Thread: 7.5 MSQ [SPOILERS]

Without further explanation, none of the current antagonism makes sense. Here is why:

1. No other person other than Halmarut anticipated this. So either everyone is an idiot (unbelievable), she did not tell anyone (unbelievable), or she is lying. Didn't Halmarut have an ethical obligation to come forward before now?
2. Calyx tells us he was picked to cause rejoining. But in DT he wasn't doing that. If anything, he was looking for a way to preserve consciousness under the assumption Solstice was inevitable.
3. What have the Winterer's been doing this whole time?
4. Can't we just solve this by going to Elpis?
5. Why were no Ascians using this key?
6. Calyx is telling us all their plans, acting like a double agent. But he is also a murderer so..?? What?
7. Is the world ending or not? Zero learns of this and is like "um anyway hey do u want to farm light, sure hope we fix this darkness thing". If the characters do not perceive this threat, is it even a real threat or a herring??

The story is a mess.

I also want to add a more speculative thought:

Calyx sorta lays out the theme of this arc here. "Is there any conclusion you desire so strongly you would sacrifice anything to get it?". That's good but here is the problem. We should be learning this theme over time, not having it laid out in front of us. I would say this is only relevant to Evercold, except that Calyx openly told us to expect a Winterer shard gauntlet themed around ambition. This reeks of Dawntrail writing. They said we would get a tropey anime tournament already. Well, did you enjoy that? Was that done well? Now it feels like they are turning the MSQ into Yu Yu Hakusho/DBZ territory where we are being pit against 5 or so baddies and they all have their own vice. Oo how exciting and original. Idk. I am bored.

Originally Posted by Gullis

I just hope to god they don't bring back Zenos somehow. please let that man rest

I am extremely concerned about some fan reception I have seen calling for a return. As in, they want to see Zenos become a Winterer. That's terrifying and it's convincing me the standard for storytelling now is so low between the FFXIV audience and the writers, its going to be nearly impossible to get a decent story. If Zenos shows up in this xpac as a Winterer, it will not matter how compelling or effective the writing is, it signals a total loss of competence in the writing team. I am trying to stay positive, and simply interpret what we've seen as a thematic invocation of Zenos. Maybe Zenos was the (unaware) Winterer of our star. Maybe this new arc is about us being put in that same position, and how we apply that ambition.

Of course if you're in this camp, if you're satisfied by the constant recurrence of characters at any cost, that's your right and your preference, but I am drawing a line in the sand based on the storytelling we've seen from this IP so far. As we have crossed over from EW it does seem increasingly clear this is a husk of an IP meant for fandoms and tacos, and I am not sure if I will buy xpacs and subs for that type of content.

I liked the story, and I am hoping part 2 with 7.56 can keep this momentum going as the penultimate push to 8.0. My main issue right now is that there is not a single reason to take the Winterers remotely seriously other then "There is an Ascian here!"

Some might go "But Calyx!..." but I'm gonna stop that right before it even starts: we already wiped the floor with him. His entire life's work is, for the most part, gone, and now the story will proceed to do it's best to make you go "Please listen to his words and take him seriously" for the next 10 or so years while this new saga unfolds as he runs around as a fucking marketable plushie that, based on what I have seen from people who streamed 7.5, are just constantly laughing at him and saying how fucking stupid he looks now running around like that.

Some might also go "Okay, but Halmarut...": currently, Halmarut is a whole pile of nothing and has no merit to be taken even remotely seriously as a threat. Yes, she was just introduced, and yes, we will learn more about her as this saga goes on since I don't see her getting axed for the next several expansions given her importance to the whole thing, and yes, she is an Ascian so she will be doing the whole Ascian thing and scheming. But we as the WOL have slain pretty much all the Ascians that stood in our way, and triumphed over everything they have thrown at us as well, including the Final Days which eradicated nearly all of them in the first place, so the devs/storywriters just going "Look it's Halmarut the Ascian! This is a big problem right?!" is just not going to cut it now, especially given we could probably just sneeze and she'd fucking evaporate back to the aetherial sea given how strong we are, along with what we have/can accomplish when put into apparently "impossible" situations with no answer to be had.

Evercold NEEDS to give a genuine reason to even take the Winterers, or even just Halmarut and her stupid emo plush doll boy, remotely seriously, or provide some kind of pushback to the whole "I'm the hero of this game, so what I do WILL be the correct option and WILL cause the perfect good ending" rhetoric because right now I am unironically expecting the story to go:

- We go to the 4th
- We stop the Winterer's project on the 4th
- We do our own thing and implement our own solution
- We "save/fix" the 4th and get a "perfect ending" with uniting the shard our way
- Winterers go "Darn. You foiled us. But there is always [insert next shard here]."
- We repeat this for another 10 years