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

[Raoabolic]

but I still cannot help but just go "what" at stuff like this.

How strange considering I had the same reaction during the second half of EW, lol.

[CrownySuccubus]

Mischaracterizing my statements in order to argue for the sake of arguing is not the win you think it is, but then again it's not the first time this has happened across this and other threads.

I said your statement was personal opinion and that you apparently want the ability to hang out with what characters you like and ignore the rest.

I'm not sure what part of that is "mischaracterization".

[aveyond-dreams]

I said your statement was personal opinion and that you apparently want the ability to hang out with what characters you like and ignore the rest.

I'm not sure what part of that is "mischaracterization".

I do not mind if X character exists along with characters Y and Z as long as its not overly clear that X is the writers' favorite and they want to keep reminding everyone of this every chance they get. It has ruined the story surrounding G'raha in particular and turned his arc into something that means nothing.

I wanted the Crystal Exarch as a trust and party member back in Shadowbringers so badly because hey, cool sage that can fill any battle role and he's willing to give his all for a world that isn't even his own? That's an actual hero. Not the twinkly eyes fangirling that started up in patch 5.4 when he interacted with Estinien for the first time. It went from mutual respect to creepy obsession in the span of 30 seconds.

Fast forward to now, I don't want this character anywhere near me and I believe with all my heart that this game would be better off with him in the sidelines working as a cashier at the Sharlayan McDonald's than taking up the space that could go to literally any other potential playable character.

There's almost no character that fits my "preferred aesthetic" in FFXIV. I like androgynous women. (Fordola is my wife!) I cannot even fathom throwing a never-ending tantrum about it over hundreds of pages and pretending like it's meaningful criticism of any kind.

Fordola isn't what I would consider "androgynous" but I will say that I find her to be a compelling character who makes me take interest in her goings on whenever she shows up on screen. No nonsense, feet on ground, fighter attitude and has demonstrated a lot of growth over the course of the game. This is someone who is worthy of being in the main party, but if I'm not mistaken something happened to her at the end of the healer role quests that I haven't gotten around to doing myself?

In any case if people can throw 1000 page "temper tantrums" as you'd like to call it over highly requested features like male Viera and female Hrothgar then I am well within my rights to argue about how damaging I think G'raha Tia is until the situation improves by making him a worthwhile character again or he is banished from the plot entirely.

[CrownySuccubus]

I do not mind if X character exists along with characters Y and Z as long as its not overly clear that X is the writers' favorite and they want to keep reminding everyone of this every chance they get. It has ruined the story surrounding G'raha in particular and turned his arc into something that means nothing.

Again, that's a pretty personal opinion, especially when (as I mentioned), G'raha was hardly the only person in that scene and him eating a burger took up like 5% of the screentime of that scene alone. It comes across less as there being an actual problem and merely inventing new problems that we don't need.

I wanted the Crystal Exarch as a trust and party member back in Shadowbringers so badly because hey, cool sage that can fill any battle role and he's willing to give his all for a world that isn't even his own? That's an actual hero. Not the twinkly eyes fangirling that started up in patch 5.4 when he interacted with Estinien for the first time. It went from mutual respect to creepy obsession in the span of 30 seconds.

Again, that's personal opinion and, IMO, it kind of misses the entire point of the Exarch as a character. They make it clear to you multiple times that the Exarch character is a facade. Lyna tells you multiple times how immature the CE acts on occasion, the townsfolk tell you that he was giddy and humming when he finally summoned you to the first, and all it took was you calling him by his name for him to completely FORGET a plan he'd been working on for a century. The whole point they'd been building up to was that the Crystal Exarch was nothing but a boy pretending to be a wise old man. The boy's dream of saving his idol was literally his sole motivation.

I don't think there's anything wrong with you liking the Exarch as he was, but I do feel like it's along the lines of thinking Superman is cool but wishing they'd write Clark Kent out of the story.

[aveyond-dreams]

Clark Kent just being a regular guy is in no way comparable to having G'raha Tia act like fangirling school child every time he's around someone important. They had every opportunity to not make G'raha Tia as annoying and as insufferable as he is but instead the character acts like he's from someone's fanfic. No substance, no sacrifices, only a personality that is built around catering to a specific sector of individuals and completely disregarding the possibility that other people might not like having this sort of thing pushed on to them like this.

[CrownySuccubus]

Clark Kent just being a regular guy is in no way comparable to having G'raha Tia act like fangirling school child every time he's around someone important. They had every opportunity to not make G'raha Tia as annoying and as insufferable as he is but instead the character acts like he's from someone's fanfic. No substance, no sacrifices, only a personality that is built around catering to a specific sector of individuals and completely disregarding the possibility that other people might not like having this sort of thing pushed on to them like this.

Uhhh…most versions of Clark Kent go out of his way to pretend to be a shy, awkward, dorky, meek and clumsy man. Who simps on Lois Lane incessantly. And sometimes it’s not an act. Put him next to Bruce Wayne and he becomes some of those things for real.

As I’ve said, I personally found G’raha’s personality to be believably human for someone who spent most of his life expecting to die without making his dreams come true. I even appreciate the bits of depth they give him in Megaduhta and Ultima Thule, but as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, it was too much tell and not enough show.

You disagree, and that’s fine.

[anhaato]

If the burger seething annoys you so much you can just ignore it, you know. Start a different topic. Please just do anything but fight for another 10 pages. What are you actually here for if "the wrong kind of criticism" just sets you off so badly? This thread is for venting about problems with the msq. People have different issues with it. Some issues are more problematic in the eyes of some than others. They might want to talk about it to considerable length. Who are you to try to gatekeep what is or isn't allowed to be discussed or viewed as an issue in this thread?

[CrownySuccubus]

If the burger seething annoys you so much you can just ignore it, you know. Start a different topic. Please just do anything but fight for another 10 pages. What are you actually here for if "the wrong kind of criticism" just sets you off so badly? This thread is for venting about problems with the msq. People have different issues with it. Some issues are more problematic in the eyes of some than others. They might want to talk about it to considerable length. Who are you to try to gatekeep what is or isn't allowed in this thread?

This entire post is silly because it goes both ways. Anyone who wants to talk about G'raha and burgers endlessly can make a topic where they can discuss it there.

Likewise, they have as much a right to bring up the burger scene as a topic as someone else has to argue that the complaint is brought up far too often and with too much vitriol, and by the same clique of posters.

[anhaato]

This entire post is silly because it goes both ways. Anyone who wants to talk about G'raha and burgers endlessly can make a topic where they can discuss it there.

Likewise, they have as much a right to bring up the burger scene as a topic as someone else has to argue that the complaint is brought up far too often and with too much vitriol, and by the same clique of posters.

Ok, and what's your goal in doing so? Quickly.

[CrownySuccubus]

Ok, and what's your goal in doing so? Quickly.

"Goal"? I need a goal to state an opinion now?

How about you? What's your goal here?

----

In regards to Garlemald, they had five expansions to introduce some nuance to Garlemald other than "well, some of them AREN'T racist monsters", but that's pretty much the direction they went to the very end. I was hoping that the Stormblood expacs leading into Shadowbringers would add more nuance to Varis (and thus, the Empire), but we basically just got "I want to cause rejoinings because something-something one true race". I honestly would've saw trying to cram all that into 6.0 or later as a cop-out.