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  1. #1
    Player
    Wix's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2023
    Posts
    6
    Character
    Wixeline Wistemont
    World
    Balmung
    Main Class
    Red Mage Lv 100

    Badly Predictable Plot Twist Viilains Grind My Gears

    Every once in a while, a story or quest will have a plot twist that I was able to see coming a mile away. This isn't always a bad thing, mind you.
    I'm normally kind of OK with it, or at least unbothered.
    But sometimes, I can predict the twist villain based only on things like the character's race or background, and it just leaves me disgusted with the writing.

    Spoilers for the EW Caster role quests and Sage.

    In the Sage questline, we see a Viera attacking an Elezen, and we drive him off. However, when I did this questline, I noticed that the Elezen was a Duskwight.
    For those who haven't noticed, all except one Duskwight in Job Quests are villains (and the one exception is an apologetic war criminal trying to escape another Duskwight who IS the main villain). In fact, Duskwights are generally villains in most of FF14's storytelling.
    So when I saw the man being attacked was a Duskwight, knowing nothing else, I predicted that the Elezen was actually the villain for no reason other than he was a Duskwight.
    Unfortunately, I was right. He was the villain.

    In the EW Caster role quests, we're briefly introduced to a clergyman who is in charge of the Ishgardian church and told he's a humble, kind man. I immediately thought "Is he going actually turn out to be a villain for no reason other than he's a church leader?" I huffed copium and told myself "No, they wouldn't tell that story a third time. They already did that twice in Heavensward."
    Unfortunately, I was right. He was the villain.
    Granted, the circumstances between the first and second instance of "church leader is actually the villain" are different enough, but frankly, doing it a third time was unwarranted, especially because it feels like the third time was just a repeat of the second. If they really wanted to explore these themes, they should have just revisited one of the previous characters rather than introduce a new one just to do the same thing with him. Especially because some of the role quest's themes were already an explored part of the post-MSQ HW story.

    Not every story needs a twist villain.
    Worse, I think retelling the same plot twist until it becomes predictable as the norm, or having a plot twist that is just a repeat of what is norm, is worse than not having a plot twist at all.
    (5)
    Last edited by Wix; 02-25-2024 at 07:26 AM. Reason: oops, forgot an apostrophe

  2. #2
    Player
    Yuella's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Posts
    711
    Character
    Yuella Davilles
    World
    Ravana
    Main Class
    Conjurer Lv 100
    There's a good Duskwight character in the Werlyt storyline
    (0)

  3. #3
    Player
    Supersnow845's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2021
    Location
    Gridania
    Posts
    6,455
    Character
    Andreas Cestelle
    World
    Jenova
    Main Class
    Scholar Lv 100
    I honestly think the game leans way too hard into race based roles in general

    Like for example if you see a male miqote they are very likely going to be a scholarly magic user who is highly educated (the RDM job quest guy, raha, the new DT NPC), if you see a male highlander he will generally be a “brute”, lala’s of both races are generally money hungry snakes, duskwrights are villains, female miqote’s (that aren’t y’shtola) are damsels in distress

    It all gets a bit old when you can tell how a story is going to go down based on the races of the players
    (4)

  4. #4
    Player
    SannaR's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Posts
    3,316
    Character
    Sanna Rosewood
    World
    Midgardsormr
    Main Class
    White Mage Lv 100
    Quote Originally Posted by Supersnow845 View Post
    I honestly think the game leans way too hard into race based roles in general

    Like for example if you see a male miqote they are very likely going to be a scholarly magic user who is highly educated (the RDM job quest guy, raha, the new DT NPC), if you see a male highlander he will generally be a “brute”, lala’s of both races are generally money hungry snakes, duskwrights are villains, female miqote’s (that aren’t y’shtola) are damsels in distress

    It all gets a bit old when you can tell how a story is going to go down based on the races of the players
    I would have gone with the actual arcanist guild master and not Wuk's brother.

    I think it's more of a gray or dark skin toned elezen being bad problem than an actual Duskwight being bad problem. Does the character in question have a Duskwight model? Yes, but unless they're said to be from the Shroud they're just as I said a gray or dark skin toned elezen. As the terms Duskwight and Wildwood only apply to elezen that come from or live in the Black Shroud. As even though most Ishgardian elezen use a wildwood model we all know that they're not exactly the same as those who call the Shroud home or are from there. Just look at Erenville he comes from a place that isn't one of the two areas we are given as the homeland of the Vieras. Same thing with the Hrothgar that live in Tural are probably going to be their own separate thing. Unless the devs choose to say they fled Bozja not having faith that their country was going to succeed in repelling the Allagan Empire. Since we know Allag hadn't spread in that direction and that Bozja as a city state has been around for that long.
    (0)