Why are alisaie and alphinaud in Dawntrail?

[Gember]

All I am getting from this thread is that the Trust system ruined the writing for the scions in Dawntrail.

You know, we had like random soldiers and scions with no names help us in the past regarding trusts. Why can't we have a little bit of side lore and help from a NPC from a village/town in Tural somewhere? That way the scions we all know and love doesn't have to be wedged into the story like this. People can see them again at a more proper time. We got all of those feather guys and gals just hanging out in Tuli; so why not bring one of them along for the ride? (Edit: We had a whole entire side story explaining the importance and power of the hanu hanu feathers that were placed on armor.)

[Nadda]

Like ok no problem, i get the devs want us to see familiar faces... but why?

I said this before at the end of 6.4 I said it was a mistake to take the Twins out of Garlemald.

Many people rejected my message since they love the twins so much.

But to me not only was the last 10 years the story of Hydaelyn and Zodiark. It was Alphinaud and Alisaies (and by extension Louisoix's) story

It makes logical sense that the Twins would see a rebuilding of a shattered despot nation to the end. The whole story was building to them being independent and coming into their own and the guilt they felt for those poor Garlemald children dying instead of accepting our help.

Now all a sudden it's a flaw in Dawntrail that they were put in the background.

Well of course they'd be relegated back there! They are window-dressing. There's nothing left to develop at this point.

Maybe at some later point say after a Crafter/Gather Garlemald rebuilding effort we could reunite with the Twins in a critical moment. Perhaps against a militant Dalmascan faction that doesn't want to stop fighting a war against Garlemald and our tenuous stance of protecting this new Garlemald leads us into conflict with them and even former allies in the Eorzean alliance. Sort of a story that people can change and that an eye for an eye will leave everyone blind type moral.

In my honest opinion, our only real travel companion for future installments should be Graha Tia because we promised to go on journeys together. But they wrote him out of the story only to cart him back in when we were in yet another doomsday scenario.

Estinien I understand always being kept on the sidelines because he's your JRPG ("Second Strongest" Stoic party member) that joins at the last minute when things are at their worse. The guy who holds down the fort if you as the MC should fall.

[Antharaes]

Estinien pretty uneeded

Estinien is never, ever unneeded.

[NanaWiloh]

Estinien is never, ever unneeded.

Rofl I think he would agree with you. He joins cause he is asked or out of personal interest.

[Hallarem]

Marketability and the fear that people will not tune in if the Scions aren't there in some form?

Only instead of using them in any way, they ended up being emotionless puppets to the plot and sidelined at every turn. I could understand Estinien, I mean he got a holiday and is living his best adventurer life. HELL, even Vrtra got sidelined for a 20 second ALLIANCE written offscreen with Radz At Han, like what the hell. The MSQ was rushed and slowed down at the same time.

But the rest? Eugh. Alisaie calling Wuk Lamat, "Lamatie" made me want to throw up, totally unearned, totally forced garbage tier writing for a childrens show like the rest of the MSQ. You can't just switch tones after the earlier expansions, you need to EARN it.

You honestly give the HELM of your cash cow to these unproved, rookie writers? Are you okay? With the baffling and safe choices that keep us marred in this same old cycle of "Talk to this npc, have 1.5 housing items per patch, have 2.5 quests per patch and Viera hats and Hrotgar hats still non existent after years." I'm gonna say it. I think Yoshi P needs to go, Soken needs to go and these new writers need to go together with Koji (So we don't get another expansion song advertising for their band.) and they need to helm some other project for SE.

You honestly rushed Endwalker instead of making two expansions for THIS? Only for this subpar story that was rushed and slowed down back and forth with bad pacing? Man oh man. "Krile is gonna play a huge part?" Oh really? SHE BARELY HAD LINES IN THE WHOLE OF 7.0

[BiddyBatnana]

Glad they appeared so little, they're getting on my nerves both of them, s'pecially Alisaie. What a pain..

[ZXN]

You could ask this question for nearly all of the Scions. The only Scion that NEEDED to be in Dawntrail was Krile. Even then though her impact on the story was so minimal, despite being hyped up by the devs constantly to have a massive role, that it feels more like she was thrown in as an afterthought simply because people wanted to see more Krile and threw together some story behind her to make her seem "relevant". The twins in particular though acted like husks of themselves, with Alisaie being one of the worst given most of her sass seems to have vanished to become a yes man to Wuk. She even STOPPED everyone from going after Zoraal Ja, when old Alisaie no doubt would've lunged at him alongside Wuk in a heartbeat. Alphinaud meanwhile was...there, he was there...just like the rest...who HAD to be there in Dawntrail too.

It's pretty much just marketing at this point, and the story finding ways to shoehorn them in so all of the Scions will always be included somehow in progressing the plot, no matter how minor the role.

[Raikai]

They are just their to learn from how another country handles matters, Tural, and then take that information to go and help the Garleans on the relief effort. Nothing more.

Which is a completely arse reason if you'd ask me. There's nothing we encountered that would represent some sort of character growth in that regard. They probably seen more valuable things in Shadowbringers alone.

And even if it was meant to be a fruitless quest ("well we tried but we didn't see anything that we could use."), why both of them? Why not an actual Garlean like Jullus? The story could be written that way. I honestly feel that a garlean reacting to Turali culture and taking notes would be much more endearing to see.

[MalakRevan]

So they can ask "Where's Wuk Lamat?" when Wuk Lamat isn't on screen.

Yep, just like almost every other character in Dawntrail she's here to be Wuk's personal cheerleader.

[Cubsbane]

It kills me because there are a fair amount of times where they could have piped up with their opinions, showing off what they've learned in our past journeys, but they... do not. Even when the story delivers the perfect scenario on a platter, they barely say anything.

We can still have the old scions participate in the story, we just need better writers so that they actually participate.

And I do think it's a writing issue, rather than them trying to make room for Wuk Lamat, because despite all the room she has her writing isn't any better. They weren't holding out on us, this is the best they had. They weren't ready for such a big project yet.