(Spoilers) The ending of the West Weald questline left a (slightly) bitter taste in my mouth.

Rkindaleft · June 22

I play on console and since we get the updates 2 weeks after PC, I try to avoid spoilers as much as possible, and my apologies if this has been discussed before, but I wanted to talk about my thoughts on this chapters' story.

The main thing is that Ithelia feels like wasted potential.

The West Weald storyline, for me, was average for the most part. It wasn't the best of the chapter stories, it wasn't the worst, it was just engaging enough to be entertaining. The epilogue quests, however, were very frustrating to sit through and felt EXTREMELY rushed. I understand this is an MMO but the total lack of stakes is just unimmersive. You wrap up the story going in a circle with nothing have changed, main character gets banished again as fast as they get introduced, with an ending that felt really forced that felt like you were just a bystander to and couldn't have your own opinion on anything.

The most enjoyable parts of the story for me were the parts with Ithelia herself, and the interactions we had with her. I understand this might not be how everyone feels, as some didn't want her to exist in the first place and a few might not even like her as a character, but this helped balance out the boring fetch quests we had to do in the storyline with lore building, I wanted more of her. There wasn't much actual exploration into what Mirrormoor is like, Ithelia herself and the reason why she was "going" crazy, why the Shardborn were doing what they were, it feels like there is/was a lot of missing information. Not to mention that 50% of the story was Wood Elf obstacles that feels out of place in a Colovian zone and could have been used to dive deeper into the lore of the character and what she represents.

Seems so anticlimactic to end it on pretending that the whole thing didn't happen with no consequences for anything.

TLDR - not a huge fan of introducing a new Daedric Prince who gets made irrelevant again almost immediately.

Peppo_Lives · June 23

it seems you have voiced my thoughts exactly

FabresFour · June 23

And once again we have a villain from ESO rushed... The same thing happened with Rada Al-Saran, potentially one of the best villains in the franchise, rushed... I hope they improve this in the future.

SkaiFaith · June 23

OP, you have no idea how pissed I am for the exact same reasons...

I was ready to fall in love with the character and her realm, and I really liked what we saw, but... That's it? Disappointed. Wanted more and wanted it differently, at least that ending!

SkaraMinoc · June 23

Best part was talking to her by the fireplace at the inn. I'd love to have a cup of tea and discuss the different fates of reality.

Firstmep · June 23

I really liked the whole alternate reality exploration part, I honestly would not have minded if they built further upon it.

Rkindaleft · June 23

Duplicate post.

Rkindaleft · June 23

FabresFour wrote: »

And once again we have a villain from ESO rushed... The same thing happened with Rada Al-Saran, potentially one of the best villains in the franchise, rushed... I hope they improve this in the future.

I wouldn't even really consider her a villain tbh. She was just kinda doing her thing. I thought Hermaeus Mora was the true villain of the story.

BlueRaven · June 23

I was kinda shocked by the ending. They went on and on about introducing a new prince, and then we get that as an ending?

I was not sure exactly where it was going when the chapter started, I honestly thought she was going to be the explanation for “dragon breaks” (https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Break), but that ending diminished it.

It felt like the rushed exiting of an exciting character, although I guess since we never hear of her in future es games, I do understand why they did it.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · June 23

I concur, while I wasn’t surprised they wrote her out, when the arc started I’d been hoping we’d at least have a Mirrormoor DLC for a part 3 before they got rid of their new addition. I want backstory on what all her lesser Daedra did after she was imprisoned, Dossiers on the new varieties like we got for the Daedric Titans, that sort of thing. How did the people in Fargrave react to their home being coated with mirrors? What did they think the Loom was? The whole story really needed some time to breath.

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

Best part was talking to her by the fireplace at the inn. I'd love to have a cup of tea and discuss the different fates of reality.

Totally agree, the Outcast Inn was one of the best individual quests in the entire game. The ambiance is excellent and it’s nice and lore-heavy.

AlienSlof · June 23

Agree with all these comments here. Ithelia was an interesting character cut short just as I was getting to know her and wanting to learn more about her. Much as I like old Herma Mora, I felt he misjudged badly here and responded with a knee-jerk reaction to Ithelia instead of maybe guiding her instead.

And yeah, what's with all the wood elf stuff there? It didn't seem to really fit in with the Ithelia storyline. I don't like wood elves or their Green Pact, so having so much of them was a disappointment. I'd have much rather visited Mirrormoor instead.

Something I either read or was mentioned in dialogue about the Green Pact: it was something along the lines of not eating plants or using their wood or even eating their berries. Trees WANT their berries to be eaten! That's how they reproduce! That amount of protection would wipe them out!

Now Ithelia is gone with no likelihood of ever meeting her or her realm again. Worst of all, the wood elves are STILL THERE.

And lastly: for goodness sake, reverse engineer the maps back to how they used to work! Now they point to the NEAREST DOOR, not the eventual destination like they used to. Some of the delve maps don't even show the boss.

On the plus side, though, I really enjoy the new trial! It's great!

AnduinTryggva · June 23

AlienSlof wrote: »

Agree with all these comments here. Ithelia was an interesting character cut short just as I was getting to know her and wanting to learn more about her. Much as I like old Herma Mora, I felt he misjudged badly here and responded with a knee-jerk reaction to Ithelia instead of maybe guiding her instead.

And yeah, what's with all the wood elf stuff there? It didn't seem to really fit in with the Ithelia storyline. I don't like wood elves or their Green Pact, so having so much of them was a disappointment. I'd have much rather visited Mirrormoor instead.

Something I either read or was mentioned in dialogue about the Green Pact: it was something along the lines of not eating plants or using their wood or even eating their berries. Trees WANT their berries to be eaten! That's how they reproduce! That amount of protection would wipe them out!

Now Ithelia is gone with no likelihood of ever meeting her or her realm again. Worst of all, the wood elves are STILL THERE.

And lastly: for goodness sake, reverse engineer the maps back to how they used to work! Now they point to the NEAREST DOOR, not the eventual destination like they used to. Some of the delve maps don't even show the boss.

On the plus side, though, I really enjoy the new trial! It's great!

I fully agree with you. I would actually have loved a story twist that was more like that the thread of fate Mora was so afraid of was actually unwittingly set in motion by himself while it was Ithelia who had the means to prevent it whereas Mora completely misinterpreted it.
We could have had Molag Bal the master of intrigues to have messed with Moras identification of possibilities or whatever.

TheNuminous1 · June 23

AlienSlof wrote: »

Agree with all these comments here. Ithelia was an interesting character cut short just as I was getting to know her and wanting to learn more about her. Much as I like old Herma Mora, I felt he misjudged badly here and responded with a knee-jerk reaction to Ithelia instead of maybe guiding her instead.

And yeah, what's with all the wood elf stuff there? It didn't seem to really fit in with the Ithelia storyline. I don't like wood elves or their Green Pact, so having so much of them was a disappointment. I'd have much rather visited Mirrormoor instead.

Something I either read or was mentioned in dialogue about the Green Pact: it was something along the lines of not eating plants or using their wood or even eating their berries. Trees WANT their berries to be eaten! That's how they reproduce! That amount of protection would wipe them out!

Now Ithelia is gone with no likelihood of ever meeting her or her realm again. Worst of all, the wood elves are STILL THERE.

And lastly: for goodness sake, reverse engineer the maps back to how they used to work! Now they point to the NEAREST DOOR, not the eventual destination like they used to. Some of the delve maps don't even show the boss.

On the plus side, though, I really enjoy the new trial! It's great!

I'm the exact opposite opinion. I want a full woodelf chapter without all the daedra and colovians everywhere.

tsaescishoeshiner · June 23

Talking to Ithelia and getting to know her was so interesting and I wanted more—more of Torvesard and why Nantharion did what he did would have been great.

To me, the strongest stories in ESO are character-based. I wish we'd gotten more focus on that in West Weald, because it's more rewarding than the biggest most epic megathreat. Is the fight in a story like Murkmire or Wrothgar less epic because it's not about saving reality? I think the stakes feel higher to us as players when we can relate to characters (for better and worse), because it matters to us personally.

Rkindaleft · June 23

TheNuminous1 wrote: »

AlienSlof wrote: »

Agree with all these comments here. Ithelia was an interesting character cut short just as I was getting to know her and wanting to learn more about her. Much as I like old Herma Mora, I felt he misjudged badly here and responded with a knee-jerk reaction to Ithelia instead of maybe guiding her instead.

And yeah, what's with all the wood elf stuff there? It didn't seem to really fit in with the Ithelia storyline. I don't like wood elves or their Green Pact, so having so much of them was a disappointment. I'd have much rather visited Mirrormoor instead.

Something I either read or was mentioned in dialogue about the Green Pact: it was something along the lines of not eating plants or using their wood or even eating their berries. Trees WANT their berries to be eaten! That's how they reproduce! That amount of protection would wipe them out!

Now Ithelia is gone with no likelihood of ever meeting her or her realm again. Worst of all, the wood elves are STILL THERE.

And lastly: for goodness sake, reverse engineer the maps back to how they used to work! Now they point to the NEAREST DOOR, not the eventual destination like they used to. Some of the delve maps don't even show the boss.

On the plus side, though, I really enjoy the new trial! It's great!

I'm the exact opposite opinion. I want a full woodelf chapter without all the daedra and colovians everywhere.

A Wood Elf focused chapter would be nice, but it should be its own zone with it's own story, because right now we have a 50/50 split of a half Wood Elf drama half Daedric story that means that each side has to be rushed because they decided to fit two in.

BlueRaven · June 23

Rkindaleft wrote: »

TheNuminous1 wrote: »

AlienSlof wrote: »

Agree with all these comments here. Ithelia was an interesting character cut short just as I was getting to know her and wanting to learn more about her. Much as I like old Herma Mora, I felt he misjudged badly here and responded with a knee-jerk reaction to Ithelia instead of maybe guiding her instead.

And yeah, what's with all the wood elf stuff there? It didn't seem to really fit in with the Ithelia storyline. I don't like wood elves or their Green Pact, so having so much of them was a disappointment. I'd have much rather visited Mirrormoor instead.

Something I either read or was mentioned in dialogue about the Green Pact: it was something along the lines of not eating plants or using their wood or even eating their berries. Trees WANT their berries to be eaten! That's how they reproduce! That amount of protection would wipe them out!

Now Ithelia is gone with no likelihood of ever meeting her or her realm again. Worst of all, the wood elves are STILL THERE.

And lastly: for goodness sake, reverse engineer the maps back to how they used to work! Now they point to the NEAREST DOOR, not the eventual destination like they used to. Some of the delve maps don't even show the boss.

On the plus side, though, I really enjoy the new trial! It's great!

I'm the exact opposite opinion. I want a full woodelf chapter without all the daedra and colovians everywhere.

A Wood Elf focused chapter would be nice, but it should be its own zone with it's own story, because right now we have a 50/50 split of a half Wood Elf drama half Daedric story that means that each side has to be rushed because they decided to fit two in.

It felt like they pushed wood elf lore in there mainly because wood elves have had basically zero content given to them since vanilla.

I guess they put them in gold road because there is no where else to add wood elf content. It’s a shame really. It was nice to see some wood elves, but it felt a bit like a half measure.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · June 24

BlueRaven wrote: »

I guess they put them in gold road because there is no where else to add wood elf content. It’s a shame really. It was nice to see some wood elves, but it felt a bit like a half measure.

Falinesti! But other than that, yeah.

AlienSlof wrote: »

And lastly: for goodness sake, reverse engineer the maps back to how they used to work! Now they point to the NEAREST DOOR, not the eventual destination like they used to. Some of the delve maps don't even show the boss.

Second this.