Why Is Erenville So Popular in FFXIV Dawntrail? A Surprising Poll Result

[@makisbizarreadventure4669]

This list makes perfect sense. Erenville was one of the most realistic characters. He also has some of the unintentional funny moments. On the train when he gets on the gun he misses every shot, and he’s said time and time again he isn’t a fighter. When the invaders first come he’s worried about his home and the scions are glazing each other about reuniting right after it lol. But he’s a well spoken character who isn’t too cartoonish and does the bad over explanation dialogue this expansion was known for; it adds to his character. Then him dealing with his Mom’s death and seeing him basically grieve in the background. But if you don’t connect with him I mean that’s on you everyone has their favorites.

[@MissKashira]

Erenville was basically me. His snarky comments and annoyance at what we were doing throughout the expansion mirrored my own. I was as miserable as he was and it was nice to have someone there who realized how asinine this journey was. For those who didn't enjoy DT, Erenville is the voice of reason throughout the expansion. This goes doubly so for the ending. He's the only person acting like a real person in Living Memory. This guy grew up being left behind while his mother went out and had a good time. He's got serious abandonment issues. And then when he ventures into danger to find his mom even though he has no combat skills, she doesn't even tell him she's dead. Then when we do get to Living Memory she just bulldozes the group into deleting her along with the other Endless. Remember, Erenville was told he couldn't come along as a child because he couldn't find the City of Gold, well, he found it, he's done what his mother wanted to prove he was worthy to stay by her side, but she's dead. He's only 25 years old and his only parent is dead. That's devastating. Had it by my mom, we wouldn't have been deleting her. I don't care what she said or what anyone else said. We would have been spending that time looking for an Alexandrian USB drive because we would not be deleting my mom. The idea he's supposed to be smiling and laughing, kill his mom and then go have ice cream is insane. That's not how normal people act. That's not how the characters should have been acting given the gravity of the situation. People liked Erenville because he was the only character in the story acting like a normal human being. Until the story convinces him he's wrong to grieve his mother's death and he should just be happy. As someone who has actually lost her mother, DT's messaging on grief was horrific.

[@b.h.4249]

I couldn't agree more, in a cast of characters stripped of any of their personality and intelligence, Erenville felt like the only sane person around and was also already a favorite from EW. Too bad that the DT writers decided to give him painful development after painful development only to finally force him to join the happy smiling crowd by the end. It still boggles my mind how anyone signed off on this version of the MSQ. I'm just glad that it's divorced from the previous saga or it would've retroactively ruined the whole story for me.

[@ApocalypzysXIV]

This is certainly a perspective I hadn't considered. I'm also a big critic of the writing direction in the Dawntrail story, but failed to see Erenville as perhaps the party of resistance towards all the developments happening around him not just with this new cast of characters, but also the new cast of writing leads. If I were to adopt this perspective, then I can certainly get behind why he's so popular. He doesn't fit with the story they were trying to tell. Overall though, I still fail to see his popularity, but in all fairness, it's hard to pick a true standout character from this expansion, no one really hits the mark. Shadowbringers and Endwalker had many likeable and popular characters as they were really well written and well thought-out. Not sure what happened here. Thank you for your comments!

[@echoecho2666]

This is a perspective I’ve never heard before which is interesting. As someone who just lost a loved one I found DT’s finale very comforting, I always find it interesting that people can read the same story and get completely different feelings from it

[@MissKashira]

@@echoecho2666 I am fortunate the only loss I was grieving at the time of DT was the loss of enjoyment I got from playing FF14. Had I not been in a good place mentally, the last zone would have impacted me even worse than it actually did. I had to take a break from it for days before finishing it and within a month of finishing the story I'd lost all interest in logging into FF14 to the point I was willing to let go of my house and guild, things I wasn't willing to surrender for years before that. I can't imagine how playing through that last zone made you feel good, but given I wouldn't wish my experience on my worst enemy, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@echoecho2666]

@@MissKashirayeah it’s strange how that works. I won’t go into to much detail about how my point of view from someone who lost close family near it, it finally gave me closure. Though I have to admit my perspective is probably heavily impacted by the fact that I’m surrounded by holidays like Dia de Los Muertos and that has probably affected how I process death

[@eastbow6053]

maybe the logical writers that were left in the room created erenville to voice their annoyance with the woke crap