The best part of endwalker

[Brinne]

For me, Endwalker has a lot of setpieces that are absolutely incredible on their own, but don't quite add up to a satisfying, cohesive picture when observed as a whole. One of my immediate impressions when finishing it was "welp, the whole sure is lesser than the sum of its parts." That being said, there was a lot in it that I did love:

- Garlemald was extremely well written, and very thoughtful, in portraying a complex situation where there is no easy solution and people are simultaneously victims and assailants. Propaganda and its effect on the human brain, and people hitching their horses onto Sunk Cost Fallacy, is a hell of a drug.

- In From The Cold was genuinely incredible through a "storytelling through gameplay" filter. I was genuinely anxious and in anguish through it, especially when the group of ordinary Garlemald soldiers are casually killed trying to help you after all of their determination and speeches. There was a boldness and bravery in the harshness of what it did (at least during the duty itself) that felt sort of reminiscent of Yoko Taro's work, actually - that I wish carried over through to other aspects of the story.

- Thavnair's section dealing with the Final Days was similarly incredibly tense and well-executed in the moment. I loved the flash of the Exarch returning from within G'raha Tia when he saw that it was needed, and how the realization and transition itself was done wordlessly and solely through visual storytelling. I also just enjoyed Thavnair and Vrtra in general and am really happy that so far the patch content is giving them more focus.

- Arriving at Elpis up until its conclusion was probably the most raw, giddy joy as a fan I've ever had playing this game. Yes, I have severe reservations about its overall outcome and impact on the greater plot, but almost all aspects of Elpis itself - Emet's characterization, Hythlodaeus's characterization, the Ancients' portrayal, the environment, the atmosphere, even Hermes - were absolutely wonderful. It's the narrative commentary and framing about them mostly after that fact where the dissonance starts, unfortunately.

- Ultima Thule's MSQ parts didn't land for me, but I loved its atmosphere, environment, and almost every sidequest in it, which were far more effective in connecting me to the attempted theme than the material involving the Scions, for better or worse.

- Zenos's arc was absolutely perfect in every way and skyrocketed him to one of my favorites, after he was mostly in a "entertaining, but not too interesting" lukewarm sort of category for me before. I could gush about how he was written in Endwalker for days. His story was the part of the expansion that made me go "ah, Ishikawa pulls it off again!" Bestie is, in fact, the best.

That's most of what I can think of off the top of my head!

[Rulakir]

Well, I felt differently about some of these things:

1) I would've rather the orphan baby died than the boy who turned into a blasphemy and was then crushed underfoot while his father watched on in horror. I can begrudgingly get behind Vrtra showing up bringing a sense of calm and stability amidst the chaos (even though I still don't think that makes sense for an infant), but 'Exarch' G'raha's little pep talk didn't seem like it should've worked in any realistic scenario of a parent who just watched their child be gruesomely slain (I know I'm asking for a lot here).

2) I thought "In from the Cold" needed stakes. Given all of Zenos' "rage and rancor" speeches, he ultimately just ends up trolling the WoL. I was basically popcorn.gif through that entire sequence, but what a letdown the conclusion was.

3) The only Scion UT speeches I liked were Alisaie and G'raha, the latter mostly got me when he wanted to see Ishgard. Alisaie, true to form, shows she cares about the WoL, which I appreciate because I feel like those two are the only ones I'd consider more than colleagues. (Also fitting that they were the ones who met Zenos!WoL on the road.)

I'm still bummed we lost Zenos, I would've traded at least half the Scions for him. I already commented on Elpis. The icing on top (before everything went disastrously wrong) was having Emet and Hyth as trusts. <3

I also liked the room visits, but I wish they'd been more personal. It's the end of the world (as we know it), it's one-on-one alone time with the WoL, I felt like that was the time for heart-to-hearts that just didn't really seem to happen particularly from characters where I expected it would. I did thoroughly enjoy Estinien going from 0 to 100 though. :P