Synodic Scribe's "The Steady Change in Writing..." Video

[Catwho]

For me the weakest part of DT wasn't necessarily "too much Wuk Lamat" - that itself is a symptom of the deeper problem, which was less reliance on the ensemble cast.

We didn't get enough twin banter. We didn't get enough conversations between people other than ourselves and the lead NPCs. Part of this is because of Erenville's taciturn nature; he internalized his emotions to the point where he faded into the background too much.

My favorite bits of, say, Heavensward, were when Estinien and Ysayle were arguing with each other, and Alphinaud was doing his best to stop them from grabbing each other's throats. Or similarly in Shadowbringers, when Alisae gets pissed off at Alphinaud and lifts him up by his lapels.

The conflict doesn't always have to be a bigger bad! It can be the personalities of characters clashing. Sigurd hating Moogles. Gerolt griping about Rowena.

The closest we got to this was the bullying from Bakool Ja Ja.... but he traveled with us for all of one zone, and by then he'd already heel-face-turned and was an ally.

[Daralii]

For me the weakest part of DT wasn't necessarily "too much Wuk Lamat" - that itself is a symptom of the deeper problem, which was less reliance on the ensemble cast.

We didn't get enough twin banter. We didn't get enough conversations between people other than ourselves and the lead NPCs. Part of this is because of Erenville's taciturn nature; he internalized his emotions to the point where he faded into the background too much.

My favorite bits of, say, Heavensward, were when Estinien and Ysayle were arguing with each other, and Alphinaud was doing his best to stop them from grabbing each other's throats. Or similarly in Shadowbringers, when Alisae gets pissed off at Alphinaud and lifts him up by his lapels.

The conflict doesn't always have to be a bigger bad! It can be the personalities of characters clashing. Sigurd hating Moogles. Gerolt griping about Rowena.

The closest we got to this was the bullying from Bakool Ja Ja.... but he traveled with us for all of one zone, and by then he'd already heel-face-turned and was an ally.

It's been happening over the course of several expansions, but they've been sanding down the parts of characters' personalities that could potentially cause conflict with other allies, so the inter-group dynamics are completely dead.

[Jeeqbit]

It's been happening over the course of several expansions, but they've been sanding down the parts of characters' personalities that could potentially cause conflict with other allies, so the inter-group dynamics are completely dead.

I think it makes sense to a degree. To give a real-world example, my brother was quite difficult to deal with but over the years he has matured and become more understanding (Covid definitely helped, because being bored led to educating himself about things). So people do often reduce their conflicts over time as their understanding and experience increases.

It's also not realistic to have Thancred go up against the Warrior of Light. He's knows the Warrior of Light will win. Given everything they've been through, they know their little self can't hope to win, so they can't oppose you.

But that's why they need to introduce new characters and have said character not just nod their heads in the exact same way. These new characters have not seen what the Warrior of Light has done first hand, and may not be a believer and just want to be arrogant and confident in themselves.