FFXIV Needs to Start Killing Characters Again

Haurchefant's death is still remembered because it actually mattered. Meanwhile, FFXIV has become so afraid of letting characters leave the stage that every expansion adds another dozen names to the guest list and nobody ever checks out. The cast has grown so bloated I'm starting to need a refresher course just to remember who's who after they come back from their bloody extended holiday. Every new threat seems to come from the same place: some ancient evil, forgotten god, cosmic horror, or world-ending force from somewhere beyond the horizon. What happened to threats from within?

Instead of saving the world for the fifteenth time from something nobody has ever heard of, let the danger be one of the people we've spent a decade fighting alongside. Let Alisaie die and Alphinaud become so consumed by grief that everything else becomes secondary. The boy who once preached unity and cooperation starts making excuses, then compromises, then bargains with powers he swore to oppose. Not because he's evil, but because he's hurting. He tells himself it's just one more step, one more sacrifice, one more forbidden act to bring her back. Until one day he wakes up and realizes he's become the very thing he spent his life fighting against. Maybe not Game of Thrones level of death and destruction but SOMETHING please SE. You've spent so much time building these characters up, imagine the emotion, and the energy something like that could conjure up.

Anyway, that's the kind of story I'd love to see. Not another threat from beyond the stars, but one born from loss, obsession, and the flaws of people we already know.

As for the next expansion, start by launching Wuk Lamat off a cliff in the opening cutscene. Idk. She jumps in trying to steal the limelight again and ends up getting absolutely slimed. Two birds, one stone. Evercold would be an instant 10/10.