The many writing missteps of Dawntrain.
Hi all,Though I have seen a lot of complaints about Dawntrail's writing and characters, I've only seen a few discussed heavily. I thought I would compile a list of examples which highlight the plotholes and poor writing in this game. Even among the list below. I'm sure there are some I've missed. Even without the character of Wuk Lumat, it would not save Dawntrail from being a poorly written story. Just unacceptable mistakes across the board. (Yes I'm aware I made a mistake on the title of the expansion in my thread title. The irony.)
-Most of the rites lacked any sort of tension. Finding an alpaca. Growing some reeds. Cooking food.
-The Vanu apparently did not know their float that was the centerpiece of their festivals was actually a magical device that fertilized their reeds.
-The hostile giants who swore there would be no peace are saved by Wuk Lumat due to a random bird that decides to attack one of the giants. This is not believable and too contrived of a plot occurrence.
-Wuk Lumat, who can apparently beat claimants head on later, is captured by common bandits in the early levels.
-Same joke played over and over. They might have been funny the first couple times, but not the tenth time.
-No feeling of emotion present when Wuk Lumat discovers her biological father. Their interaction barely changes from when they had the elector/claimant relationship.
-Wuk Lumat goes from being captured by common bandits and swat aside by Bakool Ja Ja like a common house fly to being able to defeat Bakool Ja Ja and all his henchman by herself because 'power of friendship'.
-Bakool Ja Ja's redemption being too abrupt. No foreshadowing given that he was this kind of character. He seemed to enjoy every minute of being a jerk before his turnaround. Never any scenes of regret or guilt before then, not even when he is only with his men.
-Bakool Ja Ja releases Valigarmanda upon Tural just to get ahead in the rites of succession. The same Valigarmanda that Gulool Ja Ja and his group were only able to seal. How could he possibly know that anyone would be able to stop Valigarmanda? What was his plan if Valigarmanda could not be stopped? He'd be ruling over a ruined Tural.
-The dreaded beast Valigarmanda, hyped as a terrible nightmare of a creature, does not kill a single person. No devastation wrought.
-Thancred and Urianger, who were hyped from the Endwalker patch quests as having to go against us in the competition, has no payoff. We end up cooperating and journeying with them.
-We just let Bakool Ja Ja walk free after unleashing Valigarmanda because he's sorry.
-Sereel Ja, Zoraal Ja's traveling companion, makes vague references to his own motivations and ambitions. He is anticlimaticly killed by Zoraal Ja before any of them can be realized. Why even mention those ambitions in the game then, if none of them would happen?
-We let Zoraal Ja pick up another soul device and attach it to his head after Wuk Lumat destroys the first one in the duel.
-Zoraal Ja's motivation abruptly changed from inflicting war to appreciate peace into trying to step out from his father's shadow right before his death. Not only was the information given too late to leave an impact but the abruptness of the change is not executed well.
-No indications given of Zoraal Ja being mistreated by his father during childhood. No reason to hate his father to the extent he does of wanting to kill him for 30 years.
-When Zoraal Ja shows up in the palace, Keternam was with him. This confused me. Didn't he slash Keternam in the back? He killed Sereel Ja but spares Keternam and brings him to the palace after taking his keystones? Did I miss something? I genuinely don't know if I missed a cutscene here because this seemed so random to me.
-After Zoraal Ja kills his father, instead of dueling Wuk Lamat then and there to show her he is better than her, he walks away and tells her to come to him so he can prove he's better.
-We let Zoraal Ja walk away after killing his father. Into the safety of his kingdom.
-Zoraal Ja has a son who pops up out of nowhere. No information given as to his mother or his conception. The purpose of Zoraal Ja's son was so that Heritage Found would eventually have someone to rule the kingdom when Sphene and Zoraal Ja inevitably had to die, I guess? I don't know the reason for this character.
-Not enough time given to the final villain of Sphene. Introduced at level 97.
-When we follow Sphene to the child who endures sickness from an aetheric imbalance, we never mention porxies or any way to aid his affliction.
-We let Sphene walk past us and pick up the plot mccguffin that opens worlds after we defeat Zoraal Ja. Everyone but Y'shtola stares blankly at the sky as we let the plot mccguffin slowly drift into Sphene's dimension.
-When we enter the zone of Living Memory, Cahciua tells us that the Endless are just facisimiles of their former selves. We are given to believe they are programmed to do certain things. Yet Cahciua herself proves this notion to be a lie. You're telling me we should think of them as mere facisimiles when Cahciua found a way to commander an Overrunner, bring it to Heritage Found, create her own resistance group and guide us in the destruction of Sphene and her people?
-Cahciua tells us we need to eliminate the inhabitants of Living Memory to demoralize Sphene. This ends up being a complete waste of time since it had no effect on Sphene's drive to complete her directive.
-After the author tells us through Cahciua that the Endless are not real people, we are then told to go talk and get to know the people we're about to kill. This is lunacy.
-Through the course of talking with the Endless, those who learn about us deactiving the terminals are all grateful. No one challenges us and says they don't want to die.
-Wuk Lumat somehow breaks through the Sphene's barrier with no explanation given whatsoever. Power of friendship, I guess?
-By the end of the game, if you measure by damage done in the final trial. Wuk Lumat is stronger than us, the Warrior of Light, and our entire group. This is the girl who got captured by bandits and swatted aside by Bakool Ja Ja earlier in the story. Again... power of friendship?
-Wuk Lumat never suffers any consequences for her naive actions. Her answer is always the right one, even when it makes no sense. It would've been more compelling to have her spare someone like that hostile giant, who clearly did not want love and peace, only for them to kill people when she leaves them alone. We could have seen how she would handle it when her Peace and Love ideology didn't work. Zoraal Ja could have been an ideal candidate for this and the ultimate example of putting Wuk Lumat's ideology to the test. Unfortunately...
-Wuk Lumat never tries to understand Zoraal Ja in the same way she goes out of her way to understand complete strangers. For all she harped on about family and understanding those different from you, she didn't try to reach out to Zoraal Ja in any way.
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Additional player mentioned examples of poor writing below:
The Scions being mere shells of their former selves not true to their own characters. This is of course, in part due to Wuk Lumat sucking up all the limelight.
Dawntrail's stance on genocide running counter to what is expressed in Shadowbringers and Endwalker where the previous expansions told us genocide is not okay under any circ*mstances. Dawntrail tells us genocide is okay under certain circ*mstances.
Dialogue choices that force us to agree with the character, whether it be all of the choices being different ways to say the same thing, or our dialogue choices being eliminated until we choose the 'correct' answer.
