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

[Skyborne]

The chad "I want to put the world back together so I can hang out with my friends in my paradise" vs. the virgin "You are mean to animals and could improve society somewhat so I'm gonna just blow everything up!! This is a totally fair and objective test btw, mindwiping myself"

[Lucida3b]

The chad "I want to put the world back together so I can hang out with my friends in my paradise" vs. the virgin "You are mean to animals and could improve society somewhat so I'm gonna just blow everything up!!"

I feel like they should've altered the angle on how hermes snapped if they wanted to make it come across better, and yes this would violate 'muh aetheric density lore' but how about this. Have metieon basically beam the despair into his mind or show him like 1000s of years worth of suffering. Lot easier to make someone snapping that badly understandable if they were subjected to that

And on Venat and her plan, the funny part is the only reason the scions survived when they got to ultima thule was a complete accident, thancred literally charging in and giving them all a means to survive and exist in that space, like it seems venat literally made little attempt to study ways to counteract dynamis when we fucking know ancients can with the bloody elpis flowers that emet and hyth did!

[Rulakir]

Hermes being a friend is a generous interpretation, especially as we knew he became Fandaniel and there were early signs he was off kilter.

As for the story itself, I guess I'll re-post one of Lurina's older quotes: "The more controversial a plot element, the tighter the plot has to be to get people to accept it in good faith, and 'cultural genocide was the right call to save the world' is about as close to maximum controversy as you can get."

The plot wasn't tight. Hermes and Venat were woefully underdeveloped, in fact, Hermes spends all of the game except for a brief time in Elpis being a nihilistic clown. Venat does a complete 180 from her characterization in Elpis to the point that her statements before and after the dungeon outright contradict themselves. The narrative fails to make the case that the sundering was necessary as Venat's POV and virtually any other POV in the game conflict with one another. These are surface level issues without even deep diving where it becomes even more problematic.

And on Venat and her plan, the funny part is the only reason the scions survived when they got to ultima thule was a complete accident, thancred literally charging in and giving them all a means to survive and exist in that space, like it seems venat literally made little attempt to study ways to counteract dynamis when we fucking know ancients can with the bloody elpis flowers that emet and hyth did!

This is what bugs me about people saying Venat's plan "worked". Venat didn't have a plan she had a gamble and it barely paid off in the end being reliant on the WoL having just the right amount of friends, including Zenos.

[Lucida3b]

This is what bugs me about people saying Venat's plan "worked". Venat didn't have a plan she had a gamble and it barely paid off in the end being reliant on the WoL having just the right amount of friends, including Zenos.

Even her backup plan makes no sense as other people have said, like are we presuming metion/endsinger can't just find them after the spaceship blasts off? if you wanted to make it feel more organic maybe include something like maybe one purpose for the mothercrystal was to basically act as a aetheric curtain like zodiark does for example, of course that would require acknowleding zodiark as more then a 'misbegotten wish'

[jameseoakes]

Even her backup plan makes no sense as other people have said, like are we presuming metion/endsinger can't just find them after the spaceship blasts off? if you wanted to make it feel more organic maybe include something like maybe one purpose for the mothercrystal was to basically act as a aetheric curtain like zodiark does for example, of course that would require acknowleding zodiark as more then a 'misbegotten wish'

The Moon stuff outright made no sense, as I would assume the end of days would justed have started on the moon almost as soon as people got there and then it would just have been a charnel house.

Edit: which is odd as they have all ready done that as a plot with the Void Ark

[Lauront]

I do find it odd how the Garlean Empire seems to be a much better fit for Venats Ideology than anyone else in the game as they seem to exemplify her suffering makes you stronger and that strength lets you make your own future.

I agree, it's almost silly to me that they didn't make use of this, but I think because there were likely last minute story adaptations in shaping her character, they lacked the benefit of forward planning and by EW, the Ascians are already heavily involved in it, so the ship has sailed. Plus it could also be used to explain why they're incapable (generally, as a people) of using magic - if you thought the magic could pose some manner of temptation, perhaps suppressing it entirely as an experiment and seeing how those in whom it was suppressed fared would be of interest.

That's fair. It would also add some conflict from states that don't want us to go to war with Garlemald lest they be defeated and suddenly states that were dependent upon them would be thrown into economic uncertainty. I didn't really consider that to begin with, but to be fair that's also because the game doesn't really give us any inkling that states like that exist, and I wouldn't know how to fit them in anyway.

It's mostly just relegated to side quest text stuff, and whatever we got from Bozja, but with the advantage of a full rewrite, I'd like them to introduce, or rather, more fully write out such plot elements, as I believe it'd also alter the dynamics of the civil war in interesting ways, and give the Garleans a clearer way forward for the future of their state, again maybe in a similar direction to Archades.

[GrizzlyTank]

The Moon stuff outright made no sense, as I would assume the end of days would justed have started on the moon almost as soon as people got there and then it would just have been a charnel house.

Eh, the moon might be shielded too.