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

[Lauront]

Yeah, it'd be annoying, especially if thus far they shied away from giving an Azem much of a distinctive persona out of fear of fan reactions, and then suddenly it's rah-rah Venat. Particularly since they already set up a groundwork for them to be neutral.

[Rulakir]

Yeah, it'd be annoying, especially if thus far they shied away from giving an Azem much of a distinctive persona out of fear of fan reactions, and then suddenly it's rah-rah Venat. Particularly since they already set up a groundwork for them to be neutral.

It's not like they keep their hands off the WoL, which is even more egregious. Much to my chagrin, mine is racist since she has an adverse reaction to every Garlean she meets. She is disturbingly easily influenced, goes along with whatever she's told to do with a smile, doesn't ask questions, and forgives everything (as long as it's a protagonist). Whether or not I can object or at least disapprove of something is at the whim of the writers and if they give me more than one dialog option that's just the same thing worded differently 3 times. EW was especially bad in dictating how my character felt about things, which was more often than not the polar opposite of how I, as the player, felt.

Frankly, I feel like Hydaelyn fans got to live out their ideal scenario in EW. Those of us who never liked her are stuck with Azem headcanon that hopefully our character's original incarnation would've done better. I'm reminded of something Lurina said: "Rather than having a sense that the story is giving me a choice of what to believe, it feels like the story is telling me to believe something - that a mass-murderer is a great person - I find kinda gross. It makes me want to quit the game because it feels like I'm not on the same page ethically as the writers."