DT's Writing: What Could've Been Better

[Daralii]

It doesn’t fix anything else, but I don’t understand why they didn’t just use the arc that the story offered her.

The Rite of Succession, which could be shorter, established Wuk Lamat as a well intentioned but naive optimist. She grows a bit but remains steadfast in that happiness and peace can be achieved with talk and tacos. She gets everything she has ever wanted when she becomes Dawnservant with her brother. Act I ends. Joy and smiles all around.

We spend unknown time in Shaaloani and the Dome appears. In a matter of *days*, Wuk Lamat goes from living her dream life to being on a quest to kill a sibling and having lost both parental figures. She is not established as a stoic, cool under pressure character who is steeped in years of loss and wisdom. She is a naive optimist - that has just lost everything to betrayal. Her world view should be shattered at this point in the story.

Wuk Lamat learning to choose love and peace and optimism and tacos not out of naivety but in the face of deep loss is a great potential character arc. It’s a shame she didn’t get it, but there was apparently already too much happening to take the time to treat the expansion’s ‘main character’ as an actual person experiencing and responding to the events happening to them.

She also seems to completely lack empathy, because when Krile and Erenville(her supposed childhood best friend) are dealing with what happens to their own parents, she mostly seems bored and eager to move on to anything else.

[Hyperia]

How the hell are we mentoring....when did we mentor we did a bunch of head nodding.... yeah DT story is a mess arcadia is still awesome tho

The entire Tural arc could have been completed without us, I totally felt like I was around because they didn’t want to go to the party without a date. All I had to do was smile and nod.

[Zackneifein]

Just some cutscenes with us training in combat or talking with Wuk Lamat (no need for dialogues, like we did with Venat). It would have justified Wuk Lamat progression and the WoL affection for it's pupil.

[StormChase]

It took 32 quests in the post Shadowbringer quests for me to go from "Oh, who was this guy?... ah right, Elidibus." to "Oh god the poor thing! Let me hug him!!" while bawling my eyes off.

In 100 quests they couldn't make me like Poochie.

When you have such a black hole like her, everything else suffers, everything else gets pushed to the bare minimum in favor of that black hole.

There's your main issue.

That's not a fair comparison because Elidibus had been a part of the plot since 2.1 and the big payoff was in 5.3. Wuk Lamat's been a part of the plot since 6.55. It's because Elidibus' story had more time to be spread out that they could focus on other things too. If Elidibus suddenly appeared much later I don't think you would've seen him the same way.

[Daralii]

That's not a fair comparison because Elidibus had been a part of the plot since 2.1 and the big payoff was in 5.3. Wuk Lamat's been a part of the plot since 6.55. It's because Elidibus' story had more time to be spread out that they could focus on other things too. If Elidibus suddenly appeared much later I don't think you would've seen him the same way.

He was just a mysterious and mostly indirect antagonist until Shadowbringers. I don't think what and who he was started getting explained until 5.2.

[StormChase]

That's not a fair comparison because Elidibus had been a part of the plot since 2.1 and the big payoff was in 5.3. Wuk Lamat's been a part of the plot since 6.55. It's because Elidibus' story had more time to be spread out that they could focus on other things too. If Elidibus suddenly appeared much later I don't think you would've seen him the same way.

Also, another thing Elidibus has going for him is that he's a villain. A hero usually needs more on-screen time for their journey than a villain does. Not that there can't be rushed villains. If he was introduced in 5.2 or even 5.1 he wouldn't have been as effective.

[StormChase]

He was just a mysterious and mostly indirect antagonist until Shadowbringers. I don't think what and who he was started getting explained until 5.2.

True, but the fact he was around for so long without us knowing what his deal was made it all the more satisfying when we finally learned.

[PorxiesRCute]

Unironically, I think more combat in the MSQ would have helped the writing.

First, imagine if we'd gotten to spar with Wuk Lamat every so often as we progressed through MSQ. This would also have helped establish characterization for her and the mentorship we're supposed to have for her. Then when we get to the Wuk Lamat-vs-Bakool Ja Ja solo duty in Yak T'el it would be like the culmination of all those fights.

Then there's the invasion of Tuliyollal. We should have fought our way through the streets, arrived at the throne room to find Zoraal Ja standing over Gulool Ja Ja's lifeless body, and been incapacitated by a flashback to what just happened as he walked off.

Finally, switching off the terminals in Living Memory was... really dull. Shouldn't there have been some security? Literally just spawn a boss at each one that we have to DPS down.

[Uncle_Jafar]

How can a writer go from writing a character like Emet-Selch to this stuff? This odd regression of talent.

edit: found the answer: Natsuko Ishikawa, the writer behind emet-selch was not involved in DT. There ya go.

[Banriikku]

Hmmm.
Wuk Lamat. The problem is, what is she as a charcter? The sheltered princess who is adopted and for that reason has self-confidence problems and trys to prove herself even if this means to fight her family?

I do not know. We do not know enough about her and her origin or how the family was treating her. How came her relationships into beeing and with whom. Why does she not care about her birth parents? Despite beeing adopted why does she want the throne or how does she thinks about it. How was her childhood. We know so little.

DT shows with that experiment (how to fix DT story) that every story NEEDS Worldbuilding, Characterbuilding. DT is missing both of these. I could write in less a day a story that takes the MSQ into account and fits into DT. Not because i am good but there is nothing of substance. It is not shaped or formed. Every writer,regardless of whether TV, streaming, cinema or book or even theater will tell you this. What you put out there needs a basis and that is Worldbuilding and Characterbuilding without that you have a blob of playdough.

If you think i am wrong try the following: Switch a character with something else or remove said character. Or try to remove MSQ-story arc's and look out for "would it still work as story?". The result is frightening because somebody saw that story and gave the go.