*SPOILERS* Terrified for the remaining Scions!

[Omedon]

Ok, SPOILERS here obviously though I myself will try to be as non-specific as possible for as long as I can here.

As someone fleeing the depressing dystopian absence of respect for player investment in the world that is WoW’s lore approach, maybe I’m a little shell shocked and paranoid here… but I’m really worried about the remaining Scions who, as a primarily trust-loving player, are basically my FC.

We have lost multiple Scions and closely associated Archons since the start of the game, but I’m really scared they’re going to kill one of the characters I love to “add stakes,” or serve as a “Phil Coulson in Avengers” figure to motivate the heroes.

Alisae getting hurt in the trailer feels like a foreshadow.

Alphinaud having conversations about when he grows up feels like somewhere a crueler storyteller would hang an intentional irony to be seen in a future tragedy.

Hell, relationship to Louisoix threatens a sacrificial parallel all its own!

Burning through Y’Shtola’s nine lives feels like it could be a desensitization tactic for a big bomb-drop to come!

What even is Urianger’s arc once Sharlayan is laid bare to hang out in? Is it “over enough to end,” and for that matter, is Thancred’s after he’s finally gotten past/over Minfilia?

Am I worrying for nothing here? Am I just damaged by a decade of GRRM copycats? Is there reason to believe there are lines FFXIV won’t likely cross and our now decade long NPC friendships have significant plot armor for the sake of comfortably happy endings? Longtime players, throw me a bone here!

Not all plot armor is bad!

[MoofiaBossVal]

This game has a lack of stakes. The only meaningful "losses" thus far have been a filler arc girl, a side character from the Coerthas subplot, and a leftover Scion from 1.0 the writers didn't know what to do with so they wrote him out (which is a shame because Papalymo was the only Scion in ARR I was interested in, but if they didn't have any ideas for him then at least he isn't burdening down the plot anymore). The Dark Knight questline and Shadowbringers pays lipservice about "oh, how much the WoL has lost!" but I've never felt it. I never lost anything. I never lost anyone I genuinely cared about except Gosetsu, but he came back a few hours later.

My hope is that least three party members buy the farm, maybe a nation leader or two dies, at least one city-state gets nuked, and the rest of the Scions disband at the end of 6.0. But given how the story has been bending over backwards to avoid actual consequences for the heroes in Stormblood and Shadowbringers, and Endwalker is being written by the same writer, I doubt we will get any actual losses.

[Ayuhra]

Y'shtola will at the very least have a near death experience we need to save her from, I can tell you that much.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I hope they do all somehow die. This game hasn’t had stakes in awhile and it’s sad that in the expansion where we go against our strongest foes yet, literal demi-gods, we all somehow come out literally unscathed. It’s about time the protags got consequences. I’m hoping it’s all of the scions gone and then we can either go on our own in 6.1+ or we get a new group.

[Omedon]

I hope they do all somehow die. This game hasn’t had stakes in awhile and it’s sad that in the expansion where we go against our strongest foes yet, literal demi-gods, we all somehow come out literally unscathed. It’s about time the protags got consequences. I’m hoping it’s all of the scions gone and then we can either go on our own in 6.1+ or we get a new group.

My hope is that least three party members buy the farm, maybe a nation leader or two dies, at least one city-state gets nuked, and the rest of the Scions disband at the end of 6.0. But given how the story has been bending over backwards to avoid actual consequences for the heroes in Stormblood and Shadowbringers, and Endwalker is being written by the same writer, I doubt we will get any actual losses.

Who hurt you people?

I don’t know, I kind of respect that FFXIV seems to understand a social compact that is lost these days: Escapist media fails at its job when it feels the need to provide more trauma.

Both of your perspectives are valid, which is part of why I’m worried because I can see and understand them… all while hoping the devs continue to respect said aforementioned social compact: “you keep me in mostly happy feels, I keep paying you.”

[Theodric]

Variety is the spice of life. A game that constantly needs to treat its - supposedly mostly adult - player base with kids gloves becomes stale rather quickly. Final Fantasy games have never shied away from consequences, so hopefully FFXIV starts returning to its roots instead of encasing even minor characters in ridiculous levels of plot armour. That aside, the game introduced itself as a fairly gritty world with danger around every corner. ARR and HW reflected that and had a decent amount of consequences for both the protagonists and the antagonists. Expansions after that moved to only ever inflicting meaningful losses on the antagonists - and even then, two of the three major antagonists in the story ended up inflicting not a single on screen death on anyone - not even minor characters.

It isn't very compelling to me - or many others, based on the feedback that I've seen.

Not everybody is looking for 'escapism' at any rate. I want an interesting story with reasonably high stakes.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Who hurt you people?

I don’t know, I kind of respect that FFXIV seems to understand a social compact that is lost these days: Escapist media fails at its job when it feels the need to provide more trauma.

Both of your perspectives are valid, which is part of why I’m worried because I can see and understand them… all while hoping the devs continue to respect said aforementioned social compact: “you keep me in mostly happy feels, I keep paying you.”

It’s an rpg with dark themes. We’re not playing a slice of life anime, there’s other games for that. Literally every single final fantasy game has had death and consequences for the protags.I don’t know why some people think 14 should be any different. The playerbase needs to remember that these characters are just pixels in the end. If youre having “trauma” from a fictional character dying….i think that needs to be looked at.

[Omedon]

It’s an rpg with dark themes. We’re not playing a slice of life anime, there’s other games for that. Literally every single final fantasy game has had death and consequences for the protags.I don’t know why some people think 14 should be any different. The playerbase needs to remember that these characters are just pixels in the end. If youre having “trauma” from a fictional character dying….i think that needs to be looked at.

Again I get what you’re saying, and believe me, no actual “trauma” would ensue, I guess I would just be disappointed to go from the burning of Teldrassil and its complete absence of meaningful emotional reparations to “the purging of the Scions.” Like I get that that’s my problem going from one game to another, I guess I was just looking for insights as to the devs’ intent here based on precedent.

Do we think these devs are capable or likely to give us a “red wedding in the rising stones” moment for the sake of gravitas, or do they value that perception of relative safety for the sake of escapism?

[Vahlnir]

Who hurt you people?

I don’t know, I kind of respect that FFXIV seems to understand a social compact that is lost these days: Escapist media fails at its job when it feels the need to provide more trauma.

Both of your perspectives are valid, which is part of why I’m worried because I can see and understand them… all while hoping the devs continue to respect said aforementioned social compact: “you keep me in mostly happy feels, I keep paying you.”

I'm not asking for Game of Thrones here, but there does need to be some actual consequences for actions taken. So yeah, some characters need to die (and stay dead) to keep things interesting and impactful. Also, trauma? Come on now. That's a whole other issue that we or the devs can't help with.

[Alxyzntlct]

Who hurt you people?

I don’t know, I kind of respect that FFXIV seems to understand a social compact that is lost these days: Escapist media fails at its job when it feels the need to provide more trauma.

Both of your perspectives are valid, which is part of why I’m worried because I can see and understand them… all while hoping the devs continue to respect said aforementioned social compact: “you keep me in mostly happy feels, I keep paying you.”

I agree with this completely. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t despair if more characters are lost / removed if the story is told well and makes sense, but I’ve lived enough real life that I’m not looking for more loss and carnage in my entertainment, lol.

Good story telling that has solid experiences and in the end leaves a sense of satisfaction and “happy feels” is what delights me the most.