I did not enjoy Shadowbringer (SPOILERS)

[ProstheticSoul]

Wait, wait, wait...am I getting this correctly? This entire expansion revolved around an OPTIONAL raid? Was this Crystal Tower raid a part of the MSQ at any point? I honestly can't remember. Because if this was an optional raid that I somehow missed between beating Heavensward and my seven-year hiatus then I am afraid this only bolsters my original criticism of Shadowbringer. You cannot make an expansion that inexorably follows the MSQ to its conclusion that is heavily centered on optional content that the player can miss. This is quite possibly the first cardinal sin of video-game writing, and Yoshi P shamelessly broke it with a grin on his face.

It would be akin to Peter Jackson incorporating heavy elements from the Silmarillion in The Return of the King™ out of nowhere when the gist of the adaptation thus far was basically "Sauron is big bad, ring of power needs to be destroyed." It's just....no, please God, NO. Stop over-complicating things! If this is not the case then disregard. I really need to check this raid again to see if I did complete it and didn't just memory hole it somehow. Good heavens there is much more I missed in this seven years then I had originally imagined. It's making my head hurt.

As for the things I liked and loved about Shadowbringer...that's easy. Hades (can't even remember the guy's Garlean name, their names too make my head hurt). His presence during the second part was a breath of fresh air. Not completely villainous like Blonde Sephiroth, and he had so much empathy and pathos going for him. Freaking felt sorry for the guy by the time my character rent his torso asunder with that axe born of light. Was almost rooting for him to win and not the Scions at certain points. That is how much I enjoyed his character. The track that played during his fight was something to behold as well. Almost hit me the same way One-winged Angel did. Damn close.

But once again, my enjoyment of this very multidimensional, multifaceted villain is a bit marred by his convoluted origins that make very little sense to me. That whole plot line involving the Empire rolling out clones for him to continually possess had my face contort in ways I'd rather not go into detail here. I'm not sure I understood the point. Ascians are basically an immortal, almost demigod-like proto race that can possess bodies a la The Thing™, travel between worlds and so on and so forth. I get that. What I don't get is why a powerful exemplar of such a race would require a legion of clones to be able to live so long. At least, that's what I gathered with his interactions with his grandson. Unless I misconstrued that entire scene, which is entirely possible. Wouldn't it have been far simpler to just forego the dumb clones and state in a cutscene:

"Mwahaha, yes indeed! The founder of the empire was an Ascian all along! And I never died, I just changed form into an old man to make you think I withered away! But now I am young again because that's what we Ascians do! We're cool like that!"