Endwalker Main Scenario Commentary & Feedback

[Rosenstrauch]

Feeling a bit better now, so I think I'll continue my thoughts in this post instead.

The stuff that got me down last time:

It was not so much the part where Zodiark was treated as The Enemy by Hydaelyn's Watcher or having to fight him that "hurt me", as I put it. Rather, it was the three punch combo of the following:
- The near tender moments with the shades—the souls who gave their lives to aid Zodiark—softening me up for expected pathos. Like, reflecting on the tragedy of their current situation, or praying for their safe return to the aetherial sea once Zodiark is dealt with.
- The utterly ignoble treatment they and Zodiark received once Fancy Dan and Zenos arrived. Which works for me when it's coming from them, as they're meant to be hated. Not so much when it's coming from our allies, our character, and...
- The immediately ensuing three hour questline in which you get given the runaround by the Lopporits. Begone pathos, enter bathos.

As for my rant about Hydaelyn, my frustrations with her character would all go away if it was revealed I am actually right about her. That her poor decision making, stubbornness, and black & white morality were character flaws rather than the result of the writers being clumsy in their depiction of her deeds vs her words. The only characters who are ever allowed to be critical of her are the Ascians or their pawns, and the former are categorically cast as villains while the latter are gullible fools.

Even our one callout on her, right at the start, is just... like: "Yeah, I lied. Anyways, blah blah vagueness blah blah chosen one blah blah...".

Anyways, that's enough out of me on this subject. Time to see where this story goes.

Post-Zone Four stuff here. Spoilers for the second half of the story, natch.

The return trip to Thavnair was horrifying. Well done!

Seriously, even if the Final Days stuff is limited to this one dungeon—similar to Garlemald's occupation forces being stuck in MSQ during Stormblood and the same for Sin Eaters in Shadowbringers—I am actually sold on this being the nightmarish end of days that nearly snuffed out the old world. And despite Alphinaud suggesting this might be different because the account of how the monsters appeared is different, somehow I doubt that's the case.

I've seen it said that this change in spawning method makes them too similar to Sin Eaters, but to be honest, I think that might be the point. This change might be the connective tissue for all three, maybe even all four, "and then they became monsters" transformations we've seen now. To wit: Voidsent, Sin Eaters, Tempered Thralls, and now the Terminus/"Blasphemies". That when you poison a person's existence with so much of something, they transform nigh irrevocably into terrible beasts.

Not even a soul is left behind when these things are born, to say nothing of dying. Yes, this is what I was getting at before. This is the true reason for Zodiark's sealing: To protect him from death, lest all souls (including those sacrificed to him) be consigned to oblivion. Well-intentioned as it is, There's no such thing as hurting someone for their own good. There's only hurting someone for your own good. I wanted to look up that thought process to see if there was a word to describe it, and found that quote. God, yes, it's exactly what I think of Hydaelyn's actions.

Vrtra declares Zodiark the master of these things. I can't believe I want to slap this nice dragon in the face. He then shirks his duty to his people out of fear that it'll only make things worse. A sensible choice, but I actually want to slap him even harder now.

There is a brief encounter where you are tasked with finding a man, his wife, and their newborn child. You find the man at death's door, shadowed by two of the fiends. This is going exactly the way I expect, isn't it... nah, they pulled their punches just an inch. I am actually a little relieved. There have been so many dying children in this whole segment that an infant merely being orphaned and potentially scarred for life is a small blessing. Poor child. And thank God for Estinien and Vrtra.

When I first saw the trailer wherein the Lady in Light speaks of a flower, my first thought was that it would invariably blacken by the end of our journey. I'm not surprised that it has, but the reason is quite interesting.

Y'shtola declares that Hydaelyn is the one who forestalled the Final Days. The injustice of it all, that the being whose very existence served as the world's protection is condemned as the villain responsible for its destruction, while his jailer is lauded as the hero who saved it from him...

Back to the First. We missed the festival. Goddamn it. At least the writers remembered that Ryne exists, though. And thank God they didn't make me lie to her. Nice to see what I believed confirmed: Elidibus was not killed. Poor Elidibus. And oh boy, TIME TRAVEL. This will be entertaining, at least, but goddamn will it be headache inducing. The funny thing is, even if I were to alter past events, by Shadowbringers logic all this would accomplish is forking the timeline again. Our present would still exist as it is, unmarred by the altered past.

... of course they justify this trip to the past with Alexander logic. We get sent to the past because Elidibus remembers us being there. But we were only there because he sent us there. Goddamn causal loops...

I believe I'll leave this post there. Up next will be zone five, so I might as well make a new post for it that it might be on the latest page.