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

[tokinokanatae]

Everyone was eating burgers, though. The point of the scene was “even heroes need to rest.” It’s at level 81, right after they just succeeded in dismantling a tower. (The emphasis on G’raha eating during a celebration dinner as specifically egregious is strange to me, as it would be if there was similar disgust over Alisaie’s pickles.)

Likewise, the scene with G’raha admiring Estinien is during down time during the MSQ and features a much more obvious comedy note in Estinien mistaking Alisaie for Alphinaud. I don’t think every moment of comedy lands—and if you want an example with G’raha alone, I found the bit where he pretends to be a crystal buyer in 5.4 stupid and pointless—but all of it is in line with the rest.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Everyone was eating burgers, though. The point of the scene was “even heroes need to rest.” It’s at level 81, right after they just succeeded in dismantling a tower. (The emphasis on G’raha eating during a celebration dinner as specifically egregious is strange to me, as it would be if there was similar disgust over Alisaie’s pickles.)

Likewise, the scene with G’raha admiring Estinien is during down time during the MSQ and features a much more obvious comedy note in Estinien mistaking Alisaie for Alphinaud. I don’t think every moment of comedy lands—and if you want an example with G’raha alone, I found the bit where he pretends to be a crystal buyer in 5.4 stupid and pointless—but all of it is in line with the rest.

But it seems like since hes re-introduced, hes been the focal point of non-stop slice of life. Combined with the fact that they clearly changed the story based on fan reception of him, he just doesnt sit right as a character to me. Especially taking into account his mary sue qualities, plot hole writing that follows him etc.

[Lunaxia]

But it seems like since hes re-introduced, hes been the focal point of non-stop slice of life. Combined with the fact that they clearly changed the story based on fan reception of him, he just doesnt sit right as a character to me. Especially taking into account his mary sue qualities, plot hole writing that follows him etc.

While I agree with you overall concerning G'raha, I think toki has a point that in the dinner scene especially, it was all of the Scions taking part in that. G'raha alone isn't responsible for Endwalker's sudden and really out-of-the-blue habit of turning various cutscenes into sequences from a high school slice-of-life anime. In fact, I don't know where it's come from or who decided it, but I certainly wish it would go back. It's incredibly jarring, and not so much as "comedy that doesn't land" to me as completely out of place and at odds with the story-telling we've been used to until this point. Alisaie's posing and pouting in some of them was absolutely god awful. They really need to stop this trend of massacring characterisation in order to appeal to what they think fans want.

[Brinne]

I think there's two--or three?--different complaints about G'raha sort of running through the discussion here, and some of those reasons I can partially understand, and some are a little more difficult for me. I can absolutely understand the frustration and resentment about G'raha's "success story" and the effort exuded to give him a happy ending whereas certain other characters were denied the same - but that's not something I can really blame G'raha himself for, and moreso is another piece of the overall plotting and thematic shakiness within Endwalker as a whole. And saying G'raha was saved purely "for fanservice" doesn't quite work because, as popular as he is, Emet-Selch outstrips him considerably, and Emet-Selch didn't get to run into our adventuring arms by Endwalker's conclusion, even though he easily could have.

G'raha being saved because we want to give the protagonists as a whole a happy ending makes more sense to me than being angry about any pandering to G'raha fans in particular. As Rulakir pointed out, nearly all the Scions are flourishing in ways that are baffling given their plot contexts. And I can actually even accept that uneven outcome, were it given more thoughtfulness - just like some people die for no good reason and it's arbitrary, the same applies sometimes to people who survive. (This is one of the elements that I loved about Zenos's story.) But it's when coupled with the judgmental factor the Ancients were on the receiving end of, and the opportunities to help them not being taken as aggressively, for Some Reason, it starts to grate.

G'raha's writing in terms of his personality, meanwhile, makes sense to me. Is it the most compelling personality for me in a vacuum? Nah, I like G'raha, but I wouldn't count him as one of my absolute favorites. But in terms of "does it make sense," I think it does. I actually liked the sort of insecure, manic quality to him after the union of his two different selves, and the clumsiness of him trying to navigate the rush of actually getting to do what he wants to do for the first time in over a hundred years. I liked that resuming his Exarch persona in Thavnair was a powerful moment, not just for his actions, but for the weight of him having to resort to acting in that role again as being painful and difficult for him - to the point I wished it had actually been elaborated on further.

The third issue is the uneven tone, pace, and placement and emphasis of the "light-hearted" scenes throughout Endwalker. Again, I think this speaks to probably a larger problem through the whole, but G'raha somehow became an easy target to lash out about something that applies to most of the protagonist group. (I would rather seethe about the Loporrits, personally, as far as that goes. <_<)