Part 2:
So now we move on to the middle of the expansion, onto the Moon!
As you saw before we even get to said moon, the whole Tower plotline was made to have an excuse to GET to the moon. One could even say they did it to avoid doing a Deus Ex Machina to make moon travel possible. ;-)
But hey, it is what it is and the plot sacrifice did it's work. Whoosh, up on the moon! And......
We should have stayed on Etheirys
The whole moon storyline was awful people, just AWFUL! Ok, where to start? Well, why not with the moon itself. Ugly as hell to look at and even WORSE than the Sharlalyn underground to move around in, and Honey, that's saying something! Man, I hated every moment I had to trounce around that place for quests. In fact, I soooo don't want to go back there for the Glowy quests. In fact, I REALLY never want to see that place again if I can help it.
Now the quests. This place is where you get introduced to the Watcher, or as I like to call him. Mr. Explanation. Thanks to this guy, you get a TON of information on what was going on behind the scenes and why things are what they are. So pretty much he plugs up the knowledge holes we had for the longest time. He also is the tool that reveals the Big Secret of the world ending, but not right away. He hints at it when you first meet him, but wait, there is a primal to deal with first and his name is Zodiark.
Yeah, THAT Zodiark! WTF, you mean we got to FIGHT him? Yep, sure do. Fandaniel frees the ass and even merges with him to make an even more annoying one. We kill him and end the major plotline that has driven the story since the beginning of ARR.
And let me tell you, WOW, what a lackluster ending. Ok, that's not fair. Let's just say it was not the ending we all expected. I thought it would be something more grand with the end of the Asican war. Oh well, it is what it is.
So, after all that, we learn from the Watcher that the death of Zodiark started the process of the End Days, and that our beloved Hydaelyn, er Etheirys is about to get all fiery and go bye bye. Oops, bad us! :O
(And WHY did they change the name of the planet from Hydaelyn to Etheirys? I guess it started to get all confusing having Hydaelyn be both the planet AND the main primal Goddess)
Ok, before I move on to the end days and space bunnies, I want to talk about the whole Zodiark,/Hydaelyn/Meteion thing.
So as we find out later, the creation and escape of Meteion eventually causes the end days for the ancient Ascians, right? Of course because of the spell cast by Hermes, no one REMEMBERS Meteion except Vanat, so they have no idea why the destruction is happening. In response, the Asicans create Zodiark to stop the destruction and it works, planet saved.
BUT, the cost of keeping Zodiark around and in power is too high, the guy simply 'eats' TOO many people. In response, Vanat, (who knows what is REALLY going on), creates Hydaelyn, deals with Zodiark and imprisons him instead of outright killing him. Why? Because she KNOWS that Zodiark's power is the only thing keeping Meteion away from Etheirys. So Z is locked up, Heidi is large and in charge, and the planet is safe, all is good in the world, at least for a while. Vanat/Hydaelyn knows this, so she starts the whole moon conversion thing in case things go south and little adorable Meteion comes back to finish the job.
This eventually starts the whole 'Asicans want Zodiark back in power plan, cause they blame Hydaelyn for ALL of their problems for some reason'; not realizing WHY Heidi did what she did because, you know, they forgot Meterion exists. Yeah, their selfishness jeopardizes the WHOLE plan, weakens Hydaelyn too much to keep Zodiark contained, and eventually puts in motion the main plot of the expansion.
Note: that is my interpretation of this whole thing. If some FF14 superfan, who meticulously goes over the plot, (and everything ELSE in FF14), knows something I don't, please clarify.
Ok, back to the moon. So the real main plot gets established, world is going to end once and for all. Terrible right? Well, no, it isn't. See, it provided an interesting quandary and plot puzzle to build and develop, Will the world ACTUALLY get destroyed and what will happen to everyone? Story hooks people, GOOD things!
BUT, what they DID with them, sigh....what they did........and THAT'S when we get to......the Loporrits.
SE oh SE....Why the F*** did you PUT these things into a super serious story about the WORLD ending, going poof, bye bye, lots of people dying, etc. WHY?
These things were almost like Lala's in bunny form. They were WAY too cute and just about everything they DID was cute in some way. In short, REALLY out of place considering the plot.
And speaking of 'plot', that whole 'making a spaceship to house the population of the planet was just.....,well nonsensical. REALLY Venat? Did you NOT even consider the different social structures of the nations and them MAYBE not coexisting and getting along with one another. No, of course you didn't, silly Ancient being. Yeah, almost guarantee you there would have been infighting and a social degradation to rival some of the most interesting of the fiction on the subject.
So after spending WAY too much time dealing with those space bunnies, we head back to Etheirys to discover the 'End' has already begun. And WHERE do we get to go see this? Sigh.....Thavnair again....yeah, THAT place..... You know, they REALLY want to get much use out of it, don't they?
So the 'End' of the world. Despair turns people into monsters, killing them and others around them as the monsters eat them. Wow, gotta admit, that's pretty dark. And the whole thing just cascades as more people succumb to Despair who turn into monsters, who eat others, etc, etc.
And yet, it's Thavnair, so guess what?....it's....dull.....yeah.
This actually kind of surprised me. HOW could this horror be dull? Was it just me and my dislike of the area? Maybe, who knows. All I know is that I was kind of intrigued, then as it went on, just wished the whole thing was finally done with. It had made it's point a while ago, but yet, we had to see over and over again, through a dungeon, though a lot of the city. surrounding villages, AND the countryside. I guess you could say, they REALLY wanted to make the point that the End Days were Doom for all. But yet, out of all that died, only ONE person was not a random NPC mook, and the person who DID die got eaten, not succumb to Despair. No one really, really important succumbed to the Transformation, cause why? Hey, Super-Strong-Willpower!
So eventually we get this place under control and questions need answered. Like WHY is this expansion sucking so much....Er, I mean WHY the whole end of the world, what is triggering it? This little question and investigation leads us to the ONE redeeming feature of the Expansion and a surprising turn of events. Lets get to it!
So for starters we head back to good ol' Shadowbringers for a while, more specifically the Crystarium. There we catch up with dear sweet Ryne and others to see what they've been up to. I really liked this and it gave me hope that things were looking up story wise, and boy did they ever!
And what happened? Honey! We got to go to the PAST! Got to see the Ancient's living in a nice 'slice of life' thing, got to KNOW them, SEE how they were! and the more important part, we got to SEE Emet Again, as he really WAS! :O
This was WONDERFUL and UNEXPECTED! Elpis was an interesting place, ALL the characters there were interesting and FUN with GREAT conversations and banter! THIS place showed HOW great FF14 could be with great storytelling supported by truly interesting characters and plot! Sigh.......Now if only the OTHER sections could have been equally good, but sadly they were not. (Ok, Garlemald was almost as good too)
This area also introduced Meteion, who would play a very important later in the story and sadly a tragic one. I personally loved her. So sweet, kind, and innocent, it kind of sucks what they did to her. But hey, it is what it is.
Also in this section, the Elpis 'Chekov gun' flowers appear again, (though they have been showing up all though the expansion in various ways). This time though, they are accompanied by a bit of foreshadowing. You think these things will be important with how much time is spent on them? You can bet on it. ;-)
Here also is the whole WHY the end time was established and also why the Asicans did NOT know the reason it happened the first time. Amnesia for the win! ;p (Yeah, yeah, LAZY, right? But hey laziness goes hand in hand with creativity with writers. LOL ) And notice the little Crystal Venat gives our character. Can you say, Deus Ex Machina? I knew you could, but you would be wrong. This is a Mcguffin and a very BIG one. It is also foreshadowing since we DO know about the thing before it is used, but we don't know what it will do, so we will call it a contrived solution. But don't worry, DEM will rear it's ugly head soon enough again in the story. ;-)
I personally thought the reason was good enough. I mean, thinking of WHY the end of the world would happen without nature being involved must have been difficult and I give them props for it being creative and a bit unexpected.
But what I do NOT give props for is how they decide to prevent this from happening, which totally destroys any goodwill and kudos the Elpis storyline gave. So lets get to it!
Continued: part 3
