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

[Absurdity]

In all honesty, I'm always surprised to hear about someone being deeply bothered by the Loporrits. After witnessing Zenos and Amon appear right at the climax of what had previously been the first genuinely interesting part of the story since 5.0 and soak up what was left of the faceless and thoroughly dehumanised Zodiark soup like a day old crouton, and then realising this was the writer's resolution to the story's most important, decade old plot point, I didn't have much left in the way of a reaction to give anymore. By the time we reached the Loporrits, it was more or less a case of "Ah. Rabbits. Hm. All right then."

Speaking of the moon, I was briefly pondering on this the other day, and was trying to make sense of a) Hydaelyn giving the Sundered a way out via the moon without pausing to consider offering her brethren the same solution and b) the logic in trying to outrun something that ultimately aims to consume the entire universe anyway.

My only conclusion was wishing I could go back to before I contemplated buying this game and living in blissful ignorance of how it all ended. I don't know what's worse, the general brain itch it continues to give me whenever I think about it or the unintentional yet inevitable sense of gaslighting whenever I venture near the community and have to hear about how wonderful and moving the writing was.

It certainly moved me away from the game, I suppose...

I feel roughly the same. Sure the Lopporits were an utterly jarring tonal shift from "we just slapped the main antagonist of 10 years around like a ragdoll while he wasn't even awake and supposedly unleashed the end of the universe" to "wacky bunny people that look suspiciously merchandisable". But the incredibly botched conclusion to Zodiark's "arc" pretty much drained all interest I had in the MSQ out of me for a long time to the point that I couldn't even hate them, I just felt entirely indifferent.


The fact that MSQ trials are incredibly easy also didn't exactly help with making that "climactic" fight feel any less disappointing. That is however an issue that I personally have with every big MSQ trial, I need to pretend that the extreme version is the canon fight to make it feel impactful.

[BRVV]

Speaking of the moon, I was briefly pondering on this the other day, and was trying to make sense of a) Hydaelyn giving the Sundered a way out via the moon without pausing to consider offering her brethren the same solution and b) the logic in trying to outrun something that ultimately aims to consume the entire universe anyway.

Just imagine a version where the Sundered escaped to the moon. They drink tea and chat with the Loporrits about their new home, watching the "star" (aka planet - why are we calling that multiverse planet thing a star again?) explode. Savingway comes up to them and says: "You are all save here!" Smiling from ear to ear. Then they all get blasted with the moon by the Endsinger. The End.

[Silver-Strider]

Speaking of the moon, I was briefly pondering on this the other day, and was trying to make sense of a) Hydaelyn giving the Sundered a way out via the moon without pausing to consider offering her brethren the same solution and b) the logic in trying to outrun something that ultimately aims to consume the entire universe anyway.

My concern is why would your prison for Zodiark also be the place to house your contingency plan. Surely the Aether released by Zodiark after his defeat would have had SOME effect on the moon considering that his whole purpose was to bring about change. That just seemed like something that could very easily backfire, even with the Watcher/Loporrits supposedly monitoring Zodiark and the Ascians.

[Sheriyana]

Agreed. I'm still stuck on the absolute tonal whiplash that is the Loporrits. They literally Jar Jar Binksed us. Any good will that EW earned with me as a player went down the toliet right then and there.

Same! Can't believe that people are so in love with the damn things... They contribute precisely nothing of worth to the story and all they serve is to absolutely wreck the intended world ending tone of the story. But there's people who think FFXIII had a good story (let's fight against our fate by doing the exact thing our fate has preordained us to do and then win anyway because friendship magic, even though we all practically hate each other! and a whole bunch of other bollocks) so the concept of a well told story really is alien to some people.

[EliaStormblade]

I quite like the Loporrits. Now, I mean. They did smack me in the face right after Zodiark, which I disliked. But other than soberly mentioning that I think that was a bad moment, I can't really bring myself to get hung up over it, lol.

[Ardeth]

I quite like the Loporrits. Now, I mean. They did smack me in the face right after Zodiark, which I disliked. But other than soberly mentioning that I think that was a bad moment, I can't really bring myself to get hung up over it, lol.

You know you can quote people, right?

I think up until that point, it was getting good, and then it just fell off a cliff. And even after it climbed out of that cliff, the spector of it lingered way too long. They don't bother me now because the story was so saturated with them after they went away and came back with their spaceship. But again, that initial Jar Jar Binks level of shock and cringe is hard to shake off. I wanted to punt those things more than praise them. Even now, Endwalker as a whole is meh.

[ArcturusWhisper]

(Post was too long, have to be split in two)

Her actions never receive the same scrutiny as those of the Ascians, which is part of the problem. [/I]

And this is almost my entire gripe with her character.

I find it funny when people keep bringing up "how about the Ascians?!", they do realize the Ascians are the villains in the story right? That we (WoL) fought with everything we had to stop them. And if it's their opinion that Venat is even slightly similar to the Ascians, why are they fighting so hard when people just ask for Venat to be GIVEN SIMILAR TREATMENT TO ASCIANS? You don't even need to treat her as a villain. Just don't treat her as this 100% benevolent goddess that has done no wrong. Is that too much to ask for?

These are my personal grievances with the story. Emphasis on "personal" since I understand why some people would enjoy it and I recognize the appeal, but it just didn't resonate well with me:
...

And I want to frame this whole post and hang it on my wall.

[Kyrj]

Imagine going from Emet to Hawkgirl, pathetic.

[ArcturusWhisper]

This is why I've been worried about Azem being retconned. Also, as much as I like Elidibus, it's a bit odd to be developing this relationship with him now. I know they have the convenience of his failing memories to fall back on, but in ShB there's little indication Elidibus and Azem (or the WoL) were close outside of that one scene where we inadvertently 'call' him. I have seen a theory that his speech preceding the Seat of Sacrifice was about Azem when he says, "This I swore to...to someone." Seems unlikely though given the context.

YEAH! I completely forgot my gripe regarding how they go about fleshing out Elidibus. It IS odd to basically shoehorn him into the role of "Azem fanboy" this late in the game. I know that ShB short story basically established a foundation for this fanboyism, but it wasn't exactly at this level. In the short story, he looks up to the whole Convocation, not just Azem, and the way this "looking up to" was portrayed much more naturally.

I'd much rather they flesh out the Ascians by telling their stories.

It's like the screenwriters are one-trick ponies and couldn't portray a sympathetic villain without tying them closely to our previous life. It worked with Emet-Selch, and that's great. But it's getting tiring if it keeps being repeated. They could easily build Elidibus's story around the whole of Convocation and his duty. With Emet-Selch being an already sympathetic Ascian, people would be interested. It wouldn't be easy, because they don't seem to have the best of relationship after 12000 years of getting on each other's nerves, but that in itself would have been an interesting aspect to explore.

But NOOOO, it must be us. It always must be us. lol.

Seriously, characters don't need to always be simping for us to be sympathetic. It's just extremely lazy writing. I am so disappointed with how they handle Elidibus, as much as I enjoy Themis in many ways.

(I am reading over the thread slowly and I feel like in the next few days you guys are going to see so many of my posts, I apologize in advance.)

[Edit] I forgot to add, I find in the short story, where Emet asks Elidibus whether he wants to access his memory crystal a very well-written scene with both of them. So sad such a compelling aspect of their story is relegated to short stories that most players won't even see.

[Vyrerus]

Yeah, on that note, we could stand to have less WoL simping in general. We don't need to be reminded every other cutscene that we're the most epic bestest hero ever that has it so hard but is so valiant and virtuous. Like, we know that already. We're the one toiling to save the country, world, continent, everything.

And yeah, the lodestone shorts are usually pretty dang good. A lot of people do read them, and a lot of folks also believe these should be in the game in some form. I've always kind of hated any time media has outside the base material that tells a better story than the base material. Got a better representation of the Sundering in a Nier game recent-ish.

I hope you're still reading through the thread. There's some real gem posts in here.