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

[KageTokage]

What could they even throw at us with our current power level that could be remotely threatening?

6.4 MSQ

Apparently Zeromus counts despite being made from a singular shard of Zodiark and an exhausted dragon when we trounced the actual Zodiark functioning at a little above half his full strength.

It's kind of made me expect that the writers just don't care about power scaling anymore and will simply continue to have us being as strong/competant as is actually needed for narrative tension despite that taking much, much more suspension of disbelief post-EW.

[VelKallor]

I have not seen a single person on this forum who cares about the story and doesn't criticize it.

Now you have. I loved all of it, the final scenes with Lahabrea were perfect.

[RyuDragnier]

6.4 MSQ

Apparently Zeromus counts despite being made from a singular shard of Zodiark and an exhausted dragon when we trounced the actual Zodiark functioning at a little above half his full strength.

It's kind of made me expect that the writers just don't care about power scaling anymore and will simply continue to have us being as strong/competant as is actually needed for narrative tension despite that taking much, much more suspension of disbelief post-EW.

Correction.

An exhausted dragon who just got the other half of her missing power back and was transformed into a really powerful Voidsent.

[ElenaRedoran]

did all the zodiark trancers leave after their discord was exposed?

[Silver-Strider]

Correction.

An exhausted dragon who just got the other half of her missing power back and was transformed into a really powerful Voidsent.

That was subsequently beaten and exhausted after our fight with Golbez. Not like we haven't found Dragon enemies before with Nidhogg and Shinryu and even if they had 1/13 of Zodiarcs power infused into them, we already beat at 7/13 fused version of Zodiarc and I doubt a single Dragon of the 1st Brood would be able to make up the power gap between 1/13 and 7/13.

[RyuDragnier]

That was subsequently beaten and exhausted after our fight with Golbez. Not like we haven't found Dragon enemies before with Nidhogg and Shinryu and even if they had 1/13 of Zodiarcs power infused into them, we already beat at 7/13 fused version of Zodiarc and I doubt a single Dragon of the 1st Brood would be able to make up the power gap between 1/13 and 7/13.

We don't know how many Voidsent Golbez has been feeding Zeromus, if any. Keep in mind that Dragon Eyes are ridiculously powerful, as we saw with Nidhogg (where we needed our own eye from Hraesvelgr to be on equal ground) and Shinryu (having been a primal made of hatred AND the eyes).

[Xirean]

That was subsequently beaten and exhausted after our fight with Golbez. Not like we haven't found Dragon enemies before with Nidhogg and Shinryu and even if they had 1/13 of Zodiarcs power infused into them, we already beat at 7/13 fused version of Zodiarc and I doubt a single Dragon of the 1st Brood would be able to make up the power gap between 1/13 and 7/13.

It's not just a matter of power scaling but also location. We literally cannot kill it in the 13th because it won't stay dead. We've also never seen how a being of that power is effected by the rebirth nature of the 13th either. It could be more or less unstable so we really don't know what will or won't happen to whatever entities are inside in, notably the dragon. Reasons why Y'shtola is plotting to fight it on another shard where we can both kill it and better control for what happens to the dragon afterwards.

Edit: Also the warding scales will likely give out if it's fought in the 13th. Hard to fight both the area itself and the primal voidsent.

[Vyrerus]

6.4 MSQ

Apparently Zeromus counts despite being made from a singular shard of Zodiark and an exhausted dragon when we trounced the actual Zodiark functioning at a little above half his full strength.

It's kind of made me expect that the writers just don't care about power scaling anymore and will simply continue to have us being as strong/competant as is actually needed for narrative tension despite that taking much, much more suspension of disbelief post-EW.

Zeromus actually does have the potential to be quite a big threat.

It's a super powerful Voidsent now, gaining form from feasting on Azdaja (Who received an eye that's been absorbing aether from The Source since last patch). If the scriptwriters don't just have us deal with it exactly as it is now, but instead have us deal with Zeromus after it has feasted on all other Voidsent in the 13th, then it could definitely be a Source ending threat.

Also keep in mind we trounced partially Rejoined Zodiark that was being controlled by Fandaniel. Fandaniel who snuffed out a lot of the souls within Zodiark, and further reduced his power. Who also wanted to lose. Who also basically gave up the fight after we'd weakened Zodiark enough that he could drive his hand into his core and snuff him the rest of the way out.

[Teraq]

Hello, gentle lurker! Do you want to discuss your story criticisms in a safe place, or uncover a massive conspiracy of a shadowy cabal that you will manufacture almost entirely from the ground up (because we are, in fact, boring) and spice up with slurs and baseless accusations to post on an imageboard and obsess over for months?

Come one, come all! Yes, this is the Dreadbeast Discord link. For real! GASP. Ready your screenshots you will only be able to make incriminating with copious amounts of real person fic and EXPOSE us! And don't forget the rape and murder threats!

(How peculiar, by the way, that people who have largely fallen out of love with the game would, in fact, not subscribe and participate in these forums that require active gametime between content drops. Surely this means the bad guys have been beaten back!)

I'm not even bothering with the MSQ anymore.

{Same}

I only resolved myself to run enough of it so I could unlock the Zodiark codex entry and pick apart its FR and EN localisations for every little single tiny detail. As one does! Naturally!

I hope Zeromus eat the entirety of Hydaelyn at this point, because I think it's the only way I could hope to reconcile myself with any part of the story whatsoever.

{Same}

(Don't worry, I do not ACTUALLY mean this! I am not one of the people that live rent free in some persons' minds even after they've gone and unsubbed and moved on to greener pastures!)


I've posted most of my opinion of Pandaemonium over there in what we shall refer to as the lore forum. I suppose I can't say I hated it. It was truly the most whelming, and one of the Ancient storylines of all time. I did well to persuade myself this could only ever end in the worst way ever (Elidibus fully sucking up to Venat's actions): I successfully managed to lower my expectations so that, in the end, I could only be relieved that that didn't happen.

To be fair, nothing really happened at all, other than getting to see Athena in all her glory (though it is somewhat mitigated by the possibility that the auracite influenced her to act in a way she might have refrained herself from otherwise) and retconning what precious little we knew of the Heart of Sabik being connected to Zodiark. I've accepted that this story was never going to be fixed in any significant way. I do find it amusing, however, that it tries incredibly hard to dodge The Question. Even your WoL acts like a complete, unredeemable coward when Erich asks them what happens. Fantastic. It even has Themis not even being Past or Present Elidibus, but a weird artificial mishmash of both that should satisfy precisely no one but the usual crowd of fans that scream and cry and sob over every story this game throws at them.

It is so incredibly non-committal I cannot commit myself to having any sort of strong feelings toward it.

It is unfortunate because I had absolutely loved the previous tier. But it had to be like this, because it is, in the end, a raid storyline. Much like I thought Eden and the reveal of Gaia was a perfect set-up for 6.0 that never even was on anyone's mind on the dev team.

[redheadturk]

did all the zodiark trancers leave after their discord was exposed?

No, just most of us unsubbed after the unmitigated disaster SE made of the MSQ.