The finale of the Arcadion is an absolute disapointment.

[Connor]

Gonna be honest, Arcadion has been one of the weakest, most boring raid storyline we’ve ever had in my opinion. Hell, even ‘Lahabrea has family drama: the raid series’ was (marginally) more interesting.

I haven’t even started the final set of raids and am already fully confident I’m still not going to give a shit about the storyline by the end lol.

[Wasselin]

I don't agree it was terrible but it is weird how in Dawntrial there does seem to be a sudden turn where bad things aren't allowed to happen for long and a happy ending is required no matter what.

It requires the story to twist into weird knots. For example the President of the Arcadian is presented as a "good guy" even though he did terrible things for the sake of "entertainment". Or the Brute Bomber, who tried to kill us unless we believe he was completely in control of himself after using several beast souls at once.

Even in the MSQ I kind of expected some more friction between the nations.

Everything is starting to become a little too saccharine for me. Hopefully it's just a minor story detour for the filler expansion after Endwalker and not a permanent course correction.

[HiroesX81]

The reason none of the characters in the Arcadion end up being evil is because it is based on Professional Wrestling and that's how Professional Wrestling works. They are all good people in real life but some of them "play" evil characters known as heels.

That's why Brute Bomber legitimately makes you feel like he's evil and then turns out not to be. That's why the President creates a situation where you are the heel trying to tear down the Arcadion, then before the finale they do a double turn (President is revealed as the biggest heel in history and you become the biggest babyface in history). And then they reveal all that was just characters they were playing and that they are of course good people in real life, because that's how wrestling works.

For that reason, I thought they did an extremely good job with the story. Most people don't understand nor appreciate wrestling (if they know anything about it, they just say it's fake and they don't get it). If there is one story that can help people appreciate what it's supposed to be, it's this.

As a fan of 90s attitude era I was satisfied and was well fed.

[Kennar]

Adding a few more thoughts here...

"It's wrestling, it's supposed to be silly!" is not a good argument to me. It's possible, and perfectly reasonable, to do over-the-top pro wrestling things in the ring, and still have a serious story behind the scenes. The convoluted ruse pulled over the WoL was cheap writing, plain and simple. How come the WoL couldn't be let in on the plan? What if the WoL never showed up? Was the President going to continue to put his best fighters into indefinite stasis and just hope that eventually someone strong enough to kill him would appear, all for the ratings? That's pretty evil, if you ask me. And then we have the surfer dudes committing crimes (breaking and entering, felony property damage, kidnapping), along with near bloodshed in the streets as the fighters challenge the WoL, all waved away with "Nah, we're just playin', bro."

Let's outline some quick changes to the story. The WoL gets involved in the Arcadion as a diversion, then learns about the shadier side of the business behind the scenes. Psychonecrosis is still thing, but it's a debilitating, long-term illness. The WoL meets a retired fighter who has been out of the game for a decade, but is living in a nursing home and can't take care of himself. Wicked Thunder, dealing with early signs of the disease, is abusing medication to cope with the symptoms and stay in the ring. Its existence is sort of an open secret, but management downplays it in public because using feral souls is good for business. A whistleblower from management comes to the WoL for help, yadda yadda yadda, justice is served. This isn't much different than what we got, but I can see potential for a much more personal, grounded story.

It also isn't true that all wrestlers are good friends, and everything is sunshine and rainbows behind the scenes. The world of pro wrestling is loaded with tales of feuds, disputes, chronic injuries, substance abuse, depression, etc. These aren't pleasant topics, but they're dramatic and make for good stories and interesting characters. The writing in DT just hasn't proved mature enough to handle tough subjects.

I've been going through the newest Hildibrand quests, and those have some painfully long (but surprisingly innovative) cutscenes. If those resources could have been used instead to tell a longer Arcadion story with more fleshed-out characters, I would call it a good trade.

Still, better than Pandemonium.

[ZephyrMenodora]

That arguement is bollocks. If they wanted to go with the silly wrestling angle then they should've done that tone throughout the tiers. You can't just do a rug pull like that. It's like having a book series go "and it was all just a dream" at the end.

I think this was a far more direct way of saying how I felt about the storyline. The player and half of the cast was meant to think that everything going on was real, including causing emotional distress for a child character.

Watching wrestling itself we are all kind of in on it being theatrics.

I felt they wanted to have emotional beats with no actual stakes in the end, which I just view as not great storytelling personally.

[Astronis]

Adding a few more thoughts here...

"It's wrestling, it's supposed to be silly!" is not a good argument to me. It's possible, and perfectly reasonable, to do over-the-top pro wrestling things in the ring, and still have a serious story behind the scenes. The convoluted ruse pulled over the WoL was cheap writing, plain and simple. How come the WoL couldn't be let in on the plan? What if the WoL never showed up? Was the President going to continue to put his best fighters into indefinite stasis and just hope that eventually someone strong enough to kill him would appear, all for the ratings? That's pretty evil, if you ask me.

The WoL can't be let in on the plan because, in a real way, the plan depends on the WoL taking it as serious as a heart attack. It is well established that the Warrior of Light loves a good fight, but he doesn't 'burn his life save for reasons he deems worthy.' The problem facing the President is he needed to be killed by someone exceedingly capable, and for all this time no matter how much he tried with the cycle that was causing the problem in the first place, he couldn't find anyone capable of killing him in his lindwyrm form. He's tried, repeatedly. He needed the WoL, but he needed the WoL willing to make EVERYTHING BURN. And you get that by presenting the WoL with the real situation in such a way that makes him want to burn the entire Arcadion down to fix it, not just come up to the penthouse for tea and a little fight with one suicidal monster. Inviting the WoL up for tea, crumpets, and a deathmatch gets you a WoL trying to do something entirely different. Maybe something better, but let's face it, at this point the president is pretty committed to his plan and neither thinks anything else is possible nor trusts the random unproven WoL enough to try a different way.

If the WoL never shows up: Things keep going as they are. Arcadion ultimately sucks. This is bad. Maybe the President tries something different eventually. Who knows.

And keep in mind: The whole of Dawntrail has us interrupting a stagnant cycle of death and replacing it with a growing, living cycle in somewhat mythic fashion, without getting really down into the nitty gritty dirt. We're doing the overarching part. We do this repeatedly, in large ways and small. Ending one more cycle of death is perfectly in keeping for the rest of Dawntrail.

As for the property damage and the street fights...yeah, it's all kayfabe. Kayfabe used to be jealously guarded and meant to be thought of as real. No one was ever supposed to be in on it except the people maintaining kayfabe. It's not like that now in pro-wrestling, but it used to be. Kayfabe now is kind of ironic because it's impossible to maintain; Arcadion kayfabe hasn't reached the ironic stage yet.

The writers could have done something different, but what would that have been if what they wanted to do was a pro-wrestling story with kayfabe that kept to the themes of Dawntrail? It probably isn't a grounded, personal story about drug abuse and systemic corruption. That would be a good story, in a different expac.

[Carstien]

I think this was a far more direct way of saying how I felt about the storyline. The player and half of the cast was meant to think that everything going on was real, including causing emotional distress for a child character.

Watching wrestling itself we are all kind of in on it being theatrics.

I felt they wanted to have emotional beats with no actual stakes in the end, which I just view as not great storytelling personally.

Sorry but this reply ignores a lot of the dialogue and all of the nuance.

First, the president was still a showman and the Arcadion his baby. There was of course serious things going on in the background, he was trying to cure a deadly disease that was infecting the fighters. Causing emotional distress to the child was necessary to keep the act up while protecting Eutrope. How much distress would her big sister dying cause?

Also, why couldn't he just tell the WoL? Well, our character isn't perfect. There is a high chance the WoL would have done something stupid and stubborn like refusing to kill the obviously good man that is the president to "find another way" to cure everybody because that's just what we do at this point, save everybody. Even if deciding to fight their heart wouldn't have been in it, so, deception. That, plus enrapturing the crowds because again, the Arcadion is his pride and joy and thrilling the audience was all the president ever wanted. He entrusted the truth with those he trusted most, his heavyweight fighters and Metem, and put on a hell of a show.

You're obviously free to dislike it or disagree, but this is how I perceived it and I enjoyed the whole thing. It was as silly as expected for a professional wrestling based take on a fighting competition with all the spectacle that comes with that. If that's your thing you probably liked it too and if not, you probably hated it, but no story will please everybody.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Sorry but this reply ignores a lot of the dialogue and all of the nuance.

First, the president was still a showman and the Arcadion his baby. There was of course serious things going on in the background, he was trying to cure a deadly disease that was infecting the fighters. Causing emotional distress to the child was necessary to keep the act up while protecting Eutrope. How much distress would her big sister dying cause?

Also, why couldn't he just tell the WoL? Well, our character isn't perfect. There is a high chance the WoL would have done something stupid and stubborn like refusing to kill the obviously good man that is the president to "find another way" to cure everybody because that's just what we do at this point, save everybody. Even if deciding to fight their heart wouldn't have been in it, so, deception. That, plus enrapturing the crowds because again, the Arcadion is his pride and joy and thrilling the audience was all the president ever wanted. He entrusted the truth with those he trusted most, his heavyweight fighters and Metem, and put on a hell of a show.

You're obviously free to dislike it or disagree, but this is how I perceived it and I enjoyed the whole thing. It was as silly as expected for a professional wrestling based take on a fighting competition with all the spectacle that comes with that. If that's your thing you probably liked it too and if not, you probably hated it, but no story will please everybody.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, great for you. I simply did not find much "nuance" in this story at all, and I'm more than capable of reading every line of dialogue, thank you. I found the writing here to be cheap and convenient, not deep.

[Mary_Benedictus]

As someone who watched wrestling in the 90s and 2000s, there was a lot of callback to how behind the scenes worked. To me, I think it worked well. They even use the babyface, face, and heel terms that wrestling uses. The president being a mastermind and doing things for showbiz harkens back to Vince McMahon in little ways.

[hydralus]

I don't agree it was terrible but it is weird how in Dawntrial there does seem to be a sudden turn where bad things aren't allowed to happen for long and a happy ending is required no matter what.

That started in Endwalker with Garlemald.