#like it doesn't even have to be the literal drk look at the many npcs that get away with custom job mishmashes

[nights-at-crystarium]

Thinking about DRK Emet..... DRK Raha would be so cool too.......

[set2zero]

I believe players are clouded by the memory of a few things:

The Dark Knight storyline The questline starts with examining what the WoL means to others. They run up to you begging for help, you slaughter beasts to retrieve cargo, save defenseless people walking through enemy territory, and when they see the condition you're in after that they slowly back away with a hasty thanks. Fray tells you after every quest to practice self-care, look at these people who only see you as a tool for their ends. For many it will be the first time a game centered around handing out quests questions what do these NPCs think when they ask this of them, and why do they keep doing it. There's a reason people still say this is one of the best questlines in the game; something that sticks out in people's minds will heavily colour their perception and explore that in their WoL.

2. Alphinaud's line at the banquet in 2.55

It's been so long since I ran this quest but the first time I did it something Alphinaud said at the banquet still sticks 8 years later:

Alphinaud: I tell you, we are on the cusp of a new era of unity and prosperity. Alphinaud: Territorial disputes are all that divide us now. Alphinaud: But I have faith that we will find an amicable solution in time. Alphinaud: And failing that, I'll have my trusty Warrior of Light box the ears of all concerned. Speaking of whom...?

(source: game script)

Alphinaud initially sees the WoL as someone who can see his vision through by putting people in their place. His perception changes over Heavensward but the Scions are complicit. No one objects to you marching over and putting the primals a second and third time in ARR. They're concerned for your wellbeing, but you're also the one who can finally stop this cycle of primal summoning. You're literally the best chance they got.

Which segues into...

3. Stormblood

SB is the last time the WoL is asked to kick primal ass. Alisaie and Lyse joke about it.

Alisaie: The rest of the plan, I'm afraid you can guess. I'm sorry, [Forename], I truly am, but neither of us can even approach Susano, much less hope to defeat him. Which means you're on your own. Lyse: Well, who knows? She does have an awful lot of adventurer friends. Maybe some of them decided to take a fishing trip to the Far East, and are surprisingly close by...?

By the time you fight Lakshmi even the writers realise this isn't a sustainable plot model.

Alisaie: It means a lot to hear you say that. It does. But it doesn't make it any easier to have to ask you to face that...that thing. Alisaie: Maybe so, but every time we must turn to you and others like you to do what we cannot. I just wish there was another way...

A cynical way of seeing this is that the NPCs admire and appreciate the WoL because you're doing something nobody else can. You expose the truth of a 1000-year conflict that the church kept under wraps. You liberate two occupied territories on different ends of the map in one go. The chain of actions leading to Shadowbringers created porxies, which ended the tempering issue, which opened a door to reconciling with the beast tribes, etc. Imagine if we had such a person in the real world.

Do the Scions consider the WoL a convenient tool? Yes, BUT this changes as we play through the expansion. Are the players biased? Yes, BUT I think any working adult who finds the DRK questline relatable would be.

The takeaway message in the MSQ is that people CAN change. Perceptions CAN change. Emet-Selch refused to budge and lost. The Scions came to know you as a trusted friend and worked towards reversing tempering for YOU (and for the world but mainly for you) because in becoming their friend they wanted the suffering to stop for YOU. This wouldn't have been possible if the plot didn't take 5 expansions to resolve, and that's the beauty of FFXIV.

"Yes DMJ you make a point but do YOU think the fandom labours under that misconception even in Endwalker?"

No. And I have a feed full of WoLships on my tumblr to show for it.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about ? 👀

That everyone takes the WoL for granted. Especially the Scions. And that most people simply view the WoL as a convenient tool.

I feel like a lot of the fandom in general tends to view how many npcs interact with the WoL through a lens biased toward a negative interpretation. While I believe that a straightforward, unbiased reading of what is actually said and done in game, leans toward a much more positive reading. Canonically, our WoLs signed up to be part of organizations that bare a responsibility toward the people of Eorzea. (The fact that we had no choice about our WoLs signing up is irrelevant to the game's story.) They are not taken for granted. They are expected to do their job alongside their colleagues. And as the story goes on and the WoL, due to their Special Status, takes on more and more, the response of the people they interact with becomes more and more admiring and appreciative. NPCs are constantly expressing their gratitude for what the WoL does and demonstrating how they care about the WoL's well being.

It truly boggles my mind sometimes that so much of the fandom seems to simple forget? or maybe ignore how much everyone loves the WoL. I think a large portion of the fandom has become invested in how they want to develop the narrative of their own individual WoL as someone who is very down trodden and constantly suffering on behalf of a world that doesn't appreciate them. And don't get me wrong, that's a fine theme to explore in your own writing. But the prevalence of it in fic seems to have clouded many people's memories of the actual MSQ. It's simply not the story that SE has written.

Thanks for the ask!