Is there a way to buy a story skip for "Just" Heavensward? (Spoilers)

[Asari5]

that 'douche' estinien got character developement though. no reason to love him, but at least he brings flowers to ysayles 'grave'

not like she's completely forgotten

[LianaThorne]

OP do as you like but be aware that this is how the rest of the game plays out. You don't get choices on who to side with, you get the companions you get and your character likes them regardless of your opinions. This isn't a game where choices matter or are even considered (outside of random references to jobs if you have them unlocked) you get what the devs want to give you.

ARR was the exception as you can pick which GC to join, which city to start in, etc. HW -> EW, you're along for the ride.

[Lunaxia]

There are a few things you have to understand here.

First of all, Nidhogg was the one perpetuating the war. King Thordan and his knights instigated it, but they died well over a thousand years ago, and Nidhogg knew this. He chose to lock the Ishgardians in a prolonged war of attrition purely out of vengeance and retribution just to make them suffer, and made no distinction between the current day Ishgardians who had nothing to do with what happened to Ratatoskr and those who had wronged him. As Jojoya said, there was never any hope of reconciliation so long as he lived. The other dragons who were not of his brood had no part in it, and kept mostly to themselves. Truthfully, they likely suffered more at the hands of Nidhogg for refusing the call to join his campaign than as a result of anything the mortals did to them.

If you're looking at who lost the most, it's the Ishgardians who are the victims here. They were manipulated and lied to their entire lives for generations by senior members of the Church in order to ensure their compliance in giving their lives fighting a meaningless war they had no idea they could never actually win. You can hardly blame them for struggling with the truth that everything that had defined their lives until that point for over a thousand years was built on a lie, after having been indoctrinated since birth into believing theirs was the righteous cause - and all of this on the word of individuals they had been raised to see as their nation's mortal enemy. All things considered, they actually adapted rather well.

Fundamentally, Heavensward is not a story that lends itself well to black and white views of morality, and in general that's what made it so popular - it's a much more honest and realistic view of how people behave rather than a "the baddies are bad and the good guys always do the right thing" morality tale, and it makes the characters all the more relatable and interesting for it. Nobody is truly innocent or solely to blame here, save for Thordan and in his own way, Nidhogg, and your view that the Ishgardians should be bending over backwards trying to win the favor of the dragons because technically they "started" it oversimplifies what is a much more complex situation.

I'm also a little sceptical of how much attention you've been paying to parts of the story when you're highlighting Ishgard's attitude towards outsiders as a problem and then claiming you managed to grow fond of Gridania of all places. I'd maybe go back and replay that portion again, lol.

ETA: Full agree on Iceheart, though. That was a cheap shot and I share similar feelings on how they tend to deal with certain kinds of female characters.

[SannaR]

To answer SannaR's message,

it's odd for you, but not for them. Just simply don't care about such small things. They made their choice and they're happy with it, as you can see below. That's all that should matter. OP's question is resolved. Let's move on with our lives.

I'm not sure if you're correct in your assumption. Sure, they probably didn't know that outside of Endwalker every post expansion patch concludes on the .3 patch and starts the build up to the next expansion from there. Yet the OP's problem seems to stem from not enjoying the story. In a game that builds onto and expands on things prior expansions go and explain. Threads like this one can be very helpful and informative for others down the line. Maybe someone else has the same question the OP does for similar reasons of not liking the Ishgardians or their story. Yet they might not go and buy that story skip if they know that the story stops being one focused on Ishgard and moves its focus to Ala Mhigo and the Near East. Or that they're close to the end and feel they can try and hold out in hopes the build up to Stormblood rewets their appetite for the story.

This is of course an assumption that anyone finding this thread down the road is wanting a skip for Heavensward for the same reason as the OP. As they could be wanting to skip for other reasons. At times I'm glad that most of the forums don't work the same way as the technical support and bug section.

[Moqi]

3 pages of people telling OP is wrong about what they like is insane.

[Brynne]

Fortunately, I have the ability to skip lol. For any parts I miss, I can always watch on Youtube and then it's someone else's character going through it instead of my own.

You're about done with Heavensward so I recommend not skipping, or at least make sure you watch on Youtube before continuing with Stormblood. There's some crucial pieces that set up Stormblood coming up, so you'll want to know exactly what's going on before you step into that expansion.

As for pigeonholing your character, I'm afraid that's something the story does fairly frequently. It's quite nice when you agree with it but a little jarring when you don't. The story will have you feel certain ways about certain characters, agree with certain philosophies, and so on. I do recommend holding out for Shadowbringers since you've made it this far, but if you're still unhappy with the game after that, Endwalker probably won't save it for you. Sometimes a story just doesn't resonate right for whatever reason.

[Kira619]

I remember really disliking earlier HW, I was complaining about it to people and was basically coming back every few minutes to be like AND ANOTHER THING. it wasn't until near the end that it became one of my favorite expansions. But if you're upset with these topics, you may also dislike Stormblood, there's sooo many racist microaggressions and red flags throughout it in the actual writing/art, I remember just having my mouth drop open at a few points, and the playerbase really, really prefers to never, ever talk acknowledge that.

Funny enough that's how I felt about HW, the microaggressions there felt like someone attempting to write a nuance story without really understanding the side that received the aggressions. The fact that stormblood contains the same problems is problematic to say the least, but at least it sounds like the remaining 2 expansions break past that.

In this particular issue, there's one big reason that Ishgard couldn't send help: Ravana. Throwing troops without the Echo into battle against a primal is just handing the primal more conscripts.

Oh I wasn't saying Ishguard could've stopped Ravana, I was saying there should have been a battalion to handle the smaller forces of the Gnath, while the warrior of light addressed Ravana. After all, did the dragons stopped Nidhogg? No they didn't, not even Hraevsgar did, because the story centers around the warrior of light. But the point wasn't for Ishguard to stop the Gnath, the point was for Ishguard to actually participate in the struggles that the dragons were going through. Because as mentioned, all of the requests were done by the side who committed the aggressions.

There are a few things you have to understand here.

If you're looking at who lost the most, it's the Ishgardians who are the victims here.


ETA: Full agree on Iceheart, though. That was a cheap shot and I share similar feelings on how they tend to deal with certain kinds of female characters.

What? If you believe the ones who lost the most isn't the original group of people who receive the transgressions, but the descendants of the people who caused those transgression just because they were lied to, then the only thing "we're" going to understand is that we're going to have a massively drastic viewpoint on who were the ones that lost the most. If people enjoy Heavensward, more power to them. I already said my piece of the problematic nature seen within Heavensward. And the only thing that reflects to me, like similar situations irl, is that there will always be folks who view topics such as these differently. No skin off my back, I'm just glad I get to skip what I'm not enjoying.

[LianaThorne]

Is this boiling down to a political thread?

[Merrigan]

Is that thread troll? I mean... Surely nobody wants to have a story where you side with the good guys who are perfectly innocent, to fight the bad guys who are perfectly corrupt?

[Boblawblah]

Is that thread troll? I mean... Surely nobody wants to have a story where you side with the good guys who are perfectly innocent, to fight the bad guys who are perfectly corrupt?

Yes to both questions.