Looking back at this Yoshi P statement(story spoilers)

[kpxmanifesto]

Nah. They meant what they wrote. You may interpret that to mean whatever you like, but stop putting words into someone else's mouth.

Actually, address the substance of the post, rather than trying to score points for being snarky.

Lmao, an interpretation would suggest that it's his own words and that he's not putting words into someone else's mouth.

[linayar]

When they are put in a bind and nothing actually comes of it, it cheapens everything that has ever happened to them. Repeatedly.

They are put in a bind and they work together and also receive help to get out of that bind. The value is in having friends to help you in a bind and that cannot be cheapened just because you don't have marks to show that you were ever in a bind, or worse, even repeatedly.

[kpxmanifesto]

They are put in a bind and they work together and also receive help to get out of that bind. The value is in having friends to help you in a bind and that cannot be cheapened just because you don't have marks to show that you were ever in a bind, or worse, even repeatedly.

Was it truly their friends who helped get them out of that bind? Or was it the miles thick plot armor that almost all of them seem to have? Did anybody actually think that any of them were going to die at the end of EW? I certainly didn't.

[linayar]

Was it truly their friends who helped get them out of that bind? Or was it the miles thick plot armor that almost all of them seem to have? Did anybody actually think that any of them were going to die at the end of EW? I certainly didn't.

The two things can be the same. If the plot wants a character to survive, then that character will survive, and the same if the plot wants you to die. In FFXIV's case, that armor manifested via the actions of your friends and people you've interacted with that in turn are willing to lend a hand.

[vormela]

I apologize for coming across as contrarian--that is really not what I intended and I meant what I said...a lot of people have had to take breaks in the story or mourn in between to process things. I also don't write stories and so my judgment about narrative ingenuity isn't informed.

However, so many plot points up until Kairos were about memory (and Zodiark himself represents a primal very much symbolic of a forgotten past) and personal identity (especially through Fandaniel). The memory wiping was a threat on par with character death for me.

That memories are regained upon death seemed like a strange take on the self-reflection about one's life and being able to see a life within a larger context impartially... getting old, and also the final life stage described by Erik Erikson in a popular theory of psychosocial development. And a lot of people die without being able to do that, but the ancients are afforded that privilege and I am okay with that.

His concept of development actually frames it as "integrity vs. despair. Isn't that what our trip to Ultima Thule was about? Or am I just being disingenuous?

I think so many plot points like this are this distilled interpretation of life's themes... there really is more to the story than just who is alive and who does what. Maybe that makes it come across as primitive storytelling or preachy.

Hopefully this explains more about what I was thinking when I wrote the post.

[KizuyaKatogami]

The two things can be the same. If the plot wants a character to survive, then that character will survive, and the same if the plot wants you to die. In FFXIV's case, that armor manifested via the actions of your friends and people you've interacted with that in turn are willing to lend a hand.

Meanwhile the expansion is consistently pushing the theme of dealing with loss,suffering,sacrifice yet none of the main cast actually experienced that this expansion lmao. The devs need to practice what they preach.

[DPZ2]

The entirety of the Warrior of Light's journey, across a span of years and expansions, has been one of learning to deal with loss, suffering and sacrifice. One can see it in the revulsion and wonder as Fordola experiences the Echo and gets a glimpse into our own past. Her words, "You... y-you... All that power ... all that pain ... It's too much... Too much for anyone! The things they've done to you. The lies, the betrayals, the endless fighting... yet there you stand, unbroken. How...? Why...?"

Given the theme song that was first heard during the ending of 1.0, and continued in the beginning of 2.0, is it any wonder that the resolution to the theme is for us as we stand, alone, at the edge of the Universe?

[KizuyaKatogami]

The entirety of the Warrior of Light's journey, across a span of years and expansions, has been one of learning to deal with loss, suffering and sacrifice. One can see it in the revulsion and wonder as Fordola experiences the Echo and gets a glimpse into our own past. Her words, "You... y-you... All that power ... all that pain ... It's too much... Too much for anyone! The things they've done to you. The lies, the betrayals, the endless fighting... yet there you stand, unbroken. How...? Why...?"

Given the theme song that was first heard during the ending of 1.0, and continued in the beginning of 2.0, is it any wonder that the resolution to the theme is for us as we stand, alone, at the edge of the Universe?

The problem with this is, the WoL is very hard to depict a personality for. Theyre effectively a blank slate in most regards, so it falls onto the supporting main cast to flesh out the realistic and emotional responses, thats why their themes fall flat when the main cast contradicts or doesnt have to deal with the themes at all. Again, what is the message here? Garleans and thanair people have to suffer, but if youre the main character you dont? You get to succeed and succeed and will always have something to bail you out and save you so you dont have to lose? Sorry but their whole message about suffering and loss consistently rings hollow when the main cast is exempt from it.

[DPZ2]

The problem with this is, the WoL is very hard to depict a personality for. Theyre effectively a blank slate in most regards, so it falls onto the supporting main cast to flesh out the realistic and emotional responses, thats why their themes fall flat when the main cast contradicts or doesnt have to deal with the themes at all. Again, what is the message here? Garleans and thanair people have to suffer, but if youre the main character you dont? You get to succeed and succeed and will always have something to bail you out and save you so you dont have to lose? Sorry but their whole message about suffering and loss consistently rings hollow when the main cast is exempt from it.

One cannot truly believe their avatar has no personality. You are the Warrior of Light, the personality you choose to role-play is your avatar's personality. Your avatar's emotional responses to the journey you've taken are those you choose to role-play. Since not everyone has the talent for role-play, the game provides minimal hints along the way indicating what the storyline believes your character would do in a given circumstance. For those who do have talent for role-play that can be extremely frustrating at times. Many can differentiate their avatar-as-main-character-in-a-story from their avatar when engaging in the role-play aspect of MMOs. Given the nature of the written narrative, players might engage in the equivalent of writing fan fiction for their character. The whole role-playing community encourages such engagements.

The written narrative is focused on the Warrior of Light. The cast of Scions purpose is to move the story along. They are catalysts for our own actions. There is a familiarity to them that ensures we have their support when necessary. But the path is not theirs to take, it is ours.

As for why we constantly succeed, despite what are bitter odds ... we don't, always. I certainly didn't expect to get beaten down, twice, by Zenos. Nor did I anticipate running away from Rajit. This is an ongoing MMO with multiple players. The outcome of every battle is going to be success, eventually. The day we cease to succeed is the day the servers are turned off for the last time.

That is the nature of video games. To go against that nature, as in "We deliberately made this game to be unbeatable", is to occur the wrath of players for whom a successful outcome is expected.

Would the tragic death of one of the Scions really have cured the dissatisfaction you've expressed in this expansion so far? I know it wouldn't do so for any number of those who've also expressed their own dissatisfaction with the storyline, because the death of a major character wasn't what they focused on.

[MikkoAkure]

The problem with this is, the WoL is very hard to depict a personality for. Theyre effectively a blank slate in most regards, so it falls onto the supporting main cast to flesh out the realistic and emotional responses, thats why their themes fall flat when the main cast contradicts or doesnt have to deal with the themes at all. Again, what is the message here? Garleans and thanair people have to suffer, but if youre the main character you dont? You get to succeed and succeed and will always have something to bail you out and save you so you dont have to lose? Sorry but their whole message about suffering and loss consistently rings hollow when the main cast is exempt from it.

They've already had moments in the game that you're describing. You're very narrowly looking at EW, which already has suffering outside of the main characters enough already. Everything bad that happens from halfway through EW on is indirectly caused by the WoL going hero on Zodiark. We go through a whole dungeon right after that's all about people suffering indirectly from our actions.

In ARR, Alphinaud's heroic ideal fails and he creates a military force that nearly ruins everything and ends up with a (fake) dead Sultana and eventually leads to Shinryu being summoned to cause a new calamity. Our WoL is exiled from the rest of Eorzea (but we still get to go there bc MMO). That's followed up with us going on an elf adventure to see the dragons and 2 of the "main characters" in that story each finding out they're wrong and they've been continuously killing for nothing and feeding into a cycle of hate. Lyse deals with the loss of her sister and her country as well as her best friend who sacrificed himself in vain to save the world from Shinryu. Thancred's whole story in Shadowbringers deals with his failure to save his quasi-adopted daughter on the Source, who he only got in contact with because he failed to save her real father. He tries to cope through Ryne but learns to let it go. Urianger also has his thing about Moenbryda which is resolved in EW and his guilt over his events at the end of Heavensward's patches. Y'shtola on the other hand I don't really feel like is a full character, but she still goes blind trying to save the Scions.

They could have killed a character at some point but I feel like it would have broken the plot flow, it would have been unnecessary, it would have removed all potential for keeping that character around in the future, and it could have alienated fans. Considering the devs didn't do that, they feel the same way. At this point, the main cast is over 10 years old. You can look at the Disney Star Wars trilogy as an example of how badly fans took the deaths of old characters for the sake of their newer, less well done characters.