Quote Originally Posted by Jojoya View Post
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Again, there's some really bad writing going on and some of it is at odds with things that were explained in prior expansions. Trying to nitpick philosophical points is rather useless when it's a fictional story and the writers are the ones that control what is going on.

The writers created the Endless as computer facsimiles of dead people based on the memories stripped from their souls and so that's all they are. The intended moral appears to be "it is wrong to kill the living for the sake of those already dead", which does more or less align with one of the morals at the core of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark story.

It doesn't matter how much players wants to convince themselves the Endless are living beings. The writers have told us that they are not and it is the writers that have created the Endless.
That's the main problem. I agree, there's some REALLY bad writing going on, and some of it is not only at odds with things from the past, but it's at odds within itself. There's even an interview where YoshiP talks about Living Memory and how it "makes us face this question".

That then makes us face the question, would we call that human? If someone is living in this digital world, are they really living?
It seems that in some point during early development, he thought about this. The gondola quest makes me think it was supposed to be there, but then, everywhere else, it ISN'T. And I'm sorry, but we are used to this game throwing philosofical questions at us and letting us nitpick them and reach our own conclusions, so it's not weird to have expected that to happen here - it didn't, and that's disappointing.
If the writers really created the Endless to only be computer facsimiles and not meant to be seen as living, then what was even the point of even meeting them? Why did they go out of the way to humanize them, if we were supposed to not think about it?
The scenes were all written to be emotional, and none of the characters acted like that meant less to them because of what they were, but that question was never raised. We treated all of the Endless like we would any other living being, and Wuk Lamat kept talking about how much fun she was having (which would often be either annoying, out of touch or outright disrespectful - she never thought about ANYTHING).

My point is that the philosofical debate shoul be there, but then something happened that it was either discarded or they failed to write them in there, and it's not weird that the playerbase is thinking about it.
The writers should have the control of what is there, but we shouldn't feel like we're being forced to think what they want us to. Well written stories usually make us reach the conclusion the writer wants us to by ourselves.