Quote Originally Posted by Mansion View Post
I was very annoyed to be wandering around Loporites, Elpis or Labyrinthos when the apocalypse is going on. I can't put this in the background.
-Lore, in itself it is rich and very interesting. I wish I could have enjoyed Elpis more, because the context would not let me just sit back and enjoy the flowers (literally).

...

Now it feels each time a character is successful, the writers get them shoe-horned in the story for "cheap likes" and that's irritating. That also makes me doubt that the story actually is written in detail in advance when these things just pop in conveniently after bursts of online popularity.
Was replying to last post, sorry for confusion.

I felt this way too. Then I realized that if they couldn't make Hydaelyn an antagonist then they would have to have a third force...a pre-existing one, new one, or one that arose during the creation of Hydaelyn and Zodiark.

If they were to do that... they would have to make it believable. And Elpis was how they wanted to show it. The fan service part was just the icing.

I think Emet-Selch as the cowboy who could teach water snakes to fly looking over his shoulder proudly after we were begging for his help was goofy enough for even the neutral parties to appreciate. I was laughing so hard. Everyone has to acknowledge the Emet-Selch fanbase before finishing the story of Endwalker. That is written into the game now. And it is glorious.

But that's not all of Elpis. If we didn't go back to the actual source of the problem I just think the old guard here would have a lot more complaints about Dynamis coming out of nowhere. I started playing this year and after playing straight through all the story, I have been under the impression that Hydaelyn was going to be evil in some way. We live in pandemic times and there is enough scary stuff going on. To make a source of hope and goodwill and comfort into a creepy brainwashing being would just be not a good message right now.