Unpopular opinion on G'raha Tia (spoilers)

[Petite]

I'd have been glad to never hear the word Allag uttered again after the end of Season 1.

Same boat. I find Allag architecture tacky/gaudy (Coils of Bahamut, Three Fiends, the Aetherochemical Facility). But it's inevitable I'm afraid.

[MagicPeanut]

I get where you're coming from, (and people tend to feel similarly like you do a lot on these forums) but I'm personally happy with G'raha being (or was) in the Scions, despite his character arc seemingly complete. In fact, I couldn't stop fangirling over it. The character, as he exists now, I guess was made for people like me who like fanservice of a wholesome catboy. I get that that's not everyone's cup of tea, but as long as thirsty weebs like me are still around, characters like him and Y'shtola probably aren't going away. They'll probably be even more relevant honestly.

(Of course, that's not to say that I don't see these characters as anything but fanservice. I think they're written very well too, and appreciate their presence from a "story perspective," as well.)

To me, I fought a lot of battles to rescue the Exarch (after feeling bad for years over the ending for the CT raids) and needed a reward for all that. Keeping G'raha around (even if it's as fanservice) is more than enough!

[aveyond-dreams]

Fan service to the degree we saw in Endwalker does not belong in the MSQ. Leave it in side quests if it must be in the game at all, because appeasing character fan clubs shouldn’t come at the cost of a well-developed story with compelling stakes and consequences.

Their fans would love them regardless whether they live or die and, as they tend to do, would move on the minute a new character that suits their whims is released.

[Darthgummibear]

I'm not a particularly huge fan of G'raha either and I've had some...very unpleasant encounters with his more devout fans who spew vitriol at anyone who happens to dislike him for any reason whatsoever.

I do think his story could have been ended neatly back in 5.3 and I was disappointed that all the build up just resulted in another fake death. It's getting very boring to me for the game to play sad music and force our character to basically cry over something only for the consequences of the act in question to be reversed literally minutes later. I can't say the game would have gripped me back in the days of ARR or HW if the likes of the Vesper Bay or the Vault incidents were simply reversed a couple of minutes later.

I'd like more weight and depth to the story. For the protagonists to actually suffer rather than the consequences being almost exclusively aimed at minor characters, antagonists and obvious red shirt characters.

Ever the diplomat. I wish I had your patience.

[SentioftheHoukai]

I wouldn't say that this is an unpopular opinion at all. I didn't begin to dislike the character until after 5.3 wrapped up and it was all downhill from there. Letting characters bow out and exit with grace was like they did back in Heavensward with Ysayle and Haurchefaunt was one of the better aspects of the kind of storytelling we enjoyed in that era.

Despite however vocal some of his current fans are, there are a significant amount of people who are dissatisfied with his current treatment. If it does not improve, then indeed we would've been better off leaving him behind atop the Crystal Tower.

I mean, we kinda DID leave him atop the Crystal Tower in the First. That version of him died there. This is what I choose to believe, because the alternative is the Warrior of Light committing an oopsie and accidentally dropping G'raha's more mature and tolerable Exarch persona somewhere in the vast depths of the Interdimensional Rift whilst drifting back to the Source during the tail end of 5.3.

I'd have been glad to never hear the word Allag uttered again after the end of Season 1.

And naturally there's this sort of dismissiveness and misinterpretation of people's critiques on both the characters present in the main cast at the moment and those we would've liked to see added.

Trust me when I say the last thing "edgelords" wanted was a character questioning "What is a friend?" Because that's not an answer she'll ever find hanging around the Scions that's for sure.

Aaaaaaaayuuuup! The Scions and the Warrior of Light especially throw away their "friends" and sacrifice them to the Final Days whensoever it's convenient for them to do so. Clearly, Zero can do better.

Also, these people's reasoning for keeping the dopey incarnation of Raha around is moronic. The Ancients are all dead and Garlemald has been done away with in as lazily a way possible. Considering both these factions' ties to Allag, what makes them think we'll ever see the Empire directly referenced again?

[ReynTime]

Allagan knowledge? As been done in the past, you have the entire Garlond cast, Y'shtola and a dozen other characters they have always pulled exposition out of the hat when the plot demands it.
Simping for WoL? Alisaie already did that. And she was a lot less annoying than him about it, with more dimensions.
G'raha's "role" after 5.3 was only justifiable for ONE scene in Endwalker. And even that scene could have been filled by one or more Scions.

But he's a pretty catboy who acts shy and that's what matters I guess.

[AwesomeJr44]

I personally think G'raha's story should have ended atop the Crystal Tower without him returning to the Source.

Agreed. Graha's story ended on the crystal tower. But because the ffxiv community is so against character deaths, we have to have him follow us around like a lost puppy, or a lost kitten perhaps would be more accurate lol.

To be blunt. I wish all the Scions except Estinien would just go away. I find them all boring. They all know everything or knows someone who does, they can do anything, and they have little to no real flaws. Alisaie is probably salvageable, but these wild swings between crying about the wol to stronk gamer girl are extremely annoying. I am more interested in Estinien, Gaius, and Vytra. They actually have goals and motivations. Not just some open ended save the world slog.

The main problem with the scions is that many of them are the exact same character copy pasted. Yshtola, Urianger, Graha, and Alphinaud (to a somewhat lesser extent) are all booksmart type characters. (I say Alphanaud to a lesser extent as he also has the diplomat side of his character to make him slightly more interesting) That's over half of the scions. We constantly have the same character shoved in our faces just with a different coat of paint, and once you get sick of one of them, you tend to get sick of all of them. The only scion I have any interest in right is Estinein because he's not the same thing we've had for 4 expansions. Thancred was the same way for me, but his arc is pretty much over and I don't think he should be kept around much longer or he'll begin overstaying his welcome.

I'm not a particularly huge fan of G'raha either and I've had some...very unpleasant encounters with his more devout fans who spew vitriol at anyone who happens to dislike him for any reason whatsoever.

Same and same.

I do think his story could have been ended neatly back in 5.3 and I was disappointed that all the build up just resulted in another fake death. It's getting very boring to me for the game to play sad music and force our character to basically cry over something only for the consequences of the act in question to be reversed literally minutes later. I can't say the game would have gripped me back in the days of ARR or HW if the likes of the Vesper Bay or the Vault incidents were simply reversed a couple of minutes later. I'd like more weight and depth to the story. For the protagonists to actually suffer rather than the consequences being almost exclusively aimed at minor characters, antagonists and obvious red shirt characters.

Agreed. Back in ARR/HW they had the guts to actually kill off a popular character on the hero team if it made the story more impactful. There were actual stakes because you knew that characters weren't invincible. Thus when something bad happened, you knew it had permanence and that it meant something. I must admit I ALMOST thought they were seriously going to kill off Yshtola in Raktika, but alas they reversed that too. Throughout the entirety of Endwalker, I just couldn't bring myself to care as none of the scions were ever in danger. Sure, the sidequest NPCs around me were dying, but SE doesn't have it in them to actually give the heroes consequences.

Holy sh*t! Page 2 in under an hour? I’m not in the pvp section anymore!

Welcome to the General Discussion section, where ALL of the discussion happens

I was actually hesitant to make this thread for this exact reason. I didn't know the pulse of the community concerning him. I only knew he has the biggest Stans out of all the characters.

Eh, he definetly has one of the biggest stanbases out there, but I think the award goes to Venat. Try making a thread against Venat and you'll have half the forum out for blood because you insulted their queen.

[dapperfaffer]

As long as Y'shtola is alive G'raha Tia will always be irrelevant.

[Iscah]

I don't mind so much that they woke him up, it's just that the soul transfer was successful. The Crystal Exarch had his plot arc fulfilled.

What I would have liked to have to seen happen is the soul transfer not work. Young G'raha not accepting the "new" soul/memories - or at least not fully enough for Crystal Exarch side to be the dominant.

I thought it's sort of the point (as demonstrated by his personality now) that the Exarch isn't dominant. His memories are there and they come up strongly sometimes, but G'raha is predominantly his younger self personality-wise.

I think it's easier to view it that the Exarch and G'raha are separate characters and the Exarch effectively died in 5.3, even though we still get flashes of him in his younger self.

I'm one of those who was happy they didn't kill him off completely, but I can also agree that his character arc could have ended atop the Crystal Tower and I still would have been content. He lived a long life, saved a world, and got to protect the WoL until the end. That's a good time to return to the aetherial sea, no?

Agreed on this. It would have been the perfect cap to all of Shadowbringers' themes, and he had absolutely earned his rest.

As late as midway through 5.3 I thought his plan to send his soul over to the Source was a bluff, and really he knew and accepted he was dying and had only ever intended to give us the crystal containing his memories but not his soul.

I think it would have played out so much more powerfully, and we could still have young G'raha join us afterwards and even still have the Exarch's memories to draw from, but it would save so much confusion over why he isn't acting the same.

[VentVanitas]

I do not consider Crystal Exarch and G'raha Tia the same character. Are they the same person? Yes, but one of them is a respectfully handled character with a profound story and the other is walking moe-bait that exists only to be put into the thumbnails of crappy reaction videos. I miss Papalymo.