What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Midareyukki]

Did she die? I know she heavily suggested she was going to die, but then we see a blue bird at the final scene flying through Mor Dhona. Either that's not literal, or it was another fakeout. Unfortunate, as I feel she should've been killed off. She's arguably too dangerous to be allowed to just roam free after wiping out numerous worlds and nearly ours.

I think either:
a) she will eventually die, and that was just her going through the cosmos singing her song of hope
b) she has sung the last verse of her song, which is hope, and then died. The bird we see is either some normal blue bird that happens to look like Meteion, or Meteion's spirit returning to Eitherys. Somehow. Like an echo.

[aveyond-dreams]

Did she die? I know she heavily suggested she was going to die, but then we see a blue bird at the final scene flying through Mor Dhona. Either that's not literal, or it was another fakeout. Unfortunate, as I feel she should've been killed off. She's arguably too dangerous to be allowed to just roam free after wiping out numerous worlds and nearly ours.

Watch them somehow bring Meteion back into the plot in order to help restore the void or some other nonsense because of their lack of willingness to commit to a true fresh start to Season 2.

[LisSquid]

Watch them somehow bring Meteion back into the plot in order to help restore the void or some other nonsense because of their lack of willingness to commit to a true fresh start to Season 2.

How dare you say they'd curtain a character just to bring them back! They've only done that.. I don't think I have that many fingers to count.

[Raoabolic]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Symbolism is an art, not a science, lol.

[aveyond-dreams]

They have now released the music video for Close in the Distance. Naturally it showed shots of Ultima Thule, and unlike the Flow music video there is no new artwork at the end. The fact that some people consider the whole sequence of events that went down in that zone worthy of tears is still mind-boggling. Of all the "final zones" in the franchise...Ultima Thule is still easily one of the worst written I've encountered.

I must insist that kind of overly predictable writing is just not acceptable, not to a playerbase that has aged and grown along with this game.

[Teraq]

With the callbacks to actual protagonist character deaths (RIP Heavensward we miss you), I can't help but notice this video is missing a sacrifice that actually resulted in a character death in Endwalker.

(inhales)

ELIDIBUS SIMPING TEEEAAAAMMM???!!

I believe she's the last one of them. En masse they caused a lot of problems. But one by herself...won't cause as bad of an effect. A drop of water vs an ocean.

This. I mean I would hate to find out how she would react flying over former imperial colonies and Garlemald itself ("who build this huge dark tower??" oh honey you're gonna have to sit down...), but thankfully she most likely isn't capable of tomfoolery anymore with her alone.

[Theodric]

I haven't been impressed with the recent marketing in general, honestly. I saw a pop up earlier with a bunch of cat girls standing in Limsa Lominsa all clad in various 'modern day' glamour. That really isn't the thing that made me invest in the game back in the days of ARR and HW.

As for the music video, I do wish more attention was paid to the sacrifices of the antagonists. The Scions would never have gotten anywhere if not for - conveniently - having the antagonists do some big favour for them either directly or indirectly.

They'd do well to remember that a decent amount of us don't care for this bland, feigned pretence of 'good triumphing over evil'.

[Lustre]

On the topic of "close in the distance", I think it's telling they chose to use the cheesy, corny vocal version over the actually appropriate ambient/atmospheric version for the zone music. After all, that's all most of EW was, shallow emotional manipulation sacrificing a (somewhat) coherent storyline in the process. I still keep thinking about just how different in tone SHB was from EW. SHB will tell you to your face that "something's wrong here" and "maybe there's more to the ancient/hydaelyn conflict than we realise" only for endwalker to go "haha not really, they bad, we good, updoot me when I return to sharlayan pls". It feels really really weird. Also, I only just saw this thread tags lmfao they're hilarious

[YukikoKurosawa]

Well the problem IMO with letting Meteion live means she suffered absolutely zero consequences for her actions whatsoever. Having her die could've been a tragic irony, that she only finds meaning in existence right before she her own ends.

But I guess that would've been too depressing for our apocalyptic story so they (arguably) had her spontaneously live in the end. If only that question was answered in one of the live letters. Not that I'm a fan of external media sources giving out narrative/lore explanations that should either just be made clear in the game or left permanently ambiguous to allow some mystery. I'm not sure if the latter was their intention with Meteion's fate or not. But I'm sure they would give some convoluted explanation as to how she actually did in fact live in the end. Something something "the hope you imbued her with magically healed her and she was able to live on" something something.

But yeah I don't like her just getting off completely scott free after causing the most harm of any villain in the entire story, along with how arguably dangerous she still is.

[RyuDragnier]

Well the problem IMO with letting Meteion live means she suffered absolutely zero consequences for her actions whatsoever. Having her die could've been a tragic irony, that she only finds meaning in existence right before she her own ends.

This specific one was the individual with Hermes when we met him, and was the one who bonded with us (as little a bond as it was). From the very beginning she ran when she realized what her sisters were saying, trying her hardest not to let Hermes hear the truth. If you recall at that very scene, the pure despair was trying to overtake her, and the pure emotion given off by it was overwhelming even us. I do not blame that girl for what her sisters did, she was an individual who was overwhelmed by the Hive Mind.