Emet-Selch *Major Spoilers*

[TeraRamis]

Why did we have to kill Emet-Selch? Yes, yes, I know: Ascian and Empire combined made him the sum total of all "evil" insofar as the Eorzian universe is concerned. But he was also complex and pretty darned interesting - far, far more compelling than any other Ascian that Square-Enix had yet written.

But we had to off him. So... so much for that.

I just don't understand the decision. Yes, he was the expansion's antagonist (of sorts), but he could have definitely served an interesting role as some kind of dark horse champion - a 'Loki' of FFXIV, if you will. And, if not that, just don't kill him so quickly - defeat him, drive him away, but don't eliminate all possibilities of reappearance moving forward.

Sigh.

All that is out the window now, of course... but it sure would be nice not to just throw away interesting characters every time your writers accidentally stumble onto one. Yet, amazingly, they seem to accomplish the inverse - killing everyone interesting, like Yotsuyu, but managing to make the truly insufferable ones eternal (like Minfilia, and then - because reasons - Minfilia 2.0).

[Yencat]

Because, much like Yotsuyu, he's irredeemable. He only had one end goal, and when that end goal comes at the cost of millions(?) of lives you have to put him down for everyone's sake. It could have been nice to have him around a while longer, but I also hate when the villain flies off into the night cackling that they'll get us next time.

Not sure what Minfilia has to do with this as she's also gone? Or do you mean she stuck around for as long as she did?

Now Zenos however... I just cannot care for him as a villain at all.

[SamRF]

We don't need more shounen anime elements with never ending and never dying characters repurposed to the point they become cheap husks of what they once were. Part of what makes us appreciate Emet-Selch is the fact that he died the way he did, being an emotional moment that made us pity him and his purpose despite being the antagonist. It was (for some) the reason why the ShB ending stayed with you for so long and occupied your daydreaming thoughts as much as it did.

[TeraRamis]

Not sure why you're bringing up Minfilia as she's also gone now? Zenos however... *snore*

Because Minfilia was replaced by Ryne, who really isn't any different from Minfilia, with the exception of being even more indecisive and useless (ah, for the days when I believed such a thing was impossible).

And yes, Zenos is a horribly written antagonist. The moment I think Final Fantasy might be creeping beyond the "MWA HA HA - I AM EVIL BECAUSE EVIL IS STRONG" villain archetype, here we go with this sorry Kefka-Sephiroth hybrid to dominate the narrative.

[MelodyCrystel]

Well, there's this shoebill-theory going on, as the bird still kept appearing in 5.1 and 5.2, but people speculate it's either just a fragment/ familiar of Emet-Selch ooor - and here things get odd - the Hades from Exarch's future.

[Yencat]

Because Minfilia was replaced by Ryne, who really isn't any different from Minfilia, with the exception of being even more indecisive and useless (ah, for the days when I believed such a thing was impossible).

And yes, Zenos is a horribly written antagonist. The moment I think Final Fantasy might be creeping beyond the "MWA HA HA - I AM EVIL BECAUSE EVIL IS STRONG" villain archetype, here we go with this sorry Kefka-Sephiroth hybrid to dominate the narrative.

I'll admit I have a bit of a soft spot for Minfilia I know she gets a lot of flack from people and she was always sorta in the background, but she was was very important. Though they could've done a better job showing just what she did rather than having her call us and come over to the Waking Sands every 5 minutes.

Ryne is kind of coming into her own in the raid series and showing a bit of growth, I also don't think she can come with us when we do leave the First. So somewhat less eternal maybe :P

[Kirika-]

Because Minfilia was replaced by Ryne, who really isn't any different from Minfilia, with the exception of being even more indecisive and useless (ah, for the days when I believed such a thing was impossible).

At least Ryne hasn't been linkpearling us to come to 'The Waking Secret-Base-Everyone-Knows-About' to discuss something that can't be discussed over linkpearl.....

[LaylaTsarra]

I wish they'd kill off this forum.

[Crushnight]

Emet-Selch works so well because he is sympathetic while still doing abhorrent things, and this desire to get what he wants back at any cost is at odds to you and why you fight him, his life is a tragedy and a well written one at that, and his death is part of it, if he didn't die it would cheapen everything. The narrative needed his death to solidify how opposing you are to the Ascian's goal despite their circumstances, the fact his final line is of acceptance is much more powerful with his death. Take that death away via whatever means and it cheapen his character substantially, but by all means they can add flashbacks/show past events, add outside tools to give more insight to Emet-Selch prior to his demise, but going forward his death needs to be absolute.


As for Minfilia and Ryne, Minfilia is the textbook example of why you need to show and not just tell, a lot of Minfilia's accomplishments happen off screen and are only told about it, whereas what is shown is not great at displaying why she is such a vital character. Ryne on the other hand has a much more proactive role in the story even though sometimes it is very goddamn stupid (leaving Thancred's side to go try and meet us, Shiva incident etc) but she gets more leeway because; 1. she is younger by a fair few years than Minfilia so being more prone is a bit more acceptable so long as she learns from it, 2. She has had far less screen time than Minfilia, Minfilia is so aggravating because she feels like she is in a statis for so long, 3. Ryne affects other characters more substatially than Minfilia did at least on screen, this goes a long way to stop the character feeling like a plot contrivence character and more like a plot central character.

[Rosenstrauch]

Because if you didn't kill him, he was going to kill you, your friends, the planet you were fighting to save, and cause such devastation on your own world that two hundred years and countless deaths later, it still had yet to recover.

But he cute tho, so I guess we should've just let him have his way.