A short quest chain tackled Dawntrail's themes better than Dawntrail

[LilimoLimomo]

There are some opinions in this piece.

This weekend I was watching my spouse as they finally got around to playing the level 70 Dark Knight quest; I had only vaguely remembered it, and I was eager to both see their reaction and to refresh my memory of it. And after having the chance to experience it again: dang, what a fantastic and moving quest. If you haven't yet experienced it for yourself, maybe consider going to do that before you read further; I leave that ball in your court.

Myste kills living creatures for their aether so that he can conjure recreations of the dead from the memories of others, because he (and thus the Warrior of Light) struggles with the sadness and pain and suffering brought about by loss — the loss of both friend and foe alike. Which is what lead him to decide that he should recreate all those who have passed so that they can live again and no one will have to experience that kind of loss again.

The Warrior of Light and their comrades reject this idea along numerous axes. They call out the fact that this task would require killing innumerable living creatures for their aether. They point out that death is an inevitable and important part of life for everyone, and that the temporary nature of the time we spend together is part of what makes it so precious. They speak of how those who die continue to live on in our memories. And of course, they also imply that Myste's plan isn't a logical solution to anything, but rather a flailing attempt to be free of the overwhelming anguish that he is currently feeling; and that while right now the weight of these losses feels unbearable to the point where Myste is desperate to be free of it, their weight is too important to shed.

The Dark Knight level 70 quest (chain) does a bang-up job of tackling this topic, and it was presented in a way that felt honest and moved me to tears. I can't help but wonder why Dawntrail's writer(s) felt the need to return to this topic with a story that was so incredibly similar to the one that Ishikawa had already written, while somehow being less cohesive and impactful.

[Cleretic]

Yes, congratulations. You've recognized that a constant theme Final Fantasy XIV goes back to is that bringing back the dead, by any means and name you call it, is an understandable and sympathetic motivation that will inevitably lead to ruin. Everyone wants to bring back what they've lost, and is right to want that, but grasping for it to the expense of others will only cause pain and destruction; while it's right to remember what you've lost, it's wrong to sacrifice what you have to get it back.

You might also remember this theme from:
-Stormblood Alchemist,
-Both of Edda's non-MSQ stories,
-Tiamat's story of Bahamut's summoning,
-Bozja by curveball,
-The Endwalker caster role quest,
-The Ascians.

And this is just the times I can think of that they've gone back to this particular theme. They actually do quite a lot of reiterating on a theme or concepts in a few different ways, often by having sort of a 'prototype' turn up in side content before hitting primetime in an MSQ. Consider Amdapor City Hard soft-launching Sin Eaters, the primal Eureka essentially wielding creation magic, or the Totentantz being a proto-End of Days. This is much easier to follow when there's a concrete and tangible thing rather than a general theme where it more comes down to vibes, but it also happens there; consider how every single ALC/CUL quest since Shadowbringers has been the exact same goddamn story, and that's honestly way worse than just 'constantly going back to being anti-necromancy', because it's telling the exact same crowd the exact same weirdly specific story.

And personally I liked several of those stories I listed a lot more than Stormblood Dark Knight, including Living Memory itself (you're only talking about Living Memory, by the way, this isn't true about the rest of Dawntrail). Like, once I realized Bozja was one of these stories I was in love with its approach.

[LilimoLimomo]

Yes, congratulations.

Thank you, I appreciate the kind words. ^^

[Cilia]

Dawntrail's themes are actually legacy (the JP name for the expansion is, flat-out, "Gilded Legacy"), family, and the weight of expectations.

The thread of looking to the future with hope instead of attempting to bring back what was lost at any cost, a common theme from 2.0 onward, is there, but it's kind of a knock-on because the story features rebirth as such a prominent motif. (Phoenix is basically CS III's unofficial mascot.)

[LilimoLimomo]

Dawntrail's themes are actually legacy (the JP name for the expansion is, flat-out, "Gilded Legacy"), family, and the weight of expectations.

The thread of looking to the future with hope instead of attempting to bring back what was lost at any cost, a common theme from 2.0 onward, is there, but it's kind of a knock-on because the story features rebirth as such a prominent motif. (Phoenix is basically CS III's unofficial mascot.)

Oh, to be clear I agree there are indeed other themes as well. I suppose the way I framed this thread made it seem more reductive than I had intended, and I'll own that mistake.