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

[Krithas]

A lot of you said what I thought and felt myself, so I won't go into much detail. Played straight from ARR to the current patch after my friend talked me into playing a few months ago, and I enjoyed the story throughout the patches, Heavensward and Shadowbringers being my favorites. But then Endwalker happened. The narrative took a complete shift from Shadowbringer with light and dark neither bad nor good, being able to sympathize with the Ancients and given dialogue choices to show it or telling them to fuck off. Yet in Endwalker it was just a complete sucking off of Hydaelyn and how she did no wrong but everything right. Nobody questioned her, not even your character. Only dialogue options you had were to agree or agree harder, besides the shade on the moon.
All they had to do was have the narrative stay gray and not blatantly suck her off yet they didn't and that ruined the game for me. I havn't been this mad at a game since Tales of Graces F. I gave 6.1 a chance to see if they would change the narrative, instead they double downed and sucked off Hydaelyn even harder in the codex. They even had Y'shtola summon 2 familiars as guinea pigs to enter the void, but no worries she's a Scion and a good guy! Unlike the evil Ancients who created familiars to see if they would help the planet and environment, her using them as test subjects and subjecting one to pain was totally A OK!!.
I decided to let my sub end in a few days, which is a shame because I enjoyed this game from when I first started and found the gameplay fun. I'll still keep up with later patches and see if they do anything to change the narrative, but I'm not holding my breathe. I only lurked and never posted, but decided I should make a post to show that the "silent minority" is bigger than people seem to realize. Hope you all still enjoy playing and enjoy your time with the game.

[OhNooo]

They even had Y'shtola summon 2 familiars as guinea pigs to enter the void, but no worries she's a Scion and a good guy! Unlike the evil Ancients who created familiars to see if they would help the planet and environment, her using them as test subjects and subjecting one to pain was totally A OK!!

Yeah I've noticed things like that more and more the "rules for thee but not for me." I definitely raised an eyebrow during the reaper quests too. And now the thought of traveling to different shards to "liberate" or bring our own version of morality to any already established civilizations there just feels kind of nauseating to me. I never wanted to be part of a group that obviously knows what's best for the entire world and has taken upon itself the "duty" to offer its "help" to other unsuspecting civilizations lol. It's just so cringe to me, especially as someone who tends to like a more chaotic neutral or anti hero character. If someone is not right in front of me attempting to hurt me, I have no reason to go out of my way to fix anything, nor do I have a reason to blindly follow orders from someone I just met, yet I've been doing it since ARR.

[PawPaw]

snip

Thanks for chiming in, it's ruined the game for me also so I can relate 100%. I found myself more often than not rolling my eyes and muttering things like "SHOCKER" AND "YOU DON'T SAY!" throughout the entirety of 6.1. I'm pretty over it and hadn't fully realized it until then, but now I have. It's both baffling and sad because I've been in love with this story since 2013 and all it took was one EP to undo that completely. I'm in the process of decorating my FC's new house (we got lucky) and when that's finished I'll probably unsub as well.

Yeah, we all had a good laugh at Y'shtola's abuse of familiars being totally acceptable because Scion but when the Ancients do things with familiars they are evil and "scary".

[Lauront]

Yeah, we all had a good laugh at Y'shtola's abuse of familiars being totally acceptable because Scion but when the Ancients do things with familiars they are evil and "scary".

It's hilarious, too, because this has always been the case. The sundered have less regard for such life forms (created or otherwise) than the ancients, and Sharlayan even mimics their practice of creating things similar to familiars, but you would have to recall that knowledge to realise that... and then 6.1 goes and shoves it right into the MSQ, courtesy of the MC suggesting it, too, depending on dialogue pick.

[Teraq]

IMO having a sundered Ascian who caught wind of Fandaniel's maniacal plan and sought to oppose him by joining up with us while still being spicy and disagreeing with us and adding a much-needed different perspective (and criticism of our sparkle-queen) would have certainly made me less rabid about the story. Just a bit.
[...]
It's just that the Sundered are weaker... and more prone to falling prey to their dark nature, which the Ascians used to their advantage, while the Unsundered were better at keeping it under wraps unless under extreme circumstances.

I just wanted Pashtarot to scream at Fandaniel to STOP BREAKING THE LAW, ASSHOLE!

And imagine Sundered humanity with the creation powers of Ancients lol. Dead Ends World 2 would look positively sane.

I think part of the problem is that the writers assume that people just relate with the Sundered first and foremost because 'tHeY aRe Us', conveniently ignoring that actually many of us relate to or at least sympathise with the game's antagonists.

This is really the feeling I got from Ishikawa's "Was what Hermes did wrong or was it the first step for humanity?". I... uh... I guess only some humans are human enough. Apparently I'm not supposed to care for the not-really-human Ancients. But didn't the weight of Shadowbringers rest on exactly this?

and then 6.1 goes and shoves it right into the MSQ, courtesy of the MC suggesting it, too, depending on dialogue pick.

Hah, as if anyone would pick anything but (glances at Estinien)