it that pushes the narrative in a direction it needs to go.

But I wouldn't even say any of these characters have had such major moments of "plot armor" since the moments they lived through were scripted that way so the game's story could progress in a specific direction. It's not like Haurchefaunt got his chest shot out and was fine the next day.

A character that actually *has* plot armor is Hildibrand. But his story is just there for giggles anyway.

It's also not like they haven't killed any of the Scions. But when they did kill one, it was an actual important, symbolic statement of the character that is intended to mirror Liousioux's sacrifice on the fields of Carteneau and brought that character's story to it's ultimate conclusion.

[MuseTraveller]

Maybe they'll surprise us in 4.3 somehow.

The only one I'm 100% expecting to not survive is Yotsuyu though, considering Asahi's little spiel about avenging a fallen foe.

4.3 theories with friends is exactly what spawned this post. We mused over who may die ...and we discussed the plot armors. The death chance list suddenly shrunk quite a bit. I hope the scenario writers get a bit more bold and do surprise us in 4.3! I also have same expectations as you there.

[Clover_Blake]

Haha, you aren't alone, this has always bothered me as well. I'd like to think that it's actually as someone said, that quests are inside some sort of time bubbles and certain scenes are going to be assumed to happen in past time.

For example, I imagine that the Estinien from the DRG quests doesn't treat you like the Estinien from the end of HW would. Also, I could be wrong because I haven't paid attention to the DRG quests, but if I'm not mistaken, Estinien is supposed to carry one of the eyes with him, whereas the eyes are in a different place even before SB. That alone is a huge change that suggests that you aren't playing in the same timeline. The eyes case would be equal to any death, right?

Still, I guess the devs would want to abuse the time bubble the least possible, in order to prevent tons of temporary chaos. Or maybe they will prove us wrong when we least expect it! It wouldn't be accurate to say that FFXIV hasn't had some huge plot twists before, especially with two certain Scions.

[MuseTraveller]

snip

It's also not like they haven't killed any of the Scions. But when they did kill one, it was an actual important, symbolic statement of the character that is intended to mirror Liousioux's sacrifice on the fields of Carteneau and brought that character's story to it's ultimate conclusion.

I agree that likely wasn't the reason why they lived, it's just something I noticed and an easy mean to guess who is likely not going to die even if you are at a MSQ point where they are thrown in danger. Maybe I didn't word myself well in my post.

As for Papalymo, I thought the planned ending was well as an idea, but the execution lacked in my opinion. It came with very little build up, very little after reaction from the scions. We had way more quests and reactions tied to Moenbryda than to him. To me it seemed more like they didn't know what to do with the character so they wrote him off as fast as possible before leaping into SB. To me this was a death played poorly.

[Nestama]

So who has finished the HW story (3.0, not 3.3) and then decided to work on their DRG? or who has finished the 2.5 story and (haven't progressed in HW) did the level 50 CUL quest?

Two MSQ NPC's who have moments of being down for the count are very present in those two instances. I think SE even stated 'different points in time' or something to make sense of it.

[Iscah]

As for Papalymo, I thought the planned ending was well as an idea, but the execution lacked in my opinion. It came with very little build up, very little after reaction from the scions. We had way more quests and reactions tied to Moenbryda than to him. To me it seemed more like they didn't know what to do with the character so they wrote him off as fast as possible before leaping into SB. To me this was a death played poorly.

I agree, there wasn't anywhere near enough focus on his death - the plot just rushed onwards into Stormblood without enough time to stop and reflect on it. I felt similarly about Ysayle's death just prior to the climax of Heavensward: I wanted to care but the plot just didn't stop there for long enough to process it and see how if affected the other characters.

I feel like that's one of the things that makes Haurchefant's death really potent, actually. For other 'storyline' deaths, the characters affected are the ones driving the plot, so at a game level they need to move on and say other things about what's happening now - but the minor NPCs at Camp Dragonhead don't need to do that, so they can continue to talk about him. Their dialogue shifts a few times (immediately after his death, post-credits, post-Dragonsong) and there's a shift from their initial shock to slow acceptance. Also talking to his brothers - up to that point in HW they're always around town but they're both gone for a while after his death, then return after a while and talk about they're still struggling to believe it. You can see how much it's affected people, and for me that makes it more powerful than just that it made *me* feel sad.

[Zojha]

It doesn't bother me one bit, but that's because I long stopped caring about the story.

The main cast seems to be largely off-limits and since they're taking all the screen time in the MSQ, there's little room for other characters to get build up to a point where one might feel something about their death. Which in turn makes you worry about any new or side character that suddenly gets dragged into the spotlight. The drama about "danger" always feels very superficial as a result.

As such, I wouldn't be worried about anyone of note dying anytime soon. The cockroach vendor in WoW however... his fate hangs in the balance. If only because of internal miscommunication between the employees of that company.

[Iscah]

For example, I imagine that the Estinien from the DRG quests doesn't treat you like the Estinien from the end of HW would. Also, I could be wrong because I haven't paid attention to the DRG quests, but if I'm not mistaken, Estinien is supposed to carry one of the eyes with him, whereas the eyes are in a different place even before SB. That alone is a huge change that suggests that you aren't playing in the same timeline. The eyes case would be equal to any death, right?

That's correct, Estinien has "the Eye" with him during the ARR quests - at this point, as far as they are aware, they only have one of Nidhogg's eyes and he still has the other. Also the war against the dragons is a plot point, but talked about in terms of the 'mythical' version that the Ishgardians have believed for centuries and not the truth that we uncover in the course of Heavensward MSQ.

[Sapphire_Dianta]

As someone else said above, it's the faked deaths that make me salty more than anything. I get it, I really do. A faked death, when set up properly in a good story, can be shocking and compelling stuff. But this game has just been spamming them lately, to the point where character deaths mean nothing anymore because they'll probably just be brought back anyway. And since it's been done so much, when they do get brought back it's neither shocking nor compelling.

[ko_]

Welcome to every comic book ever. Even the Sonic comics have them.