Not a fan of Paenaemonium part 2

[Necrotica]

Bad soap opera plot.

That forced me to side with Lahabrea.

That condemns a scientist for breaking Ancient's version of religious dogma.

God forbid someone show an interest in something other than THE STAR!!!!

ALL MUST SERVE THE HOLY STAR!

I still have no clue what Athena did wrong. She experimented on her son. How? Was there torture? Just some aether samples?

This plot is going straight down the toilet.

[Supersnow845]

I definitely didn’t hate it as much as you do but I’m certainly getting sick of the whole ancients dogma around everything is for the star, that preaching is getting really old at this point

But then again part 2’s of a raid series subverting story expectations in what seems like a garbage way only for them to throw a curveball in part 3 is nothing new

[Cilia]

The Ancients' dogmatic devotion to the planet is a little grating, but I don't find it nearly as annoying as the dragons' "Our perception of time is different and that justifies what we're doing!" in Heavensward.

Problem was Athena trying to transcend humanity to godhood is hubristic as all get out. Hephaistos fusing people with their creations and calling themselves "hemitheos" (demigods) makes this pretty apparent, and given he's an incarnation of Lahabrea's "Athena-infected" psyche their goals were one and the same. When you decide your hubristic ambitions take precedence over the good of the people... well.

We still don't know why Erichthonios was so important to her plans, it's one of the lingering mysteries that need to be answered in what's all but certain to be the Tartaros tier.

[Kranel_San]

God forbid someone show an interest in something other than THE STAR!!!!

I think it was less "I'm researching for my personal gains that will disturb no one life" and more of "I'm researching and about to experiment on sacrificing too many people to advance my personal gains"

[sidurgu-12]

I think it was less "I'm researching for my personal gains that will disturb no one life" and more of "I'm researching and about to experiment on sacrificing too many people to advance my personal gains"

honestly she reminded me of orochimaru. an amoral researcher who'll do literally anything to learn more.

[Cleretic]

I think it was less "I'm researching for my personal gains that will disturb no one life" and more of "I'm researching and about to experiment on sacrificing too many people to advance my personal gains"

Also what she was researching is considered outright morally reprehensible, by a society that thinks things like 'inventing apex predators' is a moral good. We don't know what that something is, but we've got some clues.


Honestly, my main objection is that while we were given pretty much every available chance to glower at Lahabrea for... you know, being Lahabrea, we weren't given the same for Elidibus. Something I like the game doing with the more shady characters given atonement/redemption/sympathy arcs is the game giving the chance for us not to buy it; Gaius in Werlyt is a good example, he's atoning on a personal level but the game never demands you forgive him or treat him nice. Lahabrea gets that sort of treatment in a non-linear way, you're allowed to treat him like crap for the things he'll go on to do, and none of the dialog choices outright force you to be kind to/about him if you don't want to. And yet, I am never allowed to drag Elidibus for the things he will do in the future, despite him being just as bad.

Otherwise, Abyssos is great, but it's great in a way that just makes me ask 'where the hell was all of this in Asphodelos'. I didn't leave the first four raids knowing why we were bothering with this whole story on much of any level; moving the Abyssos-end stinger and the reveal of Hephaistos to somewhere in those first four raids would've fixed every problem I have with the series that isn't 'stop forcing me to be nice to Elidibus'.

[tokinokanatae]

Luckily the WoL isn't enough of an asshole to continually dunk on some kid that's done nothing but be kind and helpful to us. (Gee, why didn't get get an option to tell Ga Bu to piss off?)

The reason we're given a variety of responses to Lahabrea and not Themis is that Lahabrea is part of what we're investigating. The location is under his purview and Themis is asking our opinion of him like you might interview another person that's had interactions with a suspect. (Him being Themis's coworker means that Themis would like him to be innocent, but he's trying to get a fuller picture of the problem.)

[Cleretic]

Luckily the WoL isn't enough of an asshole to continually dunk on some kid that's done nothing but be kind and helpful to us. (Gee, why didn't get get an option to tell Ga Bu to piss off?)

The reason we're given a variety of responses to Lahabrea and not Themis is that Lahabrea is part of what we're investigating. The location is under his purview and Themis is asking our opinion of him like you might interview another person that's had interactions with a suspect. (Him being Themis's coworker means that Themis would like him to be innocent, but he's trying to get a fuller picture of the problem.)

Oh, I know. But I'd like the chance to throw some stones at Elidibus once we'd confirmed that was who we were talking to. The fact he hasn't committed horrible crimes yet doesn't mean I don't hate him for doing them in my past which is his future. (Time travel's funky like that.) Let me hold a grudge!

Spin it as being mad that he was dishonest if you need, people seem to really get up in arms about that for some reason.

[Iscah]

Oh, I know. But I'd like the chance to throw some stones at Elidibus once we'd confirmed that was who we were talking to. The fact he hasn't committed horrible crimes yet doesn't mean I don't hate him for doing them in my past which is his future. (Time travel's funky like that.) Let me hold a grudge!

Seriously, why? He's innocent at this point. You can't harass someone for something they're going to do but haven't yet.

If anything, you're going to cause a time-looping start to him being a nastier person.

[Cleretic]

Seriously, why? He's innocent at this point. You can't harass someone for something they're going to do but haven't yet.

If anything, you're going to cause a time-looping start to him being a nastier person.

I'm not gonna claim this is a positive desire, or even a big one. But the game's let us be snippy and mean to plenty of NPCs for far less reasons than 'we know that they do extremely terrible things in the future'.

If we were allowed to suggest to an innocent Ananta that we might just kill her god because we can, I see no reason why we can't at least scowl at Elidibus. But honestly, the fact that this mostly-joking demand is the only complaint I have about Abyssos (beyond 'these events should've happened earlier) is a good thing!