Ardbert's Party vs the Scions Analysis

[MikkoAkure]

I find it amusing that Hythlodaeus ranked #2 with 13.1% of the vote, so he and Emet combined are more than all the Scions. Not to mention we knew 'real' Hyth for about 3 hours and he instantly shot up to second favorite character. Even ignoring whatever the Scions' popularity is, I'd say that shows player interest in new characters especially if they're well written..

And Venat was number 3 in that poll with 11.7%, just 1.4% behind Hythlodeus, yet people say she's not popular.

And then in March's Famitsu poll, G'raha Tia, a member of the Scions, came in 2nd place with Haurchefant in 3rd (no percentages given). But again, a vote for the Elpis trio doesn't mean no one likes the Scions because you can only vote once. You're allowed to like multiple characters. If people didn't like them, then the writers could have freely offed the Scions in the end. Emet-Selch meanwhile soaks up a lot of the vote because now he's more popular in polls than Sephiroth. Venat and Hythlodeus were "newly" introduced characters who were deeply in focus for the climatic parts of the expansion and the great reveal.

I certainly welcome some new blood, but I'm not sure that completely dismantling the existing party is the right approach just because we've grown used to the current characters and people are latching onto newly introduced and well-written characters. I can see the twins and G'raha remaining since the first two are young and can show their character growth while 3rd is super popular, but that would probably not please the people here looking for the removal of the Scions for some reason.


Just as an aside, Endwalker topped March's poll for favorite expansion at 46% with Shadowbringers at 37%. I liked Shadowbringers better but people still like Endwalker and it wasn't as universally panned as people assume it was.

[Striker44]

Just as an aside, Endwalker topped March's poll for favorite expansion at 46% with Shadowbringers at 37%. I liked Shadowbringers better but people still like Endwalker and it wasn't as universally panned as people assume it was.

What's "hilarious" in a sense is that EW isn't even anywhere close to being "universally panned." In reality, it's actually almost universally praised. Go practically anywhere outside this forum and you'll see almost exclusively very positive comments about it (I recommend checking out virtually any YT video about scenes from EW or its musical score). The fact is that EW in general is overwhelmingly seen as an excellent, solid expansion. You just don't see that with the couple dozen negative regulars here creating their own little echo chamber. But they don't represent the hundreds of thousands of players who far and away like it.

[aveyond-dreams]

Why should I trust youtube videos about the quality of Endwalker's story or handling of its characters after the most recent game some of them have played was Shadowlands?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Why should I trust youtube videos about the quality of Endwalker's story or handling of its characters after the most recent game some of them have played was Shadowlands?

Why does it matter what they recently played?

You've moved more goalposts than a field undergoing renovations.

[Kaurhz]

Why should I trust youtube videos about the quality of Endwalker's story or handling of its characters after the most recent game some of them have played was Shadowlands?

Trying to discredit an opinion or undermine it on the basis of their most recently played game? Sounds like someone who cannot construe a sufficient enough argument otherwise. So please tell me. Why should anyone care or extend the courtesy to you of taking your opinion into account or even seriously when you don't really seem interested otherwise when you don't seem interested?

[tokinokanatae]

The poll under discussion allowed multiple votes for characters. I know this because I participated in it.

When using data from polls, you should have a full understanding of the type of poll it was. Some polls allow a daily vote during the voting period. Some polls allow multiple votes--so you can either split your vote, or put your total all on a single character. Other votes allow only one vote per character. Polls are most helpful in looking at names and where they appear in aggregate to get a rough idea of how popular characters are. Using results from a single poll that allowed multiple votes does not give us an exact percentage of popularity for individual characters for the fandom at large--no poll would do that, actually--and it's disingenuous to use it in that way.

Likewise, it's also disingenuous to use recent newcomers from WoW as fodder for your mythical silent majority while trying to discredit their actual opinions because they're, uh, former WoW players.

As someone who also had issues with EW, it's frankly disheartening to see people use such bad faith arguments to try to make their point. Stop acting like everyone that doesn't agree with you is a moron on that basis alone.

[aveyond-dreams]

I’m not saying anything other than that I just don’t trust their frame of reference. The fact that if you could vote for multiple characters in that poll and they still ended up with those results is also telling.

[tokinokanatae]

No, it's really not. You know what's telling about the poll's veracity in "exact numbers"?

I'd been distracted when I voted in that poll and missed that I could vote for multiple characters until a friend asked me how I'd split my vote. To "fix" this, I loaded the poll in my browser's incognito mode and used my two other votes.

A fan poll with that little oversight on how easily the poll could be rigged tells us pretty much nothing specific.

[Seera1024]

I’m not saying anything other than that I just don’t trust their frame of reference. The fact that if you could vote for multiple characters in that poll and they still ended up with those results is also telling.

Just because the Scions aren't up at the top doesn't mean a majority want to see them gone. Just that most people's favorites are other characters.

Picking a favorite anything is like pulling teeth for me, but if I had a gun to my head I'd pick Hythlodaeus, Ardbert, and Aymeric today. But I don't want to see the Scions disband. Yet, you're trying to claim that my response means I do want them to disband.

[aveyond-dreams]

Those are great characters. If the scions were written to be more like them with greater stakes and development then maybe some people wouldn’t want to see them disband.