"In from the Cold" Scenario, any way to skip it?

[glitteringcosmos]

What on Etheriys are you all on about? This was, bar none, the greatest solo duty they've ever done. High stakes, an actual sense of danger, a unique situation and mechanics.
... admittedly, I never actually died, and might have been frustrated if it made you restart from the beginning. But, like - they tell you what to do. Avoid magitek at all costs. Never fight two soldiers at once, and avoid as many as possible. Go here, then here, then here, then here, then win.

I felt the COMPLETE opposite - I haven't made it far into the 4th zone yet, but so far, I think Garlemald is the best story zone they've ever had.
Around 20 previous allied NPCs, all acting in-character and being relevant.
A grounded story, with fantasy taking a backseat from first reaching Camp Broken Glass up until this instance near the end.
Actual tragedy - and it all makes sense. Unlike a certain "I will block this spear that shouldn't logically hurt the WoL, and the wound turns out to be unhealable for no explained reason" - I actually felt really bad for the NPCs.
And it's the logical outcome of ARR!Alphinaud's diplomacy too.
Heck, even finding out there's lyrics to the Garlean leitmotif - and what that song's about - is heartbreaking.

It took Fandaniel an enormous amount of aether - quite possibly enough to have ruined what he attempted after the 83 dungeon. And it only got the WoL out of their body for about 30 minutes.
And it's shown (afterwards) to be EXTREMELY likely that after that 30 minutes, we'd go right back to our real body, even if our temporary body was executed.
And they HAVE tried this before - Fandaniel even points out when it happened, in Ala Mhigo. And that he's refined and improved the process.

This!!! I feel like people who disliked it for the story and calling it cheap weren't paying attention to all of the things you pointed out, especially about the strain it put on Fandaniel to do this. People are like "oh it was cheap cuz it stole your player agency and if he could do this all along why didn't he?" Because it was made abundantly clear what the consequences and costs were on Fandaniel's end.

This. Garlemald arc felt like an actual mature game for once.

Absolutely, they hit a home run with this.

My dislike of it is entirely to do with the extremely contrived plot points that lead to a violation of the control over my character that left me feeling so bothered by it all. I didn't feel 'helpless' or 'desperate', I felt irritated and angry. And my ire wasn't directed at the villain characters like the writers were probably hoping, it was directed at the writers themselves for choosing to make that happen. As another said, it felt like a violation of my character, and not by the villains but by the writers.

You were SUPPOSED to feel violated over the control of your character. That was the whole point.