Quote Originally Posted by DPZ2 View Post
There was one member of the Fellowship of the Ring who died, despite the fact that it was a lengthy trilogy. Tolkien didn't think it necessary to kill off anyone else in that party.
It's not necessary. However, there were still impactful deaths like Theoden. The end of humanity felt like a very real possibility. The heroes suffered, particularly the hobbits. The closest we've gotten to that was when the WoL was light corrupted and there was no journey to it because it was all too brief. Alisaie wasn't given an opportunity to become the Sam to our Frodo, for example.

The only Scions to know suffering and despair beyond the norm are Estinien and G'raha, both of whom went through it before joining us. The Scions themselves are an incredibly privileged, homogeneous bunch who've arguably had to deal with less hardships than the average person (in game or real life) despite being involved in multiple wars and a world ending threat, incidentally almost an extinction level event for the Ancients that wasn't even as bad as a Calamity for us.

It's fine if FFXIV wants to be Disney-esque, but they need to quit doing storylines that require high stakes if they're not willing to make the sacrifices necessary for it to be compelling. I'm far more attached to the Ancients and their tale as a result. EW made me realize how little I care about most of the Scions and how bored I am of them. The only parts of EW where I was upset directly involved the Ancients to the extent that, to me, EW didn't have a happy ending. Everything working out for the protagonists was predictable, expected, and dull.