On some of Sounssy's points (which are ever well-informed, reasonable and always worth reading)...
Poor writing and character development in the past do not mean that any character should ever be doomed to poor development forever.
If either Yda or Papalymo WERE killed or at least changed, the development for the other would be drastically increased. Neither of them in the FULL LENGTH of the MSQ has been as well developed as Moenbryda was in her brief stint, so I discount all value of them as well-established characters except by default. Frankly, I believe that the cheap tactic of killing Moony to develop Urianger would have been ten times more useful for the Yda/Pap pairing. At least split them up for a while and force them to develop just like, to pick a good example from Sounssy, Merry and Pippin, who became whole and better people when they weren't sure if the other survived, and thus had to make their own ways. I want to like Yda... I want to... but she's only interesting when she's punching things.
Thancred would be better served by having him oust Mini as the Scions leader, and it would even be natural. What little we get from the MSQ is that Thancred was trying his best to become the next Lousioix, and working himself near to death (usually off screen and informed rather than stated, of course) to do it. This is complicated when Moenbryda shows up and we're told that she's pretty much the real heiress to Louisoix's abilities...uh, whoops. And, uh, whoops again, she's gone. Get Mini out of the boss' chair, put Thancred there, and let his performance anxiety and concern over his past failure be natural and realistic character angles for him, more MORE than they are for Mini, who just doesn't DO ANYTHING.
To be honest, I'd say Y'shtola is just fine. She doesn't get tons of screen time, but in what she gets, she is largely competent, she knows her job and her role, and she's not afraid of combat even though she knows that a strategic withdrawal is sometimes better than a fight. Give her a little more story, let her play herself up like she does for the Titan and Limsa lvl5 story quests, and she's as solid as the Scions can be.
Poor writing and character development in the past do not mean that any character should ever be doomed to poor development forever.
If either Yda or Papalymo WERE killed or at least changed, the development for the other would be drastically increased. Neither of them in the FULL LENGTH of the MSQ has been as well developed as Moenbryda was in her brief stint, so I discount all value of them as well-established characters except by default. Frankly, I believe that the cheap tactic of killing Moony to develop Urianger would have been ten times more useful for the Yda/Pap pairing. At least split them up for a while and force them to develop just like, to pick a good example from Sounssy, Merry and Pippin, who became whole and better people when they weren't sure if the other survived, and thus had to make their own ways. I want to like Yda... I want to... but she's only interesting when she's punching things.
Thancred would be better served by having him oust Mini as the Scions leader, and it would even be natural. What little we get from the MSQ is that Thancred was trying his best to become the next Lousioix, and working himself near to death (usually off screen and informed rather than stated, of course) to do it. This is complicated when Moenbryda shows up and we're told that she's pretty much the real heiress to Louisoix's abilities...uh, whoops. And, uh, whoops again, she's gone. Get Mini out of the boss' chair, put Thancred there, and let his performance anxiety and concern over his past failure be natural and realistic character angles for him, more MORE than they are for Mini, who just doesn't DO ANYTHING.
To be honest, I'd say Y'shtola is just fine. She doesn't get tons of screen time, but in what she gets, she is largely competent, she knows her job and her role, and she's not afraid of combat even though she knows that a strategic withdrawal is sometimes better than a fight. Give her a little more story, let her play herself up like she does for the Titan and Limsa lvl5 story quests, and she's as solid as the Scions can be.
"But in the laugh there was another voice. A clearer laugh, an ironic laugh. A laugh which laughs because it chooses not to weep."
![[Image: 3610850.jpg]](http://assets-cloud.enjin.com/users/1266293/pics/original/3610850.jpg)
